WEBVTT - Betty LaVette 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:13.200 Welcome back to the Bob Leftstitch podcast. I guess today 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:16.639 is one and only Betty. Looked at Betty, what would 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.080 look like growing up in Detroit of the fifties. 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:22.200 I didn't necessarily grow up in Detroit. Grew up in 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:26.280 show business, so it was like when I was young 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:31.440 in Detroit, I was in show business. My granddaughter right 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:35.479 now is doing a documentary they're putting together for the 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:39.279 area that I grew up in Detroit, on the North End. 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:45.559 It's being declared historical this year. The North End is 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:51.120 where blacks moved from what was called Black Bottom. Sarah Vaughan, 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:55.920 Willie John, one of the Temptations, Smokey Robinson lived across 0:00:55.960 --> 0:01:00.640 the alley from man Orrita lived across the street from him. 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.360 One of the biggest black stars of the early forties, 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:09.720 early fifties and mid fifties, Sugar shild Robinson, lived on 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:13.720 the next block from me. So it's quite a historical area. 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:21.919 Jackie Wilson del Reese. So I didn't know those people 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:26.959 until I started to sing, and the first time that 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:30.520 I went on stage was the first time I'd ever 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:32.600 seen the stage. 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.120 Let's go back, So what did your parents do for 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:36.559 a living. 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.440 Well, everybody's parents worked for General Motors, and so Chrisler's 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:43.800 I'm a General Motors baby. 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:46.880 Which company? Did your father work for? 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:51.400 General Motors? Everybody in my family worked for General Motors, 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:55.720 And it was almost like a Clannish or Cripson Bloods 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:59.760 kind of thing. It's like everybody's family worked at the 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:03.880 place because you could get your relative job if you 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:08.440 work there. So most of my family worked at all 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:12.520 of the General Motors companies and the part plants from 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:17.440 Canada to Muskegon, Michigan, where they made parts, which is 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:21.240 where my parents came to from Louisiana. 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.600 Tell me about your parents leaving Louisiana come into Muskegan. 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:31.080 Well, that's where I was born. And in nineteen forty six, 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:35.040 certainly if you were black, you could not drop in 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.240 on the bar after work and have a drink. You 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:41.600 had to come to my house and my parents sol 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:45.080 corn liquor. We had a jukebox in the living room, 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:49.960 which is how I learned all of my songs until 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:54.080 I was three, So my repertoire consisted of the songs 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:58.320 that were on the jukebox until I was three, and 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:00.440 I had developed my own. 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:04.880 Do you remember what songs from the jukebox. 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:07.320 Well, not all of them, but a song that I 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:10.440 do on my show even now, a song a woman 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.320 whose name was Annie Laurie, and it was called it 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:18.400 Hurts to Be in Love. And I could when I 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.240 tell the audience when I do it now. They used 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.520 to stand me on top of the jukebox and I 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:26.840 would sing the song, and I had on just a 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:30.000 little T shirt and my diaper, and I would roll 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.720 my stomach all the way down in time with the 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.280 music and all the way back. And I always tell 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:39.960 them I won't be doing that this evening, but that 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:45.040 is what I did. But there were I had a 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:49.040 teenage sister. She was thirteen years old, and when I 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:53.240 was born, and so all the current popular music was 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:56.240 on the jukebox, which she liked, which was Little Lester 0:03:56.680 --> 0:04:02.720 and BB King and Chuck Willis and I've Hunter and 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:07.360 all those people. And then my father liked the gospel 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:11.720 so and blues, so there was all the blues songs. 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:16.039 And then my mother liked almost anything that white people sung. 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.600 She liked Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, gin Ow Tree, 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:24.200 read Foley, and I knew the words to all of 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:27.760 these people's songs. I didn't know they were different. I 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:31.040 just thought they were all songs. And of course, not 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:34.640 being able to go anywhere to drink other than my house. 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:38.880 In nineteen forty six, forty seven, and forty eight, all 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:42.360 of the five Blind Boys, the Soul Stirs, the Pilgrim 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:46.719 Travelers all came to my house to eat barbecue sandwiches 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:51.480 and fried chicken sandwiches and get drunk and sing it. 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:56.559 They rehearsed there and I heard them. I saw Sam 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.360 Cook the first week he was with the Soul Stirs 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:03.279 because they had a gig and Muskegon and they came 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:04.799 to my house see eat and drink. 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:08.200 How did your parents meet? 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:09.800 How did they meet? 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:11.200 Yeah? 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:16.480 My father was working in Plain dealing, Louisiana, which is 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:20.600 where he's from, and one of the guys he was 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:26.280 working with knew my sister, my mother, who had five sisters. 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:30.640 And the women that like these guys who worked on 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:35.200 the railroad were they would come and bring them lunches 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:37.400 every day. You know, if you liked one, and if 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.760 you were hitting on one, that's how you introduced yourself. 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:44.960 You would come and bring in but lunch, and that's 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:47.440 how they met. I know, my aunt told me that 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:51.360 when my mother came and got off the train, she 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:54.599 had been talking about how fretty my mother was, and 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:57.960 it was so funny. My aunt said, she said, she 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:08.520 is pretty pretty, and my daddy certainly saw so. 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:09.120 Okay, tell me about the corn liquor business. 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:14.480 Well, that, of course, you know, was prevalent in the South. 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:21.560 It created the stock car races and everything several other things. 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:27.240 But all the people who in my family and cousins 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:31.599 and whatever, who moved to Michigan, they brought the corn 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:36.720 liquor with them, and they knew each other so they 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.400 could buy it from They didn't have to take a 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:42.600 chance of trying to go into a liquor store and 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:47.200 buy something. They all came to my house, so one 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:51.640 of my cousin's houses in Muskegon, it was. We were 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:55.760 in the projects that were built for the returning soldiers 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.960 in forty five and forty six. Then they turned them 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:03.159 into public projects and that's where we lived. And you 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:06.680 that's almost like living in a huge apartment building, except 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:09.720 it was all on the same level, so you could 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:12.800 go right up your back door into somebody else's front door, 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:17.160 you know, and they all they work together every day 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.360 at the parts plants, and you could run a tab, 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:25.400 and the half pintes cost fifty cents, and a pine 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:29.560 cost a dollar, and you could run a tab all 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.480 that week. If you didn't have a family or a wife, 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:36.480 you could comment. My mother had barbecue and fried chicken 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:41.160 and fried fish, and so it was. That was the 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:43.480 environment I actually grew up here. 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.560 Okay, are you a good cook? Can you cook barbecue 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:49.120 and fried fish? 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:54.360 Oh? That's what my career has been so up and down. 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:57.760 You us, I learned to cook. You have to cook 0:07:57.800 --> 0:07:59.800 if you around my mother and the people I grew 0:07:59.880 --> 0:08:02.360 up with, you have to learn that, they say, all 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:05.960 like women know how to at least fried chicken, fry fish. 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:10.000 But I learned a lot of the others. And then 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.480 when I started to travel, I started to learn what 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:17.520 I was having an opportunity to eat. So now we cook. 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:22.440 I cook everything, and Kevin Nass quite an entertainment with 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:24.360 eating because I can cook almost anything. 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:30.720 Okay, it sounds like your father had a big personality 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:33.520 that everybody gathered at your house. Was that the case? 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:38.400 Yeah, Well, my mother had the big personality. Ah, she 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:41.800 had the food food. My father just wanted another drink. 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:46.079 But of course they all knew each other. As I said, 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:49.520 they worked on the line together. They saw each other 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:52.960 all day every day. And the ones that came from 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:58.000 Louisiana drunk or sober, went to Mass on Sunday, just 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:01.680 the way they do a New orleance. I always tell 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:05.120 the joke that in New Orleans and then mouskeige, and 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:09.560 you know how when the priest the minister said something 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:13.080 and then the whole congregation answers in some kind of 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:17.800 singing response, the whole church smells like alcohol for the 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:22.800 for the first one and then it melts. 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.760 Okay, growing up, I didn't know anybody who had a 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:33.280 jukebox in their house. That seemed pretty exotic to me. 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:37.640 Well, we actually brought it to Detroit with us, well, 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.360 not brought it to Detroit with us. We got in 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.520 line with another jukebox company. So we did for a 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:48.720 while have a juke box in our house in Detroit, 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:53.520 but then we became more sophisticated and had a record player. 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:59.560 Okay, So what was responsible for your family moving from 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:00.840 a squie into Detroit. 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:07.200 Well, my father his brother worked at General Motors proper 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.439 as they called it in Pontiac, and he got him 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.320 a job there, and so we moved to Pontiac. 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.600 Okay, you're singing it three years old, you're a star, 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:22.800 your role of your stomach? What happens when you turned four? 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:26.160 Robert, I was not. I didn't never come a star 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:30.559 rolling my stomach. Well, I was a start at projects. 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:35.680 But we were in Detroit by the time I was four. 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:38.720 We left Detroit when I was maybe like, I mean, 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:40.959 left Muskegan when I was like maybe three and a 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:44.079 half and came to Pontiac, where we lived for about 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:48.000 a year or so, and then we moved to Detroit. 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:55.040 And I pretty much was always different from everybody else 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:58.880 their children. I never had a desire, first of all, 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:02.920 to be a child, so that made me a pretty 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:07.000 difficult child and a pretty different child. It wasn't that 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:11.240 I was bad, as they say children are bad. I 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.640 just wanted to do with grown people and that was 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:15.880 the way I acted. 