Speaker 1: Quest Loft Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Good People. What's good, y'all?
Speaker 3: This is Questlove and your tune into Quest Love Supreme
Speaker 3: and we got some things in the works for the
Speaker 3: future of this podcast, but in the meantime, we are
Speaker 3: looking back and celebrating our catalog. It's the month of May,
Speaker 3: so thematically, I've been thinking a lot lately about the
Speaker 3: idea of giving people their flowers while they're still.
Speaker 4: Here or while they can still smell them. And this
Speaker 4: is something we always talked about on QLs.
Speaker 3: It's not just the icons, the big names, but the
Speaker 3: folks behind the scenes, the ones whose work and presence
Speaker 3: quietly shape the future. The ones who change the room
Speaker 3: just by walking into it, or change your.
Speaker 4: Life by just being in it.
Speaker 3: It's bigger than just saying, while you're a legend, you know,
Speaker 3: give these people their flowers. On QLs, we always try
Speaker 3: to say and say loud you met. And here's why,
Speaker 3: because if we don't celebrate our heroes, our peers, our
Speaker 3: people who will So anyway, today we're picking some May
Speaker 3: flowers and some of these clips from the show. Over
Speaker 3: the last nine years, we got the Pointer Sisters, three
Speaker 3: different members of cool in the Gang runned Dette Cooper,
Speaker 3: Climax producer and songwriter Leebroy Burgess. These are all icons
Speaker 3: that you need to know, and what better place to
Speaker 3: begin than with the legendary Frankie Beverly. So in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three, coustlep Supreme was granted an interview with Frankie
Speaker 3: Beverly and the recent years he hasn't done that many
Speaker 3: interviews at all, and this one was a rare opportunity.
Speaker 3: And what's more, we were able to do it in
Speaker 3: person at Iheart's Hollywood Studios, and we caught it off film.
Speaker 3: All right, So in this clip you'll hear me Frankie Beverly,
Speaker 3: his family members Will Beverly and Miss Deborah Beverly Pugh
Speaker 3: as well as like you and Fonte heloone and I
Speaker 3: really love what Fonte says to Frankly about soundtracking some
Speaker 3: of the happiest times in life for so many of us.
Speaker 3: As I called out in this episode, we titled this
Speaker 3: one QLs gives.
Speaker 2: Frankie Beverly his flowers. It's an integral.
Speaker 4: Part of this two part retrospective.
Speaker 3: So would you say that songwriting was therapeutic for you?
Speaker 2: In terms of expressing yourself.
Speaker 5: Yes, absolutely, yeah, because I'll say that love like oftentimes
Speaker 5: I think people will tend to type cast soul music
Speaker 5: in R and B as somewhat like meaningless love music
Speaker 5: or whatever.
Speaker 2: But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think coming from you, especially the way you sing.
Speaker 3: There's such a gentle comforting almost right, Yeah, And it's
Speaker 3: such a gentle Normally, gentle singers are are like like
Speaker 3: high like falsetto smoky stylistics, and so it's very rare
Speaker 3: to hear a baritone voice that's that gentle and that.
Speaker 6: Sort of thing. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: I'm reflecting to you.
Speaker 1: What I'm only showing you what you what you are.
Speaker 3: But yeah, like in the sixties and seventies, when most
Speaker 3: lead black singers were high falsetto.
Speaker 2: High voices whatever.
Speaker 3: For you, was there was that ever an option like
Speaker 3: to figure out because sometimes like Ronald Eisley.
Speaker 1: Will go between his high voice and his low voice.
Speaker 3: But for you, was there Oh okay, I was gonna
Speaker 3: be the singer.
Speaker 1: All right, Yeah, the approachable every day guy.
Speaker 2: Okay, I get that, And.
Speaker 7: That's what he really it was approachable.
Speaker 8: That's a that's a.
Speaker 2: Good term approachable. I see that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, he was approachable.
Speaker 9: What do you What was I thinking?
Speaker 6: Yeah, what do you think?
Speaker 8: Now?
Speaker 9: I was you know what I was just thinking. I
Speaker 9: was like, yeah, because I was thinking about awards, and
Speaker 9: I was thinking about like these Grammys and these all
Speaker 9: these awards, and I was like, to my recollection, you
Speaker 9: guys don't have a lot of those. But the acceptance
Speaker 9: of you in the community, and I've seen you speak
Speaker 9: about this.
Speaker 10: Before, far exceeds.
Speaker 9: So that everyday manism that you're talking about, it's worth
Speaker 9: so much more, it looks like than the untouchable of it.
Speaker 11: All right, Yeah, that's very true, honey. It seems like
Speaker 11: our people really supported us, even from a young stage,
Speaker 11: as much.
Speaker 9: As we could.
Speaker 6: Yes.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I've been to I've had the privilege attendant on
Speaker 12: one of your shows. You came to my hometown at Raleigh,
Speaker 12: North Carolina.
Speaker 2: This was this was some years back, and y'all played
Speaker 2: this emphathy.
Speaker 12: It was outside, and I mean you came out and
Speaker 12: it was full of people and they sang every word.
Speaker 2: They sang every word. I was like, if Frank you
Speaker 2: want to chill the night, he didn't got the same.
Speaker 12: We gonna sing form you know what I mean, but
Speaker 12: I think you know, speaking of what like he was saying,
Speaker 12: just you know, I just want to make sure that
Speaker 12: we communicate to you today. You know, you were just
Speaker 12: a staple in our households, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 12: Like your music was like always there, and it was
Speaker 12: and it was oftentimes too. It wasn't just your music
Speaker 12: was there, but your music was the soundtrack to some
Speaker 12: of the best times of our lives. Like you always
Speaker 12: associated I always associated Frankie, Beverly and Mads with good times,
Speaker 12: you know what I'm saying. And like what you were
Speaker 12: saying about him singing with love we need love to
Speaker 12: live that was like one of my favorite songs.
Speaker 2: Like I would always play that.
Speaker 13: I even a.
Speaker 2: Very long time ago.
Speaker 12: I said it was like wow, I sampled it and
Speaker 12: wrapped over it did not come out.
Speaker 2: I was sixteen. Yeah, shine, golden time of the day.
Speaker 1: The shining part was the original music that clones Oh.
Speaker 3: My god, if you can ever mass but we couldn't
Speaker 3: make the loop work and so then we start all
Speaker 3: over again because yeah, but.
Speaker 12: But no, no, you It was just always a spirit
Speaker 12: that came through in your music and just really spoke
Speaker 12: just to all of us and just made us all
Speaker 12: feel really good. And you know, I've seen it, just
Speaker 12: the magic of you performing and people.
Speaker 2: You know, it's like your family member.
Speaker 10: Yeah, that's so beautiful.
Speaker 11: You guys gonna make me start crying, all right.
