Speaker 1: When we last spoke, Todd White, the main songwriter for
Speaker 1: Sudden Impact, the boy band i've been trying to find,
Speaker 1: gave me the contact info for Dave Smith. Dave Smith
Speaker 1: has been the hardest Sudden Impact member to find. They
Speaker 1: tell me he's the quiet one, the shy one. Tim
Speaker 1: Bird says, Dave Smith turned his back on the whole
Speaker 1: thing in the Motown, Philly video. Dave's the one who's
Speaker 1: not looking into the camera. He's looking just off to
Speaker 1: the side for direction. Dave Smith is my white whale.
Speaker 1: But I have his email address, so I reach out
Speaker 1: and he gets back and we plan a time to talk.
Speaker 2: And here's how it goes.
Speaker 1: Dave Smith, how you doing. I'm doing great, The elusive
Speaker 1: Dave Smith.
Speaker 3: I don't understand why. I'm just saw elusive. Todd told
Speaker 3: me that.
Speaker 2: You know, I was led to believe that you were
Speaker 2: going to be hard to find.
Speaker 3: Well, I guess everybody says that because I don't social media.
Speaker 3: You know, I've never really been on any of that
Speaker 3: stuff and never had an interest in it.
Speaker 2: What's your deal? Do you have like respect for yourself
Speaker 2: and your time?
Speaker 3: Pretty much?
Speaker 1: Okay, I've heard of people like you the elusive Dave
Speaker 1: Smith is super Cool. One final shock for one final
Speaker 1: episode of Waiting for Impact, a Dave Holmes passion project.
Speaker 1: I have now found four of the five guys in
Speaker 1: a group that was called at least five Things. Dave
Speaker 1: Smith was in Sudden Impact, which became White Guys, which
Speaker 1: became the Outsiders, which became Outsiders for Life.
Speaker 2: Right now, he's.
Speaker 1: Talking to me from his car in Orlando, Florida, where
Speaker 1: he's taking time out of a family vacation to tell
Speaker 1: me about the whole odyssey, a trip he was the
Speaker 1: last to sign up for when the group was still
Speaker 1: on their first name.
Speaker 2: So you were the last to join Too Special, correct.
Speaker 3: That's correct. Right around the time I joined, they were
Speaker 3: already thinking about changing the name. But I believe it
Speaker 3: was changed by Mike Bivins. Yeah once once we actually
Speaker 3: all met him and we came up with a new name.
Speaker 3: I mean he came up with a new name.
Speaker 1: I finally did see the famous two Special poster, which
Speaker 1: you are not in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly four ugly guys missing the good looking dude.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you would have gotten signed that much quicker.
Speaker 2: There would have been a bidding.
Speaker 3: War had you been that's ridiculous, right.
Speaker 2: How did you come to join the group?
Speaker 3: Alan was one of my good friends from like sixth
Speaker 3: seventh grade, and he knew I was going through a
Speaker 3: little bit of a difficult time in my life and
Speaker 3: my sister passed away when I was about fifteen. Oh sorry,
Speaker 3: and he kind of just said, hey, man, you know
Speaker 3: you're one of those guys. It's like cause I played
Speaker 3: sports and the skateboarded like crazy and and all those
Speaker 3: kind of things. And he basically just said to me,
Speaker 3: you know, I think this would be a good outlet
Speaker 3: for you. You should come to it. And then I found
Speaker 3: out later that they all really liked my mustang I had,
Speaker 3: and it was one of these like dumb things, like
Speaker 3: they wanted me to hang out they could ride around
Speaker 3: and buy a five point zero Oh no, just as
Speaker 3: a joke in the beginning, you know, but they they
Speaker 3: literally it wasn't like a I'm going to be dead, honest,
Speaker 3: like when I'm fifteen years old. It wasn't like aspirations
Speaker 3: to become a singer. Being a group at that point
Speaker 3: in my life. To Todd and Alan and Aaron and
Speaker 3: Noel were all together for I think about a year
Speaker 3: prior to me something like that, and I came in
Speaker 3: right at the end there.
Speaker 1: So when Todd and Alan head off for LA with
Speaker 1: the poster in the demo and then they call you
Speaker 1: and tell you that they've been.
Speaker 3: Total lie in my mind what we total lie in
Speaker 3: my mind, I remember telling them well, because I didn't
Speaker 3: believe them. I mean, they well, they called I think
Speaker 3: they called me first from my recollection and just you know, uh,
Speaker 3: Todd said, hey, I got somebody I want you to
Speaker 3: talk to, and then Mike jumps on the phone and
Speaker 3: you know, in this little in his in his voice,
Speaker 3: and I just totally thought they were gagging me, you know,
Speaker 3: and I was like whatever, you know, and I went
Speaker 3: through it and just let it go. But I really
Speaker 3: didn't believe it until Alan had called me back later
Speaker 3: and said, dude, that was really Michael Bivens, you know,
Speaker 3: and you know, I was like, new addition, are you
Speaker 3: kidding me? And I started freaking out then, you know.
Speaker 3: But it was definitely a surreal moment once I realized
Speaker 3: it was real. And I think it was like that
Speaker 3: for the guys too, because they they finally, you know,
Speaker 3: when they got home, they got to tell us the
Speaker 3: full story because back then it was like, you know,
Speaker 3: cost a million dollars to call from LA to Virginia,
Speaker 3: you know, especially for sixty year olds with no money.
Speaker 1: Todd and Allen say they brought Dave Smith on board
Speaker 1: after the Michael Bivins encounter. David Aaron seemed to think
Speaker 1: he was in the group before.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: It's hard to form memories in strange times like these,
Speaker 1: so I don't press the issue. The important thing is
Speaker 1: that Michael Bivins is interested. He wants to get the
Speaker 1: Sudden Impact project moving right away. Bivens has managed to
Speaker 1: get a whole episode of Beet's nightly music show Video Soul,
Speaker 1: dedicated to the acts. He's signed to the East Coast family.
Speaker 1: He's going to introduce Boys to Men to the world.
Speaker 2: He's going to world.
Speaker 1: Premiere another bad Creation's Aisha video. For the record, this
Speaker 1: is almost definitely the bet show that if Vtnicole Brown
Speaker 1: was watching when she told her roommate she believed Michael
Speaker 1: Bivins would someday manage her. The guys figured Bivins just
Speaker 1: wanted them up there so they could meet Boys to Men,
Speaker 1: and ABC Bivens had only just met them a couple
Speaker 1: weeks before this, so they piled into Dave's legendary Mustang
Speaker 1: five point zero three in the tiny back seat and
Speaker 1: they drove all night to get there.
