Speaker 1: Of course.
Speaker 2: Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic episode
Speaker 2: was produced by the team at Pandora.
Speaker 1: Yo Yo Yo. What's up, y'all?
Speaker 3: This is Fonte Fontigelo here with this week's QLs classic.
Speaker 1: This week we talked to the.
Speaker 3: Man, Uncle Charlie, the Legend Charlie Wilson, singer, songwriter, lead
Speaker 3: vocalist for the Gap Band. Uncle Charlie Wilson talks about
Speaker 3: signing the snoop, showing Michael Jackson the moonwalk in other ways,
Speaker 3: his work has influenced.
Speaker 1: Music and pop culture with the shop do We Do
Speaker 1: We Let's Go.
Speaker 3: This one was originally released seven nineteen, This week July nineteenth,
Speaker 3: twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: Long time ago, but still just as good. Charlie Wilson. Y'all,
Speaker 1: q LES Classic Fonte Loo Right.
Speaker 4: This Suprema Suh suh, Supremo roll called Suprema suck Suck
Speaker 4: Supremo role.
Speaker 3: What's the funkiest letter? Yeah a B yeah see her
Speaker 3: d Yeah, No, no, it's Supremo roll.
Speaker 1: My name is Fante. Yeah, it ain't no other. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm looking for my Wednesday lover.
Speaker 5: Supremo roll, Supremo.
Speaker 1: My name is Sugar. I don't take no crap. I
Speaker 1: listened to the Gap band and I shop at the.
Speaker 5: Gap Agreement Supremo.
Speaker 6: If you were wondering what was that sound, It's just
Speaker 6: Boss Bill Yeah, humping around so so disgusting.
Speaker 7: Oh, Suprema Son Son Supremo Rome.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and I'm coming out.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Uncle Charlie makes me. Why shout.
Speaker 7: So Supremo. Roll call Suprema Son Son Supremo.
Speaker 1: Roll My name is Charlie, Yeah, last name Wilson. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's no other. Yeah, let's burn some anb.
Speaker 5: Son Son Supremo. Roll call Suprema Son Son Supremo. Roll
Speaker 5: Call Suprema.
Speaker 4: Son Son Supremo. Roll Call Suprema Son Son Supremo.
Speaker 2: Roll all right. I just want you'll know from the
Speaker 2: top that l threatened us if we use weed and
Speaker 2: in our roll call, Ladies and gentlemen, this is another
Speaker 2: special educational extravaganza episode of Quest Love Supreme. I am
Speaker 2: your host Quest Love Jenkins uh and today I got
Speaker 2: Team Supreme with me. We got a Fonte Cool Calculac Evans,
Speaker 2: a Fonticicelo in the house.
Speaker 3: We have the mic Master Steve Funk you up. Frasier
Speaker 3: aka Sugar Steve Hey sugar Steve. That's right, That's that's you.
Speaker 1: Now, I'll take it.
Speaker 2: We can't forget a boss man over here. He's a
Speaker 2: William Knuckles, Samwich Carter AKA, and last but not least,
Speaker 2: we got the very lovely like Margaret AKA Clyde.
Speaker 1: Rounding out the team.
Speaker 2: Are our guest today, I will say, is simply without peer,
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, Uh, no words will really ever describe uh,
Speaker 2: the magic that exhumes from this man's voice anytime he sings.
Speaker 1: He's Uh.
Speaker 2: He's basically the six star General of vocalization of his
Speaker 2: generation of A.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah he is.
Speaker 2: You know, he's literally inspired and you know he has
Speaker 2: R and B children all over the map, on and
Speaker 2: off the books. You name them from Aaron Hall, r Kelly,
Speaker 2: Wynie Marsh the Boys to men genu Wine uh h town, Yes,
Speaker 2: just name them literally, Uh, these are his children. He's
Speaker 2: the one time member of one of the baddest funk
Speaker 2: bands ever of the seventies and the eighties, the Gap Band.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: He's still criminally under praised. Uh, still operating now better
Speaker 2: than ever. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the greatest Charlie
Speaker 2: Uncle Charlie Wilson.
Speaker 1: Wow, man, I've.
Speaker 2: Been waiting for this moment. I don't know if it
Speaker 2: feels like every episode. Of course, he was gonna start with,
Speaker 2: I've been waiting for this moment, Yo, not for real,
Speaker 2: I mean, but thank thank you for coming on the show.
Speaker 2: I'm going to ask you the one question I'm certain
Speaker 2: that you've been tired of answering your whole career, which is,
Speaker 2: how in the world is Tulsa, Oklahoma home to one
Speaker 2: of the funkiest people of all time.
Speaker 1: I grew up That's where I was born, in Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: and I think, oh, I thought it was Tulsa. It
Speaker 1: was Oklahoma City, which is eighty miles away. My mom.
Speaker 1: We were just over visiting my grandmother, her mom, and
Speaker 1: then I just she just actually just delivered right there
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma City and we ended up going back to
Speaker 1: the next day. You just cleaned it off, yeah, man, So,
Speaker 1: I mean I went to school and Tulsa, Oklahoma from
Speaker 1: from kindergarten all the way and to high school and
Speaker 1: then went from there to Linkston. But but Tulsa's where
Speaker 1: I grew up, and I went to school there, and
Speaker 1: it's great.
Speaker 2: How well the history that I know of Oklahoma, especially
Speaker 2: the history of black people in Oklahoma from the Black
Speaker 2: Wall Street period to even now, Like Oklahoma is one
Speaker 2: of the states that I don't necessarily think of black folk.
Speaker 1: Being in.
Speaker 2: I mean, maybe I'm ignorant of that fact, but I mean,
Speaker 2: was there a high black population even despite the clan
Speaker 2: presence of the Jim Crow area? And was there a
Speaker 2: high presence of that? Like how did you even manage to?
Speaker 1: Oh? We had? Was the N word was used quite
Speaker 1: easily there. I was growing up little boy. You couldn't
Speaker 1: go in I remember this, running into Woolworths. We pulled
Speaker 1: up on the side and I just opened up the
Speaker 1: door because the milksheck stand was like you know, the
Speaker 1: ice cream stand, which you could see it through the
Speaker 1: room the door. So I just jumped out and ran
Speaker 1: before we can get out, and they was like, don't
Speaker 1: go in that door because we had our own interest.
Speaker 1: He's supposed to go in the negro entrance. And so
Speaker 1: my dad pulls up so he didn't. We could just
Speaker 1: get out so we could go around there, but he couldn't.
Speaker 1: That's the one way street, so he couldn't turn to
Speaker 1: the right. So we got out and I just ran
Speaker 1: through that door, the first door I seen, because the
Speaker 1: ice cream stand is there, you know. So when I
Speaker 1: got out, I just ran the door and they were
Speaker 1: screaming out to me not to go in there, but
Speaker 1: I just ran and jumped up on the stool that
Speaker 1: spins around, and I was spinning around, and the white
Speaker 1: guy had his little white hat, white uniform. And by
Speaker 1: the time my mom and then got around to the
Speaker 1: other door and they was coming to new it was
Speaker 1: gonna be something because I went in the wrong door.
Speaker 1: So they was running and man, that that man, I
Speaker 1: think he had his hand back and my mama was screaming,
Speaker 1: don't you do it. And I remember when I looked back,
Speaker 1: they was running. She was dropping purse and everything. And
Speaker 1: my dad said, you'll draw back, nub and so he was.
Speaker 1: They was. He was getting ready to hit me, call
Speaker 1: me a little the inward little boy, and oh man,
Speaker 1: it was terrible. I was frightening the death. That was
Speaker 1: all I wanted to was, you know, a milkshake. I
Speaker 1: ain't no difference. And so that was the episode I
Speaker 1: will never forget.
Speaker 2: And that environment was was always chose you.
Speaker 1: That and oh yeah, you had your own interests and
Speaker 1: and and and you had your own uh you know,
Speaker 1: water fountains to drink out of the water would barely
Speaker 1: come out. And the white fountains, the water was like
Speaker 1: a crispin cleans clean, just like a waterfall. Jump it.
Speaker 1: So I would just I would. If this one didn't
Speaker 1: come out of go to that one. My mom would
Speaker 1: always grab my hand and snatch me away from it.
Speaker 1: But I didn't get read. I was little. I just
Speaker 1: was you know, this one didn't work, souse. I went
Speaker 1: to this one. It was not good, you know, somewhat,
Speaker 1: but uh. We had some uh, some pretty good friends
Speaker 1: that lived across the street, which was mister Reynolds, right,
Speaker 1: and you know the work than the name rentals and
Speaker 1: so they had the aluminum and all of that stuff
Speaker 1: that so we would go and play in his yard
Speaker 1: and it's his factory yard. And and when it was
Speaker 1: thunderstorms or tornadoes, we would go in. We could go
Speaker 1: in that basement, the underground. Now, when of course we
Speaker 1: were empires from Oklahoma.
Speaker 3: Huh the rentals wrapped the Yes, yeah, they we had
Speaker 3: a that's weird.
Speaker 2: So we're now learning that all masters of the Soul
Speaker 2: Empire had their corporation the last one. When growing up,
Speaker 2: my dad would be standing in water like three feet
Speaker 2: but we.
Speaker 1: Could use it to get away from it. My mom
Speaker 1: would not leave the house. Go ahead, I'm not going.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to stand in no water. She was
Speaker 1: pretty uh, very outspoken, but she wouldn't do it.
Speaker 2: Were you guys? Was it a musical household?
Speaker 1: Musical? Yeah? My mom played piano and she taught us
Speaker 1: all how to play everything. So you actually play, you
Speaker 1: play panels? Well, yeah, the first thing I learned was that,
Speaker 1: of course, you know drums in church, so.
Speaker 2: You're your mean weapon always was piano drums or okay.
Speaker 2: So as far as like it's it's just you and
Speaker 2: your three brothers in the household, did you have more.
Speaker 1: Siblings, have a sister? She was that too. It's four
Speaker 1: of us, okay all together?
Speaker 2: So what was the at least the band environment in
Speaker 2: your high school or your your your school period?
Speaker 1: What was what was that into man and band we were?
Speaker 1: You know? Of course, my oldest brother went first. He
Speaker 1: was through all of the schools first, and it was
Speaker 1: my sister to follow him through all of the schools.
Speaker 1: The brother ron Correct Ronnie was there, and then my
Speaker 1: sister Loretta was second, then I was third, you know,
Speaker 1: so that already set presence of you know, there was
Speaker 1: a musical family. So when I got there, it was you, Wilson,
Speaker 1: you can sing, it's just oh, here's a microphone. And
Speaker 1: it was just like I just it was just like
Speaker 1: that ended up being a pet, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: the class pet, the teacher's favorite or whatever, and let
Speaker 1: him sing. And you know, so it was like that
Speaker 1: all the way through school. And but when I got there,
Speaker 1: you know, I had some friends who were very gifted
Speaker 1: and talented as well. So we would form our own
Speaker 1: little group and and man, we was pretty pretty. It
Speaker 1: was ingenious.
Speaker 2: Was there was there a black radio presence in Oklahoma
Speaker 2: at that time? No, So how did you I mean,
Speaker 2: because your your voice is I mean, you just automatically
Speaker 2: assumed that you literally came out the womb being raised and.
Speaker 1: Braised and smothered in soul.
Speaker 2: But in Oklahoma, how did you receive your education and information?
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, my mom sang better than me
Speaker 1: at that time, you know, I was she had chops
Speaker 1: to wiggle her voice any kind of way. And so
Speaker 1: when I first heard little Stevie Wan, I thought it
Speaker 1: was a girl. And I said, hey, Mom, let me
Speaker 1: say I can beat her. I can beat her. Mom,
Speaker 1: I swear I can be He said, we'll go us
Speaker 1: sit down. You ain't be no girl, It ain't bet no.
Speaker 1: And then I find out it wasn't a girl. Was
Speaker 1: a little Stevie Wonder. But I was like, I can
Speaker 1: do that. I can do that. She was like, you're
Speaker 1: not singing the blues up in here, so you know,
Speaker 1: so it was it was. We went next door to
Speaker 1: hear the records of all of Sam Cook, Helberry Fonte,
Speaker 1: anything that was going on. Because at that time, you know,
Speaker 1: it was just one chart. There was one radio and
Speaker 1: James Bryn everybody was if you got on that chart,
Speaker 1: that means you was a superstar. It was like no
Speaker 1: black radio. No, it was just one radio and one chart,
Speaker 1: and all of the big artists was on coming on
Speaker 1: down that radio station, you know, white auburat.
Speaker 8: Pop radio station.
Speaker 1: It was like pop was it?
Speaker 2: So you're saying that your parents forbid you to sing
Speaker 2: secular music in my household and couldn't do that. We
Speaker 2: had to go next door.
Speaker 1: My dad is a preacher, my mom was the state
Speaker 1: Minister of music, and it's not you not doing that
Speaker 1: and then wow, so what could you listen to? What
Speaker 1: would they we really have any you know, wentn't too
Speaker 1: much to listen to. I mean we have had a
Speaker 1: record player. We hear some Heya Jackson, are you hear
Speaker 1: some Shirley Sees or something? You know, something like that,
Speaker 1: And of course I'll be next door and listening to
Speaker 1: what I want to listen to because they were the
Speaker 1: what they weren't in church over there, so I could
Speaker 1: go over there and uh and listen to whatever I
Speaker 1: wanted to them shiny records and and you know, so
Speaker 1: I had a great time, man, it was. It was
Speaker 1: good and upgreen with we were brought up really good,
Speaker 1: and the music scene was, like I say, next door
Speaker 1: was just great for me because I could hear anything
Speaker 1: that was on the radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, So besides, I know Leon Russell is from the area.