Speaker 3: So that excerpt into what Franklin Beverly saying he was
Speaker 3: gonna start crying, which wow, it's just something. A year
Speaker 3: after we take this interview that mister Beverley passed, so
Speaker 3: we're the ones who are crying. But that interview means
Speaker 3: so much to me and to the team. He was
Speaker 3: all smiles and he has that coolness what you see
Speaker 3: in the video of this episode. Twenty nineteen, Coustlef Supreme
Speaker 3: got a visit from Anita Pointer, Bonnie Pointer and their brother,
Speaker 3: Fritz Pointer. Bonnie and Anita have since then, you know, transition,
Speaker 3: But this was a great career conversation with three as
Speaker 3: the pointed sisters are mentioned.
Speaker 2: A lot on Quest Lef Supreme.
Speaker 3: One of the things we often did as co hosts
Speaker 3: is leave time at the end for random or personal questions.
Speaker 3: Is to really give the affirmation that happens here and
Speaker 3: if you get a taste of the random and then
Speaker 3: some heartfelt flowers from QLs, especially from Boss Bill. In
Speaker 3: this conversation, we spoke about trying to get the Pointed
Speaker 3: Sisters into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, something
Speaker 3: that has not happened yet, but I personally, I would
Speaker 3: like very much well to see.
Speaker 2: What was it like being a part of USA for Africa.
Speaker 2: We are the world night, Oh.
Speaker 14: God, what tonight.
Speaker 10: We had just come from the I think the am
Speaker 10: A Awards and went to the studio and I was
Speaker 10: in awe.
Speaker 1: Everybody top secret like all these famous people.
Speaker 3: I wound out about it and was the top secret
Speaker 3: like we.
Speaker 10: Found out like the day before, because they sent us
Speaker 10: sheet music and a cassette and.
Speaker 1: Have in the frame.
Speaker 2: Quincy's house and he has the lead sheet framed on it.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I got a.
Speaker 2: Lead with everybody.
Speaker 10: I went around that night and made everybody designed my
Speaker 10: music and I got home my frame and they're.
Speaker 2: Kind of intimidated by anybody that was in the room
Speaker 2: or you guys, like.
Speaker 10: Yeah, everybody everybody was like you, oh.
Speaker 2: My god, oh my god, to be cool.
Speaker 10: Michael Jackson, you want to, Lionel Richie, yes, wonderful, Yeah,
Speaker 10: Bette Midler else was there, uh No, But chi LEI
Speaker 10: was there.
Speaker 2: I think that's Oakland.
Speaker 10: Too, n So that's Oakland, and LaToya Jackson was like
Speaker 10: right beside me, Turner, turn that was a wonderful, wonderful night.
Speaker 10: I mean we got out of there, the sun was
Speaker 10: coming up?
Speaker 2: Were there all night? Did you have any experiences with
Speaker 2: Aretha while she was alive?
Speaker 15: No, Well, Ruth, Ruth had some competition with Areas Edwards.
Speaker 2: In fact, in fact her daughters.
Speaker 15: Wow, the one who's singing with her, her daughter who
Speaker 15: singing with her is product of Ruth and Dennis.
Speaker 10: Edwards, and she and Maria were dating Dennis like, oh
Speaker 10: yeah the same time.
Speaker 1: Wow, Wow, it's a frozen I don't even myself.
Speaker 2: I'll do myself right now.
Speaker 10: Too much information, baby.
Speaker 3: Well you know I have to say that enough, can I?
Speaker 3: This is a pleasant, pleasant surprise. Again, Finnie, such a
Speaker 3: fan and the myviewers for the longest.
Speaker 2: So I'm glad to finally ad met you.
Speaker 3: I never thought I would thank you that same for you.
Speaker 2: Your whole family. And again, yes, rock and Roll Hall
Speaker 2: of Fame, I gotta be.
Speaker 10: We've got a star on the Hollywood Walk and welcome
Speaker 10: fan Arkansas, Black Hall of Fame, everything.
Speaker 7: Don't matter.
Speaker 2: Yes, it doesn't matter. I just want to say that
Speaker 2: something I said earlier today. You guys were in my childhood,
Speaker 2: and every time I listen to your music, I'm just
Speaker 2: taking back to such a wonderful place in time.
Speaker 6: In my life.
Speaker 2: Wonderful just to be sitting across from you guys, like
Speaker 2: beside out here.
Speaker 10: We see we taught you well, well, I see that
Speaker 10: T shirt you have on.
Speaker 2: You got a lot of good information from the morning.
Speaker 2: More questions before we before we break. May Staples was
Speaker 2: she an influence?
Speaker 10: Oh lord, Yeah, we were listening to a song we
Speaker 10: were We did Respect Yourself, Yes, in Vegas, and Fritz
Speaker 10: brought up a c D and played it. We played
Speaker 10: it last night with us singing in Vegas at Caesar's
Speaker 10: Palace singing respect Yourself, Mays.
Speaker 14: We were on the road.
Speaker 10: But yeah, and Frince was very good friends with Mayvis
Speaker 10: Staples and we had some fun, fun times together. Yeah,
Speaker 10: and I was also the friends with with purpose.
Speaker 2: He was a differend than mine.
Speaker 1: Well, go to those night clubs and you go in there.
Speaker 10: Oh my god, this is a gun sitting right there
Speaker 10: on the desk.
Speaker 1: Where we have sound check.
Speaker 2: The gun on the desk.
Speaker 1: I just got one of the silhouettes from that.
Speaker 2: You know that is that's a tattoo.
Speaker 7: Will look on the back and the tattoos.
Speaker 2: You gotta be like a SoundCloud rapper. Put it on
Speaker 2: your face. Yes, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thank you for coming on the show today.
Speaker 10: I love it, y'all.
Speaker 3: That was Anita, Bonnie and Fritz Pointer on QLs from
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen. We had Robert Coop Bell on QLs in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty one. It was the first series with band members.
Speaker 3: This whole conversation had flowers from Corner Gang's excellent transition
Speaker 3: from jazz funking to disco, message music and more.
Speaker 4: Here's the tail end of that comment, which I loved.
Speaker 3: What are your three personal favorite songs that you've done
Speaker 3: in your catalog?
Speaker 2: That's some of the manas is definitely one.
Speaker 16: Hollywood swinging, okay okay, and of course celebration now Hollywood Swinging.
Speaker 16: It's all about when he's first, what's going about to Hollywood?
Speaker 16: And again Frankie k Frankie Hollywood Crops.
Speaker 6: He broke that record in New York A.
Speaker 9: Ladies, can I ask you a capitalistic question before we go.
Speaker 14: If you were to stop.
Speaker 9: Doing music right now and no other music existed, could
Speaker 9: you tell us what cooling the Gang song could feed
Speaker 9: you for.
Speaker 2: Life if I were to stop doing music.
Speaker 9: Yes, Like, if you just stop doing music and didn't
Speaker 9: care about any other songs, records or whatever, what's the
Speaker 9: cooling the Gang song that could have been feeding and
Speaker 9: we'll feed you for life?
Speaker 16: Oh well, that's that's celebration, celebration.
Speaker 17: I wasn't sure.
Speaker 14: It's so many.