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:21.000 Okay, And what was school like? 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:28.160 I really was never scholastic. I did not. We just 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:33.320 believe it or not, had our fifth grade reunion and 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:35.520 all the people that I was in the fifth grade 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:39.960 with were there, and it was so funny because I 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:44.040 was voted most likely not to succeed at at all. 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:47.840 So for me to walk into the room and have 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.760 everybody say that he Joe asked, because I can't believe 0:11:51.840 --> 0:12:02.120 your Betty loved did you finish high school? No, that 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.920 was really I really just didn't want to do what 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:08.040 they were doing at all, And then I didn't want 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:11.960 to meet them every morning. At the same time, I 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:15.600 wasn't interested in anything that they were saying. If Mother 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.920 and Nessa had known I was gonna love history the 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:21.720 way I do now, she would have just given me 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:30.360 the A and said she's gonna get better. But I'm 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:32.840 or the person now that Mother and Nesta would have 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:33.560 wanted me to be. 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:39.560 Okay, so tell me where you start singing after you 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:41.840 moved to a Pontiac in Detroit. 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:46.319 Well, but Pontiac's still just a little girl who didn't 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:51.960 go anywhere by herself Detroit up until I was like, 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:56.880 out this place. I'm telling you that my granddaughter is 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:01.240 doing the research on the North End. When we moved there, 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:07.800 I guess I was maybe seven, and so it was like, 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:10.560 did you know that Liverpool A John that's right up 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:13.920 the street, And did you know that Jackie Wilson. So 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:17.720 I knew these people's records, but I never saw them. 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:20.480 I just heard their names and I knew they were there. 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:23.880 So then we moved farther up the north end, and 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:28.400 I was in like the fifth grade, and did you 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:32.400 know Smoky Robinson lived across the alley from even whatever, 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:36.480 and they were more real to me then. Before that, 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:41.160 I had never seen people in person who sung, and 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:43.840 I had never seen a show. When I went on 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:48.720 the stage in nineteen sixty three with my man, I 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:51.480 had never seen a microphone, and I had never been 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:55.520 on a stage. I had never been to a night club, 0:13:56.200 --> 0:14:01.160 had never I was invented out of all cloth right 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:02.440 there in one weekend. 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:08.240 Tell me about your singing career from age three, where 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:12.480 you're singing along with the jukebox to then ultimately getting 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.280 on the stage for the first time. What is going on? 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:23.000 Nothing but going to school being what they call bad 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:27.240 and being difficult because all I did was kind of 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:30.920 listen to music, and I did come. I found the 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:34.560 homework not difficult to do, so I did it, but 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:38.120 I didn't go all still. All I had was the jukebox. 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:41.640 My parents didn't go out to dinner or go to 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:45.520 hear people sing they came to our house, so they 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:49.080 were on the jukebox. So I'd never seen anybody walk 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:54.240 up on the stage or or anything like that until 0:14:54.400 --> 0:15:00.440 that weekend that I started singing. I met. I wasn't 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:03.080 supposed to go, but there was a place called the 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:07.720 Greystone all Woman Detroit, which is where everyone you've ever 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:11.880 heard of from Detroit had to go and do performances 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:16.760 for the DJs to get your recording played. And I 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:20.160 heard about it on the radio every day. The DJs 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:25.880 were pushing it, and so I just went and I 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:30.440 met this girl whose name was Ginger and her full 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:34.760 name was Sure. Her middle name was Lovette, and she 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:42.600 knew every number man singer. I loved her. I just 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:49.400 adore her. My mother hated her, but Ginger kind of 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:54.359 took me under her wing, and I went to Graystone 0:15:54.440 --> 0:16:00.840 for about two months, and I met Timmy Shaw, who 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:05.880 introduced me to Johnny May Matthews, who recorded My Man 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:08.680 on Me. And I swear to you all of this 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:10.120 happened in a month. 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:15.200 Okay, just going back, were you singing in school? Were 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:17.800 you singing at church? Were you singing in the living room? 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:18.320 Before this? 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:23.520 Everywhere that I ever sung in school. They let me sing. 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:27.120 They let me in the talent show once, but I 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.200 sung I'm a Hog for you baby, and Mother Nesta 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:33.320 put me out of the talent show. They put me 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:37.160 in the Christmas show once, and then I said the 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:40.240 wrong thing to marry because I wanted to play Mary. 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.880 And then they put me in the choir and I 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:48.640 wouldn't stop hanging with the boys in their area. So 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.480 I got put out of all the singing things that 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:56.240 I ever did in school. But now I'm a Hog 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:57.840 for you baby was good. 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.600 You go to the ballroom. How do you ultimately decide 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:05.600 to take the stage. 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:09.360 I wanted to sing, but as I told you, I 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:12.480 never knew people who could sing. I just knew the 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:14.680 ones in the jukebox and then the ones that saw 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:18.639 on television. So then hearing about these people on the radio, 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:23.240 they were advertising them being at this place every weekend. 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:28.320 And so when I went and Ginger introduced me to 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:34.119 Timmy Shaw, well, first I met I was in the hospital, actually, 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:39.520 and I met a singer who came to see the 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:43.080 girl in the bed next to me. But she went 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:46.600 to have some X rays and he came to see 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:51.200 her and she wasn't there. So I talked to him 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:55.679 because it was eleven o'clock in the morning, and he 0:17:56.000 --> 0:18:00.720 on a black mohair suit, sleep my care and some 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:06.800 pat leather shoes, and I was instantly in love. And 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:11.800 it was Willie Jones, who sung with the Royal Jokers, 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:17.640 and I'm like a real entertainer that I right here. 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:24.840 So he and I. I was sixteen, he was twenty four, 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:32.200 twenty five, but I was really I'm still precocious. I 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:34.439 don't think you're gonna apply that to an adult at 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:39.600 this point. But I met him and he wrote a 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:42.520 song for me. He was singing, and I said I 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:45.560 can sing, and he said that heres. So I started 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:49.560 to sing along with him one night when we were out. 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:54.080 And the reason I was able to go out with 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:57.400 him was because I had had a child, and usually 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:02.320 in the at point, if you had a child, you 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:05.920 were considered glowing. So I was able to go out 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:09.480 then after nine or ten o'clock or whatever. And when 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:12.160 I met him, he took me to see the Old 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:16.879 Jokers perform, and I knew someone then who was actually 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:21.639 on the stage singing, and he wrote this song for me, 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.560 and then he disappeared. I didn't know that he was 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:29.719 later white disappeared. But anyway, when I met Timmy and 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:33.320 he took me to meet Johnny May, I said, well, 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:36.879 I have a song. I said, A man wrote it 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:40.200 for me. His name is Willie Jones. She said Willie 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:44.640 Jones were old jokers. I said, yes, that's him, and 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:47.440 she said, let me hear it. So I sung the 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:51.119 something and the song was about a teenage girl. It 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:54.240 was called shut your mouth and don't talk back, and 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:56.680 it was about a teenage girl who had stayed out 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:59.000 later and she was supposed to and her mama met 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:02.359 her at the door in the whole bit, and she said, 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:05.720 it's a great song. And I sung it and and 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:11.720 she introduced me to my Man, which I sung and recorded, 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:14.960 and that was supposed to be the B side. But 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:19.840 when the DJ's her recording, which came out that week 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:24.080 after I recorded it, because they were playing demos and 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:27.280 you could get you could tell from how many the 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:30.800 response you got from the demos, how many initial records 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:34.600 you should have pressed up. People didn't just send it 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:39.760 to get thousands of records pressed so so the records 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:42.560 seemed to indicate. The response seemed to indicate that my 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:45.560 Man was what they wanted to play it, and what 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:48.879 they did play and put went into the national R 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:52.600 and B charts and cash box and billboard. All of 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:57.159 this happened, this started, in all this, This was only 0:20:57.320 --> 0:20:59.000 like the end of September. 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:12.640 Okay, going back, You'd never been on stage before, you'd 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.240 never been in front of a microphone. You go to 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:18.160 the ballroom a few times. How do you end up 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:19.520 on stage. 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:22.040 When the record came out? 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:25.480 No? Wait, wait, weren't you on stage before the record 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:25.960 came out? 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:32.560 Nope? I just knew that people then who are on 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:37.760 the stage. And when I recorded, gosh, you have the 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:44.400 recording studio, I was sixteen and the guitar player who's 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:49.000 playing the lead lick in my man, Leroy Manuel, was fifteen, 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:53.480 and they had stuck him out of his bedroom to 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:57.400 do the recording session. He's a really big person in 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:02.000 Canada now, and I just I'm so proud of him. 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:04.879 But he and I were just kids there. But the 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:09.800 people who were on the recording were grown recording artists 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:14.080 make grown musicians and whatever. And Johnny May was singing 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:16.440 in my ear and telling me how to sing the song. 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:20.359 And then they pressed up some them o's so that 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:24.160 next weekend, I had to go and do a record hop. 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:29.359 But we had at that time a new place which 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:33.600 was having you sing your songs with the band live, 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:37.640 and I had only done that the week before one 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:41.720 time when I recorded, so they called my name. I 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:47.920 went up on the stage and it said out it off, 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:52.720 and I said. 