Speaker 3: The first people we met physically was Mike from Boys
Speaker 3: to Men. He came up and said, hey, you're those
Speaker 3: white dudes that Mike's wanting to sign. We're all like
Speaker 3: half to sleep on the couch because we drove to
Speaker 3: the middle of the night, and he was super cool
Speaker 3: and nice. And then Nate came down, and then wan Ya,
Speaker 3: and then it was Boys to Men actually came down
Speaker 3: first and they started talking to us and you know,
Speaker 3: telling us their story because at this time they're not
Speaker 3: Boys to Men, you know, they're just they're just guys.
Speaker 3: They hadn't even done anything yet.
Speaker 1: Sudden Impact meets Boys to Men, they meet ABC, and
Speaker 1: then Michael Bivens comes down with a little bit of
Speaker 1: a surprise.
Speaker 3: We had no clue, at least I didn't, I know,
Speaker 3: and I don't think any of the other guys did.
Speaker 3: If they say they did their line that we were
Speaker 3: gonna end up being on beet for this whole segment.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: He wants to put Sudden Impact who he hasn't really
Speaker 1: heard sing yet on live television.
Speaker 3: And he's like, well, let's have a little a singing
Speaker 3: thing or something, you know, and we're like, we've only
Speaker 3: been a group for whatever, you know, So we weren't
Speaker 3: like we could all sing, but we you know, we
Speaker 3: weren't boys to men, but you know who went first
Speaker 3: as boys to men?
Speaker 2: Boys to men? Sing Mary, don't you Weep?
Speaker 1: And blow the roof off the green room, ABC sing
Speaker 1: a few bars from Ayesha, Sudden Impact gets a little intimidated.
Speaker 3: God, I can't remember what song were saying. It was
Speaker 3: some old R and B song we had had, like
Speaker 3: we just had the hook, practice and rehearsed in case
Speaker 3: we had to sing, because at this point we had
Speaker 3: no you know, they Todd and us them had a
Speaker 3: couple songs, but they weren't really songs you could sing
Speaker 3: a cappella. They were more you'd have to have music
Speaker 3: to do it because it was very, very poppy at
Speaker 3: the time. So that happens.
Speaker 1: Bivens decides that Sudden Impact will do more of an
Speaker 1: interview kind of a thing for their segment on Video Soul,
Speaker 1: which for high school kids who were like five minutes
Speaker 1: into their entertainment career is stressful enough.
Speaker 3: Boys and Men came out, I believe, first they sang,
Speaker 3: then ABC came out, debuted their video, showed themselves, and
Speaker 3: then we were kind of like the last segment and
Speaker 3: we just kind of sat down and they asked us
Speaker 3: a couple of small questions. I think Aaron. We decided
Speaker 3: Aaron would do the answering. We would just say our names.
Speaker 3: That was it. And I was nervous as a heart,
Speaker 3: you know, our hearts pounding out of my chest.
Speaker 2: Was it live?
Speaker 3: It was live? It was yeah, it was it was
Speaker 3: it was oh yeah. We were just kind of a
Speaker 3: little push at the end. But but it was like
Speaker 3: crazy to us. We had no clue what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: They've been on live television introducing themselves, a group that
Speaker 1: just started existing. We will eventually release some music that
Speaker 1: hasn't been recorded yet. Such an impact. Decide they have
Speaker 1: work to do if they're going to compete with the
Speaker 1: Boys to Men's of the World. But as you know,
Speaker 1: before they really hit their groove, Bivins comes to them
Speaker 1: with another big opportunity.
Speaker 2: Tell me about the making of the Motown Philly video.
Speaker 3: Taking a Motown Philly. I believe at that point we
Speaker 3: had gotten into the studio and we started doing some songs,
Speaker 3: you know, and he was just kind of letting us
Speaker 3: ref like doing our own thing, trying to come up
Speaker 3: with some ideas to go to the Go to the
Speaker 3: Motown Philly video. We found out about it from Mike
Speaker 3: again and he asked us if we would travel up
Speaker 3: because he'd really liked this to be in the video
Speaker 3: with the guys, you know, more like of course, you know,
Speaker 3: like we would love to do that. What are we
Speaker 3: going to do? And he goes, well, I don't know yet,
Speaker 3: but we'll figure something out and we're going to get
Speaker 3: you in the in the video.
Speaker 1: In the short time since that trip to b e
Speaker 1: T where Boys the Men wowed the guys with their vocals,
Speaker 1: Boys to Men have leveled up. Now they have stylists
Speaker 1: working for them, Now they have choreography.
Speaker 2: Now they're big time.
Speaker 3: Kind of long story, shirt is, we went to the
Speaker 3: site where they were shooting the night scene for the
Speaker 3: Geno Steakhouse thing, and we were just in all of
Speaker 3: the whole situation, you know, watching them in there. You know,
Speaker 3: now they're dancing, like what's going on here? And because
Speaker 3: they their show was not that polished when I had
Speaker 3: seen them before, you know, it's more just standing and singing.
Speaker 3: And now they had a whole thing going and it
Speaker 3: was impressive and we were very excited, and you know,
Speaker 3: and I remember in that night say, we're we're kind
Speaker 3: of in that night scene. You have to really look
Speaker 3: for us, but we're all jumping around having fun and everything.
Speaker 1: They are in that night scene out by Gino's Stakes
Speaker 1: if you look closely, but Bivens isn't finished.
Speaker 2: With them yet.
Speaker 3: And then Mike was like, well, no, I'm gonna have
Speaker 3: more of a definitive shot. I had this idea where
Speaker 3: I got a camera and he you know, he told
Speaker 3: us what he wanted to do, and and it was
Speaker 3: kind of like very fast, you know, and we're taking
Speaker 3: his advice because he's you know, been doing it a
Speaker 3: long time. He told us to do the point, and
Speaker 3: that's what we did. We did our little point and
Speaker 3: smiled and then it was it was definitely surreal, Like
Speaker 3: were you nervous, Yes, a little bit, but it was
Speaker 3: it was It's hard. It's hard to say that I
Speaker 3: was really nervous of it because we weren't singing. I
Speaker 3: think we were more excited and giggly than we were nervous.
Speaker 3: At least that's how I felt it was.
Speaker 1: But we do need to address the fact that Dave
Speaker 1: is pointing just a little bit off camera. You're like
Speaker 1: point It almost feels like your point at someone like
Speaker 1: it's you're just like a little not down the barrel
Speaker 1: of the camera. Was there someone else on set that
Speaker 1: you were like pointing at?