Speaker 16: Hey cool, it's even they're going to do a whole
Speaker 16: big thing. I think TikTok live, that company all cool?
Speaker 18: Get it?
Speaker 6: Something mad?
Speaker 17: I mean you got?
Speaker 6: I mean Will Smith?
Speaker 17: I mean the movie.
Speaker 16: Yeah, even though what's my man? Lebron James did the
Speaker 16: somemer man, he's up on dumping diving into the swimming
Speaker 16: pool with something mad.
Speaker 9: Something mad is just it might be someone mad and
Speaker 9: seeing that some celebration, it might be.
Speaker 2: It's definitely celebration. Kah, celebration ain't never going to die ever?
Speaker 19: Yeah, hey cool, the DJ played celebration at my mitch
Speaker 19: for in nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 2: You ever get paid for that, dude? And the nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety three same thing?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's wait, a minute, I will ask, have you
Speaker 3: guys ever done celebration at a wedding or at the
Speaker 3: bar mitzvah As school in the game?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 9: And what is that rate? I'm still in my capital
Speaker 9: is bad?
Speaker 2: How do I get that out of my next heavy price?
Speaker 6: I want to leave on this though. Oh when.
Speaker 17: Super Bowl?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was the Stealers.
Speaker 6: And who was it that Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty Were they playing the Cowboys? I'm not certain?
Speaker 2: And looking up Steve.
Speaker 16: Bill and the Stealers one that was that one? And
Speaker 16: the Steelers one by that one touchdown?
Speaker 2: Okay, the last few minutes of the game.
Speaker 6: So we were scared. Need to play.
Speaker 16: For whatever that team was anyway, And I only came
Speaker 16: to us, I said, will you guys please don't play celebration?
Speaker 2: You serious? Two thousand and nine against the Cardinals, but
Speaker 2: we didn't play celebrations. You did not play celebration because.
Speaker 6: They lost that game.
Speaker 2: Okay, well then ladies night it is.
Speaker 6: Anyway.
Speaker 16: I want to thank you guys. Was the support of men. Man,
Speaker 16: you're just your whiz man. You know he asked me
Speaker 16: questions that.
Speaker 7: I have to remember again.
Speaker 2: Man, you know, I'm just your legacy. Wait, did you
Speaker 2: have one last question? Oh I was, Yeah, I had
Speaker 2: a question about fruit man. Was that song? Is that
Speaker 2: a reference to the fruit of Islam? About that song? Okay, okay,
Speaker 2: got you it was.
Speaker 16: Yeah, we just came up with different ideas than concept
Speaker 16: you back in the day the fruit man come by
Speaker 16: the truck and you want to get.
Speaker 14: Some wa.
Speaker 2: Yes, wow, okay, but good try No, I thought I
Speaker 2: heard that. I never heard of red.
Speaker 17: As something like a belt.
Speaker 3: We had this conversation before, and y'all was laughing at
Speaker 3: me and called me old. And I'm trying to explain
Speaker 3: to y'all between at least the fruit, the fruit and
Speaker 3: the fish man were the same. Dude on my Grandma's
Speaker 3: blocked I remember.
Speaker 2: The fish man. We didn't have a fruit man. We
Speaker 2: had a fish man. When you see the look online's
Speaker 2: face right now.
Speaker 17: I don't believe you.
Speaker 9: I think you're talking about your auntie down south, not
Speaker 9: in Philly.
Speaker 2: Fish in Philly.
Speaker 3: Yes, like just like, just like mister Softie comes by
Speaker 3: every you know, every four point thirty on you know,
Speaker 3: on his route.
Speaker 9: However, I will say the watermelon man is still a
Speaker 9: very real thing in a lot of different cities.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but for Southwest Philly.
Speaker 3: Like the fishman would just you know, the back of
Speaker 3: his truck would be like a whole bunch of ice
Speaker 3: and a whole bunch of fish. He just go up
Speaker 3: and down each block selling mackerel, poorgies, like different types
Speaker 3: of fish. And then the next day he come back,
Speaker 3: same truck, clean, have vegetables. Next day fruit Like they
Speaker 3: would take fruit to the hood. Like that's the thing
Speaker 3: I missed. We want to have the fruit man deliver.
Speaker 2: You know. Now we gotta go to the suburbs. You
Speaker 2: get the good fruit.
Speaker 20: Bill San your life?
Speaker 2: What'd you say?
Speaker 18: Bill?
Speaker 21: Long Island didn't have any man in a car. We
Speaker 21: had to go to the store. Hey man, it was
Speaker 21: different than it was called food deserts.
Speaker 2: See, we're getting to know each other America. Brother Cool.
Speaker 3: I want to thank you personally for you know, your
Speaker 3: legacy and sharing story with us.
Speaker 2: Don't forget support Cool. You know the new album tell
Speaker 2: me about them. After Jenna said that her she was like,
Speaker 2: he was like, give my step mom loves that.
Speaker 12: So I was like, I gotta get something okay, cool, Yeah,
Speaker 12: we're drinking on some lake cool.
Speaker 16: So we got the rose for the late days.
Speaker 9: Oh but that's all you had to say, Lady Stereo
Speaker 9: type I do like.
Speaker 3: QLs also had Corner Gang's drummer, Funky George Brown on
Speaker 3: and Uh late twenty twenty three, I asked him the
Speaker 3: same question. This interview was taped in September and George
Speaker 3: passed that November. That loss hit me hard because it
Speaker 3: was amazing to have George share history as we compiled
Speaker 3: several oral histories of Corner Gang. Could you tell me
Speaker 3: what your three favorite Cool and Gang songs are? But
Speaker 3: can you also just tell me what was your favorite
Speaker 3: song to create?
Speaker 6: Wow?
Speaker 1: Wait, are you one of those? They are all my
Speaker 1: kids and I can't separate them.
Speaker 6: No, no, no, I'm not one of those guys. I
Speaker 6: waldon Peace from the World and Peaceful Album. Okay, that's
Speaker 6: the title song. I remember John Coltrane, I love that.
Speaker 6: W Yeah that and it's just really none of the hits,
Speaker 6: none of the.
Speaker 2: Big us those other hits. You know me Little Children
Speaker 2: is one of my favorites. Yeah, you know, never Don't Change.
Speaker 2: And the third would be fruit Man.
Speaker 6: No, it's We've got some rhythm songs in the Caribbean Festival. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 6: I'll take that. It had all that listeners in it.
Speaker 6: It's it's fine and some of that. And so when
Speaker 6: you hear it, you go, man, bubba about the Horns,
Speaker 6: you know, just you know that group and you got that,
Speaker 6: you know, so it was great.
