Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
Speaker 1: episode was produced by the team at Pandora Ladies and Gentlemen.
Speaker 1: This is Quest Love Supreme Classic and what can I say?
Speaker 1: Sayta Garrett is such a legend legendary writer, legendary performer,
Speaker 1: one of the most exciting episodes and stories that we've
Speaker 1: had on Quest Love Supreme. I hope you enjoyed as
Speaker 1: much as we enjoyed doing it. This is Sayta Garrett's
Speaker 1: QLs classic from May twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2: All Right, Supremo Supremo ro Suprema su Supremo roll, Suprema
Speaker 2: Supremo Ro Suprema.
Speaker 1: So Supreme roll. What's love got a theory?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I thought y'all should know. Yeah that Jamli flavored yogurt
Speaker 1: might be jumpas Supremo Supreme role. My name is Sugar. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm never scared. Yeah even when Yeah, I'm unprepared.
Speaker 4: Bro Supreme some some Supreme roll call Supreme sup Supremo.
Speaker 5: Role called I'm on pay Bill, Yeah, flew in to
Speaker 5: see you Yeah, and I will not Yeah say about mirrors.
Speaker 1: Supreme s My name is Boss Bill.
Speaker 5: Got here in a rush, was back at the hotel
Speaker 5: Jammy Twosome, Plush Supreme.
Speaker 4: Son Supremo, roll cal Subprema So some Supremo roll call.
Speaker 6: I'm lie yeah, and I just can't stop smiling, Yeah
Speaker 6: because I wa Yeah, ain't gonna need to be rhyming ro.
Speaker 1: Supremo, Who call.
Speaker 4: Son Son Supremo.
Speaker 7: Roll call my name saa Yeah, and I'm from Compton. Yeah.
Speaker 7: When I'm not singing. Yeah, y'all know, I'm bumping Suprema.
Speaker 2: So Supremo, roll call Suprema something something Supremo, roll call
Speaker 2: Suprema something something Supremo.
Speaker 1: Roll call Suprema something something Supremo. Roll call, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Speaker 5: That was the most confident a guest of this yeah,
Speaker 5: ever for someone who was very anxious about doing it,
Speaker 5: came right in and nailed it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Ladies and gentlemen. Was panicking all of when we warned.
Speaker 7: Her about I will not be ushered. You.
Speaker 1: You You're the winner of the most confident delivery. Ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen. Welcome to another episode of Quest Love Supreme,
Speaker 1: only on Pandora. I'm your host Quest Love, I'm the
Speaker 1: Punk Guard and I brought Team Supreme today. Uh sports references. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my power forward is boss, Bill, our fearst leader and
Speaker 1: sometimes coach. What's up? How you doing? Yeah, plus record,
Speaker 1: it's kind of dope, Yeah, it is, it is. It's awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 1: My shooting guard is a sugar Steve, our audio genius
Speaker 1: and god of punchlines. How you I can shoot the
Speaker 1: three too? From downtown You can't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they still call me Downtown Stevie Brown. That's I
Speaker 3: can shoot the three pise. Okay, that is not why
Speaker 3: they called you. That small forward is paid Bill small
Speaker 3: the first time ever be called small very much. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'll take a small forward.
Speaker 1: Bill. You are information and uh life lesson recorder. That's
Speaker 1: what I do. Yeah, that's what you do. And our center,
Speaker 1: I'll take that.
Speaker 8: I actually was the center in the Boys and Girls
Speaker 8: club on my basketball team.
Speaker 7: On the bench.
Speaker 1: Our center is aka Sweet Margaret for.
Speaker 8: Her sign age. That's right.
Speaker 1: I'll take the organized stress. And you know she she
Speaker 1: keeps us in line. Our guest today, Uh, she kind
Speaker 1: of takes forward.
Speaker 7: Guest center six.
Speaker 1: Man visiting the assistant coach. Yeah yeah, yeah, our guest today,
Speaker 1: she takes what I'll say, Uh, she'll take the title.
Speaker 1: She's living that Renaissance life and she takes it to
Speaker 1: the next level. Uh, for over three decades side the
Speaker 1: Garrett has done it all name it, singing, h acting, songwriting, arranging, producing, directing,
Speaker 1: and conceptualizing. She's kind of like my favorite type of artists,
Speaker 1: which she's basically you know, she's dependable. She shows up
Speaker 1: on time, actually early. She Yeah, she shows up early
Speaker 1: and basically you know, I think that she also inspires
Speaker 1: uh others to be their best. And she comes through
Speaker 1: in the clutch, ah with with with the winning shot.
Speaker 1: And uh, not only has she worked the coach, does
Speaker 1: the coach take the shot? Well, this time she is
Speaker 1: in the fist of Saint Pittsburgh.
Speaker 9: Let's not talk about sports, okay, really a bunch of
Speaker 9: music people anyway.
Speaker 1: I will say that not only not only has she,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, work with the best, but I actually
Speaker 1: believe that those that you her gifts and her talent
Speaker 1: do so because she is actually the best at it
Speaker 1: at what she does. Taxis you know, being at a
Speaker 1: duetting the all time what I call barbecue classic don't
Speaker 1: look any further, two step classics or one of Quincy
Speaker 1: Jones's most reliable go to lyricists, depending U dare I
Speaker 1: say it probably Michael Jackson's most important song. I think
Speaker 1: Man in the Mirror is his most important song. I mean,
Speaker 1: people are their favorites, and people have their go to classics,
Speaker 1: but you know, like John Lennon has imagined that's his
Speaker 1: cry song.
Speaker 8: That's the one that makes.
Speaker 1: Michael Michael Jackson has Man in the Mirror. That's it.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's one of his most important songs.
Speaker 1: To her Oscar nominated work for the animated film Rio
Speaker 1: and for dream Girls, which you want to grab me
Speaker 1: for correct I did. Absolutely, I'm still on their homework. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: welcome to saw you to Garrette Love Supreme. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: You're from Compton, Yeah, what about it? Really?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 10: One hundred nineteenth and Wilmington, honey content straight up Watts.
Speaker 1: You know, I have to say that probably the period
Speaker 1: that where I ran into you the most was during
Speaker 1: UH your your time with UH with brand new heavies.
Speaker 1: What are you doing? The smoking grooves?
Speaker 7: And you know what, I watched you cletely forgot about.
Speaker 1: That, but I watched you every night because the thing
Speaker 1: you're you're I'm sure you've heard this a lot. You're
Speaker 1: you're very magnetic personnality.
Speaker 7: Darling. I can't hear it enough? When is your cancer?
Speaker 7: I'm a moon child. I'm a moon child.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, you're very magnetic. And so it was to
Speaker 1: the point where, like every night I was watching Guys
Speaker 1: when you were on, even though it was I think
Speaker 1: he only did like three weeks of that run.
Speaker 7: But they smoked and grooveed me out. I was done data.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I really, I really didn't want to overwhelm
Speaker 1: you with the fandom because even Beckfn like, I'm sure
Speaker 1: that you just get overwhelmed with people asking you like, man,
Speaker 1: so tell.
Speaker 7: Me what it's like when I can't hear it's enough.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you this interview. Yeah, I was about to
Speaker 1: say this is this is show which all we do
Speaker 1: is we geek out on this show.
Speaker 5: Remember when Michael Jackson that was awesome? Remember when that's
Speaker 5: all we're gonna do. Remember that song you wrote for
Speaker 5: Preferred Camel.
Speaker 1: Awesome, It's really good.
Speaker 7: You guys is stupid.
Speaker 1: Only on Pandora. So you were born in and raised
Speaker 1: in Compton.
Speaker 10: I was born at Saint Francis Hospital and Lynn It's California,
Speaker 10: and spent the happiest part of my childhood on one
Speaker 10: hundred and nineteenth in Wilmington. Okay, mm hmmm, so raised
Speaker 10: by my grandmother who's passed.
Speaker 1: Now, what was it? What was Compton Lincoln?
Speaker 7: Because of course, okay, they had gangs, they had the
Speaker 7: crips and all that, but the worst that the crips
Speaker 7: would do to you if they caught you out was
Speaker 7: steal your jacket. Really, that was it, dude, that they
Speaker 7: would just steal your leather jacket, that jacket, and that
Speaker 7: was it.
Speaker 10: Now they're shooting people and killing brothers, and I'm you know,
Speaker 10: I'm glad I'm from there, but I'm glad I'm not
Speaker 10: in it right now.
Speaker 1: I did time in Compton for a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what kind of time when my parents were recording the
Speaker 1: Congress Alley record. My grandmom lived in Compton, but my
Speaker 1: cousins were all crips, and so to my parents just
Speaker 1: made you know, me wearing blue. So you, Derby, you
Speaker 1: were in Compton while your parents were working on a
Speaker 1: record that would be sampled for a Compton classic. Nice thoughtful,
Speaker 1: black man, well done. How crazy that was? That was
Speaker 1: a great meta classic reference. Bill Bill's referring to nothing
Speaker 1: but a cheap thing that yeah, we still haven't got
Speaker 1: paid for someone. You might be able to get something.
Speaker 1: He got a couple of all he can afford it.
Speaker 1: So did you grow up in a musical family or
Speaker 1: what's your musical beginnings.
Speaker 10: Well, my mom was in a singing group with her
Speaker 10: twin sister and her baby sister, and they were trying
Speaker 10: to pop off when the Supremes were happening, so they
Speaker 10: called themselves.
Speaker 7: The other Three.
Speaker 10: So dude, I would watch them rehearse and they would
Speaker 10: have their matching outfits and they do their makeup and
Speaker 10: everything and go out and perform in one of these
Speaker 10: things they called.
Speaker 7: A nightclub, And I was like, what is a nightclub?
Speaker 7: That just sounds so hot? Like I want to go
Speaker 7: to a night club?
Speaker 11: Can we go?
Speaker 1: Can we out?
Speaker 7: No, you can't go to no nightclub. But it's a
Speaker 7: night club that just sounds so fun and you guys
Speaker 7: are dressed up and you're singing, and I want to
Speaker 7: go to the nightclub?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 7: Did no? Really?
Speaker 1: Oh? Why?
Speaker 7: I was so?
Speaker 10: I was like eight or nine, and I was just
Speaker 10: fascinated with the idea of those two words going together.
Speaker 7: Night club?
Speaker 1: What is that?
Speaker 7: I wanted to be a part of that.
Speaker 10: I think that's where the seed was planted. But my
Speaker 10: mother was a blenda. She's not a soloist, she was
Speaker 10: a blenza. So I think I learned about harmonies and
Speaker 10: stuff like that. In fact, my first recording game was
Speaker 10: with H R and B artist DJ Rogers.
Speaker 11: Oh yes.
Speaker 7: So it was right after the Say You Love Me album.
Speaker 7: The next album he was.
Speaker 1: Recording, Oh that's one of my favorite sor that's your Heart.
Speaker 10: So my mother was his interior decorator, and she was
Speaker 10: hanging wallpaper in his house and she's like, you know, DJ,
Speaker 10: my daughter can sing. He's like your daughter, my plumber's son,
Speaker 10: the maid's nephew. Everybody gets no, no, but my mother
Speaker 10: was very very persistent. He said, all right, bring her by,
Speaker 10: but if she can't sing, I don't want to hear.
Speaker 10: I don't wan hear shit else. I don't hear nothing else.
Speaker 10: So my mother brought me to his house and he
Speaker 10: sat me down on the piano bench and he said, okay,
Speaker 10: sing this, and he plays some riff and I say it,
Speaker 10: and he looked.
Speaker 7: At me like, oh, okay, sing this. So he played
Speaker 7: something a little more intricate and I sang that and
Speaker 7: he literally pushed me off the bench.
Speaker 10: I fell on the floor and next thing I know,
Speaker 10: a couple of days later, I'm in the studio sing
Speaker 10: background with these amazing singers and just blending in the harmonies.
Speaker 10: They were just so luscious and I was on a high.
Speaker 10: And I came home and three weeks later I got.
Speaker 7: A check.
Speaker 10: And I was like, this is some shit I think
Speaker 10: I could do on a regular basis. And I think
Speaker 10: that's what started it. It was like, that was my
Speaker 10: first official recording session.
Speaker 1: What album was it?
Speaker 7: On? The album after the Say after Say You Love Me?
Speaker 7: I forgot the name of it.
Speaker 1: So that might be love music in life.
Speaker 11: There you go.
Speaker 7: Yes, that sounds like it. That sounds like it.
Speaker 1: Shit, I have e recon Yes, okay.
Speaker 7: Playing you'll hear me in the background bag I will
Speaker 7: do so with the silstles.
Speaker 1: So that's when you were a teenager?
Speaker 7: Yes, I was but a child at the time.
Speaker 1: Yes, So when did you When did you decide? Were
Speaker 1: you the only one in your family that had musical aspirations?
Speaker 1: Did you know?
Speaker 7: My mom did? But that didn't Evidently that didn't work
Speaker 7: out too well.
Speaker 10: But siblings or my sister wishes she could sing, Oh
Speaker 10: my god, my sister wishes she could sing so badly,
Speaker 10: but you can't send you so.
Speaker 1: I can tell you already I'm still going to love
Speaker 1: this interview. Yeah, we're not even a love So when
Speaker 1: when did you officially? I mean I guess when did
Speaker 1: you officially start?
Speaker 8: Like?
Speaker 1: How did the Plus? Was plus your first situation?
Speaker 11: Yes?
Speaker 7: It was my first signage?
Speaker 1: Really how did you? How did you? How did you
Speaker 1: run into Renee?
Speaker 6: And?
Speaker 7: I think I met them through my record label? You
Speaker 7: were signed to I was signed to Quest, which fell
Speaker 7: into Warner Brothers.
Speaker 1: Wait, how you were signed the Quest before you did.
Speaker 7: The post problem. No, that was pre that was prequency.
Speaker 1: You're right.
Speaker 10: I signed R Yes, yes, RC Records and they were
Speaker 10: staff producers there, Angela. It wasn't a very pleasant experience,
Speaker 10: so I don't want to elaborate on that anyway. None
Speaker 10: is an asshole? Can My manager is like freaking out
Speaker 10: right now, But I really don't care because he was
Speaker 10: he really is. Okay, we won't He was so mean
Speaker 10: to me, so freaking I ran into him thirty years later,
Speaker 10: working with Michael.
Speaker 7: Two months ago, I ran into him at the gas station.
Speaker 1: I saw him.
Speaker 7: Like I didn't see him really, Yeah, he was plumping
Speaker 7: gas now two months ago, yes, just a couple of
Speaker 7: months ago.
Speaker 10: I ran into him and uh, he said something about
Speaker 10: I drove around him because he was parked, and I
Speaker 10: drove around his car and he shouted something.
Speaker 7: Like, hey, lady, you can't even drive, so you didn't
Speaker 7: even know he.
Speaker 1: Knew it.
