Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
Speaker 1: episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: This is a treat one of my favorite personalities in
Speaker 1: the world of media. You know, there's always that person
Speaker 1: that you credit for putting you on to something. I'll
Speaker 1: just say that. You know Donnie Simpson from his days
Speaker 1: on radio as the host of Video Soul or Band
Speaker 1: te Band in the eighties and nineties. He's always been
Speaker 1: a hero, always been such a music fan. This was
Speaker 1: the first night you were meeting him. He couldn't have
Speaker 1: been cooler. One of the nicest, most genuine music lovers ever.
Speaker 1: This is August second, twenty seventeen. Great Donnie Simpson, you're
Speaker 1: getting that professional voice. Quest Love Supreme Classic Donnie Simpson.
Speaker 1: Let's go here we go.
Speaker 3: Supremo some some Supremo Rod called Suprema some some Supreme
Speaker 3: roll called Suprema some some Supremo Rod called some Prema
Speaker 3: some some Supremo Rod.
Speaker 1: Cool quest Yeah, Yeah, I got Soul, Yeah, Donnie Simpson,
Speaker 1: Cool Yeah, Life Cools, Supremo Son, some Supremo roll called
Speaker 1: Suprema something something Supremo roll call. My name is Fante. Yeah,
Speaker 1: rocking your world. Yeah, when my head gets dry. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I use Donnie's supercurl rorem some some Supremo roll come
Speaker 1: Suprema some Supremo rod called.
Speaker 4: My name is Sugar Yeah like Sugar Ray.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: It's great to be here with a real DJ.
Speaker 1: Supreme Son so Supreme Rod. I'm paid Bill. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: ain't got no problem. Shout out to North Korea and
Speaker 1: Dennis rodmin.
Speaker 5: Brave Son Son suprameer Rod Supreme Son Son Supremo road
Speaker 5: Bill is here. Yeah, not far from Mars. Yeah, shot
Speaker 5: for the Moon. Yeah, still among the stars.
Speaker 2: Roll came.
Speaker 3: Some Supremo roll call Supreme some some Subprameo.
Speaker 6: Roll and damn it, I'm hip. Yeah, Simpson in the place.
Speaker 2: Some Supremo rod come, name is Donnie. Yeah, they called
Speaker 2: me green Eyes.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: If I could finish this rap, yeah that would be
Speaker 2: a surprise.
Speaker 1: Pray Sopra roll so pray.
Speaker 3: Up prame roll Supramo uprame a roll call Supramo Son
Speaker 3: Son Suppreme roll.
Speaker 1: Keeop out. So you audible with telling you you're gonna
Speaker 1: say Donnie Simpsons. Yeah right, I'm not I said gets
Speaker 1: written down anyway. Anyway, Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another
Speaker 1: episode of Quest Love. I'm your host chluss Love.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: We have teams Supreme with us. Uh like you in
Speaker 1: the place, Quest Love in the house. Yeah, Quest Love
Speaker 1: is always in the house. Sugar Steve is here. We
Speaker 1: got fun Tikeolo Uh unpaid Bill? Yeah, Hey, how you doing.
Speaker 1: I'm happy to be back. You've been so quiet that
Speaker 1: last view. I'm so glad that you hear. And Boss
Speaker 1: Bill's here as well. I will say that every culture
Speaker 1: needs a pioneer, and our guest today is beyond pioneer.
Speaker 1: For thirty years his morning show and WPGC the Doninie
Speaker 1: Simpson Morning Shows trail Blazed and dumb wonders for the
Speaker 1: culture of soul and R and B, and I guess
Speaker 1: you could say that he's attained god status in the
Speaker 1: eyes of all of us in this room for seventeen
Speaker 1: years as the host of Oh La La Video Soul
Speaker 1: Worn BT, which practically gave the world its first view
Speaker 1: of artists like Whitney Houston and Usher. You've done in
Speaker 1: depth conversations with greats like Aretha Franklin, anybody from the
Speaker 1: Purple Camp that I've not seen on any other networks.
Speaker 4: Jesse Johnson.
Speaker 1: Yes, Jesse. I mean the time, the list goes on
Speaker 1: and on, and he's just known for his his his grace,
Speaker 1: his his his knowledge of music. I mean, do you
Speaker 1: imagine that once upon a time there were hosts of
Speaker 1: radio shows and video shows that actually had knowledge of
Speaker 1: the music. And yeah, that's who would have thought. That's
Speaker 1: that's novel that's sadly missed right now. But more than anything,
Speaker 1: this this episode will probably be a masterclass on how
Speaker 1: to host such so can use Yeah, it would sound
Speaker 1: like an amateur my favorite comen. Please welcome Dottie Simpson
Speaker 1: to us.
Speaker 2: Thank you, well, thank you, thank you, quest love appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Bro, Yo, he's said my name. Of all the episodes,
Speaker 1: this is probably the one that I will be the
Speaker 1: most nervous because I mean, I we all grew up
Speaker 1: with his voice and always imagine the day that we
Speaker 1: have an opportunity. I never thought that my first time
Speaker 1: sitting with Donnie Simpson would be on your show, not
Speaker 1: this show.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm honored to be here, man, I really am.
Speaker 2: This is awesome. Man, I'm a big fan of yours.
Speaker 4: Bro.
Speaker 1: I yeah, I know it sounds like false honesty. Whenever
Speaker 1: I say like I can't believe you know, am alive,
Speaker 1: but I mean that's really.
Speaker 2: Oh for real, man, mad respect for you, Thank you,
Speaker 2: thank you, thank you, And a lot of people in
Speaker 2: this room, not all of them, but a lot of them.
Speaker 7: Sorry that he shut you down.
Speaker 1: So you're you're actually I know that we're lucky to
Speaker 1: have you today because you are going to induct uh
Speaker 1: your friends tonight.