Speaker 3: And it was like a couple of different takes, and
Speaker 3: then one of them he said to do a point
Speaker 3: and we pointed, but we all happened to be looking
Speaker 3: like eyeing that way, because that's our lack of professionalism
Speaker 3: at that point. We have no clue, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean. Four of us wore boys to men's t shirts,
Speaker 3: white shirts with ties, and I believe I think it
Speaker 3: was me. I had to end up wearing a red
Speaker 3: bow tie and not a tie. It was either a
Speaker 3: mirror aaron I have to look at that was one
Speaker 3: of us too. I knew it was one of us.
Speaker 3: One of us had a bow tie. And so we
Speaker 3: got we got like the hand me downs from the
Speaker 3: guy's outfits from the night before, and then there was
Speaker 3: a neon sign and we're like with our name on
Speaker 3: it already, and this is and this is you know,
Speaker 3: if you look at the time frame, this was then
Speaker 3: within eight weeks of meeting Mike.
Speaker 1: So then that video blows up suddenly Motown Philly and
Speaker 1: you guys are everywhere.
Speaker 3: What's that like for you? Now? That was definitely different
Speaker 3: because we went from in our town from really nobody's
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, Like I mean, we had
Speaker 3: our friends, you know, but too you know, we couldn't
Speaker 3: go into the mall, you know, like normal not around
Speaker 3: that time, because just people knew who we were and
Speaker 3: kids were just It's just it was kind of a
Speaker 3: different time than I think it is now a little bit.
Speaker 3: Unless you get some of these more pop acts, I
Speaker 3: think they go a little crazier. But they weren't crazy
Speaker 3: for us. I think they were crazy for the situation,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, like, oh, they're part of
Speaker 3: the East coast SEMy because nobody heard us sing a
Speaker 3: drop yet, you know, but we definitely we didn't really
Speaker 3: we kind of stayed away from that because it's just
Speaker 3: turned into a weird situation and none of us really
Speaker 3: knew how to handle it, you know, being that young,
Speaker 3: we definitely enjoyed it, you know, you know at school.
Speaker 3: I mean like it definitely made a thousand new friends
Speaker 3: that weren't really my friends. I'm gonna say that really
Speaker 3: got weirder. Then when when BBD came on tour because
Speaker 3: their tour coincided. I think the next summer after Boycemen's
Speaker 3: album released and BBD was on tour, and then we
Speaker 3: find out we're in the tour book and we're going
Speaker 3: to the show. And then this is when Mike presents
Speaker 3: us with those jackets, these BBD World Tour jackets. We're
Speaker 3: all like, you know, now were you know, of course
Speaker 3: I'm wearing them everywhere we go, and you know, now
Speaker 3: our march for death. It's like everybody knows that we're
Speaker 3: part of the situation. And the guys are doing really well.
Speaker 3: ABC is doing really well. BBD's tour World Tour was
Speaker 3: just sold out, and we're recording at home.
Speaker 1: Such an impact who are still just starting out are
Speaker 1: in Bell Biv Deevo's nineteen ninety one Official World Tour Program.
Speaker 1: I know this because the second I got off my
Speaker 1: zoom with Dave Smith, I went on eBay and found
Speaker 1: myself a copy. It is them the original five, all
Speaker 1: in giant gene and billowing nineteen ninety one shirts, posing
Speaker 1: with Bivins, Boys to Men and another bad creation. I
Speaker 1: text a picture of it to Aaron Kane and he replies,
Speaker 1: that's all of us behind the Beet Building the day
Speaker 1: the world got introduced to Boys to Men.
Speaker 3: Us together with Tim, you know, we were kind of
Speaker 3: like our little version of the Fab six. You know,
Speaker 3: we went in and we did our thing, and we
Speaker 3: were in there for a couple of months, and Mike
Speaker 3: came and visited. He liked you know, song, x Y
Speaker 3: and Z and wanted us to work harder on x
Speaker 3: Y and Z, and we just kind of progressed from there.
Speaker 3: And then throughout that time from us when all the
Speaker 3: other things started happening.
Speaker 1: As sudd an Impact or working on their sound, getting
Speaker 1: ready for their moment wearing their jackets, they also have
Speaker 1: a front row seat as their friends and Boys to
Speaker 1: Men becomes superstars.
Speaker 3: And it was like three of them came with us
Speaker 3: to the mall and it was like watching the new
Speaker 3: Kids on the Block or the Beatles or something. I mean,
Speaker 3: people just around them and they were just like they
Speaker 3: had went from being these guys that were just already
Speaker 3: cool guys that could sing, but now they were celebrities
Speaker 3: like they were true and they knew it and they
Speaker 3: knew how to handle it, and they had, you know,
Speaker 3: it's been a year or two had progressed and they
Speaker 3: were doing much better with it, and it was it
Speaker 3: was really surreal to see that was really cool.
Speaker 1: So witnessing that up close, are you like I want
Speaker 1: this or are you like this?
Speaker 2: Is terrifying?
Speaker 3: At that time, Definitely I want this one hundred percent
Speaker 3: because I was I was younger, and I just you know,
Speaker 3: you're thinking of all the girls you could meet or
Speaker 3: whoever you want to meet, and who the famous person
Speaker 3: is and that, and I could have, you know, and
Speaker 3: me being where I was in my life personally losing
Speaker 3: my sister young, it was just me and my parents
Speaker 3: had gotten divorced from it. It was like a whole
Speaker 3: It was a tough situation for me. So for me,
Speaker 3: it was such an outlet and I was like, if
Speaker 3: I can make this work and I can progress this
Speaker 3: to a higher level, I'd be able to take care
Speaker 3: of my mother, take care of my father, maybe they
Speaker 3: can could get along a little bit better, and it'll
Speaker 3: just make everybody's life a little easier. So that's kind
Speaker 3: of where I was when I was that age.
Speaker 2: So you've got like a real personal stake in making
Speaker 2: it work.
Speaker 3: Yes, personally, I did, coming in last being like not
Speaker 3: really supposed to be there in my mind, and I
Speaker 3: wanted it to work, and I was willing to do
Speaker 3: what we had to do to make it work.
Speaker 1: An early acting teacher of mine gave me a piece
Speaker 1: of advice that's really stuck with me. He said, when
Speaker 1: you get an audition, do your best and then forget
Speaker 1: about it. You might not get it, or you might
Speaker 1: get it and it doesn't happen, or you might get
Speaker 1: it and it does happen and you're cut out of it.
Speaker 1: Do your best, forget everything you can control, and then
Speaker 1: if it all works out, you'll have a nice surprise.
Speaker 1: I remember hearing him and nodding and thinking, that's great
Speaker 1: advice that I'll never do. How can you not think
Speaker 1: about all the things you want all the time? How
Speaker 1: can you not spend all your energy wishing there was
Speaker 1: a time machine so you can go back and do
Speaker 1: things differently. I know I can't change the past, but
Speaker 1: if I think about it hard enough, can't I Over
Speaker 1: time and with repetition, rejection has gotten much easier to take,
Speaker 1: but it's always hard to give. In putting this show together,
Speaker 1: I found that what I ended up talking about is
Speaker 1: nothing like what I thought i'd end up talking about.
