WEBVTT - Smokey Robinson 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:05.000 R and B Money. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:06.120 Honey, we are. 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:15.000 Take volati. We are the authority on all things. 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:16.239 R and B. 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:23.200 Ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tanking. I am Ja Valentown. 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:29.240 This is the R and B Money Podcast, the authorities 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:36.400 on all things please R and B. Yes, yes, yes, 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:43.440 that's what we represent. The foundation is in the building, 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:49.360 preach telling what reason why we are here while we 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:53.560 do what we won't do. What we do here is 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:59.040 in the building while we sing so beautifully, don't you chucking? 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:00.160 Man? 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.040 Yeah? Him, the one and. 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:05.080 Only, the one and only. 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:11.560 Huh why even fo you want to smoke? Yeah? What Yeah? 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:14.920 All of that, all of that he's been setting on five. 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:18.840 We got to smoke from him. Let's get right into it. 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:21.199 The King smoky bro. 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:30.759 Smoke tak. I'm taking you everywhere I go for that introduction. 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:40.520 Man, man, man, let me ask you a question. Okay, 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:46.040 let me ask your question. Do you know like do 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:50.840 you do you ever get to like they said the 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:55.920 guy on the matrix? He said, have you ever step 0:01:56.000 --> 0:02:00.400 back and marveled at it? It's beauty? Have you've gotten 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:05.880 a chance to just understand what you've done? 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:12.639 Well? Man, you know what, First of all, I am 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:16.920 just really really really blessed man, you know, and especially 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.519 especially now, if you could have seen it, then you 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:22.320 would add some inkling of what I'm talking about it, 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:24.720 especially if you see it now where I grew up. 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:29.560 Any kid there, because we had a lot of groups 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:32.120 and a lot of people singing, and other would not 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:34.919 have thought that something like this could happen for them. 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:35.120 Man. 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:37.400 I grew up in the hood. I grew up you 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:43.640 know where, you know, with some gangster brothers. So I 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:49.360 am overwhelmed with what God has allowed to happen in 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:53.440 my life, man, you know, because like I said, this 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:56.960 was my impossible dream as a kid. This is what 0:02:57.040 --> 0:02:59.120 I wanted for my life, but it was impossible to 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:03.359 me because this possibly ever happened, you know, not from 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:08.880 where I am, you know. So I'm living my impossible dream, 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:12.560 and it's a blessing, man. And I don't take it 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:15.440 for granted. And I don't triple on Smokey Robinson and 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:19.320 all that, you know, that's just that comes along with 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:22.600 this territory, you know what I mean. And when I 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.200 see people come into show business and they have a 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:27.360 hit record or get a little note and stuff like that, 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:30.200 and they start tripping on themselves and think that, well, 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:32.520 the world is aware of them now, so it can't 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:36.680 possibly do without them. That's so stupid, man. I think 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:39.200 I've seen thousands and I'm not exaggerating now, I've seen 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:41.880 thousands of people come through show business, man, you know 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.800 what I mean. So I just I'm blessed man, and 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:50.000 I'm very, very very happy to be able to live 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:51.280 this life that I love so much. 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:59.000 Well, let me say this. Today is Smoky Robinson Day. 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:01.920 We know he probably got many of them around the world, 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:05.800 of course, of course, but today on this pod, it's 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.440 the King's day. Right. You say listen, you say you ain't. 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:11.720 You don't trip on the Smoky Robinson thing. Today we 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:17.960 get we tripped trip tripping Smoky Robinson. All right, you 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:22.280 get the trip too, all right, whatever you get to 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:26.400 stand on business, all right, I want to get I 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:29.520 want to I want to get two things that are 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:34.200 for me and my brother Jay Urgent. Off top. Well, 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:37.320 we got these eyes on us off top. This is 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:43.880 the fiftieth anniversary, of course, talk about that, man. 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:50.160 Well you know what, man, I'm having two fiftieth anniversaries 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:52.360 at the same time. Really, because it's a fifty Diniversity 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:58.880 of a quiet storm. All yeah, quite storm was my 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:05.039 debut back into show business. Man, because uh we of 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:08.680 course everyone knows that we very started Motown. We started 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.800 out in Detroit. That's where we're all from. I was 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:14.480 born in Detroit. Blah blah blah blah. Were so well 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:21.080 from Detroit. And then he decided along the way that 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.080 he was going to he wanted motown to become an 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:28.240 entertainment complex. So he wanted to make movies and do 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.359 TV specials and stuff like that. And Los Angeles was 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:33.960 the capital of that at that time, you know, for 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.919 doing stuff like that, and Alli he came out and 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:40.440 made ladies things the blues and you know, mahogany, you know, 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:44.640 and so that was his that was his thought for 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.040 for Motown. And I came out here kicking and screaming. Man, 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:48.840 I came out to Los Angeles because I didn't want 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:51.400 to move from Detroit. I thought we should stay there. 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:54.120 You know, they even called Detroit motown and that, you know, 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.000 so I thought, hey, man, we should stay here. So 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.840 I was anyway, he convinced me that I had to move, 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:01.919 and at the same time, I was retiring from the Miracles. 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:05.240 And how old were you at this time. 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:11.240 When I retired from the Miracles, I was thirty one. Yeah, 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:16.600 I was thirty one and so but man, I did 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:22.920 because the Miracles and I had been saying. Ron White 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:25.200 and Pete Moore and I had been singing together since 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:26.240 we were eleven years old. 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.400 Man, oh wow, you know back in the days. 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:34.520 And then we met. We met Bobby who was our 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:40.320 other original Miracle member, and a guy named Sonny, and 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:43.880 Sonny when we graduated from high school, decided he wanted 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:45.320 to go to the Army because we weren't doing anything 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:47.640 as a group. It was a thousand groups in Detroit, 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.240 you know, we just singing around the parties and stuff 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:53.240 like that. So he had his mother decided for him 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:55.440 to go to the army, and his sister took his 0:06:55.520 --> 0:07:00.520 place at our group. So Man, we went to audition 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.680 for Jackie Wilson's manager. Jackie Wilson was my number one 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:08.320 singing idol as a kid growing up. I would have 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:11.200 walked twenty miles to see Jackie, man because Jackie was 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:14.480 the man. Okay, but anyway, we got to change. Jackie 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:15.960 was from Detroit too, and we got a chance to 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:20.200 go to audition for his managers and we did, and 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:21.760 we went to and I tell everybody it was a 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:25.840 god day because we went to audition for his managers 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:28.920 and like I said, we had a girl in a 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:31.800 group and I sang Hi, and rather than singing songs 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:34.520 that were currently popular about other artists, we said, Okay, 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:36.960 we're gonna sing five songs that I've written because I've 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.000 been trying to write songs since elementary school. So I 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.720 had a goofly note but full of song. So we're 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.720 gonna sing five songs that I've written. So they could say, Okay, 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:47.400 these kids got their own material, so we're gonna definitely 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:51.400 sign them. Wrong. They didn't like us at all. Man, 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:55.200 they did not like it because we work hearing to 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.480 the Platters as far as they were concerned, because Flatters 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.520 had Zula Taylor and Tony the guy sang high and all, 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:02.200 we had the same for him, and they said, we 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:04.480 don't need another Platters. Y'all got this girl in the 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:07.440 group and the old So you'll never make it because the. 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.320 Platters already out. You'll never make make it. 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.840 Yeah, you'll never make it. All right, Here's what he said, 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:15.200 is that he said, you never make it unless you 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:19.880 change your format. So we okay, good. So anyway, so 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:24.680 they rejected us. However, during the course of that audition, 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.520 there was a young man sitting over in the corner, and, 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.000 like I said, I'm sixteen, so he don't look any 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.320 older than nineteen or twenty at this point, you know. 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:36.440 And I think he's sitting there because he's gonna audition 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:42.520 after we finish, you know. And so we sang the 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:46.760 five songs and they rejected us, and we're going out, 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:49.640 and we're going out down the hall and the young 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:52.680 man who had been sitting there watching came out behind us. 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:55.840 He said, Man, wait a minute. So I turned around. 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:58.439 He said, what'd you get the songs from? 0:08:58.440 --> 0:08:58.640 Man? 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:01.920 I said, I wrote him. I'm wondering why he's asking 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:03.720 me that, you know, because you know, what, do you 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.079 care where gun I'm from? So you know, I'm being nice. 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:11.880 Point yeah, but I'm thinking, like man, because I'm I'm 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:15.160 I'm you know, I'm disappointed, you know. So he said, yeah, Man, 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:17.240 he said, I liked a couple of your songs. Man. 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:19.760 So I said to myself, well, he wants to use 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:21.640 a couple of my songs so he can audition with him. 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:27.600 I see, you still think yeah, so I said, yeah, man, 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:29.720 I said, well, well, thank you very much, man, he said, 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:32.360 he said, no. When I buy records, even today, man, 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:35.080 I look to see who wrote the music. I want 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.160 to see who composes me if it's if it's a 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:40.200 band singers, I want to know who actually wrote this 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.840 music these people are doing here. So I do that. 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.520 I always have done that. So now I got all 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:49.640 of Jackie Wilson's records. Okay, So this dude says to me, 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:53.320 he said, yeah, man, he said, I'm very gordy. What 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.679 how could you possibly be very gordy? Man, I say, 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.319 you mean very gordy? Who rolls's for Jackie? He said yeah. 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:05.080 I said, so he was a guy already. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, okay. 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:06.680 He was ten years older than me. I just look, 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:08.600 he just look young, girl, you know, I just want 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:09.920 to see him the other day. You know, Bet was 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:12.280 ninety five on his birthday. Man, he looked like he's sixty, 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:17.000 you know. So anyway, so anyway, so uh so he said, yeah, 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:19.800 I said, you berry Gordy. So that's why I say 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:22.400 it was a god day, man, because Bet didn't have 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:25.520 to be there that day. We didn't have to go audition. 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:27.240 He was there to turn in some new songs to 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.240 Jackie Wilson. He actually had lonely teer right, lonely teer 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:32.760 dress with him that day. You know, he was gonna let. 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:36.679 Had lonely tears drop. He was gonna let jacket here 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:37.920 all day. 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:43.040 Yeah, absolute, absolutely, you know what I'm saying. So anyway, 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:45.880 he said he was him, and I could not believe 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:48.520 this man. And he liked a couple of my songs 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:51.720 and stuff. So to make a long story short, he 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:53.160 he said, you got any more songs? I had a 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:55.320 loose sleep notebook, man, like I said, full of songs. 