Speaker 2: Well I'm not actually inducting them. I'm just there, yeah,
Speaker 2: just there and support.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. I know that no one is a bigger
Speaker 1: fan of Jimmy dam and Terry Lewis and the time
Speaker 1: family been.
Speaker 2: No doubt you are.
Speaker 1: Even to this day. I still watch your interviews on
Speaker 1: YouTube with those guys.
Speaker 2: And yeah, man, and those are my toughest interviews too.
Speaker 2: It's funny because yeah, because they were we were boys.
Speaker 2: You know, we're so close. So my toughest interview you
Speaker 2: mentioned Sugar Ray Lennard, Sugar Ray Leonard, Jimmy jam and
Speaker 2: Terry Lewis and Smoky like those really boys always the
Speaker 2: toughest interviews because you know, you know them so well,
Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden you're in this formal setting.
Speaker 2: You know you got to ask questions and they're like, well,
Speaker 2: you're asking me that, you know that, but it's just
Speaker 2: weird to me.
Speaker 1: It's like those are your especially when you when you
Speaker 1: did the I think the Pandemonium interview back in like
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one. Yeah, time, like that was the first
Speaker 1: time where you know, normally there's there's a cool demeanor
Speaker 1: about you, but then like I saw you just as
Speaker 1: the billy pressing to their beatles, like the Times beatles. Wow,
Speaker 1: where it was just like, oh wow, Donnie Simpsons just
Speaker 1: like he's one of the one of the crew, and
Speaker 1: that he was on the records.
Speaker 2: That's yeah, that's right, the Pandemonium novel. Wow, that's right. Well,
Speaker 2: you know, that's very flattering to say that. And I
Speaker 2: remember when they got their starr in the Hollywood Walk
Speaker 2: of Fame, they said, man, all day long, all we
Speaker 2: kept saying was just one person missing, man, you know,
Speaker 2: and that just you know what an honor. I mean,
Speaker 2: it wasn't me, it was Billy Preston, but no, but
Speaker 2: you know, we are we're just friends like that. That
Speaker 2: that day that we recorded that show, before we recorded it,
Speaker 2: Jimmy and Terry set me down at the board in
Speaker 2: the studio and they're playing the album for me, the
Speaker 2: Pandemonium Nolvel. So I'm sitting there and the intro comes on,
Speaker 2: and you know, I do the intro. I'm doing this
Speaker 2: intro and I'm sitting there like, how wait what wait?
Speaker 2: That's my voice? How did I can figure it out?
Speaker 2: How they got me to do this introduction that I
Speaker 2: didn't record. And what happened was that they had lifted
Speaker 2: it from like five or six years prior to that.
Speaker 2: I went to present them, just to introduce them at
Speaker 2: the Minneapolis Black Musicians Award shown and they lifted it
Speaker 2: from that and used it as the intro for the album. Man,
Speaker 2: I just it was just what an honor to open up,
Speaker 2: to open up for the time.
Speaker 1: That's right, because they briefly when Mars did Fishnets. I
Speaker 1: guess they briefly reunited as the time for that. Were
Speaker 1: you actually introducing them back in eighty seven as a
Speaker 1: full unit or were they just going on to get
Speaker 1: an award.
Speaker 2: Wow in eighty Yeah that was a full unit then, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that was the time.
Speaker 1: That was everybody that was before Fishnet.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, Fishnet was a part of
Speaker 2: that show that you're talking about. I think that I
Speaker 2: think we introduced that then.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, man.
Speaker 5: There's a video on YouTube of you and the studio
Speaker 5: with them and they were playing the track for Fishnet.
Speaker 2: Oh is that right?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, they were, they were in the studio together.
Speaker 1: That was a few years earlier though. The song was
Speaker 1: so hot.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, So you know you're those that know you
Speaker 1: well know of your love affair with music. But yeah,
Speaker 1: where did it start? Where did your what was your
Speaker 1: childhood into as far as your relationship with music.
Speaker 2: I was always around music from the time I was twelve. Well, actually,
Speaker 2: I'll say even earlier than that. I remember when we
Speaker 2: got our first record player and the first record we
Speaker 2: got was The Drifters Save the Last Dance for Me,
Speaker 2: and we would play that thing over. It is the
Speaker 2: only record we had, so we played it over and over.
Speaker 2: Forty five yep, forty five.
Speaker 1: And I think was the household.
Speaker 2: Oh, it was six kids. I had a five boys,
Speaker 2: one girl, my mom and dad and so it was
Speaker 2: eight in a little tiny house.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 2: We had two bedroom house. Mom and dad had a bedroom,
Speaker 2: my sister had a bedroom. Boys upstairs. It was like
Speaker 2: army bearcks up there lined up. Man, I'm telling you,
Speaker 2: but uh, you know, but my mother decided to open
Speaker 2: a record shop when she when I was twelve, and
Speaker 2: uh so I worked in that record shop from the
Speaker 2: time I was twelve. So I was always around music,
Speaker 2: you know. I knew when music came out, the day
Speaker 2: it came out, you know, everything. And then we used
Speaker 2: to have a little contest between each other. We go,
Speaker 2: all right, so what do you think this is going
Speaker 2: to do? I said, you know, I think it'll go
Speaker 2: number one R and B, top ten pop, you know.
Speaker 2: And I would be right all the time. Man, I
Speaker 2: would always be able to predict them, you know. And
Speaker 2: I this other thing. And I don't know if it's
Speaker 2: like I don't maybe it's not psychic. Maybe it's just
Speaker 2: from experience of knowing people. But I could see you
Speaker 2: coming across the street to the record shop, and I
Speaker 2: go to the shelf and pull off, say three songs,
Speaker 2: and guaranteed that they would ask for those three, you know,
Speaker 2: and not two of the three, but all three.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I would do it all the time.
