WEBVTT - The Whispers 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:13.840 Money. We all take val We are the authority on 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:19.040 all things R and ladies and gentlemen, what's going on. 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:21.439 I am Tank, I'm Ja Valentine and this is the 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:27.720 R and B Money Podcast. The authority, the whole new authority. 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:38.840 Now were whole new authority. It's getting different. It's different today. Yeah, 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:45.360 we will tell you. We talk about we're talking about 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:50.720 the essence of a thing that is so fragile that 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:54.680 that you can't say it too loud. You you have 0:00:54.800 --> 0:01:07.399 to lay to gentlemen some noise. Oh man, we know, 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:19.240 we know what we love. We get it. This is different. 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.080 First of all, man, thank you all so much, Thank 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:26.240 you guys so much, man for coming um this. These 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:30.759 are the type of moments for us, um that really 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.440 bless us, that really bless us when we get to really, 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:41.000 um dabble into the foundation of this whole thing. You 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:43.640 know what I mean, because you know these are these 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:49.040 are roads, dirt roads, gravel roads, um, that were paved. 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:53.080 These are you know, houses that were completely you know, 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.760 built from the ground up that you know, me and 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:58.320 this guy now we get to walk those roads and 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:01.400 we get to go into those buildings because you are 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:07.760 so first, thank you you know what I mean, Um, 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:12.400 you say something because I'm can I start off by 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.080 saying this, please whatever you want, whatever you want. Yes, 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:17.600 let me just say this, Man, to you two young guys, 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:21.840 Jay Tank, We've watched you guys from Afar with a 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:26.079 great deal of admiration, and we talked about this all 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:30.800 the time. We're from two different different generations. What you 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:34.000 two young guys have done, the hit makers, the writing, 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:37.320 we admire it. We want you to know how we 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:40.359 feel about it, and we we say to ourselves all 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:44.639 the time. As time goes on, the circumstance makes things 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:47.200 better for the younger ones. But when we came along, 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.760 we probably didn't have the opportunities that you did, but 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:53.560 we watched you guys take it and run with it. 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.720 And before we started this today, when we're talking about 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:10.839 Jay coming out of retirement, enough, that's grandson. So what 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:14.040 that speaks to, man, it really speaks to what you 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:18.280 guys have taken and done with it. We wish we 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:20.560 would have had the opportunity. You know, we're gonna talk 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.799 about it today, about the obstacles that were in our 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:28.880 way racism the sixties. We didn't have the opportunity, but 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:31.240 we said this all the time, especially with the rappers 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:34.840 because we're in R and B. But the rappers said, 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:37.960 before we let you take our music, we'll sell it 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:41.200 out of our car. Had we taken that stance when 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:44.200 we were coming up, it would have been quite different. 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:46.920 So we watch you guys with all this admiration, man, 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:50.240 because that's what y'all did. You told the industry you're 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:52.360 not gonna mess around, You're not gonna mess us up. 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.080 We determined to do what we do, and you've done it. 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:58.839 And I'm speaking for the whispers when I say this, man, 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:02.120 great just of admiration to both of you. That's what 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:04.240 it means to us. Let me let me add one. 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.000 I'm gonna add one word to what he's saying, and 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.200 it's a short way of saying what you guys did 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:14.680 that we didn't do. You understood the word ownership way 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:18.360 better than we did. We understood it, but when we 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.040 came along, even if we had understood it, we the 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:25.239 times wouldn't allow it. But y'all didn't have that problem. 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:28.440 And I just love you for it because the people 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:31.960 that's gonna be after you, your kids, their kids, they're 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:35.160 gonna learn from you too. You know, so you got 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:39.400 if we didn't understood what ownership really meant, fighting, dying, 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.120 ford do whatever, we've probably been a lot better, but 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.839 we didn't, and we're not. We're not blaming nobody but 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:47.920 us and all the foals we had we put on 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:50.599 us because we got the same brain that you. We 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:53.240 might use a little different, but we all got a brain. 