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:57.960 And then okay. 0:22:57.359 --> 0:23:01.399 But wait a minute. Marvin Kate had at stubborn kind 0:23:01.400 --> 0:23:03.680 of fell out, thick or chick, whatever it was, came 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:06.960 out the same day. He's sitting there stage, just kind 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:10.719 of a step up, and so he's sitting next to 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:16.280 it and he counts off, and I didn't know how 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:18.160 to make the man start playing. 0:23:21.040 --> 0:23:26.800 So okay. Do you think from a young age you 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:30.480 were desperate to be a famous singer? Did you have 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:32.680 that desire or just have the desire to get out 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:35.560 of the house or be famous or make money? What 0:23:36.119 --> 0:23:36.800 was in your mind? 0:23:37.240 --> 0:23:39.960 I didn't know that I could be a famous singer. 0:23:40.040 --> 0:23:43.440 I didn't know any famous singers. It was only after 0:23:43.480 --> 0:23:47.520 we got to each White and I knew about Smoking 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:51.719 Poppinson and these other people. I didn't know. I just 0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:56.240 anybody could do it. I thought these people were special 0:23:56.560 --> 0:24:01.439 people somehow that I didn't know anyone who and I 0:24:01.640 --> 0:24:05.320 never nobody in my family knew anyone who sung, so I, 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:07.840 you know, than the gospel people, and I didn't want 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:13.000 to sing in church, and so no, I. After I 0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:17.800 knew them, then all of my thoughts this started if 0:24:17.880 --> 0:24:21.320 like maybe the sixth grade. Then all of my thoughts 0:24:21.359 --> 0:24:25.880 were strictly I want to be a singer, and then 0:24:26.400 --> 0:24:29.359 after a while, I want to be a star. But 0:24:30.000 --> 0:24:33.840 you're Smoky Robinson lived across the alley from me. He 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:37.240 wasn't a star, so he was just a finger. But 0:24:37.359 --> 0:24:39.240 I liked the way they were doing it. I like 0:24:39.320 --> 0:24:42.119 the way they lived, and I loved shiny suits and 0:24:42.200 --> 0:24:45.959 the shiny hair and the shiny ear rings, and I 0:24:46.040 --> 0:24:50.360 wanted to sing. So then after I got into it, 0:24:50.560 --> 0:24:54.080 the next two weeks, I wanted to be a star. 0:24:54.920 --> 0:24:59.760 And then oh god, after that, I wanted to be rich. 0:25:00.960 --> 0:25:02.600 So it came in increments. 0:25:03.880 --> 0:25:09.720 Okay, the record is ultimately distributed by Atlantic Records. Did 0:25:09.760 --> 0:25:13.040 you have any contact with anybody Atlantic Records? 0:25:13.359 --> 0:25:19.479 Yes, Robert West and Johnny Mae Matthews, because Johnny Maye 0:25:19.560 --> 0:25:23.000 Matthews was one of the only producers in Detroit at 0:25:23.040 --> 0:25:27.520 the time who had Big Contacts, which was at Atlantic. 0:25:27.960 --> 0:25:30.359 I have no idea how that happened. Well, it was 0:25:30.400 --> 0:25:33.360 because of the Falcons. He had the Falcons and they 0:25:33.359 --> 0:25:37.240 had just had a big record, and Robert West knew 0:25:37.760 --> 0:25:44.480 Jerry Wexler and I'm ed Hurdigain, and so when Atlantic 0:25:44.680 --> 0:25:48.239 bought my man, I had the opportunity to talk with 0:25:48.320 --> 0:25:52.440 them on the phone. And Jerry Wexler and I remained 0:25:53.600 --> 0:25:59.359 friends for most of my early career. I used to 0:25:59.440 --> 0:26:02.600 call him on the phone at home in the middle 0:26:02.640 --> 0:26:05.080 of the night and say, mister Weckster, would you send 0:26:05.080 --> 0:26:10.960 me fifty dollars, which was a big deal. Hey, she 0:26:11.040 --> 0:26:13.520 can pick up the phone and call New York and 0:26:13.560 --> 0:26:16.919 give fifty dollars at Western Union and a snap. So 0:26:17.119 --> 0:26:22.879 I had I had the attitude that I've maintained since then. 0:26:24.160 --> 0:26:28.720 Okay, your record is successful and you go on the road. 0:26:29.080 --> 0:26:30.160 Tell me about that. 0:26:33.520 --> 0:26:37.840 It was. Remember now this is this is weeks old. 0:26:38.840 --> 0:26:43.440 So I'm theoretically still my friend Ginger, who is a groofie. 0:26:44.840 --> 0:26:48.399 Every time Clyde makes Fatter opened his dressing room door, 0:26:48.600 --> 0:26:53.159 I was standing there. Every time any can over this 0:26:53.400 --> 0:27:00.399 dressing room door, I was standing here. Barbara Lynne was 0:27:00.440 --> 0:27:02.439 with her, so she had to act nice. 0:27:02.800 --> 0:27:04.600 But I was grown. 0:27:05.640 --> 0:27:10.160 I was just about seventeen, and I had a record. 0:27:10.880 --> 0:27:14.080 I knew all these stars, and I was just doing 0:27:14.160 --> 0:27:19.520 what I wanted to do. But that was the most 0:27:19.640 --> 0:27:23.760 exciting thing. The very first tour I ever went on 0:27:24.960 --> 0:27:27.200 was well, the very first one was kind of a 0:27:27.640 --> 0:27:34.440 regional because Robert West was partners with Herman Griffin, who 0:27:34.560 --> 0:27:39.240 was Mary Wells's husband at the time, and Robert West 0:27:39.359 --> 0:27:41.959 was my manager, so he put a little tour together 0:27:42.800 --> 0:27:47.000 and on that little tour was Mary Wells mac Rice 0:27:47.680 --> 0:27:51.080 who had just left the Falcons and wrote Mustang Sally 0:27:51.680 --> 0:27:58.600 and that's what he was singing and me and I 0:27:58.640 --> 0:28:02.119 think that was it. I think that was it on 0:28:02.480 --> 0:28:04.760 but we didn't go We just went like maybe three 0:28:04.840 --> 0:28:09.440 or four places. Then I came back a full fledged 0:28:09.440 --> 0:28:15.080 star of course by this time that month and the 0:28:15.160 --> 0:28:19.359 Victual with Clide Macpatter and Benny King, Clarence frog Manning, 0:28:19.440 --> 0:28:25.760 Henry Barbara Lynne. The band was. 0:28:25.760 --> 0:28:35.119 The the Royal Jokers, not the Royal Jokers, the Five 0:28:35.240 --> 0:28:39.840 Royals band who was the leader of the fire Rolls. 0:28:39.840 --> 0:28:45.600 It was their ban anyway, El Pauling, it was the 0:28:45.720 --> 0:28:50.920 El Pauling band. So like Robert, I gotta tell you 0:28:50.960 --> 0:28:54.480 twenty years later, when I was madly in love with 0:28:54.520 --> 0:28:58.560 Clarence Paul, I told him. I said, on my first tour, 0:28:58.640 --> 0:29:02.600 I was on the opens band called an orchestra called 0:29:02.680 --> 0:29:06.280 Oh Paul, and he said, that's my brother. 0:29:07.560 --> 0:29:15.040 I was like, Okay, how many days? How long does 0:29:15.080 --> 0:29:17.520 this tour last? This big doer, and how far from 0:29:17.520 --> 0:29:18.360 Detroit do you go? 0:29:18.840 --> 0:29:23.160 Oh gosh. We went from the trua audience that was 0:29:23.240 --> 0:29:27.360 the Chitland Circuit. We did the entire Chipland circuit. Everything 0:29:27.480 --> 0:29:31.800 that the children Circuit consisted of then is where we 0:29:31.920 --> 0:29:39.840 went north and south Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee cities in those 0:29:39.920 --> 0:29:45.680 places as well, maybe three cities in some places Alabama. 0:29:47.640 --> 0:29:51.920 As you got west, the Chidland Circuit didn't go that 0:29:52.240 --> 0:29:55.640 like when you started Arkansas. You were going west, and 0:29:56.040 --> 0:29:59.640 it went that way for some people. Now when we 0:29:59.760 --> 0:30:04.240 came back north looped around to come back and end 0:30:04.680 --> 0:30:10.400 in Ohio, People like clib mcfatter, Benny King, Clarence frog Man, 0:30:10.560 --> 0:30:16.560 Henry went on north to do places that at that 0:30:16.760 --> 0:30:20.720 point weren't doing rhythm and blues. You know, it had 0:30:20.760 --> 0:30:25.200 to have crossed over like the Drifters and Climac Flatter did, 0:30:25.360 --> 0:30:28.880 and like uh frog man Henry had done. Barbara Lynn 0:30:28.920 --> 0:30:31.280 and I turned around and came home. The rest of 0:30:31.360 --> 0:30:32.520 them went north. 0:30:33.520 --> 0:30:37.280 Okay, what kind of venues were you playing on this tour? 0:30:38.600 --> 0:30:43.080 Mostly halls? We went to north in South Carolina. They 0:30:43.120 --> 0:30:47.960 were having the first dancers with their rope in between 0:30:48.080 --> 0:30:52.959 the audience. And I always tell people, now, that's one 0:30:53.000 --> 0:30:55.880 of the ways that I learned to cover the whole stage. 0:30:55.920 --> 0:30:59.000 Because the promoter was saying, please don't look at one 0:30:59.680 --> 0:31:02.440 one up on one side of the rope more than others. 0:31:02.760 --> 0:31:05.560 Please try to go back and forth. And they were pleading, 0:31:05.760 --> 0:31:08.320 please don't stay on one side of the rope. So 0:31:08.480 --> 0:31:11.000 I had to keep going back and forth across the stage. 0:31:11.520 --> 0:31:14.760 And so no, I just do that naturally, which is 0:31:14.800 --> 0:31:15.280 a good thing. 0:31:15.960 --> 0:31:19.960 Okay, you're traveling, what kind of bus? What kind of 0:31:20.120 --> 0:31:21.320 rooms are you staying in? 0:31:22.920 --> 0:31:27.040 Oh, we were saying in only black places along the highway. 0:31:27.360 --> 0:31:32.000 We were peeing along the highway a lot, and going 0:31:32.080 --> 0:31:34.480 to places that they may have. If they had a 0:31:34.600 --> 0:31:38.400 restroom inside, we couldn't use them. But if they were 0:31:38.520 --> 0:31:41.880 nice and kind people, they had an outdoor restroom we 0:31:41.920 --> 0:31:50.600 could use. It was quite everything that you've heard and read. 0:31:50.760 --> 0:31:54.600 I know when we went to Mississippi, my mother was 0:31:54.840 --> 0:31:58.320 who was from Louisiana, was just terrified. She said, you 0:31:58.520 --> 0:32:01.200 keep your big mouth closed and don't be looking those 0:32:01.240 --> 0:32:04.920 white books in their face. I mean, she was very 0:32:05.440 --> 0:32:08.680 serious because she knew I would talk to anyone, and 0:32:09.760 --> 0:32:11.840 she felt that I may step out of my place. 0:32:12.800 --> 0:32:16.160 And she was so nervous so whole while we were there. 0:32:18.920 --> 0:32:22.960 Okay, you know you hear about going on the road. 0:32:23.040 --> 0:32:29.320 You're seventeen years old. They're drugs, alcohol, sex, as grown 0:32:29.400 --> 0:32:31.360 up as you are at the time. Do you grow 0:32:31.480 --> 0:32:32.200 up a lot more? 0:32:33.360 --> 0:32:36.640 Oh? Absolutely. I always tell people there are no children 0:32:36.760 --> 0:32:39.800 in show business. I don't care how cute they are. 0:32:40.920 --> 0:32:44.120 I don't care if their parents up with them. I 0:32:44.200 --> 0:32:48.360 don't care if they're Osmas and their moorings. There are 0:32:48.920 --> 0:32:54.640 no children in show business. And it's probably even worse today. 0:32:55.400 --> 0:32:58.760 But no, that's no, there are no children in show business. 0:33:00.200 --> 0:33:03.480 So you come off the road. Clyde McPhatter continues, But 0:33:03.560 --> 0:33:05.600 you're now back in Detroit. What happens then? 0:33:07.600 --> 0:33:13.680 Nothing? So all my friends told me you should go 0:33:13.800 --> 0:33:16.480 to New York and tell those people you want your 0:33:16.720 --> 0:33:20.440 contract back because they should make another record for you. 0:33:21.720 --> 0:33:25.720 So I went to New York and I erst in 0:33:25.800 --> 0:33:29.400 the Cherry Wexell's office. I said, I want to release 0:33:29.480 --> 0:33:33.560 from my contract. And he said, well why because I 0:33:33.680 --> 0:33:35.520 told you I've been talking to this man on the 0:33:35.640 --> 0:33:41.480 phone at his home in the bedroom and and I said, 0:33:41.680 --> 0:33:45.360 my friends told me that you should have put another 0:33:45.520 --> 0:33:53.960 record out on it by now, like I know. He said, well, 0:33:54.400 --> 0:33:56.680 maybe we intended to do another record. I said, well, 0:33:56.880 --> 0:34:00.960 I need a record now. It's been so many months 0:34:01.000 --> 0:34:03.720 and I didn't even know how many. It's the most 0:34:03.800 --> 0:34:07.320 stupid thing Robert I ever did in my entire career. 0:34:08.680 --> 0:34:12.520 He said that we have we're working with this young 0:34:12.680 --> 0:34:18.400 and who was working with a new singer, Dion Warwick Kenny. 0:34:18.400 --> 0:34:23.080 He's working at what was the name of the record label, Scepter. 0:34:24.040 --> 0:34:27.279 He said, he's working with Scepter. And he said, but 0:34:27.520 --> 0:34:32.759 we're working with him too, and his name is were Back, 0:34:33.719 --> 0:34:36.960 and uh, we're gonna have to we're gonna talk to 0:34:37.080 --> 0:34:40.600 him about you. I ain't never heard of him. I 0:34:40.920 --> 0:34:44.960 don't care. My friend said, I have to get a 0:34:45.080 --> 0:34:50.359 release from this contract. So Jerry said here's one dude, 0:34:51.600 --> 0:34:55.120 I'm gonna write to this check of my own personal 0:34:55.280 --> 0:34:58.160 check for five hundred dollars. I'm gonna give you a 0:34:58.239 --> 0:35:01.360 big ug. You go on and do it, do what 0:35:01.520 --> 0:35:06.320 you think should be done. The most stupid mistake I 0:35:06.440 --> 0:35:12.680 have ever made in my entire life. You know what? 0:35:12.840 --> 0:35:18.040 That left road open for No who was the next biggarist? 0:35:20.120 --> 0:35:25.560 He surprank. But I'm there with the president in love 0:35:25.680 --> 0:35:28.640 with me. I mean not that kind of love, but 0:35:28.760 --> 0:35:30.600 in love with me because she just thought I was 0:35:30.680 --> 0:35:32.879 so cute and that I sung like a grown woman. 0:35:33.880 --> 0:35:39.320 And so No, I got this shit all under my belt. 0:35:39.480 --> 0:35:43.440 Now my friends and I know lots of people in 0:35:43.520 --> 0:35:47.560 show business. Now, now you have to think the reason 0:35:47.640 --> 0:35:50.040 they were available for me to talk to was because 0:35:50.040 --> 0:35:52.640 they weren't doing shit. So they were telling me what 0:35:52.840 --> 0:35:58.920 to do, and I left them. I have no idea 0:35:59.160 --> 0:36:06.360 where I was going or I really just at that point, Robert, 0:36:06.400 --> 0:36:11.480 I thought that I thought that it was they would say, 0:36:11.600 --> 0:36:15.040 oh my goodness, she's cute and she had this record, 0:36:15.400 --> 0:36:18.239 let's make another record with her. And I thought all 0:36:18.320 --> 0:36:22.560 the record companies with me saying that, and then I 0:36:22.719 --> 0:36:27.400 didn't call, So. 0:36:29.040 --> 0:36:31.600 So what happened next, uh something. 0:36:31.960 --> 0:36:35.680 That's when I say now in interviews, I'm grateful, but 0:36:35.800 --> 0:36:40.799 I'm still pissed. But I'm really grateful because I've never 0:36:40.960 --> 0:36:45.960 spent a dime in this business. Not of course, someone 0:36:46.360 --> 0:36:52.920 has always called and asked to record me. So after that, 0:36:54.480 --> 0:36:59.880 my the accountant at Shaw artist who was the booking 0:37:00.040 --> 0:37:04.440 agent for all black artists, then left. They unless they 0:37:04.480 --> 0:37:07.120 got big enough to be that King Cole or that 0:37:07.320 --> 0:37:09.759 was the barrier that you tried to cross at that 0:37:09.920 --> 0:37:13.719 point to give where that King Cole was? If that 0:37:14.000 --> 0:37:17.560 not that you were with Shaw Artists Corporation and they 0:37:17.640 --> 0:37:21.040 booked everybody, and they booked me. They worked all of 0:37:21.120 --> 0:37:26.480 the Atlantic artists and the accountant because I was always 0:37:26.600 --> 0:37:31.279 calling to borrow money, so he and I became very 0:37:31.400 --> 0:37:35.280 close and he started to manage me. Then I introduced 0:37:35.360 --> 0:37:40.439 him to the Falcons, who Robert Weston died and left 0:37:40.520 --> 0:37:43.239 them as well, and so he started to manage me 0:37:44.160 --> 0:37:51.800 and the Falcons, and I that because I stayed in 0:37:51.880 --> 0:37:55.000 New York after I did come without being asked, are 0:37:55.080 --> 0:37:58.520 we're still young people? Now? First, don't get in show 0:37:58.600 --> 0:38:02.000 business first, but then if you do, don't go to 0:38:02.120 --> 0:38:08.960 New York or LA unless they send for you. So 0:38:09.840 --> 0:38:12.080 I've been kicked out of both New York and LA 0:38:12.960 --> 0:38:19.520 but New York five times, but I you know, somebody 0:38:19.600 --> 0:38:24.960 called Cali call that did it's uneasy and each one 0:38:25.000 --> 0:38:28.200 of the times it's was my friends, the manager from 0:38:29.440 --> 0:38:34.040 the accountant from Shaw. Then he made a woman out 0:38:34.080 --> 0:38:39.839 of me. Leland Archers, Kenny Rogers brother. I went back 0:38:39.880 --> 0:38:45.120 to Detroit and recorded for Condition My Condition is In 0:38:45.400 --> 0:38:49.920 for Ali McLaughlin and his record label, which took me 0:38:50.040 --> 0:38:58.520 back to Atlantic briefly. And after that Leland Archers I 0:38:58.600 --> 0:39:04.279 did the show what Condition my Condition is In? And 0:39:04.400 --> 0:39:07.640 Leland Rogers heard it. I'd not heard it. I took 0:39:07.680 --> 0:39:10.600 it to him when he came to Detroite and he 0:39:10.760 --> 0:39:15.840 loved it. And they couldn't poor that they didn't have 0:39:16.000 --> 0:39:19.520 WoT the pitts in at the time. And he loved 0:39:19.560 --> 0:39:21.320 it though, and he said, my brother is starting a 0:39:21.400 --> 0:39:25.120 new record label in Nashville, and he said, I think 0:39:25.719 --> 0:39:28.880 he was, So he sent it to him and Leland 0:39:29.000 --> 0:39:31.040 called me. He said, I know you don't remember me, 0:39:32.040 --> 0:39:34.719 but I was your national promotion man for left me 0:39:34.840 --> 0:39:41.840 down easy. So my career has been just like that 0:39:42.160 --> 0:39:45.520 all the way up till now. It's been just like 0:39:45.719 --> 0:39:49.080 that I met you when this. Now I own this. 0:39:49.840 --> 0:39:52.160 I want to do this for you. I remember when 0:39:52.239 --> 0:39:57.200 we It's everything. It's never been a normal, straight ahead 0:39:57.520 --> 0:39:59.399 kind of flop over hit. 0:40:09.680 --> 0:40:13.000 Okay, what was your state of mind during all this? 0:40:14.360 --> 0:40:16.719 Did you think things were going to work out? Or 0:40:16.719 --> 0:40:19.239 would you think you know that the phone was gonna ring? 0:40:19.360 --> 0:40:20.319 Or do you think it was over? 0:40:22.640 --> 0:40:25.160 Well, every time it ended, I thought it was over. 0:40:26.400 --> 0:40:28.839 But here, get up, I said. The phone always rang, 0:40:29.760 --> 0:40:35.279 somebody always called, and it's still kind of that way, 0:40:35.360 --> 0:40:38.560 except that I'm kind of sick of that now. I'm 0:40:38.600 --> 0:40:42.760 sick of it dying and then me wondering if somebody 0:40:42.960 --> 0:40:45.560 is going to call or what's going to happen. And 0:40:45.680 --> 0:40:49.560 everybody is called. Every time the phone is wronging, it's 0:40:49.719 --> 0:40:57.600 been somebody is something with before and that makes me 0:40:57.719 --> 0:41:01.400 feel good, though to note that anybody it's just like 0:41:01.560 --> 0:41:04.160 when I left it not I can still call Jerry 0:41:04.200 --> 0:41:07.399 Wexler and say send me fifty dollars. I can still 0:41:07.480 --> 0:41:11.200 call any producer I've ever had that is still living 0:41:12.000 --> 0:41:15.239 on the phone today and say send me fifty dollars. Well, 0:41:15.280 --> 0:41:21.120 I'm glad. I don't have to. But I've just never 0:41:21.360 --> 0:41:28.880 been a great record seller. If everyone that has hurt me, 0:41:29.040 --> 0:41:32.760 that likes me can see me, and that hasn't happened. 