Speaker 2: But was there I know that you guys you were
Speaker 2: his band at one point? Correct, yes, So how did
Speaker 2: that partnership come about?
Speaker 1: Well, we were playing this club I think it was
Speaker 1: about fifty May hold about fifty people, and we was
Speaker 1: playing late nights. We started about eleven twelve o'clock and
Speaker 1: leave out at about five o'clock in the morning. So
Speaker 1: it was. And they came in the club one night
Speaker 1: and I was like, who's the white boys back there?
Speaker 1: Just cause you know? And they was back back to
Speaker 1: that party and and then nobody seemed to know who
Speaker 1: they were. And then the next weekend they came back
Speaker 1: all hair, all slick and sitting up straight. So they
Speaker 1: wasn't drunk this weekend. So I went to the table
Speaker 1: and said, you want to meet Leon Russell. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: where's he at? He's like right of here, and I
Speaker 1: was like, his hair combed it so right right, he's sober.
Speaker 1: So I asked him why was h why you you
Speaker 1: came last week? You guys were pretty drunk. I said, well,
Speaker 1: we was drunk. We just want to make sure we
Speaker 1: heard what we heard last week. I heard it that
Speaker 1: it wasn't a fluke. They wasn't a fluke, that we
Speaker 1: wasn't drunk. So when I said so, what do you think,
Speaker 1: said we heard exactly what we heard last week. This
Speaker 1: is great.
Speaker 2: So were you performing as the gap? And by that
Speaker 2: point okay, so he didn't too much like that name. No,
Speaker 2: he was trying to make us change it.
Speaker 1: What year was that? I was in the early seventies
Speaker 1: some time, I think seventy one seventy two. So where then.
Speaker 2: Okay, so this is like right when a song for
Speaker 2: you was just starting to Yeah, it's somewhere now. But
Speaker 2: so we was starting to make a name from so.
Speaker 1: We were and he just sort of like, we said,
Speaker 1: you want to go to the studio. So we went
Speaker 1: to the studio and and checked him out. We played
Speaker 1: a little bit. It was you know, quite late. We
Speaker 1: was just you know, recorded to about ten and eleven
Speaker 1: something like that, and when finally went home, went to sleep,
Speaker 1: but and uh he had a show coming up, and
Speaker 1: the invited us to the show. And I went to
Speaker 1: see his show, and and uh he after the show,
Speaker 1: he said, what did you think? I said, Man, your
Speaker 1: band weak, my band to kick your band?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so.
Speaker 1: Uh he said really I was like yeah. So he says, okay,
Speaker 1: he went to the studio and he says, well, following
Speaker 1: over the studio, he gave us about I don't know,
Speaker 1: five or six albums here we'll learned these albums. Learned this,
Speaker 1: I said, what songs? Every one of them on all
Speaker 1: of the albums. But see Py previously had told us,
Speaker 1: which was what was the greatest things is the beginnings.
Speaker 1: It's the beginnings and the endings of songs. What people remember,
Speaker 1: They won't know what's in the middle of whatever if
Speaker 1: you can get them in the front, and you got them.
Speaker 1: So what we did is we just learned all of
Speaker 1: the intros of all of the songs.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. We just stopped playing to
Speaker 2: him where we went.
Speaker 1: You know, he was fast enough to follow him, and
Speaker 1: so he started off on one and then he went
Speaker 1: to a whole different album and we just like and
Speaker 1: had the keys that so and so when he when
Speaker 1: he started playing the different keys, we just followed, looked
Speaker 1: and followed the intros. And then then he just stopped
Speaker 1: and looked at the site. You gotta be kidding me.
Speaker 1: It's like, man, what else you want to do is nothing?
Speaker 1: I'm good, he said, So let me. Can I ask
Speaker 1: you a question? I said, yeah? He said, can I
Speaker 1: put a drummer with your band? And can I put
Speaker 1: another guitar with your band? I said, let's go, And
Speaker 1: so he fired his other band and then we was
Speaker 1: there and uh, just killing killing really and you on
Speaker 1: keys for that I was on keys and I was
Speaker 1: up dancing which he didn't like a lot. I was
Speaker 1: about that was dangerous. I was young, twenty one, fast
Speaker 1: feet and and and and jumping on his piano. I
Speaker 1: would break all his his head help and steal the
Speaker 1: the microphones and I would jump up on this piano
Speaker 1: and jump down doing the split and all kinds of
Speaker 1: crazy stuff. And he started taking the songs away from me.
Speaker 1: And because I was stealing this show.
Speaker 2: That's similar to uh, Jimmy Hendrick steal in the spot,
Speaker 2: like from Little Richard broh YEA yeah, yeah yeah Little
Speaker 2: Richards still gotta go, bro, I can't have that yeah steal.
Speaker 1: So how long was it until?
Speaker 2: Did you guys stay with him until you recorded your
Speaker 2: debut record in seventy seven, the one before when you
Speaker 2: went to uh.
Speaker 1: No, we was we was him. We did. We did
Speaker 1: one album on Gap and we did which sold about
Speaker 1: maybe sixteen records in the neighborhood. And then we then
Speaker 1: we did I stopped all that jazz album with him,
Speaker 1: and and then and he wanted to He wanted me
Speaker 1: to to They wanted me to leave the band and
Speaker 1: uh and so they was and Elton John was coming
Speaker 1: out and they wanted me to to to to take
Speaker 1: go after him and I was like, because my brother's coming.
Speaker 1: They was like, I just want you and I was like, no,
Speaker 1: that's okay.
Speaker 3: So even then, did you guys like have a pack
Speaker 3: like we're going to be a man and were did? I?
Speaker 3: I was the pack leader with that vibe. I don't
Speaker 3: know what everybody else's motivation.
Speaker 1: Was, motives were for me, I was like, let's stay together.
Speaker 1: And I was the only one that thought out that
Speaker 1: was me. And I'm the one saying less you see
Speaker 1: what I'm saying and uh, And I don't think they
Speaker 1: really really didn't get that for so many years time out. Yes,
Speaker 1: you guys played on stop all that jazz. Yes, if
Speaker 1: you look at the end. Wait a minute, I have
Speaker 1: that record, I think now I look again, I'm the
Speaker 1: one that the little skinny one over him.
Speaker 2: That's me closer to him.
Speaker 1: Wait, I'm about to tell Steve.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't know it, Steve, because there's a bunch of
Speaker 2: Africans on the front cover, or I did not know
Speaker 2: that was that's all of us.
Speaker 1: My brother's in the band, that we all all of
Speaker 1: us and the white girl and other ladies that that
Speaker 1: was the background singers, all of it was all of us.
Speaker 1: Now I gotta go to Philly to find that record.
Speaker 1: It's I have it.
Speaker 9: When when Leon Russell passed recently, I went out pretty
Speaker 9: much part the entire catalog on vinyl, and uh, that
Speaker 9: record stood out and not not because of the Africans
Speaker 9: on the the music tell the truth the music.
Speaker 3: That that's that's a superb. Yeah, it's a great record.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, wow. Okay, I did not know now which
Speaker 3: one of you I think.
Speaker 1: I think I'm the ones right behind him, the most
Speaker 1: skinny ones right closer to him.
Speaker 2: I was young, quite I think that's me.
Speaker 1: I think that's me.
Speaker 2: Right, Oh, look at the baby. Okay, all right, So
Speaker 2: I could assume that all this activity happened inside of Oklahoma.
Speaker 2: Mm hm, So where does the association with Lonnie Simmons
Speaker 2: come into play? Am I to assume? Form storry to
Speaker 2: hang on the most obvious question? I know the answer,
Speaker 2: but uh, Gap, of course is the abbreviation for Greenwood, Archer,
Speaker 2: and Pine. Yes, why were those particular three streets chosen
Speaker 2: as the name of the band that.
Speaker 1: Was black Wall Street? And all of the black owned
Speaker 1: businesses or were very rich black people entrepreneurs, bankers, hotel, owners.
Speaker 1: Everything was just black owned and very very rich. And
Speaker 1: they had their own bus lines, they owned caf service,
Speaker 1: they had their own everything. And on Greenwood Archer was
Speaker 1: in this way, Pine was running this way, which made
Speaker 1: an h so we was called a greenwod Arch and
Speaker 1: Pine Street everything and it was just super barber. Anything
Speaker 1: you can any business today was there in that particular area.
Speaker 1: And they didn't need anybody or anything. They ran their
Speaker 1: own thing and just just or Tulsa just didn't like
Speaker 1: that to have these black all these black rich people
Speaker 1: and didn't didn't use any other system, didn't use their system.
Speaker 1: They had their own system. So they burn them out.
Speaker 2: So after that initial burning, was there ever an attempt
Speaker 2: to resurge it throughout time in history. I think I've
Speaker 2: only been to Oklahoma maybe once or twice. They tried
Speaker 2: to rebuild and they burned them again.
Speaker 1: Whoa damn. Yes, when did the rebuild. It was in
Speaker 1: the twenties. After they burned it the ash, they tried
Speaker 1: to rebuild again a few years later and just burn
Speaker 1: them out again. As simple as that. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: you it was it was too. It was too they
Speaker 1: didn't need the outside world. It's like they didn't need
Speaker 1: the outside Tulsa for anything. They had their own community,
Speaker 1: own everything, and so that was like the help was
Speaker 1: being taken from the white world, is what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say. But I you know, cutting myself up. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So they they had their own system. The cabs went everywhere,
Speaker 1: their buses went everywhere, you know, all of the grocery
Speaker 1: stores and banks. Everything they had didn't have to bank
Speaker 1: with Nope, they use their own banks.
Speaker 2: Can I assume that your parents and your grandparents and
Speaker 2: before then were they all in Oklahoma at the time.
Speaker 1: Grandmother my mother was a very very very very little child.
Speaker 1: She was born in twenty three stores around that time.
Speaker 1: So my grandmother knew about it really well and told everybody,
Speaker 1: but she they weren't allowed really to talk about it.
Speaker 1: It was like a hush hush really oh yeah, because
Speaker 1: you know, that was too much information because the way
Speaker 1: they the way they burned everybody out, and it just
Speaker 1: wasn't you're not supposed to talk about it. Wow, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you could end up somewhere cut up in a sack
Speaker 1: or somewhere missing because there was so many people missing
Speaker 1: and they never found those people that could see and
Speaker 1: actually say, you know, what was really going on because
Speaker 1: there was police coming to houses and you know, and
Speaker 1: and just get doing away with them families because getting
Speaker 1: away with it. Yeah, they're getting away with it. So
Speaker 1: it was pretty bad.
Speaker 2: Well, I knew that Singleton's uh Rosewood was semi based
Speaker 2: on it. I mean it's not, but he said that
Speaker 2: he borrowed, you know, bits of history from uh the
Speaker 2: blood from from the Black Wall Street experience. So, uh,
Speaker 2: how does Lonnie Simmons come into the picture and you
Speaker 2: guys move into la It was years later. We actually
Speaker 2: kind of was so heartbroken that we were trying to
Speaker 2: figure out what we're gonna do because I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: we've been on.
Speaker 1: Tour with the guy. We was the band, we cut
Speaker 1: the records, and we just thought everything was gonna blossom
Speaker 1: from that platform and it just didn't work out that way.
Speaker 1: And man, I was just so hot, so heartbroken, and
Speaker 1: the band was kind of like just nervous. I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: we went to California. We came out to Los Angeles
Speaker 1: and we was bumping around in there for a year
Speaker 1: just trying to figure out what. We ended up on
Speaker 1: Tattoo Records, which was a subsidiary of R. C A
Speaker 1: at that time. We tried m C A our over
Speaker 1: there with Quincy Jones at the A and M Yeah,
Speaker 1: which was we did a single a deal and I
Speaker 1: was trying to get with him, but of course he
Speaker 1: had you know, he had brother Johnson and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Your hands was full, so we ended up we ended
Speaker 1: up with Tattoo Records, and it's just okay did okay
Speaker 1: was not that that much.
Speaker 2: So Tattoo Records was real label because I remember when
Speaker 2: Shaka Khan first signed her deal with Warner Brothers, at
Speaker 2: least for the first two records, Tattoo Records was on it.
Speaker 2: So who ran Tattoo I can't remember, but they had
Speaker 2: a deal through Warner or yeah, I think so, or
Speaker 2: just whatever label would was playing. Yeah, okay, I see,
Speaker 2: it's actually weird. It's like confession time.
Speaker 1: So even though.
Speaker 2: At least by the second album with the Oops up
Speaker 2: being a national single, when I first heard of you,
Speaker 2: I thought you were a chef because there's a feature
Speaker 2: one of your first features and Ride On magazine wasn't
Speaker 2: yes trying to cook eggs? Yo? So like this is
Speaker 2: the thing in I mean now, I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: millennials are very fortunate now to get you know, a
Speaker 2: plethora of information on their favorites via the Internet. But
Speaker 2: you know, in nineteen seventy nine, nineteen eighty, you really
Speaker 2: truly had three outlets if you're going to make it
Speaker 2: as a black person, Git Jet, Ebony and Ride magazine.
Speaker 2: I mean occasionally black stars they had a.
Speaker 1: What CPIA black beat.
Speaker 2: Was okay, but yeah, in right On magazine they did
Speaker 2: this this layout of of Charlie Wilson in the kitchen,
Speaker 2: like but like a very extensive, like twenty photo of
Speaker 2: you know, first, I take the cinnamon and.
Speaker 1: Yo, he made breakfast.
Speaker 2: Yo.
Speaker 8: I told my mom like yo, this and like wait,
Speaker 8: we had what was for breakfast?
Speaker 2: I mean he made a traditional breakfast. I forgot now,
Speaker 2: But like I was doing the cinnamon and my friends
Speaker 2: still like tell you what, Like in my head, I
Speaker 2: wasn't connecting the oops up side your head guy with
Speaker 2: this is Wilson.