Speaker 3: Okay, So making making those three like your your your
Speaker 3: favorite yeah, you know, as I said at the top
Speaker 3: of the show, man, it's it's really kind of our
Speaker 3: missioneer on the show, just you know, to give flowers
Speaker 3: to legendary people that otherwise might not get there. They're
Speaker 3: just too as far as you know, the legacy that
Speaker 3: they set forth. And definitely you know for all of
Speaker 3: us here, you know, Cooly Gang represents. I mean, it's
Speaker 3: an institution of of of just brilliant and you know
Speaker 3: it sustained all music, all times, you know, all spaces
Speaker 3: and still strong to this day. And even my band,
Speaker 3: you know, goes through a cool in a Gang moment
Speaker 3: in our current show and you know the songs are.
Speaker 6: Plus you'll have a Jermaine Jermaine bryceon.
Speaker 2: Tub Yeah. Yeah, yes, I know that he plays with
Speaker 2: you guys.
Speaker 22: Brother, Yeah, yeah, he plays he plays with them now
Speaker 22: yeah yeah, man, But we just thank you for coming
Speaker 22: on the show and we appreciate your you know, your
Speaker 22: legacy and and and everything that you've done, and thank
Speaker 22: you all your break beats and everything.
Speaker 2: We love that. We love it to death.
Speaker 6: Thank you. You know. I'm not going to say it's
Speaker 6: been a long hard road. It's been a long beautiful
Speaker 6: road being as a creator, you know, because Ronald and
Speaker 6: I sit and come up materials, he and I especially
Speaker 6: back in the late seventies and early eighties, that's what
Speaker 6: we did. We just set in the studio and reverse things,
Speaker 6: put together live albums, you know, from all the tapes.
Speaker 6: You know, the deal just just had a ball and
Speaker 6: being the all night six o'clock in the morning, you said,
Speaker 6: I'll see it in a few hours, come back again into
Speaker 6: that whole set. That that that's worth everything, you know,
Speaker 6: as far as creative people is concerned. That's that's worth
Speaker 6: it all, you know, and and and and it becoming
Speaker 6: successful too. And if it doesn't become successful, you go
Speaker 6: back in your tweet, what did we do?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 6: What's going on?
Speaker 8: So?
Speaker 6: And I appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 23: As well, thank you, but it makes it, just like
Speaker 23: all of us, it makes it a little harder, you know,
Speaker 23: when you go I love your music and you gotta
Speaker 23: you know that whole thing defended their doing.
Speaker 6: Loving fans, but truly truly hard folk. Thank you well,
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 4: From the same amazing family tree is James JT. Taylor.
Speaker 4: QLs had him on the show last year.
Speaker 3: JT was with the group when they got inducted into
Speaker 3: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and of course
Speaker 3: he joined in the late seventies and the early eighties
Speaker 3: boom and we really hit it off. There was some
Speaker 3: serious flowers in this episode. JT has continued to really
Speaker 3: support QLs and we love you JT. Taylor all right,
Speaker 3: enjoy in the history of you being a professional singer,
Speaker 3: as anyone ever yelled fire and rain to you from
Speaker 3: the audience.
Speaker 2: You did steal my question, Denton.
Speaker 19: I was honestly wondering about that today about look at
Speaker 19: his victory pose.
Speaker 2: That's great.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 19: I used to sort of study the publishing stuff, credits
Speaker 19: and in like sort of books, and I was always
Speaker 19: wondering if if the publishing ever got crossed between you guys,
Speaker 19: you know, and anything.
Speaker 18: Not the money at that time he was making big
Speaker 18: money and we weren't. But uh, but I used to
Speaker 18: when I first went solo. The publishers got things mixed up.
Speaker 18: In fact, at the at the Rock and Roll Hall
Speaker 18: of Fame, he came over to my room and I'm
Speaker 18: in the dressing room and he came over to meet me.
Speaker 17: He said, I always wanted to beat you.
Speaker 2: I said, really, and no, that was the first time
Speaker 2: y'all met.
Speaker 18: That's the first time we met, right.
Speaker 2: I wish I could have been there for that.
Speaker 18: Yeah, man, And he came over and we hugged each
Speaker 18: other and we share share some you know, conversation, and
Speaker 18: I told him that story. I said, I was getting
Speaker 18: these like kind of country songs, man, and you know,
Speaker 18: my my manager said, wait a minute, I think this
Speaker 18: supposed to me for the other James Taylor. So we
Speaker 18: had a laugh and I said, I want to do
Speaker 18: something with you, and he said, let's do that. You know,
Speaker 18: so that might happen in the near few my voices.
Speaker 2: I approve of that.
Speaker 3: Do you know Marvin ever heard You're not to him
Speaker 3: on take my heart if you want it?
Speaker 18: I don't know, man, but I'll bell tell you because
Speaker 18: you know I'm a big Marvin fan as well. But
Speaker 18: we were doing the that's when I was still with Cool.
Speaker 18: We did the rain I think the Rainbow Room or
Speaker 18: the Rainbow Theater in London.
Speaker 24: And we're on stage because I don't know what song
Speaker 24: we were singing, and I looked to my left over
Speaker 24: in the corner and Marvin is standing in the way, man,
Speaker 24: almost like.
Speaker 2: There at the time.
Speaker 8: Yeah, he was living there, right, so of course I
Speaker 8: had to bring him on and just walking on stage
Speaker 8: place with berserk and you know, he walked off and
Speaker 8: we were taking a picture to the other look, he's
Speaker 8: looking over at me like.
Speaker 2: This, you know, looking down on me. He said, j T.
Speaker 17: You know I can slam dunk you.
Speaker 2: You know that, right, I.
Speaker 17: Said, bro, I can play ball too, but let's do this.
Speaker 17: We never got to play.
Speaker 6: But he was.
Speaker 2: He was amazing.
Speaker 16: Man.
Speaker 18: I would have loved to just tick the ball to
Speaker 18: him a little bit because he was a tall He
Speaker 18: was kind of a tall guy.
Speaker 6: Would have been tough.
Speaker 18: But yeah, but uh no, I don't know if he
Speaker 18: ever did.
Speaker 1: It's one of my favorite Ada libes of viewers.
Speaker 18: I was actually talking to George because George wrote the song,
Speaker 18: and he was like, I said, like.
Speaker 3: Marvin, Marvin, huh right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah exactly exactly.
Speaker 3: You know, there was a time period in which videos
Speaker 3: were not necessary but could be an option to help
Speaker 3: you sell a little more if you were trying to
Speaker 3: get your stuff played on like Top of the Pops
Speaker 3: or you know, if you couldn't get to Europe in time.
Speaker 2: What was the video process like?
Speaker 3: Because even that video for Misled, which I'll never understand,
Speaker 3: like are you just showing up? And like okay, it's
Speaker 3: a chase scene with in Indiana Jones and a bunch
Speaker 3: of white dancing around me, Like yeah.
Speaker 25: Right, well, you know, you know, of course I've always
Speaker 25: been into film, you know, and like even right now,
Speaker 25: you know.
Speaker 17: My future project that I'm working on now I'll tell
Speaker 17: you about that in a minute.
Speaker 25: But because I was in the film earlier in my life,
Speaker 25: I was able to when videos came along, I could
Speaker 25: process everything that's happened.