Speaker 6: How your record with that?
Speaker 1: It was really good?
Speaker 2: Really good? Really?
Speaker 1: So what city is this?
Speaker 2: Detroit? So I grew up under Motown. Wow, So don't.
Speaker 2: I'm not. He can't even give Mama's Record Shop credit
Speaker 2: for that. That's going back to the Motown Review, you know,
Speaker 2: living there in Detroit under.
Speaker 1: Motown with the Temps.
Speaker 8: Man.
Speaker 2: You know, I remember as a kid man, I used
Speaker 2: to watch every Cadillac that went by, hoping you're gonna
Speaker 2: see David Ruffman. One of the Tempts. Are some smoky
Speaker 2: or or one of their cousins would have just been
Speaker 2: just as cool anybody man related. Sitting at the Motown Review,
Speaker 2: my wife Pam is here with me, and she can
Speaker 2: she remembers that so well. We would go down there, man,
Speaker 2: I mean five shows a day with the Temptations, four
Speaker 2: Top Supremes, Bobby Taylor to Vancouver's Junior Walk, Smokey Robinson.
Speaker 2: It was just endless, you know. So to grow up
Speaker 2: under that, how could you not have a love for music, man,
Speaker 2: you know? And so I was just always in that.
Speaker 2: When I was fifteen, this radio station there, WJLB, had
Speaker 2: a group that called the WJLB sol Teen Reporters. One
Speaker 2: student from each public school came in once a week
Speaker 2: recorded a little sixty seconds spiel about what was going
Speaker 2: on at their school. We beat Pershing High last week
Speaker 2: fifty four to fifty two cap and gown measurements of Friday,
Speaker 2: the Lovers of the Week ad and the number one
Speaker 2: song is you know that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: So I thought it was the upfront. I was like, wow.
Speaker 2: So they had asked me to do that for my school,
Speaker 2: and so I kind of wasn't interested at first, but
Speaker 2: finally my mother one day had a live broadcast with
Speaker 2: a local DJ who came out and did his show
Speaker 2: from there from the record store, and man, I went
Speaker 2: into that boot and saw him doing his thing, man,
Speaker 2: and he's sitting here patting his foot to the music,
Speaker 2: man and grooving. And I was like, man, I could
Speaker 2: do that.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: And that was the very day I fell in love
Speaker 2: with radio that I said, I'm gonna do that, And
Speaker 2: so I went and joined the reporters, and in the
Speaker 2: I got so popular from these little sixty second things
Speaker 2: that ran once maybe twice a day, that I was
Speaker 2: more popular than the DJs because I was his kid
Speaker 2: with a heavy voice, you know. And so they started
Speaker 2: putting me on on weekends for three hours on Saturday,
Speaker 2: and that lasted for about two months. They fired a
Speaker 2: guy who did eight to midnight weeknights and asked me
Speaker 2: to sit in for him for one week to give
Speaker 2: them time to find somebody else. I sat there for
Speaker 2: seven and a half years.
Speaker 6: A teenager with a radio job.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean I couldn't even do my whole
Speaker 2: show live because I couldn't work past ten thirty, you know,
Speaker 2: So I used to go in after school. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So you've had that golden voice since you were a teenager, since.
Speaker 2: My voice changed between the summer between seventh and eighth grade.
Speaker 2: And I remember well because I was in the choir. Man,
Speaker 2: I was the only male first soprano, which I love
Speaker 2: because I said, I said, with the girls next Timmer,
Speaker 2: I come back, and I'm this baritone, you know. But yeah, so,
Speaker 2: I mean, so you know, I was really blessed to
Speaker 2: have a start like that. Man. It was just it
Speaker 2: was it was just heaven sent.
Speaker 1: So for you, was it always radio aspirations? Did you
Speaker 1: have music? Like? Did you want to maybe be a
Speaker 1: singer or.
Speaker 2: I still want to be a singer, but I don't
Speaker 2: think I'm gonna make fan will tell you, she tells
Speaker 2: you two things. He ain't no singer, and he ain't
Speaker 2: no rocket scientist. No, no, but I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: I've always felt that anyone who doesn't sing wants to
Speaker 2: sing or wants to be a musician. As matter of fact,
Speaker 2: I said, this is my part of my induction speech
Speaker 2: when I was inducted in the Rhythm and Blues Music
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame, which was I said, this is just
Speaker 2: such an honor for me because I've always felt that
Speaker 2: musicians always the coolest people in the room, respect, questlove.
Speaker 2: You know, you're definitely offered as advice, I mean, as
Speaker 2: as proof. Prince appearing at the Oscars. So you got
Speaker 2: the biggest stars in the movie stars forty fifty million
Speaker 2: dollars a movie. Prince walked on that stage. Oh never
Speaker 2: like little girls, you know, musicians man. And I said,
Speaker 2: you know, for one night, y'all let me in your group,
Speaker 2: you know, And I appreciate that, just for one night.
Speaker 2: I could never be I just always wanted to be
Speaker 2: cool enough to be a musician. I just I just
Speaker 2: ain't gonna make it.
Speaker 1: So did you have formal training when you finally started
Speaker 1: to do this radio Because most people they'll go to
Speaker 1: RTF programs uh in their colleges to learn how to,
Speaker 1: you know, do upfront and be prepared. We're going to
Speaker 1: put you to the test on that. Yeah, like so
Speaker 1: did you was it? Was it a learning curve where
Speaker 1: you just had to learn on the spot how to
Speaker 1: do these things?
Speaker 2: Or well, it's you know, I started so young. I
Speaker 2: mean I did go to school eventually. I mean I
Speaker 2: was in school or in high school. But I went
Speaker 2: to college and studied radio and TV also. But I
Speaker 2: was already doing it. I mean, you know, I mean
Speaker 2: I was one of the most popular DJs in Detroit
Speaker 2: and here I am going to college.
Speaker 1: It was like the experience.
Speaker 2: Nothing beats that, and you know that nothing beats doing it,
Speaker 2: and so you know, I think it was just kind
Speaker 2: of a natural, God given gift that I had. And uh,
Speaker 2: you know, they certainly taught me how to develop it,
Speaker 2: like I learned how to use my diaphragm, you know,
Speaker 2: those exercises like singers because I remember, yeah, I remember
Speaker 2: my teacher coming up to me in college one day.
Speaker 2: He walked up behind me and he said, and I
Speaker 2: didn't know theresas, So Donnie, how come you always talk
Speaker 2: like this in the hall Because I'm a brother, that's
Speaker 2: how we talk in the hall. But he's you know,
Speaker 2: he taught me that you have to use your diaphragm,
Speaker 2: that you you know, it's like a backhand in tennis.
Speaker 2: You got to practice it so much that is second nature,
Speaker 2: that that is the way you talk, and that you
Speaker 2: can still be cool and talk from here. You don't
Speaker 2: have to talk from here to be cool.
Speaker 1: You know. Have you ever interviewed Barry White?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh my god, I love Barry.
Speaker 1: Anybody ever seen interview Barry White will suddenly find themselves trying.
Speaker 2: No, man, I love my little boys too much. I'm
Speaker 2: to get down.
Speaker 1: There would be okay. So this is whenever whenever we
Speaker 1: have anyone that has a notable radio experience on the show,
Speaker 1: we asked them to front, seale or back SLL the song.
Speaker 1: You have to I'm pretty no, I don't even want to.
Speaker 1: He'll know hit the song?
Speaker 2: Hit it?
Speaker 1: Okay. Now see now I got to pick this the
Speaker 1: perfect song with either a short into or long into
Speaker 1: or middle intro. What should I do?
Speaker 9: I think a long intro, but longs are easy, just
Speaker 9: so they're easier.
Speaker 2: But no, but what.
Speaker 1: If it's but if it's very white exstasy? Next, that's
Speaker 1: a one minute a minute that's a woman in six Temptations.
Speaker 2: Papa was rolling Stone to sixteen, so I jock work
Speaker 2: for me that actually hit that post once? Really to sixteen?
Speaker 1: Like man, So wait a minute. If there is long
Speaker 1: space in the front, are you expected to feel every
Speaker 1: last ounce?
Speaker 2: And no, I don't think so. Well. You know that's
Speaker 2: interesting because I think most radio people feel that you do.
Speaker 2: But to me, I love music so much that sometimes
Speaker 2: the music should you talk all over Love's Theme by
Speaker 2: Barry White and Love and Orchestra.
Speaker 9: No.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, some of the music is so beautiful.
Speaker 2: It's vocal in itself, you know what I mean. It's
Speaker 2: you know, it has a moment where it's the intro
Speaker 2: is over, song is started.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, are you ready for your I think so listen.
Speaker 1: Here we go.
Speaker 2: Oh it's magic buttle two point three. You're listening to
Speaker 2: Dottie Simpson hanging out with Questlove. We got my boys
Speaker 2: on the stage. Now, man, these dudes do it right.
Speaker 2: Let's go get hot in here? Not hot enough north
Speaker 2: to sway?
Speaker 4: He doesn't.
Speaker 2: He just kind of states a kiss problem.
Speaker 1: So does this also mean that you have to study
Speaker 1: the song? Yeah? As in you, I mean when you
Speaker 1: went at the at the at the height of you
Speaker 1: being immersed inside of your your your radio days. Would
Speaker 1: you pick a designated day to just study all the songs? Definitely?
Speaker 2: Not, definitely not, No, would never study. It's just knowing it.
Speaker 2: It's just appreciating it. I know it because I love it.
Speaker 1: I see you know.
Speaker 2: No, I've never studied songs. You thought, Wow, sit there
Speaker 2: with a stop watch. This is eighteen seconds. You just
Speaker 2: feel it, you know, you just know, you know, you
Speaker 2: know where the song is.
Speaker 1: My songs usually have like a four bar eight bar
Speaker 1: or whatever intro. Okay, all right, I see did you.
Speaker 6: Write it too? It's a rhythm thing because that's what
Speaker 6: you were just doing. You were writing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go like a musician.
Speaker 1: So insician man, he wanted to make sure heard. So
Speaker 1: I will say that Detroit is also a very unusual
Speaker 1: town as far as music culture is concerned, because of
Speaker 1: their appreciation for other cultures as well. You know, at
Speaker 1: one point I knew that, uh, I forget that the
Speaker 1: Jay Gile bands, uh song that that was like number
Speaker 1: two or on a particular station up there.
Speaker 2: I used to play. It was all kind of stuff about.
Speaker 1: So what was it that made such a black city
Speaker 1: so open to Gary Knew, the Talking Heads or fail
Speaker 1: Out or like just because I would look up old
Speaker 1: playlists from all their radio stations up there, and it
Speaker 1: was endless. There were no boundaries on what was black music.
Speaker 2: Right. I don't, I can't. I wish I could tell
Speaker 2: you why we are that way, but I was always
Speaker 2: that way, man, love, you know, and I feel like this,
Speaker 2: you know, for radio program directors or programmers that you know,
Speaker 2: radio people feel that people's ears are a lot narrower
Speaker 2: than they are. You know, people like different things, man,
Speaker 2: and you know, I mean growing up in Detroit, I
Speaker 2: mean I played I played all that stuff on the radio, man,
Speaker 2: without doubt. The biggest moment in my radio career was
Speaker 2: breaking Benny and the Jets by Elton John. I've been
Speaker 2: sitting around with my boy, man, he's turning me on
Speaker 2: to Elton, right. And so I kept this went on
Speaker 2: for a week, man. I said, Man, I love this
Speaker 2: song Benny and the Jets, Man, but I was scared
Speaker 2: to play it because you know, black folks didn't really
Speaker 2: know it Elton, you know. And so finally I said, man, Claude,
Speaker 2: I'm playing this song. And I played it. Man, I
Speaker 2: played it twice that night, and I played it the
Speaker 2: second time because the phone was jumping off the hook
Speaker 2: from the first time. I'd never seen anything like it
Speaker 2: before or since.
Speaker 1: It was so instant.
Speaker 2: The next morning, the morning DJ calls me at home,
Speaker 2: wakes me up at seven thirty, Donnie, what is this
Speaker 2: song you played last night? Jitny and the Nets or something? Man,
Speaker 2: you got to bring that down here. We got to
Speaker 2: play it so fast that in two days Elton was
Speaker 2: on the phone really from London called wanted to know
Speaker 2: what's going on in here. Benny in the Jets is
Speaker 2: breaking black in Detroit.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: He comes to Detroit four or five months later to
Speaker 2: present me with a gold record for I mean, and
Speaker 2: this is at the height of his career. Man, this
Speaker 2: is you know, man, that just turned me out. Man,
Speaker 2: it was just it was amazing. Man, It was just
Speaker 2: an amazing moment. And always use it, especially now when
Speaker 2: I tell that story. It's important because it saddens me
Speaker 2: that there are young people in radio now with good
Speaker 2: ears that can't express themselves musically. You know, that's sad
Speaker 2: to me. Man. You should be able to have a
Speaker 2: moment like that to come in I mean, DJ I'm
Speaker 2: supposed to be turning you on the music.
Speaker 6: So is it? Is it understood?
Speaker 9: Then then whatever radio station you go to that you
Speaker 9: have that some kind of freedom in that way where
Speaker 9: you can play what you.
Speaker 2: You can take out in that way.
Speaker 9: Okay, play whatever, absolutely.
Speaker 6: Cause that's amazing because.
Speaker 1: There's program director that was ringing the emergency line, like
Speaker 1: I'm certain every radio station has that the red phone
Speaker 1: or whatever they do.
Speaker 2: Man, bro, you can get me starting.
Speaker 1: Are you playing Princess dirty?
Speaker 2: Like I'm just saying, like they don't they know not
Speaker 2: to bother me with that. I mean, I just you know,
Speaker 2: and I don't mean that to sound vain. I think
Speaker 2: that I just you know, they know that that's the
Speaker 2: only way I can work. I'm not going to do
Speaker 2: this if you're going to tell me how to do me,
Speaker 2: I can only do me and if it works. I
Speaker 2: told in a negotiation for this return of mine, I said, look,
Speaker 2: it got caught up in a while, and I just
Speaker 2: finally said, look, let's make it real simple. I do
Speaker 2: what I do. If it doesn't work, you tell me
Speaker 2: I take my records and go home. You don't have
Speaker 2: to bout the rest of the contract. Nothing I'm just gone,
Speaker 2: all right, Oh, I mean, you know, I just I
Speaker 2: have to have that kind of freedom. Man. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm a look out the window kind of guy. Man,
Speaker 2: how does the day feel?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: Because it's a spirit that connects us all man. A
Speaker 2: computer can't do that. You can't tell me that this
Speaker 2: song works today, this day feels a certain way. I
Speaker 2: used to get it when I did the Morning show
Speaker 2: Man once an hour, I would get out and walk
Speaker 2: around the building just to smell it. I need to
Speaker 2: smell the day, you know. And I know it may
Speaker 2: sound strange to people, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you.
Speaker 2: Got to have that to me, you know. And as
Speaker 2: far as like calling jocks, you know, I programmed wk
Speaker 2: YS in Washington for twelve years. I mean, and it
Speaker 2: was you talk about a meteoric rise. I mean, and
Speaker 2: I didn't even I kind of bumped into it. I
Speaker 2: wasn't trying to program. I never wanted to program. I
Speaker 2: just wanted to be a jock. But station was in
Speaker 2: sixteenth place. We were losing so badly, and they said,
Speaker 2: what's wrong with the station? I told him what I
Speaker 2: felt about it. I said, well will you do that? Wow? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: I mean I felt like I can at least do
Speaker 2: better than sixteenth. Man, we went from sixteenth to number
Speaker 2: one and nine months, you know, and it was just
Speaker 2: with feel you know. I you know, I don't have
Speaker 2: anything against research. Research is cool as long as you
Speaker 2: use it. Don't let it use you. You know, It's
Speaker 2: just another tool if you want to use it. But
Speaker 2: I remember this programmer coming to me once had done
Speaker 2: this big research project, pade like sixty five grand to
Speaker 2: research all these songs, and he came to me and
Speaker 2: he said, Man, can do you know what the number
Speaker 2: one song tested for us was? I said, Marvin Gay,
Speaker 2: let's get it on. How did you know that? I
Speaker 2: was like, I'm a brother, I live. This dog ain't
Speaker 2: on safari, you know. So, But you know, when I
Speaker 2: was programming, I wanted to just bring this up to
Speaker 2: because it's you know, and I certainly don't mean to
Speaker 2: come off like I'm like chanstising programmers, but you know,
Speaker 2: when I programmed Man Hotline hot you would it would
Speaker 2: never ring. I never once called one of my jocks
Speaker 2: during the middle of his show to tell him something
Speaker 2: was that was bad. Hell, I know you know what,
Speaker 2: you know what you did?
Speaker 1: It?
Speaker 2: You know, it's bad more than I do. Why would
Speaker 2: I call you at that moment sacrifice the last two
Speaker 2: hours of your show for the first two that just
Speaker 2: and then bigger than that is that What happens is
Speaker 2: that then you start talking to me because you're afraid
Speaker 2: of me. You're afraid of that phone ringing. I don't
Speaker 2: want you talking to me. I ain't got nothing to
Speaker 2: do with this. Talk to the audience. Man, This is
Speaker 2: about y'all, you know, And I gave my jocks freedom,
Speaker 2: you know. I just I'm old school like that. Man,
Speaker 2: bring your records, man, do your thing, you know, just express.
Speaker 2: You'll be amazed at the performance you get from people
Speaker 2: when you entrust them, when you let them do what
Speaker 2: they do, when their name is on it instead of
Speaker 2: just them representing you.
Speaker 1: It's like you hired them for a reason.
Speaker 2: That's what you hired them for.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 9: Let them go, man, Because this way of thought is
Speaker 9: not very prevalent right now.
Speaker 6: Have you ever I mean, I know it's another burden,
Speaker 6: but have you ever considered ownership?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I used to think about it.
Speaker 2: We had looked at it a long time ago, and god,
Speaker 2: radio stations have gotten so expensive. Then it was just
Speaker 2: kind of crazy. But you know, I don't know that
Speaker 2: it's a business that I would be that interested in now.
Speaker 2: You know, it's uh, you know, the dollars have dried
Speaker 2: up to a great degree, as you know, I mean
Speaker 2: with everything that is that advertising based model, radio, television, print,
Speaker 2: those dollars have gone to the internet, you know. So
Speaker 2: it's a different day, you know, and radio and TV
Speaker 2: are lucky most of them are just suffering pay cuts,
Speaker 2: print shutting their doors, you know. I mean it's a
Speaker 2: different day. So you know, No, I don't have that
Speaker 2: level of interest in it now.
Speaker 1: No, speaking of the uh you're breaking Elton John and
Speaker 1: bending the jets where what would some of the other
Speaker 1: notable artists that you had a first thing like, I
Speaker 1: feel like this person's the next one.
Speaker 2: Well, I had a I have a gold record at
Speaker 2: home that says thank you for being the first to
Speaker 2: play Whitney Houston.
Speaker 1: You give good. I literally only pulled that out then.
Speaker 2: Oh I thought you knew that.
Speaker 1: No, I was just I was like, oh, I know
Speaker 1: you gave Whitney Houston. Well, I saw her very when
Speaker 1: she first came to Video Soul. Yeah, I remember that interview.
Speaker 2: But remember Shade first interview with Shade, her first interview
Speaker 2: I think, I know in America, if not on television period,
Speaker 2: was with me, you know, so you know, you know,
Speaker 2: I certainly don't want to sound like I started all
Speaker 2: of these careers.
Speaker 1: This is why you're here. This is a masterclass.
Speaker 5: Seriously, there's a lot of artists that we probably wouldn't
Speaker 5: know about if we hadn't seen them on Video Souls.
Speaker 1: You know, you introducing them to us. So you are
Speaker 1: a very important part.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's thank you and you're allowed to do,
Speaker 2: but it's so flat. I had Big Daddy Kane on
Speaker 2: my radio show yesterday and he was telling me. He says, man,
Speaker 2: I just want to thank you for the first time
Speaker 2: I was on Video Soul, man, he said. I was
Speaker 2: so nervous. Man, I couldn't believe it. But he said,
Speaker 2: what blew me away was that I came in there, man,
Speaker 2: and you treated me like all the other artists. You
Speaker 2: treated me with respect, and I thought it would be
Speaker 2: just like, you know, all right, we got this rapper
Speaker 2: in here, let's get the rap thing out of the way,
Speaker 2: he said, and it was just so different, you know,
Speaker 2: which blew me away that he thought I would treat him,
Speaker 2: you know, as I told him on the area yesterday,
Speaker 2: I said, kine, man, if President Obama walked through this
Speaker 2: door right now or the janitor, they're going to get
Speaker 2: the same level of love and respect for me. Believe that.
Speaker 1: You know so.
Speaker 2: But it's always fascinating to me that so many artists
Speaker 2: come up to you and tell you what you meant
Speaker 2: to their career.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I remember going to see New Audition one night. This
Speaker 2: is twenty five years ago. No, not new Edition, I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: new kids, not that new kids on the block. Boys, men,
Speaker 2: I'm right. So I go backstage and they go, oh
Speaker 2: my god, Donnie's here, look at it. What's the date
Speaker 2: April whatever? What of nineteen eighty seven? They all knew
Speaker 2: the date they came on Video Soul. It was that
Speaker 2: significant to me, you know, oh.
Speaker 1: Married, don't you weak? Acapella remember better than me? Wait
Speaker 1: only okay, because I was in the Motown Philly video.
Speaker 1: So even me and my parents were like sitting there
Speaker 1: with the VCR opened, like like the video is going
Speaker 1: to come on because this is the first time that
Speaker 1: I'm seeing the video, Like yeah, no, that was And
Speaker 1: we all went to high school together. So that that
Speaker 1: was like a moment like someone from my homeroom classes.
Speaker 1: That still is two thousand thank you, you know, is
Speaker 1: legit like on on Video Soul.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it meant something to sit on that couch, you know,
Speaker 2: and uh, that's that's that's flattering.
Speaker 1: That's really an awesome thing. How so, well, I want
Speaker 1: to ease in two video So how did how are
Speaker 1: you convinced uh to Well, you didn't totally abandon radio
Speaker 1: when you did Video Soul. Oh no, you did both.
Speaker 1: But did you figure that Okay, it's time for the
Speaker 1: black version of MTV too, uh to come to fruition
Speaker 1: and I want to be a part of history.
Speaker 2: Now, well, this has not happened. I mean, it wasn't
Speaker 2: my creation. I got a call from Bob Johnson asking me,
Speaker 2: or actually was Jeff Lee, his right hand man, said
Speaker 2: we're starting this show called Video Soul, and we liked
Speaker 2: for you to host it. At the time, I was
Speaker 2: still doing radio, of course, but I was also I
Speaker 2: just started doing TV locally in DC. For the last
Speaker 2: two years, I was a sports anchor George Michael. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I was George Michael's backup for George Michael Sports Machine.
Speaker 2: So you know, so yeah it was cool. I mean,
Speaker 2: I enjoyed that, but I like music, you know, sports
Speaker 2: is not what I do. So anyway, thank you, go ahead.
Speaker 4: So sports, that's actually how how I know you.
Speaker 10: I went to school down in College Park, Maryland in
Speaker 10: late eighties, early nineties. So I was watching the George
Speaker 10: Michael sports Oh.
Speaker 2: Wow, cool dream machine sports sports machine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sports legend Donnie Simpson. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So so anyway, they said, wanted me to do this show,
Speaker 2: and I'll be very honest with you, my first answer
Speaker 2: was no, you know, no, I didn't want to do it.
Speaker 2: I've always been very careful about what I get involved
Speaker 2: in because all I have to sell is image, you know,
Speaker 2: so I'm very protective of that. You know, it's got
Speaker 2: to be right, and b Et in its infancy wasn't
Speaker 2: a pretty baby right, exactly exactly right. So I didn't
Speaker 2: want to do that, but I thought about it for
Speaker 2: two days and then finally the bottom line became this,
Speaker 2: that this is our first black television network. If you
Speaker 2: have something to offer it, you have to do that. Period.
Speaker 2: Let's go. And so I'm glad I did. Man. I mean,
Speaker 2: it was uh, you know, it was amazing when we
Speaker 2: first started, we were in one and a half million homes.
Speaker 2: When I left, that number was like forty five five million,
Speaker 2: you know, now it's like a hundred or something. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's just crazy, you know. And uh, you know it
Speaker 2: put me in black houses all across this country.
Speaker 5: You know about your radio career.
Speaker 2: I just yeah, most people around the country don't get
Speaker 2: shocked when they find out how do radio? Yeah, but
Speaker 2: uh yeah, but you know, it was really something special, man,
Speaker 2: it was uh you know. Uh, Terry Lewis we were
Speaker 2: talking about it recently and he was saying how that
Speaker 2: I was just telling him about the love and respect
Speaker 2: that I get and how it just blows me away,
Speaker 2: you know every time. And uh, he says, it's because
Speaker 2: you mean something to people. You know that you represented
Speaker 2: a time when music was fun. You know, the videos
Speaker 2: were fun and all of that. You know, it was
Speaker 2: clean fun, you know, and you represent that time. It's like, well,
Speaker 2: I've never thought about it like that, but you know,
Speaker 2: it's uh. I remember one night VH one did a
Speaker 2: series called Black in the eighties and then they had
Speaker 2: interviewed me for it, and so they told me it's
Speaker 2: coming on. So I watched it that night. It was
Speaker 2: an hour long and the first fifteen minutes they did
Speaker 2: Brian Gumble, the first Black to host the early morning
Speaker 2: national television show. Then they did or Senil Hall, first
Speaker 2: Black to host a late night talk show. Then they
Speaker 2: did Cosby The Cosby Show and first black TV show
Speaker 2: where the mother and dad were doctor and the lawyer not
Speaker 2: a plumber and a janitor or something, you know, And
Speaker 2: then they did Donnie Simpson and Video Soul and man,
Speaker 2: I'll never forget it. When the show ended, all I
Speaker 2: could think was, well, how the hell am I supposed
Speaker 2: to sleep tonight? Seriously, because I'd never had it put
Speaker 2: in perspective like that, you know what I mean. It's like,
Speaker 2: uh oh, a line that I've always loved from Elton
Speaker 2: John rocket Love. Uh not rocket Love, that's Stevie Wonder
Speaker 2: rocket ma man right when he says in all the Science,
Speaker 2: I don't understand it's just my job five days a week,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean, you think this is a rocketman
Speaker 2: and astronage. It's like it's so glorious. You know, your
Speaker 2: DJ is a glorious you know, man, I don't care
Speaker 2: who you are or what you do. It's just what
Speaker 2: you do.
Speaker 1: So now at the time, you weren't thinking that you're
Speaker 1: doing a historical service for mankind, not that there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of eleven year olds watching you and recording this
Speaker 1: because we will record the show and watch it over
Speaker 1: and over and over again.
Speaker 2: Crazy to me, No, I never thought. I mean, I've
Speaker 2: had three or four the ESPN anchors come up to
Speaker 2: me and tell me you're the reason I do TV
Speaker 2: because I used to watch you. It's like that, man,
Speaker 2: that's mind blowing to me. Of course, I'm telling you.
Speaker 1: Man, Between you and probably probably the only person that
Speaker 1: could challenge or even match your cool might be Don Cornelius,
Speaker 1: like you two are parents. It was yeah cool, And
Speaker 1: that's the thing. You always pervade, this this level of
Speaker 1: intelligence and cool and and knowledge, no matter who the
Speaker 1: artist was. Like if I were interviewing like Wild Animal
Speaker 1: era Vanity, I would have been sweating profusely. But you
Speaker 1: gave her the same level of respect that you would
Speaker 1: have done for Sergio Mendez or or Side Garrett or
Speaker 1: Quincy Jones or I'll be short, like you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Like that to me was was even more amazing.