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:55.560 Now how you use it as your problem, But y'all 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:57.920 understood that word ownership. And I don't want to thank 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:02.039 you for it, just the times itself allow you to 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:04.159 do that. Like he said, during the time that we 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:06.960 came along, there was no such thing and they weren't 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:09.240 gonna give it to you. And you were so hungry 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:12.520 at the time just to have a record deal, you 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:14.920 know what I'm saying, because you already knew. Look, if 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:17.280 you'd have walked in and said, Okay, I'll take the deal, 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.640 but I won't own everything that I do, they tell you, 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.120 okay next, that's what would have happened to you. So 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.640 we didn't even have that opportunity and was never afforded 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:30.920 that opportunity. But as you get older, you know, like 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:34.560 the the people like the Ray Charles and you know, 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:36.960 those kind of people were able to go back and 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:41.279 get that ownership. Now that that's been paid for, you guys, 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:44.640 you know, you don't necessarily have to go to a 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.880 record company. There's so many other avenues to put your 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:50.159 record out. Now, we didn't have none of that. So, 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:53.320 like like like guy said, I don't think it was 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:56.920 dumbness on our part, another kind of thing. We just 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.160 didn't have the opportunity and we put it probably have 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:02.480 been railroaded out of the business. So you just kind 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:05.840 of had to flow with the waters until you know, 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:08.360 you got to the position where we are today where 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.080 now we can go back and record everything that done 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:13.560 over the years. But it but it took. It took 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:18.120 some arrogance though. It took some cockiness. The younger generation, y'all. 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:21.200 Y'all was crazy, y'all say I'm not taking the ship 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:26.160 excuse my expression. And that's what it took. I mean, 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.200 you know what I'm talking about. You know, we were humble, man, 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.080 because we were trying to get in the door. You know, 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:34.480 I mean, y'all said, hey, you ain't taking my hip 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:37.880 and sucking it up. That's what y'all, And that's what 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:41.120 needed to be said, you know, not even though when 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.200 you had we said that it still would have been limited. 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.400 But as time moves on, the opportunity to get greater, 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.360 and y'all took advantage of it, and I think it's 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:52.600 just great, man. I just want to extend you guys. 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:55.440 You know a lot of grace right in that regard, 0:06:55.520 --> 0:07:02.320 because you know the idea of thinking for yourself and 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:07.120 wanting to own there's a different There was a different 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:12.280 repercussion in your time then there is in our time, 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:16.239 you know what I mean. And that's from your blood, 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:19.840 sweat and tears of doing everything that you were able 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:23.960 to do right. But you know, it's it's hard to say, 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:27.760 you know, walking the door and have this mind to 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:31.720 want to own something when in those days it could 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:38.080 possibly cost you more than just your career. It's like 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.559 the lyric that jay Z says. He said, I'm coming 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.520 back to get everything that they from what everything that 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.240 they took from the co crush? That's exactly and he 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:50.640 literally did that, and he had to make the decision 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:55.800 of I'm willing to sink or swim. I think for 0:07:56.160 --> 0:08:00.520 us it happened in a couple of ways. I think 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:05.000 obviously in tank situation, it was more so about his longevity, 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.080 because you know, he started off with one of those 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.160 draconian deals, you know what I mean, one of those situations. 