Speaker 17: Because most of our songs was like a storyboard. And
Speaker 17: you mentioned Misled, it was about you know, it was
Speaker 17: basically Caalice's.
Speaker 25: Life story, part of his life story, and my my input,
Speaker 25: and it was the metaphor of the white dancer was
Speaker 25: like she was like the cocaine that people were taking,
Speaker 25: you know, misleading, looking beautiful and everything and taking you
Speaker 25: down that rabbit hole, you know, and my nephew who
Speaker 25: played me as a young kid, Yeah, that was my nephew, yeah,
Speaker 25: you know. And so to bring that part, and that
Speaker 25: was the the book and the special effects. So and
Speaker 25: then the one thing that happened on that video is
Speaker 25: that we said, how are we going to get the
Speaker 25: band in? And I wrote most of that concept and
Speaker 25: I said, well, you guys are going to be you know,
Speaker 25: incognito as well. And it's a dream state. So that's
Speaker 25: why you know, that happened. And when we came at
Speaker 25: the end and they were like j T, we got
Speaker 25: to go, man, we got a gig to do.
Speaker 17: They were in the dream and that's when they turned around.
Speaker 25: So Michael definitely influenced that as far as the video
Speaker 25: because remember MTV.
Speaker 17: Wasn't playing us, and Michael turned that around.
Speaker 25: So that's when the whole video thing for black artists
Speaker 25: started kicking in. And we knew that Michael had raised
Speaker 25: the bar. So we had to raise the bar because
Speaker 25: if you remember, on most of the charts, if we
Speaker 25: knew Michael was coming, we had to get our position first,
Speaker 25: you know, because came you know, we're going to knock
Speaker 25: you out a number one, but being there in the
Speaker 25: top five, top ten, that means in the stores your
Speaker 25: music was right there along inside his and it would
Speaker 25: help your sales. Yeah, all of that the video world
Speaker 25: actually helped me with the project I'm doing.
Speaker 17: Now and what my future is going to be.
Speaker 3: Got it at the time. Do you guys get invited
Speaker 3: to do band aid? Like, do you have any ankling
Speaker 3: of the clue what you guys walked into?
Speaker 17: No, because we were on tour again.
Speaker 2: I just had a night off in London.
Speaker 17: We were actually just I don't know if we I
Speaker 17: think we did have a night off.
Speaker 25: But the thing that bothered me was that they had mentioned,
Speaker 25: I think on the news of something that you know,
Speaker 25: it was all of these big stars there and when
Speaker 25: we got there, there was no cameras and I remember
Speaker 25: telling DT, I said, you know, with the press, man,
Speaker 25: I'll be you all people telling about the press and
Speaker 25: we walked in. No one said, you know, okay, JT,
Speaker 25: you're going to be doing this and it's going to
Speaker 25: be and that we kind of just walked in the
Speaker 25: studio and there was everybody was just sitting around the
Speaker 25: room and and Phil Collins and and Geldolph and they
Speaker 25: were behind the board and they just kind of waved
Speaker 25: and you know, and later on I thought somebody mentioned
Speaker 25: that they wanted me to do the part that what
Speaker 25: to Night thank God, and I didn't. And I'm glad
Speaker 25: they didn't ask me because I would have never done that.
Speaker 25: Bear Bono's line, thank God it's you, it's them instead
Speaker 25: of you. I said, well, no, I would have never
Speaker 25: sang that anyway, because that's just a little too much
Speaker 25: for me. You know, I wouldn't thank God it's you.
Speaker 25: You know that, that's not my vibe, you know what
Speaker 25: I mean. But yeah, it was. It was awesome, man,
Speaker 25: but we still didn't know how it was going to
Speaker 25: come out. I just enjoyed, you know, meet and you know,
Speaker 25: Sting and Phil, but it was it was intense.
Speaker 17: It was like no.
Speaker 25: Time to really hang out and talk about it. And
Speaker 25: when they put us all on stands together, it was
Speaker 25: just like, Okay, this is what we're.
Speaker 6: Going to sing.
Speaker 17: We learned the song and we went through the process.
Speaker 3: For you, what was the best Like when you think
Speaker 3: of like the good times or whatever, like places you played,
Speaker 3: or even people you met or people that you never
Speaker 3: thought you meet, what's a career highlight for you of
Speaker 3: something like like, wow, I can't believe this happened.
Speaker 17: There's many, okay, But.
Speaker 25: I think going to Africa for the first time was
Speaker 25: monumental because I remember when we were at House of
Speaker 25: Music once and this was doing a part type and
Speaker 25: this agent came to the studio and asked us to play.
Speaker 25: And that's when everybody was refusing to play some city.
Speaker 17: It was part of.
Speaker 25: Our protests, and I remember looking at this guy almost
Speaker 25: tearing up that how could he have the nerve to
Speaker 25: come here and ask us to perform there, knowing the
Speaker 25: atrocities that were going on, right And I remember we
Speaker 25: got a silver record I think from South Africa, and
Speaker 25: when we got it, I said, I refuse to hang
Speaker 25: this up in my house until Mandela is freed, and
Speaker 25: I put it in the closet, and when he was freed,
Speaker 25: I took it out and celebrated that. But I think
Speaker 25: going to Liberia and then learning about.
Speaker 17: The slave quarters and where our people.
Speaker 25: Were brought from the shores and things like that, the
Speaker 25: Ivory Coast up and down, you know, And I'd always
Speaker 25: felt like I didn't want to take money out of there,
Speaker 25: like like I because it wasn't really built up as
Speaker 25: much like Ghana right like it is now, you know,
Speaker 25: And I just didn't understand what I understood. But I
Speaker 25: didn't feel good about doing a concert and taking money
Speaker 25: from a place that we should have just left it there,
Speaker 25: you know.
Speaker 17: But I think Africa was. It's still to this day,
Speaker 17: the feeling I get that touches my heart most.
Speaker 2: One. Congratulations on getting in the Rock and Roll Hall
Speaker 2: of Fame.
Speaker 17: Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1: Were you surprised or were you actively hoping for this?
Speaker 6: Well?
Speaker 17: You know, I tell the story.
Speaker 25: I said, it's when I think back to being at thirteen,
Speaker 25: you never think about it. You never think about any accolades,
Speaker 25: at least I did.
Speaker 17: My whole thing was just a love for music, man.
Speaker 25: And you know, when they told us about the rock
Speaker 25: of course, I called all my family and I think
Speaker 25: they announced it on the American Idol or something like that,
Speaker 25: and we were all sitting around watching waiting for it
Speaker 25: to come on. When they said bam, cool in the gang,
Speaker 25: my phone jumping off the hook, people talking about how
Speaker 25: can I get there?
Speaker 17: I want to come.
Speaker 25: We had a lot of family there, but it was
Speaker 25: just a culmination of all of the years of the sweat,
Speaker 25: being away from my family, having my family there and
Speaker 25: enjoying some of it, coming into cooling the gang and
Speaker 25: then leaving the group. And also, you know, I brought
Speaker 25: everything from Hackensack High School to you know, the bands
Speaker 25: I was in to you know, Jersey City.