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:58.320 So he listened about twenty of them that day and 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:00.960 he just critiqued him. So he started to work with me, 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:05.080 and and and about a year and a half later 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.520 he he put us with the record label. And because 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:10.720 there was no there was no Motewn at the time, 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:13.600 and uh, he put us with a record label out 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.720 of New York End Records, and they had Little Anthony 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:19.560 Imperials and the Chantels and people like that on the label. 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:22.079 We were very excited. So I'd written this song called 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:25.160 got a Job, in answer to the Silhouettes song get 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:27.080 a Job, which was number one in the world at 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:30.200 that time. So he recorded it on us and got 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:32.800 a job. There was three charts at the time. There 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:34.600 was the R and B chart, what they call the 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:36.920 pop charts where all the white artists were, and then 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:41.560 the classical chart, you know. So on the R and 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.120 B chart, got a job, went to the top five, 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:46.280 so we know that. Okay, that's that's that's a hit, 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:48.440 you know. So we had four sizes with them, two 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:51.240 forty five, you know, it was four sides. And so 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:54.760 so come time to pay the royalties, man, this dude 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:59.559 sent Barry check for the producer's royalties, the publishing, the writing, 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:05.280 Irish royalties for three dollars nineteen cents, you know, for 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.360 four CIDs three nineteen cents, you know. 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:14.520 So I'm trying to put together inflation, baby, yeah, three 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:15.959 nineteen nineteen. 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:18.680 Just ain't that Arry framed it. He's got it. He 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.199 framed it, and I think that was that was the 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:22.880 start that broke the camel's back as far as the 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:26.000 starting motown. I'm glad George going to did that, man, 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:28.080 because he said, MANE say, I'm tired of this because 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:30.520 ain't nobody paying. So he bought eight hundred dollars with 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:34.960 his family started Motown, thank God, started Motown. And like 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:36.880 I said, we moved out to Los Angeles. I'm I'm 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.880 a vice president. So he's telling me when I was 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:42.640 when I was in Detroit, he told me, he said, 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.160 and my office was designed to induct new talent. I 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:49.320 brought a lot of new talent into into Motown and 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:52.920 stuff back in the day. And I love that. And 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.280 then so he finally convinced me to move out to 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:59.880 Los Angeles. Left I retired from the Miracles, and he 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:01.319 he said, man, he said, you're my best friend. So 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:02.880 I'm gonna change your office. I mean, he's gonna be 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:06.200 the financial office. You're gonna sign all the checks. All 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:08.600 the check's gonna come to you except for the payment 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:11.720 of the records. And that's what you're gonna do. So 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.280 I'm cool, man, and I've been, you know, on the 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:16.360 road all over the world sing with the Miracles. I'm 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:18.520 just do my job as a vice president, be there 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:21.960 every day. Oh this is great, you know. And then Claudee, 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:23.959 who was my wife, then we just had our two 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:26.800 our two old oldest kids were born at that time. 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:29.520 My son was four, my daughters two. You know, so 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:31.320 I get a chance to stay at home, my family 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:34.160 and all that and be there. So I'm going out 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:39.400 there and you know, so, man, at first it was 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:43.600 the bomb. I loved it because I'm going to the 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:47.640 office every day. I'm going home every day. After the office, 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.199 I'm signing a check. And when I first started signing, 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.000 my name is William Robinson Junior. Man, So I started 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:56.520 signing a check like that, William Robinson Junr. And after 0:13:56.520 --> 0:13:58.400 they signed a thout, you ought to see my signature. 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:03.040 Now it's like that a thousand chicks. You know what 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:06.760 I'm saying, You're gonna figure out something. So anyway, so 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:11.520 I'm doing that, man. And after about two two and 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:19.320 a half years, I found myself miserable. I was fucked 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:21.720 up on the inside. I was just miserable. Man. Every 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.320 day I was miserable. I was sad. And I'm not 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:29.120 a sad person. I'm you know, I'm you know. One day, 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:33.560 after about three years or so, Barry came to my office. 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:35.000 He said, hey, man, he said, I need you to 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:38.000 do something for me. I said, okay, man, what do 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.120 you want me to do? I thought he's gonna tell 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:42.480 me some corporate stuff, you know, because I've been doing 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:45.800 my my my my status vice president like that. I 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:47.560 would travel, I would go to New York and make 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.440 deals with publishing companies. Dude, you know so, I thought 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.200 he's gonna tell me something like that. You know. So 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.040 he said, I need you to do something for me, man. 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:58.800 He said, I need you to get yourself a band 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:00.960 and going to the studio, make a and get the 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.760 fuck out of here. I said, well, what's wrong, man? 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:05.040 I said, I'm not doing my jo. He said, no, 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:08.520 you're doing a great job, mate, But you're miserable. He said, 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:10.720 you think you had that ship from me? He said, 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:12.840 I'm a nigga from Detroit too. I'm a street nigga 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:16.160 from Detroit. So I peeped you. You're my best friend, 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:19.040 so you can't hide from me. He said, I see 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:21.280 you miserable. It makes me miserable. I don't want to 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:23.160 be miserable. So I need you to get the fuck 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:23.880 out of my face. 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:35.359 All sounded like me, so. 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:43.560 I just grabbed it. Yeah. I heard him for about 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:46.560 ten minutes, man, and then I went home and uh, 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:50.120 and I told her that I was so happy, man. 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:52.960 And then I said, okay, I always consider myself to 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.920 be a quiet singer, you know. I said, but I'm 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:58.200 gonna go back and I'm gonna take show business by storm. 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:00.320 And I walked around, I thought about it. I said, 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:04.720 wait a minute, quiet Storm, Wait just one second, you know. 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:08.160 So I went to the piano and I started writing 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:12.400 Quiet Storm. Man, and my youngest sister, who I had 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:15.160 two sisters, and my younger sister was fourteen when I 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:17.800 was born, but she was a hell of a lyricist, man, 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:23.160 you know. So I started Quiet Storm, and I knew, Okay, 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:24.560 I'm gonna be working for the rest of this album. 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:26.760 I'm gonna do an album now, Man, I'm getting out of here. 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:29.080 Yeah, yeah, you ready, You're ready, I'm. 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:31.440 Ready to go. So anyway, I took it to her 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.720 and she finished up the leg for Quiet Storm, and 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:38.600 the album became Quiet Storm, and it was my debut 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:39.600 back in the show business. 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:39.800 Man. 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:42.560 It was. It was what had me come back to 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.040 doing what I absolutely love. And so it was my 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:48.040 debut back in the show business. And then eventually, man, 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:50.920 this young brother, Melbourne Lindsay, he was a DJ down 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:54.080 in Washington, d C. And he had a late night 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:59.240 show and he started to play a Quiet Storm at 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:01.600 the beginning of his show every night, and then he 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.440 changed his show to be the Choiirt Storm, and then 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:08.359 radio stations all over the country started to have a 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:09.440 Choie Storm. 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:14.199 Ladies, gentlemen in the building right now. The Quiet Storm 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:19.560 himself the reason you have a Quie wowarm Listen, you 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:22.160 gotta understand. And I'm just you know, I'm just speaking 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:28.120 to to impact us as artists R and b artists, 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:32.760 our songs. The first place we would get spins, the 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:34.879 first place they would say, you know what, We're gonna 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:41.280 try you out on the Quiet Storm all right, Yeah, 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:45.960 that's where I started. I started on the Quiet Store. 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:48.280 A man, those are those late night spans. 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.880 Better believe it overnight or overnight. 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:57.000 Yeah, And it went from having successful overnight spins to 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:03.040 having mind spins in the morning show. But it starts there, 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:07.600 the Quiet Storm. But listen, I've set in for for 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:11.639 many a DJ on their Quiet Storm. You know what 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:12.119 I'm saying. 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:22.520 I've done a few, I've done plenty. 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:30.000 I have a question too. Yeah, over time coining a 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:34.000 lot of these things, did you ever think like I 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.439 need to start trademarking any of it? You was just like, 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.760 I'm just writing and I'm just. 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:43.399 Clever at first. Yeah, at first, you know, I'm just 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:46.000 I'm just writing. I think that when when something like 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.280 that happens, Man, it happens basically on its own. Yeah, 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:51.840 because I hadn't. I hadn't planned that, man, you know, 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:54.760 I just I was just excited to come back and 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:57.400 be able to go and do concerts again, and I'm 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:00.840 I'm gonna be the white storm, you know, and then 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.159 it just happened like that. Man. I hadn't planned it. 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:06.199 I didn't even thought of that. Man, you know, I 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:10.399 hadn't thought of that. When I write a song, I 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:13.600 want to write a song. And I mean by that 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:14.720 that I want to write a song. 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:15.479 I want to write. 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:19.280 If I had written it fifty years before I wrote it, 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:22.240 it would have meant something to people, and currently it's 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:25.040 gonna mean something when they hear it, and fifty years 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:28.040 from now it's gonna mean something. He is here, so 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:29.640 I want to I want to write a song. That's 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:31.919 the thing that Barry when he started to mentor me 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:35.159 on my songwriting, that he instilled that in me. I 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:38.760 want to write a song, man, because if I write 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.439 a song, I might go in the studio and record it. 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:44.080 On myself or somebody else and not give it the 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:46.080 right treatment. I'll give you a couple of stories on 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:48.080 that too, that'll show you what I'm talking about, and 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:50.320 not give it the right treatment. And later on, if 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:52.720 it's a song, somebody could pick it up twenty years 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:54.320 when I says, oh, I like the song and record 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:56.080 it and it'd be a hit. You know, if it's 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:58.480 a song, it's got that chance. So I want to 0:19:58.480 --> 0:19:59.200 write a song. 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:00.600 I want to be baited. Man. 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:03.960 You know it's six hundred years. We were still playing 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:08.560 Beethoven's music. We're still playing Chopin, We're still playing Bach. 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:11.520 You know, we're talking about where I grew up. Man, 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:16.000 I had a great dose of music. Man. My mother. 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:19.280 My mother passed when I was ten. But my mother, 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:24.760 she well she would cuts you out in a minute. 