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:18.960 He just outlasted it. You know. For me, it started 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:23.040 in a very independent space because obviously, I I started 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:25.239 off as a kid in a group, and I watched 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:28.160 my father get blackballed in music business at a very 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:32.480 young age. So I had to come from a different angle, 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:35.559 so what all. And being from the Bay Area has 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.480 pushed independence in my mind, because, like you said, those 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:40.520 rappers that were going out of the trunk were Bay 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:45.480 Area rappers, absolutely, you know what I mean. So for me, 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.679 I just always had a different mindset of Okay, one, 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:50.400 they're not gonna let me in because of my name 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:54.360 at the time. Um So I gotta go around the corner, 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.080 and I got to create these this buzz and this 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:03.200 whole other thing, and that wish an independent mindset and 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:06.280 then us coming together once we finally locked in. We 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:08.960 looked at it like, you know what, we're willing to 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:12.160 take less in the beginning so it can be greater later. 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.280 And that's how that's how we end up here, betting 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:21.880 on ourselves, on ourselves, real bets, like we've we've said 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:26.080 in some offices and they've had to tell some people. 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.880 You know. Now, I'm gonna roll with him at the 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:33.520 end of the day. Like we always say, we'll split 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:37.160 a happy meal. What I'm saying, I'm gonna roll with 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:39.720 my happy meal. Friends. You know what I'm saying. Before 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:44.160 this construct, tell me what we can and can't do 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.000 and what we're capable of. You know what I mean. 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:51.440 So you know again those are you? You all standing 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:57.400 firm in in any space, in any capacity. Is the 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:00.559 reason for sure, you know what I'm saying. Because there's 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:03.960 there's evolution, there's us being able to watch that and say, 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.520 oh man, how can we learn from that and what 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:10.760 extra can we bring to that with now the new 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:14.599 technology in the world being smaller. Man, you know what 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:20.679 I'm saying. And now it's even crazier. Iso, you know 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:25.720 what I mean. We're back looking for you. It just goes, 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:29.160 we're back looking for you. We're back wanting to feel 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:34.199 how you made us feel. We're back, man, You know 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.720 what I mean. It is a beautiful circle to make. Listen, 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:41.840 you tell me, is it a beautiful man? I tell you, 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:44.600 we feel so honored man to be here talking to 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:49.600 two young guys that are in today's music we come from. 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:52.520 It wasn't like that, and I just said all the time, man, 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:54.719 I'm just so excited to see how watched the young 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.280 talent today and people talk about it. Even we came along, 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:00.480 they said, well, you gotta be careful. We had this 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.160 song called seems like I Gotta Do Wrong before they 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.720 noticed me. That was the title. That was the title, 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:09.480 that was the whole title. Seems like I got to 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:13.319 do wrong. And my mother said, y'all, y'all gonna be y'all, 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:17.120 don't get trouble saying stuff like that. But today that's what, 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:22.680 that's what. Yeah, but we're imagine back then, we had 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:27.120 to be so careful about trying to offend the establishment. 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:29.920 Like live El said, we was trying to get in. 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:33.920 And then let's go twenty years later. You now, we're 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:37.400 talking about twenty years later and you're doing that. You're younger, 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.280 you're twenty years younger than us, and it's still around still. 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:43.680 But the bravery, man, that's what I talked about. What 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.200 y'all did. You said, I gonna roll with him. You 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:50.200 know how brave that was when you did that. You 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:53.200 understand what you was doing what with us? It wasn't. 0:11:53.440 --> 0:12:01.480 It was crazy and done that. But you said, I'm 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:05.200 gonna roll with him. Yeah, I'm gonna you bucking tradition. Man, 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:08.120 Well let me go to youth, let me go back 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:10.000 to the ridge. I'm gonna tell you one quick story 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.120 how we even got our name. It might sound funny, 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:15.839 but it's the God's truth. We went to a little 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:21.800 record company called Dolray Records, owned by Luberdale, who long 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:25.760 he's didn't gone, but he gave us a shot and 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.400 we were auditionally. We never had a problem with the 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.640 singing part. Like most black young acts you know, all 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.640 sing So we went in and we were singing for him. 