Speaker 1: I envisioned this as a much sadder story than it's
Speaker 1: turned out to be. The themes I thought i'd be
Speaker 1: exploring got pushed to the side for bigger, better, more
Speaker 1: hopeful themes. And that's great, except some of the interviews
Speaker 1: I did early on don't fit now. I'm when I
Speaker 1: have to cut some people from Waiting for Impact A
Speaker 1: Dave Holmes's Passion project. One of them is Margaret Show,
Speaker 1: and I think I owe her the respect of hearing
Speaker 1: it from me.
Speaker 2: Margaret, Hi, Hi, how are you.
Speaker 3: I'm great? How are you?
Speaker 2: I'm good. I'm good. I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 1: I you know, I just I feel bad about this,
Speaker 1: so I just want to like come out and say it.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry if I said I'm mysterious. I'm very sorry
Speaker 1: about this, but we have to cut you from the show.
Speaker 2: Oh oh yeah, it is.
Speaker 3: Not you.
Speaker 1: Okay, it's not you. You were fantastic. But as we
Speaker 1: got deeper into the story. And as I found the
Speaker 1: Sudden Impact guys and got deeper into it, the whole
Speaker 1: theme of the show changed. Everything is a little bit
Speaker 1: different now and it just doesn't what you gave us,
Speaker 1: which was so good, just doesn't fit anywhere anywhere.
Speaker 4: So the Sudden Impact has really suddenly impacted me.
Speaker 1: It has, it has an unfortunate way, in an unfortunate way.
Speaker 1: But I wanted you to hear from me, and I'm
Speaker 1: just really sorry, and I really want to thank you
Speaker 1: for participating.
Speaker 4: Okay, well, this is disappointing, but I understand.
Speaker 2: I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced.
Speaker 4: It was really I really wanted to, you know, be
Speaker 4: in this, and I moved a lot of things so
Speaker 4: that I could be a part of this. And I'm
Speaker 4: really you know, I just I mean, I've done so much,
Speaker 4: I've given up so much, so much to do this,
Speaker 4: and so I'm just frankly, I'm.
Speaker 2: It's a bitter pill. It's a bitter pill to swallow.
Speaker 4: But I guess I'll wrap it in some bread and
Speaker 4: just like choke it down. You know, I have to
Speaker 4: be an acceptance, right, So sad, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm really sorry that I didn't. You actually made
Speaker 1: me feel a little bit worse.
Speaker 2: But I do understand. I mean, these things are difficult
Speaker 2: in the moment.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, thank you for telling me. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm not trying to shoot the messenger. I'm grateful that
Speaker 4: it's you telling me. And yeah, you know, at least
Speaker 4: I'm not wondering.
Speaker 2: I'm just I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: I know from my own career, how does appointing it
Speaker 1: is when you participate in something and then and then
Speaker 1: you get cut out or you work hard on something
Speaker 1: and then it just sits there and it's the worst
Speaker 1: feeling in the world. And so I just, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't want some suit to call you. You've had
Speaker 1: the thing where a suit calls you, or or not.
Speaker 4: Nobody calls, and then you just sort of wait and
Speaker 4: then you just never hear. I think that's usually the
Speaker 4: way things go in show business, is that it's like
Speaker 4: ghosting and.
Speaker 2: They'll hope that you forgot.
Speaker 4: So that's generally how it works in Hollywood is if
Speaker 4: something is not happening, it's just like we'll just pretend
Speaker 4: it never happened.
Speaker 1: Ever, right, and then when we see you, we don't
Speaker 1: have to feel bad, right because it just none of
Speaker 1: it happened. When you get ghosted by an executive, what
Speaker 1: do you do? How do you shake off the disappointment?
Speaker 4: Usually that's really when I try try to get under
Speaker 4: another executive. You know it's not you know, not in
Speaker 4: a sexual way, but you know, you the way to
Speaker 4: get over someone is to get under someone else. That's
Speaker 4: the classic thing. So you try to get on another job,
Speaker 4: and you try to get another another idea.
Speaker 2: Of what's possible.
Speaker 4: I guess I mean that sort of like ensures your
Speaker 4: longevity in entertainment. And also it's resilience. You know, you
Speaker 4: want to be able to keep going or that's when
Speaker 4: you think I need a reinvention right now. Yeah, so
Speaker 4: I'm gonna drop, I'm gonna drop a bunch of tiktoks,
Speaker 4: or I'm gonna do TikTok challenge. I'm gonna do it
Speaker 4: with somebody.
Speaker 2: What you're not gonna do is give up, never.
Speaker 4: Give up, never give up, Always keep on trying, always
Speaker 4: keep going, and pretty soon they won't ghost you anymore,
Speaker 4: or you will actually literally be a go because you'll
Speaker 4: be dead.
Speaker 2: That's a very good point. It's a very good point, Margaret.
Speaker 2: What is the boldest thing you have done in your career.
Speaker 4: The boldest thing I think is just well, probably just
Speaker 4: starting because I never saw queer Asian American women do
Speaker 4: anything in the eighties and so that entirely the entire
Speaker 4: idea of going into stand up comedy as a young
Speaker 4: person was really the very boldest thing anybody could do.
Speaker 4: But I didn't have any sort of thought that I
Speaker 4: could do anything, and I didn't lose anything by trying.
Speaker 4: So that's kind of the attitude I still have. You
Speaker 4: don't have anything to lose by trying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you can always try.
Speaker 4: You got to keep trying, Just keep trying, just keep trying,
Speaker 4: and you know it'll all sort of make sense later.
Speaker 4: It makes sense in the end. You know that sometimes
Speaker 4: people have a renaissance in their seventies and eighties. Sometimes
Speaker 4: it's you know, it their their their career comes becomes
Speaker 4: very rewarding.
Speaker 3: Very late.
Speaker 4: So look to that, look to look to the examples
Speaker 4: of the people who are really old around which there's
Speaker 4: a lot of them. And it's also just like, you know,
Speaker 4: having the time to celebrate your success and really appreciated
Speaker 4: at the age that you're at, because when you're older,
Speaker 4: you really appreciate everything, you know, because you've seen it all.
Speaker 4: So like I think if I if I was younger,
Speaker 4: younger and I did, I wouldn't have appreciated all the things.
Speaker 4: Like I didn't appreciate the success that I had when
Speaker 4: I was very very young, so I didn't understand it.