Speaker 10: And then he went in and I was trying to
Speaker 10: get out of the lot and he just finished pumping
Speaker 10: his gas and he said, hi, Saita, and I said hi, Renee,
Speaker 10: and he said, I was trying to say that was
Speaker 10: me that was saying something smart you. I said, I know,
Speaker 10: that's why ignored your ass, because it was anyway, no
Speaker 10: love lost.
Speaker 1: See, I was even going for the Renee angle because
Speaker 1: what I wanted to know was it was also highly unusual,
Speaker 1: uh for LEA producers to be female, which Angel right,
Speaker 1: and because when was the album recorded.
Speaker 7: Late late early eighties or late seventies.
Speaker 1: I think there you go. Okay, So what I'm saying
Speaker 1: that that was a highly unusual.
Speaker 7: Their whole situation was unusual, and they were very very
Speaker 7: successful at it at the time.
Speaker 1: So what was it like under her tutelage?
Speaker 7: Like I said, it wasn't all pleasant, darling. Okay, so
Speaker 7: from the look on my manager's face and the stuff right.
Speaker 1: Now, okay, damn, before it goes all.
Speaker 7: The way to the heel of my shoe that's been
Speaker 7: inserted in my mouth.
Speaker 1: This is this is this is one. This is one observation.
Speaker 1: Let me just let you know, let me let you
Speaker 1: know that we're not in the burning bridges here Quest
Speaker 1: Supreme only like a little not all, a little bit
Speaker 1: bridge Madison County.
Speaker 11: I will move on.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 7: I hadn't started writing yet, so I was just signed
Speaker 7: as a you know, a singer in.
Speaker 1: This group and they remembers were there.
Speaker 10: There was myself and two other guys. I'm sorry, dude,
Speaker 10: the other three shut up.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we were plushed and that record lasted like a summer.
Speaker 7: But it was fun to make.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay. I was going to say that the your
Speaker 1: solo turne the I Don't Know where love comes from?
Speaker 1: There's what the second to last song one side.
Speaker 7: To killing you are killing me right now? No, no, no, no,
Speaker 7: But remember the single from that album, let alone, this
Speaker 7: third song on plaid two what what?
Speaker 1: But here's the thing that let's that's how this works.
Speaker 1: It's like you have to remember your career. But if
Speaker 1: you don't they do. Yeah, wait a question about around
Speaker 1: I know, so I want to I want to play
Speaker 1: a little bit of it because there's a very interesting
Speaker 1: uh uh observation.
Speaker 11: Give me all right, where is it a mark?
Speaker 1: Okay? Well, I was waiting for the ad lib to come.
Speaker 1: But the reason why I wanted to ask about this
Speaker 1: song is the fact that I found it very interesting
Speaker 1: that even though this album came out before Thrilling, you
Speaker 1: channeled one of Mike's iconic ad libs before he even
Speaker 1: got to capitalize on it, which told me you must
Speaker 1: be a deep Michael Jackson fan because his trademark he
Speaker 1: he really wasn't a thing until it was a thing
Speaker 1: Thriller came out. I mean he did it once on
Speaker 1: Walk right now. He kind of did it working day
Speaker 1: and night. I mean he did a lot on the
Speaker 1: live record, but by that point for you to reference.
Speaker 7: That, he I want to hear this rip so bad
Speaker 7: right now?
Speaker 1: That was it right exactly?
Speaker 7: You know what?
Speaker 8: Wow?
Speaker 1: And that's the thing. I was like, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: this came out before my god, I have.
Speaker 7: No idea, but you know what, I sound a lot
Speaker 7: like Angela. She was producing that vocal.
Speaker 10: They wanted me to be her, and it was killing me.
Speaker 10: Every song I had to sing it like she sang it,
Speaker 10: because she did all the demo.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So, like she said, that doesn't even sound like me,
Speaker 7: that sounds like Angela.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I still I was. I have a
Speaker 1: soft spot in my heart for like really good obscure
Speaker 1: boogie era music, like between seventy nine and eighty three,
Speaker 1: like I love it, pre prints post disco like that zone.
Speaker 1: So yeah, but sweet spot, man, I love the fact
Speaker 1: that you managed to reference an iconic ad lib before
Speaker 1: that iconic ad lib even got to the icon raised
Speaker 1: the heights. But that's that's sort of the Dewey Bey
Speaker 1: stuff we do here. I love it. Free. So you
Speaker 1: said that the group and that it only lasted the summer,
Speaker 1: so that the group imploded.
Speaker 10: Truly, Plush got flushed basically from our records.
Speaker 1: Not even one show or two shows or.
Speaker 7: Really it was I think it was just right off
Speaker 7: kind of thing, you know whatever.
Speaker 1: But did you get the days, my friend, did you
Speaker 1: get anything out.
Speaker 7: Of it or like, I mean, recording experience. Recording experience
Speaker 7: was really valuable. Yeah, so learned just what not to
Speaker 7: do for the you know, the next.
Speaker 1: So for the next year, for the next year. I've
Speaker 1: heard many a story from Dennis Edwards and of don't
Speaker 1: look any further, one of which I heard that his
Speaker 1: original intended duet partner was I supposed to be Shaka Khan.
Speaker 1: Wow refute or what happened?
Speaker 6: Was?
Speaker 1: How? How did this happen?
Speaker 10: When I auditioned for Quincy Jones, there were a butt
Speaker 10: load of songwriters and producers in the room during the auditions.
Speaker 7: Quincy at the time was recording.
Speaker 1: He's putting together album Okay every Home One.
Speaker 10: Yes recording that album, and and songwriters were submitting songs
Speaker 10: to Quincy for Patty's album.
Speaker 7: And I was the demo chick at the time. I
Speaker 7: was since they saw me at those auditions, I started
Speaker 7: doing everybody's demos for Quincy.
Speaker 1: For Patty, well, rewind where are the auditions because now
Speaker 1: it's just a little different. I was like, I see
Speaker 1: your YouTube page, Oh let me let me check them out.
Speaker 1: But what was the circuit?
Speaker 7: It was a cattle call from Music Writer magazine.
Speaker 10: A friend of mine and an ex singer friend of
Speaker 10: mine whose group I was in since I was a kid,
Speaker 10: was going to the auditions.
Speaker 7: But she didn't tell me about it. Her boyfriend had
Speaker 7: told me, right, So the barfriend called me and said
Speaker 7: whence he's doing this?
Speaker 10: And then I said, okay, okay, where is it? So
Speaker 10: he gave me the address over at SI R Hollywood
Speaker 10: and I said, Okay, what time? He said, I don't know,
Speaker 10: So Baby, I showed up at seven a m. And
Speaker 10: it was me and two other people and we stood
Speaker 10: in line until the thing didn't start till noon, but
Speaker 10: by then the line was around the block.
Speaker 7: I was number three, right, So once you were.
Speaker 10: Inside, there were two card table and paper clipboards at
Speaker 10: each for each day, with fifteen fifteen intervals fifteen minute intervals.
Speaker 10: Who reading is fundamental, isn't it. So you were supposed
Speaker 10: to go to the table and write down the time
Speaker 10: and the day you wanted to audition.
Speaker 7: And I'm thinking, I'm here now.
Speaker 10: I think I'll audition now because I'm not gonna be
Speaker 10: anymore ready on Tuesday at ten fifteen than I am
Speaker 10: right now. So I was one of the first few
Speaker 10: people to audition, and Quincy told me years later that
Speaker 10: everyone who performed after me had to be as good
Speaker 10: as me or better than me.
Speaker 7: So I went home that day. Baby, the bar was set.
Speaker 10: I went home, and over the course of nine months,
Speaker 10: I would get these letters, Congratulations, you're one of five
Speaker 10: hunters the quizy. The next letter, you're still in the running,
Speaker 10: two hundred and fifty, one hundred, seventy five, fifty, twenty five, fifteen, ten, five, four,
Speaker 10: me and three dudes.
Speaker 1: Wait. I wonder what was like for the fifth person
Speaker 1: to get like seven letters I'm gonna quit my job,
Speaker 1: Holy Hands that Night Onions Act the one.
Speaker 10: This is a little known fact, since you're into all
Speaker 10: this kind of minutia. Yeah, you know, the little known
Speaker 10: fact is that.
Speaker 7: Lisa Melvoy, Wendy's sister, he told us you wanted the
Speaker 7: fifth member of the group.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because when we first found Plush, I was like,
Speaker 1: is this the group that Susanna was talking about? So
Speaker 1: he wanted to put together a he wanted to know.
Speaker 10: He wanted uh uh, he wanted a fifth mention or
Speaker 10: Manhattan Transfer. He just wanted men and women who sang together,
Speaker 10: or a group.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: He really wanted to take six, but they hadn't been
Speaker 7: discovered yet.
Speaker 8: Who were the other guys?
Speaker 10: And one was Kevin Dorsey, one was Darryl Finnassy and
Speaker 10: the other guy was David Swanson. But the guys that
Speaker 10: ended up going on the road with me was Darryl Fits,
Speaker 10: Kevin Dorsey, and a guy named Dorian Holly.
Speaker 7: He's on. He used to sing, We used to sing
Speaker 7: on everybody everything. Yeah, and he had a really amazing
Speaker 7: rich bass voice.
Speaker 1: Daryl, I know from the Michael Jackson with Michael for years.
Speaker 7: Right, Yes, let me apologize in advance for his no.
Speaker 1: Okay, so fired swinging. So that's what. So this was
Speaker 1: in eighty one, Okay, I believe this was eighty one
Speaker 1: or eighty two, because I think Susannah was going to
Speaker 1: take the gig and then Prince talked her out of
Speaker 1: doing it, yes and said come with.
Speaker 5: Us and Whndy, But Wendy didn't come around until like
Speaker 5: eighty three, eighty eighty two.
Speaker 1: Okay, but I remember her conclusion. The conclusion was that
Speaker 1: he told her, like.
Speaker 7: I always wondered what that was about. They never told
Speaker 7: us why. She was no longer.
Speaker 1: Very ambiguous with it. Yeah, So thanks for that was
Speaker 1: the name of the group or the project Deco.
Speaker 7: We had one. Okay, we were signed and we were
Speaker 7: offered artist contracts and writers contracts. I was I hadn't
Speaker 7: written no song poems, okay.
Speaker 10: And I wasn't about to be on the other end
Speaker 10: of the lawsuit with Quincy Jones for not fulfilling my
Speaker 10: contractual obligations. So I was like, you know what, guys,
Speaker 10: I'm just gonna sign the artist part and you guys
Speaker 10: you signed the writers. They were like fine, whatever, So
Speaker 10: they took our contracts, went to Quincy's house, I mean
Speaker 10: the Quincy's office, and he did the equivalent of just
Speaker 10: like shuffling their contracts on the desk and said, well,
Speaker 10: we're Sayita's contract. They said, oh, she didn't. She didn't
Speaker 10: want She just wants the artist thing. She doesn't want
Speaker 10: a songwriter's thing.
Speaker 7: So Quincy pushed their papers back across the desk to
Speaker 7: them and said, you either all sign or nobody signs.
Speaker 7: Next thing, I know, saita.
Speaker 1: Bitch, what open his door.
Speaker 7: When three large black men calling you signed the contract?
Speaker 10: So I signed, and then I began the process of
Speaker 10: learning the craft of writing a song. They began the
Speaker 10: process of cashing their checks. So I was kept on
Speaker 10: for seven years. They were dismissed after one year.
Speaker 1: So you had no designs whatsoever to.
Speaker 7: Be a because here's why. No, no, no, here's why.
Speaker 10: Because let's just say, Quincy said, okay, you guys have
Speaker 10: to write twelve songs a year, twelve songs that I
Speaker 10: own the publishing too. So they were like, fine, they're musicians.
Speaker 10: They can whip up a song, you know, just them
Speaker 10: twelve songs and you're fine.
Speaker 7: I okay. If I if they had to whip up twelve,
Speaker 7: that means fifty percent. That means I gotta whip up
Speaker 7: twenty four and don't let three people be in the room.
Speaker 7: I was like, no, no, I don't. I don't need this.
Speaker 1: I just want to be an artist, and he wants
Speaker 1: individual songs, so it's not like you as a collective, Like, okay,
Speaker 1: so Bill and I have the song we want to
Speaker 1: submit to you.
Speaker 10: Sure if if you're signed to him, then he owns
Speaker 10: fifty percent of your s and Bill gets to keep
Speaker 10: his part.
Speaker 7: But that's only half a song for you. So you
Speaker 7: still got living to have most songs deliver crazy. Yes, exactly,
Speaker 7: exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: That's another thinking meme moment is there's an audio equivalent that's.
Speaker 7: Crazy things that make you go DN.
Speaker 1: Okay, So that's interesting. So how does so once that's
Speaker 1: in place. How does don't look any further come in
Speaker 1: to okay? And the thing is, if you're signed to him,
Speaker 1: are there restrictions for writing for other people or like,
Speaker 1: does he get first DIBs on all that? Y? Yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: okay the latter.
Speaker 10: Once I was waiting those nine months, that's when all
Speaker 10: those producers, Barry Mann and Cynthia while Dennis Lamberton, Franny Goldie,
Speaker 10: they were all in the rooms, all in the room,
Speaker 10: and I started doing I even did Shaka's demo Through
Speaker 10: the Fire. Let me tell you said the wait a minute,
Speaker 10: wait since a while.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, somewhere on this earth is your version Through
Speaker 1: the Fire?
Speaker 10: I wanted it so bad she she claimed she couldn't
Speaker 10: find the couldn't find the demo wink wink anyway, so
Speaker 10: she uh, when I was singing the demo, she did
Speaker 10: not know. Shaka Khan is the reason I sing okay.
Speaker 10: Shaka Khan was my vocal idol. I loved her riffs,
Speaker 10: I loved her tone. I love the fact that Miles
Speaker 10: Davis sounds told her her voice sounds like a horn,
Speaker 10: because it does. She's just She's just so sharp and
Speaker 10: crisp and I love Shaka. So I was doing this
Speaker 10: demo and they said, well, we're writing a song for
Speaker 10: Shaka Khan. I said, uh, sure, I'll sing it. So
Speaker 10: I was singing this song and I sang through the Fire.
Speaker 10: She said, don't do the art like that, don't roll,
Speaker 10: don't I said, you have no idea.
Speaker 7: That is shack. I said, trust me, I've been singing
Speaker 7: Shaka Khan songs since I can remember. That is Shaka
Speaker 7: through the Fire. And I did that ship Shaka loved it.
Speaker 7: She did every lick that I did on the demo,
Speaker 7: and I was like, praise the Lord.
Speaker 1: I have I have know you you were.
Speaker 10: Then I was the demonstration singer Dolly.
Speaker 7: I demonstrated how the song should be sung.
Speaker 1: God.
Speaker 10: So so then it goes back to Dennis Edwards and
Speaker 10: Chaka Khan. Right, yes, so I'm getting getting hot in here.
Speaker 7: Okay, what you're talking about, don't be blocking nobodys.
Speaker 8: I didn't looking over there, girl, So congratulations.
Speaker 10: I did this demo for for Freddy Goldie and Dennis
Speaker 10: Lambert and it was the song Don't Look any Further.
Speaker 10: So that was supposed to be a day, but they
Speaker 10: couldn't get the two in the room at the same time.
Speaker 10: I don't know what was happening, and Shaka was on tour,
Speaker 10: Dennis was down somewhere. Anyway, I did the demo, and
Speaker 10: I did the demo the whole song. Dennis Edwards came
Speaker 10: in a few weeks later and put his vocal on.
Speaker 10: So in the meantime, they were trying to find Shaka,
Speaker 10: couldn't Warner Motown said, look, we got to we have
Speaker 10: a release date. We have to release this single. Who
Speaker 10: we can't find Shaka? No, Well, who's on the record.
Speaker 7: Some chick named Saya Garrett Great, leave her on it.
Speaker 10: So I go back to the studio thinking, I'm gonna
Speaker 10: I'm gonna do my real vocal now, right, gets you
Speaker 10: a real fang? Dennis LeVert said, oh, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 10: We're keeping the vocal you did. So the vocal you
Speaker 10: hear bitches, it's my demo vocal. So the next time
Speaker 10: somebody tell you, oh, it's just a demo, smack them
Speaker 10: in the box for me, Just smack them right in
Speaker 10: the damn mouth that I can.
Speaker 7: Curse on this.
Speaker 1: Let it be known that Eric's will in his eyes
Speaker 1: in the corner. Eric's having the best time that anybody's having.
Speaker 7: No you gotta see.
Speaker 1: So that's how it happened. It's it's amazing because it's
Speaker 1: amazing to me because the very first time I saw
Speaker 1: you was on Soul Train.
Speaker 7: I'm sorry, go ahead, yes, I'll take all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was on Soul Train. And you know, even
Speaker 1: in the show introduction when you know, sim McCoy is like,
Speaker 1: you know and guest stars you see Dinnis Edwards. I
Speaker 1: was like, Wow, who's that woman that's standing with Dennis
Speaker 1: Edwards in the digital box intro? And I watched it
Speaker 1: and it was like you, that was your set. Dennis
Speaker 1: wasn't even I'm I'm I'm a Soul Train of file
Speaker 1: as well, so I'm not trying to freak you guys out,
Speaker 1: but that was such that was a star making turn.
Speaker 1: Like you took over, not even took over because it
Speaker 1: feels like a code top, but it was like presence.
Speaker 1: I remembered, Yes, I remembered you more than Dennis Edward
Speaker 1: having the best hit of his career since what standing
Speaker 1: on the top forever. Yeah, And and that was such
Speaker 1: a star making like you really made the most of it.
Speaker 1: I also have to say that that video is okay.
Speaker 7: I'm gonna smack you, so listen, listen.
Speaker 1: I love it for the right reasons.
Speaker 7: Okay, check this out.
Speaker 1: I'm in love.
Speaker 10: That video was shot in the basement of Motown Records.
Speaker 10: I think it costs eleven dollars and fifty seven cents
Speaker 10: including the.
Speaker 7: Electricity that customer. Yeah, and Dennis was not in his
Speaker 7: best form.
Speaker 1: Though.
Speaker 10: In fact, Dennis was like he was so amped up.
Speaker 10: The video director between shoots, she would come over. At
Speaker 10: one point she came over with a piece of paper
Speaker 10: and she said, let me, can you put your gum in?
Speaker 7: And Dennis was like, Ain't got no gum, Ain't got
Speaker 7: no gum. I go my mama, mama. He was just
Speaker 7: chewing the ship out of his own tongue.
Speaker 1: Now look at it.
Speaker 7: Yes, and then I didn't know it at the time,
Speaker 7: but you know when I turned around with my back
Speaker 7: to Dennis with the capitol K now, you never be
Speaker 7: able to look at that video on the same look.
Speaker 8: I'm sorry, g that dress, that blue, the.
Speaker 7: Blue with loose way child blu. Wait. But listen, when
Speaker 7: I turned around, I didn't know that he was humping
Speaker 7: me behind me. I had no idea when that happened.
Speaker 7: That move and when I saw it, I said, that
Speaker 7: nasty best.
Speaker 1: You, but you made the most of them, Like, how
Speaker 1: how long did you have to promote the song with?
Speaker 7: It was a It was a hot summer on the
Speaker 7: East Coast. It was not pleasant.
Speaker 10: We did clubs and Dennis had Okay, you know he
Speaker 10: had groupies, and you know Usher has groupies, but these were.
Speaker 7: Not like mama. Okay, So Dennis's groupies correlated with his age.
Speaker 1: I get it. So we had some a little one.
Speaker 10: So I'll tell you one experience. We were at this
Speaker 10: club called Silver Something in Jersey, right, silver Shadow. So
Speaker 10: it was one big dressing room. You there, I told him, So,
Speaker 10: I guess he's been in that club. You know, Garrett
Speaker 10: Eric used to do an R for Epic Okay, okay,
Speaker 10: VPR you remember Clive Davis.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't even know it. Ok just a little
Speaker 1: nugget for your thank you for this is the honor
Speaker 1: of my life, right should ringtone? I know? Okay?
Speaker 10: So thens it was almost time to do the show,
Speaker 10: and he had all these people and they were smoking
Speaker 10: and drinking and going in the bathroom to smoke.
Speaker 11: What I'm saying.
Speaker 10: So yeah, So I said, excuse me, I you know,
Speaker 10: I'd like to get dressed now. One of his groupie said, oh,
Speaker 10: you ain't got nothing. He ain't never saying before.
Speaker 1: Never ever.
Speaker 10: I said, he hasn't seen this one before, so can
Speaker 10: I just change my clothes? So he left went to
Speaker 10: the bathroom. But it was those kind of things.
Speaker 7: I'm trying to do a show and he and his
Speaker 7: other buddies and their chicks and his chick all in
Speaker 7: the room and it's like one little dressing room. I'm like,
Speaker 7: can you please? Anyway?
Speaker 10: Years later he sent me he called me and apologized
Speaker 10: because I guess that's.
Speaker 7: An that's a thing you have to do when you go.
Speaker 1: Through the steps.
Speaker 7: Yeah, whatever, it.
Speaker 1: Is one of the steps. Yes, not HR a little
Speaker 1: further past HR. That's A and N A not HR
Speaker 1: wrung acronym.
Speaker 10: Okay, Yeah, he was making amends and I accepted his apology,
Speaker 10: but I said, you were so mean to me.
Speaker 7: He's not I know. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but.
Speaker 1: Yeah, are you only there for one song? And that
Speaker 1: there's smart I can take. Really, Yes, I would have
Speaker 1: incorporate you in this show.
Speaker 10: And like, but Dennis wasn't trying to be in no
Speaker 10: show with anybody else. He was just trying to do Dennis. Yeah,
Speaker 10: and we were just promoting the single at the time.
Speaker 8: So can I just ask the dumb question here?
Speaker 7: Yes, I think this is the platform.
Speaker 8: Even the dumb ones got to be smart.
Speaker 7: Let me see how I say this.
Speaker 8: I'm at de jump.
Speaker 1: Just please.
Speaker 7: With your job of juice.
Speaker 10: Wait, it's the name I asked for any and Dennis,
Speaker 10: it's They just looked up names of African cities.
Speaker 11: We thought it was.
Speaker 7: It might be, it might be, it might be.
Speaker 10: I'm not sure, but it's just that they like the
Speaker 10: sound of certain cities and they just strung them together.
Speaker 7: But here's how it goes.
Speaker 1: Yes, dao y.
Speaker 7: Owned by now jambay m Bayo ca no no Cairo.
Speaker 8: Jamba the jumbe by you now jambem.
Speaker 1: By your no Cairo still no Cairo? Wrong?
Speaker 8: The jambey by shot.
Speaker 7: Jam you all right?
Speaker 11: What was the other one?
Speaker 7: Dale Nambu I o.
Speaker 1: I in the wrong room. Some wandered into both.
Speaker 7: He got that sugar hit in the right room.
Speaker 1: Thank you for finally settling that.
Speaker 7: So welcome because it was a problem.
Speaker 8: It was a problem like I'm a day they put
Speaker 8: them in there that.
Speaker 7: I got my juice up in there my city, Cairo.
Speaker 1: So can you explain to us and the listeners, but
Speaker 1: mostly to me, what is what is it like pounding
Speaker 1: the pavement on the background singer uh circuit, which I'm
Speaker 1: sure that was your next step. I mean you've done
Speaker 1: countless of Yeah.
Speaker 7: That was an education though, man, that was the real.
Speaker 10: Learning experience for me, because, like I said, I started
Speaker 10: doing demos for l A songwriters and producers, so I
Speaker 10: got to I got to experience completely different styles from
Speaker 10: every you know, pop producer that was on the charts
Speaker 10: and was writing songs for whatever Quincy's next artist was.
Speaker 7: So it was it was a true training ground for
Speaker 7: me as a as a singer.
Speaker 10: And singing uh lead is a completely different animal than
Speaker 10: blending with other people to make a cohesive background sound
Speaker 10: to the way you have to You can't you can't stand,
Speaker 10: you can't step out, and you can't be too silent.
Speaker 7: You have to blend.
Speaker 10: You have to create a sound, a harmonious sound with
Speaker 10: the other people that you're singing with. And that's what
Speaker 10: I loved so much about singing background on other people's
Speaker 10: records that in the fact that I got to work
Speaker 10: with producers that I never would ever work with because
Speaker 10: I'm not that that big artist that they're writing for,
Speaker 10: But I'm the chick that shows the artists how to
Speaker 10: sing the song. It's just such an amazing, powerful feeling.
Speaker 10: And nobody does demos anymore. Nobody, you know, it's a
Speaker 10: sad state of affairs.
Speaker 1: Well, yes, I don't know. Maybe they just become the
Speaker 1: final the final product. So I guess you worked with
Speaker 1: who did True Blue? Steve, Stephen Bray and Patrick Lennon, Right, Yes, so.
Speaker 7: Oh, I have a great story for you. Yes, this
Speaker 7: is this is about Madonna, and she she fucking loves
Speaker 7: the story.
Speaker 10: So we're making music on the True Blue album and
Speaker 10: Steve says to me, we need some background singers.
Speaker 7: I'm like, okay, I'll call you know, I'll call somebody.
Speaker 7: So I called. I'm trying to think of what kind
Speaker 7: of blend for this song. So I called my friend, uh.
Speaker 10: Uh, Eddie Layman, who was like the jingle singer, the person,
Speaker 10: perfect pitch.
Speaker 7: She was on every every movie score. She was the singer.
Speaker 7: So I called Edie because I'd sung with her before,
Speaker 7: and I said, they need one more person. And before
Speaker 7: I thought too much more about it, Madonna was right there.
Speaker 7: I said, you want to sing on this record because
Speaker 7: I can hire you to sing. Donna yet, yes, this Madonna. No,
Speaker 7: it's Madonna.
Speaker 1: Madonna.
Speaker 8: I know she was status.
Speaker 7: She was Madonna.
Speaker 1: This was like second album, yird al.
Speaker 7: So she said, yeah, so we're singing, right, and Madonna
Speaker 7: would uh uh.
Speaker 10: She We would joke and laughing, and every time she
Speaker 10: would make a joke, she would just like tap that ass.
Speaker 10: She would make a joke and just tap me on that.
Speaker 10: So after two or three times the ass tapping, I said, bits,
Speaker 10: you touched my.
Speaker 7: She said, oh, saying I'm just.
Speaker 1: But that was it.
Speaker 7: She didn't.
Speaker 10: But you know what, three or four years later, maybe
Speaker 10: ten years later, I'm in this restaurant on Lasi mantohisa,
Speaker 10: I'm in the private dining area because that's how I.
Speaker 1: Ma.
Speaker 7: I'm by myself. I don't give a shit. I don't
Speaker 7: care you find myself.
Speaker 10: I don't care what people think about me sitting along
Speaker 10: and in the I don't give a shit. So it
Speaker 10: was me and then an walks Madonna and her.
Speaker 1: Husband, so trying which one.
Speaker 8: Yeah, okay, okay, the husband has been I got the director.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, mister Ritchie. So I said to her. She goes, hey, sayta,
Speaker 7: how are you. I'm like, I'm great, Hi missus Richie
Speaker 7: and her husband just being because.
Speaker 1: Who calls her that?
Speaker 10: You know what I'm saying, Hi missus Richie. So she said, so, Sayda,
Speaker 10: what have you been doing? What are you doing lately?
Speaker 10: And I said I had heard that one of her
Speaker 10: background singers was was not working out too well.
Speaker 7: So when she said, so, what are you up to?
Speaker 7: I said, I'm waiting for Donna to fuck up so
Speaker 7: I can take her place.
Speaker 1: Where it was.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that demon. Anyway, that's another that I'm not getting.
Speaker 1: My husband.
Speaker 7: Okay, I don't.
Speaker 1: Get so many bodies have been discussing right now.
Speaker 7: So anyway, all right, anyway.
Speaker 1: So we have to go dig more holes.
Speaker 7: What I was gonna say, anyway, we got the shovel
Speaker 7: in the car.
Speaker 1: Okay, Jesus, keep going. I don't even know what I
Speaker 1: was saying in my head. Wait, you're Dona. Donna walked
Speaker 1: past and you smacked on the ass. That's really wanted
Speaker 1: the wrong.
Speaker 8: Ass, you said, I heard Donna. Fuck Yeah, she laughed.
Speaker 7: So three years later I get a call.
Speaker 10: Three years maybe a year and a half but it
Speaker 10: was a lengthy maybe almost almost two years, maybe three.
Speaker 10: So I get this call and uh, I ended up
Speaker 10: going on the road with her for a summer, the
Speaker 10: Reinvention Tour. We rehearsed for a month and we were
Speaker 10: out for three months, and it was the longest year
Speaker 10: and a half of my life.
Speaker 1: How Yeah, when when you are a when you're a
Speaker 1: natural born magnet and your own planet.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's a good description.
Speaker 1: No, when you are your own how do you know
Speaker 1: when to fall back and just blending when you're so
Speaker 1: obviously like you shined.
Speaker 10: Well here, I have to give Madonna kudos because she
Speaker 10: knows that no matter who else is on stage, it's
Speaker 10: all about Madonna.
Speaker 7: So if you understand that, then you can roll with her.
Speaker 7: It's not a problem.
Speaker 1: But you have to resign to that. Like sign for
Speaker 1: the gig.
Speaker 10: I knew what I was doing when I signed up
Speaker 10: for the gig. I knew who the star of the
Speaker 10: planet was. And it wasn't say to get it right,
Speaker 10: I wasn't filling up stadiums.
Speaker 1: They can't to see her right, right, So there's no
Speaker 1: never any temptations.
Speaker 7: Well, she would bring me.
Speaker 1: She brought me out to do a solo.
Speaker 7: I mean the other Donna had been on the road
Speaker 7: with her for seventeen years.
Speaker 10: I've been never got a solo, So I knew there
Speaker 10: was something about me that she understood and she respected.
Speaker 10: But Donna, if you if you don't cower, if you
Speaker 10: don't back down, then she respects that.
Speaker 7: Mmm. She truly does.
Speaker 10: And she knows she's not the best dancer. No, she's
Speaker 10: not the best singer. Will be the first to tell
Speaker 10: you that. But that bitch is the hardest worker I've
Speaker 10: ever met in my life.
Speaker 1: True, she works her arts off. You're right, You're right.
Speaker 7: And if she was saying for twenty fucking ye, that's
Speaker 7: what she'd say. I'm the cherry picker to all her
Speaker 7: fans that she hovered above them. Its for being my
Speaker 7: fans for twenty fucking It's awesome.
Speaker 1: Wow. What are the rules to to surviving in that
Speaker 1: that kind of world?
Speaker 7: That circuit you know who the star is and it's
Speaker 7: usually not the background.
Speaker 1: Well no, no, no, no, I don't even mean for
Speaker 1: conscious I'm talking about like, when you're called for work,
Speaker 1: is it do producers look for? Like, Okay, who sings
Speaker 1: the flatts without the most vibrato? Who shows up a
Speaker 1: half hour early.
Speaker 10: Who a good producer will consider all of those things
Speaker 10: because they already know what kind of sound they're looking for,
Speaker 10: and they'll just hire the singers that they think can
Speaker 10: create that sound for them.
Speaker 1: Is it easy for you to track everything yourself or
Speaker 1: to do it with like who are your who are
Speaker 1: the contemporaries, who are the go to people in background work?
Speaker 1: In the first half of the eighties, it had to
Speaker 1: be like, you.
Speaker 10: Know, Lisa Fisher, all those New York Audrew Wheeler, Sendy Mizelle.
Speaker 7: La singers were not even.
Speaker 1: Featured in this twenty Steps.
Speaker 10: Yeah, and then there was background singers that didn't really
Speaker 10: have a background anyway. That's something else I can't oh Tatha,
Speaker 10: all these all these amazing singers, and Tauatha might have even.
Speaker 7: Been on that DJ Rodgers thing of mine, yeah, my
Speaker 7: first gig.
Speaker 10: But anyway, you get to know who you know, the
Speaker 10: ones that are dependable, the ones who get the job done,
Speaker 10: the ones that do it quickly, and the ones that
Speaker 10: also Producers are looking for people to come up with
Speaker 10: ideas that they didn't think of, you know, different harmony parts,
Speaker 10: different counter melody parts that you could come.
Speaker 7: Up with on the spot.
Speaker 1: So do they send you the track pronto learn.
Speaker 8: And if you make changes you get a check for that.
Speaker 7: No, No, that's part of why they hired you. They
Speaker 7: knew you could make the product better without, you.
Speaker 1: Know, being a writer. I work for higher So you
Speaker 1: know what I this this morning when I was recapping everything,
Speaker 1: I freaking forgot about Do you want it right now?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Wow, it's just one of those things that escaped me.
Speaker 7: Check this out.
Speaker 1: Yes, nerder Rama, Yes, ringtone song.
Speaker 7: Was produced by Jellybeans.
Speaker 10: Okay, he was one of the three producers that I
Speaker 10: had after one of my ill fated albums that is
Speaker 10: on the Shelf and Warner Brothers that will be never
Speaker 10: never ever be heard or seen from in life.
Speaker 1: But he would wait, wait, Marie Wind.
Speaker 7: It was after the fact. I my first album on
Speaker 7: Quest had three producers jelly Bean, Glenn Ballard and and
Speaker 7: Cliff Magnus and Robbie Neville and it.
Speaker 1: Never came out eighty five five. Remember so this before
Speaker 1: life there was an album.
Speaker 7: Yes, yes, there were two albums.
Speaker 10: There were a lot of changes that went from Quest,
Speaker 10: transition to Warner Brothers and Divorced, and it was a
Speaker 10: lot of it was a lot of shit going on.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, do we have anybody. I'm gonna find one.
Speaker 7: You're gonna find one.
Speaker 1: Oh, we do that. We're gonna we're gonna're gonna try
Speaker 1: and find that record. Both of them.
Speaker 7: They were never released. They're on but we're gonna find Oh,
Speaker 7: I'm scared of you guys, anyway.
Speaker 1: To do that? Yeah, we lost, don't be scared.
Speaker 7: So this, this single do you Want It Right Now?
Speaker 7: Was in the Sydney Pontier directorial debut Fast Forward, and
Speaker 7: the song is in the movie in the guitar solo.
Speaker 7: So you never even heard me say a word on
Speaker 7: the film, But that song was released to the dance
Speaker 7: clubs and it was number one dance record.
Speaker 1: It was inescapable. Yeah argument, I thought it was Shannon
Speaker 1: in the beginning, but it was No. I know no,
Speaker 1: I mean I was what thirteen at the time, but
Speaker 1: they always played it on Power ninety nine and Philly.
Speaker 8: This is the fast forward the movie, the dance the
Speaker 8: song before the movie right fast.
Speaker 1: You've seen that movie.
Speaker 8: What I seen all the dancing movies.
Speaker 7: That movie was like twenty minutes.
Speaker 6: We had the Blonde and then the Rich I remember,
Speaker 6: and then the Black guy and the white guy and
Speaker 6: their friends team together.
Speaker 1: This is this is a key moment. I wish was
Speaker 1: here that on top of us on what you're experiencing now,
Speaker 1: what you feel it's never happened. You know some ship
Speaker 1: that's okay. Have you seen Body Rock? Yeah? Must be,
Speaker 1: must be your spike. Lee Glasses said, all right, we're
Speaker 1: falling to a rabbit right here.
Speaker 7: So it's dark in there.
Speaker 1: On it is. So even on the strength of having
Speaker 1: that single, no one at Warners was like, Okay, let's
Speaker 1: let's get that out. Let's get the product out.
Speaker 10: There was a lot of upheaval and the Warner family
Speaker 10: and the Quest family, and it was I just sort
Speaker 10: of fell through the cracks. I'm an artist, but as
Speaker 10: a songwriter, you know, it behooved Quest to you know,
Speaker 10: plug me into different projects, which is how I came
Speaker 10: to meet Michael.
Speaker 1: What what keeps you? What keeps you sing?
Speaker 11: That keeps me saying it was married?
Speaker 1: What keeps you saying? The little he's the loudest one
Speaker 1: in the room, but you didn't hear one boy.
Speaker 7: So he's glad he went from twenty Okay, so shut up.
Speaker 1: But what I want to know, Damn they just gave
Speaker 1: each other high five. That's amazing relationship. He's like, I'll
Speaker 1: go get the shovel. What so, But I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: man too, you know, to start when you did, and
Speaker 1: then to have the Plus project almost be a contender,
Speaker 1: and then you might get some heat on the dennist
Speaker 1: at Wards problem. It's almost a contender and kind of
Speaker 1: some close. No Cigars not my year. It's not my year.
Speaker 1: I'm sure every like New Year's Eve, you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, it's gonna be the It's gonna be it.
Speaker 1: And like, what keeps you grounded? Because usually in the
Speaker 1: cases I know, a lot of bitterness starts to enter
Speaker 1: artist lives, usually by the sixth year of like the
Speaker 1: no Cigar situation, Like, okay, if it doesn't happen this year, well,
Speaker 1: and what what keeps you what by this point mentally speaking,
Speaker 1: like with the way that the label was, what keeps
Speaker 1: you hanging on?
Speaker 11: Wait?
Speaker 1: Is this where Benny enters the picture? God? Sorry, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Eric, he was already no, no, no, let
Speaker 1: me just I'm trying to explain that this show is
Speaker 1: is not This is probably the deepest we've ever gotten
Speaker 1: into yeah, because I know, But seriously, I'm more curious
Speaker 1: about the creative process and getting from point A to
Speaker 1: point Z, not just like give me this insation his stories,
Speaker 1: like you know what Sirt was that and I were
Speaker 1: in that day. But I am curious about obstacles that
Speaker 1: are in your way and how you deal with it
Speaker 1: and overcome such a thing to get to.
Speaker 7: Man, you just I don't know.
Speaker 8: You just don't.
Speaker 7: I just haven't stopped. You can't stop. You just got
Speaker 7: to keep focused.
Speaker 10: I on the prize, just keep your keep focused on
Speaker 10: your goals, no matter. And then all that other stuff
Speaker 10: is just extraneous stuff that's happening while you're focused on
Speaker 10: your goal.
Speaker 1: So what okay for that point? What in your eyes?
Speaker 1: And you know everyone has a plan and quote God
Speaker 1: laughs at you. Whatever that thing is that that's that's saying.
Speaker 1: What were your aspirations during that period?
Speaker 10: I was gonna be Madonna and then I was gonna
Speaker 10: be Beyonce. I was gonna be it, but that part
Speaker 10: of my career just never kind of took off. But
Speaker 10: as a songwriter, because the focus wasn't on me as
Speaker 10: an artist, I think I had to concentrate on what
Speaker 10: was happening, and as a songwriter, I was doing a
Speaker 10: lot more than I was as my own artist. I mean,
Speaker 10: if you can't have a hit song after having a
Speaker 10: duet with the king of pop, the biggest pop songwriter
Speaker 10: in the world, if your record company can't get it
Speaker 10: together after that, and then a few months after that,
Speaker 10: you wrote the fifth single from the biggest pop song
Speaker 10: right pop artist in the world, and you still can't
Speaker 10: get to get it going.
Speaker 7: It just wasn't meant for me. Like I was on
Speaker 7: the Bad Tour, the single had just come out.
Speaker 10: Warner Brothers like, you gotta you gotta stay here and
Speaker 10: we gotta make your record.
Speaker 7: You gotta, you know, while this is hot, you gotta
Speaker 7: do this, and the Men of the Mirror is coming out.
Speaker 7: You got to make your own record.
Speaker 10: So I rehearsed with the Bad Tour for like a week, right,
Speaker 10: And after a week I told Michael, I said, dude,
Speaker 10: I gotta, I gotta do my own sit.
Speaker 7: I mean, Warner Brothers is saying so sorry. I I
Speaker 7: left entered Sheryl Crow and the rest herstory bitches her history.
Speaker 6: I see the executives ever come to you like you
Speaker 6: know in that artist type of way. Well, if you
Speaker 6: change this, and if you change.
Speaker 8: That, because I always thought it was dope, you were
Speaker 8: ahead of your time.
Speaker 10: You know how I feel about here, blig They I was,
Speaker 10: you know, they looked at me and they saw an
Speaker 10: R and B singer, and which is which I wasn't.
Speaker 10: I'm a pop singer, but I'm not Madonna, so they
Speaker 10: were the look didn't match the road I was trying
Speaker 10: to go down. So after a while, you gotta go
Speaker 10: with the flow, baby, You gotta however it's flowing.
Speaker 7: You gotta make that work.
Speaker 1: But you can't. You you have to understand that usually
Speaker 1: the conclusion that you just told me, that's always reached
Speaker 1: in hindsight. Now, I mean, the key reason why I
Speaker 1: even have this show as a platform is for what
Speaker 1: you just said, because I got about six or seven
Speaker 1: people in my lives. My lives. I have six or
Speaker 1: seven people in my life who their narrative is constantly
Speaker 1: going down dead in the streets and just like, nope, nope,
Speaker 1: you read that.
Speaker 7: Book about the Cheese and the Rats and the New Cheese.
Speaker 7: I forgot the name of it, but but who moved
Speaker 7: my cheese? Okay?
Speaker 10: That book is about these two little rats who every
Speaker 10: day they would get out of their little house and
Speaker 10: get dressed for work, and they go then the maize
Speaker 10: and they find the cheese.
Speaker 7: And then they go home and.
Speaker 10: Get undressed, go to sleep. Next day to get up,
Speaker 10: get dressed, go down the maize and find the cheese.
Speaker 10: One day there was no cheese, but one little rat
Speaker 10: just kept getting up, getting dressed, going down the road,
Speaker 10: find them looking for the other rat started looking for
Speaker 10: some new cheese.
Speaker 7: So as an artist, I was looking for the new cheese.
Speaker 1: That's the best cheese story I've ever heard of. This,
Speaker 1: it was I just want to know I've been in
Speaker 1: that new chiese situation. Yeah, because again I personally and
Speaker 1: I hate I know I'm regressing the older mirror where
Speaker 1: I start taking all the interviews and making the interview
Speaker 1: about me and instead of the artist.
Speaker 7: But I got it.
Speaker 1: This This is a rare This is rare tell us
Speaker 1: about the cheese, tell us about the cheese. But I'm
Speaker 1: just saying that ever Blue was a Swiss. As an
Speaker 1: artist in the beginning, when you're first starting, you have
Speaker 1: these lofty goals of what you want your life to be. Yes,
Speaker 1: I didn't ask to you know it wasn't a dream.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, you said, oh yeah, I like the
Speaker 1: host of radio show or be the new doc Severson
Speaker 1: on a But I didn't grow up like as an
Speaker 1: eight year old, like hmm, like half of the stuff
Speaker 1: like writing, you know, books about food and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: I had a specific goal that I thought was going
Speaker 1: to get me to where my dream was. And then
Speaker 1: you know, but I also have about four or five
Speaker 1: ledge talkers that talked me off the ledge from sabotage
Speaker 1: and stuff. Because when stuff doesn't go right for me,
Speaker 1: my first instinct is fuck it. And now none of
Speaker 1: us can play ball, you know, like I'm that person.
Speaker 13: But oh you I'm taking my ball and I'm going home.
Speaker 13: I'll take the ball and roof it so nobody can
Speaker 13: have it. But I'm also smart enough to listen if three,
Speaker 13: like fifty million Elevis fans can't be wrong. So if
Speaker 13: four people are telling me I think you need to
Speaker 13: fuck you're fucking up. I need you to breathe, calm
Speaker 13: down different way.
Speaker 1: You need to Yeah, who, I'm not saying that you're
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that I had that.
Speaker 7: But how did you.
Speaker 1: Because the narrative of anyone else I talked to this
Speaker 1: is where the downside of the period happened. But you
Speaker 1: just went with a punch and like, okay, well it
Speaker 1: wasn't meant for me to what what?
Speaker 10: I had no other options like what were There was
Speaker 10: no other alternative you either. It was not about I
Speaker 10: was not about to just go down like that. I
Speaker 10: I was just not going out like that.
Speaker 1: I had.
Speaker 10: I wanted to just find a new way to make
Speaker 10: my name, to get my music out there. And if
Speaker 10: it wasn't through me, then I'll just write it for
Speaker 10: somebody else to do.
Speaker 1: All right, Yeah, I'm gonna bookmark this part of the
Speaker 1: interview and make sure that ninety five billion people listen
Speaker 1: to you. You saying that because I that's yes. Can
Speaker 1: we title this new case so fund check this out
Speaker 1: For those of.
Speaker 10: You who are who are living southern California. For the
Speaker 10: last sixteen years, from two thousand to January twenty sixteen,
Speaker 10: I was the voice of Toyota for Southern California.
Speaker 1: Jingle new Cheese, Cheese Baby.
Speaker 10: Now it's your Toyota dealer. You can get a great
Speaker 10: deal on our twenty sixteen Toyota.
Speaker 7: Let's go places. Let's go places, viness. Listen where my
Speaker 7: career goes. Yes, yeah, new cheese.
Speaker 10: Now who I didn't wake up going, oh my god,
Speaker 10: I want to I want to be that announcer girl.
Speaker 7: It happened. I was singing the jingle we make It Easy,
Speaker 7: Oh so easy.
Speaker 1: I'm in that.
Speaker 7: You done many, many for many name something that I
Speaker 7: don't know or I might know, or uh.
Speaker 10: Well, I've done likes of PEPSI likes of Coca Cola commercials,
Speaker 10: Jack in the box, McDonald's just ooz and ohs all
Speaker 10: over the place, and and the dang you real rich No, no.
Speaker 7: Wrong, I'm on that too, and.
Speaker 1: I'm just let me And that's another thing. This is
Speaker 1: gonna be that episode.
Speaker 8: Okay, that's fine.
Speaker 1: Just because you work a lot doesn't mean that you're
Speaker 1: bringing in the dough.
Speaker 8: I know, like the trash man at work a lot.
Speaker 1: But when you are doing like plumber, I consider myself
Speaker 1: mister nineteen jobs.
Speaker 8: You don't know what a lot of dough is anymore.
Speaker 8: You're in a bubble. But to the director of the system, okay, I'm.
Speaker 1: Just saying it means that you're consistently working. You're a
Speaker 1: working class nigga.
Speaker 7: Anyway, I miss something.
Speaker 1: In it still j thoms they're.
Speaker 8: Good, but the jingles amazing.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 10: So yeah, that was another way for me to still
Speaker 10: sing and be musical, but not be an artist, and
Speaker 10: not be signed to a label and not be you
Speaker 10: know what else I hated about being signed to a label.
Speaker 10: They have their own agenda and it doesn't matter what
Speaker 10: kind of artists you want to be, or what artists
Speaker 10: you think you can be, or who you think you are.
Speaker 10: If you don't fit into that box that they have,
Speaker 10: the R and B box, the pop box with all
Speaker 10: the looks and everything that goes with it, then you
Speaker 10: are just looked over and you fall through the cracks.
Speaker 10: I know so many artists like that. Tevin was like that.
Speaker 10: Tevin had his sweet spot was before his balls dropped
Speaker 10: and his voice changed.
Speaker 7: So after that, nobody wanted.
Speaker 10: To Nobody wanted to fuck with seven because he didn't
Speaker 10: have those high notes anymore. But Tevin took his uh
Speaker 10: gift and his talent and he went to Broadway, so
Speaker 10: he found some new cheese.
Speaker 1: Wow. Not to mention your your your your your your
Speaker 1: acting game is is oh god, quite awesome. My first
Speaker 1: yeah right now, oh my god. You know, like when
Speaker 1: you get your first VCR. You gotta record everything when
Speaker 1: you were a kid.
Speaker 9: Yeah, Steve's like again some stuff my dad recorded that
Speaker 9: I happened to find out. Yeah, pretty much. Recording everything.
Speaker 7: Changed my life.
Speaker 1: We got a v c R. I recorded everything that
Speaker 1: was on television. It just happened. Her episode of the
Speaker 1: Facts of Life was the one that that I did well.
Speaker 7: I did Amen. I did an episode of Amen. I
Speaker 7: remember the episode.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you wanted to be U singer? I want to
Speaker 1: be No, Yeah she was, uh, I guess missus Garrett's girls.
Speaker 1: I wanted to enter Sing with the Elder Barge contest.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and I think George Clooney's character and whoever
Speaker 1: the kid was.
Speaker 7: Worked with George before.
Speaker 8: When they had their own bakery and whatnot.
Speaker 1: So they organized them to enter this contest and then.
Speaker 7: Tots Group one. It's the show.
Speaker 8: She lost the whole two of hearts things. Remember that one.
Speaker 7: Lost?
Speaker 1: Wait anyway, Stacy.
Speaker 7: Let me let me tell you. I was on an
Speaker 7: ill fated pilot called.
Speaker 10: The Valentine's On that that pilot episode was Tevin Campbell, Ali,
Speaker 10: Cindy Harron, Saya Garrett. They were like and and everybody
Speaker 10: was like nobody then and after that they went on
Speaker 10: to do what they went on to do. But Jeff
Speaker 10: Franklin was the producer of that and he produced Family
Speaker 10: Ties Full House.
Speaker 7: Right, so they did.
Speaker 10: They rebooted the show. And one of the actresses on
Speaker 10: the show, whose name is Jody's that one Sweden. She
Speaker 10: is in a rock band, her little band, and I
Speaker 10: wrote the song that her band sings. So this is
Speaker 10: like thirty years later that producer who hired me as
Speaker 10: a as an actress, and I was on the pilot
Speaker 10: as the sister of Cindy and Tevin, and we were in.
Speaker 7: This vocal group. Anyway, the pilot went nowhere, but he
Speaker 7: and I remained friends, and like thirty years after the fact,
Speaker 7: I got married at his house.
Speaker 10: In Beverly Hills and then he's said, well, we got
Speaker 10: this show, you want to write this, So I'm right.
Speaker 10: So those relationships that are forged early on in your career,
Speaker 10: if you know how to nurture them, they're just valuable.
Speaker 10: People remember how a professional you were, how important you
Speaker 10: were to the project they were working on, how you
Speaker 10: added your ideas.
Speaker 7: And they remember you for other things. But had I
Speaker 7: been an.
Speaker 1: Asshole on that set, Wait a minute, I'd have.
Speaker 7: Probably gotten married at the town Hall and Compton. Thank
Speaker 7: you very much.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, you just did you bring Tevin to Quincy?
Speaker 11: I did.
Speaker 7: I was one of the first few people.
Speaker 10: Quincy heard about Tevin from me and from Benny Bedina
Speaker 10: around the same time, because I was I was in
Speaker 10: the show with him, and I knew he could sing.
Speaker 7: Tevin had such a thick accent that I remember talking
Speaker 7: to him about some mark he had on his arm,
Speaker 7: or some really scar on his arm.
Speaker 10: I said, how'd you get that? He said, oh me,
Speaker 10: And we was running and I was running with some silzls.
Speaker 10: I said, you were running with what? Some sizzles? I said, child, where.
Speaker 8: Are you from?
Speaker 7: A waxahatchie Texas.
Speaker 1: Wed.
Speaker 7: They pronounced scissors like silzls.
Speaker 1: Watch, wax a hatchie, that on ju that's that's a
Speaker 1: watch wax.
Speaker 7: A hatchet and the genre baio. There will be a
Speaker 7: test later.
Speaker 8: He loves to ask him.
Speaker 6: By the time he did Frest Prince, that's interesting because
Speaker 6: I was thinking about the Tatiana reunion on the Fresh
Speaker 6: Prince Yeah TV.
Speaker 7: It was deep South. Okay, so you brought him to Quincy?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 7: Because around the same time that Benny did.
Speaker 1: Like, because I often might have Sunday brunch in a
Speaker 1: certain New York establishment and I and I'll still see
Speaker 1: Bobby Humphrey occasionally, and She'll be like, I'll just covered
Speaker 1: Darren and Gimble because her name was her like logo
Speaker 1: or something was on the first two albums or something
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 7: Right, right, sorry, Bobby.
Speaker 1: The way that I've always heard Quincy Jones describe the
Speaker 1: creative process in sourcing material for Michael is that I'm
Speaker 1: always hearing numbers like, yeah, we sat and listened to
Speaker 1: three hundred songs. We sat listened to five hundred songs.
Speaker 1: So I mean, again, today's a whole new different standard.
Speaker 1: So am I to believe that the standard for then
Speaker 1: was that you would go to a certain publishing house
Speaker 1: and just have cassettes and all these songs submitted to you,
Speaker 1: and you just sit there and listen.
Speaker 10: And well, no, Quincy would put the word out to
Speaker 10: songwriters that he respected, yeah, and the new could deliver,
Speaker 10: so and then they would start submitting songs, and I
Speaker 10: would I wouldn't doubt that they've.
Speaker 7: Heard up to three hundred, five hundred songs.
Speaker 10: Because Quincy informed me after I delivered the cassette to
Speaker 10: man in the mirror that he and Michael had been
Speaker 10: in the studio for like two and a half years
Speaker 10: and Michael had yet to record a song he didn't write.
Speaker 7: So Quincy was like, I don't know, ye, I don't know.
Speaker 10: But then he said, don't worry sid if we don't
Speaker 10: record it with Michael on his album, The Bad Album,
Speaker 10: I'll recorded with James Ingram on my album.
Speaker 7: And I'm thinking Michael Jackson James ing had to let
Speaker 7: it go.
Speaker 10: But as it turned out, Michael loved the song, and
Speaker 10: in fact, the first thing he said to me.
Speaker 7: Was I love this song. The second thing he said
Speaker 7: to me was I love your voice.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 7: It was just I was on Cloud fifty eleven.
Speaker 1: Because this is one of two songs that weren't written
Speaker 1: by him.
Speaker 7: On the album, right. The other one was She's Out
Speaker 7: of My Life Tom Baylor, No, no, no, Well just
Speaker 7: good Friends was oh yeah, yeah, I'm the wrong album song.
Speaker 1: Right right? Okay, so you were hinting to place the song,
Speaker 1: but Quincy was sort of saying.
Speaker 10: Like you knows what Quincy called the meeting with his songwriters,
Speaker 10: his West Coast writers. I think there were like six
Speaker 10: or seven of us, and I was late for the meeting,
Speaker 10: so I tried to sneak in, and everybody's sitting around
Speaker 10: in his living room and he's talking in the middle
Speaker 10: of a sentence, and I'm trying to just stay in
Speaker 10: the back of the room and just sort of slink
Speaker 10: on the side and find.
Speaker 7: Some place to sit out as if. Yeah, and he's
Speaker 7: tracking me with his eyes.
Speaker 10: As I walk across the back of the room and
Speaker 10: he says as I was saying before, I was so rudely.
Speaker 7: Interrupted, you know, just following me, and I'm like going,
Speaker 7: oh shit.
Speaker 10: So, you know, sat in the corner and I took
Speaker 10: copious notes. Then I went to my friend Glenn Balad
Speaker 10: and I said, Quincy's looking for a song for Michael.
Speaker 10: And he said, well, what kind of song does he want?
Speaker 10: And I was like, I don't know.
Speaker 7: So he gets up to go to the keyboard to
Speaker 7: turn it on to get some sounds.
Speaker 10: Cut to two years prior to this day, I'm in
Speaker 10: a writing session with famous jazz pianist John Beasley. Right,
Speaker 10: So John and I are writing, and John also introduced
Speaker 10: me to Sergio Mendez, which is another story. So John
Speaker 10: and I are writing and the phone rings, and I
Speaker 10: thought we were doing some pretty good work. So I
Speaker 10: was waiting for the machine to pick up, and instead
Speaker 10: of him letting his machine pick up the phone, he
Speaker 10: picks up the phone and begins.
Speaker 7: This very banal conversation.
Speaker 10: Ah, nothing, I'm just saying, I'm not and I'm flipping
Speaker 10: through my lyric book saying to myself, No, he didn't
Speaker 10: just say he wasn't doing nothing.
Speaker 7: No, no he didn't. You know, I'm just like, I'm seething, right,
Speaker 7: And then I hear him say the man, what man, Oh,
Speaker 7: the man in the mirror.
Speaker 10: So I wrote down Man in the Mirror. Two years later,
Speaker 10: I'm at Glenn's house. He gets up to turn on
Speaker 10: the keyboard and he's starts.
Speaker 7: Playing doom Doom, Doom, Doom, Doom, doom doom, just to
Speaker 7: get a sound on the keyboard.
Speaker 10: And I'm flipping through my lyric book again, and the
Speaker 10: phrase man in the Mirror literally leapt off the page
Speaker 10: and I could not.
Speaker 7: Write the lyric. Fast en up, I'll tell Glenn. Wait,
Speaker 7: I'm just scribbling frantically, right.
Speaker 10: So in like ten twelve minutes we had the first
Speaker 10: verse and the first chorus to Man in the mirror.
Speaker 10: That was Wednesday night. He said, you go home, finish
Speaker 10: the lyric. I'll finish the track and on Friday we'll
Speaker 10: demo the song. So I demoed this song Friday and
Speaker 10: we finished Friday night, too late to turn it into
Speaker 10: Quest Records. So I called Quincy and I said, cute, Glenn,
Speaker 10: and I have written a great song. He said, great, Sid,
Speaker 10: just turn it into the publishing office and I'll hear
Speaker 10: it on Monday or Tuesday.
Speaker 7: And I said, Quincy, no week. I really just want
Speaker 7: you to he said, sit. I said, just let me.
Speaker 7: Let me hang it over. He said, Sid, I'm in
Speaker 7: a meeting. I have like twelve people sitting in my
Speaker 7: dining room. I know I can't. Quincy has six daughters,
Speaker 7: so he knew he was not going to win this argument,
Speaker 7: so he just said, okay, shit and bring it.
Speaker 10: So I brought this cassette to Quincy's house, knocked on
Speaker 10: the door, and the housekeeper opens the door and calls
Speaker 10: for Quincy. He opens the dining room doors. Sure enough,
Speaker 10: twelve fucking suits looking up at me, going looking at
Speaker 10: their watches like, what the fuck is she? This is
Speaker 10: the look on all what the this must be really
Speaker 10: important because we're doing some shit and she's our meeting.
Speaker 10: So Quincy goes to the door. I give him this
Speaker 10: cassette and I said, cue. The only thing I asked
Speaker 10: is that you just get back to me.
Speaker 7: He said, don't worry. I said, just just he said,
Speaker 7: don't worry shit, close the door, right.
Speaker 1: So I was for him on the spot.
Speaker 10: I wanted to, but he was like, no, look like,
Speaker 10: look at this. No, I got these people. So you know,
Speaker 10: I was glad that he let me bring it. So
Speaker 10: he called me two hours later. I was that house
Speaker 10: at my house, cooking dinner and he picked up the
Speaker 10: I picked up the phone and he said, Sid.
Speaker 7: This is the best song that I've heard in ten years.
Speaker 10: I'm like, yes, and I'm living and best song in
Speaker 10: ten years And I know, he said, but I didn't
Speaker 10: want to hear whatever shit came after you. I just
Speaker 10: want to live in best song in ten years. And
Speaker 10: then he said, but you know, Michael, we've been in
Speaker 10: the studio two and a half years. Michael wasn't Michael.
Speaker 10: He hasn't recorded anything.
Speaker 7: Don't worry, Goods and Donalds, Michael Jackson, James Inger, don't worry.
Speaker 11: So I had to let that go.
Speaker 10: I got a call three days later and Quincy says,
Speaker 10: and I quote Sid, we in the studio recording your
Speaker 10: old piece of song.
Speaker 7: And I'm like yeah. Then he said, but and you
Speaker 7: know how Charlie Brown's teacher talking. You know, you don't
Speaker 7: want you don't want to hear ship so everything after
Speaker 7: but I was, we're recording your song. Let me just
Speaker 7: be in that for a moment. They said, Uh, Michael
Speaker 7: wants you.
Speaker 10: The only thing is the chorus that Michael wants four
Speaker 10: more lines in the chorus and he really want you.
Speaker 7: And he says hold on, and I hear. And Quincy
Speaker 7: gets back on the phone and says, and he really
Speaker 7: wants you to bring home the message that and he
Speaker 7: says things hold on and then I hear.
Speaker 10: Right, So Quincy Jones, he puts Michael Jackson on the motherfucking.
Speaker 7: Phone right now. I don't know about y'all, but when
Speaker 7: I was coming up right now, Michael was my husband,
Speaker 7: was my husband. Mother cousins had teeto with Michael was
Speaker 7: my husband. So in my mind, I'm a on the
Speaker 7: phone with my husband right.
Speaker 1: So I did not want to be Oh.
Speaker 7: My god, my god, let me sit. He said a pass.
Speaker 7: I'm so glad.
Speaker 10: I wanted to be the antithesis of that fan anti fan,
Speaker 10: so I went.
Speaker 7: I went straight telephone operator.
Speaker 10: And I said, how can I help you? I swear
Speaker 10: to God and like I said, the first thing he
Speaker 10: said to me was I love this song. Second thing
Speaker 10: and I love your voice.
Speaker 8: I'm like.
Speaker 10: So two or three days later, quenty calls and says,
Speaker 10: we need you to come down the studio because the
Speaker 10: demo the key is too high for Michael singh, so
Speaker 10: we need to re sing the demo.
Speaker 1: Great.
Speaker 7: I didn't know in the.
Speaker 10: Studio with Quincy Jones, Bruce Swedeen and Michael Jackson.
Speaker 7: So I walk in and he's like, Hi, yeah, you know,
Speaker 7: we're talking and whatever, but I I didn't know why
Speaker 7: he was filming.
Speaker 10: So Quincy said, going and go in the booth and
Speaker 10: sing the song. So I get up to go in
Speaker 10: the booth and Michael gets up with this. It was
Speaker 10: eighties so it was a huge video camera, right, and
Speaker 10: he's following me, and in Spike Lee's Bad twenty five
Speaker 10: Reunion you can see Michael in a reflection in the
Speaker 10: mirror in the studio videotaping me getting ready to sing
Speaker 10: the demo in the new key.
Speaker 7: So I'm looking at the man in.
Speaker 10: The mirror and recording the man in the mirror as
Speaker 10: he's you know. It was just insane, insane. So I'm
Speaker 10: singing this, getting ready to sing the song. I said,
Speaker 10: why are you?
Speaker 7: What are you over my shoulder? I'm like, what are you?
Speaker 7: What are you doing? He says, I want to film
Speaker 7: you singing this song. I said why, Yeah, he said,
Speaker 7: because I want to sing it like you. Wait a minute,
Speaker 7: Wait a minute, I said, wait. I said, great, Mike, Oh,
Speaker 7: my friends are gonna believe me when I tell him
Speaker 7: he wants to sing it like me. So it was
Speaker 7: just just such a weird, weird day. But it was
Speaker 7: one of the the I can't stop smiling talking about it.
Speaker 1: To concentrate with that much pressure because Quincy's there, Michael,
Speaker 1: I got a gazillion Bruce Been questions, Like.
Speaker 10: I just saw Bruce last week. We went to Florida
Speaker 10: to visit. He's in Orlando, Florida, and.
Speaker 7: Oh snap, I could have got you an interview.
Speaker 1: Dude. I will let me know if you go back.
Speaker 10: He would love it. He would absolutely love it. They
Speaker 10: got a horse, rabbits, They got cats.
Speaker 7: They got chickens.
Speaker 10: Oh be Sweeteen has the best chickens I've ever met,
Speaker 10: because they delivered.
Speaker 8: No no, no, I tasted.
Speaker 10: They have amazing eggs and the yolks are so rich.
Speaker 7: They're orange. They're the color of your shirt. Instead of yellow,
Speaker 7: pale ass yellow eggs, these yolks are orange and they
Speaker 7: are delicious. It's because their chickens just eat grass on
Speaker 7: the on the farm chicken and free range eggs. They're fabulous.
Speaker 1: We went from Michael Jackson to free range so fast?
Speaker 1: Have you done this so much that you can effortlessly
Speaker 1: just sing in front of someone when Michael Jackson's freaking
Speaker 1: watching you.
Speaker 7: Okay, here's the thing. And somebody asked me this the
Speaker 7: other day. What's it like to, you know, to record
Speaker 7: with Quincy Jones. Let me just tell you.
Speaker 10: When you're in the room room with someone like that,
Speaker 10: someone of that magnitude, someone who's at the top of
Speaker 10: their game in their game, you want to do the
Speaker 10: best that you can do to impress them.
Speaker 7: So you're you're in it to do your best.
Speaker 10: You're gonna you're gonna bring your best game to this
Speaker 10: table because this is the table that your game needs
Speaker 10: to be played at. So you're gonna be the best
Speaker 10: that you. You're gonna be bring your best self, and
Speaker 10: they're gonna draw even more of that out of you
Speaker 10: because that's their gift.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 9: Did you take any drugs or anything that day or anything?
Speaker 7: I think, fuck me up. You think I was bouncing
Speaker 7: off the walls, but nothing. I can't. I couldn't know.
Speaker 7: It was.
Speaker 10: Oh, I have a great story for I've told this
Speaker 10: story a couple of times, but it just shows how
Speaker 10: truly human he was. The first time I met him,
Speaker 10: he you know, I just sang the demo and then
Speaker 10: we had some downtime and we were chatting and and
Speaker 10: I looked down. He had on his black Fedora, white
Speaker 10: T shirt Forrest, green corduroy shirt, black pants, one gray sock,
Speaker 10: and one green sock or some shit, right, I said, dude,
Speaker 10: what's up with your socks? He said, oh it was
Speaker 10: it was early in the morning and the room was dark,
Speaker 10: and I just pulled out what was whatever was in
Speaker 10: the door?
Speaker 7: I said, obviously, So we laughed. Whatever.
Speaker 10: So the next time I saw him, a few days
Speaker 10: later to record, we did the duet in Spanish and
Speaker 10: French and in English.
Speaker 7: So I was with him for a week recording right.
Speaker 7: So the next time I saw him, he said sid
Speaker 7: and he called me over, like come here, and he
Speaker 7: pulled pulled his pants up a little higher.
Speaker 10: He said, look at my socks now he was still
Speaker 10: wearing this time. It was a red shirt and the
Speaker 10: white T shirt and the black people. I said, your
Speaker 10: socks are sky blue.
Speaker 7: Okay, they match.
Speaker 10: Each other, but they don't match nothing else you got on.
Speaker 10: So he just he just he just called me crazy
Speaker 10: and he and he said, your name sounds like you
Speaker 10: you you just you just the country. So I'm gonna
Speaker 10: just call you miss Gaary. So he called me Miss Gary.
Speaker 10: There's no joke, that's that's just the story.
Speaker 1: You did the bad tour only for a few weeks.
Speaker 7: Or we rehearsed for They rehearsed for like a month
Speaker 7: and the week.
Speaker 1: Of that, yeah, okay, I was like, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: I saw you sing that just in touring with him.
Speaker 1: How how tedious are rehearsals? How tedious are no?
Speaker 10: Once we rehearsed, it wasn't like Madonna where you would
Speaker 10: you would rehearse and sound check wink wink every show
Speaker 10: because we would always have to rehearse whatever didn't go
Speaker 10: well on the show.
Speaker 7: Oh honey, she would have notede for almost everyone. My cords,
Speaker 7: my guitar, strap, my boot, you know, everything thing everything.
Speaker 7: So but with Michael, we rehearsed for three months and
Speaker 7: that was it. I didn't see him except for two
Speaker 7: hours on the show every night. He didn't rehearse every
Speaker 7: new city. We know, no, because he knew, you know,
Speaker 7: so time.
Speaker 1: For band prayer, He's there and then hit the stage.
Speaker 7: That's it.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 7: So was it?
Speaker 1: I mean, was it a fun experience.
Speaker 7: Or was it just like, oh my god, it was
Speaker 7: the most fun I've ever had in my life because
Speaker 7: we didn't it wasn't like a bus tour.
Speaker 10: And the part that was the bus tour. I wasn't
Speaker 10: having no bus. No I flew, I couldn't they. I
Speaker 10: did one twelve hour bus us ride and afterwards I.
Speaker 7: Was like, oh, well, no, that's not fun. Hell to
Speaker 7: the now.
Speaker 1: In fact, we.
Speaker 10: Would do a show and me and Greg, me and
Speaker 10: Greg were flying the other you know, we would do
Speaker 10: a show.
Speaker 7: They would shower whatever they're gonna do, get in their pajamas,
Speaker 7: get on the bus, drive to the next city. Me
Speaker 7: and Greg would go back to our hotels, hit it
Speaker 7: with our beds, get up the next day, pack our shit,
Speaker 7: fly in meet them before their bus arrived from the
Speaker 7: day before, and they're getting off the bus Dragon and
Speaker 7: Greg and I are like, we're going to lunch, so
Speaker 7: you got the sound check.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 7: So touring like that was amazing. And when there weren't.
Speaker 10: Buses, we would just fly everywhere because we had our
Speaker 10: own plane and Michael was on his own plane, you know.
Speaker 10: And there was nothing like making fun of the stewardesses
Speaker 10: when they have to do the white lines and we
Speaker 10: would all unbuckle and buckle our seat belts when they
Speaker 10: would do that. And when she would do this like
Speaker 10: the airplanes are coming in the hangar, we'd all do
Speaker 10: our hands like the airplanes would going.
Speaker 7: It was just so much fun. But listen, traveling with
Speaker 7: Michael Jackson. Being on tour with Michael was like being
Speaker 7: one of Jesus's disciples. Baby.
Speaker 10: We used to hate it when we were in the
Speaker 10: same hotel as Michael because usually the hotel would coordinate
Speaker 10: with your position on the tour. A hotels were for Michael,
Speaker 10: his guests, his friends. B hotels was for the band
Speaker 10: and the singers. C hotels was for the crew, right,
Speaker 10: So there were times when there was no A and B,
Speaker 10: it was only A and C. So those are the
Speaker 10: times when we had to be in Michael's hotel. Fucking
Speaker 10: hated it because all night, you know, it was just insane,
Speaker 10: could not and then Michael would like peek out the
Speaker 10: window and then they'd go in freakingsane, you know.
Speaker 7: So it was never he liked that kind of energy.
Speaker 7: We just wanted some wrist. We wanted to get some
Speaker 7: So we were happy when we were.
Speaker 10: In a different hotel than Michael was in because his
Speaker 10: fans are like fanatics, they are truly fanatic.
Speaker 7: In fact, we were in Spain and I will never
Speaker 7: forget this.
Speaker 10: We had a day off in Spain and Spain leather shoes, handbags, hello,
Speaker 10: So we were going shopping. So we changed the money
Speaker 10: at the desk, so we got our little Spanish money
Speaker 10: and we're going out of the hotel. Now they cordoned
Speaker 10: off the fans because it was like a sea of
Speaker 10: fans in front of this hotel. So but for the guests,
Speaker 10: they needed to rope off a path so the guests
Speaker 10: can come. So we're counting the money and putting money
Speaker 10: in my person was trying to figure out where we're
Speaker 10: gonna go have lunch.
Speaker 7: And we walked down through this sea of people, this
Speaker 7: opening like Moses, and from behind me, I hear, hey,
Speaker 7: that's sight to Garrett baby. I look behind me and
Speaker 7: people were like, come.
Speaker 10: Me and my friend took off running down the street
Speaker 10: in Spain and we're running, running and looking at him
Speaker 10: and they're coming.
Speaker 7: Afterwards, I said, oh my god, what are they gonna
Speaker 7: do when they fucking kiss us? It was just insane
Speaker 7: and we were running and running and then somebody must
Speaker 7: have said, hey, we're three blocks from the hotel. We
Speaker 7: better what if Michael comes out? So they then turned around.
Speaker 7: But that was the most harrowing time, and that's when
Speaker 7: I realized, this is Michael every day. It's insane. Well,
Speaker 7: they're gonna pull my hair and just have a remnant.
Speaker 7: Look what I got. Yeah, I don't know. It was insane,
Speaker 7: and it really scared me to think about that's what
Speaker 7: his whole life was.
Speaker 8: Did y'all sing I just can't stop loving you together?
Speaker 8: Did y'all record that together? Or was it so you
Speaker 8: you were in his face?
Speaker 11: Yes? I told you two.
Speaker 10: Mike stands one here, one here, and and the lyrics said,
Speaker 10: I just can't stop loving you, Michael sayidam that it
Speaker 10: was in that moment that I realized, oh my god,
Speaker 10: I'm singing a duet with the fucking king of pop.
Speaker 7: Unbelievable.
Speaker 10: And I, in answer to your question, all I wanted
Speaker 10: to do was just delivered my best to impress him
Speaker 10: and Quincy, look what I can do.
Speaker 1: That's man, that's so much pressure though, because it's like
Speaker 1: I felt, it was.
Speaker 8: Like, this is where I get to show them what
Speaker 8: I have. No, there was no crackage.
Speaker 1: You were just completely confident.
Speaker 7: Yeah, because I've been dying.
Speaker 8: So they hear it in a song you do, I
Speaker 8: just can't stop loving and you're like, oh oh that moment.
Speaker 8: I just wondered when Michael Jackson was thinking.
Speaker 11: He loved it.
Speaker 10: He loved it, he loved it. We had so much fun, man.
Speaker 10: And there was one time in Japan, I think it
Speaker 10: was New Year's Eve or something. I came out on
Speaker 10: stage and this was before people were doing colors in
Speaker 10: their hair. I came out on stage with a little
Speaker 10: hot magenta pink bob and then when Michael turned and
Speaker 10: said each time he started laughing so.
Speaker 7: Hard he couldn't even sing. He was laughing so hard.
Speaker 7: It was so funny. It was so funny. My hair
Speaker 7: was usually like this, and I want to switch it
Speaker 7: up just to see what fucking happened.
Speaker 10: And he could not stop laughing. He said, that was
Speaker 10: really funny. That was really funny.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's thank you for sharing that. Thank you all
Speaker 1: right back on the block. Actually have a Michael. Were
Speaker 1: there any other songs that you guys recorded together that
Speaker 1: didn't come out or no?
Speaker 7: The only other thing we did was keep the Faith
Speaker 7: right off, Keep the Faith? Yeah.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, Okay, now we can get to the
Speaker 1: bottom of Got the Hots versus? Oh yeah, okay, So
Speaker 1: on your solo record.
Speaker 7: My ill fated solo we have it, all right, So
Speaker 7: we have it. We had to.
Speaker 1: You did baby got a bed with Rod Temperton?
Speaker 10: Yes?
Speaker 1: Can you? Yeah? He's what is Rod Temperton? Like I
Speaker 1: know one of my one of my regrets was just
Speaker 1: not I mean, besides the Twitter relationship, I really didn't
Speaker 1: get a you know, a chance to stick the brain
Speaker 1: And yeah he was.
Speaker 10: Rod Temperton was the most amazing songwriter that I've ever met.
Speaker 10: Rod Temperton has a work ethic that was like none other.
Speaker 10: Rod Temperton hated the press, he hated the interviews. He
Speaker 10: would never agree to do any he didn't want. He
Speaker 10: just wanted to be the guy who wrote the great
Speaker 10: songs and was behind the behind the scenes kind of guy.
Speaker 10: When we were recording my Kiss of Life album, we
Speaker 10: were in the student at this studio on Westlake Studios
Speaker 10: and Rod had a couple of studios going at the
Speaker 10: same time because we were under pressure to get this
Speaker 10: record done. So one night we were recording and Rod
Speaker 10: add a toothache and he was he was like a
Speaker 10: serious smoker. I can't even remember seeing his face without
Speaker 10: him having a cigarette hanging from his fingers. So he
Speaker 10: was smoking a cigarette and he's going like this with
Speaker 10: his hand on his face, on his jaw.
Speaker 7: I'm like, what's wrong? He said of a toothache. Was
Speaker 7: that s all right? Can we can we do it
Speaker 7: one more time? I'm like, Rod, you should call a dentist.
Speaker 10: He said, all right, he said it's all right, So
Speaker 10: he said, go ahead and sing song one more time.
Speaker 10: While I was singing the song, Rod had sent one
Speaker 10: of the engineers into the toolbox.
Speaker 7: No wait for it, No rod took a pair of flyers.
Speaker 10: He gripped that tooth, yanked it out of his mouth,
Speaker 10: took a swig of his cigarette, a drink of his coffee,
Speaker 10: and said one more take please.
Speaker 1: Gangster Wow, wow, gangster wow.
Speaker 7: He was like that, that's the kind of hell man.
Speaker 1: You said there and watched that I was, and then
Speaker 1: he's like.
Speaker 7: And then he's like, you gotta be bleeding profusely washing
Speaker 7: it all down with the coffee and cigarette coffee.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think that's cool.
Speaker 7: Sounds like the white guy thing.
Speaker 1: I gotta be a white that's something. Yeah, but you
Speaker 1: could never pull that.
Speaker 9: I wouldn't have the You could never pull coffee coffee.
Speaker 5: You were for thirty years. You don't know that his
Speaker 5: dad's a dentist. I'm like, I've known you for all
Speaker 5: my life and I didn't know your dad was a
Speaker 5: Gis that explains your teeth?
Speaker 1: Well? Gifts?
Speaker 12: What are the.
Speaker 1: Checks? I love it? Okay, wait, yeah for it? Yeah
Speaker 1: I got so. We didn't get the answer. It's a
Speaker 1: baby got a bed. Yeah, I was going to say.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 1: The thing is is that we have a version who
Speaker 1: got the Hots that's on kind of a Michael box
Speaker 1: set that has him credit as the sole writer of it.
Speaker 7: Michael, Right, Okay, so when we.
Speaker 1: Heard baby Got in Bed, I realized that that's basically
Speaker 1: Got the Hots, which explains to me that so that
Speaker 1: Rod Timperton did the music correct.
Speaker 7: Probably I'm trying.
Speaker 1: To figure out how. So how did you get the
Speaker 1: track before?
Speaker 7: I don't know what track you're talking about, Got the Hots?
Speaker 1: I'm not okay, it was a thriller out take? Play it?
Speaker 1: Do you never heard the original reference that Got the Hots?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 1: This is incredible. Okay, so this is uh, Got the
Speaker 1: Hots an outtake? So you got to the bottom of nothing, right,
Speaker 1: But now we're all going to walk away in lighten
Speaker 1: and I get to hear it Got the Hots for
Speaker 1: a minute.
Speaker 10: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I have heard this before. Okay,
Speaker 10: that's Rod Tipperton.
Speaker 12: To his core.
Speaker 1: Does he demo everything himself?
Speaker 7: Yeah? I sang a lot of his demos.
Speaker 1: Can you play the other one? Okay? Has he played?
Speaker 7: Have you heard Groove of Midnight? Michael's version of Groove
Speaker 7: of Midnight? Yeah, that was one of the songs that
Speaker 7: didn't make the album.
Speaker 1: Wait, I love it when you freak out the nerds night.
Speaker 7: We're in the wam the sweetest?
Speaker 1: Do you do you own this.
Speaker 7: Somewhere?
Speaker 1: Are we going to be best friend?
Speaker 7: You gotta be my friend now of course, shake my
Speaker 7: hand again.
Speaker 8: Absolutely, Larry again.
Speaker 5: You know I'm gonna start calling you lady. That's fine,
Speaker 5: I'll be Larry. Let's compare it to babies, yes, Nerd,
Speaker 5: all right, so this baby's got it also with take
Speaker 5: rude off from production right.
Speaker 12: Yes, I used to love to sing Chariot, I.
Speaker 7: Think study it's get to say that the bull and
Speaker 7: crazy my body is a fuck the law.
Speaker 14: When come down to the mole, take them and you know,
Speaker 14: preble to let up the bread.
Speaker 15: Robot, spose all your backgrounds and when you're doing that,
Speaker 15: are you making?
Speaker 1: Are you Is that just like off the top of
Speaker 1: your head? Oh no, no, no, no no no.
Speaker 10: Rod had all the chords, all the notes written out,
Speaker 10: and he played me what notes to say, yes.
Speaker 1: Yes, I always. I concluded that maybe praps Mike didn't
Speaker 1: see it to completion because it didn't allow him to
Speaker 1: as an entertainer exactly because he was confined. It was
Speaker 1: a brilliant song, though, And that's the thing, like, especially
Speaker 1: with the work that Right has done, especially when like
Speaker 1: Johnny Wilder is in the lead doing the heat heat
Speaker 1: wave stuff and oh yeah, all those harm you know.
Speaker 1: There's there's one song in on Central Heating where at
Speaker 1: the very end it's called put the word out out.
Speaker 1: Yes yes, yes, yes, so's There's there's one song which
Speaker 1: Johnny Wilder actually gives himself some debt because he mastered
Speaker 1: like for like nine minutes he had to sing this
Speaker 1: really intricate harmony part and at the end, at the
Speaker 1: end of the song, Johnny Wilders like, I'm the best.
Speaker 1: I did that for ten moretherfucking minutes. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: really great movie. I love the callback. So when when
Speaker 1: when you when you're called for a project like back
Speaker 1: on the Block and subsequently listen up and there's so
Speaker 1: many players in it, like how God, what are your
Speaker 1: memories of tackling that project?
Speaker 10: That was I was just in awe to be in
Speaker 10: the room because you never knew who was gonna show up.
Speaker 10: I mean that album was Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah von.
Speaker 7: Barry White of Miles Davis, Algirou, who's the cheeks, che Dizzey,
Speaker 7: the last Pitch, all these people that was their last project, right,
Speaker 7: So I have a story. Barry White was doing the
Speaker 7: Secret Garden, right, So Quincy and Barry are talking in
Speaker 7: a little area between the recording booth and the vocal booth.
Speaker 7: There was like a little hallway at Westlake Gifts.
Speaker 10: So they're and they're talking, and I'm going from either
Speaker 10: from the booth into the studio or from the studio
Speaker 10: into the booth, but I had to pass them. And
Speaker 10: they're talking, and Barry's dog talking, and I'm standing there waiting.
Speaker 7: To say something to Quincy. And while Barry is speaking,
Speaker 7: my ribs are vibrating, and I said, excuse me, mister White,
Speaker 7: I'm gonna have.
Speaker 10: To lead, because right now you are inside me. Yeah,
Speaker 10: it was just so intense. He his voice was so
Speaker 10: rich and so deep. My rib cage was vibrating from
Speaker 10: the tone in his voice. Baby, they nothing like having
Speaker 10: Berry White inside. I'm telling you.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you now, but it is something like that
Speaker 1: overwhelming or by this point, you're just like eight. I
Speaker 1: was loving it every day.
Speaker 10: Oh hey, no, No, you knew it was special. You
Speaker 10: knew that that was some shit that didn't happen every day.
Speaker 10: You knew that these people only came because it was Quincy.
Speaker 10: I mean, Ray Charles, you know, Dizzy Gillespie, come on.
Speaker 10: So it was just it was a rich history lesson
Speaker 10: every day the musical history that Quincy surrounds himself with
Speaker 10: and has inside of him.
Speaker 7: I mean since he was fourteen years old. That's and
Speaker 7: almost every decade he's been relevant ever since. Six decades
Speaker 7: of relevance in the music business. Who does that? You know?
Speaker 7: It's just I just wanted to be a sponge.
Speaker 10: I just wanted to soak up all the goodness, all
Speaker 10: the richness, all the musicality, all the experience, all the
Speaker 10: talent that I could possibly soak up while I was
Speaker 10: in their presence.
Speaker 7: What did they say you you are?
Speaker 10: Your collective intelligence is is a some of the seven
Speaker 10: people you surround yourself with or something like that.
Speaker 7: That's well in a room like that, But.
Speaker 8: That was that was to me as the only new
Speaker 8: person at the time of.
Speaker 1: She was on cut Joint, Joint Joint.
Speaker 7: Right back of the block, and Rod wrote the song
Speaker 7: for her and I sang the demo.
Speaker 8: Voices was my baby angela Field in my head.
Speaker 10: Want to do it.
Speaker 1: First? Yeah.
Speaker 10: Misha had a great relationship with Rod. He loved going
Speaker 10: back to London and recording stuff with her. She's awesome.
Speaker 7: I sang her demos too.
Speaker 10: For when Rod would write in La, I'd sing the
Speaker 10: demos and then he'd go to Europe and playing for Misha.
Speaker 7: Rod never let out his music.
Speaker 10: If he was going to have a meeting with an
Speaker 10: an R person for to play music for their artists,
Speaker 10: he would go there, play the music and take his
Speaker 10: ship right back with him, because if.
Speaker 7: You didn't like it, then you're not gonna like it
Speaker 7: in twenty minutes, so you're not gonna like it.
Speaker 10: He never left any of his music with anybody. No,
Speaker 10: and he didn't do the demos until he got the job.
Speaker 10: Then he would demo, do you like this song?
Speaker 1: This song?
Speaker 7: Or we were like that?
Speaker 10: Really, because right had that thriller money, he didn't give
Speaker 10: a ship, he really didn't. He did it because he
Speaker 10: loved the music. He didn't need the money. In fact
Speaker 10: that you know, he didn't care about that. Rod Timber
Speaker 10: didn't didn't even drive a car. He didn't own a vehicle.
Speaker 10: In fact, his wife had to come on, Roddie, I
Speaker 10: need a car, you know to you know. But Rod
Speaker 10: had a relationship with the Yellow Cab service Way before Uber.
Speaker 10: Rod was like having the cabs coming, taking to get groceries,
Speaker 10: taking him buy cigarettes.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 1: Wow, he was a trip.
Speaker 7: And Quincy doesn't drive either.
Speaker 1: Wowow, Quincy Jones, I wouldn't drive.
Speaker 7: Quincy never learned to drive.
Speaker 1: You're not Quincy Johnes know how to drive.
Speaker 8: Quincy Jones? Do you so often?
Speaker 1: Do you really him?
Speaker 10: I spend every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner with Quincy Jones.
Speaker 10: And I talked to him throughout the year, depending on
Speaker 10: who dies, what's happening, because he said, all my friends
Speaker 10: are dead. It's very worry about him.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 10: And he said to me, like when Ray Charles passed
Speaker 10: and then Rod Temperton passed and I was talking to
Speaker 10: him about funerals.
Speaker 7: He said, oh shit, I can't. I can't go to
Speaker 7: another funeral. Said if I went to every funeral with
Speaker 7: the people that I know, I'd be at a funeral
Speaker 7: every week.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 7: He said, I'm done with funerals.
Speaker 1: Wow. I gotta respect that respect until you die, until
Speaker 1: I won't know that. So you, uh, you wrote the
Speaker 1: lyrics for tomorrow correct? Yes, for.
Speaker 7: Better you better Me?
Speaker 2: Babe?
Speaker 1: Oh you said it was your favorite?
Speaker 6: It was?
Speaker 8: Do you know they will show our hopes and yes,
Speaker 8: you never cry any of these songs. Man in the mirror.
Speaker 8: Tomorrow you never.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow actually makes me kind of yeah, like that's tomorrow
Speaker 1: will be okay. I'll tell you what.
Speaker 5: It reminds me when I was a kid and tomorrow
Speaker 5: is so far away and now tomorrow's here and I'm like, damn,
Speaker 5: this is tomorrow.
Speaker 7: But it's never far away.
Speaker 1: It's not.
Speaker 10: I can always be sure of Yeah, get it all
Speaker 10: to be strong, get it on, get on to be strong.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I'm pep. Actually, I I'm gonna make
Speaker 5: a confession. Actually didn't know that that song was originally
Speaker 5: an instrumental. Yeah, because the lyrics just fit it so perfectly.
Speaker 7: Thank you.
Speaker 1: No, see, I didn't know that there were lyrics. Well
Speaker 1: that's the thing. There weren't, right, I get it now,
Speaker 1: just like, uh, what's his name? The jazz guy that
Speaker 1: Eddie Eddie Harris who always adds lyrics to you know.
Speaker 1: So as a soul training a file, I have to
Speaker 1: say that usually where I come from in soul training ology,
Speaker 1: depending on what time it comes on, either wrestling's coming
Speaker 1: on right before that or America's Top ten. Yes, So
Speaker 1: I was really happy during your duration.