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.240 He said, man, I love you guys. Sound you got 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:43.280 this soft y'all are different sounds like a whisper. Said 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:47.240 why don't we call you the whispers? And Nick? He said, man, listen, 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:50.840 anything you want to call it. You give us this deal, 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:58.360 you call us the whispers. But the point I make, 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.240 that's what we had to do to it end. We 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:03.600 didn't We didn't know nothing by no money. We wasn't 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.640 even interested in money, even though we needed it. But 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:10.360 that wasn't the point. Back then, we wanted to get 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:14.240 in the door, which we did, and to his credit, 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:17.120 it seems like I gotta do wrong. You love us. 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:19.440 So these are songs that you never heard before. Both 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:21.720 of you were even boy, he wasn't even the world, 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.320 you know, but this is what we had to do 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:27.840 to get in. And like the vel said, so you 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:30.120 can you imagine what you would have said going on 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:32.600 talking about man, listen, I want to deal, but I 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:34.880 got own. You know what you need to told you 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:39.320 where it was. We're gonna call you the Whispers. But now, 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:45.120 like we we love to go back to the beginning. 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.760 And this is a great segue into going to the beginning, 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:52.520 you know what I mean, the inception, the how we 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:57.200 get to the whispers? How did we get to the whispers? Like? 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.160 Was it he even got to that meeting? Was where 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:02.360 you got to that meeting? Wasn't somebody that man? Y'all? 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:05.280 Should you understand something? Y'all? Boy, y'all will be good together? 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:07.680 Like how did that even happen? That was? That was 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:10.440 a strange story. But let's start with the two of us. 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:15.080 Scottie and I born in Fort Worth, Texas, moved to Nevada. 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:18.440 My father worked for the Navy, we eventually came to 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:24.400 Los Angeles. My father was a jazz guy. He thought 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:31.360 rhythm and blues was below him. Wow, I know. Yeah. 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:38.120 We started listening to Motown and the Temptations. My dad said, 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:44.560 wait a minute, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk. 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:49.280 Those are the kings and queens of music. You can't sing. 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:51.720 What do you say? It was R and B what 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:57.000 That's how he felt about that. But as youth like you, guys, man, 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.080 we would listening to Motown like all the young people. 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:02.800 We wanted to be the next Temptations. But we ended 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:07.040 up in the sixties on a talent show, Scotty and 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:12.200 I as the Scott Twins, Nicholas, Marcus and Gordy as 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.840 the Eden Trio. They were performing as a trio. We 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:20.680 were performing as a duet, and while backstage waiting to 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:25.000 go on, we started harmonizing with each other, the five us, 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:29.080 trying to be like what was on the ride, and 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:31.680 we said, a man, after this talent show, we gotta 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.960 hook this up. We can become a vocal group. And 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:39.000 that's how The Whispers was formed. Backstage, backstage high school 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:44.640 talent show, High school talent show Jordan High School in Watch, California. 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:47.440 But we were to do that, and I might add 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:57.600 that we won that talent show. Yeah, never said he 0:15:57.600 --> 0:15:59.200 would tell you that because we did a lot of 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:02.880 talent shows back then. Remember the guy's name Hunter Handcock. 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:05.520 He was this shop, so he'd come through the neighbor 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:07.720 we lived in the projects. He'd come through, and that 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:10.840 was the exciting thing that was gonna happen. Everybody looked forward. 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:13.480 We get a lot of old the start that you go, 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.080 that's even better with putting it. But we would always 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:18.480 end up we were like competing against each other and 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:20.400 neiguatives and man, one of these things, we're gonna win. 