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:27.600 But she was like when the church three times a week, 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:30.040 that kind of shit. But you know, she was a 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.520 regular woman. She wanted to like this kind of person, 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:38.600 you know, and she would play. I know once once 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:41.240 I was playing Rutgers University with the with with the 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.919 Miracles man and B. B. King Uh. They had re 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:46.639 released Lucille. 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:48.120 And and and and and. 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:49.440 These white boys came to me after the show and 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:52.280 they said, hey, smokey uh, have you heard this new guy, 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:55.520 BB King? I said, B B King, Man, I said, 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:58.320 my mother played BB King when I was a little boy. 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:00.800 You know what I'm saying. So my mother played Johnny 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:03.920 Hooker and BB King and Muddy Waters and people like that, 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:06.600 and little somebody. There was a whole lot of littles 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:15.560 back in the day. And then some days, for two 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:17.080 and three days in row she wouldn't play nothing but 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:20.680 Beethoven and Bach and Chopin and people like that. And 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:24.320 then she would play the Five Blind Boys and the 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:28.679 Voluntaires and Award Singers and you know, Mahiriot Jackson. And 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:31.119 so I'm getting all this. And then I got two sisters, 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:33.560 like I said, my younger sister fourteen where I was born. 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:36.199 So now they're playing Count Basie and Duke Kellington and 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.080 Sammy Davis and Frank Sinatra. And so I'm getting a 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:44.760 great dose of music growing up, you know. So I'm 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:48.480 I'm into all kinds of bulk and music and and 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:53.439 what you know, listening to it and loving it. But anyway, 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:57.440 like I said, you know, I never I never dared 0:21:57.520 --> 0:21:59.159 to dream that some of these songs would do what 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:01.880 they what they have done, and what they have done 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:04.400 for me, you know. But what I was gonna say, 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:08.399 as far as as Barry goes with the with the 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:13.000 not being satisfied with stuff, the greatest example I can 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:19.800 give you probably is shop around. Okay, So shop Around. 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:24.000 We had this artist, Barrett Strong, who had money. That's 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:25.560 what I want, the best thing in life up for 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:28.880 a year, you know. So he's got a really big 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:31.440 hit there, and Barry came to and say, hey, man, 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:34.960 I want you to do an album on Barrett Cool 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:38.040 when we're doing ELM on Barrett Man. So I'm thinking 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:40.040 about Barrett. You know what you got, the money, That's 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:41.480 what I want. What you do with money, you shop. 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:44.919 So the first song I'm gonna write is known be 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:47.639 about that. So I'm gonna write shop Around. So I 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:50.119 wrote shop around, and shop Around was one of those songs. 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:50.320 Man. 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:54.399 Songs take different times at least for me, and shop 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:58.240 Around took me about twenty five thirty minutes and it 0:22:58.320 --> 0:23:02.080 was done. It just flowed, just plump. I was so 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:05.959 excited about it, man, and I want to office. Hey man, 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:08.560 I said, I gotta smash it for Barrett Man. He said, 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:09.919 you have me said, let me hear it. So we 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:11.560 go down to the studio. We go to the piano, 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:14.439 and Barry's an accomplished pianist, you know. So we go 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:17.880 down the piano and I started singing shop round, you know, 0:23:18.640 --> 0:23:20.880 and after a while he starts playing on it. He said, hey, man, 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:23.520 he said, wait a minute, No, I want you to 0:23:23.520 --> 0:23:26.880 sing this song. No, Barry Man, I wrote this song 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:30.120 for Barrett Man. Money. That's what I'm all shopparound. Come 0:23:30.119 --> 0:23:32.359 on man, you know. No, No, Man, I like the 0:23:32.359 --> 0:23:34.320 way you sound on this. I want you to sing 0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:36.240 this song. Oh, come on, Barry, No, No, I'm on 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:38.480 to jaff. We went through twenty five minutes of that, 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:40.760 so he finally said he Man's going to the studio 0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:42.320 and recorded on You and the Miracles. 0:23:42.320 --> 0:23:42.439 Man. 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:45.199 I like the way you sound on this, so I said, okay. 0:23:46.040 --> 0:23:47.760 So I went in the studio and I recorded it 0:23:47.760 --> 0:23:52.760 on us and it Bear Strong was a bluesy singer 0:23:52.760 --> 0:23:54.359 as far as I was concerned. So that's how I 0:23:54.400 --> 0:23:58.560 wrote Chaperon and I recorded it just because you becoming 0:23:58.720 --> 0:24:02.639 young man. Then piano blo on, blown blown on on, 0:24:03.000 --> 0:24:04.600 and then you know all that you know, and it 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:07.479 was kind of like slow and rocking and shit. So 0:24:07.520 --> 0:24:09.240 we put the record out. Record's been out for at 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:14.199 least two weeks on the radio, okay, and three o'clock 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:17.800 in the morning one morning, my phone rings and uh 0:24:17.880 --> 0:24:21.919 I pick it up. I said, hello, hey, man, it's me. 0:24:22.040 --> 0:24:24.040 It's very I said, yeah, man, I said, I kind 0:24:24.040 --> 0:24:26.520 of recognize your voice. I said, what do you want? 0:24:26.920 --> 0:24:29.679 He said, what's happening? Man? I said, what do you mean? 0:24:29.720 --> 0:24:33.000 What's happening? Man? It's three o'clock in the morning. What's happening. 0:24:33.080 --> 0:24:36.240 I'm sleep, man, that's what's happening. He said, Well, chaperon 0:24:36.280 --> 0:24:40.680 won't let me sleep. I said what he said, chaperon 0:24:40.720 --> 0:24:43.080 won't let me sleep. You did the wrong thing to it. 0:24:43.400 --> 0:24:45.360 You give it the wrong treatment. You did not give 0:24:45.359 --> 0:24:47.560 it the right treatment. It's a really good song and 0:24:47.640 --> 0:24:49.639 you fucked it up. So I got to do it again. 0:24:50.760 --> 0:24:51.720 It's on the radio. 0:24:51.920 --> 0:24:55.720 Yeah, that's exactly what I said. I said, Berry, the 0:24:55.760 --> 0:24:57.560 record's been out for two weeks on the radio. He said, 0:24:57.560 --> 0:24:59.320 I don't care. Man, it's not as good as it 0:24:59.359 --> 0:25:01.520 can be, and it can be really good. He said, 0:25:01.520 --> 0:25:03.680 I'm gonna change. I'm gonna change everything about it. I'm 0:25:03.680 --> 0:25:06.120 gonna change the sound, I'm gonna change the beat, I'm 0:25:06.119 --> 0:25:09.080 gonna change the rhythm. I'm gonna change everything about it. 0:25:09.160 --> 0:25:14.000 And it's going to number one. So I said, oh, man, okay, 0:25:14.040 --> 0:25:16.520 I said, but you know, he said no, no, no, 0:25:16.560 --> 0:25:19.560 he said, I'm changing everything. I said, okay, man, I'll 0:25:19.560 --> 0:25:21.680 see you tomorrow. He said, no, no, no, I mean right now. 0:25:24.200 --> 0:25:28.919 I said, running now ThReD Cid in the morning. Man, 0:25:28.920 --> 0:25:31.920 he said, don't care. He said. I called all the musicians. 0:25:32.760 --> 0:25:34.840 He said, I called them, and so you get the group, 0:25:34.920 --> 0:25:36.280 y'all come to the studio right now. We're gonna do 0:25:36.320 --> 0:25:40.600 it again. Thank god, thank god. We won and did 0:25:40.640 --> 0:25:43.439 it again because he changed everything. If you could hear 0:25:43.480 --> 0:25:45.359 the one I did and here the one that's the 0:25:45.400 --> 0:25:48.720 popular one, it's a whole another record. But that's what 0:25:48.800 --> 0:25:53.000 he did, he said. So see, he changed it, and 0:25:53.040 --> 0:25:55.280 the rest is history. It was the first million sell 0:25:55.320 --> 0:26:00.320 that Motown every yeah, yeah, the first million sell that town. 0:26:01.160 --> 0:26:01.360 Sure. 0:26:01.440 --> 0:26:03.240 But that's who that do it is. Man, He's one 0:26:03.280 --> 0:26:05.520 of those guys. That's why that's I tell people all 0:26:05.560 --> 0:26:08.600 the time, that's the success of Motown, man, Because people 0:26:08.680 --> 0:26:10.160 ask me all the time. You see, I grew up 0:26:10.400 --> 0:26:12.600 in a great neighborhood, man. I grew up down in 0:26:12.680 --> 0:26:15.960 Rossly for four doors down the street from Meretha Franklin 0:26:15.960 --> 0:26:17.040 lived right around the corner. 0:26:17.520 --> 0:26:17.760 You know. 0:26:18.119 --> 0:26:21.080 The fore Tops live right across the avenue by by 0:26:21.200 --> 0:26:23.639 by Pete who is one who's who was our bass singer. 0:26:24.040 --> 0:26:26.679 You know, the Temptations live right across this avenue right 0:26:26.720 --> 0:26:28.800 over there. And we had battles at high school. And 0:26:29.160 --> 0:26:31.680 you know, I grew up in a great neighborhood. You 0:26:31.720 --> 0:26:34.320 know what I'm saying. And people say all the time, 0:26:34.960 --> 0:26:37.840 why did Detroit have all those talented people? Man? He 0:26:37.920 --> 0:26:40.159 had to you know, all those people in Detroit. And 0:26:41.200 --> 0:26:45.679 I tell him, and I really believe this, in every village, 0:26:46.760 --> 0:26:53.720 every city, every township, every area where there are people gathered, Okay, 0:26:53.760 --> 0:27:00.320 probably ratio wise, there's that same amount of talent we have. 0:27:01.080 --> 0:27:04.200 We had Barry go. You know what I mean, somebody 0:27:04.280 --> 0:27:05.160 got to bring it all together. 0:27:05.520 --> 0:27:07.760 Somebody had to bring for a dude with a high 0:27:07.760 --> 0:27:11.639 school education to pull off something like Motown and have 0:27:11.720 --> 0:27:15.640 it be what it has become. That's a special dude, man, 0:27:16.520 --> 0:27:18.960 that's a special dude. Man. You know what I mean, 0:27:19.359 --> 0:27:21.760 so that's what we had. We had somebody who was 0:27:21.800 --> 0:27:25.760 there pushing us. And and you know, and Motown was 0:27:25.760 --> 0:27:28.560 a place of competition. It was, it was, it was, 0:27:28.680 --> 0:27:32.120 it was. It was such a wonderful, wonderful place, man, 0:27:33.359 --> 0:27:37.959 because it was not just our workplace, it was our 0:27:38.000 --> 0:27:42.440 hanging place. We have always had what we celebrated as 0:27:42.520 --> 0:27:45.960 the Motown family, because that's who we were, man, and 0:27:46.000 --> 0:27:47.919 that's who we are, those of us who are still alive, 0:27:49.000 --> 0:27:52.760 we still celebrate the Motown family. But we were a 0:27:52.760 --> 0:27:57.119 family because we weren't just stablemates. We see the temptations 0:27:57.160 --> 0:27:59.760 walking through the hallway. Hey man, how you doing. No, 0:27:59.800 --> 0:28:02.680 we hung out with each other. Yeah, that was our 0:28:02.680 --> 0:28:05.760 brother my brothers and sisters. We hung We want each 0:28:05.760 --> 0:28:09.280 other's homes. We had dinner, each other's houses, We had picnics, 0:28:09.640 --> 0:28:13.360 we had outings, we did everything together. When you went 0:28:13.400 --> 0:28:15.520 back to Detroit, you could have been on fifty one 0:28:15.600 --> 0:28:17.919 night a tour, and when you got back to Detroit, 0:28:17.960 --> 0:28:19.919 first thing you did was get yourself together, bet your 0:28:19.920 --> 0:28:23.280 clothes and go to Hittsville. Why because everybody was over there, 0:28:23.640 --> 0:28:25.919 and you knew whoever was in town was gonna be 0:28:25.920 --> 0:28:28.840 over there, and you're gonna hang. That's what we did. 0:28:29.480 --> 0:28:32.480 We hung, and we had the family kind of thing, 0:28:32.560 --> 0:28:35.679 and all those people we were brothers and sisters. And 0:28:35.720 --> 0:28:38.400 I go back now and I look at the pictures 0:28:38.440 --> 0:28:40.880 in the museum and stuff like that, and eighty five 0:28:40.920 --> 0:28:44.640 percent of them are gone. Eighty five percent of them 0:28:44.640 --> 0:28:47.080 are gone. And when you when you when you're a 0:28:47.160 --> 0:28:48.600 kid like that and you're growing up with all those 0:28:48.600 --> 0:28:50.800 people there, and the last thing you expect to see 0:28:50.840 --> 0:28:53.200 them dead. You don't expect to see nobody dead, you know, 0:28:54.120 --> 0:28:56.520 especially when when when it's your close partner, part like 0:28:56.520 --> 0:28:59.240 Marven for me, you know, dude that I was with 0:28:59.280 --> 0:29:01.960 every day all day long, damn near of my life, 0:29:02.360 --> 0:29:06.440 you know. Now respect to see him dead, damn. 0:29:06.720 --> 0:29:06.959 You know. 0:29:07.080 --> 0:29:12.520 It's but we have the Motown family man, and it's 0:29:12.560 --> 0:29:17.760 a beautiful thing. It was beautiful, you know. We Very 0:29:17.760 --> 0:29:19.440 held a sign up in the in the office. He 0:29:19.720 --> 0:29:24.440 had this thing and says, competition breeds success because we 0:29:24.440 --> 0:29:28.880 were so competitive against each other. Man, we were knocked down, 0:29:29.000 --> 0:29:31.920 drag out competitive against each other. The producers and the 0:29:31.920 --> 0:29:34.200 writers and people are trying to get records out on 0:29:34.200 --> 0:29:36.440 the artists and stuff like that. And see the thing 0:29:36.480 --> 0:29:39.680 about Motown, which is nothing made it so unique is 0:29:39.720 --> 0:29:42.400 that if you were a producer or a writer and 0:29:42.480 --> 0:29:45.240 you had a song that you thought fit so and so, 0:29:46.040 --> 0:29:47.440 you could take it to so and so, and if 0:29:47.480 --> 0:29:50.280 they liked it, you were free to record it on them. 0:29:50.840 --> 0:29:53.160 It didn't matter who had the last hit record on 0:29:53.200 --> 0:29:54.920 them and all that stuff. It didn't matter about all 0:29:54.920 --> 0:29:57.360 that you got a song that they like, you can 0:29:57.400 --> 0:30:00.760 record it on them. So that's why the competition was 0:30:00.840 --> 0:30:04.040 so fierce. And every Monday morning we had meetings in 0:30:04.080 --> 0:30:07.240 Barrie's office and only the creative people were allowed in 0:30:07.280 --> 0:30:11.240 those meetings. Only the writers and producers. No secretaries, no 0:30:11.560 --> 0:30:13.520 people from the sales department, no, none of that of 0:30:13.640 --> 0:30:17.440 us up, just the writers and producers. Meetings start at 0:30:17.520 --> 0:30:20.000 nine a m. On Monday morning. If you got that 0:30:20.200 --> 0:30:23.280 nine oh one, you were locked out. You couldn't get in. 0:30:23.480 --> 0:30:25.320 You know, I'm saying it. But we go in there 0:30:25.360 --> 0:30:27.959 and we curitique each other's music, even though we were 0:30:27.960 --> 0:30:31.320 competing against each other. Like I said, the greatest competition 0:30:31.400 --> 0:30:33.440 ever had for getting records out on the Temptations was 0:30:33.480 --> 0:30:37.000 Norman Whitfield and Baard Strong. Norman could be in the 0:30:37.000 --> 0:30:38.920 studio working on something on Barrett, And like I said, 0:30:38.920 --> 0:30:41.120 we hung out there all the time all everybody and 0:30:41.200 --> 0:30:42.560 say hey, smoke, come in here, man. I want you 0:30:42.560 --> 0:30:44.400 to say ooh, I want you to stomp your feet 0:30:44.440 --> 0:30:45.960 or clap your hands or something like that. And I 0:30:46.000 --> 0:30:48.160 would go do it. Even though I know he was 0:30:48.240 --> 0:30:51.960 competing against me for record out on the Temptations, he 0:30:52.000 --> 0:30:54.640 would do the same thing for me because that's how 0:30:54.640 --> 0:30:57.040 it was. That's how we did. And in the Monday 0:30:57.040 --> 0:31:01.080 morning meetings, we just came in and critiqued each other's music, man, 0:31:01.680 --> 0:31:03.840 trying to get it better, trying to get I'll give 0:31:03.840 --> 0:31:08.440 you a great example of that, uh uh tracks My Tears. 0:31:09.080 --> 0:31:14.320 Tracked My Tears was one of many, many, many songs 0:31:15.000 --> 0:31:17.680 that the origin of that song is my guitar. So 0:31:17.720 --> 0:31:20.720 it's passed on now. Guy named Marv Tarplin with his guitar. 0:31:21.480 --> 0:31:23.280 He would put those guitar rips on the tape for 0:31:23.400 --> 0:31:26.120 me and give them to me until I could come 0:31:26.200 --> 0:31:28.840 up with a song for his music, you know. And 0:31:28.920 --> 0:31:31.080 so he had done that for the tracks of My Tears, 0:31:31.440 --> 0:31:33.520 and I just had him playing the guitar on tape 0:31:34.040 --> 0:31:36.000 and finally one day I came up with the three 0:31:36.040 --> 0:31:38.680 lines for the chorus. They're good, look at my face, smile, 0:31:38.720 --> 0:31:43.720 look at tray, close the sezar. The trays that you're 0:31:43.760 --> 0:31:47.200 gone and I'm here. No, the seasons are trays that 0:31:47.240 --> 0:31:48.960 I still love you, but you don't love me. No, 0:31:49.680 --> 0:31:52.120 Caesar are trays that I went through a lot of those, man. 0:31:52.560 --> 0:31:56.160 So one morning, this is so ironic. One morning I 0:31:56.200 --> 0:31:59.920 was in mirror and I'm shaving and I don't I 0:32:00.040 --> 0:32:01.680 don't have to shave it like once thy four or 0:32:01.720 --> 0:32:03.320 five days because hell won't grow on my face. I 0:32:03.360 --> 0:32:05.680 hated that in the in the sixties and seventy when 0:32:05.680 --> 0:32:07.200 of the guys the motown were growing beards and I 0:32:07.200 --> 0:32:08.880 couldn't grow one. I hated that. 0:32:08.960 --> 0:32:09.800 Man, You see that? 0:32:11.400 --> 0:32:19.840 Oh yeah, warm thoughts. Man, you see a little pature. 