Speaker 17: Anybody that I met along the way were a part
Speaker 17: of it.
Speaker 25: And that's including you, your group, the Philly Sound, motown Son,
Speaker 25: you know anything.
Speaker 2: It was like I was.
Speaker 17: It was like I was bringing all.
Speaker 25: Of you with me, you know, and then of course,
Speaker 25: you know, to find out that you were going to
Speaker 25: be with me, I'm.
Speaker 17: Like, oh man, this is too good to be true,
Speaker 17: you know.
Speaker 25: So you know when I walked up and met you,
Speaker 25: you know, like yo, right in the middle of playing Yo, man,
Speaker 25: what's up?
Speaker 17: And I got a good picture. I want to say
Speaker 17: to you about that too.
Speaker 2: But I was nervous, man, and like, you know, well
Speaker 2: you were nervous.
Speaker 17: Come on, man, you were smacking.
Speaker 1: Na I mean, but just you the only legendary illuminaria like.
Speaker 3: My life soundcheck track that I haven't met yet, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean.
Speaker 17: So, yeah, it was awesome.
Speaker 2: In the cool and.
Speaker 3: Gang adjacent universe, there's Leeroy Burgess. Last month, Fonte cited
Speaker 3: this twenty twenty three to two part of Conversation that's
Speaker 3: one of the most underrated episodes of QLs. We were
Speaker 3: delighted to have Lee Roy with us, and he.
Speaker 4: Gave us the kind of history that you can't find.
Speaker 3: In a Wikipedia page, while we got the chance to
Speaker 3: celebrate his career. Let's listen in as he tells us
Speaker 3: about a musical bloodline that is truly mind blowing. You know,
Speaker 3: I told, like some of my friends and luminaries and
Speaker 3: music heads that you were coming on the show. I
Speaker 3: have to say, you're probably the most connected human being
Speaker 3: I know, because the first response that every music head
Speaker 3: tells me when I'm like, yo, we're about to get
Speaker 3: him on the show, they tell me like, Yo, you
Speaker 3: know he's related to Tom Bell, right, Yo?
Speaker 2: You know he's related to Archie Bell, right, Yo? You
Speaker 2: know he's related to how many the bells bells?
Speaker 3: So you're trying to tell me that Tom and Robert
Speaker 3: and Ronald of Cool and Gang and Al Bell.
Speaker 4: Of Stacks and Archie Bell of that you're all related?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 6: Wow?
Speaker 2: How come no one has? Yeah?
Speaker 7: I don't know. Listen, you do well.
Speaker 13: With that Patty LaBelle No, no, right, I thought Patty
Speaker 13: was the strength.
Speaker 26: But Ricky Bell Ricky Yes, Okay, we are all the
Speaker 26: descendants of an enslaved individual named Prince Bell from the
Speaker 26: eighteen twenties and eighteen you know, eighteen sixties, seventies or
Speaker 26: something like that.
Speaker 7: Prince Belle had a total of three wives. With each
Speaker 7: of his wedding unions, he made a bunch of kids, right,
Speaker 7: those kids became my grandparents and my mom and my
Speaker 7: dad and the same as two full Tom Bell or
Speaker 7: the Bell Brothers from Cooon, the Gang, Jerry Bell from
Speaker 7: the Dads band Bell Al Bell, Ricky Bell from Bell
Speaker 7: Bidevaux Tom.
Speaker 2: I was only playing that's real, goddamn.
Speaker 7: Outside of the Bell family or Judge Mathis, Greg Mathis
Speaker 7: is a cousin, and the actor Richard browntree Is, all
Speaker 7: of us are descendants of Prince Bell.
Speaker 2: I also heard Betty Right as well.
Speaker 6: Betty Right.
Speaker 1: I met Betty Right and.
Speaker 2: Are we relatedly working?
Speaker 9: Right?
Speaker 6: We all?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 7: I believe that I believe that I'm related to everybody.
Speaker 2: In the world. I mean, well, I see why that's crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So shout out to our fire burges who also
Speaker 3: I mean you know fire right.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, yeah, player absolutely.
Speaker 3: Absolutely fire urges who definitely want this episode to happen
Speaker 3: while you are connected to everyone, right.
Speaker 7: So when I think about where, you know, was it
Speaker 7: I predestined to enter the music industry, I'm kind of
Speaker 7: leaning towards feeling like that because there's so many loom
Speaker 7: nerves in my family that are not just in entertainment
Speaker 7: but in music specifically, who have made a definitive monk
Speaker 7: on the industry as a whole. So I'm just bringing
Speaker 7: up the.
Speaker 9: Rear Common's Bell thing might be real too.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying it was predetermined, like your your future
Speaker 3: was everyone in your family has singing talent, and it's
Speaker 3: push the envelope.
Speaker 2: That's crazy.
Speaker 9: Can I just ask who found who first? Like when
Speaker 9: did y'all know that this was the story behind your family?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Tom Bell.
Speaker 7: Back in my when.
Speaker 9: I was very very Alexander.
Speaker 7: Four, five and six and stuff like that, he used
Speaker 7: to come to the family picnics down that we used
Speaker 7: to have down in Jamesburg, New Judge. We still have
Speaker 7: him in the same place every year. He used to
Speaker 7: come and I used to follow him around like a
Speaker 7: little pubblic dog. Right, because he was always talking music.
Speaker 7: That's that was then he stopped coming right fairt forward
Speaker 7: to about nineteen somewhere in the nineteen nineties, the Bell
Speaker 7: the South Jersey Bell Picnic couldn't happen, So the North
Speaker 7: Jersey Bell the Bell Aiken's Picnic happened, and my mother
Speaker 7: traveled to that because I was on the road. Right,
Speaker 7: That's where my mother met Cool's Cool and Robert and
Speaker 7: Ronald and Ali and Kevin's mother and she was son
Speaker 7: sings my son's things in the music. Also my son Hell,
Speaker 7: who's your son Black Habby? Who's jo son Coonigan?
Speaker 27: Oh?
Speaker 6: We need to do right?
Speaker 2: So wow.
Speaker 7: So that's how they And then a wonderful cousin of
Speaker 7: mine that I didn't know, I met her on Facebook.
Speaker 7: Her name is Geneva Norman Right, and she asked she
Speaker 7: was a cousin and she relaid, and then she presented
Speaker 7: me with a document, the Bell family history, going all
Speaker 7: the way back to Prince Belle right, and it contained
Speaker 7: every single everybody in the whole family, including all my brothers,
Speaker 7: all my siblings, all my cousins, all you know. It
Speaker 7: was just really a definitive document, sixteen page document that
Speaker 7: told me who everybody was and where everybody was, and
Speaker 7: so forth and so on. So as I proceeded through
Speaker 7: life after finding that out. The last one that I
Speaker 7: met officially was Betty She was called to the look.