Speaker 4: You know, Now I really appreciate it now. I'm really glad.
Speaker 4: But it's like you know, I now I really appreciate
Speaker 4: my longevity with everything, except for this particular project that
Speaker 4: you and I are talking about right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, again, Margaret, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: I'm just very sorry, but I really thank you for
Speaker 1: being so understanding, for participating in the first place.
Speaker 2: You're a queen of course. Oh you're the greatest. And
Speaker 2: thank you for improvising this scene with me right now.
Speaker 4: We did well, I have a lot to you know,
Speaker 4: I have a lot of experience and projection.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 4: We even did a series we did a sea together
Speaker 4: that didn't get it. But they didn't even tell us
Speaker 4: it didn't get picked up. They just they just like
Speaker 4: acted like it never happened.
Speaker 2: Like like we imagined it, like it was all.
Speaker 4: A dream and it was a really cool show. But
Speaker 4: we were ghosted, and we were totally ghosted. Nobody told us, oh, well,
Speaker 4: you know, but we're better for it.
Speaker 1: We're better for it. We shook it off. We tried
Speaker 1: something new. God damn it.
Speaker 4: You know what's new that's really good?
Speaker 1: Claro ooh okay, and then Margaret and I talk about
Speaker 1: pop music for another hour, which proves my old acting
Speaker 1: teacher right. Margaret and I did a pilot together years ago.
Speaker 1: We were excited a and we forgot about it. It's
Speaker 1: a good lesson. Do your best, learn your lessons, dust
Speaker 1: yourself off when you get knocked down, and keep walking.
Speaker 1: If you're lucky, years later, you'll remember it and laugh
Speaker 1: and then talk about pop music. You can survive rejection,
Speaker 1: no matter how many times they throw it at you.
Speaker 2: You just have to keep moving forward.
Speaker 1: Dave Smith knows how to keep moving forward, how to
Speaker 1: shake off the sting of rejection and get back to work.
Speaker 1: He has faced his share of rejection, and he's still
Speaker 1: an affable guy. He still smiles when he talks about
Speaker 1: all of it. Nothing bad to say about anyone, no
Speaker 1: bitterness or anger about any of the false starts. But
Speaker 1: even he has his limits. How did you feel about
Speaker 1: the name change to white guys.
Speaker 3: Absolutely hated it. I just thought it was too straightforward.
Speaker 3: So an Impact was a good name. It fit us,
Speaker 3: you know, I felt, because where we want to impact
Speaker 3: the scene the way it was going and progressing. But
Speaker 3: we didn't even know about white guys until it debuted
Speaker 3: in that video.
Speaker 2: Really, so you saw it before you knew about it.
Speaker 3: I saw it before I knew about it, and I
Speaker 3: was like, what's that? And then like you know, of course,
Speaker 3: we called Mike and he's like, no, we just everybody decided,
Speaker 3: you know that you guys. Everybody says where's the white
Speaker 3: guys at? And he became like, not a joke, but
Speaker 3: it was what everybody.
Speaker 2: Called us white guys.
Speaker 1: As you remember, had a couple of lines in that
Speaker 1: East Coast family one four All four, one song and
Speaker 1: a featured moment in that video. That song actually got
Speaker 1: some radio airplay, another potential big opportunity. The Sudden Impact
Speaker 1: story is full of albums that got recorded and never released,
Speaker 1: recording contracts that got signed and then terminated. But I
Speaker 1: didn't know until I spoke to Dave that there was
Speaker 1: also a big performance, a big MTV performance.
Speaker 2: They got canceled at the very last minute.
Speaker 3: Then the next thing I remember coming up was the
Speaker 3: the MTV doing the performance live and debuting the video.
Speaker 3: And this was a big deal because we're gonna all
Speaker 3: sing the song live on MTV in the I don't
Speaker 3: think it was TRL then it was something else. It
Speaker 3: was it was God, it was the name of it.
Speaker 3: I think it was MTV. Yeah. It was just like
Speaker 3: a basic show and they would let artists would go
Speaker 3: on and sing and stuff like I remember seeing like
Speaker 3: I know, Nirvana sang on it at one time, and
Speaker 3: a couple of a bunch I mean tons of people
Speaker 3: had sung live on it, like like they showed the
Speaker 3: video then they would sing or something like that. And
Speaker 3: Mike brought us up there to do it, did a
Speaker 3: lot of rehearsal for it, a lot of things, and
Speaker 3: it just ended up being that Mike wasn't happy with
Speaker 3: some of the people live and not I'm not not
Speaker 3: I think that's what happened because we kind of just
Speaker 3: it kind of got just canceled. You know, we're going
Speaker 3: to debut the video. We were about to perform it,
Speaker 3: and then Mike just said, right, we're not doing the
Speaker 3: live part, and we really never got a one hundred
Speaker 3: percent answer on it, but from like the little switches
Speaker 3: we heard from it, it was he wasn't happy with something
Speaker 3: about the live performance, and we asked if it was
Speaker 3: us that we found out. It wasn't us at least,
Speaker 3: so at least that's what we were told.
Speaker 2: Were you there on set getting ready to go?
Speaker 3: We were on set, we were in position, we had microphones.
Speaker 3: I mean, it was happening, and then Mike came in
Speaker 3: and canceled it, and it was very weird and we
Speaker 3: didn't know what happened.
Speaker 1: According to my research, this is almost definitely the nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two show Hanging With MTV, kind of an early
Speaker 1: version of TRL, but without a countdown. It was hosted
Speaker 1: by a lot of people in its run, John Norris, Duff, Kennedy,
Speaker 1: Gail Mayron, who would go on to starr in the
Speaker 1: movie PCU with the nineteen nineties version of Jeremy, the
Speaker 1: one before he beat mail pattern baldness. I also remember
Speaker 1: it being hosted by Steve Isaacs, a handsome guy with
Speaker 1: very Chris Cornell hair. I know Steve a little bit,
Speaker 1: so I text him and I asked him if he
Speaker 1: was a host of Hanging With MTV and he says
Speaker 1: he was. And then he says, I swear to God,
Speaker 1: I just uploaded a bunch of old episodes from some
Speaker 1: VHS tapes that were sitting in my closet for literally
Speaker 1: thirty years. I ask if he remembers anything about the
Speaker 1: East Coast Family coming by, and he says, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: one of the ones I just posted. Hang on, and
Speaker 1: he sends it it was uploaded just last week. Right
Speaker 1: from the beginning, our guys are getting no respect, even boys.
Speaker 2: Some men kind of forget them.
Speaker 3: The East Coast Family is just the three groups I
Speaker 3: actually four groups, and we all happen to be on
Speaker 3: the East Coast where we live, and we all happen
Speaker 3: to be part of vib Entertainment.