0:32:17.440 --> 0:32:21.800 I'm pature, you know. 0:32:22.320 --> 0:32:25.000 So anyway, so I'm in the mirror and I'm shaving, 0:32:25.680 --> 0:32:27.959 and the thought just came to me, Man, what if 0:32:27.960 --> 0:32:30.680 a person cried so much until their tears left tracks 0:32:30.680 --> 0:32:35.040 in their face? And then I said, oh, ship, that's it. 0:32:35.840 --> 0:32:37.960 So that was how I was able to finish up 0:32:38.000 --> 0:32:42.440 the tracks of my tears. Okay, now tracked my tears. 0:32:42.440 --> 0:32:45.720 You gotta be from the snow Joy that took. 0:32:45.840 --> 0:32:50.480 That took maybe a month or so cruising, which was 0:32:50.520 --> 0:32:53.320 another song that he Marven had put his guitar riffs 0:32:53.320 --> 0:32:57.400 on tape and cruising. I loved his guitar so much 0:32:57.480 --> 0:33:00.720 until back in those days you could looper tape and 0:33:00.720 --> 0:33:02.720 I would look. I literally put me to sleep at night. 0:33:03.240 --> 0:33:06.880 It was so sensual and so sexy, and so I 0:33:06.920 --> 0:33:08.760 wrote a couple of songs of that, and they didn't 0:33:08.800 --> 0:33:12.080 work because they weren't central and sexy like that. It 0:33:12.120 --> 0:33:17.160 took me five years to come up with something for cruisers. 0:33:17.800 --> 0:33:20.240 Five years. It took me something to come up with 0:33:20.280 --> 0:33:22.560 something for cruising. And then once again it was by 0:33:22.920 --> 0:33:26.120 quite by accident, I come up with the first three 0:33:26.120 --> 0:33:29.160 lines of the course you Don't Fly Away. I'm glad 0:33:29.200 --> 0:33:32.360 you're going my way because I love it when we're 0:33:32.400 --> 0:33:36.320 traveling together. No, I love it when we're doing this. 0:33:36.440 --> 0:33:40.640 I love them and shit, man, I had that tape 0:33:40.680 --> 0:33:45.760 for five years, and one day it was at Christmas time, 0:33:46.160 --> 0:33:52.120 December here in Los Angeles, and I'm from Michigan, where 0:33:52.160 --> 0:33:56.280 in December the winters are brutal. I mean brutal, you 0:33:56.360 --> 0:33:57.000 know what I'm saying. 0:33:57.040 --> 0:33:57.800 Maybe. 0:33:58.200 --> 0:34:03.360 So I'm driving down Sunset Boulevard in December with my 0:34:03.480 --> 0:34:09.719 top down and they got Christmas decorations and people are 0:34:09.719 --> 0:34:12.480 walking around in shorts and tank tops and ship it's 0:34:12.560 --> 0:34:16.080 eighty degrees is wrong because in December, and I thought 0:34:16.120 --> 0:34:20.000 to myself said, damn, this is ridiculous, man, this is December. 0:34:20.080 --> 0:34:26.279 I'm cruising down so it okay, I like this out 0:34:26.320 --> 0:34:32.360 of that word cruising, put it on the end of 0:34:32.360 --> 0:34:34.360 the thing, and that allowed me to finish that song. 0:34:35.040 --> 0:34:38.839 But life, yeah, life, absolutely. 0:34:38.760 --> 0:34:43.120 Let's stop a cruising. Let's stop right, cruise, I do that, 0:34:43.200 --> 0:34:45.360 Let's stop. There are two things that I need to 0:34:45.440 --> 0:34:50.279 know about cruising. First, I need to know about the 0:34:50.360 --> 0:34:57.520 session of cruising. Okay, what does this the session? What is? 0:34:57.600 --> 0:34:59.480 What is it? Give me? If i'm if I walk 0:34:59.480 --> 0:35:01.160 in the studio, what do I see? 0:35:01.640 --> 0:35:03.560 There was a guy named Jean Paige. I don't know 0:35:03.560 --> 0:35:08.360 if you ever met Jean. Jean Page was an arranger. 0:35:08.400 --> 0:35:12.640 He was one of the greatest UH rhythm and blues 0:35:13.080 --> 0:35:17.200 pop for arranger, of the greatest record industry arrangers that 0:35:17.760 --> 0:35:21.800 I've ever heard in my life. You take Jeene Page 0:35:21.840 --> 0:35:25.600 your raw thing, You're raw tape And when he got 0:35:25.640 --> 0:35:28.640 through with it. It was over, you know what I'm saying. 0:35:29.400 --> 0:35:33.160 So I took gene page after I put after I 0:35:33.200 --> 0:35:39.560 had recorded the the the uh the rhythm track, and 0:35:39.600 --> 0:35:42.560 put the vocal down on cruising. I took it to 0:35:42.640 --> 0:35:47.919 Jean when I say, here baby, that's why I got back. 0:35:48.840 --> 0:35:51.160 So he hired the string. 0:35:51.719 --> 0:35:54.279 Yeah, yeah, he hired the string. He but he did 0:35:54.280 --> 0:35:54.920 the arrangements. 0:35:55.160 --> 0:35:59.440 Arrangements, so he's he's Quincy Jones right now doing that. 0:35:59.560 --> 0:35:59.719 Yeah. 0:35:59.760 --> 0:36:02.520 Yeah, indeed, the bass player, this is what you do, 0:36:02.600 --> 0:36:08.319 and and this is all these are all live instruments. 0:36:08.440 --> 0:36:15.680 Yes, yes, that's music, man, that's one man. I record 0:36:15.760 --> 0:36:18.239 live all the time. Man, I like to I like 0:36:18.280 --> 0:36:19.280 to sing while they're playing. 0:36:19.600 --> 0:36:22.520 Still, you like to sing while they're playing, ask. 0:36:22.440 --> 0:36:23.880 Him, that's what we did this time. I like to 0:36:23.920 --> 0:36:28.680 sing while they're playing. I like to sing. I prefer 0:36:28.760 --> 0:36:32.120 that because you see that that that's that's like when 0:36:32.360 --> 0:36:35.399 when we're doing concerts. I don't know if I've ever 0:36:35.480 --> 0:36:43.080 sang the same song exactly the same way ever, because 0:36:43.080 --> 0:36:45.600 you know the cats are playing, it's different. Hear some 0:36:45.600 --> 0:36:47.600 ship to guitar player. But it aspires you to do 0:36:47.680 --> 0:36:50.239 something else, you know, And he's gonna hear something that 0:36:50.239 --> 0:36:52.040 the bass player player, and he's gonna inspire him to 0:36:52.080 --> 0:36:54.359 do something else. You know what I'm saying. So it's 0:36:54.440 --> 0:36:59.239 it's it's it's inspirational. So so yeah, so I love 0:36:59.280 --> 0:37:01.480 recording when when they record. 0:37:01.760 --> 0:37:05.440 Okay, so cruising, cruising, Like I said, man, so do 0:37:05.600 --> 0:37:08.520 me this, do me this moment. Okay, the first time 0:37:08.600 --> 0:37:15.359 you hear d'angelo's cruising, Okay, what are your thoughts when 0:37:15.360 --> 0:37:15.719 you hear it? 0:37:16.160 --> 0:37:19.520 Well, see, first of all, D'angelo's my little brother. I 0:37:19.560 --> 0:37:21.640 love him. He's I know his mama and all them, 0:37:21.680 --> 0:37:24.920 you know, so he's a cool dude. And what did 0:37:25.000 --> 0:37:27.520 I think when I heard it? I thought, yeah, b 0:37:29.160 --> 0:37:32.239 oh great, that's the same thing I think when I 0:37:32.239 --> 0:37:36.160 hear anybody doing any of my songs, I mean a songwriter. 0:37:36.239 --> 0:37:37.600 I hope that that happens all the time. 0:37:38.320 --> 0:37:38.440 Uh. 0:37:38.719 --> 0:37:40.400 You know, I know when when the kids first started 0:37:40.440 --> 0:37:42.880 to sample music and doing all the people come to me, 0:37:43.000 --> 0:37:44.920 hey man, they sampled your music? Did you up to 0:37:45.040 --> 0:37:46.319 no sample all of mine? 0:37:46.600 --> 0:37:47.200 Yeah? 0:37:47.239 --> 0:37:51.400 Sample every song I ever wrote in my life, because 0:37:51.400 --> 0:37:53.919 when you sample it, that says to me that out 0:37:53.920 --> 0:37:56.560 of the billion songs that are on earth, you know 0:37:56.640 --> 0:37:59.040 that you had a choice of you know, and plus 0:37:59.040 --> 0:38:02.319 you a songwriter, your say off, you chose one of mine, yes, 0:38:03.560 --> 0:38:06.080 to incorporate in your music order to the bet just 0:38:06.120 --> 0:38:09.960 sing period. Thank you. So D'Angelo, like I said, he's 0:38:09.960 --> 0:38:12.560 a talented young man, and he sang it, and I 0:38:12.680 --> 0:38:16.440 was flabbagasted, and in fact, they surprised him he did. 0:38:16.480 --> 0:38:19.400 I forgot what the TV show was now, but anyway, 0:38:19.480 --> 0:38:22.560 he was gonna do this TV show and he was 0:38:22.600 --> 0:38:26.919 singing cruising and they called me and told me what 0:38:26.960 --> 0:38:32.359 was happening. And so the TV show starts and he 0:38:32.400 --> 0:38:34.919 gets there and he sings the first verse, and then 0:38:35.120 --> 0:38:37.120 they had me walk out to sing the second person. 0:38:37.200 --> 0:38:38.160 It was we in the mall. 0:38:38.920 --> 0:38:41.920 We had the mall. It was crazy, but but but 0:38:42.000 --> 0:38:44.640 I loved when he did that. Man he's got such 0:38:44.680 --> 0:38:48.240 a funky version of him, but the angel's funky anyway. 0:38:48.360 --> 0:38:52.160 So yeah, now I love I love what you said 0:38:52.200 --> 0:38:56.440 about that, because I think there's sometimes there's this line 0:38:56.440 --> 0:38:59.880 in the sand where you know you have you have, 0:39:00.480 --> 0:39:04.080 which they have all the right to feel that way, 0:39:04.239 --> 0:39:06.440 but you have certain artists who are just like I 0:39:06.440 --> 0:39:08.760 don't want anybody touching my music. Make your own music, 0:39:08.840 --> 0:39:11.000 and you know y'all. 0:39:10.719 --> 0:39:13.560 Need to be more creative. You said it, I didn't. 0:39:14.239 --> 0:39:16.359 Y'all said it? 0:39:17.400 --> 0:39:18.640 Yeah stupid. 0:39:20.560 --> 0:39:22.760 Yeah, there goes the answer to that. 0:39:22.080 --> 0:39:26.160 That is what it is, absolutely because first of all, 0:39:26.200 --> 0:39:28.040 like I said, it, flattery and then you're going to 0:39:28.120 --> 0:39:29.480 earn some money. 0:39:29.680 --> 0:39:31.880 So why would you protest that that? 0:39:32.600 --> 0:39:33.759 Why would you protest that? 0:39:33.880 --> 0:39:36.759 Speaking of speaking of money, speaking of money. 0:39:37.440 --> 0:39:39.400 The best things in life are free, but you can 0:39:39.440 --> 0:39:40.280 give them no. 0:39:42.600 --> 0:39:44.000 Money. 0:39:45.080 --> 0:39:49.319 Going to that part, because you spoke earlier about the 0:39:49.440 --> 0:39:52.560 finances with these other labels before you guys started Motown, 0:39:53.200 --> 0:39:55.879 did you have any understanding at this point, like when 0:39:55.880 --> 0:39:58.160 you first really kicked it off, got your first hit 0:39:58.239 --> 0:40:01.120 records wrote you know, got a then you get your 0:40:01.160 --> 0:40:05.360 smash record shop around. Did you really understand the publishing 0:40:05.440 --> 0:40:09.719 side and you know, the royalties and different things that 0:40:10.560 --> 0:40:12.479 a lot of artists didn't know for a long time. 0:40:12.960 --> 0:40:14.240 No, you were part of the business. 0:40:14.280 --> 0:40:16.759 No, No, I didn't understand that until Barry explained it 0:40:16.840 --> 0:40:20.520 to me. See, I don't know. No, you know, see 0:40:20.520 --> 0:40:22.279 when you're a kid like that man, because we were kids, 0:40:22.320 --> 0:40:25.680 you know, sixteen and and then then you know, I 0:40:25.680 --> 0:40:28.960 think about this too when I got when I turned nineteen. 0:40:29.400 --> 0:40:31.080 I married Claude, who was a girl in a group. 0:40:31.120 --> 0:40:36.560 In nineteen and Barry had just started Motown and I 0:40:36.600 --> 0:40:39.040 was making five dollars a week because I was there 0:40:39.080 --> 0:40:41.480 was only five people who worked there there him and 0:40:41.560 --> 0:40:44.080 four others of us, you know, so it was considered 0:40:44.320 --> 0:40:46.759 our car fair to get there. But we made five 0:40:46.800 --> 0:40:49.240 dollars a week, and you just but I was nineteen 0:40:50.520 --> 0:40:55.919 and I got married because I thought I was a man. 0:40:57.040 --> 0:40:58.520 Because I was going to ask you why you got married, 0:40:58.560 --> 0:41:01.320 and I stoked, I was a man. 0:41:01.680 --> 0:41:03.920 Okay, And here's my girlfriend. She's traveling with us anyway, 0:41:04.239 --> 0:41:05.759 and many times her mother had to go on the 0:41:05.800 --> 0:41:08.080 road with us because you know, the chaperone her and 0:41:08.120 --> 0:41:09.799 she had because she's the only girl in the group. 0:41:09.840 --> 0:41:13.239 And blah blah blah. But I got married when I 0:41:13.239 --> 0:41:16.520 was nineteen. If one of my kids had come to 0:41:16.520 --> 0:41:20.520 me when they were nineteen, dad get married. 0:41:20.600 --> 0:41:25.840 Yeah, you shutting, shutting down, saying but I thought I 0:41:25.920 --> 0:41:26.359 was a man. 0:41:26.440 --> 0:41:29.960 Man that was me. Find out a week we started motime. 0:41:31.080 --> 0:41:34.960 You see this five dollars you know that I can 0:41:35.080 --> 0:41:36.080 take you place. 0:41:36.200 --> 0:41:43.040 Absolutely man. But yeah, so it was it was. It 0:41:43.120 --> 0:41:43.879 was something man. 0:41:44.200 --> 0:41:44.480 It was. 0:41:45.239 --> 0:41:48.560 It's a great it's a great life legacy, man. And 0:41:48.600 --> 0:41:51.440 to think that how we started and what was going on. 0:41:51.520 --> 0:41:54.400 Like I said, it was five people there and in 0:41:54.440 --> 0:41:58.560 the day that very started more time, Yeah, he had. 0:41:58.920 --> 0:42:01.720 It was Brian Holland, who was one of the Hollands 0:42:01.880 --> 0:42:05.880 Holland writing team. He was there, lady named Jamie Bradford, 0:42:06.520 --> 0:42:10.080 Barry's then wife, and lady named ray Noma, and me 0:42:10.520 --> 0:42:13.800 and Barry and Barry set us down and he said, amen, 0:42:13.880 --> 0:42:16.680 He said, I'm gonna start my own record company. Anybody 0:42:16.680 --> 0:42:19.840 paying set I'm own record company, and we're gonna be 0:42:19.920 --> 0:42:22.800 the crew. And we're not just gonna make black music. 0:42:23.600 --> 0:42:25.520 We're gonna make music for the world watching. See, We're 0:42:25.520 --> 0:42:27.799 gonna make music for we will we will always have 0:42:27.880 --> 0:42:30.319 some great beasts and some great stories and that's gonna 0:42:30.320 --> 0:42:33.839 be our quality control to have that when we put 0:42:33.880 --> 0:42:36.440 our records out. But we were gonna make music for 0:42:36.480 --> 0:42:36.839 the world. 0:42:38.040 --> 0:42:40.000 So yeah, I did it, you know. 0:42:40.719 --> 0:42:52.759 Yeah, And we shop around being like like you said, 0:42:52.800 --> 0:42:54.400 it was the first million seller for y'all. 0:42:55.480 --> 0:42:56.680 Did you see real money on that? 0:42:57.800 --> 0:43:01.000 Yeah, well we did. No, No, we didn't see real 0:43:01.520 --> 0:43:04.200 the real money that we could have seen because Moretown 0:43:04.320 --> 0:43:08.080 was new, so the distributors weren't paying, you know what 0:43:08.080 --> 0:43:08.479 I'm saying. 0:43:09.400 --> 0:43:10.960 So they were withholding. 0:43:11.280 --> 0:43:13.640 Oh yeah, man, but you knew what they what happened 0:43:13.640 --> 0:43:16.400 for us, which was so great man. They were holding 0:43:16.440 --> 0:43:18.560 at first, but when Chop Bron came out, some of 0:43:18.560 --> 0:43:21.040 them were still wortholding. But we came right back and 0:43:21.040 --> 0:43:24.120 we had please mister postman and brooted and blocked the block. 0:43:24.600 --> 0:43:29.280 We kept bombarding them with hit records, but legal that 0:43:30.320 --> 0:43:35.680 because they wanted to the legally, Who's gonna come and investigated? 0:43:36.960 --> 0:43:39.239 Who's gonna come and say if you go there and say, well, no, 0:43:39.360 --> 0:43:41.680 we know we sold one hundred thousand records and distribution, 0:43:41.840 --> 0:43:44.480 No you didn't. He's so fifty. Who go, who's gonna know? 0:43:44.840 --> 0:43:47.680 You know what I'm saying, Who's gonna know that? That's 0:43:47.719 --> 0:43:52.279 what happened. So yeah, they But like I said, the 0:43:52.360 --> 0:43:56.120 great thing for us, man, was we bombarded them. We 0:43:56.239 --> 0:43:58.439 kept them so they would give us our money before 0:43:58.440 --> 0:44:02.360 we even send some records because they wanted those records. 0:44:02.640 --> 0:44:05.920 You know, it got the front. Like the radio stations, 0:44:06.400 --> 0:44:08.360 a lot of the companies were paying and they have 0:44:08.400 --> 0:44:11.120 their records played. You know what I mean. The guys 0:44:11.160 --> 0:44:14.560 would call us and say, hey man, please let us 0:44:14.560 --> 0:44:16.200 have a new Supreme record before you get and I'm 0:44:16.200 --> 0:44:19.160 talking about white stations. Let us have the new Supreme 0:44:19.160 --> 0:44:22.080 record before you give it to anybody else. We'll play it. 0:44:23.560 --> 0:44:23.839 You know. 0:44:24.880 --> 0:44:25.920 We kicked their ass. Man. 0:44:26.600 --> 0:44:30.560 Were y'all making money on the road? Oh yeah it was, 0:44:30.600 --> 0:44:31.239 but not much. 0:44:32.640 --> 0:44:34.320 Yeah when you first, when you first start out, you 0:44:34.360 --> 0:44:36.960 want to let me tell you that we first start out, 0:44:37.440 --> 0:44:40.560 we won't make it any money. Okay. Uh. The first 0:44:40.719 --> 0:44:44.520 professional gig, really professional gig the Miracles and I ever 0:44:44.560 --> 0:44:48.080 did was that the Apollo Theater in New York on 0:44:48.120 --> 0:44:53.200 the Ray Charrolds Show. Okay, now, I just played the 0:44:53.239 --> 0:44:55.560 Apollo just recently too. I will play the Apollo as 0:44:55.600 --> 0:44:59.040 long as it's standing because it's it's Black music tradition, 0:44:59.719 --> 0:45:01.239 you know. I just play. I just closed it down. 0:45:01.239 --> 0:45:03.400 In fact, they closed it down and it's going to 0:45:03.480 --> 0:45:05.840 be closed now for three or four years while they renovated. 0:45:06.280 --> 0:45:10.040 You know. But if they tear everything else on one 0:45:10.120 --> 0:45:13.000 hundred and twenty fifth Street down, I hope they leave 0:45:13.000 --> 0:45:17.759 the Apollo standing. The Apollo is Black music tradition. When 0:45:17.800 --> 0:45:19.719 the Miracles on our first one in there, man, the 0:45:19.760 --> 0:45:22.360 fair first time we're on the ray Child Show. We 0:45:22.520 --> 0:45:25.280 go there and like I said. 0:45:25.080 --> 0:45:26.080 We just kids. 0:45:27.600 --> 0:45:31.360 I think I must have been about maybe seventeen or 0:45:31.440 --> 0:45:35.359 something like that. Anyway, just gogate from high school. So 0:45:35.560 --> 0:45:41.160 we have a record called Bad Girl and it's on 0:45:41.239 --> 0:45:44.160 Chess Records out of Chicago. So it's making a little 0:45:44.160 --> 0:45:46.640 bunch of noise for us. It started us to getting 0:45:46.719 --> 0:45:49.919 some gigs and blah blah blah. When the ray Child 0:45:50.000 --> 0:45:57.440 Show as Apollo Theater, we weren't making any money, but 0:45:57.480 --> 0:46:01.960 we were so terrible. Mr Schiffman, the guy who owned Apollo, 0:46:03.680 --> 0:46:05.719 called Bury and told me he want his money back. 0:46:07.400 --> 0:46:09.520 Yet he wanted his money. Hey man, we didn't even 0:46:09.560 --> 0:46:12.160 make enough money to get out of the hotel at 0:46:12.160 --> 0:46:14.239 the end of the week. We didn't. He was only 0:46:14.440 --> 0:46:17.319 Now there's five of us and he's only paying us 0:46:17.400 --> 0:46:20.680 like seven hundred dollars and we're in New York from 0:46:20.760 --> 0:46:23.120 New Charge. He's only seven hundred dollars a week. We 0:46:23.200 --> 0:46:25.600 got a hotel. The hotel is more than that, you 0:46:25.680 --> 0:46:28.719 know what I'm saying. But he wanted that back. 0:46:29.840 --> 0:46:30.600 Give me that back. 0:46:30.760 --> 0:46:34.120 Yeah, we were terrible, man, I mean I agree with him. 0:46:34.360 --> 0:46:37.240 If if we hadn't been an actor, had a record 0:46:37.320 --> 0:46:40.400 out where they considered you to be a professional, the 0:46:40.480 --> 0:46:42.239 dude who danced and pull you off the stage with 0:46:42.280 --> 0:46:44.880 the host sad Man would have came and got us. 0:46:45.080 --> 0:46:47.320 You know, he came and got us. 0:46:47.560 --> 0:46:49.399 Who was your favorite artist to write for? 0:46:50.400 --> 0:46:54.360 To write for? Uh? Well, you know what I I 0:46:54.800 --> 0:46:57.439 I enjoyed writing for everybody, man, because, like I said, 0:46:57.440 --> 0:47:00.080 those people are my brothers and sisters. And you know, 0:47:00.960 --> 0:47:03.879 people ask me questions about some of the songs that 0:47:03.960 --> 0:47:07.960 they heard by other artists that I'd written. For example, 0:47:08.000 --> 0:47:12.520 my Girl, you know, my Girl has become for me 0:47:12.600 --> 0:47:17.600 as a songwriter, like an international anthem or something. Man, 0:47:18.680 --> 0:47:20.680 should we go places where we're getting ready to go 0:47:20.719 --> 0:47:23.840 overseas now in June, but we go places where they 0:47:23.840 --> 0:47:26.239 don't even speak English. Sixty percent of the people in 0:47:26.239 --> 0:47:31.000 that audience don't even speak English, okay, and they hear 0:47:32.400 --> 0:47:37.840 boom boom boom boom boom, and they know the song, 0:47:39.040 --> 0:47:45.240 they know the words. So stuff like that has happened 0:47:46.080 --> 0:47:48.520 totally unexpected as far as I'm concerned. 