Speaker 7: When she was called to her ascension, I met on
Speaker 7: the National R and B Music Society was giving her
Speaker 7: a Lifetime Achievement award, and I was, you know, I
Speaker 7: was at president at that awards presentation, and I walked
Speaker 7: over to her after she got the award and I said, congratulations.
Speaker 7: Was right by the way, I'm a descendant of Prince Bell.
Speaker 7: And she jumped up and said cousin and and and
Speaker 7: and so you know, things like that. That's been my
Speaker 7: life to to uh with Jerry Bell from dazz Man
Speaker 7: and formerly of new Birth. He was the lead thing
Speaker 7: of new Birth.
Speaker 16: Uh.
Speaker 28: Yes, I performed with new Birth, and I believe didn't
Speaker 28: didn't He eventually join Cool in the Gang in eighty
Speaker 28: seven when JT left.
Speaker 2: Jerry Bell was the one that sing led her web.
Speaker 11: Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2: He Oh. That explains it. That explains it.
Speaker 3: That is what yo, Because you don't understand when they
Speaker 3: made an album nineteen eighty seven or eighty eight, and
Speaker 3: you know Jat had left the group and they did
Speaker 3: an appearance on Soul Train and Don was trying to
Speaker 3: put two and two together, like, wait, where I know
Speaker 3: you from?
Speaker 2: Where I know you from? He said, Oh, man, Dad's
Speaker 2: been and that is wow. Okay they're cousins.
Speaker 28: Yeah, that is crazy all right.
Speaker 3: So in twenty twenty one, we also had Stephanie Mills
Speaker 3: on the show. Stephanie Dinomant's words when it came to
Speaker 3: her opinions on things, but she did with a love
Speaker 3: and care for the music, especially her peers. And you know,
Speaker 3: Team Supreme showered Stephanie love and she gave it right back,
Speaker 3: and there's a clip reflective of that energy.
Speaker 1: Makes sense of what's happening today at all?
Speaker 2: Or is it just like R and B.
Speaker 20: Well, I think that they've just kind of like killed
Speaker 20: dur and B. They're trying to but we're trying to
Speaker 20: hold on to it as you know. No, I think
Speaker 20: it's very easy for people today to become pop stars
Speaker 20: and they use the word legends and icons and things
Speaker 20: very loosely, and I think that's why a lot of
Speaker 20: people can't sing live. I mean a lot of shows
Speaker 20: are taped a lot of shows you'd be surprised. I've
Speaker 20: been on the road with quite a few artists, and
Speaker 20: mostly predominantly all their whole show is taped. Yeah so,
Speaker 20: but I come from theater, you know, And I'm so glad.
Speaker 20: I'm so thankful every day that, you know, I've learned
Speaker 20: how to sing, whether I can hit that note that night,
Speaker 20: or point to my background singer and hit it. But
Speaker 20: what I do before I go on the road. Does
Speaker 20: I sing all my songs every day so that I
Speaker 20: can sound somewhat like I sounded, you know, and and
Speaker 20: and people won't be scared to hear me. I do
Speaker 20: sing every day because I just love to sing. But
Speaker 20: today's music, I don't think any of today's music you'll
Speaker 20: hear five and ten, fifteen years from now, like you
Speaker 20: do Stevie and Aretha and and and the people from
Speaker 20: the seventies and eighties. I don't think that you'll hear
Speaker 20: this music today.
Speaker 7: Not one y'all don't.
Speaker 9: I'm trying to think in my head like you. I'm sorry,
Speaker 9: I was trying to argue that fact, but okay.
Speaker 14: I don't do.
Speaker 9: I don't know.
Speaker 20: I mean, I love Jasmine Sullivan, but I feel I
Speaker 20: love her as a vocalist, Deborah Cox. I think it's
Speaker 20: a brilliant vocalists.
Speaker 6: And.
Speaker 9: But that's still not in this in the next to
Speaker 9: ten years, in this last years.
Speaker 14: That's not that's not like immediate.
Speaker 20: Like do you think that we'll hear Cardi b stuffed ten.
Speaker 14: To fifteen years from them?
Speaker 18: No?
Speaker 14: Man, So you know that. And that's not to take
Speaker 14: away from anybody.
Speaker 20: I'm not because I don't knock anybody's hustling, But I
Speaker 20: just don't think that you know, their music is gonna
Speaker 20: last ten to fifteen years.
Speaker 12: For me, Miss Stephan, I was gonna ask, so with
Speaker 12: your jam with hip hop? When hip hop, you know,
Speaker 12: kind of came into the just into the industry. You know,
Speaker 12: every episode of Unsung they all have the same story.
Speaker 12: It's like they they were doing great and then rap
Speaker 12: it was over.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. How what was it like
Speaker 2: for you?
Speaker 12: You know what I'm saying when you saw the industry
Speaker 12: kind of starting to shift and you saw what hip
Speaker 12: hop was becoming.
Speaker 2: What was that like for you? And what was your
Speaker 2: relationship to hip hop? If any I didn't have.
Speaker 14: A relationship with hip hop, but I enjoyed it.
Speaker 10: I mean I I don't know.
Speaker 20: I guess some different because I just I just keep
Speaker 20: doing me. I just kept doing what I did. I
Speaker 20: didn't try to change and try to adapt, you know,
Speaker 20: I just I just kept doing another version of me
Speaker 20: whatever that. You know, just keep doing another version of me.
Speaker 20: I love hip hop, you know I I would. I
Speaker 20: Oh my Christmas album I rapped, I wrapped the Red.
Speaker 2: Bars, you know, Yes, I don't know.
Speaker 20: I just I you know, everybody has their thing to do,
Speaker 20: and I think, you know, hey, you just keep on
Speaker 20: going and to come back around.
Speaker 9: I've seen it, but it didn't bother you like the
Speaker 9: Unsung bother me.
Speaker 20: No, I didn't freak out about it now because I could.
Speaker 14: Always go and do theater. I can do other things.
Speaker 20: So I didn't.
Speaker 7: I didn't like.
Speaker 20: Oh god, no, I didn't want anymore anyway.
Speaker 9: If there was a show, what would the show? Is
Speaker 9: there a show you have in mind that you would
Speaker 9: love to do as far as the theater, Yes.
Speaker 20: Melbourne and I are going to do Run.
Speaker 14: It's a woman show.
Speaker 2: Make it happen.
Speaker 14: We're writing it now.
Speaker 9: Oh yes, I'm here.
Speaker 14: We're here for that.
Speaker 2: We're writing.
Speaker 20: Melbourne is just wonderful on stage. We did a We
Speaker 20: did a show called up If Your Hat to Talk,
Speaker 20: and it was just wonderful being on stage with her.
Speaker 2: I can't wait.
Speaker 20: Talk recently and that she was like, let's work together.
Speaker 2: I said, let's do it.
Speaker 14: We found a writer.
Speaker 20: So they're writing it now.
Speaker 2: Oh it's good.
Speaker 17: Get my ears ready?