Speaker 1: I mean he got a clean feather.
Speaker 2: He looked like Philip Ingram from Switch, Like he's feathered out, smooth,
Speaker 2: smooth go tea.
Speaker 1: I thought he was a chef. So you know, like
Speaker 1: do you remember I remember the shooting, I remember burning
Speaker 1: my hand. I was in the pancakes and my hand
Speaker 1: was too close to and I remember going up and
Speaker 1: I was and they caught the picture with my mouth
Speaker 1: because I was turned.
Speaker 2: I did that. Yeah, I gotta give myself a reggae sorry,
Speaker 2: real show.
Speaker 1: Really, I burnt my hand and I did that.
Speaker 3: See and yeah, you've probably been like, ain't nobody gonna
Speaker 3: read this? Why can I just talk about my new
Speaker 3: single see Cynthia Hornet's Yeah. So well, I was gonna say, uh,
Speaker 3: what was?
Speaker 2: Because I know that in Los Angeles that time period,
Speaker 2: I mean, you can either roll with Clarence Avont or uh,
Speaker 2: Dick Griffy, Right.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know what Barry Gordy's vibe was.
Speaker 2: I mean I know that his sister Iris Gorya was
Speaker 2: sort of taking over the the reins of Finding Acts
Speaker 2: at Motown between like seventy five and eighty five and
Speaker 2: with Lonnie Simmons, So at least, what what was the
Speaker 2: initial like, how did you guys hook.
Speaker 1: Up with him? And it was me I hooked up
Speaker 1: with him, and I said everybody the band just kind
Speaker 1: of fell apart and they was everybody after nothing worked?
Speaker 1: You know, the Tattoo record, that thing didn't work, and
Speaker 1: so everybody was like, Okay, we was in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: a whole year, and you know, those guys took a
Speaker 1: leave of absence and I didn't know what a leave
Speaker 1: of absence was. I quit my job. I quit my job,
Speaker 1: and so did my oldest brother. He quit his job
Speaker 1: because we was basically trying to do this thing for real,
Speaker 1: and everybody just.
Speaker 2: You know, how do you Yeah, I was gonna say,
Speaker 2: how do you survive?
Speaker 1: It's it's a do die. It's it's like, you know, man,
Speaker 1: it's we I had cereal and water and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever breakfast would be. And we stayed fifteen in a
Speaker 1: one two bedroom apartment with a lady who already had
Speaker 1: four kids. And we were all on the floor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we was all on the one bathroom. We was all
Speaker 1: on the floor. We was in the jungle there. And
Speaker 1: it's like she must have believed in Harrison. Yeah, she
Speaker 1: was a connection. I went to school with her two
Speaker 1: of her kids, and we were very close and uh,
Speaker 1: and that was the connection we had in Los anges
Speaker 1: because they moved from Tulsa to Los Angeles. So when
Speaker 1: we was coming out, we told him we were coming
Speaker 1: and she said you come stay here. It was just
Speaker 1: too many of us. And now I think she got
Speaker 1: almost got kicked out her apartment because we was there.
Speaker 1: We all rehearsing in that apartment. Man. We played down
Speaker 1: by the food and blew out the circuit system trying
Speaker 1: to get a man who owned the building.
Speaker 2: That birthday party. He come back to.
Speaker 1: Jacket boom, he was like, get out, you don't get out.
Speaker 2: He was already mad at the woman. So that one
Speaker 2: just blew it.
Speaker 1: Get out.
Speaker 2: Wow. So that that initial band, h, I guess you
Speaker 2: got to get your first soul training appearance in seventy nine.
Speaker 2: That initial band migrated from Tulsa.
Speaker 1: To know that the band didn't make it. That meant
Speaker 1: that our that band did never make it to no
Speaker 1: TV shows, no other records, so none of that. So,
Speaker 1: like I said, I met Lannie and and his club
Speaker 1: and uh because d J Rogers was there doing those
Speaker 1: times and and and of course DJ used to pull
Speaker 1: me on stage and and let me sing and and
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, the crowd club before it was was
Speaker 1: at the Total Experience Club and where a lot of
Speaker 1: Chaka Khan dramatics everybody used to play the Total Experience
Speaker 1: nightclub everybody that was anybody played his club.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was gonna say because I think even priors,
Speaker 3: uh that Niggas Crazy album was was was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. It was taped. There was a nightclub too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was his had a night his nightclub. That's the
Speaker 1: way he was. He was known for that and mm hm.
Speaker 1: Him and Dick Griffy were cool. You know. I also
Speaker 1: played that they were cool.
Speaker 2: But if you said him and take her for cool,
Speaker 2: then that.
Speaker 1: It was like it was.
Speaker 2: It wasn't cool to that part.
Speaker 3: I mean, was he a nurturing guy or was he
Speaker 3: shug Knightish Lonnie Lonnie Lonnie was Uh, it was I
Speaker 3: want to say in the category maybe of a shure.
Speaker 1: The night he was could have been the first one.
Speaker 1: But he was very a smooth one. He didn't get
Speaker 1: if you got it upset, he wouldn't come get you
Speaker 1: though he raised his voice. He just took action. Whether
Speaker 1: the guys around him would because you know, it was
Speaker 1: like and it would just be like that. But uh,
Speaker 1: we that's how we started. It was from me and him.
Speaker 1: It was our relationship that we did this whole thing about.
Speaker 1: He would give me a contract or not keep it
Speaker 1: a week and I give it back to him and
Speaker 1: he keep it. He opened it and would be signed.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that's saying. We did that for
Speaker 1: a month two months, and but he was like, man,
Speaker 1: whence you come? Because he heard me saying right and
Speaker 1: it was like dude, that voice right there. And I
Speaker 1: won't say what he said about the other artist that
Speaker 1: was that, but he was like, dude, me and you
Speaker 1: that we could make this happen. And I was just like, okay,
Speaker 1: whatever I said. I just got to get my brothers
Speaker 1: out here and so and he was like how many.
Speaker 1: I was like it's two. So he says, okay, go
Speaker 1: get them. So at the time, worre uh?
Speaker 2: I guess like Robert Goody Woodfield and Yarborough people's were they.
Speaker 1: Becoming part of the family. Oh you have them too.
Speaker 1: I brought them. I found found everybody that was on
Speaker 1: that label. I did. Wow, it was me who got
Speaker 1: brought everybody. He brought nobody. It was me brought everybody.
Speaker 8: That what you get for that?
Speaker 1: I was experienced, That's all you got. It was indeed
Speaker 1: a total experience. That's what that was. But they went
Speaker 1: in Texas and I I was on the road and
Speaker 1: I went to this club and I seen y'all brow
Speaker 1: on people's and up and I a friend of mine
Speaker 1: that was was connected on the total experience side and
Speaker 1: name was Rudy Taylor at that time, Rudy Taylor. And
Speaker 1: I asked Rudy to get on the phone and called
Speaker 1: line right away, and he called him. I said, I
Speaker 1: got a group just just incredible, and I think we
Speaker 1: should sign him like tomorrow, and he was like, well,
Speaker 1: I said, I gotta go. You do it or not,
Speaker 1: but they gonna end up with somebody else. And then
Speaker 1: and he asked Rudy, Rudy how good He said, man,
Speaker 1: you know, if Childie's Ears is good, and I'm telling
Speaker 1: you they're good and they sing and live at the
Speaker 1: night club. So he put me back on the phone.
Speaker 1: He said, okay, man, you know, I was just tired
Speaker 1: of just waking up. So if they're good, I signed them.
Speaker 1: I said, okay, you need to sign them. And then
Speaker 1: Goodie came right after it, you know, so it was
Speaker 1: all friends and so I just put them all in there.
Speaker 2: So you know what I mean is that at one
Speaker 2: point in time, if you had good ears and something
Speaker 2: sounded good, it was worthy of getting signed, Like, not
Speaker 2: once did he say, well, you know, does the girl
Speaker 2: look good like what she looked like?
Speaker 1: Our market? No signed him.
Speaker 2: Have you had someone that he passed on that eventually.
Speaker 1: Made it or he didn't have anybody? No know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Was there somebody that, oh that he didn't
Speaker 1: try to bring to the fold that he didn't want? Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: there was nobody that I brought that he didn't want.
Speaker 1: I mean, he just It's like I had a guy
Speaker 1: named Dorian Williams who who the actor? No, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: his name is Paul Williams actually, but we called him
Speaker 1: Dorian and he was it was like Luther Vandros at
Speaker 1: that time. And it was like and I said, this kid,
Speaker 1: but everybody he didn't It was afraid of of knocking,
Speaker 1: Like if I was on the stand, something was gonna
Speaker 1: knock me off the stand. But I wasn't looking at
Speaker 1: it like that. I'm like, this guy can sane. You
Speaker 1: need to just get it done. So we did the
Speaker 1: album on him, and did an album on on some
Speaker 1: other actual that I had, and it just didn't put
Speaker 1: the effort. Okay, yeah, he just put the effort in.
Speaker 1: So at that time, he was like rolling in money
Speaker 1: above above ground, so you know, it was nothing under
Speaker 1: the table was all it was all up. So he
Speaker 1: was like, whatever, I don't want to do that.
Speaker 3: So I have to ask how influential was Funkadelics. Let's
Speaker 3: let's take it to the stage album to.
Speaker 2: You, because I feel like, you know, eighty seventy nine
Speaker 2: to eighty was a transitional period that was really hard
Speaker 2: for a lot of the seventy bands to cross over
Speaker 2: and to maintain, like, you know, Ohio players imploded. Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, at least a lot of the lead singers
Speaker 2: of particular acts.
Speaker 3: Have left for solo careers, and then the left the
Speaker 3: left behind group members imploded.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: But you kind of just took the the p funk
Speaker 2: absolutely uh uh, I'll say baton and kept it alive.
Speaker 1: And so what was was there any feelings on their
Speaker 1: end of you guys sort of.
Speaker 2: Taking their their modus operandi and and actually running good
Speaker 2: with it.
Speaker 1: It was a couple of guys and and and the
Speaker 1: band that you know, if say, if you come up,
Speaker 1: George will call you up on the stage and if
Speaker 1: they don't like it, they started doing the waltz, you know,
Speaker 1: and so George made him stop doing the wats one
Speaker 1: time I came on stage, but I already knew what
Speaker 1: the Walts was because I was going with one of
Speaker 1: the girls. It was from the from the Parliament Pocademics,
Speaker 1: so I used to go with doing silver now yet, so.
Speaker 2: I already knew what that whole thing was.
Speaker 1: But so when the wa what's the wall, just like
Speaker 1: he's washed up or whatever, and so George would just
Speaker 1: go right over there and just don't do that. Don't
Speaker 1: do that on him. So everybody stops and I'll just
Speaker 1: take the mic and just rip the place apart. And
Speaker 1: then I think after I I did that one time,
Speaker 1: they was like, oh, he's not He's not a whimp.
Speaker 1: But see, we was on the road with with with
Speaker 1: the Parliament Funkadelic for years before we really had the
Speaker 1: hit record, and then after we came off that's what
Speaker 1: side your head was sort of bomp boring, But the
Speaker 1: chant came from a crowd that was in Pittsburgh and ourselves,
Speaker 1: you know, but they was chanting something, but the rhythm
Speaker 1: was the same. So we came back and put the
Speaker 1: oops up side the head because they you know, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was going to say it was they was chanting
Speaker 1: something and it wasn't what We couldn't understand it, so
Speaker 1: we actually chant chant the the the oops up side
Speaker 1: your head say oops, because they were saying gap band.
Speaker 1: They was I think they were saying gap side to head,
Speaker 1: gap band something like that. It was weird, but it wasn't.
Speaker 1: It didn't have the real, the perfect rhythm. So we
Speaker 1: had to go back and get that rhythm and put
Speaker 1: it to that. But we were on a roll with
Speaker 1: them for a long time. Man. And and of course
Speaker 1: we was watching them every night, and George became very
Speaker 1: protective and Bootsy and them became very protective of us.
Speaker 1: And they made a push back and give us room
Speaker 1: because I didn't have no room. I said, I can't.
Speaker 1: I don't have any room to work. So Georye said,
Speaker 1: I haven't been seeing here what you mean. I said, Man,
Speaker 1: I ain't got no room. So they said, I'll make
Speaker 1: him push back. So they pushed the stage back for us,
Speaker 1: and uh and Bootsy saw us a couple of times
Speaker 1: and then he'd give us some pinners and stuff. So
Speaker 1: of course, quite naturally, man, that funk that they had
Speaker 1: was infectious and so it rubbed off. And I just
Speaker 1: loved them, and uh, of course I took some of
Speaker 1: it and ran with it. What were those audiences? Like, man,
Speaker 1: it was incredible? And see Bootsy was so strong that
Speaker 1: that he was kicking George's butt. Okay, so George sometimes
Speaker 1: had to let Boosie close really yeah, because man, he
Speaker 1: would Bootsy would stump all over Parliament. Funkadeltic and they
Speaker 1: had the same horn sections and everything. So but Bootsy
Speaker 1: it was Boots's band.
Speaker 2: So so speaking of which, and we kind of mentioned it,
Speaker 2: what were your feelings to Uptown Funk and how did
Speaker 2: you because you know, I mean there have been think
Speaker 2: pieces on these twelve artists could also get a piece
Speaker 2: of the right, but you guys.
Speaker 1: Did it, so technically they had to give it to me.
Speaker 2: Are you a Grammy winner because it was a Record
Speaker 2: of the Year or is that only for Song of
Speaker 2: the year If you're listened to his song, right, song
Speaker 2: of the year?