Speaker 1: And then what was supposed to be the performance which
Speaker 1: Bivin's canceled at the last minute, So now it's just
Speaker 1: the video, the title of which Steve gets wrong, like
Speaker 1: we all do.
Speaker 3: All right, there's some groups looking out for each other,
Speaker 3: and here there are all together with one for all,
Speaker 3: all for one.
Speaker 2: Steve is now just kind of bobbing his head.
Speaker 1: He's on camera a couple seconds longer than he expected
Speaker 1: to be because the control room is scrambling. I've been
Speaker 1: in this position before on live TV on MTV, where
Speaker 1: you think one thing is gonna happen, but the plan
Speaker 1: changes at the last second. The director has to make
Speaker 1: a new plan on the fly. A producer's yelling into
Speaker 1: your ear piece. That post performance interview gets scrapped, So
Speaker 1: now you've got to fill time.
Speaker 2: That's what's happening here. That's what you're listening to. How's
Speaker 2: it going?
Speaker 3: I'm Steve Isaacs.
Speaker 2: There you have if that's today's first look video from
Speaker 2: the East Coast Family, All for One for All, All
Speaker 2: for One.
Speaker 3: We're out marketing ourselves up here.
Speaker 2: We're I'll let you know how we feel coming up though.
Speaker 3: We've got Todd one.
Speaker 1: I asked Steve whether he remembers any of this, the
Speaker 1: East Coast Family performance getting canceled, and he says not offhand,
Speaker 1: I get it. I wouldn't either. Dave Smith does, but
Speaker 1: he doesn't hold a grudge over it. What kind of
Speaker 1: manager was Michael Vivins.
Speaker 3: When we first when we first started, he was honestly,
Speaker 3: he was really good. I mean he kept in contact
Speaker 3: with us every couple of weeks or so make sure
Speaker 3: we knew what was going on. He tried to explain
Speaker 3: to us that, you know, there's not a lot going
Speaker 3: to happen early on in this situation because we still
Speaker 3: have to establish music and things before he could really
Speaker 3: push things into a certain direction. And I think but
Speaker 3: for the most part, we all got it. You know,
Speaker 3: of course, everybody is frustrated waiting and all those kind
Speaker 3: of things, but you know, he always came and showed
Speaker 3: some love. You know, he's come in and you know,
Speaker 3: drop drop us a jacket and say, hey, you're part
Speaker 3: of this. You know, don't get frustrated. It's not gonna
Speaker 3: it's not going to just end. You know. Sometimes he
Speaker 3: would occasionally fly us out to LA and visit him.
Speaker 3: You know, we go to his house and hang out
Speaker 3: with him, shoot basketball or something, and you know, so
Speaker 3: I don't think it was in the beginning. He was
Speaker 3: he was very attentive, but you know, he only had
Speaker 3: three or four acts, you know what I mean, in
Speaker 3: my opinion, But as we went through the progression of it,
Speaker 3: and you know, everybody showed up and he had that
Speaker 3: and the record label and all that, it was, it
Speaker 3: was less of him. And I don't think he wanted
Speaker 3: it that way. I really don't, you know, I never
Speaker 3: got that feeling. I just feel like he kind of
Speaker 3: it kind of whirlwind on him, and he was trying
Speaker 3: to put the right people in the right places to
Speaker 3: help this thing work, and it just wasn't working fast
Speaker 3: enough the way he wanted it to work. And I
Speaker 3: think that's ultimately where that demise came from us to them,
Speaker 3: because we got so it got so long in waiting
Speaker 3: and we couldn't get it the answers we wanted that
Speaker 3: we kind of wanted to separate because we felt like
Speaker 3: we had enough, we had enough music at that point
Speaker 3: that we could we could shop ourselves. You know, we're
Speaker 3: a little cocky at that point, you know, for some
Speaker 3: for some odd reason.
Speaker 2: So how did that relationship end.
Speaker 3: It was, I mean, it was kind of just like
Speaker 3: it just paid it away, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: There was never like a phone call like all right,
Speaker 3: you know, no harm feelings or any of that kind
Speaker 3: of stuff, or it was just like at the time
Speaker 3: it elapsed, and I think he knew, and you know,
Speaker 3: we had to hire our lawyer at that point to
Speaker 3: to negotiate us getting out of this situation so we
Speaker 3: could try to move forwards. And it just kind of
Speaker 3: just paid it. I don't I don't remember a distinct,
Speaker 3: abrupt like this is over situation, like you know, I.
Speaker 1: Never got to say bye to Mike, so you didn't
Speaker 1: then get to say goodbye to mic.
Speaker 3: No, I don't remember anything in that aspect of it.
Speaker 3: I mean, not like I mean at this point, I mean,
Speaker 3: BBD was so huge and they were working on their
Speaker 3: second album, and then he was doing that new addition
Speaker 3: reunion album, and Voice to Men was like, you know,
Speaker 3: selling millions of records. At that point, they had surpassed,
Speaker 3: like you know, everybody in R and B. At that point,
Speaker 3: it just went in. It was so crazy that I
Speaker 3: just I just think there was a lot going on
Speaker 3: for Mike, and and I don't think he ever wanted
Speaker 3: it to be that way. I think he I think
Speaker 3: if he had such a good heart in my mind,
Speaker 3: that he wanted everybody to be super famous like Boys
Speaker 3: to Men if he could. And I don't even think, honestly,
Speaker 3: there was a point when I was younger I thought
Speaker 3: it was about the money. But then as I thought
Speaker 3: about it as I got older, the age he was
Speaker 3: and the way he spoke to us, the way he
Speaker 3: spoke to everybody else. He really wanted everything to just be.
Speaker 3: He just wanted it to help other people the way
Speaker 3: he was helped when he was younger to make hisself better.
Speaker 3: So I don't look on it look back on it
Speaker 3: negatively in any kind of way.
Speaker 2: Tim Byrd has told us what happens next.
Speaker 1: They record some new demos with some producers in Teddy
Speaker 1: Riley's circle, and they bring them to Boys to Men.
Speaker 1: But the way Dave tells this story adds a visual
Speaker 1: element that I cannot get out of my mind.