Speaker 3: Okay, since I wasn't going to ask the question, but
Speaker 3: I mine as well. Have you heard back from Sam
Speaker 3: Smith back at him?
Speaker 2: Oh? Holy forgot about that. She's the she brought smoke.
Speaker 10: I love.
Speaker 20: You know what it is? This is really what it is.
Speaker 6: Talk about it.
Speaker 20: People don't really know my personality because I've always just
Speaker 20: been a singer and on Broadway. But I'm really just
Speaker 20: a hood girl from Brooklyn, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 20: I'm really just that that girl. And I love Michael.
Speaker 20: He's not here to take care of herself and I
Speaker 20: to speak up for herself. And I get tired of
Speaker 20: people who I know have copied sounds. I mean, Sam
Speaker 20: Smith is nothing but Sylvester all over. So you know,
Speaker 20: when you say you don't like our music, how can
Speaker 20: you say that? So I really had to. I felt
Speaker 20: like I have to say something. And my manager's always
Speaker 20: like Okay, I'm gonna let you say this, but you
Speaker 20: gotta say it like this, because sometimes I just think
Speaker 20: people need to back off.
Speaker 9: I don't like when they're they need an education.
Speaker 20: And they need an education, they need it. And I
Speaker 20: don't think people should say things about people and they're
Speaker 20: not here to defend themselves. I mean, if you wanted to.
Speaker 20: It's just like when fifty he was talking about Michael
Speaker 20: and you know, and then his daughter said, please don't
Speaker 20: talk about my father, and then fifty wanted to, you know, go,
Speaker 20: she's a child, you know so I kind of I said,
Speaker 20: why don't you talk to me? I'm more your speed,
Speaker 20: I'm older, you know. So I just I just don't
Speaker 20: like when people are bullies.
Speaker 14: I don't like bullies.
Speaker 18: I don't.
Speaker 9: There you go, Stephanie Miles. I'm telling you, Stephie Mills
Speaker 9: deon word they said in Twitter on fire.
Speaker 20: Okay, he doesn't play, Leon does not play.
Speaker 2: And you know who didn't.
Speaker 14: Play, Aretha?
Speaker 20: Aretha didn't play.
Speaker 17: She didn't really.
Speaker 2: Oh now what was she like? Did you y'all have
Speaker 2: worked together and anything or were y'all just colleagues.
Speaker 20: I lived in Detroit for a couple of years. And
Speaker 20: she used to come. I did a play there and
Speaker 20: she used to come and see me, and towards the
Speaker 20: end of her life we would talk. I talked to
Speaker 20: her about two months before she passed away, and she
Speaker 20: told me a lot of things about Motown and how
Speaker 20: Barry started it and how his sister was involved and
Speaker 20: a father, and it's a conversation I could never talk about.
Speaker 20: But I Lovedaretha. But Aretha took no prisoners.
Speaker 2: When I tell you, she didn't, she didn't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I you know, I guess in closing, I
Speaker 3: would just like to know from this journey you had, like,
Speaker 3: what is your in her career with so many highlights
Speaker 3: in it, what is your like, your your favorite what
Speaker 3: means the most to you of your entire journey, your
Speaker 3: creative journey.
Speaker 20: That I'm still here, That I didn't get on drugs.
Speaker 20: I didn't, you know, because I think about Whitney, and
Speaker 20: I think about Michael, and I think about Prince, I
Speaker 20: think about Gerald and so many times as artists, we
Speaker 20: have so much pressure and wait on us that just
Speaker 20: destroys us. And people don't really understand sometimes what an
Speaker 20: artist is going through. So I think that I'm still here,
Speaker 20: and somewhat my right mind, and that I enjoyed it.
Speaker 20: I'm able to enjoy it and sit back and relax
Speaker 20: and just enjoy it.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, compliments are important, I know, learning how to take it.
Speaker 2: When we have Bernardette Cooper or on QLs.
Speaker 4: The singer from Climax, and that conversation seems supreme.
Speaker 3: And I pointed out how Bernadette's style and persona or
Speaker 3: it was kind of a precursor to hip hop, name dropping,
Speaker 3: design of.
Speaker 4: Brands, confidence, etc.
Speaker 6: Etc.
Speaker 3: It was great to share with them. This was a
Speaker 3: different way of giving flowers.
Speaker 29: I felt, right, if you really look at the character
Speaker 29: that you built, I mean, it's so it's such a
Speaker 29: precursor to what hip hop became ten years later. You
Speaker 29: are probably the first person I ever heard name drop
Speaker 29: like Versace. Yeah, names I never heard of before that
Speaker 29: rappers would start just I became their birthright ten years later.
Speaker 27: And in Tiva, In Tiva, I was fearless. You have
Speaker 27: to understand she and I was and I was in
Speaker 27: and I was in too close and they started sending
Speaker 27: me close and I just kind of like, I just
Speaker 27: kind of spoke my mind.
Speaker 14: I wish I really allowed myself to have, you.
Speaker 27: Know, now you have to be a little bit more
Speaker 27: resolved because everybody is so sensitive and the things that
Speaker 27: you say.
Speaker 2: You know, but that's what age was for, so you
Speaker 2: don't have to do you know.
Speaker 27: You know, I even think about it, you know, I
Speaker 27: even think about my demographics, what they want to hear
Speaker 27: from me, you know, they you know, and I don't
Speaker 27: want to continue and be a caricature of my old self.
Speaker 14: You know.
Speaker 3: I was going to say, do you get tired of
Speaker 3: having to turn it on in a snap like other
Speaker 3: days where you just wish like you never had to
Speaker 3: invent that character too?
Speaker 14: You know, I'm naturally a.
Speaker 27: Comedian, so I'm always that comes very easy from me.
Speaker 27: The character is easy. The character is more easier than
Speaker 27: me being myself.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 27: Yeah, I could bring the character, and I'm much more
Speaker 27: comfortable on stage than I am anywhere, you know, so
Speaker 27: I don't struggle with it at all.
Speaker 14: I don't struggle with it.
Speaker 27: I'm working on now in the product that you hear
Speaker 27: me putting out is kind of the evolution of Bernadette
Speaker 27: Cooper and me who has evolved into the woman and
Speaker 27: kind of like slowing down a little bit so that
Speaker 27: I can perform my songs way until you know, I
Speaker 27: get older and older, my songs will be able to
Speaker 27: And I wish I could do a song on an
Speaker 27: album on Janet Jackson because I think she would be
Speaker 27: good at doing that so she doesn't have to get
Speaker 27: up and do realthm nation and then all of those things.
Speaker 14: That's a lot to be dancing and all that.
Speaker 27: You know, now's the time to kind of slow it
Speaker 27: down and go into the new you and your and
Speaker 27: your demographics will follow because they they're there too.
Speaker 14: They're there too. There's a tram age, you know.
Speaker 27: So that's what I'm doing right now with the projects
Speaker 27: that I'm that I'm working on.
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening in good people, and we have
Speaker 3: more Maine Flowers on QLs dropping next week.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned.
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