0:47:49.280 --> 0:47:52.279 But it just. 0:47:54.440 --> 0:47:58.400 As a songwriter, I can't beat that. I cannot beat 0:47:59.239 --> 0:48:03.600 that kind of stuff happening, especially when it happens unexpected, 0:48:04.400 --> 0:48:07.720 you know what I mean. I'm not expecting that. In fact, 0:48:07.719 --> 0:48:10.640 I don't expect any any awards or anything like that, 0:48:10.800 --> 0:48:13.440 anything like that that I've ever gotten. I wasn't expecting it, 0:48:13.480 --> 0:48:18.160 because you know, it's just icing, because you know, like 0:48:18.200 --> 0:48:20.239 I said, I'm just blessed man, unfortunate. I get a 0:48:20.320 --> 0:48:23.560 chance to live my life doing something that I absolutely love, 0:48:23.640 --> 0:48:25.360 have a job that I look forward to going to. 0:48:28.160 --> 0:48:31.080 Because we were getting ready to go out, let's see 0:48:31.280 --> 0:48:35.080 next week, the end of next week, and we've been 0:48:35.080 --> 0:48:37.400 off now since December, so I'm ready. 0:48:38.080 --> 0:48:42.719 Have you ever done anything else like as an occupation 0:48:43.480 --> 0:48:45.200 as it always because you said. 0:48:45.000 --> 0:48:48.279 You started that? Ever? You mean ever, have you ever 0:48:48.320 --> 0:48:49.040 had another job? 0:48:49.520 --> 0:48:51.080 I've had every job you can think of it. 0:48:52.520 --> 0:48:52.719 Yeah. 0:48:53.000 --> 0:48:55.840 Look, my mom passed when I was ten, Like I said, Okay, 0:48:56.520 --> 0:49:00.640 so my my oldest sister came back to live in 0:49:00.680 --> 0:49:03.319 the house. And when she came to live in the house, 0:49:03.360 --> 0:49:05.839 she already had six kids. She ended up having ten kids. Man, 0:49:06.239 --> 0:49:08.759 so there was like eleven of us. So my brother 0:49:08.800 --> 0:49:12.960 in law, who I love, I can't tell you how 0:49:13.000 --> 0:49:15.440 I felt about him. He's gone now. But he was 0:49:15.480 --> 0:49:18.400 my man because my sister came and I had another 0:49:18.440 --> 0:49:22.560 sister who was younger than her, and she didn't have 0:49:22.560 --> 0:49:25.920 no kids. And she could have said, okay, well I'm 0:49:26.080 --> 0:49:28.359 I'm gonna take my brother, and but my older sister 0:49:28.440 --> 0:49:30.919 who had all those kids, say I'm taking my brother, 0:49:31.840 --> 0:49:34.040 you know. And he could have said, no, you ain't 0:49:34.360 --> 0:49:36.440 I all these kids who work. But he treated me 0:49:36.520 --> 0:49:37.920 like I was his own son, you know what I mean. 0:49:38.120 --> 0:49:41.440 He never ever made any difference between any of us. 0:49:41.280 --> 0:49:41.600 You know. 0:49:41.920 --> 0:49:44.880 So But anyway, she ended up having ten kids. So 0:49:44.920 --> 0:49:48.160 now I was eleven. There's no way from the time 0:49:48.200 --> 0:49:49.120 I was ten years old. 0:49:48.960 --> 0:49:49.719 I was gonna go with my brother. 0:49:49.800 --> 0:49:51.680 La'll say, hey, man, you got fifty cent or you 0:49:51.680 --> 0:49:54.120 got a dial or something like that. There was an 0:49:54.160 --> 0:49:56.959 old Jewish man had a grocery store around the corner. 0:49:56.960 --> 0:50:01.840 At the time, the neighborhood was just passing over, you know, 0:50:01.960 --> 0:50:04.640 black people just taking over. The still a few Jewish 0:50:04.640 --> 0:50:08.160 people in the neighborhood named mister Hackerman. So I went 0:50:08.200 --> 0:50:09.880 around there was ten years old. I said, mister Hackerman, 0:50:09.960 --> 0:50:12.719 could you give me a job? They call me smoking Joe. 0:50:12.760 --> 0:50:14.640 At the time, everybody in the neighborhood called me smoke 0:50:14.640 --> 0:50:15.000 at Joe. 0:50:15.120 --> 0:50:16.240 Why did they call you smoking? 0:50:16.760 --> 0:50:19.120 They call me smoke at Joe because I had an uncle, 0:50:19.560 --> 0:50:22.439 my uncle Claud. He was also my godfather. And when 0:50:22.440 --> 0:50:25.839 I was three or four years old, if you ask 0:50:25.920 --> 0:50:27.239 me what I wanted to be, I would tell your 0:50:27.320 --> 0:50:31.640 cowboy because I loved cowboys, you know. So my uncle 0:50:31.640 --> 0:50:33.440 Claud used to take me to see cowboy movies and 0:50:33.440 --> 0:50:37.120 I especially left the ones who sang Dean Autry, Roy Rogers. 0:50:37.160 --> 0:50:40.120 They had guitars and they saying and so I loved them. 0:50:40.160 --> 0:50:40.520 Man. 0:50:40.840 --> 0:50:43.160 So he had a cowboy name for me, smoking Joe. 0:50:44.160 --> 0:50:45.960 If anybody asked me what my name was back in 0:50:45.960 --> 0:50:47.600 those days, my name is smoking Joe. 0:50:47.600 --> 0:50:54.600 We need cowboy names, give us cowboy nassy before the 0:50:54.680 --> 0:50:55.160 day is over. 0:50:55.239 --> 0:50:56.640 I need a cowboy name. 0:50:56.760 --> 0:51:01.560 Man. Yeah, so smoke at Joe. And uh so, everybody, 0:51:01.719 --> 0:51:05.719 including my teachers, until I was about twelve years old 0:51:05.800 --> 0:51:09.560 or so, called me smoking Joe. Okay. And then when 0:51:09.560 --> 0:51:11.080 I got to be about twelve, so they dropped the 0:51:11.120 --> 0:51:13.520 Joe off. I guess that was long and drawing off 0:51:13.520 --> 0:51:16.399 for them, and I just became smoky. And people think 0:51:16.440 --> 0:51:18.320 that I became that after I got in show business, 0:51:18.320 --> 0:51:21.120 I named myself Smokey Robinson. But that's been my name 0:51:21.160 --> 0:51:21.520 all my. 0:51:21.520 --> 0:51:22.560 Life, you know. 0:51:23.719 --> 0:51:28.040 Yeah, so uh yeah, and so anyway, he had this 0:51:28.080 --> 0:51:30.280 cowboy name for me. It was, which is Smoky Joe, 0:51:30.000 --> 0:51:34.120 and that's what people called me. So I loved the 0:51:34.160 --> 0:51:36.120 cowboys and saying. So if you asked me what I 0:51:36.160 --> 0:51:38.839 wanted to be until I got to be about eight 0:51:38.920 --> 0:51:40.480 or nine years old, I will tell you I wanted 0:51:40.480 --> 0:51:42.120 to be a cowboy boy. I want to be a 0:51:42.120 --> 0:51:45.120 cowboy because that's my that's my goal, be a cowboy 0:51:45.160 --> 0:51:47.480 and be a cowboy that sings and have a horse. 0:51:48.760 --> 0:51:49.200 That's what. 0:51:52.600 --> 0:51:55.960 Detroit, you know. But then when I got to be 0:51:56.000 --> 0:51:58.880 about like I said, after my mom passed when I 0:51:58.960 --> 0:52:03.720 was ten and all that, I've always been heavily into sports. 0:52:03.760 --> 0:52:08.760 And I played football and basketball for my high school 0:52:09.400 --> 0:52:13.759 and in the summertime, I played summer league baseball, which 0:52:13.800 --> 0:52:16.200 at that time was my favorite sport at the time, 0:52:16.239 --> 0:52:20.120 you know, because and I loved baseball, and I'm not bragging, 0:52:20.160 --> 0:52:22.399 I could really play baseball pretty good. And I thought 0:52:22.440 --> 0:52:25.160 that I was going to be a baseball player. I thought, Okay, 0:52:25.239 --> 0:52:27.360 I'm going to pursue this. I'm going to be a 0:52:27.400 --> 0:52:30.359 baseball player. And I think about it now and if 0:52:30.400 --> 0:52:33.880 I had been the greatest baseball player in the history 0:52:33.920 --> 0:52:36.920 of the game since they came up with baseball, the 0:52:37.000 --> 0:52:38.880 greatest person to ever pick up a batter or a 0:52:38.880 --> 0:52:41.520 glove or a ball, if I had been that person, 0:52:42.440 --> 0:52:45.440 my career would have been over fifty years ago. You 0:52:45.480 --> 0:52:51.279 know what, I'm fifty years ago, man, because you know 0:52:51.520 --> 0:52:56.000 I think about in sportsman, you get old fast. A Kareem, 0:52:56.040 --> 0:52:58.319 who is my brother. Kareem called me. He's getting ready 0:52:58.360 --> 0:53:02.840 to retire from the Lakers. And I had sang the 0:53:02.960 --> 0:53:06.360 national anthem at the World Series in Boston and he 0:53:06.440 --> 0:53:08.919 saw me. So I said after that, I'm never gonna 0:53:08.920 --> 0:53:11.040 sing it again. I'm never gonna sing the national anthem 0:53:11.080 --> 0:53:12.719 for a sports event again. I did it. That's what 0:53:12.800 --> 0:53:15.239 I wanted it. So Kareem called me. He say, Man, 0:53:15.280 --> 0:53:19.560 he said, I'm gonna reay retire. He said, So, I'm 0:53:19.600 --> 0:53:22.480 retiring this this Saturday night, and then they're doing a 0:53:22.480 --> 0:53:24.400 big thing for me at the at the game, and 0:53:24.560 --> 0:53:28.239 I won't you come down sing the national anthem? I said, Kareem, Man, 0:53:28.600 --> 0:53:30.520 you know, I said, when he said, man, this is me, 0:53:30.600 --> 0:53:34.319 come on down sing national anthem. So I said, okay, 0:53:34.560 --> 0:53:38.000 So I get down there all in the forum and 0:53:38.000 --> 0:53:42.239 shit like that. This signs up on the old man. 0:53:43.040 --> 0:53:44.960 The old man is retired. 0:53:44.560 --> 0:53:47.120 And they ring like a rocket share the old man. 0:53:47.120 --> 0:53:50.160 Is retiring on this was thirty three. 0:53:53.160 --> 0:53:53.440 Fuck. 0:53:54.880 --> 0:53:55.600 You know what I'm saying. 0:53:57.239 --> 0:54:00.160 I always would retire. 0:54:02.040 --> 0:54:09.080 Three three. He was old man, you know, so wow wow. 0:54:09.960 --> 0:54:17.560 If I mean, if we're just looking, Kareem looks sixty two. Hey, 0:54:17.640 --> 0:54:20.520 you know, Kareem no karate, I love Korea. You shot 0:54:20.600 --> 0:54:25.120 get your head. But back in those days, like guys 0:54:25.120 --> 0:54:29.000 that went to high school, they look like grown men 0:54:29.239 --> 0:54:34.040 with full families, and the look was just different when 0:54:34.239 --> 0:54:37.200 until you said it, I had never put a number 0:54:37.239 --> 0:54:39.000 on it. You know, when I was a kid, I 0:54:39.000 --> 0:54:39.959 thought Kareem. 0:54:39.680 --> 0:54:46.239 Was especially having all the scoring records everything you said, 0:54:46.320 --> 0:54:51.759 thirty three, it is wow wow, But that's reality. Yeah, 0:54:51.880 --> 0:54:54.279 And like you said, even if you're the best of 0:54:54.360 --> 0:54:57.280 the best at something, I mean, like Lebron is now forty, 0:54:57.320 --> 0:54:58.879 but people acting like that is. 0:54:58.880 --> 0:55:03.760 He's but even in that, yeah, how many more. 0:55:03.680 --> 0:55:05.880 Hits did you have after forty? 0:55:06.040 --> 0:55:07.840 You know what I mean, Like you still had ha, 0:55:08.440 --> 0:55:10.759 you know, just the record you have. 0:55:11.440 --> 0:55:14.359 Yeah, and you know another thing about it is that 0:55:14.440 --> 0:55:16.680 and like I told you guys this earlier in this 0:55:16.880 --> 0:55:20.080 in this interview and the talk we're going on at 0:55:20.080 --> 0:55:22.400 the end of the next week. And I'm looking if 0:55:22.320 --> 0:55:25.479 I can't wait and I'm eighty five, still doing it. 0:55:25.360 --> 0:55:30.480 You're eighty five? Yeah, oh, let me think. 0:55:34.760 --> 0:55:38.760 Five. You say that and I can't wait. 0:55:40.160 --> 0:55:43.880 Listen eighty five. Yeah, And I want to get I 0:55:43.880 --> 0:55:45.520 want to make sure just we just we touch on 0:55:45.520 --> 0:55:47.399 this too, because we have to touch on this. Now. 0:55:47.440 --> 0:55:52.120 You have a residency, yeah, yes, at the Venetian. Yeah. 0:55:52.800 --> 0:55:54.799 Can you get us a room? I mean you got 0:55:54.840 --> 0:55:56.759 to hook up your little little little player price for 0:55:56.760 --> 0:55:59.759 the room. Like people like like y'all want to come, 0:56:00.480 --> 0:56:05.279 we do well because like when you get there, it's 0:56:05.400 --> 0:56:07.840 like what you set out for your music to be. 0:56:08.960 --> 0:56:12.960 That is the place where that statement is made because 0:56:12.960 --> 0:56:15.640 that is that is all walks of life. 0:56:16.400 --> 0:56:19.000 Okay, I want to tell you something about that too. 0:56:19.480 --> 0:56:22.120 This is not my first residency in Vegas. I've been 0:56:22.200 --> 0:56:27.640 having residencies in Vegas since nineteen eighty you know what. 0:56:27.640 --> 0:56:32.359 Pop yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, I want 0:56:32.360 --> 0:56:35.759 to tell you how that happened, mat because I never 0:56:35.800 --> 0:56:37.400 really wanted to play Las Vegas. 0:56:38.000 --> 0:56:40.080 I never really wanted to play that because the first 0:56:40.080 --> 0:56:43.200 actor we ever had to play Las Vegas was the Supremes, 0:56:43.840 --> 0:56:45.880 and then we had the Temptations and they played it, 0:56:46.280 --> 0:56:48.960 and of course I went to see both of them 0:56:48.960 --> 0:56:51.640 while they were playing there. And back in those days, 0:56:52.520 --> 0:56:55.080 your least amount of time that you could be booked 0:56:55.120 --> 0:56:57.440 in Las Vegas for something like that for a residency 0:56:57.840 --> 0:57:02.560 was a month four weeks. You worked every night of 0:57:02.640 --> 0:57:05.759 the week, with the exception of Monday, and you did 0:57:05.800 --> 0:57:09.520 two shows a night, sometimes on Saturday. Every other Saturday 0:57:09.520 --> 0:57:11.520 you did three because there was a breakfast show you 0:57:11.640 --> 0:57:15.279 did that. It was a slave house. As far as 0:57:15.280 --> 0:57:18.200 I was concerned, Las Vegas was someone, you know, shit, 0:57:18.280 --> 0:57:20.240 I don't want to play here. I am not going 0:57:20.240 --> 0:57:22.440 to play it. And then they had to kind of 0:57:22.520 --> 0:57:24.680 change what they were singing and singing, you know, top 0:57:24.720 --> 0:57:27.000 hat and cane kind of music and some some of 0:57:27.080 --> 0:57:30.520 those kind of songs, you know, and I don't wanted 0:57:30.560 --> 0:57:35.320 to do that. So my agent called me in nineteen 0:57:35.360 --> 0:57:38.040 eighty they said, hey, man, you want to play Vegas. 0:57:38.080 --> 0:57:39.920 I said no, I told you, I don't want to 0:57:39.920 --> 0:57:41.880 play Vegas. He said, no, I got a different deal 0:57:41.920 --> 0:57:45.600 for you. He said, Dean Martin, he's playing at the MGM, 0:57:46.600 --> 0:57:49.240 and he's got two shows a night like everybody else. 0:57:50.240 --> 0:57:51.760 He's gonna do the eight thirty show, but he don't 0:57:51.760 --> 0:57:54.360 want to do the eleven o'clock show. So you want 0:57:54.360 --> 0:57:55.880 to go and you can just do the eleven o'clock show. 0:57:55.920 --> 0:57:58.520 He's to be one show a night. I said, yeah, 0:57:58.520 --> 0:58:01.760 he's saying you can sing your own music. When I said, okay, cool. 0:58:02.200 --> 0:58:04.560 So that was my first time going and doing a 0:58:04.600 --> 0:58:09.000 residency in Las Vegas. So but I played it where 0:58:09.000 --> 0:58:12.560 in Vegas? Man, that was at the MGM. Now, my 0:58:12.680 --> 0:58:16.880 main residency was at the Desert End. Steve win brought it. 0:58:17.000 --> 0:58:19.800 Now it's the Wind Hotel. Okay, but I was there. 0:58:19.840 --> 0:58:22.800 I had residents there for four years, you know, and 0:58:23.520 --> 0:58:27.400 so he you know, he bought the hotel, change up everything. 0:58:27.760 --> 0:58:33.000 So now, for a while, Vegas was considered and I 0:58:33.000 --> 0:58:35.920 would tell young young X about going to play Vegas 0:58:36.480 --> 0:58:37.720 and they said, no, man, I want to play that. 0:58:38.160 --> 0:58:41.800 It's the graveyard because that's what it had become because 0:58:41.840 --> 0:58:44.480 Steve Winn and some of the other powers that be 0:58:45.440 --> 0:58:48.800 in Las Vegas had started buying up. They bought up 0:58:48.800 --> 0:58:51.360 all the golf courses and I played golf. They Barbalo, 0:58:51.840 --> 0:58:54.960 and they were trying to make Vegas into a family 0:58:55.760 --> 0:59:00.360 town because they wanted the money from the from the 0:59:00.400 --> 0:59:03.240 average dude lived in the neighborhood. And they were, you know, 0:59:03.320 --> 0:59:05.280 high rollers came there. When I first started play Vegas 0:59:05.320 --> 0:59:07.720 Man in nineteen eighty, people came there, came to the 0:59:07.760 --> 0:59:10.560 show in tuxedos and laid hand them downs and shit 0:59:10.680 --> 0:59:12.560 like that. You know, it's high rollers and that's what 0:59:12.800 --> 0:59:14.840 that's who was coming to those shows and stuff, you know. 0:59:15.080 --> 0:59:18.600 And there was a name act at every hotel on 0:59:18.640 --> 0:59:21.120 the strip at that time, Lizman, Nelly and this. Rather 0:59:21.560 --> 0:59:24.720 there's a name making every hotel. So it changed because 0:59:24.760 --> 0:59:26.560 they tried to make it a family town because they 0:59:26.560 --> 0:59:28.600 wanted that money from the guy who lived in the 0:59:28.640 --> 0:59:31.520 average neighborhood. They weren't satisfied with just getting money from 0:59:31.560 --> 0:59:34.120 the high road people had it, but they wanted them 0:59:34.120 --> 0:59:36.240 to be able to bring his kids there and while 0:59:36.280 --> 0:59:38.960 he gambled, they could have a theme park or some 0:59:39.000 --> 0:59:41.240 shit like that. So they started doing that and they 0:59:41.360 --> 0:59:44.840 killed Vegas Vegas just went into the dodrooms. You know, 0:59:44.840 --> 0:59:48.440 people stopped coming. They killed it, you know, But now 0:59:49.160 --> 0:59:52.440 it's back again, and you know, all the young people 0:59:52.440 --> 0:59:54.800 are playing there. I can't wait to see new addition 0:59:55.240 --> 0:59:57.960 because they said, they told me that they're just racking 0:59:57.960 --> 0:59:59.919 it back out there here, So I can't wait to see. 1:00:00.760 --> 1:00:02.760 And I have a home in Vegas also, so I'm 1:00:02.800 --> 1:00:05.520 gonna go see them when I go home to Vegas. 1:00:06.000 --> 1:00:09.680 But everybody's playing there again now, and it's it's alive 1:00:09.720 --> 1:00:13.160 again now. So I have the residency now at the Venetian, 1:00:13.720 --> 1:00:16.040 and I'm really happy about that too, because as far 1:00:16.040 --> 1:00:20.080 as I'm concerned, the Venetian is the most beautiful room 1:00:20.720 --> 1:00:24.720 in Las Vegas, just like a miniature Cartergate Hall or 1:00:24.760 --> 1:00:26.800 something like that, you know there. 