Speaker 3: And so we basically recorded a bunch of new stuff together,
Speaker 3: and our goal was, all right, we know the biggest
Speaker 3: R and B group in the world. We're gonna be
Speaker 3: able to talk to these guys somehow. And then they're
Speaker 3: going world tour with Babyface, And I remember they came
Speaker 3: into town and we didn't buy tickets because we were
Speaker 3: just like, that's just idiotic, because we're gonna get stuck
Speaker 3: in the arena and not see them. Myself. Aaron and
Speaker 3: I believe Alan it might have been nol. We decided
Speaker 3: we're just gonna walk up behind the Hampton Coliseum and
Speaker 3: we're just gonna they're gonna see us. You know, that's
Speaker 3: how we're gonna make it happen. And we walked back
Speaker 3: there and we stood there and stood there and it
Speaker 3: was I mean it, maybe twenty minutes went by and
Speaker 3: we saw Big Aunt walk out of the tour bus
Speaker 3: and we yelled Aunt and he turned around started laughing
Speaker 3: and he hadn't seen us in like a year and
Speaker 3: a half something like that. He walked over and said,
Speaker 3: hold on a minute, and we walked straight backstage to
Speaker 3: the guys, and we were like, they still remember us,
Speaker 3: you know, And you know, you don't know at that
Speaker 3: point because they're thirty five million at this time. You know,
Speaker 3: they're huge.
Speaker 1: We've heard the ending we know Boys to Men signs
Speaker 1: them to their label. But still Dave telling me about
Speaker 1: him and the guys standing by the backstage gate waiting
Speaker 1: to be noticed by the old friends who become superstars.
Speaker 1: It's heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time. They're determined
Speaker 1: to make it happen. They're wise enough not to let
Speaker 1: vanity get.
Speaker 2: In the way.
Speaker 1: These guys are good, but we also know what happens
Speaker 1: after that. They don't get dropped so much as the
Speaker 1: label just disappears. They're back to square one again for
Speaker 1: the third time, and none of them can legally drink.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what did that feel.
Speaker 1: Like for you?
Speaker 3: Very stressful because you know, at this point, I'm like
Speaker 3: nineteen somewhere around there. We're out of school, so we're
Speaker 3: putting one hundred percent into this.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: It stressed us out as a group, like immensely, like
Speaker 3: kind of driving a knife between us a little bit.
Speaker 3: Everybody's like pointing fingers at each other a little bit,
Speaker 3: like why did this happen? Why didn't that happen? And
Speaker 3: who did this? And who did that? You know, And
Speaker 3: none of it was really any of our end visual faults.
Speaker 3: I think it was just it just wasn't the right
Speaker 3: time for that to happen. And you know, I don't
Speaker 3: I don't look back on it. I mean, at the time,
Speaker 3: I'm sure I was really pissed, but I was nineteen
Speaker 3: years old and I already had three record deals at
Speaker 3: the time. What was I complaining about? You know, I
Speaker 3: should have shut up and just been happy with who
Speaker 3: I had.
Speaker 1: See, that's a good attitude. This isn't even my story,
Speaker 1: and I'm frustrated for him. In Dave's mind, the whole
Speaker 1: project finally ran aground once and for all because of
Speaker 1: two major tragedies back to back.
Speaker 3: Long story short, we pushed on more record deals and
Speaker 3: did got a lot further than we did with the
Speaker 3: two special sudden impact as far as a group is concerned.
Speaker 3: I actually got songs on the radio, and then you know,
Speaker 3: nine to eleven happened and Leah happened, and it tore
Speaker 3: our world down. And I think it would have been
Speaker 3: a much different world for us if those two things
Speaker 3: didn't happen consecutively in the same year.
Speaker 2: If you could talk to my vins, now, what would
Speaker 2: you say to him?
Speaker 3: I don't know. I would just kind of just tell him,
Speaker 3: you know that there's no hard feelings for that whole situation,
Speaker 3: like you know I because I would think when you're
Speaker 3: that age, you know, I'm thinking back, if I was
Speaker 3: that young and I had that much talent that I
Speaker 3: was supposed to portray to the world and then you
Speaker 3: let down a lot of people that he had to
Speaker 3: have a lot of mental stress go on. I would
Speaker 3: think that he didn't fulfill his dream, but a lot
Speaker 3: of other people's dreams and I don't and I don't
Speaker 3: think he did anything malicious, But I just wanted to
Speaker 3: know that. You know, I appreciate what he did for us.
Speaker 3: It was something I'd never changed. I got to see
Speaker 3: and do things that most people ever ever do in
Speaker 3: their life, and it always due to him earlier on
Speaker 3: in my life. Every single bit of it, even the
Speaker 3: part that was even more impactful later as us as
Speaker 3: a group, you know, that wasn't with Aaron and Nola.
Speaker 3: Was all started from the day Todd and then met
Speaker 3: him in La So I, you know, I just say
Speaker 3: thank you because you know, I have great memories tonight,
Speaker 3: I got stories to tell. Like my twenty year old
Speaker 3: has no clue about half of this stuff. She's just
Speaker 3: heard some of my songs, like cause you know, I'm big,
Speaker 3: Like I don't want to hear in too much cussing.
Speaker 3: And you know, even though she you know, she's an
Speaker 3: adult now, I'm still trying to be dad. But she's
Speaker 3: just blown away. She's like, can't believe the stories, and
Speaker 3: so it's fun. I'm like handing it down. I gave
Speaker 3: her my my BBD jacket. She wears it, has it,
Speaker 3: has it on the internet and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: That BBD Tour jacket, the jacket that made the Boys
Speaker 1: popular in high school, lives on as Instagram content for
Speaker 1: a whole new generation.
Speaker 2: It's the circle of life.
Speaker 1: So it didn't happen for such an impact, but they
Speaker 1: didn't walk away from the experience empty handed.
Speaker 3: We all became very, very independent on how we were
Speaker 3: gonna make ourselves be successful in life. Within two years,
Speaker 3: I you know, I started my own construction business and
Speaker 3: I've had it since and i've and I'm really successful now.
Speaker 3: I'm doing really good. And you know, I could take
Speaker 3: my family to a trip in Orlando for two weeks
Speaker 3: and do all the things and I can't. I can't complain,
Speaker 3: especially with the way the world is right now. It's been.
Speaker 3: It's been crazy musically, and I think we're going to
Speaker 3: about to get like a whirlwind of great music and
Speaker 3: personally coming from this long sit with all these great
Speaker 3: musicians out there now.
Speaker 1: By the way, after our conversation, I do email Dave
Speaker 1: Smith and I do ask about who are you and
Speaker 1: whether it was a dis track and who that dis
Speaker 1: track was dissing, and he says that song was made
Speaker 1: with a lot of emotion about how things went down
Speaker 1: with boys to men.
Speaker 2: Aaron and Noel.