Speaker 1: Good song? Okay, So it wasn't song. It was record
Speaker 1: of the year. That's for the perform it was. It
Speaker 1: was my I remember my manager, he's in there now.
Speaker 1: He was. I mean, he he calls such a stink.
Speaker 1: That's what good managers do. He called a good manager.
Speaker 1: He calls such a stink man on everything, and so
Speaker 1: I think they was about tired of looking at him
Speaker 1: and saying that he was good. He went straight to
Speaker 1: the top with it, and and then it was like
Speaker 1: then they just like, uh, well, we can't well song
Speaker 1: of the year whatever it is, So they moved things around,
Speaker 1: and so he was just saying, it's not fair. It's
Speaker 1: not fair to the Gap band that they don't get
Speaker 1: the you know, recognition, the recognition of it, and so
Speaker 1: I remember that part then. So but anyway, man, it was, uh,
Speaker 1: it was I reckon simple and they.
Speaker 8: Was chatting it and so hey, so it came to
Speaker 8: a quicker conclusion than the Robin Marvin Gaye situation.
Speaker 1: We got paid for whatever. He's happy, you know.
Speaker 3: Nineteen eighty also brought another uh what I would assume
Speaker 3: for you a bucket list pairing, uh you singing background
Speaker 3: on I ain't going to stand for it with Stevie.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I'm just assuming that this guy's your hero. Yeah,
Speaker 1: assuming we can assume that. You don't have to assume
Speaker 1: no more. It's one of my heroes.
Speaker 2: So what was that experience like for you to work
Speaker 2: with Prime Stevie, especially when, like I know how some
Speaker 2: artists could have. I've seen artists ego trip and kind
Speaker 2: of shun out of anyone that's remotely capable of out
Speaker 2: seeing them or outshining them. And always wanted to know
Speaker 2: because there's two versions of I Ain't gonna stand for it.
Speaker 2: The version on forty five goes about maybe thirty seconds
Speaker 2: longer than the album version. And I was always impressed
Speaker 2: with the fact.
Speaker 1: That you.
Speaker 2: Saying so disciplined when you could have easily just started,
Speaker 2: you know, your vocal acrobatics.
Speaker 1: What was that whole experience like recording with them? Let
Speaker 1: me tell you that is not the version at all.
Speaker 1: That that's not the best version. There's another one, now,
Speaker 1: the version that we actually did in the beginning you
Speaker 1: knew what's coming. Yeah, that version that he did, he
Speaker 1: couldn't get that. We recorded that version in botic sound,
Speaker 1: which is Ike Turner study. Wow really and that version
Speaker 1: with the wo wo walk oh man, that one right there,
Speaker 1: he had the thing around his neck to make himself
Speaker 1: a microphone and we all singing around him. That was
Speaker 1: the version. And I used to answ him, where's that version?
Speaker 1: He said, I couldn't couldn't couldn't get the version of
Speaker 1: the tape back from from Ike. I think that the
Speaker 1: it was I was looking for my gun.
Speaker 2: Said, yeah, we couldn't get that.
Speaker 1: He couldn't get that, but anyway, it was something I
Speaker 1: never get got the real story from why we didn't
Speaker 1: use it. So he was trying to recreate it after,
Speaker 1: like years later, to try to recreate it. I said, where, Yeah,
Speaker 1: when was the first one?
Speaker 2: There?
Speaker 1: Man, I can't now, I can't remember the year now
Speaker 1: i'm a little It came out in eighty, No it was.
Speaker 2: I assume he wasn't doing nothing between seventy six and eighty.
Speaker 1: It was eighty. Then it came out. We did it.
Speaker 1: We did it in seventy nine, seventy nine in the version.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking something like that late night. How did you
Speaker 1: meet Stevie? Yeah? I met Stevie from the album from
Speaker 1: when I was with Shelter with Leon Russell. We went
Speaker 1: out to Los Angeles to mix the record Magician's Holiday
Speaker 1: and he was still in the record plant, just running
Speaker 1: over time like you always do, right in there and
Speaker 1: he was a begone and he was our and a
Speaker 1: half two hours. So they had the record and this
Speaker 1: guy Spike, who was one of inch Steve's engineers. He
Speaker 1: had heard the record, so they had told Stevie about
Speaker 1: this guy singing. So Steve heard the record and that
Speaker 1: was my first time meeting. It was in seventy something,
Speaker 1: seventy five someone like that. But anyway, I sit down.
Speaker 1: He sit me at the piano with him, and he
Speaker 1: started playing and he asked me sang this, and I
Speaker 1: sang that, and he sang the part another part, and
Speaker 1: we was going off each other like that, and then
Speaker 1: he was like, hey, man, you're bad man. I like you, man,
Speaker 1: what is that like? What was that like? For you? Believe?
Speaker 2: I couldn't even say the part, man, I couldn't even
Speaker 2: get my licks out.
Speaker 1: Man. I was shaken and like a nervous, like you know,
Speaker 1: that was my first time and we've been friends ever
Speaker 1: since then, That's what's up. Yeah, I just was just
Speaker 1: nervous and uh and uh you know, so that was
Speaker 1: my first time meeting them. And then, like I said,
Speaker 1: it happened again and he wanted to get being on
Speaker 1: that record and then and we couldn't do it at
Speaker 1: the time. We was on tour. He offered Center a plane,
Speaker 1: a jet and and Uh, of course everybody was nervous.
Speaker 1: I ain't get on no chet trying to get rid
Speaker 1: of Charlie Wilson.
Speaker 2: Try to get rid of the Charlie Wilson. Stupid people,
Speaker 2: what they think about it.
Speaker 1: I was young at the time, man, but these guys
Speaker 1: are they're probably getting hide confused. I'm like, dude, he
Speaker 1: just want us to sing on the record. Get out
Speaker 1: of here. So anyway, that next uh, that next two
Speaker 1: days later, I just popped on a jet and uh,
Speaker 1: and then everybody followed me, and I guess right after that,
Speaker 1: I'm gone, I see y'all going to stay with Steve
Speaker 1: and so I got back and did the vocals and uh,
Speaker 1: but I heard I said, where's the other version? And
Speaker 1: he was like, that's a long story. I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: I think anything.
Speaker 3: Wait, uh, you know what it's everything's coming to me
Speaker 3: now as you're talking. I gotta go back to p funk.
Speaker 3: Can you please tell me the origin of new Spaceship?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: What's that an old track that you sang on? Because
Speaker 3: there's no way in hell and we're referring to new
Speaker 3: Spaceship on the.
Speaker 2: On the George Clinton, George Clinton People All Stars awesome,
Speaker 2: power fully operational mothership.
Speaker 3: But they called it T A T A old P
Speaker 3: whatever the initials opp? Whatever the initials opp.
Speaker 2: Dude, when that record came out, you know we were
Speaker 2: skimming through it, and you know I do the occasional
Speaker 2: ten second audition, and dude, I'm saying like, I don't
Speaker 2: even know if you remember the Steve, but when we
Speaker 2: were recording uh Voodoo with D'Angelo, it's all he listened to. Man,
Speaker 2: it was like a where did like was it a
Speaker 2: track that George just gave you to sing over or just.
Speaker 1: Me I personally, I don't even remember.
Speaker 2: You don't remember New Spaceship. I don't remember it. Oh
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, here let me see, ladies and gentlemen, this
Speaker 2: is new Spaceship. I have to hear it from the
Speaker 2: ABC threep George, George Clinton, the p Funk All Stars.
Speaker 1: Yes, uh on course of Supreme right here. This is
Speaker 1: one of my favorite songs ever. I remember.
Speaker 2: Now, okay listen, let me tell you the story. Are
Speaker 2: you ready to hear the story?
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, listen, he is ready.
Speaker 2: That was my version. We was talking about sly Stone.
Speaker 2: This is how so I'm going in. I'm like, I'm
Speaker 2: marking slide.
Speaker 1: We're talking about this, and so he said, man, Charlie
Speaker 1: Whistle does a great version of slid Stone. So I
Speaker 1: was I was like, when I'm around slide back of
Speaker 1: the day, this is how he would be. And that's
Speaker 1: where that vocal came. And I started doing that. So
Speaker 1: all of that and they kept it. They kept all
Speaker 1: of that. And then because that's how we was doing
Speaker 1: it in at the beginning, before he got anything, I'm
Speaker 1: marking sly and then I turned to do my own
Speaker 1: thing with the with the with the Charlie Wilson thing
Speaker 1: around it. So it was like, man, this is a
Speaker 1: great some great ship right here. I think I'm gonna
Speaker 1: keep this. And so he did, and I wasn't paying
Speaker 1: attention to it. I was, I'm gone, I do my
Speaker 1: thing and I'm born out. I'm done. What year was that?
Speaker 1: I can't remember the year? Well, I know that's when
Speaker 1: it came out, But was it the old song that
Speaker 1: they had? It had to be it had to be.
Speaker 1: Uh had to be a ninety four or ninety four
Speaker 1: because I got but that just sounded like sev.
Speaker 2: I'm like, it sounds like Jerome Big Brilly on drug
Speaker 2: backing track.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we was recording it for that particular we
Speaker 1: was trying to get something. He was trying to get
Speaker 1: this thing and y'all got it and we got and
Speaker 1: we just started I started acting like slide. We was
Speaker 1: laughing about that, and uh, he said, go Howard Sly singing,
Speaker 1: and I was just like, that's how I started swat
Speaker 1: that the voice that sounded like that I was marketing.
Speaker 2: So I've had the pleasure of wait wait that songs
Speaker 2: from the nineties.
Speaker 1: Steve Steve.
Speaker 2: Steve was one of the engineers on d'angelo's Voodoo.
Speaker 1: So like during the.
Speaker 2: First month of us recording out Electric Lady.
Speaker 1: D had the CD.
Speaker 2: George gave it to him before it came out, and
Speaker 2: that's all he played for me all the time, and
Speaker 2: like we were just wow, flabbergasted, like flabbergasted at you
Speaker 2: guys nailing classic p funk in the nineties.
Speaker 1: Twenty years after that, after that time period, I just
Speaker 1: I just I just was going, uh uh sometime I
Speaker 1: have a problem moderating of then. I was, you know,
Speaker 1: you put yourself, he puts us too much on your
Speaker 1: on yourself, put too much on yourself. And I just
Speaker 1: never never liked the fact that the ad lives. It's
Speaker 1: just they just want me to just just be just
Speaker 1: be Charlie Wilson whatnot.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was like and so it was like, okay, uh,
Speaker 2: what what is the what is the what's the title?
Speaker 6: And what?
Speaker 1: It was like, No, you just you just you just
Speaker 1: give me some little whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I was just like that.
Speaker 1: But then I noticed that everybody always liked that. So
Speaker 1: it's always either it's just always just go off the
Speaker 1: top of the head with feeling. But this is the
Speaker 1: thing though, it's real.
Speaker 2: I'll be one of the Okay, I'm all, I'm one
Speaker 2: of those people. That's okay, I took I took you
Speaker 2: for granted, because the thing is that, I mean, when
Speaker 2: you grow up in a time period and you just
Speaker 2: see all this greatness, you know you do it.
Speaker 1: It's just that's just what he do. He's great.
Speaker 2: So you you've sat you've done uh the Fallon Show
Speaker 2: with us like maybe three or four times. You sat
Speaker 2: him with us twice, and there's one point where you're
Speaker 2: we can clearly hear you through the vents doing your
Speaker 2: vocal warm ups, and we're all looking at each other
Speaker 2: like it it was the most It was like a
Speaker 2: monster movie, like we just we're at the vocal event
Speaker 2: like listening to him, and it was how do you
Speaker 2: how do you warm up your your your your instrument?
Speaker 1: How do you preserve?
Speaker 3: Because like you I saw I saw clips of recently
Speaker 3: to show you to hear, and like all these songs,
Speaker 3: you're singing in the same key.
Speaker 1: When I was, when I was, when I was, back
Speaker 1: when I was young, and that's still saying. I don't
Speaker 1: We didn't change the keys for me, and everybody used
Speaker 1: to say, man, my brother may need to change the key.
Speaker 1: I said, man, that ain't gonna sound right. He's your
Speaker 1: key and the ease my key. When from when I was,
Speaker 1: when we was younger, that was in my twenties, and
Speaker 1: that's we wrote all the stuff in those keys and
Speaker 1: that was it. So I still sang all the keys,
Speaker 1: the songs in the same keys, and we wrote all
Speaker 1: them in. And it's like I said, it won't sound right,
Speaker 1: might push out. I have to push to get it out.
Speaker 1: But why would I change the keys? But but I
Speaker 1: warm up, uh you know, nine nine nine, Then I
Speaker 1: do that till till it's clear what I did break
Speaker 1: in because clear, you have to this mucus and things
Speaker 1: this and there. You know you study with Seth Riggs
Speaker 1: or did Yeah, Michael Jackson, I didn't go there very long,
Speaker 1: but I did study with him, and he told me
Speaker 1: how the great Foster, he was the one that gave
Speaker 1: me those warm ups and I never stopped using those
Speaker 1: warm ups. And Stevie was going to him. And Stevie
Speaker 1: used to do a with a note at the same
Speaker 1: time minus behind. But he used to do that, but
Speaker 1: it was more he was dead on accurate, like if
Speaker 1: he was hitting warm up right, yeah wow, And so
Speaker 1: I would used to try that all day. And why
Speaker 1: why is seth riggsy go to guy? This guy had?