Speaker 7: Of that was so much fun, man.
Speaker 10: I mean, Casey Kasem called me one day and tell
Speaker 10: me I was doing a really great job because I
Speaker 10: would suffer him when he was go on vacation or
Speaker 10: if he something. I don't remember how that happened, I
Speaker 10: really don't, but I remember doing the show and they
Speaker 10: really wanted me to continue, but I it was painful
Speaker 10: for me because every week I would announce all my
Speaker 10: friends going up.
Speaker 7: The charts, Tevin Madonna, they were all, you know, and
Speaker 7: I would this week on the you know, and I
Speaker 7: felt kind of left out. It was like on the
Speaker 7: outside and it was kind of painful. So I didn't
Speaker 7: want to do it anymore. And they were like, but
Speaker 7: you're so good at this. I said, but I don't.
Speaker 7: I don't want to do it. It was fun. I
Speaker 7: remember when Casey Casem was having his first child and
Speaker 7: he was trying to figure out what to name the kid,
Speaker 7: and I said, you know what, Casey, I don't care
Speaker 7: what you call them, just don't call them justin Casey.
Speaker 12: But I actually did say that.
Speaker 7: But I'm working on.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna cut to the chase just
Speaker 1: because we'll be here for nine hours. How did you
Speaker 1: come across Brand New Heavies?
Speaker 7: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 10: I was assigned to write with each one of the
Speaker 10: members of the Brand New Heavies for the next album,
Speaker 10: just as a songwriter. So I would get these tracks
Speaker 10: and I would demo them and send them to London,
Speaker 10: or I would go to London and demo the songs
Speaker 10: after I'd written. It was just me writing with an
Speaker 10: equal number of songs for an equal for each member
Speaker 10: of the group.
Speaker 1: Right, did they know they were all writing with you?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Okay, I thought it was like no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no no no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 10: It was my job to write with each one of
Speaker 10: them for their record because the last album, the drummer
Speaker 10: wrote all the songs. And they were great on the road,
Speaker 10: you know, buying clothes and living it up on the road,
Speaker 10: and then they went home to their little apartments while
Speaker 10: the drummer bought a car and got.
Speaker 7: A new flat and you know.
Speaker 10: So they were like, hey, we're equal members of the group, right,
Speaker 10: so we should all get a part of the written, right,
Speaker 10: We're all.
Speaker 7: Going to be written, right, We're all writing.
Speaker 10: So I had to write with any equal number of
Speaker 10: songs for each member of the group song.
Speaker 7: I think it was the drummer. Yeah, y.
Speaker 1: That you might not be aware, but that Dili remix
Speaker 1: changed lives. Oh my god, I remember, don't even know
Speaker 1: it what REMIXX?
Speaker 7: Yes, yes, yes, I love you And I see him.
Speaker 7: I hadn't seen him since for like ten years after
Speaker 7: the record, and I didn't know if he'd remember whatever.
Speaker 7: And he said, the am a mix, of course I
Speaker 7: remember you. The I'm a mixed brand new. It was
Speaker 7: really good. That was that was an awesome that was
Speaker 7: that mix was better than the record.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the whole record. I don't even know if you're
Speaker 1: ware it. Like the guy who did the track music
Speaker 1: what j Dilla is Like, he's are Jay Dilla? Yes,
Speaker 1: he's He's all right. So J Dilla is a producer
Speaker 1: from Detroit that Q Tip discovered, who's like, are Guru?
Speaker 1: No you well he passed away, but I mean of
Speaker 1: office work, Yeah, but I.
Speaker 7: Mean you you.
Speaker 1: You hold the honor of like you're on one of
Speaker 1: his signature tracks, like every the tracks that he's done
Speaker 1: that really inspired the Neil Soul movement. The way that
Speaker 1: Danzelo's record sound, the way it does the way that
Speaker 1: Eric Abadu's records, the way the Roots album sound, the
Speaker 1: way that Jill Scott's like that whole neo soul movement
Speaker 1: between ninety six and like two thousand and five. He's
Speaker 1: really the epicenter of it all. So it's like you,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're you're basically on the Duke Ellington of
Speaker 1: that movement.
Speaker 7: Wow, that's so cool.
Speaker 1: Use it? Yeah, yeah, and so I did not know that.
Speaker 1: Yeah when it came out, that just that changed lives.
Speaker 1: So talk about your your new all right, this acronym
Speaker 1: is a nightmare?
Speaker 7: Why ghetto?
Speaker 1: Give me the acronym?
Speaker 7: Greatness, Yes, happens even though there's oppression.
Speaker 8: Mmmm, what you're saying you couldn't say ghetto.
Speaker 1: I didn't say. I couldn't say ghetto. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I couldn't remember the acronym. Yes, what is it? Greatness
Speaker 1: happens even to those.
Speaker 7: Greatness happens even though there's oppression.
Speaker 1: My dear, how apropos for the times we's living trying
Speaker 1: to How did it come to be?
Speaker 7: Well comment?
Speaker 10: I've always been a fan of his energy and the
Speaker 10: message in his music, in his rap, and I really
Speaker 10: started to know him as a person when we found
Speaker 10: out we were on the the same oscar board.
Speaker 7: Thank you Darling. We were on the the Academy.
Speaker 10: He's an Academy member, and I decided when I decided
Speaker 10: to add a Verse to this song, I had a
Speaker 10: little wish list and Common was at the top of
Speaker 10: the list.
Speaker 7: I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't.
Speaker 10: I didn't really expect to get him on it. But
Speaker 10: all say is no, and you know nothing, nothing beats
Speaker 10: so failure but a try. So I just posed it
Speaker 10: to him and sent him the song. He loved the song,
Speaker 10: and I kind of got his information while we were
Speaker 10: on the on this music branch, and he just seems
Speaker 10: so just kind of cool and just open to it.
Speaker 10: And when he said yes because he loved the message
Speaker 10: of the song, I was like great. And then it
Speaker 10: was about waiting for him to have time to put
Speaker 10: on his twelve bars. But baby, when they finally came in,
Speaker 10: it was so dope. I just loved it, and it
Speaker 10: just elevated the song to another level.
Speaker 1: He's a He's the man special individual. That comment. I'll say, wait,
Speaker 1: why am I talking?
Speaker 7: You can wear some crochet, chance use a special I'm
Speaker 7: trying to.
Speaker 1: Tell you, sit and Gary, you are everything I ever
Speaker 1: wanted uh in the interview, and.
Speaker 7: You brought a bag of chips.
Speaker 6: I hate him on the way before we say go back,
Speaker 6: can you explain because aren't you involved this T shirt.
Speaker 7: That you're wearing, Yeah, the girl's code.
Speaker 8: Can you just talk about that?
Speaker 7: Ro dude. I was at a graduation for some.
Speaker 10: Some some people that are learning code and learning how
Speaker 10: to impact uh technology through art and music and business, and.
Speaker 7: We wanted to this. This movement is to teach black
Speaker 7: girls that they can code their own computer games and
Speaker 7: they can program their own uh. They can they can compute.
Speaker 10: Themselves, and they don't have to be young white boys
Speaker 10: to learn how to uh to to code and and
Speaker 10: create your own video games and and computer programs.
Speaker 7: You could. Black girls can do it. And I think
Speaker 7: the movie Hidden No Hidden Fences. I'm just kidding.
Speaker 10: Hidden Figures did a lot to sort of show people
Speaker 10: that math is good for girls, and you know, black.
Speaker 7: Girls can compute some ship. So I'm just here to
Speaker 7: support that that.
Speaker 10: Every black child looks at a video game or looks
Speaker 10: at something on their program on their computer or an
Speaker 10: app or something and think I wanted to be able
Speaker 10: to think, hey, I can improve that, or I can
Speaker 10: make a nap for this, or I can do that.
Speaker 6: You.
Speaker 10: I don't think they don't even teach that in school.
Speaker 10: So no, nobody really hasn't an idea that they can
Speaker 10: aspire to do something like that. So I'm here to
Speaker 10: be the liaison and just to be a vessel to
Speaker 10: promote that message. Black girls can do it, we can code,
Speaker 10: we can do some ship up in here.
Speaker 1: So yes, I got a friend who has two daughters
Speaker 1: that are like their dream is to be video games and.
Speaker 7: Black girls code.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's crazy. Yeah, I think I've learned everything. Yeah, boss, Bill,
Speaker 1: what did you learn to day man?
Speaker 5: What didn't I learn? Hold on, let me go through
Speaker 5: my notes. You keep come back to me, come back
Speaker 5: to me. Really all right, I'm paid, Bill Man, save
Speaker 5: as the ship.
Speaker 1: This is. This is amazing.
Speaker 5: This is to talk about being an artist and all
Speaker 5: this other stuff is super amazing and awesome. One of
Speaker 5: the things I learned that I'm going to treasure most
Speaker 5: is what the hell you guys were saying and don't
Speaker 5: look any further.
Speaker 1: That was going to come in to handy just I've
Speaker 1: always been a fan of yours, like I think.
Speaker 11: Sorry, no, it's okay.
Speaker 1: It's okay, don't apologize, don't apologize.
Speaker 5: I think I'm not Michael Jackson. But I love your voice.
Speaker 5: I love your voice, and you write amazing songs. I'm
Speaker 5: very honored to be in this room with you right now.
Speaker 5: So thank you for being here, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 5: This has been relatively painless, relatively.
Speaker 10: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Into what you say, Shoe, I want to go this shoe.
Speaker 9: There's no version of James Ingram singing man in the mirror.
Speaker 7: Hell, we can all rest a little easier.
Speaker 9: And no, no, I'm a fan of his.
Speaker 7: Wicked man. I have a question. You don't have to
Speaker 7: raise your hand this. Actually, yeah, I did Philip Ingram.
Speaker 10: Yeah, he was one of the guys that was at
Speaker 10: the auditions for Quincy and he started hiring me to
Speaker 10: do background session.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. The carjack your memories. This happens,
Speaker 1: but he didn't mean to. To Selena and Barnes, you
Speaker 1: mentioned James Ingram and it just hit me that she
Speaker 1: did a song with Philip Ingram. And I was a
Speaker 1: massive switchman, And you know what.
Speaker 10: Switch came to my high school and I told Philip word, Yeah,
Speaker 10: I like went up to meet him, and he was
Speaker 10: so snotty, and I said, you were a bitch to me.
Speaker 10: You were just so mean, he said, when so when
Speaker 10: I was in high school, your group came and you
Speaker 10: didn't You didn't even I was.
Speaker 7: I just read them the riot Act. He said. I'm sorry,
Speaker 7: I didn't know. You know, he's so sweet. I just
Speaker 7: adore him, him, Philipping, great singer.
Speaker 1: What you got to say?
Speaker 7: Shooting got that sugar?
Speaker 16: I mean, it's it's clearly. I mean, I guess I'm
Speaker 16: staying the obvious. But you know, Michael Jackson was your husband,
Speaker 16: and then you end up doing the duet across the microphone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's pretty, it's pretty incredible.
Speaker 7: It was a dream. It was a dream I didn't
Speaker 7: even know I had.
Speaker 10: I mean, if somebody had told me that that would
Speaker 10: have happened, I would have just laughed them out of
Speaker 10: the room, because, you know, who, how could that happen?
Speaker 7: How can that possibly happen?
Speaker 1: It happens, you know once in a while.
Speaker 7: I guess the moon must have been blue that day.
Speaker 1: Sweet sweet Margaret, any last words? Cheese throw off?
Speaker 7: Margaret?
Speaker 1: Margaret?
Speaker 7: Does she know that?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 7: No, yes, Okay, you're gonna leave a sweet Margret today.
Speaker 1: Why is it sweet? There's a basketball reference?
Speaker 6: Oh oh okay, I learned number one that one of
Speaker 6: my heroes loves to cuss as much as I do.
Speaker 8: I love that profanity.
Speaker 1: Also, this.
Speaker 7: Power of new Cheese.
Speaker 8: I am taking this now. I don't really think I
Speaker 8: need to read the book at this point, because y'all
Speaker 8: gave me the whole thing.
Speaker 7: You got the gist.
Speaker 8: But what you did with your new Cheese is so
Speaker 8: fucking amazing.
Speaker 6: And I hope that you realize one day that even
Speaker 6: though you did not go necessarily the path that you
Speaker 6: wanted to, what you have done is so much bigger
Speaker 6: to so many people and individually, like the words that
Speaker 6: you bring bring people to so many emotions joy and
Speaker 6: you know, and sadness and everything else, everything they need
Speaker 6: to feel.
Speaker 8: So anyway, this is what I learned, and I learned
Speaker 8: Cya to Garrett is the ship was.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well today officially personality wise, this is the first
Speaker 6: time meeting, so yeah, the work was a ship.
Speaker 1: I know she was shipped to uh my lesson what
Speaker 1: about so forgettable? Just guess in case you had scratching
Speaker 1: when we after we conclude a sermon or an interview.
Speaker 1: We all have our reflections on what we learned. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll say again that and I'll double down on what
Speaker 1: Laiah said. For all of you listening, and if I
Speaker 1: made you or texted you to listen to this episode,
Speaker 1: yes I'm talking to you. And if I tweeted it
Speaker 1: more than once, yes I was really talking to you.
Speaker 1: Yeah if if, if it's time for new cheese. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm bringing it back to my basketball metaphor,
Speaker 1: like everyone's trying to be Jordan's, everyone's trying to be Lebron.
Speaker 1: But you know what I'm saying, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, the the the trainer might move up to
Speaker 1: assistant coach, might move to defensive coach, might make it
Speaker 1: to owner of the team. You know, like not everyone.
Speaker 1: There's you know, there's there's there's a little glory and
Speaker 1: being Alan Iverson or being Lebron, But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day that the cats, the Simon checks the
Speaker 1: guys behind the scenes, there's new cheese, not just the
Speaker 1: Spotlight cheese, but there's other cheese there. And that's that's
Speaker 1: the lesson I want people. That's where I really wanted
Speaker 1: you on the show, so that you could share that
Speaker 1: story and I thank you.
Speaker 5: So much.
Speaker 1: For this episode.
Speaker 8: And we will I am Studio Bam.
Speaker 1: I just want to say to that, yes, thank you,
Speaker 1: will I am for Where is White? And they have
Speaker 1: all the Japanese and actually assault about what are you
Speaker 1: talking about? The turlet said hello when you walk in
Speaker 1: anyway or app of Missing Fonte. I'm Ve Bill, Quoss, Bill,
Speaker 1: Sugar Steve, Sweet Margaret and the Lovely Sight Garrett and
Speaker 1: loud As Eric, Yeah, Camera, this is Quest Love Supreme.
Speaker 1: We will see you on the next go round. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
Speaker 1: episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.