Speaker 1: We were young and not happy with how things went,
Speaker 1: and a week or so after that, Aaron Kane texts
Speaker 1: me and says, Hey, I just want you to know
Speaker 1: we're all talking again. So now, thirty plus years after
Speaker 1: the poster, twenty plus years after the breakup, any lingering
Speaker 1: bad feelings among the guys are just water under the
Speaker 1: Chesapeake Baper. Here's the thing. I like these guys. I'm
Speaker 1: rooting for these guys. They went for it. Aaron Kane
Speaker 1: walked away from what could have been a baseball scholarship
Speaker 1: to devote his time and energy to Sudden Impact, and
Speaker 1: he still makes music, and he still believes the whole
Speaker 1: thing was worthwhile.
Speaker 2: Tim Bird still produces music.
Speaker 1: He's still honored to have been in the orbit of
Speaker 1: Michael Biffin's still thinks Michael should be proud of the
Speaker 1: work he did with the East Coast family. Todd White
Speaker 1: still writes music. Alan Healey comes up and collaborates. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they smile when they talk about these times. No, they beam.
Speaker 1: The whole experience allowed Todd to get what he wanted
Speaker 1: when he was younger, which was to stay out of jail,
Speaker 1: and it allowed Alan to do what he wanted to
Speaker 1: do when he was younger, which was to hang out
Speaker 1: with Todd Noel Kine is not great at returning emails
Speaker 1: in a timely fashion, but listen, I have no room
Speaker 1: to throw stones. And Dave Smith, the quiet one who
Speaker 1: turns out to be anything, but got into the whole
Speaker 1: thing with the hopeful heart of a child. He thought
Speaker 1: maybe if he hit the big time, became a pop star,
Speaker 1: made enough money, he could heal his parents' broken hearts,
Speaker 1: help them get over their daughter's death, make them love
Speaker 1: each other again. And now here he is, years later,
Speaker 1: still happy it all happened. I remember what my friend
Speaker 1: Scott Gimple said to me back at the beginning of
Speaker 1: this show about how he doesn't believe in endings.
Speaker 3: My still holding onto that hope, which is a kin
Speaker 3: to the hope that I had back in ninety one.
Speaker 2: Like, oh, I can't wait to see this. I still
Speaker 2: have that because I don't like thinking.
Speaker 3: That it's over for anybody.
Speaker 2: I think about the very last thing Todd White said
Speaker 2: to me in the last episode.
Speaker 1: It's definitely not I mean, his connection wasn't great, but
Speaker 1: what he said was, it's definitely not over, man, And
Speaker 1: even over a.
Speaker 2: Bad zoom connection. I could tell he meant it.
Speaker 1: I still don't know what sudden impact sounds like, but
Speaker 1: having taken a good long look at the whole story,
Speaker 1: now I know what they did. I know they got
Speaker 1: knocked down and they kept getting back up. I know
Speaker 1: they shook off the disappointment and frustration and move moved
Speaker 1: forward by being bold again and again. Their story may
Speaker 1: not be over, but whatever happens for them next, I
Speaker 1: have my answer as to why I never stopped thinking
Speaker 1: about sudden impact. It's because they kept reminding me to
Speaker 1: be bold. They didn't mean to, but that's the way
Speaker 1: these things work. This three second moment of a nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety one music video is one of the many weird
Speaker 1: things that keep popping into my head. My brain is
Speaker 1: full of things that I am told are frivolous or
Speaker 1: forgettable or unserious, and when I believe that they are.
Speaker 1: When I try to make myself a person who cares
Speaker 1: about more practical things, I mostly fail. When I remind
Speaker 1: myself that it's not only okay to be the kind
Speaker 1: of person who cares about these kinds of things, it's
Speaker 1: actually necessary.
Speaker 2: I tend to do all right.
Speaker 1: When I tried to be a straight, preppy lawyer, I
Speaker 1: didn't do too well. When I took a chance on myself,
Speaker 1: my real self, it worked out. I can do passable
Speaker 1: work as someone else, but I can only ever really
Speaker 1: succeed if I'm me.
Speaker 2: Maybe that lesson will stick this time.
Speaker 1: I think a lot about what Ivet Nicole Brown said
Speaker 1: to me back in our second episode about watching that
Speaker 1: episode of Beet's Video Soul where Michael Bivens introduced the
Speaker 1: East Coast family and how certain she was that he
Speaker 1: was going to manage her. I just knew that he
Speaker 1: was part of my destiny, she said. Or God knew
Speaker 1: what was going to happen and put it in my mind.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's what got me out of bed on that
Speaker 1: April morning in nineteen ninety eight to stand in line
Speaker 1: in front of MTV. Maybe it was a divine intervention
Speaker 1: that kept me from going back to sleep. Or maybe
Speaker 1: it was that better, more evolved self, the one that
Speaker 1: we think we're going to be when we make ambitious plans,
Speaker 1: reaching out from the future and giving me a gentle
Speaker 1: shake by the shoulder. Whatever it was, I listened to
Speaker 1: that instinct and I took a wild chance. So did Evet,
Speaker 1: So did Sudden Impact, So did everyone I have spoken
Speaker 1: to in this show. The writer in theologian Howard Thurman said,
Speaker 1: don't ask what the world needs, Ask what makes you
Speaker 1: come alive, and go do it, because what the world
Speaker 1: needs is people who have come alive. That thing you're
Speaker 1: obsessed with, whether it's a moment in pop culture or
Speaker 1: bowling history or dog Halloween costumes, that thing that you
Speaker 1: feel a little strange telling people about, that's you.
Speaker 2: Maybe when you look at that.
Speaker 1: Motown Philly video again, you'll know that they're pointing at you,
Speaker 1: reminding you to be bold like they were. And if
Speaker 1: you're looking for inspiration to take a wild chance of
Speaker 1: your own, maybe that point can be it.
Speaker 2: Got a thing you want to make, Start it. Don't
Speaker 2: think you're ready start it anyway. Get pushed down, get up,
Speaker 2: need a hand, ask for one. Make your thing. We
Speaker 2: need it, We need you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're all pointing at you. This has been an
Speaker 1: exactly right production. Written by Me Dave Holmes, produced by
Speaker 1: Hannah Kyle Crichton, recorded, mixed and sound. I'm designed by
Speaker 1: Andrew Eapen, Additional engineering and assembly by Annalise Nelson, Music
Speaker 1: by Ben Wise, artwork by Garrett Ross. Executive produced by
Speaker 1: Karen Kilgarriff, Georgia Hardstar, and Danielle Kramer. Follow the show
Speaker 1: on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at exactly right and follow
Speaker 1: me at Dave Holmes. For more information, go to exactly
Speaker 1: Rightmedia dot com. Binge the show add free on Stitcher
Speaker 1: Premium for a free month. Head to Stitcher Premium dot com,
Speaker 1: slash impact and enter promo code Impact when you select
Speaker 1: a monthly.
Speaker 2: Plan, listen, subscribe, and leave us
Speaker 1: A review on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts.