Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Happy Black
Speaker 1: History Month. From Quest Love Supreme, we have an incredible
Speaker 1: two part QLs classic episode with the legendary Million Jackson
Speaker 1: and her equally legendary daughter, Keisha Jackson. This mother daughter
Speaker 1: tandem was wonderful when QLs got them in Atlanta back
Speaker 1: in September twenty twenty three, Million in particular, kicked down
Speaker 1: many of the work about what you can say on
Speaker 1: record and what you can't say on record.
Speaker 2: She said everything and she's not one of the min's words.
Speaker 2: All right, here's part two. Enjoy. What is it like
Speaker 2: being a teenager in our household? Like? You couldn't be rebellious,
Speaker 2: could you?
Speaker 3: She?
Speaker 4: Yes, she was.
Speaker 5: I was on the road.
Speaker 6: Oh oh okay, okay, so yes, Rebellion was the middle name.
Speaker 7: The maid.
Speaker 4: Oh you had a maid.
Speaker 7: We had a housekeeper. She loved me. She she didn't
Speaker 7: snitch on everything.
Speaker 6: She told some things because she had to be found
Speaker 6: out otherwise. So but she she was my covering, like
Speaker 6: she was such a blessing to me because she loved
Speaker 6: me like I was hers, you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: Her name was Vonnie.
Speaker 6: So there were instances and I don't know if she
Speaker 6: ever knew this, But here comes report cards would come.
Speaker 7: Baby, I had mastered turning an.
Speaker 8: F into then.
Speaker 6: They wrote it, so I would I would find a
Speaker 6: pen if it was a black or if it was
Speaker 6: a blue, I would find a damn pen to match
Speaker 6: the color, and like I would test it on one paper,
Speaker 6: and then I would change it.
Speaker 7: I would change and we had ease as well. But
Speaker 7: ain't no good either.
Speaker 3: That.
Speaker 6: I was like, well, I can't, so I just the
Speaker 6: ones that I could change. I did, so I may
Speaker 6: have two or three fs.
Speaker 2: But then her sign it.
Speaker 6: But depend upon how they wrote it, how quickly they
Speaker 6: wrote it, you might be able to She'd be all right, okay,
Speaker 6: I'm just okay.
Speaker 4: She wanted you know, you want to you could And I.
Speaker 7: Was able to do this because like so in school.
Speaker 2: Wait, I mean you should tell the story now, because
Speaker 2: the way she's start.
Speaker 7: You know what I mean.
Speaker 6: So she would be overseas, you know, back then obviously
Speaker 6: no cell phones, and so she might be gone for
Speaker 6: a month, and we knew when she was coming.
Speaker 7: Look at she barling over.
Speaker 2: She knew that I'm traumatized.
Speaker 7: Listen, Yeah, we knew that.
Speaker 6: You know, there was a certain day of the week
Speaker 6: she was gonna call. That's when I had to be
Speaker 6: at the house by the phone, be inside. Your mother's
Speaker 6: calling at three o'clock, that kind of a thing. But
Speaker 6: I also knew, like there were things going on in school,
Speaker 6: like so if there was a dance, if there was
Speaker 6: something else going on, I wanted to go. But I
Speaker 6: knew the damn report card was in the mail pile,
Speaker 6: and I knew that when she came home, she don't
Speaker 6: know none of.
Speaker 7: This come on, She's just the envelope there.
Speaker 6: Because so the mail would come and the new mail
Speaker 6: boom on top, on top. So I knew exactly where
Speaker 6: the report card was, so before she came, I would
Speaker 6: take the ship and slide it to the bottom. Because
Speaker 6: she only dealt with a couple of pieces of mail
Speaker 6: at a time when she came home.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry if.
Speaker 9: Y'all can see her right way and I can't fire
Speaker 9: it an incredible story to tell you, but that's how
Speaker 9: I used to kind of hustle, Like, Okay, she gets
Speaker 9: home on a Monday, the dances on Friday, I don't
Speaker 9: know how many.
Speaker 6: So she would deal with a couple of pieces of
Speaker 6: mail at a time, and then I'm paying.
Speaker 7: Attention to her. Oh she went through that. Let me
Speaker 7: move it down a little bit further. Let me move
Speaker 7: it down.
Speaker 5: Listen.
Speaker 6: I'm going to this damn dance. But there was one
Speaker 6: time when the damn I didn't. I couldn't go to
Speaker 6: the dance because she beat me to the to the
Speaker 6: you know, the mailpile, beat me to the to the
Speaker 6: to the date. So I had and I recently reminded
Speaker 6: her of this, and she was like, I do not
Speaker 6: remember this. I right, she went to So I had
Speaker 6: a dance on a Friday and asked if I could go.
Speaker 7: She said no, flat out. There was a tomboy me.
Speaker 6: So there was a window in my room second level
Speaker 6: across the hall from her. There was a tree that
Speaker 6: had a trunk just so perfect that I could step out.
Speaker 6: Never did this before this, but I'm going. I'm going
Speaker 6: to this dance. She told me I couldn't go. I
Speaker 6: snuck out of the house, had my girlfriend meet me
Speaker 6: at the corn corner. We got there, changing the car,
Speaker 6: the whole thing, changing the car the whole like.
Speaker 5: Ferrist beauty, like that right.
Speaker 6: Changing the car, came back dance over. I'm thinking, Okay,
Speaker 6: I made it. Let me out at the corner. The
Speaker 6: baby is coming, Let me out at the corner.
Speaker 7: I give it.
Speaker 6: I stuffed my bed like you were because I went
Speaker 6: to camp and I learned all that kind of shipping
Speaker 6: camp until they touch you, but until they touch you.
Speaker 6: But you know, you, you know, you're looking in the
Speaker 6: in the dark, like if she sleep, all the baby sleep.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So I come back in the window. Now you know,
Speaker 6: this was a task climb back up the tree.
Speaker 7: It was. It was a short you know, get up
Speaker 7: the tree, come back in the window.
Speaker 2: One thing. If you're climbing and you go into a dance.
Speaker 7: No, it wasn't. It wasn't you know.
Speaker 2: It was just regularly.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I remember, tell us what I had on.
Speaker 6: But I worked it out. Slide back in the window.
Speaker 6: I'm tipping, tipping. Let me hang on my ship in
Speaker 6: the closset. When slide the closset door closed, I won.
Speaker 6: I pulled back them goddamn covers and she was under
Speaker 6: the door.
Speaker 7: I'm like, I mean, I'm quiet, I'm like.
Speaker 5: Oh, ship, I did it.
Speaker 7: I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 6: I got and slide it back and she standing there like.
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, so, what did your mom I'm
Speaker 3: curious after that what happened?
Speaker 6: I was, I screamed, uh huh. The housekeeper Vnnie was
Speaker 6: knew about it. She outside the door, like wait, she
Speaker 6: waiting for the sounds and shed outside the door.
Speaker 7: She already know. I pulled back the covers and she
Speaker 7: just said.
Speaker 6: I screamed at the top of my voice, and then
Speaker 6: I got my ass.
Speaker 2: I mean, you only child, It was just you.
Speaker 6: Well by this time, no my brother, but he's eleven.
Speaker 4: Years just out of curiosity. Is many does she pick
Speaker 4: up something?
Speaker 7: Is she a hand?
Speaker 4: Is she a switch?
Speaker 7: She's not a hand, She's a switch and a belt.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I have to go get it.
Speaker 3: And I had to pick the belt back out to
Speaker 3: that tree and get me a switch.
Speaker 7: The belt drawer was right next to the wig draw.
Speaker 4: So you bet not touch me, you know.
Speaker 6: I'd be around the house playing like you know, and
Speaker 6: then go up, says and get get a belt.
Speaker 4: You know where it is because you got that wig,
Speaker 4: so you know what the belt.
Speaker 2: I would hide the belt after whipping the next day.
Speaker 7: I want to an entire draw.
Speaker 6: There was no hiding, and and if I didn't pick
Speaker 6: the right one, it was gonna last a little bit.
Speaker 2: Long where I had so many belts that it's it's
Speaker 2: bad enough when your parents ask you to help them,
Speaker 2: like go outside. I remember once my dad was like, wait, wait,
Speaker 2: hold this for me, and then he had get like
Speaker 2: a vacuum that wasn't working, so like picked up the
Speaker 2: chord and he could like it was a moment when
Speaker 2: we just had a three minute like wait wait wait,
Speaker 2: how many into see like we're like, I'm like, why
Speaker 2: am I aiding in my own abuse? Like what.
Speaker 7: Too long? If I it was just it was hell wow.
Speaker 2: So when when did you realize that you two had
Speaker 2: a voice and that you wanted to pursue this?
Speaker 6: She always called me on stage like when did you
Speaker 6: first start?
Speaker 7: I mean from it's as long as I can remember.
Speaker 6: Honestly, I would come to shows and she would say,
Speaker 6: ke should come here. I'm always sitting on the side
Speaker 6: most of the time and she would say come here.
Speaker 6: But it would be on the most random ship. So
Speaker 6: if loving you is wrong, here you go, ad lib.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 7: I don't know nothing about this.
Speaker 6: So I would do oohs and od's and those kinds
Speaker 6: of things, and she was always like, you know, so
Speaker 6: she always encouraged me until I wanted to do it,
Speaker 6: like this is gonna be my living because she said,
Speaker 6: you're going to college, You're going to be a lawyer.
Speaker 7: Because I was, I went to It didn't matter Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Speaker 7: They wasn't about shit. So I was just going to
Speaker 7: college just to say I went to college.
Speaker 5: That's it.
Speaker 6: But she was, you're going to go to college and
Speaker 6: you are going to be a lawyer, because she was like,
Speaker 6: you argue back better than anybody I know.
Speaker 7: So that's what it was gonna be.
Speaker 6: And so that's how when I when I decided that,
Speaker 6: I was singing like national anthems and doing all that
Speaker 6: kind of stuff on campus, and she was like, you
Speaker 6: are wasting my money because I just that's what I
Speaker 6: wanted to do.
Speaker 4: When did your mind change?
Speaker 2: Milly?
Speaker 4: Still she's supposed to be a lawyer. She she still
Speaker 4: go back and be a lawyer.
Speaker 2: Still, she's still thinking about the report.
Speaker 7: She's still thinking about the report card.
Speaker 2: Were you were your high school friends aware of who
Speaker 2: your mom was, because also, I mean epigenetics, you look
Speaker 2: just like her.
Speaker 6: No, they weren't aware because a couple of the report
Speaker 6: card episodes and the sneaking out of the house and
Speaker 6: in climbing trees and ship she decided, you're going to
Speaker 6: boarding school?
Speaker 2: Oh wow, okay, so I didn't go to team.
Speaker 7: At high school.
Speaker 6: I went to elementary and uh junior high school as
Speaker 6: it was called. And then when it came time for
Speaker 6: me to go to to to high school.
Speaker 7: She sent me to boarding school.
Speaker 8: And that's why in South Jersey listen.
Speaker 6: But it was also because it was also because radio
Speaker 6: was was all like everything was played on the same station.
Speaker 7: But yeah, that's that probably was my introduction.
Speaker 2: To what is now called you what is boarding school? Like?
Speaker 7: It was? It was awful. It wasn't like.
Speaker 2: Not not overseas in Switzerland.
Speaker 7: No, no, it wasn't like Marstown.
Speaker 6: Okay, like Men of New Jersey right outside of Marstown, Jersey.
Speaker 6: There that was like there was okay, there was sixty
Speaker 6: students in the entire school and the school went from
Speaker 6: from seven to twelve.
Speaker 7: So there was some classes you'd have by yourself.
Speaker 4: There's and a lot of eyes on you.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I hated it though, but so I once again another
Speaker 6: confession that she don't know about.
Speaker 2: I would great.
Speaker 7: I would just mess up and do shit that I knew.
Speaker 6: She didn't want me to do so she could take
Speaker 6: me out.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, okay, because I felt like she's paying all
Speaker 3: of this money for me to go to the school.
Speaker 7: Then, you know, the uniform is supposed to be below
Speaker 7: the knee.
Speaker 6: I would hear my pleating skirt higher up in the
Speaker 6: middle of the thigh.
Speaker 7: And there was always kind of.
Speaker 4: Stuff your sister understand that I.
Speaker 7: Was doing, but it didn't It didn't make a difference.
Speaker 6: So they were called and I was always very good
Speaker 6: friends with it.
Speaker 7: It was run by a convent, so the sisters.
Speaker 6: The sisters were always they love They loved me though,
Speaker 6: so when I wanted to be on the cheerleading squad,
Speaker 6: she told me, no extracurriculars.
Speaker 7: You better get this damn school work done. Da da da.
Speaker 7: But the sisters was like, oh, I'm gonna call your mother.
Speaker 6: So when when sister Barbara Jean, we call mommy to
Speaker 6: say always had two names, Susanne, Elizabeth, Laura Catherine. They
Speaker 6: all had to real stack was very real. Then she
Speaker 6: would they would call her on my behalf to say,
Speaker 6: you know, she's really great. You know, we think that
Speaker 6: she would be a great cheerleading captain, you know, And
Speaker 6: they got a taste the hut.
Speaker 7: She didn't give a damn if it was God damn
Speaker 7: money up bring her don't So, yeah, they didn't catch.
Speaker 8: They And I feel like that's that's an animated Millie
Speaker 8: Jackson cussing out a nun like, oh my god, take
Speaker 8: that to adults.
Speaker 2: But this even goes further because now your daughter is
Speaker 2: performing with you, Yes, so are you?
Speaker 6: Is?
Speaker 2: First of all this is is she aware?
Speaker 7: Knows how old is she always has been? She's thirty three?
Speaker 2: Now, wow, black does not crack right here?
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's crazy black.
Speaker 4: Don may put it, package it up, sell it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, say trick Daddy's I'm a thug? Was that
Speaker 2: like the introduction, like you know this grandmom's song right
Speaker 2: there that he's sampling d or whatever? Like how what
Speaker 2: was the entry point? Yeah?
Speaker 6: For my daughter, Yes, she's always known, like I've always
Speaker 6: she's always been I've always been very clear about who
Speaker 6: your grandmother is and who you know. Just the legacy
Speaker 6: has always been very very important to me. So she's
Speaker 6: always she's always known that.
Speaker 2: Okay, why didn't you want her to sing?
Speaker 7: She was a sweetie pie? She still is a sweet pie.
Speaker 7: She's a sweety pie. It's skipted. It's very much like
Speaker 7: my mother. They probably best.
Speaker 6: She don't do all the cussing and stuff like that,
Speaker 6: but she plays no games. She's very and then just
Speaker 6: the whole they're prissier, they're more women like this ship is.
Speaker 6: I'm you know, tomboy sneakers, so I'll be closer to
Speaker 6: a big girl.
Speaker 7: She she wants to wear. She wants to be like that.
Speaker 7: I know, so she's.
Speaker 2: Wow, why do you want to be a lawyer? Supposed
Speaker 2: to being a singer?
Speaker 10: I was black and being a lawyer was a good
Speaker 10: job to have for a black person. So I wanted
Speaker 10: her to be a good one and be able to
Speaker 10: give me advice on my career and stuff because she
Speaker 10: know what attorneys do and the attorneys that I knew,
Speaker 10: I knew more about the law than they did.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and she always said that, like, go to school
Speaker 6: and be a lawyer so you can take care of
Speaker 6: the family, like in terms of.
Speaker 3: Legal But between you and me, was there ever a
Speaker 3: moment where you were at a show and she was
Speaker 3: singing and you went, that's my baby all the time?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 3: Was there a first show where you went okay, no, okay.
Speaker 5: She had it on as Mama and daddy.
Speaker 4: Oh, daddy was singing, yeah as well.
Speaker 8: Okay, what about your parents were they musically did they
Speaker 8: sing play at all?
Speaker 10: My mother died when I was two, oh man, so
Speaker 10: that was just me and my father and his other
Speaker 10: six wives.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 6: Before he passed, he died nine times. I mean he
Speaker 6: before he passed, he married nine times. The last time
Speaker 6: was like.
Speaker 5: Because he didn't want to get rid of me a
Speaker 5: couple of years before.
Speaker 10: He he was one termine that I was going to
Speaker 10: stay with him, so he had to do what he
Speaker 10: had to do, so have a woman and and some
Speaker 10: of most of them on the last couple of years.
Speaker 6: But because he was competitive, like you know, so you
Speaker 6: Daddy's girl, yes, wow, But they wanted they wanted, like
Speaker 6: what's going on?
Speaker 10: So it became not only was Daddy's girl. I was
Speaker 10: the waitress and you know I served the liquor on
Speaker 10: Friday and Saturday because my daddy made Cone liquor.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2: So, as a fan of your work, there's a question
Speaker 2: I always wanted to ask, And you know, I don't
Speaker 2: know Marlena Shaw, I don't know Linda Clifford, the the
Speaker 2: women who are strong willed. The women of soul who
Speaker 2: are strong willed on their albums. How hard is it
Speaker 2: or how hard was it for men not to be
Speaker 2: intimidated by you if they're meeting you during your your
Speaker 2: your career, and I'm talking about from the seventies, eighties,
Speaker 2: nineties and on, like, how long is it before they're
Speaker 2: just like, forgive me Steve Check please, Like.
Speaker 5: Oh, well, actually it didn't happen, you know, so you
Speaker 5: would turn it off stage. My husband was my bass player.
Speaker 10: Oh okay, I was determined that we would not have
Speaker 10: an anniversary.
Speaker 7: So they were married six months.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm doing the math in my head. Wow, six months.
Speaker 10: Yeah, we got married. We were together for two years,
Speaker 10: but when we got married it was over because, you know,
Speaker 10: he went to I got a phone call from Spring
Speaker 10: and they were very upset. And I couldn't figure out
Speaker 10: why they were so upset. And they say, because your
Speaker 10: husband came and he gave us a list of things
Speaker 10: he wanted and did not want, and blah blah blah
Speaker 10: blah blah, and we're just hoping that you'll stay with us.
Speaker 10: And I said, excuse me, could you get off the phone?
Speaker 10: And Roy Rifkins say huh, I says, why are you
Speaker 10: wasting my time with this? She said, well, he came
Speaker 10: to see us, I said, but I didn't come to
Speaker 10: see you, and you won't see him again, So why
Speaker 10: are you wasting my time?
Speaker 5: And that was the end of him, the end of
Speaker 5: the marriage.
Speaker 2: Wow, I seek I gave.
Speaker 10: I gave him his part of the money that I
Speaker 10: had put into the bank account.
Speaker 5: Every week I would say it was his.
Speaker 6: This is yours, you know, allow, this is your money
Speaker 6: to throw away.
Speaker 5: I don't care what you do with it. God, this
Speaker 5: is in the bank.
Speaker 10: And when when we broke up, he had eight thousand
Speaker 10: dollars in the bank and I gave it to.
Speaker 2: The real one because I know women now are professional
Speaker 2: sing alimony.
Speaker 5: And I gave him his eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: Anybody approached you about this movie or has there? Did
Speaker 4: I miss a movie that was made? Because I know.
Speaker 10: I started to write Millie, Okay, that's the title, Just Millie.
Speaker 4: That's all it needs to be.
Speaker 5: And I'm fifteen, what you mean that's.
Speaker 4: All she's got. Wow, you're gonna need some help with that.
Speaker 7: I'm saying.
Speaker 10: I got some help, and I got the person to
Speaker 10: come and we sat down and went through all of
Speaker 10: this like we're doing now. And they came back with
Speaker 10: the whole script two weeks later, and I read about
Speaker 10: half of it before I told them to get the
Speaker 10: fuck out.
Speaker 2: It wasn't good.
Speaker 5: It wasn't bad.
Speaker 7: It just wasn't me.
Speaker 5: They was It wasn't.
Speaker 6: They decided that they was gonna this is more interesting
Speaker 6: and we're gonna change it to this.
Speaker 4: You don't you know?
Speaker 10: So I gave them thank you for the paper, and goodbye.
Speaker 2: Nes them. Okay, I'm talking to you. You have roots
Speaker 2: here in Atlanta especially, and or could you talk about
Speaker 2: your history with the Organized Noise family and how you
Speaker 2: got involved in that session work because I guess I
Speaker 2: first met you when you were singing with Outcasts when
Speaker 2: we were touring, and you've been with them for the longest. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so how did like, can you just explain that the
Speaker 2: circle and that legacy? Okay?
Speaker 7: All them?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 6: So, So the way that came about was I signed
Speaker 6: my deal with Epic. We started off CBS associated yes,
Speaker 6: which turned into Epic bought by Sony. That was a awful,
Speaker 6: terrible deal. Awful, I mean I just signed what do
Speaker 6: you want to me? What you want over here to
Speaker 6: sign it?
Speaker 7: What this too?
Speaker 2: So this is you signed as a solo artist?
Speaker 6: Yeah, this is me signed as a solo artist. And
Speaker 6: so we were. It was just at an age where
Speaker 6: we were just knocking hands and at one point.
Speaker 2: What year is this? This was eighty eighty eight was
Speaker 2: first record?
Speaker 7: Eighty nine it came out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, eighty eight.
Speaker 7: Is when we hour the week.
Speaker 2: Really the second one was in ninety one. How did
Speaker 2: you get were you fans of the Tough Crew? Like,
Speaker 2: how did you get lak?
Speaker 7: You don't know how that shit went came down?
Speaker 2: So that was a very random I'm from Philly, so okay,
Speaker 2: he's a guy that I said. I'm like, Okay, that's weird.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so it was I got signed, I signed a deal.
Speaker 6: There was a group in Atlanta called the Voltage Brothers,
Speaker 6: and I was doing session work for them. Like they
Speaker 6: called me randomly and said like studio in the house
Speaker 6: in the closet with stocking panty holes on it, and
Speaker 6: it was like literally one of them, so about how
Speaker 6: holy you At this time this was that I.
Speaker 7: Had just moved down from college.
Speaker 6: So this was eighty maybe eight eighties, late eighty seven.
Speaker 7: Okay, they asked me to can you come and demo this?
Speaker 6: Yeah, they came asked me to demo this song for
Speaker 6: them because they were trying to submit it to Diana Ross.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 7: It was called Hot Little Love Affair.
Speaker 6: So they submitted the song, but they the label said, well,
Speaker 6: who's the girl singing it? And so they decided, well,
Speaker 6: this is not going to be for Diana. If the
Speaker 6: girl wants a deal, she's got a deal. And then
Speaker 6: once they's like this is Millie Jackson's daughter, they were like, oh,
Speaker 6: this is easy.
Speaker 7: This is easy.
Speaker 6: They didn't have to put Hella stuff into promotions and
Speaker 6: stuff like that. It ain't nothing but a hot Little
Speaker 6: Love affair, which kind of went with them. Oh that
Speaker 6: kind of thing, right, So that happened. I signed the deal.
Speaker 6: Everybody took everything from me, and I was like okay.
Speaker 6: So I asked Hank Calwell was the head of the
Speaker 6: black music department there, and I asked, can I just
Speaker 6: get out of this deal? So I did the second
Speaker 6: the second album, and.
Speaker 7: They pushed the producers out the way because they were
Speaker 7: they were trashed. And then that's where all those other
Speaker 7: connections came.
Speaker 6: And basically Vivian Scott right, she's the one. She was
Speaker 6: my product manager and she she did all that stuff.
Speaker 6: So half of it was done on the East coast,
Speaker 6: half was done on the West coast.
Speaker 2: He also worked with Jay Swift before he produced I did.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so we did that. God he let me off.
Speaker 6: The he let me because Michael Jackson. First of all,
Speaker 6: that was the year that Babyfaces whipp A Peel, the
Speaker 6: first Freshman album solo album came out. Michael Jackson was
Speaker 6: on the label. I still wasn't getting no love even
Speaker 6: though I didn't have these these producers. So it was
Speaker 6: like I was like, can I.
Speaker 5: Please just go?
Speaker 6: So I had to wait out the production, the publishing.
Speaker 6: I waited it out. I was already in Atlanta and
Speaker 6: randomly randomly got a call one day from La Red
Speaker 6: from Charlotte's who used to be his assistant, saying can
Speaker 6: you come and La Reed would like you to do
Speaker 6: to come to the studio tonight to do a background session. Now,
Speaker 6: I had never done background for anybody but myself on
Speaker 6: those two records that didn't do nothing. They went paper.
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying, not go the paper like
Speaker 6: they didn't do nothing. So we went to the studio
Speaker 6: and he was like we got this new artist Tony.
Speaker 7: Okay, well what's the song? Seven whole days?
Speaker 6: So that was my first studio session ever really ever, right,
Speaker 6: background vocal session, and so we did that.
Speaker 7: Then that was good. I kept getting calls from them.
Speaker 6: Our cast wasn't signed yet, so I kind of vaguely
Speaker 6: knew about ourcasts. But I still had a whole lot
Speaker 6: of North in me, so I really wasn't really hip
Speaker 6: to it, not really even like welcoming it, you know
Speaker 6: what I mean, like, you know, that's kind of how yeah,
Speaker 6: and Atlanta just felt slow. It was just slower moving everything.
Speaker 6: You go to McDonald's, take why is you taking so long?
Speaker 2: On New York?
Speaker 7: It's all the time, you know what I'm saying. Yeah,
Speaker 7: one minute to get the food out.
Speaker 6: So Joy, me and Joy had kind of I forgot
Speaker 6: how we met, but I started singing with her. One
Speaker 6: day she called me and said, I have to work
Speaker 6: on my record cast. And I didn't know who she
Speaker 6: was done one the time, because I didn't know cast
Speaker 6: was outcast. She was like, cast is going on the road.
Speaker 6: This was at the end of a t Alians at
Speaker 6: Alians Equimini. It was right in there, and so she
Speaker 6: was like, cast is going on the road on a
Speaker 6: tour next week, the promo tour starting in Paris.
Speaker 7: Can you go?
Speaker 6: And I was like when she was like in six days,
Speaker 6: So I was like, well yeah, because for me I
Speaker 6: needed work. I didn't have no record deal, I don't
Speaker 6: have nothing. So I was like yeah, but now I
Speaker 6: got to figure out do you have.
Speaker 2: A passport at this timeport?
Speaker 6: I had a passport but did not know song the
Speaker 6: first so she said rehearsal. You gotta go to rehearsals.
Speaker 6: Rehearsal is I said, when she said tonight, God, so
Speaker 6: I am trying my damns.
Speaker 7: You know, I literally went to like Turtles, Oh.
Speaker 6: I gotta find a record exactly stream it ain't no streaming.
Speaker 7: I had to find the record.
Speaker 6: So I went to Turtles to find as much as
Speaker 6: I could on them, just so I could be half
Speaker 6: ass prepared for for rehearsal.
Speaker 2: That night.
Speaker 7: Came in and that's when I met everyone, like for
Speaker 7: the first time, walked in the room. It was rehearsal.
Speaker 10: It was go.
Speaker 6: It was you know, and and nobody's telling me shit
Speaker 6: because really they didn't. Joy did all the backgrounds, yeah,
Speaker 6: her and Peaches, Yeah you got her and Peacher.
Speaker 7: Stacked all the background.
Speaker 6: Peaches was there, right, but I was still the new
Speaker 6: kid on the block, so I was still like nobody.
Speaker 2: Gave a shit and was this the same Peach as
Speaker 2: this wild Peace?
Speaker 7: And so I didn't know. I you know, I'm just
Speaker 7: and I have a good ear, so I just listened.
Speaker 6: They played through once second time I'm in you know
Speaker 6: so and we rehearsed for five days and then we
Speaker 6: we went on the road.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 6: And it was the very first show was a hotel
Speaker 6: conference room at the Louver Hotel in Paris, and it
Speaker 6: was just a bunch of it was that and I
Speaker 6: was like, we done did all of this for this,
Speaker 6: Like you know, you felt like there was thirty people
Speaker 6: in the room and nobody really clapped and nobody really
Speaker 6: gave a shit, and it was like, oh, this is whack,
Speaker 6: like I and I didn't realize because I didn't have
Speaker 6: that for my project. So that was you know, I
Speaker 6: was like, oh, I don't know if I want to
Speaker 6: work with our cats.
Speaker 7: But that was for BMG.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was about to say it was for distribution, so.
Speaker 7: I mean, you know, I didn't know it was just show.
Speaker 7: We got to show Okay, show me what time, tell
Speaker 7: me what time to be at the airport. So that
Speaker 7: was kind of it.
Speaker 6: When we went back home and came back a month later,
Speaker 6: PANDEMONI like like just seeing white kids lined up in
Speaker 6: sneaping bags around the corner or curving, we were like
Speaker 6: holy shit, like and we were all big dre everybody.
Speaker 6: We were just looking out the window like, oh, like
Speaker 6: we just did not know it was Beatles level Pandemoni,
Speaker 6: and we just had no idea. And so that's kind
Speaker 6: of when that when that really just kind of kicked off.
Speaker 6: But I was on the line live shows from then on,
Speaker 6: and Joy did all the studio stuff. So Sleepy came
Speaker 6: out with a project Sleepy Stemeiny.
Speaker 7: Room, binyl Room that was me, and he was like,
Speaker 7: I just want you. So I did most of the backgrounds.
Speaker 2: And you on Choked Out Saturday Night.
Speaker 6: I want choked Out Me, Me and Joy actually on
Speaker 6: Choked Out, but you can tell like there's a difference,
Speaker 6: and so that's what he wanted. He wanted the the
Speaker 6: contrast and voices and stuff like that. So that's kind
Speaker 6: of when that started, you know, you know, but I
Speaker 6: never did like goodie. It was all family, but like
Speaker 6: I was just always kind of locked into cast.
Speaker 2: Were you on society or so, or you on that.
Speaker 7: I wasn't on society.
Speaker 6: So I actually went to audition for Society. So prior
Speaker 6: to the meeting, and Deborah Killings called me and said, baby,
Speaker 6: baby Deva, honey. Deborah Killings called and said, you know
Speaker 6: they're doing these auditions out of or not, but I
Speaker 6: think they got somebody and it was a girl named Ronnie.
Speaker 6: So I was like, well, ain't no sense of me
Speaker 6: going on? She was like, I think you should still go.
Speaker 6: I was like, no, I'm not going about to be
Speaker 6: big and nobody and it was all of that. So,
Speaker 6: you know, it was interesting though, because I also did
Speaker 6: uh work with the Brat, Like Mommy did an intro
Speaker 6: on Brat's one of Brat's albums, and then the following album,
Speaker 6: she asked me to do a hooks on this song
Speaker 6: called get Somebody, and I felt kind of, you know,
Speaker 6: I didn't really know like Dungeon family, you know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying, Because I knew that. I mean, it wasn't
Speaker 6: any bee, but people didn't really go from one, like
Speaker 6: even Ludacris's camp, like people didn't jump he stayed yeah,
Speaker 6: And so I didn't know how they would feel about that.
Speaker 6: But for me, like, I'm not signing, I'm exactly and
Speaker 6: I wasn't Dungeon family anywhere, And in my head, I
Speaker 6: was like, I was doing this fine, I want to
Speaker 6: do you know what I mean. So, but you know,
Speaker 6: it ended up being fine, but it was definitely a thought, you.
Speaker 2: Know, I see, all right, we do have to wrap up,
Speaker 2: but you gotta please tell me how your yacht rock
Speaker 2: project started? In what's was the whole genesis? No no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: no cameras out there. Can you tell me about the
Speaker 2: yacht Rock Review project.
Speaker 7: So there was a guy named Graham Marsh.
Speaker 6: We had done some studio stuff together and there was
Speaker 6: he was doing some corporate stuff for like home Depot,
Speaker 6: and Home Depot had this contest that year where they
Speaker 6: were their employees could audition and sing whatever and they
Speaker 6: get to go to Vegas for like a week and
Speaker 6: do this talent show for their corporate annual meeting. Kind
Speaker 6: of a thing, but it was the entertainment. So yacht
Speaker 6: Rock Review was the band that Graham had brought in
Speaker 6: and then he brought me in to sing background. So
Speaker 6: after we did that one corporate gig in Vegas. It
Speaker 6: was like, oh, this is Buttera, Like how much is
Speaker 6: my check? And I'm just singing like cover songs like
Speaker 6: it was amazing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, are we doing the annual?
Speaker 6: I was waiting for the annually. I brought my daughter out.
Speaker 6: We was hanging out and you know, but anyway, yacht
Speaker 6: Rock Review was the band. I was a singer, and
Speaker 6: after that first thing, they said, you know, would you
Speaker 6: be interested in singing with us? Because they just wanted
Speaker 6: to make the harmonies more full and everybody plays.
Speaker 7: And da da dah. So that's kind of how that started.
Speaker 6: And then after about a year they were like, we
Speaker 6: want to bring in another singer, do you know anybody?
Speaker 7: And I was like, my daughter, you know, but she
Speaker 7: and she and we're a good.
Speaker 6: Contrast because she's like that has a high, clean, mini
Speaker 6: ripperting kind of thing going on.
Speaker 7: And so that's what that's been doing.
Speaker 6: So but because of boarding school, I knew all the
Speaker 6: music anyway, you know, Hall and Oaks, Doobie Brothers.
Speaker 7: I knew all of it anyway.
Speaker 6: And then I found out soon after that they were
Speaker 6: the ones who actually trademark branded it, you know, like
Speaker 6: so they were I don't know if they were the
Speaker 6: first people to actually do it, but.
Speaker 7: Got rock review.
Speaker 2: Uh huh wow yeah.
Speaker 7: And so I've been working with them now for seven years.
Speaker 2: Wow yeah.
Speaker 7: And did the album? Did one album? Which I have
Speaker 7: a piece of vinyl for you, Yes, yeah, I will
Speaker 7: take it.
Speaker 6: And I was trying to give it to you at Fallon,
Speaker 6: but my luggage got lost, and so I'm running around.
Speaker 6: We're big the last time we did it, and I'm
Speaker 6: running around New York trying to find all black because
Speaker 6: my bags never made it.
Speaker 7: So the album never made it, but it's here.
Speaker 2: Thank you, yes, thank you. Uh ladies. I have to say,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm still thinking about the whole climbing in
Speaker 2: the tree and she still think, imagine my dad, Oh
Speaker 2: yeah that was the report.
Speaker 8: Oh my god, pulling the sheet back and seeing Oh
Speaker 8: my god, I mean I might have to be a movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a black version of my mind.
Speaker 4: She said, it's me bitch with the.
Speaker 2: End with the with the end of your house party.
Speaker 2: No for real, you know, seriousness. Uh you know, we
Speaker 2: first of all, thank you guys for doing our first
Speaker 2: episode in almost three years in person.
Speaker 3: Uh p s a mirror when we said we was
Speaker 3: doing this job with the first was like, we gotta
Speaker 3: call Keisha and get her and her mommy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely right, such you know, immense fan of yours.
Speaker 2: This is this is one talented fucking family. Yeah with
Speaker 2: pH thank you on behalf of and Millie and Fan
Speaker 2: Ticcolo and Laya and Sugar Steve. Shout out to cousin
Speaker 2: Jake and unpaid Bill somewhere on Sesame Street. This quest
Speaker 2: love and we'll see you later.
Speaker 6: No, no, no, I have to give you the name
Speaker 6: of my latest album. And you think I came up
Speaker 6: here for nothing, just not get nothing?
Speaker 2: Forgot, Yes, let's face the bills. What do you what
Speaker 2: are we working?
Speaker 10: Nellie Jackson on the soul countryside that's right, yes, wow.
Speaker 7: And the guy she's going to cover with was a
Speaker 7: boyfriend and I didn't like him.
Speaker 2: That was.
Speaker 5: So long ago I forgot.
Speaker 2: Yes, I know that record cover very well.
Speaker 10: But being born, you know, right down the road, the
Speaker 10: only thing you could get was country. So I grew
Speaker 10: up with country music except well after midnight. If you
Speaker 10: put your hand on the radio and use it as
Speaker 10: an antenna, you could picture Nashville, which which was the
Speaker 10: R and B side of Nashville.
Speaker 2: You know, yes, But.
Speaker 10: When I'm know when I'm in my car, which once
Speaker 10: or twice a week, for half an hour, I'm listening
Speaker 10: to country.
Speaker 7: Music, don't touch her radio in the car.
Speaker 2: It's country I would I understand that. Who are some
Speaker 2: of your favorite artists? Well?
Speaker 5: Uh, I put it to you like this.
Speaker 10: When I went to Carnegie Hall to see Kenny Rogers,
Speaker 10: he said, if he had known I was in the audience,
Speaker 10: he would not singing sweet music.
Speaker 7: She redid some music man, and he presented her with
Speaker 7: like a million dollar gold check. Go play the check
Speaker 7: on a gift box.
Speaker 5: Don't yes. But I was riding to the supermarket one
Speaker 5: day and I heard.
Speaker 10: This song, I'm gonna drive like hell through your neighborhood,
Speaker 10: pulled my silver rodder up on your lawn.
Speaker 5: Crank up a little hank, sit on the hood and drink.
Speaker 5: I'm about to get my pist off phone.
Speaker 1: Who is that?
Speaker 5: I said, Wait a minute, what I could.
Speaker 7: Get my pist off?
Speaker 4: One pist off on right?
Speaker 10: I want to get my pist off phone, and I'm listening,
Speaker 10: gonna shine my headlights up into your window, throw empty
Speaker 10: beer cans at both of your shadows. I didn't come
Speaker 10: here to start a fight, but I'm up for anything tonight.
Speaker 7: You've gone and broke the wrong hard baby.
Speaker 5: Left me.
Speaker 6: Read that crazy, I said, kiss my ass right when
Speaker 6: I got to that lyric. I can't sing no reddeck crazy,
Speaker 6: but I like getting my pistol phone.
Speaker 10: I went on to the store, came back home, went online,
Speaker 10: look up again, called the band and say We're going
Speaker 10: to the studio tomorrow and.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna shine my head lights up into your window.
Speaker 10: I'm gonna throw empty beer canes at both of your
Speaker 10: shadows with r and beats. All right, I didn't come
Speaker 10: here to start a fight, but I'm up for enything tonight.
Speaker 10: You've gone and broke the wrong hardbae bead left me
Speaker 10: black bitch, crazy, Ladies.
Speaker 2: And gentlemen, that is question like Supreme. We thank you
Speaker 2: very much.
Speaker 5: You'll see you next time.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: West Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
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