Speaker 1: This guy was phenomenal him and his daughter too. They
Speaker 1: were just, uh, he could warm you up and then
Speaker 1: he could have you doing things that you didn't ever
Speaker 1: think you could do. And I just didn't get a
Speaker 1: chance to go back. I was devious too back in
Speaker 1: those days, and so I started doing a lot of
Speaker 1: other things to have going to the vocal coach. And
Speaker 1: but he was he was just the most incrediblest guy
Speaker 1: I've ever been close to. While he was warming me
Speaker 1: up and he started doing things that I never thought
Speaker 1: I could do, and he said, so held warm me up,
Speaker 1: and then we got through warming warming me up. Then
Speaker 1: he would start doing these things and he was doing
Speaker 1: before I got warmed up, and then he told me
Speaker 1: to do it and I would hit it, and I
Speaker 1: was like wow. I said, see, it's just an instrument.
Speaker 1: It's going to get you to do everything.
Speaker 2: So from a non me being an obvious non singer
Speaker 2: barely talking, what is because I would think that if
Speaker 2: you activate your voice for thirty five to forty five minutes,
Speaker 2: you might wear it out. So you have to get
Speaker 2: it in motion and exercise it just to keep the.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you get it warmed up, and then after you
Speaker 1: do the correct exercise and for thirty minutes, then you
Speaker 1: can go and hit the notes that you want to hit.
Speaker 2: Do you sing from your diaphragm as all singers are
Speaker 2: supposed to.
Speaker 1: Be supposed to do? Yeah, it comes sometimes and sometimes
Speaker 1: are you initially singing from your throat? But at the beginning,
Speaker 1: until I met him and then he showed me how
Speaker 1: to well, actually they told me that taught me that
Speaker 1: in high school and in college. But again, you know,
Speaker 1: you're not listening to a lot of people. My mom
Speaker 1: used to tell me that, and but this guy Seth,
Speaker 1: he was telling me how how you're supposed to sing,
Speaker 1: and and I always wanted him to come to the
Speaker 1: studios with me and and work on my verses when
Speaker 1: I'm doing verses while I'm saying, you know, recording vocals,
Speaker 1: because he would do that with a lot of artists, superstars,
Speaker 1: make sure the breathing is right going into the next
Speaker 1: phrase and stuff.
Speaker 3: How do you preserve like so like after a show,
Speaker 3: what's your ritual like after after the show is done?
Speaker 1: I have no rituals about nothing. Okay, scarf on your
Speaker 1: I don't have rituals at all. And the only ritual
Speaker 1: I have is uh, if you want to use the rituals,
Speaker 1: it would be. My wife is the ritual. She is
Speaker 1: the ritual. That's she makes sure that I'm warm, and
Speaker 1: she makes sure that I'm drinking something warm. And then
Speaker 1: my guy at temporal, he's he keeps some warm stuff
Speaker 1: with me, hot water and honey, and and that's it. Man.
Speaker 1: And I when I get off the stage, I do
Speaker 1: the wrong thing. I'm talking loud and I'm hollering and
Speaker 1: I'm going crazy out. It's never I'm talking soft. You know,
Speaker 1: I come from one side of the family who talks
Speaker 1: loud and my father's side, my mom's side talks loud
Speaker 1: and my father's side talks off. And so I just
Speaker 1: stepped the mom's side. I'm just loud.
Speaker 8: I was just gonna say, this is not like a
Speaker 8: manual for all singers, because you're you're blessed.
Speaker 1: Nonethe less.
Speaker 2: Yes, so it's not an arefa the Luther thing where
Speaker 2: you have to turn off and well.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something about about air conditions. It'll
Speaker 1: rip you up. And if you got to saying I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be serious. You're serious.
Speaker 2: This is the one thing that Tarik and I Tarik
Speaker 2: is the It could be the middle of summer and
Speaker 2: he'll make the driver turn off the air conditions and
Speaker 2: make us all suffer in the car. And he's like,
Speaker 2: I won't have a voice for a showtime. Absolutely not,
Speaker 2: that's a cycle whatever. Tarika hasn't smoked in about five
Speaker 2: years now. Really yeah, okay, listen, that is absolute truth
Speaker 2: right there. You do not you want to have the
Speaker 2: temperature in the car off just at.
Speaker 1: Least seventy five degrees wow, Okay, at all times if
Speaker 1: you want to sing if you want to have good voice. Now,
Speaker 1: if I had to sing the night, I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: in this room. Oh you wouldn't. Okay, Now it's too
Speaker 1: cold in here, I see, but it's you. It'll tear
Speaker 1: you out. You notice I'm kick clear in my throat
Speaker 1: because the cold air is get into it. But I'm
Speaker 1: just talking. So but it's not just.
Speaker 8: Because a recording studio.
Speaker 1: Yeah it's not.
Speaker 8: And it's always colding.
Speaker 1: You know. When I'm in recording, I ain't. We don't
Speaker 1: have that. You're gonna shut that down, so we won't
Speaker 1: be doing vocals in that studio, not Willson.
Speaker 2: So by the time that uh gap in three, four
Speaker 2: and five come out, when you guys are really fully operational,
Speaker 2: well I always wanted to know because when I when
Speaker 2: I spoke of the let's take it to the stage
Speaker 2: character with you're like provoking people like Dann suckling' you
Speaker 2: know whatever. Yea, What was your relationship like with your
Speaker 2: band contemporaries back then? Like were there rivalries with comfunction
Speaker 2: or or you know all these other bands like yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna show y'all what's up and you.
Speaker 1: Know that sort of thing every single night.
Speaker 2: So in hindsight, what was the band that got under
Speaker 2: your skin?
Speaker 1: Like, yo, man, we're going to take it. What it's like,
Speaker 1: It's like this we were. It was comfunction basically because
Speaker 1: they would put from seriously I hympathetically just throwing a
Speaker 1: dark Kno, let me tell you why. It's because they
Speaker 1: went put fringes on their uniforms, and it was like, okay,
Speaker 1: you know we've been we do cowboys. We went fringes
Speaker 1: woking home. But they wouldn't put fringes on their uniform
Speaker 1: and so we were thinking, like, okay, they already you know,
Speaker 1: they got the big records from back in the day
Speaker 1: and all of that stuff. But it's it's we were
Speaker 1: still like this. Uh, but we were would it come
Speaker 1: down to stage? It was like do a die? But
Speaker 1: the worst, the worst rivalry was Charlie Wilson and Roger Troutman,
Speaker 1: Zapp and Gap because computer love No. Me and Roger
Speaker 1: were like this I'm talking about when I say tight,
Speaker 1: Me and him was like this like the brothers, his brothers,
Speaker 1: his brothers and my brothers. They did not like me
Speaker 1: and Roger to be tight. They did not want it. Period.
Speaker 2: He tell us about Larry because that's every of every artist,
Speaker 2: of all the artists we've had on the show, that
Speaker 2: could have told us Larry Troutman stories we've not asked,
Speaker 2: especially with like because I know that Zapp in the
Speaker 2: time had rivalries as well.
Speaker 1: What was it like with with the Troutman clan and
Speaker 1: working with them? And it was great? It was, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, just like I said, Ma, and Roger was
Speaker 1: so tight. It was. But Roger had the edge because
Speaker 1: he was using a talk box and so and I
Speaker 1: shoud tell him, is you cheating? You ain't singing out
Speaker 1: every night? No, he was a talkbox, so, I mean,
Speaker 1: so he was saying, he just grabbed my throat like this.
Speaker 2: Tolls. Well. He would also do tricks like he wore
Speaker 2: the underwear that lit up and they did crazy tricks
Speaker 2: in concert.
Speaker 3: So why why is it that when I want to
Speaker 3: hear computer Love now it's I'm about to say, Gwyn Guthrie,
Speaker 3: Shirley Murdoch singing your parts.
Speaker 2: There's two versions of computer Love and for some reason,
Speaker 2: your your vocals are not.
Speaker 3: On the they come in at the end, they come
Speaker 3: into the ad libs even yeah, yeah, on the fade out.
Speaker 1: Why is that? Well, it's like this, Oh God. The
Speaker 1: beginning of the relationship with that record and the way
Speaker 1: they took basically they I went had a tape and
Speaker 1: I played it for the total experience Lonnie, and they
Speaker 1: was like, I ain't never hit and so wait a minute,
Speaker 1: So uh, I said, okay, And I think he was
Speaker 1: kind of a little upset going on clock.
Speaker 2: So they didn't.
Speaker 1: So who told you to go? Say yeah? But anyway,
Speaker 1: you didn't like it, I said, so you don't mind
Speaker 1: it coming out. It ain't gonna be no hit. I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, we didn't have a hit at the time.
Speaker 1: So the record came out about two about a year
Speaker 1: and a half later. Yes, it did, and from the
Speaker 1: time I had got to cassette it was a year
Speaker 1: and a half later. But I thought the record gonna
Speaker 1: come out faster than it did, but it didn't. And
Speaker 1: then when it did, it's just shooting up the charts.
Speaker 1: But they didn't want to say featuring Charlie Wilson because
Speaker 1: it hadn't gotten the no you know, it's no clearanton things,
Speaker 1: so it's just me and just so I'm on there.
Speaker 1: So it goes when it gets to like number four
Speaker 1: or three, somewhere they sued him and made them take
Speaker 1: my vocal off.
Speaker 6: Ah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so and then of course they had to strap
Speaker 1: scram around to try to get another version. And by
Speaker 1: that time you in the top five. Man, I mean,
Speaker 1: the record is already it's out there, beasts. And so
Speaker 1: they put the Shirley Murdock version out and then and
Speaker 1: it stayed there for a minute, and I think it
Speaker 1: just started on the way because people used to the
Speaker 1: other version. You just can't just throw another version hello
Speaker 1: and having it, having it, having it doesn't doesn't matter
Speaker 1: who's singing it. And no disrespect to Shirley murder because
Speaker 1: she was killing the version she married you well that
Speaker 1: that was. But that version was already out, you know,
Speaker 1: and he was that version. So and it started taking
Speaker 1: a die. But everybody always knew that record. Doesn't matter
Speaker 1: when they stopped. But anyway, Uh, the record ended up
Speaker 1: being such a great record. And every time Roger would
Speaker 1: see me, if if if he looked on the side
Speaker 1: and saw me while he was doing the record, he
Speaker 1: would stopped the band. Boom. Okay, this record would not
Speaker 1: be possible without this guy. It would not be possible
Speaker 1: without this man. Right, he looking at me, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: don't do it, don't do it without this man. So
Speaker 1: would I further do on account three? I want you
Speaker 1: all to help me call his name, and so I
Speaker 1: would go up there and kick my own ass because
Speaker 1: we had to perform after that.
Speaker 2: So me and the man coffee together because it was
Speaker 2: a rap.
Speaker 1: After that, Me and Roger come on, Yeah, we just
Speaker 1: slaughtered the place. Yeah. When you talk about Shirley Murdoch, incredible. Yeah.
Speaker 3: The producer for s w V, Brian Allix and the
Speaker 3: Morgan It was a huge fan and he talks about
Speaker 3: how his whole idea for s w V was that
Speaker 3: he wanted to take your melody and he kind of
Speaker 3: saw Coco as like a Shirley Murdoch and like.
Speaker 1: Week he was weak for you. Yeah, it was for Charlie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because we already had a song was that same melody,
Speaker 1: We had a record already that so he took that
Speaker 1: one and made it.
Speaker 2: Did you catch that the initial inception like this sounds familiar?
Speaker 2: Let me tell you in hindsight, you know, I wrote
Speaker 2: this as a tribute to you.
Speaker 1: You are my You're my style, your everything to me.
Speaker 1: You are my pride. So he did it so weak
Speaker 1: at the knees as a Capitol record, so I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean the last one of the glass Gap Band records,
Speaker 1: and so a total experience I think seven six or
Speaker 1: seven seven somewhere there. So he just straight took that
Speaker 1: same melody and just I mean it, I get so weak.
Speaker 1: But Brian wanted to write for me and we just
Speaker 1: never got a chance to get around to that. But
Speaker 1: he had great success with the SWV Man Good Luck.
Speaker 2: So with Gap Band four, with with Early in the Morning,
Speaker 2: and and and you dropped the bomb on me and
Speaker 2: very unlikely Outstanding because it's weird because I purchased.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 2: But I'm saying that, you know, at the time when
Speaker 2: I when I got Gap in four, I didn't realize that,
Speaker 2: you know, to me, Outstanding was just quality, quality filler, right.
Speaker 2: I didn't see it as, oh, this this might be
Speaker 2: the biggest single of his career, just like oh it's
Speaker 2: closing side to you?
Speaker 1: When did you drop the side too? Let's get to that.
Speaker 1: But I mean, how is that when you.
Speaker 2: Wrote outstanding in your head, did you realize that this
Speaker 2: was going to dominate every two step barbecue in the
Speaker 2: history of black gatherings.
Speaker 1: Of all time when that record was Yeah, I went
Speaker 1: I we was working on that record, me and the
Speaker 1: Drama cat Horn. When we was working on that record,
Speaker 1: it felt so so so good to me that it
Speaker 1: was like I couldn't believe that the vibe on it
Speaker 1: that was that man and had so much emptiness love
Speaker 1: that was there. It's just it was so you know,
Speaker 1: it was it's the spacing of it was just great.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know it was going to be around
Speaker 1: that long, but I know it felt so good to me,
Speaker 1: and it was sounded like the best record at that
Speaker 1: when that album to me was sound like that was
Speaker 1: the best record to me. But you know, and then
Speaker 1: it just everybody started sampling and using it.
Speaker 2: Did you did you guys work on both versions, like
Speaker 2: the remix and this album version at the same time.
Speaker 1: No, so you did the remix in.
Speaker 3: Hindsight after the album was done, And yes, okay, that's
Speaker 3: that's what I wanted to know. Yes, all right, I
Speaker 3: have a question about you dropped the bomb on me. Okay,
Speaker 3: So American.