0:41:33.480 --> 0:41:38.799 Anytime I've been seen, it's been fine. But I don't 0:41:38.960 --> 0:41:42.160 know right now. When you say I think it's over, 0:41:43.600 --> 0:41:47.160 it's always over, because that's the way it seems to me. 0:41:48.160 --> 0:41:50.360 But so I don't know what's gonna happen now. I 0:41:50.440 --> 0:41:55.600 don't know. I want. I'm pissed at this point because 0:41:55.640 --> 0:41:59.880 I shouldn't don't know what's going to happen at a 0:42:00.040 --> 0:42:04.399 even even only paid twenty dollars, I shouldn't know what's 0:42:04.520 --> 0:42:05.320 gonna happen. 0:42:05.840 --> 0:42:10.000 Well, but you have a band and you play live dates. 0:42:11.160 --> 0:42:16.480 Yes, yes, but it at this point, Robert, I had 0:42:16.560 --> 0:42:21.040 thought that I would I call it a Ray Charles 0:42:22.520 --> 0:42:28.840 my career. I have no desire to be Beyonce, but 0:42:29.000 --> 0:42:32.840 I have a raging desire to be Ray Charles. I 0:42:33.000 --> 0:42:37.879 met that lifestyle. I want to go fill an auditorium 0:42:37.880 --> 0:42:42.200 and sing for two hours, them pay a large speed, 0:42:42.920 --> 0:42:47.640 and then I do another one next week, all over 0:42:48.120 --> 0:42:48.560 the world. 0:42:48.640 --> 0:42:54.440 Okay, okay, what's the most important part here? The work 0:42:54.640 --> 0:42:59.840 or getting paid or being known. When you say Ray Charles' career, 0:43:00.840 --> 0:43:01.919 tell me a little bit more. 0:43:03.680 --> 0:43:08.760 I had always thought that I would die broke and unknown, 0:43:10.400 --> 0:43:12.399 and now I know I'm just gonna die broke. 0:43:15.160 --> 0:43:18.200 Okay, when you go on the road with your band, 0:43:19.360 --> 0:43:21.000 that's not profitable. 0:43:21.560 --> 0:43:28.799 Not really. I hire the best musicians available. Now, when 0:43:28.800 --> 0:43:30.880 I was able to have a band, I've been fortunate 0:43:31.000 --> 0:43:35.040 enough in this fifth career I call it, which has 0:43:35.120 --> 0:43:37.239 been going on for the last twenty years, and I 0:43:37.360 --> 0:43:41.359 am extremely grateful for it. Well, twenty five years now, 0:43:41.760 --> 0:43:44.120 I was able to have the same band that I 0:43:44.280 --> 0:43:47.759 went into this fifth career from Detroit, and they were 0:43:47.840 --> 0:43:51.040 with me for twenty years. But naturally, going all over 0:43:51.080 --> 0:43:54.560 the world with me, everybody was looking at them. So 0:43:55.719 --> 0:43:58.719 one went to this star, one went to that star. 0:44:00.320 --> 0:44:05.040 And because we weren't a band, maybe they would have 0:44:05.080 --> 0:44:09.480 felt compelled to be if we were a band. But 0:44:09.640 --> 0:44:12.680 I'm not in a band. I have a man, and 0:44:12.840 --> 0:44:18.040 in that I am unanimous. So that always causes a problem. 0:44:18.160 --> 0:44:22.520 And I certainly can't anybody who's been in my band 0:44:22.600 --> 0:44:24.920 who is left to go to be with someone bigger. 0:44:25.440 --> 0:44:30.239 I can't say anything because I'm they're not. I'm not 0:44:30.400 --> 0:44:34.000 in a band with them. They're my band, and that's 0:44:34.040 --> 0:44:36.200 the way I wanted. That's the way Gambulist told me 0:44:36.280 --> 0:44:39.279 to always keep it, and that's the way I've kept it. 0:44:39.840 --> 0:44:44.200 So I probable I'm going to do some things now, 0:44:44.440 --> 0:44:48.160 just some duos. Those will be profitable because they will 0:44:48.239 --> 0:44:53.799 to be just and my new company at the end. 0:44:53.880 --> 0:44:59.120 Stat Wick and he is very, very good and we're 0:44:59.200 --> 0:45:02.200 kind of kind in spirits. Although he's younger than me, 0:45:02.440 --> 0:45:07.759 although everybody is. But uh that I'm looking forward to you. 0:45:07.920 --> 0:45:10.400 When I do the duet things, I sit and do 0:45:10.600 --> 0:45:12.480 pretty much what you and I are doing now. I 0:45:12.600 --> 0:45:17.840 tell stories about my career about other people that I know. 0:45:18.320 --> 0:45:24.319 I lie on me and everybody and whatever. It's more 0:45:24.440 --> 0:45:26.920 telling you, But it sounds like that. It's because so 0:45:27.080 --> 0:45:28.440 much of it is so amazing. 0:45:29.400 --> 0:45:33.480 You talk about your fifth career. During that time, the 0:45:33.640 --> 0:45:35.799 business has changed dramatically. 0:45:36.320 --> 0:45:36.480 Uh. 0:45:36.800 --> 0:45:40.440 Atlantic you know was an independent company then owned by 0:45:40.600 --> 0:45:46.080 Warner et cetera. So today although there are three major labels, 0:45:47.320 --> 0:45:50.399 everybody's in their own business. You know, you could talk 0:45:50.520 --> 0:45:53.280 you can talk beyond Sy you can talk Taylor Swift, 0:45:53.920 --> 0:45:56.120 And there are plenty of people who don't know the music, 0:45:56.360 --> 0:45:58.600 they might know the name, whereas when you were coming up, 0:45:58.680 --> 0:46:00.400 when I was coming up, if if it was a 0:46:00.480 --> 0:46:04.680 hit on the radio, literally everybody knew yes, yes, okay. 0:46:05.320 --> 0:46:12.320 So the game has changed a little bit. So you 0:46:12.600 --> 0:46:18.720 had this incredible recognition at the Kennedy Center Honors. First, 0:46:18.840 --> 0:46:20.040 how did that come to be? 0:46:24.200 --> 0:46:26.640 But you know Kevin right, well, you know Kevin better. 0:46:26.480 --> 0:46:30.160 Than you do me, right, that's your For those who 0:46:30.160 --> 0:46:30.520 don't know. 0:46:30.800 --> 0:46:35.680 He knows everything everyone who has ever stepped up to 0:46:35.800 --> 0:46:39.399 a microphone. And it really annoys me because he knows 0:46:39.480 --> 0:46:46.240 more black people than I do. But anyway, he called 0:46:46.320 --> 0:46:49.800 the Kennedy Center Honors and he said, my wife is 0:46:49.880 --> 0:46:53.439 Petty Covett. They were honoring George Jones, and he said 0:46:53.520 --> 0:46:59.120 she's as a new recording choices by George soon and 0:46:59.280 --> 0:47:02.759 he sent it to them and they loved it. And 0:47:03.560 --> 0:47:07.000 Michael Stevens, who is the producers that Ken honors, who 0:47:07.160 --> 0:47:11.800 was the son of the movie producer George Stevens, he 0:47:12.400 --> 0:47:15.680 loved it. He said, so many people are coming from 0:47:15.760 --> 0:47:19.359 Nashville to honor George Jones. He said, we just don't 0:47:19.480 --> 0:47:24.040 have anything else. Another song. They said, well, we do 0:47:24.200 --> 0:47:31.280 have songs. One song by the Hoop and I said 0:47:32.520 --> 0:47:39.120 the what of course my husband knew it and he 0:47:39.320 --> 0:47:50.480 played it for me and I said, yeah, but I 0:47:51.600 --> 0:47:58.360 learned the song and I met the music director Rob Mathis, 0:47:58.520 --> 0:48:00.160 talked to him on the phone, told him and I 0:48:00.280 --> 0:48:04.200 wanted to do well. Got a key really is mostly 0:48:04.280 --> 0:48:06.719 what we did. So when we got there for the 0:48:06.840 --> 0:48:12.400 sound check or the rehearsal sound check, I called he 0:48:12.600 --> 0:48:16.680 and Michael's side and I said, I can sing the song, 0:48:17.920 --> 0:48:22.359 but I can't sing it like that and they said, 0:48:22.520 --> 0:48:30.239 like what I said, like it goes. So he said, well, 0:48:30.360 --> 0:48:34.240 can you sing it to me Rob Matthitts, the music director, 0:48:34.880 --> 0:48:37.560 I said, I can sing it to you fuck a 0:48:37.640 --> 0:48:40.080 ball and you can just kind of pick up when 0:48:40.200 --> 0:48:42.800 following because I knew how I wanted to sing it. 0:48:43.360 --> 0:48:46.239 And I sung it to him and he told the 0:48:46.400 --> 0:48:50.080 man he said, we're going to take an our break 0:48:50.360 --> 0:48:53.160 and come back, and he went and sat down and 0:48:53.239 --> 0:48:59.440 bote that arrangement for me in that hour and it 0:48:59.600 --> 0:49:04.120 just went flawlessly. I was nervouses, I don't know what, 0:49:04.520 --> 0:49:10.359 but it just went flawlessly. And when I walked out 0:49:10.440 --> 0:49:16.560 into the stage, Robert it was looking at the stage 0:49:16.640 --> 0:49:18.920 put the stage put to your audience in your mind. 0:49:20.320 --> 0:49:25.560 When I looked out fourth row, Aretha Franklin was sitting 0:49:26.560 --> 0:49:33.799 about halfway the audience. Over from her, like Beyonce. Up 0:49:33.880 --> 0:49:38.680 in the balcony was The Who and Pete Townshend, and 0:49:39.280 --> 0:49:46.200 next to them was Barbara Streisson. So see see where 0:49:46.239 --> 0:49:49.880 you can see this, because it really happened like this. 0:49:50.280 --> 0:49:53.440 I walked out there, I started singing, and after I 0:49:53.520 --> 0:50:02.160 got settled into the song, Aretha's mouth said I thought 0:50:02.239 --> 0:50:11.319 she was here. Then it was Beyonce Who. 0:50:13.040 --> 0:50:17.400 Wait, you're mouthing the words from I know, but but 0:50:18.200 --> 0:50:20.720 but you can say for my audience, what example I'm. 0:50:20.600 --> 0:50:22.840 Telling you after because I want you to see what 0:50:23.080 --> 0:50:26.600 I was saying. Okay, So I'm looking at them. I 0:50:26.719 --> 0:50:31.080 couldn't hear them either, but okay. Then I look up 0:50:31.120 --> 0:50:35.120 in the balcony and Barbara Streisen is looking at She 0:50:35.280 --> 0:50:40.080 pulls Pete Townsend over. She says, did you write that? 0:50:41.600 --> 0:50:45.960 And he was looking at her, perplexed with tears in 0:50:46.040 --> 0:50:51.360 his eyes. And I call it my three Stooges slap. 0:50:51.960 --> 0:50:52.840 It was just a. 0:50:54.760 --> 0:51:02.960 I've never felt so good in my entire career. And 0:51:03.120 --> 0:51:06.480 it went fabulously well and of course, Michael Stevens, the 0:51:06.600 --> 0:51:12.120 music director, became a producer and did that out here. Again, 0:51:13.040 --> 0:51:15.960 I didn't go to the studio. I didn't do anything. 0:51:16.560 --> 0:51:22.160 He produced an album on me. The interpretations out that 0:51:22.320 --> 0:51:25.400 one caused something else to happen. But I've not. 0:51:26.200 --> 0:51:29.320 Wait wait, wait a little bit slower. Okay, you have 0:51:29.480 --> 0:51:34.040 your experience on stage the Kenny Center Kenny Center Honors. 0:51:34.680 --> 0:51:39.040 Certainly prior to the final version we had last year 0:51:40.840 --> 0:51:46.239 was during Christmas. The ratings were unbelievable. Everybody saw you 0:51:46.520 --> 0:51:49.879 and you were the star of the show. Everybody knew 0:51:51.239 --> 0:51:56.720 so other than the moment and then making another label, 0:51:57.040 --> 0:51:59.320 did it change your life in any way where people 0:51:59.480 --> 0:52:02.000 coming out of we want an interview, We want to 0:52:02.080 --> 0:52:05.440 do this. When you walk down the street, did someone recognize? 0:52:05.560 --> 0:52:06.840 Did it change your life? 0:52:07.440 --> 0:52:14.600 That is why this is my fifth career, because every 0:52:15.040 --> 0:52:21.560 time it happened, it changed my life. In other words, 0:52:22.080 --> 0:52:27.680 the sugar always turned to shit, and I've seen more 0:52:27.760 --> 0:52:32.480 of that than most people have. I even think that 0:52:32.680 --> 0:52:38.240 things that's happened so instantaneously. Now, if this fifth career 0:52:38.320 --> 0:52:43.600 had happened right now, it may have had more stick 0:52:43.680 --> 0:52:49.440 to itiveness. But every when my man came out. It 0:52:49.800 --> 0:52:52.920 was in the charts on a major record label. I've 0:52:53.000 --> 0:52:57.400 been singing one month when let Me Down Easy it 0:52:57.520 --> 0:53:01.720 came out. I was on the labels that was owned 0:53:02.440 --> 0:53:05.800 by the mafia. I could do anything I asked for. 0:53:06.080 --> 0:53:09.560 I wanted to be on Shindig and was. I went 0:53:10.120 --> 0:53:16.640 everywhere I showed with James Brown. Then the next time, 0:53:17.160 --> 0:53:22.280 every time it happened, it was the biggest life changing 0:53:22.560 --> 0:53:29.080 thing that had happened to me. Yes, it changed my life. 0:53:29.719 --> 0:53:33.880 When the thing you're talking about after that, it called 0:53:33.920 --> 0:53:35.000 something else to happen. 0:53:37.800 --> 0:53:40.280 Okay, just do a little fill in for a second. 0:53:40.360 --> 0:53:41.920 How did you end up on Broadway? 0:53:45.520 --> 0:53:50.680 My manager Jim Lewis, who told me early on during 0:53:50.800 --> 0:53:56.520 that period between coming back from New York and having 0:53:56.560 --> 0:54:00.840 a lot of local regional records that I did not 0:54:01.000 --> 0:54:08.480 pay for, but he had me learning songs like God 0:54:08.560 --> 0:54:13.200 Bless the Child and Sweet Georgia Brown and it Don't 0:54:13.280 --> 0:54:17.960 Be a Thing. And my band and I, who is sixteen, 0:54:18.120 --> 0:54:23.160 seventeen and eighteen and I was twenty three, we were 0:54:23.320 --> 0:54:30.640 like because we were rehearsing sin Family Stone and whatever 0:54:30.640 --> 0:54:33.040 it was hot at the time. So he made us 0:54:33.120 --> 0:54:36.080 learn these songs. Though and made us work with the 0:54:36.160 --> 0:54:38.960 biggest or the stud air at the time, Jimmy Wilkins 0:54:39.520 --> 0:54:44.120 and he was the biggest man at the Detroit Musicians 0:54:44.239 --> 0:54:50.320 Union Local five, and Jim Lewis. So we were thrown 0:54:50.400 --> 0:54:52.800 into this sing We did all the big gigs. We 0:54:52.920 --> 0:54:55.600 sung at the mirrors and arc roll ball, we did everything. 0:54:56.840 --> 0:55:05.960 So when they called me, Vivian Meade was being replaced. 0:55:06.040 --> 0:55:09.920 The problem was Vivian Red created and won the Tony 0:55:10.040 --> 0:55:15.480 for the lead role in Bubbling Brown Sugar. They called 0:55:15.600 --> 0:55:21.840 me in they knew who I was. Debbie Allen, husband 0:55:23.040 --> 0:55:26.640 had been our bass player when I came to New 0:55:26.719 --> 0:55:33.120 York the first time fifteen years before that, and told 0:55:33.400 --> 0:55:39.440 her to tell them to call me. So if the 0:55:39.719 --> 0:55:43.320 irony of my career it has just been like I 0:55:43.400 --> 0:55:46.480 was saying with Leland Rogers being Kenny Roger's brother, and 0:55:46.560 --> 0:55:50.080 that same thing happened again. So Debbie had them called 0:55:50.160 --> 0:55:53.880 me because Debbie could dance the role, but she couldn't 0:55:54.040 --> 0:55:59.200 sing it, and I couldn't dance. I could sing it, 0:55:59.360 --> 0:56:03.400 and that was most important part. So when the producer 0:56:03.520 --> 0:56:07.800 called me, he said can you dance? I said, of 0:56:07.840 --> 0:56:12.120 course I can dance. Some black and he said, well, 0:56:12.440 --> 0:56:15.600 whatever he's say, can you tap dance? I said no. 0:56:17.040 --> 0:56:19.879 He said, well look at it this way, you learn 0:56:20.000 --> 0:56:24.759 the other dances. It's just another dance you're learning if 0:56:24.840 --> 0:56:32.160 you can dance. So I went to the audition Jim Lewis, 0:56:32.239 --> 0:56:35.120 who had taught me all these songs and had every 0:56:35.360 --> 0:56:39.000 faith in me. He wasn't even thinking about dancer. He 0:56:39.160 --> 0:56:41.480 was thinking, get her an understory and let her dance. 0:56:42.400 --> 0:56:44.440 He was so thrilled that I was going to be 0:56:44.560 --> 0:56:47.120 singing these songs that came out of the era. He 0:56:47.320 --> 0:56:51.239 came from the Duke Kellington Jimmy Lunsword era, and he 0:56:51.400 --> 0:56:54.200 had taught me all these songs. I never had a 0:56:54.840 --> 0:56:57.239 call for these songs, which is why I didn't want 0:56:57.280 --> 0:57:00.279 to learn them. But I had learned them. I went 0:57:00.360 --> 0:57:03.080 up on this stage and a sun God child, I 0:57:03.120 --> 0:57:08.440 had sung Speech Brown. They hired me that day. I 0:57:08.560 --> 0:57:11.439 had to go to rehearsal the next morning. It took 0:57:12.520 --> 0:57:15.000 three weeks for my clothes to catch up with me 0:57:15.560 --> 0:57:19.280 because I went on tour that week. When they left 0:57:19.480 --> 0:57:27.240 New York and Honey Coles was telling that directory, he said, 0:57:27.320 --> 0:57:31.000 she's not a dancer, she's a singer. He said, don't 0:57:31.080 --> 0:57:34.280 count to her, sing to her say ba a bute 0:57:34.920 --> 0:57:41.480 bute bout as opposed to one and two and one 0:57:41.640 --> 0:57:44.080 and two. And I didn't know one and two and 0:57:44.200 --> 0:57:47.520 three went so honey, Coloes put his arm around me 0:57:47.880 --> 0:57:50.760 and sung it to me and talked to me those 0:57:50.880 --> 0:57:53.840 few steps that I had to do to get on 0:57:54.040 --> 0:57:59.360 the stage at the end of that week, the first 0:57:59.480 --> 0:58:02.800 time I had ever been in a show or on 0:58:03.000 --> 0:58:07.640 a Broadway stage of my life. I did that. And 0:58:07.720 --> 0:58:10.520 the next morning I got up and went to rehearsal, 0:58:11.000 --> 0:58:17.720 and he taught me, and I did that all day, 0:58:18.200 --> 0:58:21.560 and I did that that night. Then the next morning 0:58:21.880 --> 0:58:24.960 I got off. And when I learned how to do 0:58:25.080 --> 0:58:29.240 the book and win, every day I went to rehearsal. 0:58:29.960 --> 0:58:33.600 My feet. I had never used all the muscles in 0:58:33.760 --> 0:58:36.920 my feet like that. I danced all night. You know 0:58:37.040 --> 0:58:41.320 how to dance, but I had never done that. Most 0:58:41.680 --> 0:58:44.800 professional dancing is down on you. The balls of your feet, 0:58:45.360 --> 0:58:47.600 the balls of my feet, if you touched them with 0:58:47.720 --> 0:58:52.080 your finger, I would screamed. They were so sore. And 0:58:53.000 --> 0:58:56.120 I got through that week. Then I got through the 0:58:56.240 --> 0:58:59.000 next week, and the songs I was stopped in the show. 0:58:59.480 --> 0:59:03.240 You know songs, So that was keeping the producer police 0:59:04.160 --> 0:59:06.200 and they just had to teach me to dance, and 0:59:06.320 --> 0:59:11.280 that to two weeks, and that's how I wound up 0:59:11.320 --> 0:59:11.840 in the show. 0:59:12.080 --> 0:59:15.360 You're right, but you stayed with the show a long time, right. 0:59:15.400 --> 0:59:19.480 Yeah, because each show the closest like that was getting 0:59:19.520 --> 0:59:24.240 ready to be the Broadway show, which was gonna stay there. 0:59:24.880 --> 0:59:29.840 After the original stars left and went to Europe on 0:59:29.960 --> 0:59:34.120 a Europe show, they made a road show as well. 0:59:34.480 --> 0:59:37.440 The ones that didn't go to Europe, Honey Coals and 0:59:37.520 --> 0:59:41.480 the people that were left with me, we went on 0:59:41.800 --> 0:59:47.800 the road here in America, so we did that for 0:59:48.640 --> 0:59:51.320 I guess. I did that for a year. Then they 0:59:51.360 --> 0:59:53.320 had a bus and truck show. I did that for 0:59:53.840 --> 0:59:57.440 six months. Then they had some old show and I 0:59:57.560 --> 1:00:00.560 did that. So I did wrote three to times in 1:00:00.680 --> 1:00:04.200 three different capacities. They get less and less, you know, 1:00:04.480 --> 1:00:07.000 like when you get down the bus and truck, which 1:00:07.080 --> 1:00:10.000 is what I did with Cab Caliway. It had gotten 1:00:10.080 --> 1:00:13.240 down to where we were all traveling by bus and 1:00:13.320 --> 1:00:16.440 all the equipment was being carried and costumes are being 1:00:16.520 --> 1:00:20.200 carried by truck. And of course had learned more then 1:00:20.480 --> 1:00:26.720 with Mabel Lee and with Cab, Caliway and Cab. When 1:00:26.760 --> 1:00:30.760 I was doing this show, he disliked all the young 1:00:30.840 --> 1:00:34.240 people on the show at first. He got like some 1:00:34.400 --> 1:00:37.800 of them a little bitter. But he liked me because 1:00:38.040 --> 1:00:41.120 of the ethic that Jim Lewis had given me. I 1:00:41.240 --> 1:00:43.880 want make up. Every day when we went to the 1:00:44.000 --> 1:00:48.160 airport to where I was dressed, and he always had 1:00:48.240 --> 1:00:51.520 on an ascot or a tie or whatever. And he said, 1:00:51.560 --> 1:00:54.160 that's the way it starts. It's supposed to look when 1:00:54.240 --> 1:00:57.120 they when they travel, these chicks and these house shoes, 1:00:57.240 --> 1:01:01.240 these rollers in theirs. He would be so mad, but 1:01:01.560 --> 1:01:03.640 he let me ride with him when we were on 1:01:03.800 --> 1:01:09.360 the road in his Lincoln Cottmental and I rode with him, 1:01:10.120 --> 1:01:12.520 and then I told my husband, I said, I think 1:01:12.680 --> 1:01:15.200 secretly the reason he let me ride with him is 1:01:15.200 --> 1:01:18.200 because I would jump out of the car at the 1:01:18.400 --> 1:01:22.160 ATM machines and go and put not ATM machines the 1:01:22.240 --> 1:01:27.520 off track, betting the off track, betting the otb otbs. 1:01:28.000 --> 1:01:30.400 I would run and put his bets in for him, 1:01:30.960 --> 1:01:33.440 because we bet the whole while we were in New England. 1:01:33.520 --> 1:01:36.480 They have in New England they have otv's, So I 1:01:36.520 --> 1:01:38.200 would jump out of the car and go and put 1:01:38.240 --> 1:01:40.280 his betsend for him. I said that was why he 1:01:40.400 --> 1:01:43.640 had me ride with him. He'd have somebody cute who 1:01:43.720 --> 1:01:47.040 could run and do all things he wanted done. But 1:01:47.200 --> 1:01:51.120 I learned so much just in conversation. And since that's 1:01:51.280 --> 1:01:54.240 the show business. I got in show business to be 1:01:54.680 --> 1:01:58.560 in the one I had seen in movies and on television. 1:01:59.200 --> 1:01:59.800 He was it. 1:02:00.160 --> 1:02:02.760 And he just told me so many stories and I 1:02:02.960 --> 1:02:03.360 love them. 1:02:11.840 --> 1:02:14.920 Okay, when you were in the road show, since you 1:02:15.040 --> 1:02:18.000 brought up finances, did you make good money working in 1:02:18.120 --> 1:02:18.439 the show? 1:02:18.920 --> 1:02:22.800 Yes, yes, more money than I had ever made before 1:02:24.480 --> 1:02:28.840 because nothing had lasted that consistently before. But I've never 1:02:29.000 --> 1:02:35.320 made consider just the way this is like. If I 1:02:35.440 --> 1:02:40.680 understand the envy the way it's described, it's wishing that 1:02:40.880 --> 1:02:44.280 the other person didn't have it and you did. And 1:02:44.400 --> 1:02:46.680 I don't feel that way because I'm so glad for 1:02:47.480 --> 1:02:49.880 all of certainly all the people I grew up with. 1:02:50.680 --> 1:02:54.000 But look at who I grew up with. They're all millionaires, 1:02:55.360 --> 1:02:58.760 and I have done the same thing that they don't 1:02:59.080 --> 1:03:03.440 gone the same thing, but things have just fallen differently 1:03:03.600 --> 1:03:06.080 for them than they have for me, And I think 1:03:07.000 --> 1:03:09.600 that is what I mean when I say I'm absolutely 1:03:11.920 --> 1:03:17.480 thrill and grateful because I had done things that no 1:03:17.680 --> 1:03:21.040 one else in my family would ever dreamed of doing. 1:03:22.040 --> 1:03:22.120 But. 1:03:23.680 --> 1:03:26.280 Pissed because I haven't got as much money as. 1:03:27.160 --> 1:03:31.280 Okay, you're living on the north side of Detroit. You 1:03:31.440 --> 1:03:37.720 mentioned all these household names irrelevant of finances. Are those 1:03:37.840 --> 1:03:40.400 people your friends at this point? Do you know that 1:03:40.400 --> 1:03:43.800 it's the ones who are still alive? Are they you say, Oh, 1:03:43.840 --> 1:03:46.080 they're in show business, they used to live in the neighborhood. 1:03:46.080 --> 1:03:49.320 I've crossed paths with them once or twice. Or are 1:03:49.400 --> 1:03:51.080 these people you're friends? 1:03:52.000 --> 1:03:54.440 Oh? No, all of them were. You have to remember 1:03:54.880 --> 1:03:56.920 we have a joke that white people think that all 1:03:57.000 --> 1:04:00.160 black people know each other. In nineteen sixty two, they 1:04:00.280 --> 1:04:02.680 did because they all went to the same church, the 1:04:02.760 --> 1:04:07.880 same supermarket. I know all these people personally. The ones 1:04:07.920 --> 1:04:11.880 who aren't dead or who have not gone to God, 1:04:13.560 --> 1:04:17.400 I'm friends with. I was friends with the Tops Attempts, 1:04:18.560 --> 1:04:24.840 oh until they died. Of so many of them. If 1:04:24.880 --> 1:04:27.400 they aren't dead or having gone to God, I'm still 1:04:27.480 --> 1:04:28.040 friends with them. 1:04:29.640 --> 1:04:34.320 Okay, you have this Broadway run in a show that 1:04:34.960 --> 1:04:38.880 is touring that doesn't lead to another Broadway role. 1:04:41.960 --> 1:04:45.120 I wouldn't do. I'm not. Everybody think it's because I'm 1:04:45.160 --> 1:04:48.520 so animated I can act, But all I can act 1:04:48.680 --> 1:04:51.360 like is me. I can't act like my name is 1:04:51.480 --> 1:04:54.560 Natasha and I have five children a husband who beats me. 1:04:55.040 --> 1:05:00.840 I really think that actors, well, I I like actors 1:05:00.920 --> 1:05:03.440 better than I do singers, because I think that that's 1:05:03.520 --> 1:05:06.360 a either you can saying it's a gift or you've 1:05:06.400 --> 1:05:09.200 got some kind of trick or something that you fool people. 1:05:09.760 --> 1:05:15.080 But acting is you have to believe the person's name 1:05:15.280 --> 1:05:20.400 is Ili May and they kill five people. And I 1:05:20.600 --> 1:05:24.440 think acting is hard and I cannot do it. But 1:05:24.600 --> 1:05:28.080 people think because I'm so animated in my speech and 1:05:28.400 --> 1:05:31.520 just natural me that I can do it. I can't 1:05:31.600 --> 1:05:35.520 remember all those words and assume a whole other attitude 1:05:35.600 --> 1:05:38.840 that isn't me. So when I went to try out 1:05:39.080 --> 1:05:42.800 for and then the dancing, I mean the things you 1:05:42.920 --> 1:05:45.400 have to do in New York to do these shows. 1:05:46.080 --> 1:05:50.280 Unless you've been somebody as a lead actor actress, then 1:05:50.280 --> 1:05:53.200 they want you to come and read things and dance 1:05:53.720 --> 1:05:58.280 and just auditioning itself. I mean, my thing to your 1:05:58.320 --> 1:06:03.240 auditioners are can you say my attitude to be in 1:06:03.440 --> 1:06:07.640 theater is not good. I do the best I can 1:06:07.840 --> 1:06:12.920 to be in the recording industry and working nightclubs with 1:06:13.160 --> 1:06:17.240 theater I could never do. I've done it once and 1:06:17.440 --> 1:06:20.040 that was because they called n. 1:06:22.240 --> 1:06:25.040 Okay, let's go back to the Kennedy Center Honors. 1:06:25.560 --> 1:06:31.840 Let me call Kevin. Kevin. I did not rearrange it. 1:06:32.360 --> 1:06:38.640 You said that you couldn't sing it that way. Do 1:06:38.720 --> 1:06:39.480 you need Kevin? 1:06:40.320 --> 1:06:41.040 No, he's here. 1:06:42.440 --> 1:06:44.800 Well, I was just talking to you. But in any event, 1:06:45.360 --> 1:06:47.920 how did you come up with the way you wanted 1:06:48.000 --> 1:06:48.440 to sing it? 1:06:50.960 --> 1:06:55.480 That is so amazing to me. You don't think it 1:06:55.560 --> 1:07:00.560 would be more difficult for me to sing something like 1:07:00.800 --> 1:07:07.320 someone else then singing it like me. But the way 1:07:07.400 --> 1:07:12.880 people understand it is the wrong way. I don't come 1:07:13.560 --> 1:07:17.640 up with it. That's the way it sounded to me. 1:07:20.080 --> 1:07:23.440 I don't. That was one of the early things with 1:07:23.600 --> 1:07:27.520 Jim when he was teaching me all of these Sarah 1:07:27.760 --> 1:07:32.320 Faun and Billy They songs. I thought I couldn't sing 1:07:32.400 --> 1:07:34.320 them because I knew I couldn't sing them like that. 1:07:35.320 --> 1:07:38.720 So I thought I was singing them wrong because I 1:07:38.840 --> 1:07:43.880 couldn't sing them that way. But Jim said stupid woman. 1:07:44.240 --> 1:07:49.080 That's the idea. You're supposed to sing them and sound different. 1:07:50.480 --> 1:07:53.880 I said, but they only sound good if you sing 1:07:54.000 --> 1:07:58.240 them like that, and he said, no that, no, no, here, 1:07:58.840 --> 1:08:03.000 let's start all over again. Yeah. It was a long 1:08:03.160 --> 1:08:06.800 time before I realized that it was okay for me 1:08:06.920 --> 1:08:11.680 to sound different and sing the songs different. I wanted 1:08:11.760 --> 1:08:14.720 to sing them like the people who sung them. 1:08:16.760 --> 1:08:21.880 Okay, so you've made albums of rock tunes, you've made 1:08:21.920 --> 1:08:26.000 albums of admitting, album of Dylan tunes. You're telling me 1:08:26.840 --> 1:08:30.519 there's not a long process of rearranging how you're going 1:08:30.600 --> 1:08:33.200 to do it. You just hear the song and then 1:08:33.240 --> 1:08:34.200 you do it your way. 1:08:37.280 --> 1:08:45.360 Robert, it's the exact same thing that happens in bed. Okay, 1:08:47.640 --> 1:08:51.839 you don't. You may have seen a sixth film or whatever, 1:08:52.000 --> 1:08:55.680 and let may have given you the initial idea, but 1:08:55.960 --> 1:09:00.800 everybody's different in bed. Credit says, Okay, Henry did this 1:09:01.439 --> 1:09:04.759 just like this, so I'm gonna turn her face around. 1:09:05.000 --> 1:09:09.000 Maybe when you were younger, but everybody's different. And singing 1:09:09.640 --> 1:09:14.519 being a thing that you aren't taught. Either you can sing, 1:09:14.880 --> 1:09:19.920 damn it, or you can't. And I really can't sing. 1:09:20.200 --> 1:09:22.840 But I'm able to present the tunes and present my 1:09:23.000 --> 1:09:26.000 feelings along with them. And my voice doesn't sound awful. 1:09:26.840 --> 1:09:29.960 But when you listen to Louis Armstrong, he can make 1:09:30.040 --> 1:09:33.760 you cry, he can make you laugh. He doesn't sound beautiful. 1:09:34.880 --> 1:09:38.519 But I thought that as a girl, for sure, I 1:09:38.680 --> 1:09:42.439 needed to sound a little more nanse elutionist. And it 1:09:42.600 --> 1:09:47.360 was years before I accepted that the way I sung 1:09:47.760 --> 1:09:49.679 was the way I sung. 1:09:52.240 --> 1:09:58.640 Okay, you said you had a child at sixteen. Sometimes 1:10:00.000 --> 1:10:06.280 I didn't say that I did that well, put was 1:10:06.439 --> 1:10:11.160 that a bump in the road, a tragedy or was 1:10:11.320 --> 1:10:13.640 that you know this? You know I'm pregnant. I have 1:10:13.720 --> 1:10:14.479 a baby. That's it. 1:10:16.479 --> 1:10:21.439 Now. It's pretty bad for my people. They always you 1:10:21.520 --> 1:10:24.200 always want the guy to do right, and you take 1:10:24.240 --> 1:10:27.840 care of the baby. But this thing I'm telling you. 1:10:28.240 --> 1:10:31.840 When I met Lee Jones, my daughter was six months old, 1:10:32.760 --> 1:10:35.559 and I had my sister, who was thirteen years older 1:10:35.560 --> 1:10:38.880 than me, was still there and my mother and they 1:10:39.080 --> 1:10:43.960 took the baby. They just took the baby. At one point, 1:10:44.680 --> 1:10:47.760 I said, I'm leaving and I'm taking my baby. And 1:10:47.920 --> 1:10:50.640 I always cry about it when I get drunk. It 1:10:50.800 --> 1:10:53.639 was the first time that, the only time I pushed 1:10:53.800 --> 1:10:57.080 my sister. She was trying to take the baby. Had 1:10:57.200 --> 1:10:59.840 she not taken the baby, they probably wouldn't have even 1:11:00.080 --> 1:11:03.080 been a baby. But they wanted me. I was the 1:11:03.200 --> 1:11:06.160 first person my family make one hundred dollars in one 1:11:06.640 --> 1:11:11.639 day in cash money and bring it home. They wanted 1:11:11.960 --> 1:11:16.000 me to sing. They said, you all these women in 1:11:16.080 --> 1:11:20.160 this house. My grandson now calls all his women, but 1:11:21.280 --> 1:11:24.400 he's the first boy in one hundred years. But my 1:11:25.000 --> 1:11:28.599 mother and my sister wanted me to sing. We've never 1:11:29.400 --> 1:11:34.120 had anything or done anything. And people were talking about 1:11:34.200 --> 1:11:38.600 me on a radio and recognizing me in a supermarket 1:11:38.680 --> 1:11:42.080 and whatever. They didn't say, come home and be a 1:11:42.160 --> 1:11:47.280 good mother. They said, we got this. You go sing, 1:11:48.360 --> 1:11:49.320 and they raised her. 1:11:50.960 --> 1:11:52.200 How many children do you have? 1:11:52.720 --> 1:11:52.760 What? 1:11:54.479 --> 1:11:54.839 Okay? 1:11:55.240 --> 1:11:57.000 And be he's it? 1:11:59.240 --> 1:12:00.960 And how many times you've been married? 1:12:04.360 --> 1:12:10.599 Only only the times that were necessary? Three times since 1:12:10.600 --> 1:12:11.719 it is my third husband. 1:12:12.560 --> 1:12:15.920 But wait, wait, wait wait wait now you sometimes didn't No, 1:12:17.000 --> 1:12:19.000 I want to know what you meant, but you said 1:12:19.120 --> 1:12:20.400 only when necessary? 1:12:20.479 --> 1:12:24.400 What is that? Like? I just uh you? You you 1:12:24.520 --> 1:12:26.880 tend to punk out in this business an awful lot, 1:12:27.360 --> 1:12:31.160 and you just want somebody to share a misery with you. Uh, 1:12:31.439 --> 1:12:34.000 so I married one time for that, and I married 1:12:34.040 --> 1:12:37.680 one time because after I was pregnant at sixteen, they 1:12:37.760 --> 1:12:41.120 said you're supposed to get married, and so we did, 1:12:41.200 --> 1:12:44.760 and we're together for gosh, the whole six months, I 1:12:44.840 --> 1:12:49.360 believe it was. But we stayed friends until he died. 1:12:50.040 --> 1:12:53.760 He actually worked on Kevin's car. He's a mechanic. He 1:12:53.880 --> 1:12:57.759 actually worked on Kevin's car when Kevin came to detit 1:12:57.920 --> 1:13:02.640 after I met him and my ex husband was a 1:13:02.760 --> 1:13:09.120 manager for the Hired hotels, and Kevin actually went with 1:13:09.320 --> 1:13:14.880 me to his funeral. Every man, every producer that I 1:13:14.960 --> 1:13:19.920 have ever been, anybody I've ever been involved with, unless 1:13:20.160 --> 1:13:23.120 I stopped speaking to them, I can pick up the 1:13:23.200 --> 1:13:26.240 phone and call them right now. 1:13:28.479 --> 1:13:29.599 How did you meet Kevin? 1:13:34.600 --> 1:13:38.640 Kevin sent me an email after I've been online for 1:13:39.840 --> 1:13:43.840 maybe two weeks or weeks, and he said, my name 1:13:44.000 --> 1:13:47.720 is Kevin Kylie. I've been a fan of yours for 1:13:48.479 --> 1:13:53.080 eleven years and I found out that you were heading 1:13:53.400 --> 1:13:59.840 letting Black record you, and I one suggest that you 1:14:00.120 --> 1:14:04.599 don't do that. It's been years since you've been several 1:14:04.720 --> 1:14:08.720 years since you've had a record of any note, and 1:14:09.160 --> 1:14:13.800 everybody he's recorded, it's been bad, and I don't want 1:14:13.880 --> 1:14:19.400 you to do that. So I sent him a message back, 1:14:20.080 --> 1:14:23.960 one of the first messages I ever because at first 1:14:24.040 --> 1:14:26.200 I thought if I touched these keys, I'm gonna blow 1:14:26.320 --> 1:14:29.120 up mere I say, someone from push the wrong ones. 1:14:29.200 --> 1:14:36.040 But I said, who the fuck are you if you 1:14:36.120 --> 1:14:38.120 don't have any money to take me in the studio, 1:14:38.600 --> 1:14:45.679 sit down somewhere and shut off. And then after Ali 1:14:45.800 --> 1:14:49.040 sent me one back and he said, I'm an antique 1:14:49.400 --> 1:14:53.160 glass dealer and I will be doing a show in Leshroit. 1:14:54.560 --> 1:14:57.600 I would like to take you out to dinner and 1:14:59.160 --> 1:15:05.160 apologize whatever we were having. And he did, and he 1:15:06.680 --> 1:15:08.760 took me out to dinner, and then I took him 1:15:08.760 --> 1:15:13.240 to all the places in our own and that worked well. 1:15:13.640 --> 1:15:17.840 They frightening. I always have if I have one white 1:15:17.880 --> 1:15:20.720 person to my own, I always liked to take them 1:15:20.760 --> 1:15:22.920 into the belly of the music that they say they 1:15:23.040 --> 1:15:27.360 love so much. So that was what I did Kevin, 1:15:27.479 --> 1:15:32.160 and he loved it, and he came back to do 1:15:32.240 --> 1:15:35.320 another show. Then he came back to do another show. 1:15:36.080 --> 1:15:38.880 Then it came back and he brought this with him. 1:15:40.000 --> 1:15:43.639 And which was a ring were audio only. 1:15:44.120 --> 1:15:49.000 Oh I'm sorry, and he asked me and am. Actually 1:15:49.080 --> 1:15:51.760 I was in the middle of a rehearsal with the 1:15:51.920 --> 1:15:56.599 band that was going to be this fifth career band, 1:15:57.560 --> 1:16:00.599 with a record that at the time the record company 1:16:00.640 --> 1:16:05.040 owner had disappeared. We could not find him, and we 1:16:05.160 --> 1:16:07.840 were just going to go forward and put the record 1:16:07.880 --> 1:16:12.040 out and do the songs. So Kevin came into all 1:16:12.120 --> 1:16:14.840 of that and helped me a lot with all of that, 1:16:15.640 --> 1:16:18.280 but we thought that it was the best record at 1:16:18.320 --> 1:16:21.280 that point that I had ever recorded. And in the 1:16:21.360 --> 1:16:25.040 owner of record company just dispute. 1:16:26.040 --> 1:16:26.960 That show business. 1:16:30.720 --> 1:16:33.920 Tell me about it, baby, Okay. 1:16:34.040 --> 1:16:37.920 You talk about this parapatetic career ups and downs? 1:16:38.200 --> 1:16:39.960 What how did tarapathetic mean? 1:16:40.280 --> 1:16:43.200 Well, let's leave that for another thing. That's sort of 1:16:43.320 --> 1:16:47.400 like a hollowns whatever. How did you survive. 1:16:50.439 --> 1:16:55.679 Well as somebody? If somebody was always willing to spend 1:16:55.840 --> 1:17:01.080 thousands of dollars to record me, then other people like 1:17:01.200 --> 1:17:07.200 I believe it's a line in Streetcar named desire, and 1:17:07.280 --> 1:17:10.760 girlfriend says, I've always depended upon the kindness of strangers, 1:17:12.400 --> 1:17:15.880 and I've never met a stranger who didn't like me, 1:17:17.000 --> 1:17:21.160 and I've never been ashamed to say I need this 1:17:22.479 --> 1:17:25.360 whole thing here. Will you help me get it, and. 1:17:27.160 --> 1:17:27.439 They have. 1:17:27.920 --> 1:17:33.920 I met. The business itself has been kind in one way, 1:17:34.680 --> 1:17:39.840 and then the other people have helped me stay in 1:17:40.400 --> 1:17:46.439 the business. But people have the stories, Robert, the things 1:17:46.439 --> 1:17:48.240 that I've told you this evening. I mean, if we 1:17:48.400 --> 1:17:54.040 went through it record by record, you could say it 1:17:54.520 --> 1:17:58.280 really it's just been phenomenal. And that makes it so 1:17:58.439 --> 1:18:02.400 much more frustrating how all of these people could have 1:18:02.479 --> 1:18:06.519 spent all of these millions of dollars on me and 1:18:06.680 --> 1:18:09.280 I still can't get it together work. I don't have 1:18:09.400 --> 1:18:14.360 to hustle. And when I say hustle, I mean have 1:18:14.560 --> 1:18:18.640 it doing smaller eggs, or not being able to have 1:18:18.800 --> 1:18:24.439 the whole band with me, or like the Rolling Stones, 1:18:24.720 --> 1:18:28.320 not being able being able to work when I choose 1:18:28.840 --> 1:18:33.479 to work for as long as I choose to work. 1:18:34.720 --> 1:18:37.920 And I think that is when somebody says you don't 1:18:38.800 --> 1:18:42.760 I can't imagine anybody saying you don't deserve that. Nick 1:18:42.840 --> 1:18:45.880 and I of the same age. I sing as well 1:18:45.960 --> 1:18:49.120 as he does. I've had as many records as he has. 1:18:49.240 --> 1:18:52.439 The only thing is mine just didn't sell. Like it's 1:18:54.880 --> 1:19:01.720 so I just I am extremely grateful, but I'm I'm 1:19:01.840 --> 1:19:04.800 just really pissed. At that. But I mean it's like 1:19:04.920 --> 1:19:07.800 if you go and get into a crap game. I mean, 1:19:07.880 --> 1:19:12.519 everybody at the table doesn't win, and I'm just one 1:19:12.560 --> 1:19:15.760 of the ones who did not have that. But as 1:19:15.840 --> 1:19:20.120 I said, I'm not going to die obscure. I know 1:19:20.479 --> 1:19:25.280 that I've done some things that were milestones in this industry. 1:19:25.320 --> 1:19:29.000 And I know that my granddaughter and my grandson will 1:19:29.080 --> 1:19:33.559 be able to somebody's gonna want to talk to them 1:19:33.840 --> 1:19:38.439 about me for all of their lives. Somebody's studying music, 1:19:38.640 --> 1:19:43.320 somebody's studying black music. So I'm really grateful for all 1:19:43.520 --> 1:19:47.519 those things. I thought those things weren't gonna happen, you know. 1:19:47.640 --> 1:19:52.519 I thought it like the first of ten years, and 1:19:52.880 --> 1:19:57.559 nothing happened from them. Of monument, I thought, I'm going 1:19:57.600 --> 1:19:59.840 to die obscure. Nobody's gonna even know I was here. 1:20:00.560 --> 1:20:03.719 Like the people, many of the singers that Jim played 1:20:03.920 --> 1:20:07.880 recordings for that he listened to when he was a 1:20:07.960 --> 1:20:12.719 teenager in the thirties, I've never heard of these people before, 1:20:13.880 --> 1:20:17.720 and they work forever to get these recordings that I said, 1:20:17.760 --> 1:20:21.160 I'm going to be one of them. But thank goodness, 1:20:21.439 --> 1:20:26.160 enough things have happened to me. Just you I met 1:20:26.200 --> 1:20:30.200 the people that know you. So many things have happened 1:20:30.240 --> 1:20:30.439 to me. 1:20:30.880 --> 1:20:32.240 I know that. 1:20:34.240 --> 1:20:37.240 When I get through bugging everybody and die, I know 1:20:37.360 --> 1:20:39.400 I'm not going to die. I thought I was just 1:20:39.520 --> 1:20:43.040 going to be dead and broke. 1:20:52.439 --> 1:20:54.599 Did you ever have to get a street job? 1:20:56.520 --> 1:21:00.160 Yeah? I invented one the high schools that I went to, 1:21:01.000 --> 1:21:04.320 I had to take my grandchildren to the school every morning. 1:21:05.439 --> 1:21:07.760 One of the things that I did while I was 1:21:07.800 --> 1:21:11.320 waiting for this fifth career. Right before it, my grandchildren 1:21:11.360 --> 1:21:13.720 were going to school. My daughter was working. She's a 1:21:13.840 --> 1:21:18.479 Detroit teacher for forty years. She just retired last week. 1:21:19.320 --> 1:21:24.320 And every morning we'd stand there at the bus stop. 1:21:24.840 --> 1:21:27.040 I mean where I had stood at the bus stop 1:21:27.200 --> 1:21:30.720 going to Northern High School, and these young ladies were 1:21:30.720 --> 1:21:33.560 sitting there, and he's smoking, and if he's sitting on 1:21:33.640 --> 1:21:37.240 the little stupid they last gapped open. Well, combed it 1:21:37.360 --> 1:21:41.240 boyfriend's hair or picking it out or whatever. So I 1:21:41.439 --> 1:21:44.280 went and I went to the office. I dropped them 1:21:44.479 --> 1:21:46.439 the kids off one morning and I came back to 1:21:46.560 --> 1:21:48.960 the school and I said, I went to the school. 1:21:49.080 --> 1:21:52.040 I said, my name is Betty. I'm a recording artist. 1:21:52.600 --> 1:21:54.840 One of the first time I ever saw was here 1:21:55.200 --> 1:21:58.200 at the Northern Gym and whatever. And I said, these 1:21:58.240 --> 1:22:02.960 young ladies are sitting out here. They looked horrible. I said, 1:22:03.200 --> 1:22:06.519 they looked just like I probably would have looked had 1:22:06.600 --> 1:22:09.880 show business not saved me. I want to start a 1:22:10.000 --> 1:22:13.960 class teaching them they can't cuss, they can smoke, or 1:22:14.360 --> 1:22:17.080 I want to teach them how whole cigarettes, how to 1:22:17.320 --> 1:22:21.120 cust appropriately, and how to sit up straight and not 1:22:21.439 --> 1:22:24.360 fix their boyfriend's hair on the side of the street. 1:22:24.840 --> 1:22:31.000 And they gave me a job doing that, and then 1:22:31.040 --> 1:22:33.080 I got tired of it. It was boring. 1:22:34.320 --> 1:22:36.040 Wit did you get paid to do that? 1:22:36.360 --> 1:22:40.240 Yell? Shit, I am not a philathropist. I do not 1:22:40.880 --> 1:22:44.040 do volunteer work, I told them, and I told them 1:22:44.080 --> 1:22:47.479 how much I wanted, and all the other teachers in 1:22:47.560 --> 1:22:50.880 the school, which was so thrilling to me. I had 1:22:50.920 --> 1:22:53.120 a little gig. Then I was doing a little local 1:22:53.200 --> 1:22:56.479 television show and Detroit and I had a little gig 1:22:56.600 --> 1:23:00.439 which is three pieces, and all the teachers. It's came 1:23:00.479 --> 1:23:00.880 to see me. 1:23:04.120 --> 1:23:10.920 Okay, you talk about your word daughter retiring, You're gonna 1:23:10.920 --> 1:23:13.160 be eighty. You theoretically could retire. 1:23:13.760 --> 1:23:15.960 No, I can if I need money to live like this. 1:23:16.920 --> 1:23:19.840 I could retire if I wanted to just live like 1:23:19.920 --> 1:23:23.920 a normal person. But I don't live like a normal person. 1:23:24.200 --> 1:23:28.599 I drink lots of champagne. All that stuff costs money, Robert. 1:23:30.640 --> 1:23:33.639 I have to have my nails, all kinds of stuff, 1:23:34.720 --> 1:23:37.439 habits I picked up for being in this swilthy business. 1:23:39.040 --> 1:23:42.920 How much of working is to pay the bills? And 1:23:43.160 --> 1:23:47.200 how much of you still want that recognition and money 1:23:47.280 --> 1:23:48.839 beyond what you have already? 1:23:50.920 --> 1:23:55.479 Oh? I still want. I am still hoping. I always 1:23:55.520 --> 1:23:59.679 still hope that I have friends in Detroit Worth streets, 1:23:59.800 --> 1:24:02.800 name at Roma on streets I used to play on. 1:24:03.800 --> 1:24:08.160 But anyway, I think that that will always be nagging. 1:24:08.640 --> 1:24:11.240 But I think that if I knew that I could 1:24:11.680 --> 1:24:16.439 not sing and live the way that I live. I 1:24:16.880 --> 1:24:20.640 live really comfortably. But it's not because I made so 1:24:20.840 --> 1:24:23.840 much money. It's because I have to keep making money, 1:24:24.520 --> 1:24:27.280 and I just wanted to change from I have to 1:24:27.400 --> 1:24:29.880 keep making money. As I said to you early on, 1:24:30.800 --> 1:24:33.720 I'm looking for this Rach Charl's life. I can't think 1:24:33.800 --> 1:24:37.479 of anybody else right off top of my head before 1:24:37.520 --> 1:24:40.800 they work six months a year at these huge concerts. 1:24:41.280 --> 1:24:45.320 The last concert ra Charald's did before he died. Now, 1:24:45.479 --> 1:24:49.800 this is ironic I did, which is in the one 1:24:49.920 --> 1:24:55.160 hundred most renown on disco records, doing the best that 1:24:55.280 --> 1:24:59.920 I can the producer of that was eighteen years old 1:25:00.280 --> 1:25:06.639 at the time, and create it Run DMC and went 1:25:06.800 --> 1:25:10.240 on to all of that. I left him because I 1:25:10.320 --> 1:25:14.640 didn't want him involved in that. I told him he 1:25:14.720 --> 1:25:19.680 could have any money that the record garnered and I'm 1:25:19.840 --> 1:25:23.320 cool and I love him, and I left. In this 1:25:23.600 --> 1:25:27.719 fifth career, I was working at the Carlisle Hotel, which 1:25:27.760 --> 1:25:30.879 I would love to work and just died there on stage. 1:25:32.200 --> 1:25:34.559 He came to see me, now after all of these 1:25:34.760 --> 1:25:39.880 years and him being such a success in the beginning 1:25:40.280 --> 1:25:45.040 of rap, and brought me a check. He said, Now, 1:25:45.080 --> 1:25:47.960 you know, I don't owe this to you, he said, 1:25:48.080 --> 1:25:50.760 but because I signed a paper same, you don't owe 1:25:50.840 --> 1:25:54.960 me anything. But he came and brought me a check. 1:25:55.640 --> 1:26:01.519 That's how my whole career has been. It's been fans 1:26:01.720 --> 1:26:07.800 or people who sincerely adored me, that just they I 1:26:07.880 --> 1:26:13.960 could sing good, they sincerely adored me. And Corey Robbins 1:26:14.080 --> 1:26:17.320 there the name of his record label. I don't know 1:26:17.520 --> 1:26:19.960 if you know anything about Run the UFC. You know 1:26:20.000 --> 1:26:21.439 what the first record label was. 1:26:25.040 --> 1:26:30.040 Okay, to what degree have you experienced racism and to 1:26:30.160 --> 1:26:33.200 what degree do you believe it affected your career. 1:26:36.080 --> 1:26:40.800 Well, I haven't experienced anymore than when I was saying 1:26:40.840 --> 1:26:43.280 when we were on the uh, I'm not putting this 1:26:43.400 --> 1:26:45.400 on and look cute for you. I'm looking putting this 1:26:45.680 --> 1:26:47.320 on so my lips won't be dry. 1:26:48.680 --> 1:26:49.080 Okay. 1:26:51.160 --> 1:26:57.320 I experienced it only in the general sense, like when 1:26:57.320 --> 1:27:00.840 we couldn't stay at hotels and we couldn't go to 1:27:01.040 --> 1:27:07.880 some of the restaurants. But entertainers have had a much 1:27:08.439 --> 1:27:17.840 easier time in the business as hardcore segregation went. So 1:27:18.080 --> 1:27:22.479 I didn't suffer from because I was in show business. 1:27:26.560 --> 1:27:28.640 You asked me another part to that question, doing what 1:27:28.840 --> 1:27:33.000 is it? Oh? Okay, I'll give you a perfect example. 1:27:36.680 --> 1:27:43.599 I recorded or recording which was written for me called 1:27:44.360 --> 1:27:47.040 He Made a Woman out of Me, which is the 1:27:47.200 --> 1:27:51.719 recording that I did for Kenny Rogers's brother Leland Rodgers, 1:27:52.800 --> 1:27:57.840 when he signed me to his label Silver Fox, which 1:27:57.920 --> 1:28:00.280 belonged to show Bey singled. 1:28:00.000 --> 1:28:01.240 And she. 1:28:02.840 --> 1:28:07.479 Started looking for writers to write for me and found 1:28:07.560 --> 1:28:10.400 some writers who wrote this He Made a Woman out 1:28:10.439 --> 1:28:15.120 of Me. Re recorded it along with everybody just on 1:28:15.240 --> 1:28:18.040 the record as somebody who is who has become rich. 1:28:18.600 --> 1:28:25.559 See those kind of things annoying. But what's her name? 1:28:26.840 --> 1:28:32.679 Billy Joe Joe mcallis, sir jumped off back out, Okay, 1:28:33.040 --> 1:28:37.840 what's her name? She recorded it? Hers was in the 1:28:37.960 --> 1:28:43.920 top five. We didn't I changed. She changed one word. 1:28:45.439 --> 1:28:49.640 It was suggestive anyway, that's how the lyric went. But 1:28:50.360 --> 1:28:53.880 I didn't. I didn't say anything that made it any 1:28:53.960 --> 1:28:59.679 more suggested than she did. And mine could not get 1:29:00.040 --> 1:29:06.160 any white airplay. I was trying to get some white 1:29:06.280 --> 1:29:12.120 airplay before for condition. My condition is in so we 1:29:12.360 --> 1:29:18.599 said before we recorded it, let's do no not for condition. 1:29:18.960 --> 1:29:24.960 A heart of Gold. Neil Younglook's from Canada, said we 1:29:25.080 --> 1:29:29.040 can get some play in Canada because Canadians play everything 1:29:29.200 --> 1:29:32.960 that every artist from Canada makes. They don't care if 1:29:33.000 --> 1:29:37.720 their orange green I played, I played, I did hard. 1:29:37.880 --> 1:29:42.320 Gold got a lot of Canadian airplay, but not enough, 1:29:43.840 --> 1:29:47.600 and it just never caught on in America. But and 1:29:47.840 --> 1:29:52.280 through the whole sixty five years, Robert, I've collected each 1:29:52.360 --> 1:29:55.280 one of these things I'm telling you about. I collected 1:29:55.560 --> 1:30:02.519 about ten thousand and fans, I mean, hope to die 1:30:02.680 --> 1:30:07.519 fans so I've collected these ten thousand fans at a time, 1:30:09.200 --> 1:30:10.920 ten thousands at a. 1:30:11.040 --> 1:30:15.960 Time, you know they can support you. Well, it's been 1:30:16.200 --> 1:30:19.920 fascinating and the great experience talking to you, Betty. I 1:30:20.000 --> 1:30:22.280 want to thank you so much for taking this time 1:30:22.320 --> 1:30:23.160 with my audience. 1:30:23.439 --> 1:30:25.800 Maybe I want to thank you so much for taking 1:30:25.880 --> 1:30:28.600 this time to talk to me. It's all time, but 1:30:28.720 --> 1:30:31.880 I wanted to ask you this. When do you sleep? 1:30:32.520 --> 1:30:35.360 And do you have like a team of people that 1:30:35.600 --> 1:30:36.080 worked with you? 1:30:38.080 --> 1:30:41.720 Two things. I'll answer the second question. First, I do 1:30:41.880 --> 1:30:50.360 it all myself. Okay, songwriters they will often say the 1:30:50.560 --> 1:30:53.439 song came to them in five minutes and they wrote it. 1:30:54.600 --> 1:30:58.320 And then there are other people who might labor over 1:30:58.400 --> 1:31:03.280 a song Leonard Cohen for over a year. And I 1:31:03.800 --> 1:31:09.840 write only on inspiration, and when I'm inspired, I lay 1:31:09.920 --> 1:31:13.439 it all out. It's like being in a trance. And 1:31:13.960 --> 1:31:16.200 you know, I don't do it the way other people. 1:31:16.520 --> 1:31:20.840 Most people will tell you two things that they like 1:31:21.000 --> 1:31:25.120 to have written. They say that writing is achure and 1:31:25.280 --> 1:31:28.960 they say that writing is about rewriting. I could not 1:31:29.240 --> 1:31:33.439 disagree more. You know, I lay it out. You know, 1:31:33.479 --> 1:31:35.760 I'll look for obvious mistakes, but I've learned. I've been 1:31:35.760 --> 1:31:38.639 doing a long time. If I change anything, I screw 1:31:38.680 --> 1:31:44.120 it up, so I would not think about it relative 1:31:44.240 --> 1:31:46.800 to a traditional writer. I would think it more about 1:31:46.840 --> 1:31:48.439 it compared to a musician. 1:31:48.960 --> 1:31:52.519 Do you that the label you consider yourself a writer? 1:31:54.120 --> 1:31:56.000 Yes, first and foremost. 1:31:56.040 --> 1:31:58.519 More than in the end of view or. 1:32:00.120 --> 1:32:03.880 Love to get people's stories. This is something I've done, 1:32:04.479 --> 1:32:07.120 irrelevant of having a podcast. 1:32:07.920 --> 1:32:12.000 Have you ever read your column? I looked at it. 1:32:12.280 --> 1:32:15.280 I don't mean before you post it. I mean after 1:32:15.360 --> 1:32:15.840 you posted. 1:32:16.000 --> 1:32:20.320 I read, okay, I know, okay. Two things I reread. 1:32:20.880 --> 1:32:26.320 I check everything twice before I send it. Second, like 1:32:26.439 --> 1:32:32.680 an artist, I rarely read what I have written, and 1:32:33.280 --> 1:32:38.439 it's not I guess this is this wild. I can't 1:32:38.439 --> 1:32:42.000 believe we're talking about this. These things are written in 1:32:42.120 --> 1:32:48.240 a zone such that when you reread them. I reread them, 1:32:48.800 --> 1:32:51.439 it reminds me of the zone. But I'm not in 1:32:51.560 --> 1:32:56.639 that particular zone anymore. As opposed to saying somebody can write. 1:32:57.120 --> 1:33:00.360 I went to the bookstore, I had a drink, et cetera, 1:33:00.400 --> 1:33:04.559 et cetera. But if I'm writing about something that truly 1:33:04.680 --> 1:33:09.360 affects me, I that's a time castle I felt that 1:33:09.560 --> 1:33:14.679 way exactly. Then sometimes when I reread it, it's like shocking, 1:33:15.200 --> 1:33:16.200 It's like, is that really? 1:33:18.000 --> 1:33:21.360 But I ask you that because it seems I can't 1:33:21.400 --> 1:33:25.720 imagine when you sleep or when or how you could 1:33:25.760 --> 1:33:31.360 do all this without you. I have often heard something 1:33:31.640 --> 1:33:34.080 before I went to sleep at one o'clock in the morning. 1:33:34.800 --> 1:33:38.280 Then I'll get up and I'll maybe not turn on 1:33:38.520 --> 1:33:40.760 my back that well, sometimes i'll turn it over to 1:33:40.920 --> 1:33:45.920 be but where I turn it on, it's like almost 1:33:46.000 --> 1:33:50.200 by the hour everything that happened, you know about it, 1:33:51.400 --> 1:33:55.080 but you also know what everybody was doing in their 1:33:55.160 --> 1:33:58.240 leisure time. When I say that, I mean what shows 1:33:58.280 --> 1:34:02.640 happening whatever, So it's not only everything that happened to 1:34:02.760 --> 1:34:06.559 the world and everybody that day. And then at seven 1:34:06.600 --> 1:34:10.400 o'clock Julie met went on and said, I've got something 1:34:10.520 --> 1:34:14.839 about that. Then after that show, then this it sounds 1:34:15.040 --> 1:34:18.799 as if you never ever sleep. 1:34:20.400 --> 1:34:24.439 Okay, actually I do sleep, but I'm not that different 1:34:24.520 --> 1:34:24.840 from you. 1:34:25.080 --> 1:34:26.360 How many hours do you sleep? 1:34:27.080 --> 1:34:29.439 Well, you know I sleep a good eight hours. But 1:34:30.320 --> 1:34:32.599 because you have to be creative, you have to get 1:34:32.600 --> 1:34:36.479 a good sleep. But I'm not that different. I don't 1:34:36.640 --> 1:34:38.320 have any children. 1:34:38.400 --> 1:34:42.360 But it means like your damn head with bursts. I mean, well, 1:34:43.000 --> 1:34:44.280 I don't this is what happens. 1:34:44.320 --> 1:34:47.920 I'm doing this twenty four to seven. 1:34:48.120 --> 1:34:50.360 That's what it seems like, as why I say, when 1:34:50.439 --> 1:34:53.600 do you sleep? Okay, listen, you just made the declaration 1:34:54.240 --> 1:34:57.280 I'm doing this twenty four seven. What was my question? 1:34:59.120 --> 1:35:00.960 Let me we what was my. 1:35:03.400 --> 1:35:09.400 That's a that's a term of speech other than when 1:35:09.520 --> 1:35:13.280 I am sleeping. I am doing this all when I awake. 1:35:13.479 --> 1:35:15.920 I really I love to know what's going on. I 1:35:16.040 --> 1:35:19.120 love the pulse I'm reading for the moment I get up. 1:35:19.200 --> 1:35:24.240 That is, I'm apparent. The only thing that isn't apparent 1:35:24.360 --> 1:35:30.439 to me is when do you sleep? But you seem 1:35:30.680 --> 1:35:34.400 as though you have got your favor on the pulse 1:35:34.640 --> 1:35:41.000 of the entire world, being music, war or gristal gorilla 1:35:41.080 --> 1:35:47.160 wrestling whatever. I just said. Well, I'm extremely nosy myself. 1:35:47.800 --> 1:35:51.439 I always want to know everything that everybody is doing 1:35:52.040 --> 1:35:55.120 and I but I just don't understand how you're able 1:35:55.200 --> 1:35:57.439 to do it and to do it so eloquently. It 1:35:57.520 --> 1:36:00.960 doesn't sound like when when you can tell that Donald 1:36:01.000 --> 1:36:04.240 Trump is watching everything, but he snatches things. His opinion 1:36:04.280 --> 1:36:06.320 is off there like and blah blah, blah lad about 1:36:06.320 --> 1:36:10.760 that yours isn't. You always have an actual thing to 1:36:11.040 --> 1:36:17.880 say about whatever it whatever it is that happened. And 1:36:18.120 --> 1:36:22.559 I just absolutely find you so got me completely amazing. 1:36:23.280 --> 1:36:26.160 I talk about you want my husband than you know 1:36:26.320 --> 1:36:29.760 that I talk about you, But honestly, I am just 1:36:31.560 --> 1:36:35.679 amazed at the things you know and how well thought 1:36:35.840 --> 1:36:40.639 out the myriad things you do are. And you would 1:36:40.680 --> 1:36:44.880 think that with it being so much of everybody else's business, 1:36:45.400 --> 1:36:47.720 every once knows why you would kind of step up 1:36:48.120 --> 1:36:51.160 which off, but you never do. You're right on it, 1:36:51.360 --> 1:36:54.080 like I was right there. Yep, I was over there too, 1:36:54.240 --> 1:36:56.880 and I was back there and I was up here. 1:36:57.160 --> 1:37:02.920 And you're an amaze easy individual, you really are. I'm 1:37:03.000 --> 1:37:08.360 so grateful to you for your interest and your your 1:37:08.520 --> 1:37:12.840 in factness that you speak about music. I can see 1:37:12.880 --> 1:37:15.639 where oft times you try to, especially when it gets 1:37:15.680 --> 1:37:18.439 to somebody you like and you understand what happened to them. 1:37:18.880 --> 1:37:20.880 I can see where you kind of push what you 1:37:21.040 --> 1:37:23.120 felt off and try to get to the matter of it. 1:37:23.280 --> 1:37:27.439 You can't always, but I love what you decide to 1:37:27.680 --> 1:37:32.760 do in lieu of being able to be I don't 1:37:32.800 --> 1:37:36.360 care about a matter of factly, but I absolutely love 1:37:36.560 --> 1:37:40.400 what you do and I'm so grateful that you wrote 1:37:41.040 --> 1:37:44.600 what you wrote about me. See there again that everybody 1:37:44.800 --> 1:37:49.080 adores you so much. If they just happen to look 1:37:49.120 --> 1:37:51.960 at you, they'll see what you see it about me 1:37:52.240 --> 1:37:56.560 when you wrote about the Interpretations album, so that was 1:37:56.680 --> 1:38:02.160 one of the biggest boosts that the Interpretation album, and 1:38:02.320 --> 1:38:04.960 that was I know you think about it when you 1:38:05.080 --> 1:38:08.200 think in terms of stars anyways, so you're just thinking 1:38:08.360 --> 1:38:11.960 something else that you somebody else wrote, but that was 1:38:12.680 --> 1:38:17.200 maybe what you write. Don't help rolling stones. You write 1:38:17.240 --> 1:38:23.479 about me, that is a tremendous hope to me possibly 1:38:23.640 --> 1:38:25.160 having a sixth. 1:38:29.320 --> 1:38:33.880 Well, there's a Yiddish term called kevelling, and that I 1:38:33.960 --> 1:38:34.719 can't respond. 1:38:34.880 --> 1:38:37.280 Say it cavelling, cavell. 1:38:37.160 --> 1:38:44.080 Kvk okay, and the dictionary of what they're given here 1:38:44.160 --> 1:38:47.200 they say to feel happy and proud. But you know 1:38:47.960 --> 1:38:51.320 they use an example here My mom was kvelling, bursting 1:38:51.400 --> 1:38:54.679 with pride. I can't respond. Okay, let me be very clear, 1:38:55.840 --> 1:39:00.200 I can't respond to what you say. But this is 1:39:00.400 --> 1:39:03.160 what I'm trying to do now. The fact that you 1:39:03.439 --> 1:39:06.040 get the fact that you get it is. 1:39:06.160 --> 1:39:09.720 For you really, are anybody doing it you really really are. 1:39:10.400 --> 1:39:14.240 They tied me because I was doing like I was 1:39:14.360 --> 1:39:17.519 talking to students at the University of Texas. It was 1:39:17.600 --> 1:39:19.720 kind of a gig. Well, no, it was a gig 1:39:19.800 --> 1:39:22.640 they paid me, but talking to the class, believe it 1:39:22.760 --> 1:39:26.639 or not, a Bob Dylan class. And I'm like, see, 1:39:26.720 --> 1:39:29.760 that's ultimuch for me. But they told me, they said, 1:39:29.960 --> 1:39:34.240 try not to sound like they shouldn't get in show business. 1:39:35.640 --> 1:39:40.760 I said, I can't do that, because they shouldn't. It's 1:39:40.960 --> 1:39:43.640 not like you think it is. And I can only 1:39:43.680 --> 1:39:43.920 tell you. 1:39:44.360 --> 1:39:46.439 Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You and me both know 1:39:46.680 --> 1:39:49.760 in order to be successful, you have to have no 1:39:49.920 --> 1:39:50.599 other choice. 1:39:51.040 --> 1:39:54.080 You have to do it well that I try to 1:39:54.240 --> 1:39:57.920 tell them. For the like being, it's either like being 1:39:58.040 --> 1:40:01.160 and the husband who beats you, or being strung out 1:40:01.200 --> 1:40:06.519 on drugs or being a born again Christian. I mean it, 1:40:07.000 --> 1:40:12.320 it is for everybody in my life. It is Betty 1:40:12.400 --> 1:40:17.759 Lovette that is the main thing in everybody's life close 1:40:17.960 --> 1:40:21.479 around me. And then so if I'm going to be 1:40:21.680 --> 1:40:25.800 true and faithful and friends to them as well, I 1:40:26.040 --> 1:40:29.880 have to devote my life to the broad too. And 1:40:30.040 --> 1:40:33.160 that is it. You should hear me cussing hears sometimes 1:40:33.240 --> 1:40:37.640 I'm like lifting ways like this, bitch, I'm not just 1:40:37.880 --> 1:40:42.320 gonna die. I mean, but either you have to do 1:40:42.439 --> 1:40:46.719 it or you have to don't. And you you handle 1:40:46.840 --> 1:40:49.160 it in such a way I know what it takes. 1:40:49.680 --> 1:40:51.920 So that's why I wonder when you sleep, because I 1:40:52.000 --> 1:40:54.840 can tell from what you say that you had to 1:40:54.960 --> 1:40:56.880 be watching it to know it. 1:40:58.880 --> 1:41:02.120 Well. You others a soul by ac DC called It's 1:41:02.200 --> 1:41:04.320 a long way to the top. If you want to 1:41:04.439 --> 1:41:08.120 rock and roll, and you're talking to me now, it 1:41:08.240 --> 1:41:11.519 took a long time and a lot of struggle to 1:41:11.640 --> 1:41:14.360 get here. I'm not going to delineate everything else you do. 1:41:14.479 --> 1:41:20.759 Before I went to college, I was a starving freestyle skier, 1:41:20.840 --> 1:41:24.479 and I went to law school. I practiced law for 1:41:24.560 --> 1:41:28.560 about ten minutes. Then I work for a movie producer. 1:41:29.240 --> 1:41:32.920 Then I work for an English management company that brings 1:41:33.000 --> 1:41:33.240 us to. 1:41:33.920 --> 1:41:36.040 The English management company. 1:41:35.960 --> 1:41:41.519 They manage Iron Maiden. Oh okay, And then since nineteen 1:41:41.720 --> 1:41:44.160 eighty six, this is what I've been doing. 1:41:44.600 --> 1:41:47.439 You talking. When you read your writings, it sounds like 1:41:47.600 --> 1:41:52.559 something that is a liticit. Did youlyticate everything? It doesn't 1:41:52.640 --> 1:41:55.759 sound like a regular person talking. 1:41:57.640 --> 1:42:01.280 I definitely we're talking about office. The most important thing 1:42:01.479 --> 1:42:05.840 to me is to walk the knife edge, split the hair. 1:42:06.240 --> 1:42:08.400 What you sound like in a journey? 1:42:09.240 --> 1:42:12.280 No, but it's I was this person, you know, you know, 1:42:12.560 --> 1:42:16.320 it's you get older, you're this person now. Well, but 1:42:16.479 --> 1:42:19.400 you get older and you realize you're your parents. My 1:42:19.680 --> 1:42:24.479 father was this person. Okay, my father would say, what's 1:42:24.600 --> 1:42:28.479 the real story here? Like you see somebody driving an 1:42:28.560 --> 1:42:31.920 expensive car who doesn't have a job, Well, the real 1:42:32.040 --> 1:42:35.800 story is either it's not their car, they can't afford it, 1:42:36.320 --> 1:42:39.840 or they inherited money. But they're people. This is just 1:42:39.960 --> 1:42:43.160 like you talking about your friends saying, go tell Jerry 1:42:43.240 --> 1:42:47.080 Wexler that you know they don't know what's going on, 1:42:47.840 --> 1:42:50.640 but they believe they think they do. That's how the 1:42:50.840 --> 1:42:51.960 average person is. 1:42:52.680 --> 1:42:55.200 But you look at things. You look at things like 1:42:55.320 --> 1:43:01.000 a liter literator, You look at them literally. When I 1:43:01.479 --> 1:43:05.280 read you, you don't talk while I can see the 1:43:05.600 --> 1:43:10.000 fan is there. That is what we as entertainers look for. 1:43:10.720 --> 1:43:14.679 But when you start to look at it literally, which 1:43:14.720 --> 1:43:17.240 is I think something you said made me respond to you, 1:43:17.320 --> 1:43:21.040 you were looking at it literally, and that commands a 1:43:21.200 --> 1:43:24.439 different response from me. I know when when I'm being 1:43:24.680 --> 1:43:28.439 congratulated and when I'm being loved and whatever, well, when 1:43:28.439 --> 1:43:32.000 I'm being looked at literally, I know that as well. 1:43:32.600 --> 1:43:36.040 And you look at things literally. I'm glad that you do. 1:43:36.160 --> 1:43:40.440 I'm glad that you tell people about it more literally 1:43:40.600 --> 1:43:41.760 than just what they ate. 1:43:42.360 --> 1:43:48.200 There's that song by Leonard Cohen. Everybody knows, everybody knows 1:43:48.320 --> 1:43:57.760 the truth. But one Okay, my psychiatrists sometimes sometime, right, 1:43:58.040 --> 1:44:01.200 you can change one little thing and it changes the 1:44:01.520 --> 1:44:05.960 entire pictures. And I don't want to give any names here, 1:44:06.160 --> 1:44:10.720 but a household name musician. I went to a performance 1:44:11.720 --> 1:44:17.519 and this person likes to get things perfect. And I 1:44:17.680 --> 1:44:20.639 asked the manager what this person thought of the show, 1:44:21.760 --> 1:44:25.720 and the manager said, well, the he thought that in 1:44:25.880 --> 1:44:28.920 ear monitors were screwed up. You heard a little too 1:44:29.000 --> 1:44:34.240 much of the horn section. This is all real story. 1:44:34.320 --> 1:44:36.000 I just don't want to mention the name I'm saying. 1:44:36.560 --> 1:44:41.200 I was at the show and I said, you know 1:44:41.320 --> 1:44:45.920 what you're talking about. I couldn't hear that, Okay, but 1:44:46.080 --> 1:44:49.800 I don't think the average person worked. And he said, 1:44:50.840 --> 1:44:57.160 those little tiny things are the difference between success and failure. 1:44:57.479 --> 1:45:00.839 The artist I'm talking about is as big as they get. Okay, 1:45:02.040 --> 1:45:05.800 And now I'm gonna get on my high horse. The 1:45:05.920 --> 1:45:11.479 average person doesn't want to work that hard and get 1:45:11.560 --> 1:45:16.679 it right. You're telling me you've only had five careers 1:45:16.800 --> 1:45:21.000 because you keep trying to do it. Most people don't 1:45:21.080 --> 1:45:25.960 have five careers. They give up, They give up. And 1:45:26.200 --> 1:45:27.960 you know as well as I do, there are a 1:45:28.000 --> 1:45:32.120 lot of talented people who have never had success because 1:45:32.560 --> 1:45:37.680 talent is at most fifty percent the desire and all that. 1:45:38.120 --> 1:45:42.559 That's a lot, but people don't want to hear that. Listen, 1:45:42.600 --> 1:45:43.520 you're a musician. 1:45:44.320 --> 1:45:44.880 You know that. 1:45:45.000 --> 1:45:48.880 When you hang out in the dressing room or after 1:45:49.000 --> 1:45:52.680 the show with musicians, it's a completely different kind of 1:45:52.760 --> 1:45:56.559 conversation than when you have, you know, with the next 1:45:56.600 --> 1:46:01.840 door neighbor. Right right, It's like these people they're in 1:46:01.920 --> 1:46:07.160 a separate club, separate community. They're not judging on money, 1:46:07.400 --> 1:46:10.400 and they know the system is against them, but they're doing. 1:46:10.280 --> 1:46:11.080 What they have to. 1:46:11.920 --> 1:46:16.400 But unless you're in that world, people don't understand that. 1:46:16.720 --> 1:46:21.639 Oh absolutely absolutely. I really just don't think that people 1:46:21.920 --> 1:46:25.720 understand how this goes. And I think that we are 1:46:26.080 --> 1:46:28.760 only two percent of us. It seems like all of 1:46:28.920 --> 1:46:32.160 us now, but still it said about only two percent 1:46:32.200 --> 1:46:34.800 of us who walk upon the stage and do this 1:46:35.120 --> 1:46:37.720 for a living, you know. 1:46:38.040 --> 1:46:41.280 And well what bothers me now is because the barrier 1:46:41.400 --> 1:46:44.400 to entry is non existent. Anybody can make a record. 1:46:44.120 --> 1:46:45.480 Of their bubble. 1:46:46.720 --> 1:46:53.080 You, but it means that they believe that they're entitled 1:46:53.200 --> 1:46:58.120 to success. I mean, some of this is very simple. 1:46:58.920 --> 1:47:03.160 You make it your to like it. Okay, fine, you 1:47:03.320 --> 1:47:06.240 played it for your friends. They said they like it too. 1:47:06.720 --> 1:47:09.880 Did they play it for anybody else? Did they turn 1:47:10.000 --> 1:47:10.559 anybody else? 1:47:10.640 --> 1:47:13.320 But they told me to stop telling the children. I said, 1:47:13.880 --> 1:47:17.360 now that if the church and your family and all 1:47:17.400 --> 1:47:19.519 your friends are the ones that's like you. When I 1:47:19.560 --> 1:47:22.400 asked him, I said, can you sing? I said, now, 1:47:22.400 --> 1:47:24.920 I don't want to know the opinion of those people. 1:47:25.680 --> 1:47:31.680 Has anyone ever given you any money to sing? I said, now, 1:47:31.880 --> 1:47:34.760 you've got that is one foot if someone has said here, 1:47:35.160 --> 1:47:37.600 I like the way you're saying, here's some money to 1:47:37.800 --> 1:47:40.840 do it. Other than that, I don't count any of 1:47:40.920 --> 1:47:43.360 those opinions. And that was that was one of the 1:47:43.439 --> 1:47:46.200 things they were telling me to stop telling the kids 1:47:46.400 --> 1:47:50.599 that I was talking to. I said, I don't know them, though, 1:47:50.680 --> 1:47:53.080 I have to tell them that because it's the truth. 1:47:53.760 --> 1:47:58.000 Well, well, I've had this experience many a time, where 1:47:58.080 --> 1:48:03.600 you speak to clashes and wannabes. I don't want to 1:48:03.680 --> 1:48:09.120 give them false hope. No, unless this is the only 1:48:09.280 --> 1:48:11.920 thing you're willing to do, and you're willing to starve, 1:48:12.520 --> 1:48:14.280 not on a house, not on a car. 1:48:14.600 --> 1:48:18.720 This is not for you. But when you until it 1:48:19.000 --> 1:48:23.040 happens to you. Robert, you couldn't have told me. You 1:48:23.160 --> 1:48:27.920 couldn't have made me not do this by telling me 1:48:28.080 --> 1:48:30.240 the things that were gonna happen to me. Before I 1:48:30.439 --> 1:48:35.400 was thirty, I would have said, hey, i'm ow. If 1:48:35.479 --> 1:48:37.680 you had told if anybody had told me, if they 1:48:37.720 --> 1:48:40.600 could actual show me, like a video, now this is 1:48:40.720 --> 1:48:43.679 what's gonna happen, it showed it to me, it would 1:48:43.720 --> 1:48:46.960 have been different. But I feel an incumbent upon me, 1:48:47.960 --> 1:48:51.640 you know it, to say, I can't say to you 1:48:52.560 --> 1:48:56.439 keep trying and try hard. And then I always tell them, 1:48:57.200 --> 1:48:59.760 especially if it's young females. I'm talking to you, like 1:49:00.000 --> 1:49:03.040 and I'm doing these group shows, like I've got one 1:49:03.080 --> 1:49:05.960 coming up at Carnegie Hall, and all these young women 1:49:06.040 --> 1:49:07.880 they were in my dressing room. They're looking straight in 1:49:07.960 --> 1:49:10.000 my mouth. I said, the best thing I can tell 1:49:10.080 --> 1:49:14.599 you is that if you walk into a small place 1:49:14.800 --> 1:49:18.880 with an acoustic piano and they sang, say sang a 1:49:19.040 --> 1:49:22.280 real song. I don't care how big your record is, 1:49:22.640 --> 1:49:27.800 I will kick your ass. It was done to me, 1:49:28.600 --> 1:49:31.639 big maype Ell did it to me. I was running 1:49:31.840 --> 1:49:36.960 Small's paradise. My waistline was tiny and my booty was big, 1:49:37.040 --> 1:49:40.800 and I can holler out, I could say got lots 1:49:41.400 --> 1:49:45.439 and the people which is screened. Maybe El breathed in 1:49:45.520 --> 1:49:48.720 there in papal shoes from the hospital she had just 1:49:48.960 --> 1:49:52.360 escaped from, walked up on the stage, wrapped in a 1:49:52.600 --> 1:49:57.880 blanket with a some Burrow type hat on, and said God, 1:49:59.760 --> 1:50:02.560 and and the band knew what kid was in. That 1:50:02.720 --> 1:50:05.240 still perflects me. I didn't know how the band knew 1:50:05.320 --> 1:50:09.200 what kid was in. And they didn't talk to me 1:50:09.439 --> 1:50:13.880 anymore for the whole evening, nobody and I was looking 1:50:14.000 --> 1:50:19.880 so cute. So that's another thing that I always tell 1:50:19.960 --> 1:50:23.080 them to beware of me in the middle of the night, 1:50:23.720 --> 1:50:26.360 in the milial set in a small place. 1:50:28.960 --> 1:50:30.960 Well, we're on the same page here. 1:50:31.320 --> 1:50:31.560 I know. 1:50:31.840 --> 1:50:35.320 I'm gonna tell another story. What I'm heard again said, 1:50:35.400 --> 1:50:38.800 you know that's Atlantic Records. A hit record is a 1:50:38.920 --> 1:50:41.960 record that you're lying in bed, you hear on the radio, 1:50:42.439 --> 1:50:45.240 you have to get up, get dressed, and go to 1:50:45.320 --> 1:50:49.400 an all night record store to buy You know that 1:50:49.720 --> 1:50:52.840 is a hit record, right, I don't understand. Well, you 1:50:52.920 --> 1:50:55.560 know it's like you know it when you hear it. 1:50:55.880 --> 1:50:59.320 I heard damn your Eyes on my way to a gig. 1:51:00.120 --> 1:51:02.920 I had my road and just stopped. I went in 1:51:03.040 --> 1:51:06.080 and audit. I rehearsed it all night in my hotel room, 1:51:06.520 --> 1:51:11.280 and I sung it the next morning. That's a hit record, yeah, 1:51:11.360 --> 1:51:16.800 for sure. No, and it's it's it's well here there 1:51:16.920 --> 1:51:21.920 goes back to that thing with womit again and and uh, 1:51:23.439 --> 1:51:27.720 Jerry Wexler, Now Jerry West was on my side. But 1:51:28.160 --> 1:51:31.759 I'm sure that when Jerry Wexler tolhamed what I said, 1:51:32.479 --> 1:51:34.400 is it that bitch's crazy, let's let her go. 1:51:37.160 --> 1:51:39.080 Well that's a whole nother thing. 1:51:40.560 --> 1:51:43.000 Read his name. That's what made me think of it. 1:51:43.640 --> 1:51:47.000 But no, a hit record. At Motown they used to say, 1:51:47.479 --> 1:51:50.320 if you don't like it in the first six bars, 1:51:50.960 --> 1:51:54.719 even before somebody starts singing, it's not a hit record. 1:51:55.160 --> 1:51:59.439 They looked at it as records at Motown didn't make 1:51:59.479 --> 1:52:01.920 any different. Willie who was singing if it was a 1:52:02.240 --> 1:52:08.120 hit record, and they made records over there. They didn't 1:52:08.160 --> 1:52:12.760 record artists, they made records. I know how many of 1:52:12.840 --> 1:52:18.439 these people sound in the shower, you know what. I'm 1:52:18.560 --> 1:52:22.080 sure that if you and I'm Kevin would have to 1:52:22.160 --> 1:52:25.160 separate us. But well, yes, it separates me from you 1:52:25.320 --> 1:52:30.640 on the little beautif thing. What I said, finally a 1:52:30.800 --> 1:52:32.080 man that I can argue with. 1:52:32.160 --> 1:52:38.080 Who agrees with me, as I say, I don't like 1:52:38.160 --> 1:52:41.320 to argue for the sake of arguing, but the little points. 1:52:42.080 --> 1:52:45.559 Argue all day, and it makes people makes people crazy. 1:52:45.640 --> 1:52:46.519 They say, get over it. 1:52:46.600 --> 1:52:52.639 So this is important. You four? When is your birthday? 1:52:54.400 --> 1:52:54.799 April? 1:52:56.080 --> 1:52:59.439 And Aries and Aries? 1:53:00.720 --> 1:53:01.519 No, no, Taurus. 1:53:02.360 --> 1:53:05.720 Well they've all liked me, and we've never looked me, 1:53:06.840 --> 1:53:12.439 but we were usually arguing about the same thing. But you, 1:53:12.840 --> 1:53:15.880 I really just I get a chance to bounce you 1:53:16.240 --> 1:53:18.880 off of me more than you do me off you, 1:53:19.080 --> 1:53:21.160 because I get a chance to read your column and 1:53:22.080 --> 1:53:25.120 you know off see how I feel about it. Whatever. 1:53:25.400 --> 1:53:28.920 But I think if you and I talked all day, 1:53:29.520 --> 1:53:32.280 we were straightened out the entire problems with a whole 1:53:32.360 --> 1:53:34.640 goddamn world. They would just listen to us. 1:53:36.360 --> 1:53:38.160 That goes to the next one that goes to the 1:53:38.280 --> 1:53:42.240 Jack Nicholson point. People can't you know that Jack Nicholson 1:53:42.320 --> 1:53:45.040 in that movie A Few good Men. People can't handle 1:53:45.120 --> 1:53:45.479 the truth? 1:53:45.720 --> 1:53:53.280 No, oh oh honey, oh oh, they really really can't. 1:53:53.520 --> 1:53:56.880 I mean I know that there were some truths that 1:53:57.120 --> 1:54:00.280 I could not handle, but I was begging for and 1:54:00.400 --> 1:54:02.800 I crawled up into that little hole and found out 1:54:02.840 --> 1:54:06.880 the truth and it said PLoP. But people can they 1:54:06.920 --> 1:54:09.439 can't stand and slap. It's gonna come with that truth. 1:54:10.280 --> 1:54:13.000 But I don't know. You've seen to be that same 1:54:13.160 --> 1:54:17.840 kind of idiot, like curious, crazy than I am. And 1:54:17.960 --> 1:54:23.640 you just say, well, why is that you said you 1:54:23.720 --> 1:54:24.360 aren't married? 1:54:24.800 --> 1:54:26.080 That's exactly who I am. 1:54:26.200 --> 1:54:29.759 You are married. You aren't married. 1:54:31.920 --> 1:54:35.920 I was married once. I am now with the same 1:54:36.080 --> 1:54:38.400 girlfriend for twenty years. We lived together. 1:54:38.840 --> 1:54:41.600 Oh, you should definitely keep her if you were fortunate 1:54:41.760 --> 1:54:44.960 enough to find her and she's willing to stay for you, 1:54:45.240 --> 1:54:48.560 with you for that long. Always considered that because you 1:54:48.840 --> 1:54:54.080 really are an exceptionally unusual individual. 1:54:54.200 --> 1:54:56.800 And she also play this for her. 1:54:58.000 --> 1:55:02.080 But she has to be that kind of individual too, 1:55:02.320 --> 1:55:06.080 can so accept that person? Like Kevin, I'm very much 1:55:06.480 --> 1:55:10.320 like you Kevin. A man has to live with a 1:55:10.440 --> 1:55:16.120 woman who he doesn't feel constantly disrespected by. Every word 1:55:16.240 --> 1:55:19.600 I say doesn't make him, doesn't offend him. You know, 1:55:19.840 --> 1:55:22.240 he has to get over all of that because this 1:55:22.480 --> 1:55:25.880 is how I am. And he's accepted the fact that 1:55:25.880 --> 1:55:28.800 I'm willing to lay down with him every night, who 1:55:29.080 --> 1:55:31.440 all day for him, do all the one hundred when 1:55:31.440 --> 1:55:34.440 I'm here. If I say something, I'm not saying it 1:55:34.560 --> 1:55:37.920 to disrespect you. I'm saying it because that's what happened. 1:55:40.800 --> 1:55:43.240 And I'm not a housewife. 1:55:44.200 --> 1:55:45.880 We're on the same page, I know. 1:55:46.080 --> 1:55:50.120 And that's how come nobody likes us. Wait a minute, 1:55:50.160 --> 1:55:52.240 but everybody wants to know what we've got to say. 1:55:53.360 --> 1:55:57.720 Well, you know, there's a lot in therapy. God, I 1:55:57.800 --> 1:56:01.240 can't believe going on about this. This is really the 1:56:01.400 --> 1:56:04.320 only thing I can do what other people can do. 1:56:04.960 --> 1:56:09.200 I can't do what other people do really well, is 1:56:09.680 --> 1:56:13.000 be a member of the group, get along and make 1:56:13.040 --> 1:56:13.400 it work. 1:56:13.480 --> 1:56:15.360 Didn't I tell you to put me out at a choir? 1:56:16.400 --> 1:56:16.560 Right? 1:56:17.560 --> 1:56:17.600 So? 1:56:18.240 --> 1:56:22.480 I mean, God bless them. I've worked in these organizations 1:56:23.080 --> 1:56:26.320 and you know, I don't have the personality where I'm 1:56:26.320 --> 1:56:29.360 gonna move up in the organization. They don't want somebody 1:56:29.520 --> 1:56:32.360 like me. They want somebody who kisses ass and you know, 1:56:32.840 --> 1:56:35.160 can have fun and you can help owe each other. 1:56:35.800 --> 1:56:39.000 But you know, I'm lucky enough to know that people 1:56:39.040 --> 1:56:40.400 are hungry for the truth. 1:56:40.960 --> 1:56:44.680 They absolutely are. But not having ever seen anything, I 1:56:44.800 --> 1:56:48.200 think it comes maybe natural to us, so it doesn't 1:56:48.680 --> 1:56:52.560 frighten us. It just comes so natural. But if you've 1:56:52.760 --> 1:56:56.480 never heard it, if you've never heard it before, and 1:56:56.840 --> 1:57:01.600 it's standing there before you, it I have to sometimes 1:57:01.680 --> 1:57:04.240 look at the things I believe and the things I say, 1:57:05.520 --> 1:57:11.720 and I try and understand how it floored people. And 1:57:12.720 --> 1:57:15.040 I've never had to go back to anyone and apologize 1:57:15.320 --> 1:57:19.200 apologize so because I said exactly what I meant if 1:57:19.280 --> 1:57:21.879 I come back to you is to make you understand 1:57:21.960 --> 1:57:24.440 why I said it. But it's not to apologize. 1:57:25.360 --> 1:57:31.400 Well, I will say I was in a really bad 1:57:31.600 --> 1:57:36.040 spot and I got hooked up with this psychiatrist and 1:57:37.560 --> 1:57:40.720 he he would never tell me what to do, and 1:57:40.800 --> 1:57:44.520 he barely speaks. It's like psychoanalysis. But through this process 1:57:45.520 --> 1:57:49.720 I've learned, you know, I've learned a lot of things 1:57:49.800 --> 1:57:53.440 how to get along, to make it work. And without that, 1:57:53.560 --> 1:57:56.200 it probably wouldn't happen because I was a prisoner of 1:57:56.240 --> 1:58:00.760 my upbringing. That that's not you know, the lessons I 1:58:00.920 --> 1:58:06.040 didn't learn. But it's still a struggle. But like you, 1:58:07.160 --> 1:58:08.520 I'm continuing to do it. 1:58:09.200 --> 1:58:12.440 Well, I get exasperated at this point because I've done 1:58:12.480 --> 1:58:18.240 the psychiatrist thing and it's just almost everything that anyone 1:58:19.280 --> 1:58:25.360 would advise I've done. And it's being in show business 1:58:25.600 --> 1:58:32.240 over seventy years. Is I mean, there just isn't anything 1:58:32.520 --> 1:58:34.400 that's happened to me. Everything that happened to you in 1:58:34.520 --> 1:58:37.440 school had already happened to me as a MIDI levet. 1:58:38.240 --> 1:58:39.720 I just how old are you? 1:58:40.640 --> 1:58:44.960 Well, the thing is bout seven. I'm seventy two. 1:58:45.800 --> 1:58:50.600 Well, we age actually in groups of five, so you're eight. 1:58:51.520 --> 1:58:57.760 Let's flip the story over, okay, And I'm not blowing smoke. Yes, 1:58:58.640 --> 1:59:03.920 you were not happy that you don't have this financial status, okay, 1:59:04.840 --> 1:59:10.720 but what you've achieved almost no one has achieved. In addition, 1:59:13.200 --> 1:59:14.760 I say this about myself. 1:59:16.520 --> 1:59:18.680 You can like me or not like me. 1:59:18.960 --> 1:59:22.040 But if you like me, I'm the only place you 1:59:22.160 --> 1:59:26.880 can get what I do exactly exactly like you. If 1:59:26.920 --> 1:59:29.600 you like Betty Levette, no one can say, oh, they 1:59:29.680 --> 1:59:31.960 had a hit record and had the same producer the 1:59:32.040 --> 1:59:35.960 right way. They say, that's a unique thing. You may 1:59:36.040 --> 1:59:38.120 not like it, but if you like it, it's the 1:59:38.400 --> 1:59:41.000 only place you can get it. And it's worked for you. 1:59:42.000 --> 1:59:46.839 Robert, that is why two of us in this whole business. 1:59:46.960 --> 1:59:55.400 It's too much. I honestly, really you are. It's this 1:59:56.240 --> 1:59:59.760 child who wrote all the songs in this last album, 2:00:00.080 --> 2:00:04.920 Randall Bramblett. He has this tune. I'm just trying to 2:00:05.000 --> 2:00:11.080 see someone exactly like me. Maybe one day I'll run 2:00:11.240 --> 2:00:12.360 into myself. 2:00:15.400 --> 2:00:18.640 Well, we're all looking to be known and understood. 2:00:19.160 --> 2:00:24.560 Absolutely. I would rather have understanding than anything else. If 2:00:24.600 --> 2:00:27.000 you want, if you hate me and you are understanding, 2:00:27.120 --> 2:00:32.480 at least sure why Oh I agree with that. Yeah, 2:00:32.800 --> 2:00:38.200 I really know that. That that's it, Kevin. When I 2:00:38.280 --> 2:00:41.400 met him, I said, I will when I am not 2:00:41.560 --> 2:00:45.520 being Betty Lovett, I will certainly gladly be Missus Kyley. 2:00:45.800 --> 2:00:48.920 That's the way I was raised. I keep this house clean. 2:00:49.360 --> 2:00:51.760 I could have a housekeeper, but I don't want another 2:00:51.800 --> 2:00:55.360 bro walking all over my house and looking my underwear 2:00:55.440 --> 2:00:58.640 and dirty clothes and stuff. So I cleaned this house. 2:00:58.760 --> 2:01:02.120 It may take me a longer time n cleaning. I 2:01:02.280 --> 2:01:06.320 do everything here myself, I say, I will be drunk, 2:01:07.160 --> 2:01:10.520 I will have to have marijuana every day. I will 2:01:10.640 --> 2:01:14.280 never miss a show, I will never be late, and 2:01:15.440 --> 2:01:17.960 none of the self. I mean. I will never look 2:01:18.000 --> 2:01:21.760 in your wallet or ask you where you've been, or 2:01:21.920 --> 2:01:25.080 ask you why you weren't here. I laid everything that 2:01:25.200 --> 2:01:28.280 I am out and that's how I am, I said, 2:01:28.320 --> 2:01:31.160 and that is the reason I have all my husbands, 2:01:31.360 --> 2:01:38.920 all my boyfriends, and all of my producers cool. Honestly, 2:01:39.240 --> 2:01:41.440 I could take you, you know they my mother used 2:01:41.440 --> 2:01:44.520 to say a thing in New Orleans, Well, in Louisiana, 2:01:44.640 --> 2:01:46.520 you know, the houses used to be way up off 2:01:46.600 --> 2:01:49.880 the ground because of the water, right, And when you 2:01:50.240 --> 2:01:52.720 like something in the summertime of whatever, if you like 2:01:52.960 --> 2:01:54.480 you take it and go up under the house with 2:01:54.640 --> 2:02:00.680 it and got a hide there. Will I could take 2:02:00.760 --> 2:02:02.800 you and run up under the house with you. 2:02:04.960 --> 2:02:09.839 I can't. We gotta stop now because I can't respond 2:02:10.000 --> 2:02:13.200 to that and run up in the house with you. Okay, 2:02:13.360 --> 2:02:15.880 you've been listening to me with Betty Levette, the one 2:02:15.960 --> 2:02:18.800 and only Betty. I want to thank you so much 2:02:18.880 --> 2:02:21.640 for taking the time with my audience. Kill me next time. 2:02:22.920 --> 2:02:24.400 This is Bob left set