1:00:28.600 --> 1:00:32.040 So it's just the Venetian, are you talking about, like 1:00:32.080 --> 1:00:34.920 the main suite, actual theater, theater? 1:00:35.240 --> 1:00:36.680 I thought it was the Venetian showroom? 1:00:37.160 --> 1:00:40.600 Is it? I think so? But you performing there, so 1:00:40.720 --> 1:00:44.160 you believe anything else. 1:00:44.520 --> 1:00:48.360 What's the date for April third fifth and six. 1:00:49.160 --> 1:00:50.560 Third fifth and six. I'm putting that in my I'm 1:00:50.560 --> 1:00:51.520 putting that in my calendar. 1:00:52.080 --> 1:00:56.080 Come on down, Yeah, I need I need to be there. 1:00:57.560 --> 1:00:59.800 I got to say, brother eighty five, you look a 1:01:00.600 --> 1:01:02.800 thank you, vin what you're doing? You juicing? 1:01:02.920 --> 1:01:02.960 Like? 1:01:03.000 --> 1:01:05.080 What what you got going on here? What's the health? 1:01:05.640 --> 1:01:06.680 What's the regiment? Baby? 1:01:07.120 --> 1:01:09.640 You know? I tell people that I think the main 1:01:09.720 --> 1:01:13.080 thing that's happened for me, man, and this once again 1:01:13.120 --> 1:01:16.640 one of those things that I didn't intend to happen, 1:01:16.760 --> 1:01:19.280 but it did. God has led me in so many 1:01:19.280 --> 1:01:22.440 different directions man, that I didn't intend to go because 1:01:23.240 --> 1:01:25.720 I've been doing yoga, like I said, for fifty years. 1:01:26.040 --> 1:01:30.200 Fifty Yes, yoga is one of the best things that 1:01:30.280 --> 1:01:36.400 anyone can do for their lives. Really, yes, Why because 1:01:37.640 --> 1:01:40.960 as you get older, you start to shrink, and I 1:01:41.000 --> 1:01:44.440 mean you shrink, and this is no bullshit, you actually shrink. 1:01:45.040 --> 1:01:48.520 I used to be six feet tall, Okay. 1:01:48.360 --> 1:01:51.600 You used to be six feet tell yes, when I. 1:01:51.520 --> 1:01:53.920 Was playing basketball and football, shitting in high school and 1:01:53.960 --> 1:01:55.680 stuff like that. And then for a long time after 1:01:55.680 --> 1:01:57.120 the miracles, and I was going on until I was 1:01:57.120 --> 1:02:02.000 probably about forty or fifty. Then you just start to 1:02:02.360 --> 1:02:05.920 come down. I don't know why, but I say, now, 1:02:06.000 --> 1:02:09.360 yoga there's a fluid that flows from the base of 1:02:09.440 --> 1:02:14.640 your spine to the base of your brain, and in men, 1:02:15.960 --> 1:02:18.320 as you get older, it starts to slow down, which 1:02:18.480 --> 1:02:22.520 gives you arthritis or what you know, cramps and all 1:02:22.560 --> 1:02:27.200 stuff like that makes you stiffen and shrink. Okay, when 1:02:27.200 --> 1:02:29.080 you see old guys and you see that you just 1:02:30.280 --> 1:02:33.560 scoliosis and all that kind of stuff like that, those 1:02:33.600 --> 1:02:38.440 are things that you have to combat. Okay. So yoga 1:02:39.840 --> 1:02:44.840 keeps your body and your muscles and your veins and 1:02:44.880 --> 1:02:48.440 all the keeps the blood flowing, keeps his fluid flowing, 1:02:49.440 --> 1:02:54.720 It keeps your body, keeps your muscles uh loose or 1:02:55.720 --> 1:03:01.800 limber like, keeps you keeping and it's just so good 1:03:01.840 --> 1:03:05.200 for your health to keep that happening like that. But 1:03:05.280 --> 1:03:09.520 like I said, also now, I've always been active. So 1:03:10.800 --> 1:03:19.720 every other day I lift my weights and I I'm 1:03:19.760 --> 1:03:21.360 back to doing something too that I hadn't done in 1:03:21.360 --> 1:03:23.560 a long time. I'm doing some chin ups now. Because 1:03:23.920 --> 1:03:25.680 when I was when I was, when I was younger man, 1:03:25.840 --> 1:03:28.160 especially when I was playing sports, I could do fifteen 1:03:28.200 --> 1:03:30.919 twenty chips man. And so one day I go down 1:03:30.920 --> 1:03:33.760 to the gym, and this is probably about two months ago, 1:03:33.760 --> 1:03:36.560 and I said, well, I guess I do my five chinups. 1:03:36.920 --> 1:03:44.520 I did one. Well that's one y one? 1:03:45.760 --> 1:03:48.680 Are you the only person with two stars on a 1:03:48.720 --> 1:03:49.240 walker than. 1:03:50.200 --> 1:03:54.520 As far as I know, miracles and singular? 1:03:54.680 --> 1:04:00.000 Yeah and solo? Maybe you're Michael Jackson, because did Jackson? 1:04:00.120 --> 1:04:00.720 I should be. 1:04:00.920 --> 1:04:05.760 Yeah, they should be Yeah you Mike Yeah. 1:04:06.040 --> 1:04:12.760 Kennedy Center Honoree, Library of Congress, Gershwin Prize a Popular Song? 1:04:15.720 --> 1:04:18.840 What happened to you? Done that? 1:04:18.960 --> 1:04:21.800 You want to do? You know what I'd like to do? Man, 1:04:21.840 --> 1:04:23.760 I'd like to have a really nice part in a 1:04:23.800 --> 1:04:26.280 really nice movie. I don't mean star in the movie 1:04:26.360 --> 1:04:28.320 or nothing like that, but I'd like to do that. 1:04:29.240 --> 1:04:32.720 You know what, do you see yourself as a villain 1:04:33.040 --> 1:04:36.040 or you want to say the day? Are you a llawyer? 1:04:36.320 --> 1:04:38.840 I don't care if it is a nice part, it 1:04:38.880 --> 1:04:39.440 doesn't matter that. 1:04:44.960 --> 1:04:47.560 Come on, come get the young man. Let him be 1:04:47.600 --> 1:04:48.760 a instructor. 1:04:49.480 --> 1:04:54.520 My brother, straight young you know what you be doing? 1:04:54.600 --> 1:04:58.280 Yoga? But he guilt James two weeks ago? 1:05:00.600 --> 1:05:02.480 Oh Freddy dead? You know he killed him. 1:05:03.880 --> 1:05:06.640 So you never got in any of the Motown movies. No, 1:05:06.960 --> 1:05:09.480 you guys were making them. No, you really was against it. 1:05:09.880 --> 1:05:11.760 You were like, I'm cool, No, no, no, no, no, I 1:05:11.800 --> 1:05:14.600 wasn't I wasn't against it, but there see those movies 1:05:14.640 --> 1:05:18.880 were we were focusing on Diana. Yeah, you know, so 1:05:18.920 --> 1:05:21.160 that was that was what happened with that. I don't 1:05:21.200 --> 1:05:23.800 think any of the Motown people were in those movies. 1:05:24.800 --> 1:05:27.439 They're just her and Billy d Yeah. 1:05:27.480 --> 1:05:28.840 When I when I think about. 1:05:28.600 --> 1:05:34.480 That, yeah, wow, I never thought of it like that. Yeah, 1:05:34.760 --> 1:05:37.120 only other only other Motown artists that was in the 1:05:37.160 --> 1:05:38.800 Wiz obviously was her and Mike. 1:05:38.960 --> 1:05:45.080 It was her. Wow, yep, y'all cook Man, y'all, y'all 1:05:45.080 --> 1:05:51.480 you guys. And it's the formula is I mean, it's 1:05:51.520 --> 1:05:54.600 just as real as it gets. I mean, it starts 1:05:54.640 --> 1:05:58.120 with you know, it's the music and how the music 1:05:58.240 --> 1:06:02.360 is made. It's rating it with the best of the 1:06:02.400 --> 1:06:05.520 best doing the best work together. It's the best musicians, 1:06:05.600 --> 1:06:09.280 it's the best conductors, it's the best songwriters, the best 1:06:09.520 --> 1:06:12.640 like it's all of these things that come together that 1:06:12.680 --> 1:06:16.720 I think it is so different now, you know what 1:06:16.720 --> 1:06:19.680 I mean, like the idea of but I feel like 1:06:19.720 --> 1:06:26.120 it's coming back of Like even with my kids, my 1:06:26.240 --> 1:06:31.320 daughters and her listening to older sounding music, you know, 1:06:31.440 --> 1:06:33.760 wanting to see older sounding bands because a lot of 1:06:33.800 --> 1:06:37.000 these new new bands like Overseas and all over the place, 1:06:37.080 --> 1:06:42.560 like they're grabbing the Motown formula to make their music. 1:06:42.600 --> 1:06:48.880 It's very nostalgic, very nostalgic, and it's it's it's just 1:06:48.920 --> 1:06:51.959 stood the test of time in a way where it's 1:06:52.000 --> 1:06:56.080 just like I mean, I don't think there will ever 1:06:56.120 --> 1:06:57.080 be another Motown. 1:06:57.600 --> 1:07:01.400 I don't either. Yeah, I doubt that seriously. You know 1:07:05.240 --> 1:07:08.080 the times and that we live in now, we're not 1:07:08.120 --> 1:07:09.040 allowed that anyway. 1:07:10.920 --> 1:07:13.320 So because so many people just want to be buried, 1:07:14.080 --> 1:07:17.120 like you got to let bury be buried and then 1:07:17.320 --> 1:07:20.480 every and you lets smokey be smoky. I think people 1:07:20.640 --> 1:07:26.919 now I felt like you guys, competition was healthy. Yes, yeah, 1:07:27.000 --> 1:07:28.920 the competition isn't as healthy anymore. 1:07:29.280 --> 1:07:30.360 No, No, people. 1:07:30.080 --> 1:07:33.000 Want each other spots. They don't want to work together, 1:07:33.200 --> 1:07:36.960 killing each other killing right instead of working with each other. 1:07:37.520 --> 1:07:41.120 Like people look at Thank and I and get surprised 1:07:41.160 --> 1:07:43.720 that we've been working together for so long, and I'm like, why, 1:07:43.960 --> 1:07:46.360 it's my guy, it's my brother, Yes, Like I don't 1:07:46.440 --> 1:07:50.600 see no other way. But it's it's so much of 1:07:50.640 --> 1:07:53.600 a rarity now, especially like you said, you guys would 1:07:53.600 --> 1:07:59.160 come off of fifty one City tour and then fifty 1:07:59.240 --> 1:08:03.600 one and go right back to Hitsville and hang out. 1:08:06.080 --> 1:08:08.040 So yeah, that that's amazing. 1:08:08.280 --> 1:08:10.520 But before you go there, because you know, I got 1:08:10.680 --> 1:08:12.840 you know, I listen, I am known for the foolishness. 1:08:12.880 --> 1:08:13.560 So I gotta asked. 1:08:14.120 --> 1:08:16.439 You know, smokey, don't don't, don't yoga me, don't punch 1:08:16.520 --> 1:08:17.600 me an eye. 1:08:20.360 --> 1:08:23.719 I gotta ask about gang banging. I gotta ask about 1:08:23.720 --> 1:08:24.200 gag banging. 1:08:24.240 --> 1:08:27.559 It's it's such a viral thing in the hood that 1:08:27.640 --> 1:08:32.080 we all randomly just bust out start singing all the time. 1:08:32.320 --> 1:08:35.800 I hope, so, yeah, I hope so because when you're 1:08:35.840 --> 1:08:38.400 listen to what it's saying, it's a it's a it's. 1:08:38.280 --> 1:08:40.320 A message, very serious song. 1:08:40.760 --> 1:08:43.160 It's a serious message. As I was doing a spiritual 1:08:43.160 --> 1:08:46.280 album at the time, and I was writing spiritual songs 1:08:47.080 --> 1:08:52.200 and gang banging it has a very important message because, 1:08:52.240 --> 1:08:58.080 like I said, or some see gang banging hatred itself. 1:09:00.040 --> 1:09:09.559 It's the most ridiculous, uncalled for, absurd emotion that we 1:09:09.680 --> 1:09:13.800 have as men. You know, it's it's it's it's such 1:09:13.800 --> 1:09:16.200 a it's such a shame because of the fact that 1:09:17.320 --> 1:09:19.880 many times I've said this, I wish we could be 1:09:20.000 --> 1:09:25.040 attacked by Zetra, you know, some planet from out of 1:09:25.040 --> 1:09:28.080 space or something like that, and we would be attacked 1:09:28.080 --> 1:09:31.519 by them, and we have a four or five day 1:09:31.560 --> 1:09:35.160 war which we would win. Or to give us a 1:09:35.280 --> 1:09:38.800 chance to see they were all fucking earthlings. We're all 1:09:38.840 --> 1:09:42.559 the same. We have different colored skin, we have different 1:09:42.560 --> 1:09:46.160 color eyes, and different textures of hair and a but 1:09:46.280 --> 1:09:49.160 we're human beings. And you don't get no bigger than that. 1:09:49.880 --> 1:09:52.160 You don't get no better than that, and you don't 1:09:52.160 --> 1:09:54.880 get no better than anybody else who is a human being, 1:09:55.760 --> 1:09:58.639 you know. So for men to be hating on each 1:09:58.640 --> 1:10:01.360 other because of the color of this, because of some 1:10:01.680 --> 1:10:06.920 religious belief, or because of any reason, it is absolutely absurd, 1:10:07.960 --> 1:10:11.640 you know. So gang banging is that message. And like 1:10:11.680 --> 1:10:15.360 I said, you don't even know where it started. You 1:10:15.439 --> 1:10:19.360 have no idea where that shit started. All you know 1:10:19.520 --> 1:10:21.840 is you grew up and somebody told you to hate 1:10:21.840 --> 1:10:24.479 this person. Somebody told you to hate him because he 1:10:24.520 --> 1:10:26.679 lives on that side of the tracks, or he lives 1:10:26.680 --> 1:10:28.160 in this block and you live in it. Or he 1:10:28.200 --> 1:10:30.439 got on red and you got on blue. Somebody told 1:10:30.479 --> 1:10:34.839 you to hate him. Why do you hate well, because 1:10:34.880 --> 1:10:38.080 that's the tradition. That's where it came down like that. 1:10:38.120 --> 1:10:41.519 I'm supposed to hate him because it came down from 1:10:42.640 --> 1:10:46.519 your great great great great grandfather started some shit like that. 1:10:47.200 --> 1:10:50.959 And you haven't come to your senses enough to see 1:10:51.920 --> 1:10:55.920 that we're all human beings or the same thing. If 1:10:55.920 --> 1:11:00.519 you skinned everybody alive, you would know who was. All 1:11:00.560 --> 1:11:02.559 of our veins are in the same place. Our hearts 1:11:03.439 --> 1:11:07.679 are kidneys, you know what I mean. We're gonna hate 1:11:07.720 --> 1:11:15.800 on somebody because outwardly they're different. Bullshit, And it's ridiculous. 1:11:16.360 --> 1:11:23.879 It's the most ridiculous emotion that we can have as people. However, 1:11:23.960 --> 1:11:27.759 it's being combated by love, which is the most powerful. 1:11:29.360 --> 1:11:31.960 Even those who are like the ones I just mentioned, 1:11:32.000 --> 1:11:38.000 those who are hating, they hate calling themselves loving something 1:11:38.600 --> 1:11:42.439 to hate for I hate you because you're black, I'm white. 1:11:42.680 --> 1:11:45.599 I love my race. So that's a love thing happening. 1:11:46.520 --> 1:11:50.840 But I hate you, well, I hate so and so 1:11:50.840 --> 1:11:52.920 on and so on and so because see they hate 1:11:53.200 --> 1:11:57.559 for protecting. They call it that's protective love. But it 1:11:57.680 --> 1:12:00.439 is a form of love. They're loving something that gives 1:12:00.479 --> 1:12:07.639 them the reason or the excuse for hating something else. 1:12:09.360 --> 1:12:13.840 So but we need to get that together because you know, 1:12:15.920 --> 1:12:18.479 and especially here in the United States, we need to 1:12:18.479 --> 1:12:22.280 get that together. Every powerful nation that there's ever been 1:12:22.840 --> 1:12:27.200 in the history of Earth has fallen from within and 1:12:27.400 --> 1:12:29.599 about war about somebody can want with taking this ship. 1:12:30.080 --> 1:12:35.120 It's about us killing ourselves within. Like every other powerful 1:12:35.200 --> 1:12:40.400 nation in the history of mankind. You know, they've all 1:12:40.439 --> 1:12:44.559 fallen from within because somebody gets the notion that they're 1:12:44.600 --> 1:12:45.839 better than somebody else. 1:12:45.720 --> 1:12:52.400 Or you know how don't create the hate. Wow, brother 1:12:52.479 --> 1:12:59.439 Smoky Robinson, this is the top five? Who are your 1:12:59.520 --> 1:13:01.800 top five R and B singer? 1:13:04.280 --> 1:13:06.479 Uh? Well, I have to be retro on you man. 1:13:06.600 --> 1:13:08.200 Let's go come, Let's go on. 1:13:08.680 --> 1:13:15.840 Jackie Wilson, Sam Cook, Yes, rach y'all, Clyde McPhatter, and 1:13:15.880 --> 1:13:16.719 Nolan Strong. 1:13:17.040 --> 1:13:19.840 Oh going there? Five. 1:13:20.080 --> 1:13:21.400 Do you know who Nolan Strong was? 1:13:21.520 --> 1:13:22.559 I do not know who knows. 1:13:22.720 --> 1:13:24.680 Nolan Strong was a guy in Detroit. He had a 1:13:24.680 --> 1:13:28.479 group called the Diablos and they were the group in Detroit. 1:13:28.600 --> 1:13:30.919 They made records, you know, they had a song called Audios, 1:13:30.960 --> 1:13:34.080 My Desert, Love and the Wind and all those songs 1:13:34.120 --> 1:13:36.720 like that. But he was a high tenor singer. So 1:13:36.840 --> 1:13:40.000 all those guys, those were my singing itols as a 1:13:40.040 --> 1:13:42.320 kid growing up man, And like I said, Jackiet was 1:13:42.400 --> 1:13:45.800 number one Jackie. I think about Michael Jackson and when 1:13:45.840 --> 1:13:48.720 I first saw him, he was like ten years old. 1:13:48.800 --> 1:13:51.799 He was like a little manager. But I called him 1:13:53.600 --> 1:13:57.479 Jackie Brown because he was a cross between Jackie Wilson 1:13:57.479 --> 1:14:00.720 and James Brown. And he was doing them, I mean 1:14:00.840 --> 1:14:04.280 doing them. He's ten years old, And I think about Michael, 1:14:04.280 --> 1:14:08.840 and Michael was so extremely talented. You know, when you 1:14:08.880 --> 1:14:13.960 look at Michael, Michael changed the look of show business. 1:14:14.600 --> 1:14:17.559 He changed the entire look of show business. Because all 1:14:17.560 --> 1:14:19.880 the kids nowadays are dancing with the dancers on the 1:14:19.920 --> 1:14:22.519 stage and this and that and other. Michael started that. 1:14:23.360 --> 1:14:26.640 Michael was on stage with thirty dancers who had been 1:14:26.680 --> 1:14:28.760 dancing since they were five years old. There was the 1:14:28.920 --> 1:14:31.960 profession that's what they did professionally, and he was out 1:14:32.000 --> 1:14:32.840 dancing all of them. 1:14:33.960 --> 1:14:36.519 So before Mike, I ain't never thought about that. Before Michael, 1:14:36.560 --> 1:14:39.240 you were in the group. He was the dancers that 1:14:39.280 --> 1:14:40.639 were dancing when you were your group member. 1:14:40.680 --> 1:14:40.800 Yea. 1:14:40.800 --> 1:14:41.280 Absolutely. 1:14:41.280 --> 1:14:45.320 Michael Jackson come along and hires and hires professional dancing. 1:14:45.040 --> 1:14:47.240 And changed the look of show business. All the kids 1:14:47.280 --> 1:14:49.400 started doing the same thing. You know what I mean. 1:14:50.120 --> 1:14:54.920 He was a very brilliant thinking young man to be 1:14:54.960 --> 1:14:57.599 his age, you know, because not only did he look 1:14:57.640 --> 1:14:59.759 at the top R and B guys like Jackie Wilson, 1:14:59.760 --> 1:15:05.679 and he studied Fred Astare absolute Yeah, the Nicholas brothers. Yeah, 1:15:06.240 --> 1:15:07.880 I think about that all the time. You know, Michael 1:15:07.880 --> 1:15:10.639 did the moonwalk on Mojohn twenty five and people say. 1:15:10.520 --> 1:15:11.320 Oh, he made that up. 1:15:11.680 --> 1:15:14.840 No, I didn't. The Nicholas brothers did that in Stormy Weather, 1:15:14.880 --> 1:15:16.439 which was a movie with Lena Horn. You guys know 1:15:16.479 --> 1:15:19.280 who Lena Horn wast Okay, So Lena Horton made a 1:15:19.320 --> 1:15:21.720 movie back in the day in the forties, you know, 1:15:22.400 --> 1:15:25.080 maybe before I was even more, called Stormy Weather, and 1:15:25.120 --> 1:15:26.880 the Nicholas brothers were in there and they did the 1:15:26.880 --> 1:15:30.360 moonwalk in that movie. So you know he studied everybody, man. 1:15:30.680 --> 1:15:32.960 Yeah, he was just were you there the day they 1:15:32.960 --> 1:15:33.799 came in auditioned? 1:15:33.960 --> 1:15:35.000 Yeah? 1:15:35.360 --> 1:15:37.720 Yeah at that point you were. You were a an 1:15:37.840 --> 1:15:41.160 R at the label light, a vice presidents the whole time. Yeah, 1:15:41.600 --> 1:15:44.759 So I was, what do you what do you say 1:15:45.400 --> 1:15:48.360 when y'all get back into the war room in the 1:15:48.400 --> 1:15:51.479 creative room after the Jacksons that performing. You see this 1:15:51.680 --> 1:15:56.080 kid perform for you guys like. 1:15:55.160 --> 1:15:57.200 Like, what was that? What is the like, Yeah, what's 1:15:57.240 --> 1:15:58.760 the conversation after you see that? 1:15:59.120 --> 1:16:03.000 Well, the fact that we knew that we had something phenomenal, 1:16:04.400 --> 1:16:06.280 you know, for those boys to be their age, the 1:16:06.320 --> 1:16:10.080 age that they were, especially Michael, and to be that talented, 1:16:11.200 --> 1:16:14.840 we knew that we were onto something really good because, uh, 1:16:16.560 --> 1:16:19.040 you know, and Michael turned out to be I guess 1:16:19.160 --> 1:16:21.040 the most renowned. 1:16:22.160 --> 1:16:23.880 Artists ever ever. 1:16:24.160 --> 1:16:26.920 Yeah, you know, do you immediately start hearing songs as 1:16:26.920 --> 1:16:29.240 a songwriter when you see them, You're like, Okay, I'm 1:16:29.240 --> 1:16:29.719 all right. 1:16:30.640 --> 1:16:33.360 No, man, I not for them, you know. I wasn't 1:16:33.360 --> 1:16:40.040 even really thinking about recording anything on them. However, thanks 1:16:40.080 --> 1:16:43.560 to Michael Jackson or whoever decided they were going to 1:16:43.680 --> 1:16:47.360 do that, Michael took one of my songs and now 1:16:47.439 --> 1:16:51.439 it's his song. I wrote a song I was probably 1:16:51.479 --> 1:16:53.719 about twenty one years old. 1:16:54.040 --> 1:16:55.440 Cause Who's Loving You? 1:16:55.960 --> 1:16:57.880 Who's Loving You was on the other side of shop 1:16:57.880 --> 1:17:01.640 Around in fact, you know, and after shop Around they 1:17:01.680 --> 1:17:03.760 had warned it out on the radio and something like that. 1:17:03.800 --> 1:17:05.719 They started to play Who's Loving You by the Miracles 1:17:05.720 --> 1:17:07.760 of Me, and it was a slight hit. 1:17:08.360 --> 1:17:08.600 You know. 1:17:09.880 --> 1:17:11.479 So, Now, like I said, when I wrote that song, 1:17:11.520 --> 1:17:13.120 I had to be at least twenty or twenty one. 1:17:13.160 --> 1:17:15.680 I had had some life experience. I was married, I 1:17:15.880 --> 1:17:19.479 had some life experience. You know, here comes a little 1:17:19.560 --> 1:17:23.040 dude eleven years old. I know, damn well, you don't 1:17:23.040 --> 1:17:25.280 even know what that song is talking about, you know 1:17:25.320 --> 1:17:28.080 what I'm saying and singing to the point whereas now 1:17:28.080 --> 1:17:30.240 it's his song. You you know what I'm saying. If I 1:17:30.320 --> 1:17:32.840 do a smidgeing of it in person and young people there, 1:17:32.840 --> 1:17:34.479 they come to me and why are you singing Michael 1:17:34.520 --> 1:17:38.799 Jackson's song, because that's whose song it is? Now baby, 1:17:39.160 --> 1:17:43.240 thank god? Because he made it a standard. Yeah yeah, 1:17:43.320 --> 1:17:45.400 and everybody that you hear singing and now sings it 1:17:45.479 --> 1:17:48.600 like Michael. You know, so thank god he recorded it. 1:17:48.640 --> 1:17:50.320 But like I said, here's a little due eleven years old. 1:17:50.320 --> 1:17:52.600 He don't even fuck he's singing about and sing it 1:17:52.680 --> 1:17:52.880 like that. 1:17:53.479 --> 1:17:56.200 You know, my whole life, I thought you wrote it 1:17:56.240 --> 1:18:00.000 for the Jackson See, I'm like I knew you wrote. 1:18:00.320 --> 1:18:02.720 Yeah, I thought you wrote it for them. 1:18:03.000 --> 1:18:12.240 Well apparently I did without I did, but not even 1:18:12.280 --> 1:18:12.800 knowing it. 1:18:13.120 --> 1:18:17.559 Okay, brother Smoky your top five R and B songs. 1:18:19.920 --> 1:18:24.000 You know something, man, I cannot possibly tell you what 1:18:24.120 --> 1:18:27.439 my top five R and B songs are, any songs whatsoever, Because, 1:18:27.479 --> 1:18:28.600 like I said earlier. 1:18:28.439 --> 1:18:29.599 Do it, I grew up. 1:18:30.479 --> 1:18:32.200 I grew up in a home where I got a 1:18:32.280 --> 1:18:35.240 great dose of all kinds of music you can think of. 1:18:35.360 --> 1:18:40.599 I am a song lover. Well, how about I love songs. 1:18:40.640 --> 1:18:43.400 If I could tell you my top five songs, there 1:18:43.439 --> 1:18:46.680 would probably be songs that I had absolutely nothing to 1:18:46.720 --> 1:18:50.240 do with ever in life. I don't know, because I 1:18:50.320 --> 1:18:53.360 love songs. I'm a song lover. I have loved songs 1:18:53.560 --> 1:18:56.280 since I could hear. You know, I've been listening to 1:18:56.400 --> 1:18:59.080 songs and music. The first voice I ever remember hearing 1:18:59.120 --> 1:19:01.920 in my life was Sarah, and I forgot what songs 1:19:01.960 --> 1:19:05.120 she were singing is whatever it was because my sister 1:19:05.400 --> 1:19:06.880 were playing her. I had to be two or three 1:19:06.960 --> 1:19:10.320 years old. But that's the first voice I ever remember hearing. 1:19:10.680 --> 1:19:14.200 So I've been hearing songs all my life. I love songs. 1:19:14.640 --> 1:19:17.800 I can't tell you what my favorite songs are. I 1:19:17.800 --> 1:19:22.599 can tell you my favorite album, Ok, my favorite album 1:19:22.680 --> 1:19:27.280 of all time is What's Going On by Marvin Gaye. 1:19:28.479 --> 1:19:31.439 I have a front row seat to that album. I 1:19:31.520 --> 1:19:34.000 was with him when he was writing it. I be 1:19:34.040 --> 1:19:37.280 at his house he's writing it, and he said to me, smoke, 1:19:37.360 --> 1:19:41.040 I ain't writing this album. Man, God is writing this album. 1:19:41.680 --> 1:19:45.200 I'm just sitting here. I'm the catalyst, and God is 1:19:45.200 --> 1:19:48.320 writing this album. When I listen to what's going on. 1:19:48.439 --> 1:19:52.880 I believe him because it's prophecy. It's more poigned today 1:19:52.920 --> 1:19:56.080 than it was when he wrote it than it was 1:19:56.120 --> 1:19:59.000 when it came out. It was pointed, but it's more 1:19:59.000 --> 1:20:04.880 pointed today then it was then. Everything that he's talking 1:20:04.920 --> 1:20:12.400 about it's happening right now in abundance. Okay, it's my 1:20:12.439 --> 1:20:18.760 favorite album of all time. I haven't heard anything that 1:20:18.800 --> 1:20:23.120 I thought matched it as an album. 1:20:23.360 --> 1:20:24.320 All the songs off that. 1:20:24.320 --> 1:20:27.400 Album absolutely absolutely. 1:20:28.400 --> 1:20:32.240 Let's make a Vultron a super R and B artist, right, 1:20:32.680 --> 1:20:36.120 We're going to take characteristics from any artist that has 1:20:36.160 --> 1:20:40.080 ever lived and build one super artist. So we want 1:20:40.080 --> 1:20:41.960 to know who you're going to get the vocal from, 1:20:42.320 --> 1:20:46.280 the performance style, the styling of the artist, the passion 1:20:46.360 --> 1:20:49.160 of the artists, and for you special for you, who's 1:20:49.200 --> 1:20:53.680 going to write for this artist? The first guys and girls, 1:20:54.080 --> 1:20:56.559 it's your world. It can make. You can do whatever 1:20:56.920 --> 1:20:58.479 you need. One vocal, that's. 1:21:00.160 --> 1:21:03.280 Yeah, okay, I got the vocal. What else do I need? 1:21:03.360 --> 1:21:04.240 Perform style? 1:21:04.680 --> 1:21:06.639 Performance style that would have to be Michael Jackson. 1:21:06.960 --> 1:21:08.960 Okay, okay, you're versed in. 1:21:09.800 --> 1:21:11.960 Between Michael Jackson and Jackie Wilson, it would be. 1:21:11.920 --> 1:21:17.320 Okay, okay, Michael Wilson. Okay, yeah. Uh. Styling, the style 1:21:17.400 --> 1:21:19.760 of the strip, the clothing apparel. 1:21:20.040 --> 1:21:23.160 Well, you know, back in the day, the Miracles not 1:21:23.240 --> 1:21:23.840 a real sharp. 1:21:26.640 --> 1:21:28.080 We were real shure. You know. 1:21:28.600 --> 1:21:30.719 We decided, you know where we came from. We decided, 1:21:30.720 --> 1:21:32.519 when we finally got some money and make some money, 1:21:32.600 --> 1:21:34.479 we were gonna get ourselves some clothes because the first 1:21:34.479 --> 1:21:36.880 we didn't have no clothes. So we were real sharp. 1:21:36.960 --> 1:21:38.240 So we have to be up and there. 1:21:38.360 --> 1:21:43.559 Some styling, the miracles, the passion of the artists who 1:21:43.640 --> 1:21:43.920 mean it. 1:21:44.880 --> 1:21:48.880 Well, I think that probably every artist that I've ever 1:21:48.960 --> 1:21:52.080 known and never close to has that. Man, if you don't, 1:21:52.080 --> 1:21:54.600 you ain't gonna make it. You don't have that, you 1:21:54.640 --> 1:21:57.040 are not going to make it. There are too many 1:21:57.040 --> 1:22:00.120 people with it who are not making it, you know 1:22:00.160 --> 1:22:02.599 what I mean. So if you don't have it, it's 1:22:02.600 --> 1:22:06.719 almost impossible for you to make it. I've told many 1:22:06.880 --> 1:22:08.960 a young artist that you know, you think you can sing, 1:22:09.800 --> 1:22:12.000 let me take you to my church on Sunday. You're 1:22:12.000 --> 1:22:16.080 her sister Maybell Clanton. Yeah, you ain't never heard of life? 1:22:16.439 --> 1:22:18.720 Who were seeing you under the table? You know what 1:22:18.760 --> 1:22:23.800 I mean? She mean it absolutely so you know, but 1:22:23.840 --> 1:22:25.400 if you don't have that, man, you're not going to 1:22:25.479 --> 1:22:28.280 make it. And like I said, many artists have it 1:22:28.760 --> 1:22:29.439 and they're not going. 1:22:29.400 --> 1:22:30.960 To make it. Give me one that has. 1:22:32.040 --> 1:22:34.519 Just pick one that has what you're talking about. 1:22:34.520 --> 1:22:38.880 Now that you've seen you're just like, oh yeah, they 1:22:38.920 --> 1:22:39.639 got the passion. 1:22:42.360 --> 1:22:49.000 Damn everybody I know, man, have to be a new artist. 1:22:50.200 --> 1:22:53.240 Like I said, Man, I'm not kidding. Everybody has that, 1:22:54.120 --> 1:22:58.720 especially the people who you're aware of the they have 1:22:58.800 --> 1:23:01.920 that basically. Man. Now, there are a few people who 1:23:01.920 --> 1:23:05.559 have always gotten by without it. You know, there are 1:23:05.560 --> 1:23:08.479 people who've gotten by that had some songs that I 1:23:08.520 --> 1:23:10.519 didn't think was you know, with the world loved it. 1:23:10.600 --> 1:23:14.800 So there you go. So there are people who've gotten 1:23:14.800 --> 1:23:19.439 by without it. But most people have that passion, and 1:23:19.560 --> 1:23:23.880 especially nowadays, you know, you look online and there's a 1:23:23.880 --> 1:23:28.000 million kids online, man, that have that passion. That's struggling 1:23:28.120 --> 1:23:31.400 trying to get just their voices heard or something. That's 1:23:31.400 --> 1:23:35.840 why it's so difficult nowadays that first of all, there's 1:23:35.840 --> 1:23:42.080 no record business. That's out of the question, and there's 1:23:42.120 --> 1:23:44.840 so many you know, people downloading and taking people's music 1:23:44.920 --> 1:23:47.519 free and doing all the things that are happening now. 1:23:49.400 --> 1:23:52.960 It's a whole other world. But the passion. 1:23:55.000 --> 1:23:55.439 Is there. 1:23:56.360 --> 1:23:57.960 I look at some of these kids online. I don't 1:23:58.040 --> 1:24:02.080 know why, but he's done anything. Yes, I do, because 1:24:02.080 --> 1:24:04.320 you can't. Because I've got two singers I've been working 1:24:04.320 --> 1:24:05.720 with for the last five years. I can't get it. 1:24:05.760 --> 1:24:07.479 I can't get a break to at a bomb and 1:24:07.520 --> 1:24:11.040 one girl writes songs like Gershwin. You know what I'm saying. 1:24:11.360 --> 1:24:14.439 I can't get a break for nothing. Because there's so 1:24:14.439 --> 1:24:18.080 many people doing it, and there's so much passion out there, 1:24:19.000 --> 1:24:21.920 and so many challenged people see it. It's a different 1:24:21.920 --> 1:24:25.400 world because challenged people can just play themselves now. They 1:24:25.400 --> 1:24:27.799 don't have to wait for a record company or anybody. 1:24:27.800 --> 1:24:30.920 They can just put their own selves out there. So 1:24:31.040 --> 1:24:32.479 there's thousands of them. 1:24:32.880 --> 1:24:37.040 So the way the way you build, the way you 1:24:37.040 --> 1:24:52.680 build the artists just pick one. You don't have to 1:24:52.680 --> 1:24:55.360 be a favorite passion I just just wanted to build them, 1:24:55.479 --> 1:25:00.360 to build a d this build them building smoke, come 1:25:00.360 --> 1:25:09.760 on smoking just what Oh my goodness, you ain't gonna 1:25:09.800 --> 1:25:20.080 urt nobody feeling smoke, I promise. Oh there it is there, 1:25:21.280 --> 1:25:25.519 we got we got my fashion. Oh listen, Yes, yes, sir. 1:25:26.520 --> 1:25:28.360 Marvin Gay was one of the most passionate people I've 1:25:28.360 --> 1:25:31.160 ever known. I've ever worked with him, you know. 1:25:31.960 --> 1:25:34.000 So let me ask you a question. When you said 1:25:34.720 --> 1:25:36.920 you were you know, you were with Martha during this 1:25:37.000 --> 1:25:39.519 whole time of the What's going On album and God 1:25:39.560 --> 1:25:42.240 is writing his album? Did you contribute any to that 1:25:42.400 --> 1:25:44.160 or you were there just watching it happen? 1:25:44.439 --> 1:25:46.360 How was there just watching it happen. I didn't contribute 1:25:46.400 --> 1:25:50.200 anything to it, you know, just my listening, you know, 1:25:50.600 --> 1:25:53.200 giving him an ear. But I didn't contribute. I didn't 1:25:53.200 --> 1:25:56.000 make suggestions. I didn't do any of that because it 1:25:56.080 --> 1:26:00.479 was happening. It was happening, and Marvin was one of 1:26:00.560 --> 1:26:03.200 the greatest singers I think they ever sang. 1:26:04.040 --> 1:26:04.240 You know. 1:26:04.360 --> 1:26:07.600 I used to love working with him because Marburn was 1:26:07.640 --> 1:26:08.200 always late. 1:26:08.240 --> 1:26:08.479 Man. 1:26:09.160 --> 1:26:12.519 He was my brother, but that dude was late for everything, man, 1:26:12.680 --> 1:26:15.040 all the time. He got to the point whereas if 1:26:15.040 --> 1:26:17.040 I had a session with Marvin and my session was 1:26:17.040 --> 1:26:19.840 gonna start eight o'clock, I tell Marvin, man, session starts 1:26:19.840 --> 1:26:22.639 at six thirty so, and then he'd still be late. 1:26:22.960 --> 1:26:24.920 He wouldn't get that to nine. You know when he 1:26:24.960 --> 1:26:27.880 goes oh smoke man. I saw him in certain system, 1:26:28.400 --> 1:26:32.480 but I knew that when he got there and I showed. 1:26:32.280 --> 1:26:34.519 Him my song Man going down boy. 1:26:35.160 --> 1:26:36.680 I used to tell them all the time he marvurnized 1:26:36.680 --> 1:26:40.040 my songs. You know what I'm saying, because this brother 1:26:40.080 --> 1:26:42.280 would do shit vocally. I hadn't even dared to dream 1:26:42.320 --> 1:26:45.439 of on my song. But like he knew it before 1:26:45.439 --> 1:26:46.960 he got there. You know what I'm saying. 1:26:47.880 --> 1:26:49.920 When he got to Motown because he's from d C. 1:26:50.160 --> 1:26:52.400 He's from d C. When he first came to Motown. 1:26:52.520 --> 1:26:59.640 Let's see, gosh, he was brother. He was in this 1:27:00.040 --> 1:27:01.320 in his late twenties. 1:27:02.120 --> 1:27:03.960 He was already in his late twenties when he got 1:27:04.000 --> 1:27:04.519 to Motown. 1:27:04.640 --> 1:27:06.320 Yeah, yeah, he came late. 1:27:07.720 --> 1:27:09.320 Didn't know that, Yeah, he came late. 1:27:09.680 --> 1:27:11.439 There was a dude named Harvey Fuquah. You guys know 1:27:11.439 --> 1:27:14.880 who Harry Fulkat was harm Fukuh. There was a group 1:27:14.960 --> 1:27:18.920 called the Moon Glows, and back in the day, they 1:27:19.000 --> 1:27:23.960 were like the group in the hood. Okay, a lot 1:27:24.000 --> 1:27:27.160 of groups, man, but the Moon Glows. So Harvey Fuka 1:27:27.360 --> 1:27:33.080 was the founder of that group, and so I've been 1:27:33.080 --> 1:27:35.040 following his music since I was a kid, since I 1:27:35.080 --> 1:27:38.879 was ten years old, you know. And anyway, so eventually 1:27:38.960 --> 1:27:44.160 he came to work at Motown and he still had 1:27:44.160 --> 1:27:46.639 this group, the Moon Glows, and one of his members 1:27:46.720 --> 1:27:50.040 had left, so he wanted to hire another member. So 1:27:50.080 --> 1:27:53.360 they were in Washington, DC, said, and Marvin came and 1:27:53.400 --> 1:27:56.000 sang for him. So he hired Marvin. Marvin's a new 1:27:56.040 --> 1:27:59.160 Moon Glow. So we're having a Christmas party one year, 1:28:00.080 --> 1:28:03.720 and he brought Marvin to the Christmas party and so 1:28:03.880 --> 1:28:06.720 we're down in the Hitsville studio and stuff like that. 1:28:06.720 --> 1:28:09.479 That's what the main stuff that people all over the 1:28:09.560 --> 1:28:11.640 Hissfield building. But a lot of people gathered in the 1:28:11.640 --> 1:28:13.600 studio where all the instruments were blah blah blah, just 1:28:13.680 --> 1:28:16.280 mingling and having a good time. So Marvin goes over 1:28:16.360 --> 1:28:19.559 to the piano and he sits down and he starts 1:28:19.560 --> 1:28:23.479 playing the Christmas song and singing it chest Nuts roast. 1:28:24.479 --> 1:28:27.400 So he gathers the crowd, everybody starts because his voice 1:28:27.680 --> 1:28:30.559 was just one of the crowd gathering voices. So him 1:28:30.560 --> 1:28:33.639 back gets around in me saying it. And so Anna, 1:28:34.400 --> 1:28:37.280 who was Barry's sister, went up to the control and 1:28:37.280 --> 1:28:39.439 to Barry say, you need to come down here. This guy, 1:28:39.520 --> 1:28:43.200 you know, because Barry came down heard him and he sang. 1:28:43.360 --> 1:28:46.559 And that was when he first you know, Barry asked 1:28:46.640 --> 1:28:48.719 him if he wanted to come to Motown. He said 1:28:48.760 --> 1:28:50.400 he couldn't because he was the move over. The Harvey 1:28:50.479 --> 1:28:52.240 was standing there. Harvey said, man, you had to come 1:28:52.280 --> 1:28:54.120 to Motown. He said, I even work for Motown. Now, 1:28:54.360 --> 1:28:56.880 you had to come to Motown. So he did. And 1:28:58.479 --> 1:29:00.680 when he first came, he didn't want to be Marvin Gay. 1:29:00.760 --> 1:29:04.040 He wanted to be Nacking Cole Well, Frank Sinatra, somebody 1:29:04.160 --> 1:29:06.839 like that. That's why, that's how you wanted to sing. 1:29:07.439 --> 1:29:11.759 And so we recorded some mister Sandman. 1:29:13.200 --> 1:29:15.160 Y'all were doing this type of record and. 1:29:15.160 --> 1:29:19.840 So finally, man, uh, this dude, Mickey Stevenson who was 1:29:19.880 --> 1:29:21.960 our first a and our director there. Mickey is still 1:29:22.520 --> 1:29:25.200 Brownie is still my brother. He's the momb guy. He 1:29:25.280 --> 1:29:29.280 wrote Dancing in the Streets in Marvin But anyway, Mickey 1:29:29.439 --> 1:29:31.439 convinced him to be Marvin Gay because he told me, Sa, man, 1:29:31.439 --> 1:29:33.760 you ain't gonna hits like this. He said, you need 1:29:33.760 --> 1:29:39.400 to sang because you can sang. So they wrote this song, 1:29:39.439 --> 1:29:43.600 Stubborn kind of Fella, and that was the beginning of 1:29:43.640 --> 1:29:44.200 Marvin Gay. 1:29:45.120 --> 1:29:45.280 You know. 1:29:46.160 --> 1:29:48.240 So Marven, like I said, he come to the studio 1:29:48.280 --> 1:29:51.439 and he just killed your song. Just do some ship 1:29:51.439 --> 1:29:54.120 that you hadn't even thought of. You know. He was 1:29:54.560 --> 1:29:55.439 a great singer. 1:29:57.800 --> 1:30:03.519 Last quality for you're vault trying who's writing for this 1:30:03.680 --> 1:30:05.360 artist that you just put together? 1:30:07.320 --> 1:30:08.759 Kenny Edmonds and Dining Warren? 1:30:09.680 --> 1:30:20.520 Hmmm, yeah, the face and dying. 1:30:20.520 --> 1:30:31.120 Warn Jesus Christ, that is gonna be amazing. Yes, God, Lee, 1:30:33.880 --> 1:30:37.880 I wasn't ready for that one. How wasn't hanging out 1:30:37.880 --> 1:30:40.080 with Rick James a party? 1:30:40.680 --> 1:30:47.479 Yeah? Yeah, I got any more trouble with that. But 1:30:47.640 --> 1:30:49.880 Rick was my brother. Rick was Rick was the bomb 1:30:49.960 --> 1:30:52.360 to hang out with, man, especially back in those days 1:30:52.360 --> 1:30:55.360 since I was getting high, you know, you know, so 1:30:55.800 --> 1:30:58.240 Rick was, you know, but he was a great dude. 1:30:58.280 --> 1:30:59.960 Man was yeall was standing on the. 1:31:00.160 --> 1:31:01.400 Extremely talented man. 1:31:01.640 --> 1:31:04.680 How underrated is he as a vocalist? To me? I 1:31:04.720 --> 1:31:05.880 think he's one of the girls. 1:31:06.000 --> 1:31:07.880 Well, I don't know how they rate him, man, but 1:31:07.880 --> 1:31:10.679 he was just a great talent about him. No, no, no, 1:31:11.200 --> 1:31:11.599 they don't. 1:31:11.720 --> 1:31:13.080 They talk about him as a rock star. 1:31:13.360 --> 1:31:14.599 Yeah, but Rick was a great talent. 1:31:14.680 --> 1:31:14.840 Man. 1:31:15.520 --> 1:31:17.599 He was a great talent musically. 1:31:17.680 --> 1:31:19.760 He was just yeah, yeah, man. 1:31:20.439 --> 1:31:21.800 But he was a great dude to hang out with. You. 1:31:21.840 --> 1:31:24.120 We had a lot of fun, man, Yeah, we had 1:31:24.120 --> 1:31:24.599 a lot of fun. 1:31:24.600 --> 1:31:26.040 Where did ebony eyes come from? 1:31:26.240 --> 1:31:29.040 I have no idea. I had retired at that time. 1:31:29.479 --> 1:31:33.880 That was during my retirement, and Rick called me, smoke 1:31:34.880 --> 1:31:36.519 come down to the studio, man, I wrote the song, 1:31:36.520 --> 1:31:38.840 What you sing with me? I said, no, Rick, I'm retired. Man, 1:31:38.920 --> 1:31:41.519 I'm not come to man. Come on down there, now, 1:31:41.600 --> 1:31:43.120 you do you come down here and sing with me? Man, 1:31:43.160 --> 1:31:45.000 come on there. So I went and I did it 1:31:45.400 --> 1:31:49.559 and we had a great time. And then we did 1:31:49.600 --> 1:31:54.519 a mini movie video because we shot it for three 1:31:54.560 --> 1:31:57.120 days all over Los Angeles and I had a film crew. 1:31:57.560 --> 1:31:59.880 We went all over shooting it. 1:32:01.080 --> 1:32:13.679 You high every day at gotta hear record as record. 1:32:13.920 --> 1:32:16.400 Rick was a musical genius. 1:32:16.400 --> 1:32:21.120 Man Smokey Robbins, Smoky Smokey Joe himself the smoke. The 1:32:21.240 --> 1:32:28.320 smoke the Rick James smoking tells us a story funny 1:32:28.320 --> 1:32:32.400 of fucked up, are funny and fucked up. The only 1:32:32.479 --> 1:32:35.920 rule to the game is you can't say no names. 1:32:36.240 --> 1:32:39.840 Okay, when you say funked up, do you mean fucked 1:32:39.880 --> 1:32:41.040 up high or just fun up? 1:32:42.680 --> 1:32:47.840 Any wherever you would like to go? Wherever you wherever 1:32:47.920 --> 1:32:48.559 the smoke le. 1:32:52.520 --> 1:32:55.240 Okay, I'll tell you something funny. There's a friend of 1:32:55.280 --> 1:32:59.360 my very very very close friend. He's passed on now, 1:32:59.400 --> 1:33:02.080 but he was my very very very very close friend. 1:33:02.880 --> 1:33:07.000 And we're in the car one day and uh, he's 1:33:07.000 --> 1:33:11.679 reading a comic book, okay, and he's reading a comic 1:33:11.720 --> 1:33:17.400 book about Daffy Duck. Okay, okay, And all of a sudden, 1:33:17.439 --> 1:33:19.000 it was about five of us in the car and 1:33:19.040 --> 1:33:21.720 we we we we didn't even We never let him 1:33:21.760 --> 1:33:24.000 live this down, because all of a sudden his brother 1:33:24.000 --> 1:33:25.439 comes out. He's reading this combook and he. 1:33:25.360 --> 1:33:31.440 Says, boy, man, oh, that Daffie Duck is a smart motherfucker, 1:33:32.160 --> 1:33:39.879 like Daffie Duck had written that. 1:33:40.320 --> 1:33:53.519 Y'all, So how about that? How is that good enough 1:33:53.560 --> 1:33:54.480 for you? 1:33:55.400 --> 1:33:57.160 Daffy Duck is a smart mother. 1:33:58.439 --> 1:34:07.839 There's so many layers to a nigga thinking it's actually 1:34:08.160 --> 1:34:13.519 is actually articulate greatness. You hear what this nigga da? 1:34:13.680 --> 1:34:16.800 He just said, I'm telling you this nigga's own the something? 1:34:17.520 --> 1:34:19.559 What man? Yes? 1:34:20.200 --> 1:34:25.479 So how about that Daffy's killing me right now? Yes, indeed, 1:34:25.880 --> 1:34:29.840 that's amazing. That is that is that is high. That 1:34:29.960 --> 1:34:33.240 is when when Daffy speaks to you, you know that 1:34:33.560 --> 1:34:34.360 is never spoke to me. 1:34:40.720 --> 1:34:43.200 I thought that was what else you want to know? 1:34:49.960 --> 1:34:51.760 It is something, It is something that I do want 1:34:51.800 --> 1:34:52.000 to know. 1:34:52.160 --> 1:34:54.720 And in your your take on it, because you you 1:34:54.720 --> 1:34:57.280 you mentioned it a little bit as far as it 1:34:57.400 --> 1:34:59.200 not being a music business anymore. 1:34:59.439 --> 1:35:06.479 Yeah, right. Do you feel that we need gatekeepers again? 1:35:07.400 --> 1:35:08.880 That is just too open. 1:35:08.920 --> 1:35:12.559 It's just like the fields are just too free for 1:35:12.640 --> 1:35:18.360 all control. Like do you feel like we need gatekeepers again? 1:35:18.400 --> 1:35:20.800 And I feel like we need them, but it will 1:35:20.840 --> 1:35:27.679 never happen and it's too vast, see because it's available 1:35:27.680 --> 1:35:31.800 to everyone, so there's no controlling that. There's no there's 1:35:31.840 --> 1:35:33.960 no there's no coming in putting the control on it, 1:35:34.560 --> 1:35:36.439 you know, like it used to be when they when 1:35:36.479 --> 1:35:39.240 you had record companies. You had record companies and a 1:35:39.240 --> 1:35:40.960 lot of them weren't paying people, but they were still 1:35:41.000 --> 1:35:43.320 record companies where you had a place where you could 1:35:43.360 --> 1:35:46.920 go and know that some type of organization or something 1:35:46.960 --> 1:35:49.320 like that is going to release your music and have 1:35:49.360 --> 1:35:52.400 some kind of keep watch on it and so on 1:35:52.400 --> 1:35:55.439 and so forth. We don't have that anymore, and we 1:35:55.479 --> 1:35:58.080 will never have it because of the computer. You know, 1:35:59.160 --> 1:36:04.200 I really think that the computer will probably be our 1:36:04.240 --> 1:36:07.160 demids eventually later on down in light. 1:36:07.120 --> 1:36:07.880 In our society. 1:36:07.840 --> 1:36:10.200 Yeah, you know, because now they're coming out with AI 1:36:10.280 --> 1:36:12.719 and all that ship like that. Whether somebody can do 1:36:12.720 --> 1:36:15.440 do your not only do your image, do your voice, 1:36:15.520 --> 1:36:18.639 and nobody's gonna know the difference, that's very dangerous man. 1:36:19.160 --> 1:36:21.559 You know. AI is good for technical stuff and stuff 1:36:21.600 --> 1:36:24.040 like that. It's good they made those kinds of advances. 1:36:24.240 --> 1:36:28.320 But when it gets to the point whereas you're cloning people, right, 1:36:28.560 --> 1:36:29.920 that's that's really deep man. 1:36:30.439 --> 1:36:31.439 Yeah, you know that's real. 1:36:31.479 --> 1:36:32.120 That's scary. 1:36:33.400 --> 1:36:37.599 Do you feel like there is anything that gets us 1:36:37.640 --> 1:36:42.760 even close to the feeling and the space that we 1:36:42.760 --> 1:36:45.400 were in musically? No, No, I don't think. 1:36:45.439 --> 1:36:48.200 I don't think that will ever happen again, like I said, 1:36:48.240 --> 1:36:49.280 because it's too free for all. 1:36:49.360 --> 1:36:49.559 Now. 1:36:50.120 --> 1:36:53.720 Wow, it's too it's too it's too open, it's too available, 1:36:54.560 --> 1:36:57.960 because it's it's it's it's online. Because then make any 1:36:58.000 --> 1:36:59.760 kind of music they want to say whatever they want 1:36:59.800 --> 1:37:03.920 to say. There's no senses, there's you know, there's there's 1:37:03.960 --> 1:37:06.839 no nothing. So it's just out there. It's just whatever 1:37:07.000 --> 1:37:10.639 happens happens. You know, there's some people and like I say, 1:37:10.720 --> 1:37:13.200 I you know, I listened to young people. I think 1:37:13.200 --> 1:37:15.800 there's some young people making some great music. You know, 1:37:16.200 --> 1:37:24.320 but then the line is open so that the will 1:37:24.360 --> 1:37:31.160 that squeaks gets the oil. So all the the negativity 1:37:32.120 --> 1:37:35.479 is what's put out front. See that bugs me about 1:37:35.479 --> 1:37:38.559 people talking about the kids who rap. You know, they're 1:37:38.560 --> 1:37:43.200 gonna base all rap on some negative rap. You know, 1:37:43.920 --> 1:37:47.680 there are negative songs in every genre you can think of. 1:37:47.920 --> 1:37:50.560 Maybe maybe not classical because there's no words and you 1:37:51.080 --> 1:37:53.600 can't you can't real with thee but thinking. You know, 1:37:54.360 --> 1:37:55.960 but when I was a kid man, when I was 1:37:55.960 --> 1:37:58.960 a teenager, and I don't know how this could ever happen. 1:37:59.040 --> 1:38:01.720 I never figured out how you could do it. But 1:38:01.840 --> 1:38:05.160 they said, if you play this record backwards, you're gonna 1:38:05.160 --> 1:38:07.040 get a satanic message. 1:38:07.000 --> 1:38:09.840 Right, you know, all the time. Yeah, because you heard that. 1:38:10.479 --> 1:38:13.280 And there were people making negative music back then. So 1:38:13.320 --> 1:38:16.800 people making negative music since they've been making music. So 1:38:16.840 --> 1:38:19.800 you can't blame that on today's generation and say that 1:38:19.880 --> 1:38:21.920 you know they're they'll make it. It's just the fact 1:38:21.920 --> 1:38:24.639 that there's no census now, you know. I know that. 1:38:24.920 --> 1:38:26.559 Back in the day, Man, we be on the bus 1:38:26.560 --> 1:38:28.840 and we like, we're doing a mototime review or something 1:38:28.880 --> 1:38:30.680 like that, and we've been going on the bus all 1:38:30.960 --> 1:38:32.200 and the guys who were on the bus we were 1:38:32.240 --> 1:38:34.360 laughing talking about Man, you know what, these days, somebody 1:38:34.360 --> 1:38:37.000 can make it. Ready, give me some pussy, and we laughing, 1:38:37.439 --> 1:38:40.560 give me some pussy. It's a nerd lyric nowadays, you 1:38:42.920 --> 1:38:45.559 know what I'm saying. That's a nerd Yeah, that's a 1:38:45.600 --> 1:38:50.519 nerd lyric, you know. So it's just that there's no census, 1:38:51.000 --> 1:38:54.640 so people can say anything they want to say and 1:38:54.680 --> 1:38:55.559 it's wide open. 1:38:55.760 --> 1:39:03.960 You're not necessarily the powers or even the the machine 1:39:03.960 --> 1:39:11.720 itself is not running on music. It's running on engagement. 1:39:12.320 --> 1:39:15.240 It's running on whatever you want to do. 1:39:15.360 --> 1:39:17.559 How do we get attention? Whatever? 1:39:18.040 --> 1:39:21.040 Well, you know what, man, just make some good music 1:39:21.320 --> 1:39:24.680 because it's going to always be room for it, you know. 1:39:25.760 --> 1:39:32.800 And I think in a way, some of that's kind 1:39:32.800 --> 1:39:36.320 of returning, you know, it's kind of returning to where 1:39:36.360 --> 1:39:40.559 people are listening and they want something milder of something, 1:39:40.800 --> 1:39:43.640 you know, listenable to it. 1:39:43.720 --> 1:39:46.599 You know. It's like, yeah, I think I think people 1:39:48.520 --> 1:39:52.280 people can only go for so long without feeling or 1:39:52.320 --> 1:39:55.080 wanting to feel exactly you know what I mean, wanting 1:39:55.120 --> 1:39:58.680 to be loved, wanting to be held, wanting to be appreciated, 1:39:59.280 --> 1:40:03.960 and and when they really want that, they have to 1:40:04.000 --> 1:40:09.320 go back and get it. And that's the power of 1:40:08.880 --> 1:40:11.800 of of what you were able to do. 1:40:11.960 --> 1:40:13.679 What do you think about the people whore knocking Beyonce 1:40:13.840 --> 1:40:14.880 for singing country music? 1:40:15.760 --> 1:40:18.599 I think Beyonce should be able to sing whatever she 1:40:18.640 --> 1:40:20.920 wants she like singing. 1:40:22.400 --> 1:40:25.000 I don't even understand that. I don't even want to 1:40:25.000 --> 1:40:28.040 stand the country artist protesting that, because Beyonce is one 1:40:28.040 --> 1:40:30.240 of the biggest artists on earth, you know what I mean. 1:40:30.479 --> 1:40:34.400 And if she feels enough about your music that she 1:40:34.400 --> 1:40:36.800 wants to participate in it, why would you protest that. 1:40:37.600 --> 1:40:39.720 But it's also the other part is like a lot 1:40:39.760 --> 1:40:43.760 of us don't know music history of understanding where it's 1:40:43.800 --> 1:40:45.760 just it's ridiculous, like they don't want it to go 1:40:45.800 --> 1:40:47.600 back there, like we like we have to hear it 1:40:48.000 --> 1:40:55.320 singing country. Excuse me, we don't know it because you'll 1:40:55.360 --> 1:40:59.360 have our people saying, why is she doing country music? Man? 1:40:59.439 --> 1:41:02.040 I've talked to a few of them, you know what 1:41:02.080 --> 1:41:04.600 I mean, a few black people, and I had to 1:41:04.640 --> 1:41:09.160 tell them off. You know, how dare you say that? 1:41:09.920 --> 1:41:13.840 Are you fucking kidding? You know what do you what 1:41:13.840 --> 1:41:14.919 do you remember about. 1:41:14.720 --> 1:41:22.439 That some of the original cowboys, those black men. Yeah, yes, 1:41:22.560 --> 1:41:23.120 I think that. 1:41:24.880 --> 1:41:27.840 I think they're in my opinion, I believe that they 1:41:28.520 --> 1:41:33.559 they don't want that history to repeat itself where it 1:41:33.640 --> 1:41:37.000 comes back to where it originated from. It's like, no, no, no, no, 1:41:37.040 --> 1:41:37.800 we created it. 1:41:37.920 --> 1:41:38.400 Too bad. 1:41:39.160 --> 1:41:40.040 It's too bad. 1:41:40.240 --> 1:41:43.760 Because and we need artists of Beyonce's stature. 1:41:43.760 --> 1:41:45.479 To say, hey, I'm going to do it. 1:41:46.120 --> 1:41:50.639 And also, if you study music history for the United 1:41:50.680 --> 1:41:55.479 States of America, all American music started in the cotton field. 1:41:57.080 --> 1:41:58.679 Who's in the cot All of. 1:41:58.600 --> 1:42:02.600 It started out there with for harming and praising the 1:42:02.640 --> 1:42:04.280 Lord and stuff. They didn't have nothing else to do. 1:42:04.360 --> 1:42:07.519 They couldn't entertain themselves any other kind of way, and 1:42:07.640 --> 1:42:10.800 eventually that turned into the Blues talk about it, and 1:42:10.880 --> 1:42:15.439 eventually that turned into a country and that turned into 1:42:15.520 --> 1:42:16.479 R and B and. 1:42:17.880 --> 1:42:19.799 Whatever, you know everything. 1:42:19.880 --> 1:42:23.479 But the source is the cotton field. Yeah, you know, 1:42:24.720 --> 1:42:27.880 that's that's where that came from. That's where American music originated, 1:42:28.560 --> 1:42:31.360 in the cotton field with them out there humming and 1:42:31.520 --> 1:42:38.560 entertaining themselves. And you know the world really, Yes. 1:42:39.560 --> 1:42:44.120 We appreciate you, brother, We think appreciate Yeah, this is 1:42:44.160 --> 1:42:46.519 a great time. I told my wife, I said, we 1:42:46.520 --> 1:42:50.040 got smoking. I told everybody. I told everybody. 1:42:50.280 --> 1:42:53.280 You know, you don't hang out with smoking today, right probably, 1:42:53.800 --> 1:42:55.000 but I'm hanging out with smoking today. 1:42:55.080 --> 1:42:57.439 I don't know what you're doing. She's hanging out with smoking. 1:42:57.439 --> 1:43:00.479 She watched me get dressed. You you got smoking. 1:43:01.640 --> 1:43:04.200 Oh you guys, this is so loose. 1:43:04.240 --> 1:43:08.400 I love yeah, because we need we need you. We 1:43:08.479 --> 1:43:11.600 need this. We need it so they can hear it 1:43:11.680 --> 1:43:16.200 and see it and understand that what you were doing 1:43:16.280 --> 1:43:20.160 then was so important and so impactful that you are 1:43:20.240 --> 1:43:26.639 still doing it now at a level like my brother 1:43:26.680 --> 1:43:31.360 you said eighty five, you are still they still say, hey, 1:43:31.439 --> 1:43:35.120 we need him in the Venetian Theater. People want to 1:43:35.160 --> 1:43:40.120 see him. That's the impact of just doing what you 1:43:40.400 --> 1:43:44.200 love and doing it at the highest level and and 1:43:44.479 --> 1:43:49.160 just doing that. The king, come ontown, the king, Come on, 1:43:49.920 --> 1:43:53.479 you're the king. It's your day. You say you can. 1:43:53.560 --> 1:43:54.560 You can do that if you want to. 1:43:55.880 --> 1:43:59.360 I just got to ask one thing too on air, 1:44:00.920 --> 1:44:02.520 Will you be our mentor. 1:44:04.040 --> 1:44:06.280 If there's something I can mentor you in it's gonna 1:44:06.280 --> 1:44:09.520 positive make something positive happen in your life? Almost only will. 1:44:09.520 --> 1:44:12.920 That's all that, because I feel like in our industry, 1:44:15.479 --> 1:44:21.240 guys and women of different generations, we don't we don't 1:44:21.280 --> 1:44:24.840 ask enough. Yeah yeah, and not even asking of like, oh, 1:44:24.880 --> 1:44:26.240 I want to give me my no. 1:44:27.760 --> 1:44:30.160 Knowledge advice, Yes. 1:44:30.320 --> 1:44:32.080 You know something, I'm gonna tell you something, man. And 1:44:32.120 --> 1:44:34.360 you're saying something that is so profound to me right 1:44:34.400 --> 1:44:38.080 now because there was a time in my life till 1:44:38.120 --> 1:44:40.639 I got older and recognize the fact that it would 1:44:40.680 --> 1:44:44.960 never ever be possible even you know, but when I 1:44:45.040 --> 1:44:49.760 was like eighteen nineteen, my dad was an older guy. 1:44:49.840 --> 1:44:52.360 You know. My dad was like forty five when I 1:44:52.439 --> 1:44:54.400 was born. You know, So my dad was an older guy, 1:44:55.360 --> 1:44:57.759 and you know, I would hear him and his friends 1:44:57.760 --> 1:44:59.880 talking about stuff, and I would think that they were 1:45:00.000 --> 1:45:05.880 ignorant I think, Okay, here I am, and they don't 1:45:05.880 --> 1:45:08.200 know as much as I do because I'm out on 1:45:08.240 --> 1:45:12.280 the streets and I'm doing that was so stupid. H 1:45:12.880 --> 1:45:15.439 I will never my dad's gone now, but I would 1:45:15.720 --> 1:45:18.400 if he had, I would never have known as much 1:45:18.400 --> 1:45:21.120 as he knew. Because the greatest teacher that we have 1:45:21.280 --> 1:45:25.000 is time. And if you're looking and if you're listening, 1:45:26.640 --> 1:45:29.559 you learn all the time. You learn something new all 1:45:29.840 --> 1:45:32.479 the time, you know what I mean. So there's no 1:45:32.520 --> 1:45:35.120 way I could have ever caught him, you know. So 1:45:35.280 --> 1:45:39.519 that's what's happening now. You have to let people know that, 1:45:40.280 --> 1:45:42.600 you know, time has taught me a little more than 1:45:42.720 --> 1:45:47.439 taught you so far, because it's the greatest teacher we have. 1:45:50.360 --> 1:45:53.519 Well, I'm gonna be calling, yeah, because I got questions. 1:45:53.960 --> 1:45:55.479 We got. 1:45:58.640 --> 1:46:01.880 Call come on over. And I love the thing. I 1:46:01.880 --> 1:46:03.479 love the fact that you guys even doing this. Man, 1:46:03.520 --> 1:46:04.240 this is beautiful. 1:46:04.920 --> 1:46:05.520 Yeah. 1:46:05.600 --> 1:46:10.400 Yeah, that's what we run on there. You. 1:46:10.840 --> 1:46:12.519 I really really hope you guys get a chance to 1:46:12.520 --> 1:46:13.160 come to Vegas. 1:46:14.080 --> 1:46:18.799 What do you mean? Yeah, I'll be there, ladies and gentlemen. 1:46:18.880 --> 1:46:21.479 My name is Tank, I'm Valentine and this is the 1:46:21.600 --> 1:46:26.559 R and B Money Podcast. The authority on all things capital. 1:46:27.880 --> 1:46:36.479 You can't tell us nothing, nothing because Smoky Robbins, Yeah 1:46:38.960 --> 1:46:42.479 all right, Smoky to safe. Yeah yeah baby, yeah yeah baby. 1:46:42.520 --> 1:46:46.360 I was here, all right,