Speaker 2: Music Awards nineteen eighty two, you guys are performing you
Speaker 2: dropped the Bomb on Me. Now I'm watching this on
Speaker 2: a small black and white television Quest Love Supreme listeners.
Speaker 3: At one time, everything wasn't in plaid. Wait, don't say wow,
Speaker 3: like you know, I'm just I remembering, all right, Oh
Speaker 3: thank you. I thought you're trying to disassociate yourself from
Speaker 3: my age.
Speaker 1: Anyway.
Speaker 2: Wow, At the last twenty seconds of that performance, something
Speaker 2: so miraculous happened, and I cannot believe.
Speaker 1: The world didn't rave over it. I thought it was you.
Speaker 3: I think he told me he was your trumpet player.
Speaker 3: Someone did the moonwalk, and I'm looking at my mom
Speaker 3: and my.
Speaker 1: Dad, like do you see us?
Speaker 2: He's walking like this is this is a year before
Speaker 2: Michael Jackson did at Motown twenty five.
Speaker 1: At the very end, either was it you? Was it? Now?
Speaker 1: I was this kid that I found. His name was
Speaker 1: Baby Gap, and I named him Baby Gap. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: because he's also dancing on Beeper Free. Okay, now it
Speaker 1: makes sense. Yeah, okay, maybe he had the same outfit
Speaker 1: on you.
Speaker 2: But literally he just grabs the mic stand and he
Speaker 2: does just the most exaggerated moonwalk, like even more exaggerated
Speaker 2: than Michael Jackson.
Speaker 1: And I was like, how's the world not seeing this
Speaker 1: right now?
Speaker 2: Like why?
Speaker 3: And the next day in school was like, did y'all
Speaker 3: see this? They're like it was like snuffle up. I guess, like,
Speaker 3: no one believe me. He was walking backwards, but from okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's and the way it's like, I don't want
Speaker 1: to deflate Michaels, but he used to come to the
Speaker 1: shows and in the corner on the stage still and
Speaker 1: watched and watched and watched watch baby Gap do it
Speaker 1: and how he did it and everything, and but that
Speaker 1: told story was never never told. So it's all y'all
Speaker 1: did it first?
Speaker 8: That's a moonwalk battle. Then because dude from Shallamar he
Speaker 8: claims that he created it.
Speaker 1: Too, I mean he, yes, he did. Daniels went to
Speaker 1: this house.
Speaker 3: But I'm telling you, if they did it on the
Speaker 3: American Music World, then I'm like, then they must have
Speaker 3: been doing it a lot. Yeah, and the world must
Speaker 3: have seen it.
Speaker 2: But they That was the first time I saw a
Speaker 2: commercial artist, not like a dancer on soul Trae or whatever.
Speaker 1: It was the first time it was uh nationally and national. Yes,
Speaker 1: scene was by us, Yes, and we was the first
Speaker 1: on that particular show. Was the first black artist to
Speaker 1: ever have pyro as well, Yes, we had power and
Speaker 1: the other only Somebody's had power was Kissed and then
Speaker 1: they just were saying that we couldn't use the Pyro.
Speaker 1: And then that's when line said, well, well why does
Speaker 1: kiss use the Pyro? And the guy was like, m
Speaker 1: so we're using Pyro, you ain't get the band. So
Speaker 1: it was like one of those shook night moves and
Speaker 1: so we so we had Pyro. It was the first
Speaker 1: ones to have that on American musical black.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's just contractual whatever, but for
Speaker 2: some reason, Gap Being five is nowhere to be found,
Speaker 2: like not on streaming, not on reissues. Is it was
Speaker 2: that just like a in your eyes like a still
Speaker 2: born child or it's party Trade was on that album
Speaker 2: and yeah, it's like the Big Records was there and.
Speaker 1: I'm ready, you're ready, Like yeah, that's it's so hard
Speaker 1: to find. Yeah, it's I don't quite no, it's just
Speaker 1: it's yeah, it's like control it with Gold. It was
Speaker 1: just like, is Loney Simmons still alive now or he
Speaker 1: is still alive from my us for my knowledge, yes.
Speaker 2: So does he still control the Masters and all that?
Speaker 1: And that?
Speaker 3: Like no, so he sold it out, Okay, it's probably
Speaker 3: through Universal. So now we gotta get to I'll Find
Speaker 3: My Baby? Yeah, so was I Found My Baby?
Speaker 1: Was that a song?
Speaker 3: Where was it like accidental where it's like you realize, like,
Speaker 3: oh man, I did the same song already or was
Speaker 3: it intentionally trying to follow up outstanding?
Speaker 1: Well, it wasn't my idea to do that, but it
Speaker 1: was somebody's idea. It's like, give me another of course.
Speaker 1: And uh, and I was telling him like, dude, listen,
Speaker 1: that record is already too big. You want to you
Speaker 1: don't want to fool or that shoe is big. Put
Speaker 1: your foot in that shoe. It's a sass twenty two now,
Speaker 1: whereas Sae ten is not gonna fit. He didn't understand
Speaker 1: what I was talking about, but he tried it, So
Speaker 1: I tried it with him. And and uh, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you remember the video. Do you remember the I.
Speaker 2: Remember where someone kid was missing? They were handing out flyers.
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, But did you see the street version, I
Speaker 1: mean while we was in the street doing thehocography. Did
Speaker 1: you see the news clip when I got knocked out?
Speaker 1: You never seen that, boy?
Speaker 3: I see, I remember it long ago on video jukebox.
Speaker 3: Wait you got knocked out?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Man, so what so so listen, we're we're we're
Speaker 1: going down the street. All the whole group is going.
Speaker 1: So baby Gap is flipping. He's supposed to flip, right,
Speaker 1: so he's flipping and so when I back up, I
Speaker 1: don't like when he comes right down on the top
Speaker 1: of my head with his flip, and uh, man, I
Speaker 1: was just out. I was.
Speaker 2: I was more embarrassed.
Speaker 1: I was more embarrassed that I hit this concrete than anything.
Speaker 1: And I was still on the video. I don't know
Speaker 1: they they didn't care, but it was on the news.
Speaker 1: It was on the news because the news cameras there
Speaker 1: because we had shut the street down and so the
Speaker 1: news was there and they called it on it. And anyway,
Speaker 1: I remember laying there, uh and I was like, and
Speaker 1: I watched everybody feet come, but I was I was
Speaker 1: more embarrassed to get up than anything. So I just
Speaker 1: laid there.
Speaker 2: So, Okay, there's there's there's another song on the Gap
Speaker 2: Being six record that I've been dying to know about,
Speaker 2: probably Boss Bill too, not Be for Freak. I love
Speaker 2: be for Freak By the way you do that, dude,
Speaker 2: that was a soul trained staple. Wow, that's my song. However,
Speaker 2: a very interesting song and an even more interesting video.
Speaker 2: Now I had to do some purple investigation and purple
Speaker 2: investigation in oh, I know where you're going. Well, I
Speaker 2: forgot about this until just now. Yes, so there's a
Speaker 2: song called Disrespectful that has a very interesting video, yes, yes,
Speaker 2: depicting y'all killing the stage and this rather height challenged
Speaker 2: height challenged the rock star with the bouffont and these
Speaker 2: two big bodyguards acting disrespectful. Oh, I will never forget
Speaker 2: this video. The second I saw Alan Leeds, I was like, yo,
Speaker 2: did Prince and Charlie Wilson ever have beef for something?
Speaker 2: Because what's the Have you ever seen the Disrespectful video?
Speaker 2: It's like it's it's it's animated, it's not even lyric
Speaker 2: it's I don't even think there's lyrics to it. It's
Speaker 2: sort of like almost like they're there.
Speaker 3: Let's take it to the stage songwhere he's talking smack
Speaker 3: And so I asked Alan Leeds, Princess tour manager at
Speaker 3: the time. I was like, okay, So the song came
Speaker 3: out in eighty four, I said, did something happen between
Speaker 3: Prince and Charlie Wilson that made the song come up
Speaker 3: like disrespectful and Alan couldn't remember. He's like, I don't know,
Speaker 3: it's maybe Charlie wanted to sing on stage with Prince
Speaker 3: is something?
Speaker 1: What is what is the origin of disrespectful?
Speaker 2: And can I assume that it was directed?
Speaker 1: You had your chance chance to dance to disrespect you
Speaker 1: won't let me on? But what happened?
Speaker 2: Well, I love Prince man, we all love Prince and
Speaker 2: this is.
Speaker 3: The hindsight and this song, this song is thirty years ago,
Speaker 3: so yeah it's and so hey, man, see this beef
Speaker 3: we can talk about.
Speaker 1: I mean, we always talked about He's always like, man,
Speaker 1: it's my favorite band and all of that. And and
Speaker 1: then once I saw him, I treated some young kids
Speaker 1: and and it was just like, how is it. I
Speaker 1: was like, you're not gonna even You're not gonna even
Speaker 1: take the picture, or you're not going I was looking.
Speaker 1: I was like that's wrong. And then it was like
Speaker 1: I've seen things happen, and I've seen it was like
Speaker 1: you walk past me and don't say nothing, and you
Speaker 1: are just like and then we're supposed to do some
Speaker 1: stuff together and and you change your mind and it's
Speaker 1: like I had me all hyped, and it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: so it's like I gotta get at you. I got
Speaker 1: I gotta gone on cut you now. I'm about to
Speaker 1: cut you, naster because I know you. I know you
Speaker 1: am I to cut you now, see, And so you know.
Speaker 1: And then somebody from my clique, some crew members, he
Speaker 1: called and I think my room was something, and some
Speaker 1: crew members answered the phone. I had already left, and
Speaker 1: and they said something that was to him that was
Speaker 1: not right. And I fired those guys because when they
Speaker 1: said what they said, I fired him right on the spot.
Speaker 1: But they shouldn't have said that. And I think he
Speaker 1: might have took offense to that too, so and hey man,
Speaker 1: but anyway, but it's just we never not not not
Speaker 1: got along. And he was just like Steve, you got
Speaker 1: the big head.
Speaker 8: But anyway, y'all never had to come to Jesus moment
Speaker 8: either though, No.
Speaker 1: Not not really. I mean, we could have, we could have,
Speaker 1: but at the time I was I was in my
Speaker 1: disease of getting high and and it's like and he
Speaker 1: was waiting on me, and I said, I'm coming, I
Speaker 1: promise you. Wow, I beat up and you're coming from
Speaker 1: jump up, coming up on my way so five minutes
Speaker 1: turned into whatever. So when I did get there, he
Speaker 1: was already gone and and so got me back. So
Speaker 1: when we played the glam Slam Prince coming Down, I said, okay,
Speaker 1: I forgot about when I was getting high, but I
Speaker 1: was sober the ends all waiting and I think he
Speaker 1: probably thought I was doing it on purpose. That was
Speaker 1: not on purpose. It's like, hey, So I sit there,
Speaker 1: looked at the door, the bodygup, still there with his headphone.
Speaker 1: I says, coming, see hey, coming. He's notorious for that though. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So finally I looked at the hallway and gone. Everybody
Speaker 1: was going in the building. I was like, then, I
Speaker 1: thought back like two years ago. I was like, uh,
Speaker 1: you got okay. So I never got a chance to
Speaker 1: talk to him. I sent message to him about it
Speaker 1: after I was sober so many years. Hey, man, that
Speaker 1: wasn't done on purpose.
Speaker 8: Man, you know that's a part of the process, right yeah, yeah,
Speaker 8: so hey.
Speaker 1: And then but anyway, I would leave him alone right
Speaker 1: now because I got cut up talking about him one time.
Speaker 1: Fans told me up, So I don't want to go
Speaker 1: back through that. I'm alive. I testify and tell people
Speaker 1: that I'm always on drugs and that that that's why
Speaker 1: I'm alive. I remember you.
Speaker 3: Uh it was this was a couple of years ago
Speaker 3: when Casey and Jojo had their reality show and you
Speaker 3: were talking to them just about sobriety, and you told
Speaker 3: them straight up, just like, listen, this is You're gonna
Speaker 3: be out on tour and it's gonna be someone offering
Speaker 3: you a drink and you ain't gonna be.
Speaker 1: Able to say no, you able to turn it down?
Speaker 3: How have you Because at the time when when we met,
Speaker 3: this was years ago at the Grammys in twenty ten
Speaker 3: and you were performing at the Pretails and when this
Speaker 3: was when my bandformn Exchange No nominated and we met
Speaker 3: real briefly and then you performed at the Pretails and
Speaker 3: killed it. And I remember at the end you was like,
Speaker 3: you know, I beat prostate cancer. I got twenty years sober,
Speaker 3: like you was just going in. So how have you
Speaker 3: you know, enable to tour and everything? How what is
Speaker 3: that daily walk of sobriety.
Speaker 1: Like for you? I got my wife with me, so
Speaker 1: she's she's a rehab and so we Uh it's just
Speaker 1: like and for so many years she was, I guess
Speaker 1: known as the enemy and because she was just stopping
Speaker 1: the don't matter family, people don't matter. How long have
Speaker 1: you guys been married? Twenty two wow, every single day,
Speaker 1: twenty four hours a day we were together. But it's
Speaker 1: like it's like when she told me she would be
Speaker 1: with me, you know, and whatever, no matter what that that.
Speaker 1: I was young when I was heard those words, but
Speaker 1: you know, within young being like wanting to be in
Speaker 1: love with somebody, for real love you. So when I
Speaker 1: finally got it, I understood it, and so I just
Speaker 1: let her have the way of whatever it is. You know, hey, man,
Speaker 1: who is that? Now? There's no backstage. I don't care
Speaker 1: who it is. And so people used to come and
Speaker 1: sneak things and hide them in my hand. I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I don't get high no more. I heard that, But
Speaker 1: why are you putting it in my head? If you
Speaker 1: heard that?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 1: So after that, she heard me say that, so she
Speaker 1: she cut everybody, didn't matter who it was. Kids don't matter.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 1: Now, y'all right?
Speaker 8: Because a tribune or is she writing songs? You guys
Speaker 8: write songs together, and then she writes because the record
Speaker 8: she's like every.
Speaker 1: Song, Yeah, she's writing with me. Now she's like, because
Speaker 1: I sometimes I have problems, you know, trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what I want to say, and she's she has
Speaker 1: something used to say and she writes them from me.
Speaker 1: And like if I'm singing the vocals or something, and
Speaker 1: I'm coming and I'm I'm going down, I'm getting my
Speaker 1: things on. I'm really I'm getting going into it as
Speaker 1: far as I'm concerned. Then I look up and she's
Speaker 1: talking to the engineer and I'm looking. I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: you're not shopping, so you push the button. Man, we
Speaker 1: got to start over. I'm like, start over, man, you're serious.
Speaker 1: She's like a man, Hey, talk to your wife. She said,
Speaker 1: you ain't put it down right enough.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, wow, that's the better half of you.
Speaker 2: Bet that's bet half.
Speaker 1: So that was the first time when I first heard that,
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, can I just get warmed up first,
Speaker 1: I'm just getting warmed up. She's like, no, you're gonna sing.
Speaker 1: You sang so.
Speaker 2: So obviously, as music fans and geeks that we are,
Speaker 2: you know, a lot of the stuff that we're talking
Speaker 2: about with you, you know, these are like the highlights
Speaker 2: of our lives. But I mean, for every person's highlight
Speaker 2: that could have been your personal hell. How you know
Speaker 2: I've read the the part of your life when you
Speaker 2: were homeless, and like how how does it get to
Speaker 2: that point where it's just like like what was that
Speaker 2: first night light, that first night like for you?
Speaker 1: When well, first of all, you don't probably you don't
Speaker 1: thank you that you're homeless, conseider, You might be at
Speaker 1: somebody how smoking all night. You might be somebody. You're
Speaker 1: just there and some some some spot. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, You there, and then then the next day
Speaker 1: you ain't even like nowhere to I left that spot,
Speaker 1: so I ain't got well I'm gonna go. So you
Speaker 1: just there and because of who you are, you could
Speaker 1: be there, uh follow me or don't even register that
Speaker 1: your you don't register that way until you feel guilty.
Speaker 1: And you're gonna leave out of there right now. If
Speaker 1: you leave out of there, now where you're going? So
Speaker 1: now at nighttime you can probably get in any of
Speaker 1: those doings dope door dope pimps, who's ever doors because
Speaker 1: they know who I am and so and after you
Speaker 1: think you can wear your welcome at thin, then you
Speaker 1: go somewhere cton and pretty soon at the end of
Speaker 1: the day. Then where you're going to because I didn't
Speaker 1: move by day. It was at a nine night, you know,
Speaker 1: and so and so if you left there, then where
Speaker 1: you're going. So after you found the found some cool
Speaker 1: place to lay down and nobody's looking at you. So
Speaker 1: that's where you did it. Off. Somebody was homeless and
Speaker 1: they had some perfect spot in between some shopping carts
Speaker 1: and put that brick there and put a little piece
Speaker 1: of carpet and they said, go in there and put
Speaker 1: stuff around it so nobody could see. It was me
Speaker 1: in there. And that's that's where I slept.
Speaker 3: And how does it go from Because we spoke briefly
Speaker 3: off air when you were saying, how y'all weren't really
Speaker 3: making a lot of money off the total experience.
Speaker 1: Of money or none?
Speaker 3: I an't no money, but so was this was pretty
Speaker 3: much the only source of income just from touring and shows.
Speaker 1: I ain handle income.
Speaker 2: Wow, So not even the sampling of outstanding.
Speaker 1: Back in the day it was oncoming.
Speaker 2: So jesus, wow, man, I see wow. Well my questions
Speaker 2: I will read the fine print.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: One question I have for you was in regards to
Speaker 3: like covers of your songs when people cover your stuff.
Speaker 3: Two of some of my favorite gap band songs I've
Speaker 3: discovered through the cover and then I went back and
Speaker 3: heard the original and uh, Mary Mary Jay she covered
Speaker 3: I'm in Love and then Jacket Edge they covered Wednesday
Speaker 3: Love Her.
Speaker 1: What did you think of those covers? I thought they
Speaker 1: were great, But what do you as the songwriter? You think?
Speaker 1: It's like it's it made me feel proud. I mean,
Speaker 1: when there's another generation is recording your records. I was
Speaker 1: just really happy about the fact that that and then married.
Speaker 1: So I know, million or two read records off of
Speaker 1: that had albums and saw my brother he was the
Speaker 1: primary writer, so he was happy and because they actually
Speaker 1: he got paid. But at that time some kind of way,
Speaker 1: he was doing his thing. And but Jacket Edge, of course,
Speaker 1: that was another group that was had I hadn't, I
Speaker 1: guess inspired. So I was happy about that that somebody
Speaker 1: was recording now records. I mean I could re record
Speaker 1: those records. I mean I can say that you were
Speaker 1: already done. You don't go back and redo your own records.
Speaker 1: I just didn't feel that way unless you was doing
Speaker 1: it for published another The ownership of the songs you
Speaker 1: can record them and just there now they belong to you,
Speaker 1: you know, the re recorded version. Yeah, but I was,
Speaker 1: I was. I enjoyed, man, I was glad that people
Speaker 1: were doing it. You know, I wasn't angry at all.
Speaker 3: In two thousand and four, I think it was two
Speaker 3: thousand and four you covered less Chill.
Speaker 1: Yeah, fool people with that. I put it on and
Speaker 1: they're like, remember right right, Well, the reason I did
Speaker 1: it is because he had done Yearning that one time.
Speaker 1: They did like, this is one of my favorite record,
Speaker 1: So I'll do this one, and I just did it.
Speaker 8: Do you have like, because I know you've done a
Speaker 8: lot of features, do you have number one? Have you
Speaker 8: said no? And is there requirements in your mind to
Speaker 8: what you will not do?
Speaker 1: Uh? I've been pretty I've stayed uh in my lane
Speaker 1: pretty much, meaning uh you know R and B adult contemporary,
Speaker 1: and that lane is you know, I paved the way
Speaker 1: of somewhat nobody was really you know before that lane
Speaker 1: was just really like being used a lot. Now I
Speaker 1: think we came in there and just busted the place up,
Speaker 1: and uh so I've been very happy there. And uh,
Speaker 1: I don't think I would just be trying to do
Speaker 1: hip hop record. So although I've sang on a lot
Speaker 1: of hip hop records, but Charlie Wilson, I don't think
Speaker 1: I would be doing on hip hop record or something
Speaker 1: for some twelve year olds. I can't. What is that
Speaker 1: for me? Right? That's okay? And I won't do that.
Speaker 1: And like people, well.
Speaker 2: I was young, now young man, I was a kid.
Speaker 2: I'm basically, but it won't be.
Speaker 8: Young Charlie Wilson like, now we're.
Speaker 1: Not doing that. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I wouldn't cross
Speaker 1: that line. And to try to do do it for what,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like to disappoint the fans that buy
Speaker 1: the physical sales all the time for me or download
Speaker 1: the streams for me. They I mean, why would I
Speaker 1: do that? Now? I would go and sing with an
Speaker 1: e mail or you know, you know, tied of the
Speaker 1: curator or just you know, because they asked me to
Speaker 1: come sing on some records, I'll do that and and
Speaker 1: and basically their fans are buying their not my fans
Speaker 1: ain't going to try to look for see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So in that moment, what I'm gonna be what Tyler
Speaker 1: want me to be at that moment. So whatever, whatever
Speaker 1: I'm saying, whatever it is, then that's what we're doing
Speaker 1: together at that moment. He's on the ground. Anyways, he
Speaker 1: got his own friend about to say, he's got his
Speaker 1: own following.
Speaker 2: So how surreal is it to I mean, you've done
Speaker 2: something that not many rappers have been able to do.
Speaker 2: You've actually transcended generations of hip hop artists, whereas you know,
Speaker 2: doing the stuff with Snoop and and and and Death
Speaker 2: Row Family then and now even twenty five years after that,
Speaker 2: still going strong with stuff on Kanye's record and.
Speaker 1: Working for Yeah, for Snoop, A girl, that girl that
Speaker 1: and Bush.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So I mean, how how surreal is Are
Speaker 2: you ever surprised now when you get a call like from.
Speaker 1: A nineteen year old Yeah? Yeah, I mean I was.
Speaker 1: I've turned a few of them down. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: and I know it's like they said, but he's up
Speaker 1: and coming. I said, I'm up, still up and coming,
Speaker 1: but I'm not gonna be I'm not coming over there.
Speaker 1: So it's just like, just give me a minute to
Speaker 1: just take a moment to relax and breathe. Let me
Speaker 1: see what it is that this guy's doing, this kid's doing.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I just don't want to
Speaker 1: be the hook guy for every up and coming guy.
Speaker 1: So it's like, you know, I mean, I'll, I mean,
Speaker 1: I gotta understand what the worth is here and for people, man,
Speaker 1: you just would you do it for me? And now
Speaker 1: when they asked me what I do it for me?
Speaker 1: Then I think about, Okay, what I'm lending to them.
Speaker 1: I was like, this would be great for the kid,
Speaker 1: and he wants to It's something he gonna never forget.
Speaker 1: And that's the reason why I say yeah, Because if
Speaker 1: I go to a room where a nineteen year old
Speaker 1: kid and her mama or his mama always talked about me,
Speaker 1: and they listened to all the records that I've done
Speaker 1: with Kanye or for Real or Snoop or you know
Speaker 1: or whoever you know, Master p Ye back in those days,
Speaker 1: whoever it was, you know, so they get a chance
Speaker 1: to have that same thing. So then I start obliging
Speaker 1: because I would think about what I felt like when
Speaker 1: somebody was turned me down. And so that's the reason
Speaker 1: why I go this is also a good problem to have, though.
Speaker 1: It's a good problem because if they don't call you
Speaker 1: at all, and then where you be.
Speaker 2: Do you do you now feel as though you're in
Speaker 2: somewhat of endangered species territory?
Speaker 3: Because singing right now isn't really a factor in black
Speaker 3: music now, because I mean, if you thought the talk
Speaker 3: box was cheating an auto tune?
Speaker 1: Is you know what I mean?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 1: What is that then? Talent? I mean words?
Speaker 2: I mean just basic things that melody structure. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: it's it's almost as if it's kind of like the
Speaker 2: Things Fall Apart story with the Warrior, the very skilled
Speaker 2: warrior comes back.
Speaker 3: To its homeland and don't even recognize it. It sees
Speaker 3: that you know, it's it's changed. So I mean, do
Speaker 3: you now feel do you sen? Do you do you
Speaker 3: sing with a sense of purpose that like there's only
Speaker 3: a few of us left. There's you, There's Ronald Eisley.
Speaker 1: There's Stevie. Stevie.
Speaker 2: I mean, how do you how do you feel just
Speaker 2: in terms of your craft and where it stands now
Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen, Whereas personally you're fine, but just as
Speaker 2: an art and the craft itself and where we're singing
Speaker 2: and the traditional black singing is concerned might be an
Speaker 2: endangered species, Like do you have thoughts about that?
Speaker 1: I have never I haven't really really thought about it
Speaker 1: in that way, but I I do sing to protect
Speaker 1: the brand. I protect my brand and protect the R
Speaker 1: and B vibe of my life. That's what it is.
Speaker 1: And R and B I sing to protect that. And
Speaker 1: for those who are who can't get that done, then
Speaker 1: I'm the only one out here doing it, and so
Speaker 1: I have to protect it. And I go hard every
Speaker 1: time I go, and may try to make sure I'm
Speaker 1: correct with it and not to try to to let
Speaker 1: the the our community down of of of R and
Speaker 1: B and and what it is. And you haven't trust me,
Speaker 1: you haven't, you know. I just I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: protect the brand. Man, It's my brand first and then
Speaker 1: and then of course you know, I know how it
Speaker 1: is what it is now this day, even compared to
Speaker 1: like a couple of years ago, a few years ago,
Speaker 1: or ten years ago, it's totally different now. And if
Speaker 1: you're not smart enough to to grasp all what's going
Speaker 1: on now, man, you're gonna definitely be left behind. And
Speaker 1: so hey, man, streaming is in and and you know,
Speaker 1: come on, man, anybody oh forty years or fifty years
Speaker 1: old ain't streaming. Basically they are screaming, but they ain't streaming.
Speaker 1: What are they streaming? They're not even that They're giving
Speaker 1: it stuff to their granddaughter to come on, man, this
Speaker 1: is the technology is moving fast. And if you're not
Speaker 1: moving fast with the technology and things with things are
Speaker 1: being done. I mean I have an number one gospel
Speaker 1: record now because of the way things are done. I
Speaker 1: was number one, Timber, that's I'm blessed. There was number
Speaker 1: debuted number one, and you got these gospels. Some of
Speaker 1: these gospel always been on the Choice for twenty nine weeks,
Speaker 1: peaking at number four, and then I debut at number one. Hello.
Speaker 8: So is it safe to say, on the back of
Speaker 8: his question that if you when you are working with
Speaker 8: certain R and B or soul artists, that they must
Speaker 8: be the ship thing, because then you look at Laila
Speaker 8: half the way you picked Layla, you pick Robin Thick.
Speaker 8: So in your mind, these are people who to you
Speaker 8: might be on that line of longevity.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 1: I only picked those people because they always wanted to
Speaker 1: sing with me, and I just never gave. I never
Speaker 1: had the time to put them on. And so when
Speaker 1: I was making these records, I started naming the people
Speaker 1: that said, ask me what I sing with him, and
Speaker 1: so that's what I did.