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:25.200 One of these we would always win. But like well said, 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:27.360 once we put the sound together and we heard it, 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:31.440 we said, hey, because what we I think with my father, 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:33.440 to his credit, what he did give us that we 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:37.240 didn't know till later, it was valuable, was Bob. For 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:40.520 a while before we got like you was saying, well 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:43.760 what about before that? Before that we were about to 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.440 be back. You know, my father said, if you won't 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.800 learn how to sing, learn how scat and harmonade and harmina. 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:54.200 That's what my father, he was saying, you know he was. 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:56.960 As a matter of fact, it took us me to 0:16:57.000 --> 0:16:59.000 this day when we started singing on and beat. My 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:02.600 father is just a little bit boys sing right what 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:07.080 it means sing right, that's not singing. And it was 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:10.240 but to him, you see what I'm saying. So he said, 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:12.680 if you want to learn to saying scap like ella, 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:18.080 that's the thing. And we did. That's what it. So 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:32.120 that's where but we know later on in life when 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:35.080 we start singing, all that would come into play, and 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.120 it worked to help develop our sound and the whole thing. 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:41.080 And it was whispered you here today. That's where it 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:43.920 pretty much all came. Well, that's what those whispers because 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:49.120 I didn't come along until he came later years later, 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:52.000 the fifteen years Alter and Walter almost joined the group. 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:55.320 He joined the Bottle, came back from Vietnam, rejoined the Whispers, 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:57.520 and that's when he and then I came in about 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:00.280 a year or so after you got drafted. Yeah, I 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.680 got drafted with the Vietnam. Yeah. Really it's been one year. Yeah, 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.960 So how does the government decide to draft one? Can't 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:10.159 do it? Can't do you can't do it. You can 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.960 only take one first any brothers, Yeah first, I ended 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:17.960 up getting draft first born. That's it if they just yeah, 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:21.760 just flipped around in the wound. One time. He was 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:30.840 glad that they took him. I wouldn't have never made it. 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:40.760 There was a young dis draft up in the Bear 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:43.560 of all places. He was the how this thing on 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:45.560 the radio? I dink time I know who you're talking about? 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:51.960 His Sylvester Solon. Yeah, we had a story about your dad. 0:18:52.040 --> 0:19:03.400 We got anything. I got stories. Your dad probably didn't 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:06.720 tell you, but and you may not want be. So 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.960 we was down. We were together, but Slide heard a 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:12.720 record called never Again, That's just jockey, and he said, 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:14.480 maybe what are these guys gonna bring them to it? 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:18.080 He brought us to the Barrier. And when we came 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:20.520 to a blue place called a sportsman club, your dad 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:24.960 met him mentioned there was a sportsman club the showcase 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:31.160 mcchezmos out misress All Barrier. So he brought us from 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:35.480 here to Los Angeles to the Sportsman Club, sly Stone 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:38.680 on the radio, and we were supposed to be there 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:41.119 for like a week. We end up staying there two years. 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:45.840 We were the opening act for every major act that 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:48.560 came through that and that during that time, it was 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:53.760 Curtis mayfield oldest reading. We saw all this reading a 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:57.119 week before he died, came through, but we were the 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:00.960 opening act and that's where we sort of learned, I 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:03.800 call it. That's where we went to craft craft right 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:05.879 there in the bar area. That's why I love the 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:08.240 bury I lived, and he never came to He came 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:10.560 to Buryer, but he never liked it. I lived there 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:14.360 for fourteen years, just me, and when he came he said, 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:17.400 I go back to l A. I can't. It's it's 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:20.359 it's very much. I love love, our hate place. It's 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:25.280 no in between. Yeah, it completely what I learned that 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:27.280 I didn't know when I left the l A like 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:29.919 they called me a hustler. But in Oakland, as you 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:33.639 will know, you better have a hustle. You got you 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:41.000 my friends. Wasn't about going to church on Sunday and 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:44.400 the families standing that all day. Up in Oakland. Everybody 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:47.640 had some other way to make some kind of money. 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:50.399 So that's where I was for fourteen years. When he 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:53.880 came up there, he's an I need to go back 0:20:53.880 --> 0:21:03.600 to ros Yea. Yeah. Yeah, so that's where. Yeah, that's 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:06.840 why I said, The Barrier really made us because we 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:10.200 learned our craft in the Bay Area. Everything that before 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:11.840 we went on the road and all that. It all 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:17.040 started Oakland Bachman Sava the Barrier, so we slide to 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:21.160 his credit. In Los Angeles was such a big metropolis. 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:23.120 If you didn't have a hit record, you couldn't get 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:27.240 on the radio. Sly Stone was the biggest jock in 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:31.360 the Bay Area. If he liked it, you got a shot. 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:35.679 And he heard our song and put it on the 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:38.040 radio station. And that's how we really got our start. 0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:40.399 We had to come back to Los Angeles to be 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:42.800 kind of these are the whispers. They kind of kind 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:45.200 of hit but they thought we were from the bait, 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:47.320 but we originated from We just couldn't get on the air. 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.280 And I'm flat out. My father told me from my 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:57.680 whole life, Yeah, they know we are from the bar 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:01.160 you know, so my whole you know the worst. Yeah, 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:05.320 Well let's you know what is the guy that today 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:10.040 runs our situation. Name is Alonso Award. Your father knew 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:17.280 the Ward Brothers. The Ward Brothers they ran to the Yeah, 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:20.800 that's what you had to get, that's what that's exactly. 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:23.200 You know what I'm talking about. That's what the movie 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:27.600 that's where based on them. That's exactly they ran Oakland 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:31.119 in terms of you want to be a hustler and 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:36.040 a good hustler. Yeah, and them and your dad were 0:22:36.240 --> 0:22:39.600 great friends, you know, and they gave us they kind 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:42.360 of let it. They gave us the acceptance. We did 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:45.840 a talent show and the Ward Brothers were there and 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:49.200 by them applauding for us, that put us on the map. 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:53.680 And wow, hustlers we end up making Olivia Lawson turned out. 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:57.639 That's what that was about. Yeah, Yeah, that's what that 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:06.280 was about. She was on our worthy grandmother's house. Yeah, 0:23:06.440 --> 0:23:14.400 you understand. Yeah, completely. It's so interesting because I'm always asked, 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:18.600 you know, my inspirations and what how did I learn 0:23:18.600 --> 0:23:21.400 how to sing? And you know, it's and I think 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:26.399 Tank and I we we we messed so great because 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:30.240 it's it's R and B music from two different sides. 0:23:31.480 --> 0:23:34.560 Mine is his church, his his church, mind his Catillac. 0:23:36.160 --> 0:23:41.280 That's the best way to and most people don't understand 0:23:41.320 --> 0:23:48.000 the Cadillac side of music. Everybody usually goes towards oh, 0:23:48.040 --> 0:23:51.120 you came from a church. Yeah, I'm like, oh, there's 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:55.520 a whole another side, there's just pure there's hustlers who 0:23:55.560 --> 0:23:59.920 just love music. And literally our vocal coaches as a 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:03.720 kid were all my father's pen friends and exactly you 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:06.000 know what I mean. That just guys who played in 0:24:06.000 --> 0:24:08.440 the band, but they you know, they played a whole 0:24:08.440 --> 0:24:12.480 another game for us. What we grew up on was 0:24:12.560 --> 0:24:16.240 the del Phonics and the Whispers and you know what 0:24:16.320 --> 0:24:19.359 I mean. And in all of these groups, Blue Magic, 0:24:19.600 --> 0:24:22.480 all these groups that really we're singing about the game 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:26.720 that you listen to, those lyrics, those lyrics are completely 0:24:26.720 --> 0:24:33.480 about absolutely gag. So you guys, music always just connected 0:24:33.520 --> 0:24:37.080 to me the most because I'm just like this literally 0:24:37.320 --> 0:24:40.520 is what I see every single day, you know what 0:24:40.600 --> 0:24:43.080 I mean? Man, And just even the way that it 0:24:43.160 --> 0:24:48.400 was worded, yeah, just it was special that we lost 0:24:48.440 --> 0:24:52.600 him into sixteen. But he wrote, like you said about 0:24:52.600 --> 0:24:55.760 the streets, yea, And we sung it as simple as that, 0:24:55.800 --> 0:24:59.720 I don't know those ladies, Yeah, yeah, they want to 0:24:59.720 --> 0:25:01.879 do this. That the ladies to the utmost that and 0:25:01.920 --> 0:25:04.960 everything to him. He said to us, if we respect 0:25:05.000 --> 0:25:08.680 our mothers and sisters and our wives, ladies, you can't 0:25:08.720 --> 0:25:12.320 miss And that's what we did. Lady was the biggest 0:25:12.320 --> 0:25:15.800 ballot that we ever had, you know, and today here 0:25:15.840 --> 0:25:20.720 we are, fifty six years later. I mean if you 0:25:20.800 --> 0:25:24.159 have told me. I mean y'all when you said you retired. 0:25:24.160 --> 0:25:28.360 When we heard that the day I had the pot, 0:25:29.240 --> 0:25:31.960 were looked at each other. We couldn't believe. I just 0:25:32.040 --> 0:25:40.520 wanted to try some other qualify And I tell you saying, 0:25:41.760 --> 0:25:44.919 I'm glad you're back, thank you. I mean, you have 0:25:45.040 --> 0:25:49.840