Speaker 8: So you still got a little bit of a list
Speaker 8: left to them, I'm.
Speaker 2: Sure because a lot of people we ain't done the
Speaker 2: Charlie Wilson, I haven't.
Speaker 1: Haven't got you that for yet. It's like it's I
Speaker 1: have I have a lot a lot of people I
Speaker 1: still want to work with. It's like I asked, I
Speaker 1: asked quests.
Speaker 8: He just I don't know if you heard. He just said, yeah,
Speaker 8: last I asked.
Speaker 1: Him, last one that did. Oh, what's gonna happen? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I asked him when we did what the foul in
Speaker 1: the last time? I said, man, we got to get
Speaker 1: this record done and said, you got it. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get that done.
Speaker 2: Done that yet you got You gotta understand that the
Speaker 2: first time he came and sat in with us, there
Speaker 2: wasn't even introductions, like we were just versing the songs,
Speaker 2: like recapitulating his songs. Uh, and then he just stormed.
Speaker 2: He stormed in our room like the kool Aide man,
Speaker 2: like through the wall and just grabbed them. It was
Speaker 2: something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you came in like theola. It wasn't even not
Speaker 1: Because you gotta understand you know the way they play,
Speaker 1: and this room is small. And when I walked in
Speaker 1: was no that you should you should hear how it sounds.
Speaker 1: And we've been in there everything is will sound like
Speaker 1: a freaking record up from there, you know.
Speaker 2: I'm like, hey, man, that we got got right on
Speaker 2: top of that. I was like, hey, he to be
Speaker 2: like sound that things sounded good?
Speaker 1: It ain't no lie he do. He hadn't sounded so
Speaker 1: good up and then I got to go on on
Speaker 1: give him some props on that, and and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you know all those guys, you know, Chris got all
Speaker 1: those guys. Man, those guys is playing up and there
Speaker 1: they're not fooling around you. And and so to hear
Speaker 1: that back like that, and then they had a vocal
Speaker 1: on that. Yet I just went in, not even warming
Speaker 1: up a little bit, warming up downstairs and uh and
Speaker 1: down the hall, and I just went in on it
Speaker 1: and so and he's already recording and then uh he
Speaker 1: had and they said get that. So it was.
Speaker 3: It was the greatest entrance of all time. There was
Speaker 3: no first name, Charlie, last name. I always was curious about.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna get your sucker and the red Yeah, I'm
Speaker 3: Gonna Get your Tucker and you're so cute.
Speaker 1: I really like like ever like UV for us? How
Speaker 1: did that come about? How did you? We were in Uh,
Speaker 1: we was in the studio and I forgot about I'm
Speaker 1: Gonna Get Your Sucker. Movie was going and uh they
Speaker 1: asked us a duel. Could we do this soundtrack? But
Speaker 1: then they said you only have a few hours. Oh good?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Man.
Speaker 1: It was like it's like, okay, we want you to
Speaker 1: do it. But I said, they don't really want us
Speaker 1: to do that. Man, see you got like two hours
Speaker 1: to do it. You say no, said. They probably said, well,
Speaker 1: they can't do it right. When this one was about
Speaker 1: this is over on drugs, They're not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to do it, everybody said get the gap be in.
Speaker 1: It's like because you know, uh, the Wayne brothers, they
Speaker 1: you know, it's like get the gap bed, you know,
Speaker 1: to do it. They said, well, okay, but give them
Speaker 1: two hours to do it. I said, be back, and
Speaker 1: I was like we started on the vibe. I was like,
Speaker 1: be back, be back in two hours. And so I
Speaker 1: mean when they came back within an hour, the guy
Speaker 1: was like, are you kidding me? It's like, no, man,
Speaker 1: push play, and then it was like I didn't really mind.
Speaker 1: I just turned around walked off because I knew that
Speaker 1: you was You're trying to you know, you're trying to
Speaker 1: underestimate me man. So me and my brothers was like,
Speaker 1: let's got the thing done and then the next record?
Speaker 1: Can you give another one? You don't know, no timeframe
Speaker 1: on it. Can you give another record? I was like yeah.
Speaker 1: When I was at the house there and had the
Speaker 1: studio inside the front room, and then and I wanted
Speaker 1: to play move again so bad bed bed bend compete
Speaker 1: if you did you know that thing I wanted to
Speaker 1: play and you know, yes, yeah, never ever So I
Speaker 1: did that one and and hand that one in and
Speaker 1: they was like, we love them both, and so give
Speaker 1: me my day money.
Speaker 3: Wait a minute before we stopped, I totally forgot weada
Speaker 3: mentioned Mercedes Boy.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: What what was that experience like? Because I initially thought
Speaker 2: Ellien Face did it when? And I forgot that you
Speaker 2: were you wrote that? Was she your artist first?
Speaker 1: Or thank you so much? I got to figure it out.
Speaker 1: I did. I'm sorry. That was a great song. I
Speaker 1: was a great song. And that was your first pop
Speaker 1: I mean your first top ten. Yeah, and then and
Speaker 1: then you know, basketball was so cool. And then after
Speaker 1: she had went there, I caught pneumonia. Well I caught
Speaker 1: pneumonia and I went down and then she had met them,
Speaker 1: and then she was so she was initially your artist.
Speaker 2: Well we were, yeah, had the time, Okay, okay, So
Speaker 2: and then you intended on producing that whole.
Speaker 1: I produced the whole album. I did produce. The only
Speaker 1: thing they put was girl girlfriend and another record that
Speaker 1: had one that was it.
Speaker 8: No shade, but baby Face said it was another whole
Speaker 8: big dude, not that I'm just just it was a
Speaker 8: big she had another never mind she was popular.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeahs yeah.
Speaker 8: The people because they heard the banker was you know.
Speaker 1: I rolling right now? Is everything right now?
Speaker 9: That was.
Speaker 1: Why he just killed any chances we had getting pebbles
Speaker 1: on the show. Thank you. Yeah, So you did that record?
Speaker 1: You did? I did the whole. I did the whole album.
Speaker 1: Have we uh everything? Any definite questions? Yeah? I was,
Speaker 1: yeah the dog father like how because you was all
Speaker 1: over that album.
Speaker 3: And to me, that was when I guess I won't
Speaker 3: say come back, but I mean because that wasn't a
Speaker 3: very successful record with Snoop, but that was it was great. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: it was shot up his boss Bill for even bringing
Speaker 3: that back into my parameter because I think none of
Speaker 3: us gave the dog Fill a chance because of like
Speaker 3: doing this giving a chance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Dre wasn't on it, and because New like consciously
Speaker 2: turned down the whole gangster element of the record, right.
Speaker 1: And it was and I went back to it. It's
Speaker 1: a great record. It's a really great record. And I
Speaker 1: was like, man, Charlie all over this, he's singing his
Speaker 1: ass off. How did you you guys hook up at
Speaker 1: that time? Well, me and Snoop was up, and of course,
Speaker 1: you know, we were close. And I met him in
Speaker 1: ninety five, ninety five, ninety six, and that time I
Speaker 1: was just getting clean, sober, and I was just been
Speaker 1: in his life since then. But while I was getting sober,
Speaker 1: I was sober and just you know, my new life.
Speaker 1: I'm living out this new life. In the beginning parts
Speaker 1: of it, I'm with him and my wife, Snoop. I'm
Speaker 1: a Snoop. I'm sorry, you guys can smoke that around.
Speaker 1: He was like, what it's like, you got to put
Speaker 1: that out everybody? It was park everybody. She made everybody
Speaker 1: put it out. He's not coming in there. You got
Speaker 1: to put it all out. So uh, just a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1: So we I was there and I just started singing
Speaker 1: with him, and of course I just took over where
Speaker 1: Nate Dogg you know, left off, and basically, you know,
Speaker 1: it was that whole thing was falling aparts, basically, and
Speaker 1: me and Nate was to do to do a record together.
Speaker 1: That never happened. That great. We never got a chance.
Speaker 1: And he asked me like a couple of few times,
Speaker 1: and I was like, okay, let's do it. I was,
Speaker 1: of course, you know, I'm beginning to start working now,
Speaker 1: and of and I didn't get a chance to get
Speaker 1: back over there fast enough. And uh we talked on
Speaker 1: the phone. I said we're gonna do it. Let's do
Speaker 1: it next week and he said okay. Then he had
Speaker 1: a struck. Damn wow. I missed that, man. I missed
Speaker 1: that dude. He was very and he had some great
Speaker 1: ideas of how we could do it too, and it
Speaker 1: would have been the bomb, his vocal sound and my
Speaker 1: little sound. It was just been like, are there any
Speaker 1: other collaborations that we could I did. I was real
Speaker 1: pocket that was there and when the day I was
Speaker 1: in the studio and I think he had just mentioned
Speaker 1: my name with like three seconds, and I opened the
Speaker 1: door and when they turned around, everybody was jumping up
Speaker 1: and down and I was like, what's going on. I'm
Speaker 1: looking around and he was like, I just called your
Speaker 1: name just now. If Charlie Wilson was here, we could
Speaker 1: fuck this place then and now. And I was like,
Speaker 1: he said, I got this idea, listened to it and
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, that's one of mine. He was like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're flipping it. And he said can you do this?
Speaker 1: When I was like yeah, but I mean it was
Speaker 1: snoopy in three minutes, can't do it in three And
Speaker 1: I said I'll do it. And I went over there
Speaker 1: with snooping and again after that again then Park got
Speaker 1: killed and you know after that.
Speaker 2: Wow, So what's the future for Uncle Charlie Wilson. Do
Speaker 2: you like us when we call you Uncle Charlie Wilson?
Speaker 1: That's good? Well, yeah, it's okay, man, I listen quest man.
Speaker 1: I just I'm just so blessed to be here at
Speaker 1: now of what I'm doing now, it doesn't matter what
Speaker 1: it is. I'm the only guy that's ever come out
Speaker 1: of a group that late to try to do something
Speaker 1: solo because everybody turned me down. And it was like, dude,
Speaker 1: come on, are you serious. I'm like yeah, but I
Speaker 1: mean that was really where it's way past the actual
Speaker 1: you know, of trying to do something that I thought
Speaker 1: would happen, and it ended up having and in any way,
Speaker 1: and I've been having number one since then and since
Speaker 1: two thousand and seventeen already, so every year I was
Speaker 1: putting out a record, so almost you know. So, but
Speaker 1: but it's I don't know what's what's what's for me next? Man?
Speaker 1: I just I just thank god. I just go from
Speaker 1: day to day and and my management, P music group,
Speaker 1: my compare and led by him, and and you know,
Speaker 1: it's just you know, and Sonya Mickel and and and
Speaker 1: that whole staff and and Michael and everybody is just
Speaker 1: doing things for me and and I just get up
Speaker 1: when they put it together. I get up and go
Speaker 1: do it. And I would love to do this movie,
Speaker 1: you know, the movie and uh, and so I could
Speaker 1: tell all the other stuff that I didn't sell in
Speaker 1: the book and stuff that I didn't say today. It's
Speaker 1: just like it's so much, it's so much to this
Speaker 1: to me, and that I haven't got a chance to
Speaker 1: to to say and get out of my spirit and
Speaker 1: and not just just cut my own face off or whatever.
Speaker 1: But hey, the truth is the truth. And so if
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell the truth on you, it can help
Speaker 1: tell the truth on me, you see. So, but I'm
Speaker 1: not like to point the finger. I'm just gonna tell
Speaker 1: the truth and just have And it's gonna something that's
Speaker 1: gonna make me look bad. Hey can't make me. I
Speaker 1: can't make me look bad because I'm looking too good
Speaker 1: right now. So you're looking good, looking good, So I
Speaker 1: can't make me look bad. You have children, You have kids, man, Man,
Speaker 1: kids have grown folks.
Speaker 8: They ask you for that?
Speaker 1: How many they asked me for cars as.
Speaker 2: He asked me.
Speaker 1: They want houses and cars? And I was like, hey, god, damn,
Speaker 1: give my brother break. How older that held up? Man?
Speaker 1: They old?
Speaker 2: It's so old.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, wow, it might be young, man, young,
Speaker 1: but but you know, I'm looking look at them. I
Speaker 1: look at their kids, like what you want? Come on now,
Speaker 1: I give you what you want? Can they sing to? Uh?
Speaker 1: One of my daughters could sing, and she just never
Speaker 1: did yeh And the other one just tone deaf, and
Speaker 1: they act like she can sing. I can't I toned that.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, that's like it's like a it's like a
Speaker 1: dark skin in the balls.
Speaker 2: She swept down and I'm like, oh daddy, I'm like, okay, Ship,
Speaker 2: that's just worse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: You just kill me right there with the dark all right, Well,
Speaker 2: thank you uncle Charlie for doing my show.
Speaker 1: Hold on, shut up, it's been a dream man. Thank
Speaker 1: you man. Should we even do reflections? I mean, I
Speaker 1: think just an episode, that's it. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I can't look bad because I'm looking too good. That's
Speaker 1: a life quote right there.
Speaker 2: That is well on behalf of Frantic a little uh
Speaker 2: like your boss Bill, Unpaid Bill.
Speaker 3: And Sugar Steve and the great Charlie Bullson. This is
Speaker 3: Quest Love of Quest Love Supreme, side and off. We'll
Speaker 3: see you on the next caround.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Yeah, and when we do this goddamn Boots
Speaker 1: and CHILDI Wisdom Project, we ain't gonna see y'all next
Speaker 1: time until we do this fucking rock now.
Speaker 2: Cool. Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This
Speaker 2: classic episode was produced by the team APT Pandora. For
Speaker 2: more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.