Speaker 1: Like it's it's one thing to interview someone that you
Speaker 1: love and that you're you know that you have history of,
Speaker 1: Like I'm sure that you know if a Motown luminary
Speaker 1: comes on the show, then you know, you're just giddy
Speaker 1: about it. But how do you prepare yourself for an
Speaker 1: artist that you might not know of? Like say about
Speaker 1: first year Karen White comes on the show and you
Speaker 1: might not know that much about her, but.
Speaker 2: I ask her, ah, like you did. Seriously, that's how
Speaker 2: I prepare.
Speaker 1: There's her for like ten years.
Speaker 2: But there there's no preparation. I mean, every artist I've
Speaker 2: ever had on Video Soul, they would give me a
Speaker 2: bile and a list of questions and I would take
Speaker 2: a car right sit down on the side. Seriously, I
Speaker 2: would never look at it because I felt that there's
Speaker 2: nothing wrong with me not knowing you grew up in
Speaker 2: Tuscaloosa that I can ask you that. I mean, this
Speaker 2: is an interview, This is getting to know you. What's
Speaker 2: wrong with that being the first so where you grow
Speaker 2: up at? You know, Oh, I grew up in Philip
Speaker 2: oh Man. What happened to the Sixers the other night?
Speaker 2: That's conversation, you know, that's just you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: if it's somebody I knew I'm telling you this may
Speaker 2: be the depth of the preparation. I'd go, all right,
Speaker 2: Luther's on this show today. I'm riding in and I go,
Speaker 2: what is it you want to know about Luther Man?
Speaker 2: Why you why does your weight keep going up and down?
Speaker 2: I said, all right, that's what I'm going to ask him.
Speaker 5: And you know it's but you could ask him that
Speaker 5: though I don't think nobody else could get away with.
Speaker 2: But you know, and and that is a blessing for
Speaker 2: you to say that you get it, that it's just
Speaker 2: like h on with all due respect, I'm going back
Speaker 2: to Johnny Carson the Tonight Show that when the conversation
Speaker 2: with Johnny was always different from any other host I
Speaker 2: ever saw because they had so much respect for him.
Speaker 2: He could ask things that others might not because they
Speaker 2: just lose. But Jimmy's like that too, because he's so cool.
Speaker 2: You know, when you're cool with people like that man
Speaker 2: and they feel you and it's real, it's not staged questions.
Speaker 2: And you know, when you've read the bio, the chances
Speaker 2: are I'm going to ask you a question based on
Speaker 2: that bio. It's something that you've been asking a thousand
Speaker 2: times already before.
Speaker 1: What was your first interview on Do you remember your
Speaker 1: very first interview on the show? Who was your.
Speaker 2: First My very first interview is with the Fat Boys?
Speaker 2: Eighty three or eighty four? God, so like that, yeah, man,
Speaker 2: the Fat Boys. Second one was with Rick James.
Speaker 1: Bitch, Okay, what was that like? Okay, we have yet
Speaker 1: to have a potential off the chains guests. We're we're
Speaker 1: kind of entertaining that, like all of our guests are
Speaker 1: either like super legend or we've worshiped them. But okay,
Speaker 1: Rick James a perfect example. If someone has the potential
Speaker 1: disorder be off the chain, Oh, how do you reel
Speaker 1: them in? How do you how do you maintain? How
Speaker 1: do you drive the car and not have them drive
Speaker 1: the car?
Speaker 2: Wow? That's wow, what a great question.
Speaker 1: Because you still have to steer and navigate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you still gotta steer and right.
Speaker 1: And it was the eighties, so we know that Rick
Speaker 1: might have been on that, you know, so you don't
Speaker 1: know where the conversation was going to go.
Speaker 2: But I've never had that problem. I never had anybody,
Speaker 2: had anybody go rogue on me, just you know, go crazy,
Speaker 2: go just it just never happened, but a little.
Speaker 6: Left you've had some people maybe go a little because even.
Speaker 2: Every everybody left, you know, has.
Speaker 1: An interview going you're a little weird, and you guys
Speaker 1: have to do a lot of editing magic.
Speaker 2: Well back in the day for like what was like
Speaker 2: most of the years on Video Soul, we were live,
Speaker 2: so back in editing it was live until the last
Speaker 2: three or four years. Really, yeah, I never do that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: we used to do it live, man risky and well yeah,
Speaker 2: but today that's the way I liked it because that
Speaker 2: made it like radio for me. I hate tape. I
Speaker 2: hate recording. It's just it's a different pressure that you
Speaker 2: perform better when it's live. For me, you know, when
Speaker 2: it's live and I know you don't get to back
Speaker 2: it up and then it's real. Because for me, when
Speaker 2: you backing it up and editing, then you're trying to
Speaker 2: make it perfect. And like I never ever ever watched
Speaker 2: Video Soul. I don't listen to tapes of my radio
Speaker 2: show because I feel like I'm trying to make myself
Speaker 2: perfect and I'll never be that. All I need to
Speaker 2: be is me, that's it, That's all I need to be.
Speaker 6: Donnie Simpson. Does that mean a programmer has never pulled
Speaker 6: you in an air check meeting?
Speaker 2: And it said, oh lord, no, since.
Speaker 9: You were a teenager, there's never been a boss. Because
Speaker 9: I mean most I know people know this, but like
Speaker 9: in radio, usually your boss will at some point at
Speaker 9: the end of the week pull you in a room
Speaker 9: and say, let's listen to what you did here.
Speaker 2: You know what. For one period, when I first moved
Speaker 2: to DC in seventy seven, we did have a program
Speaker 2: director and oh my goodness, it was crazy for me.
Speaker 2: For a year and a half I did live under that.
Speaker 2: I've forgotten that because it was such you know, that's
Speaker 2: out of how many years got I started in sixty nine,
Speaker 2: so you know, one and a half years of slavery.
Speaker 2: But you know where he would walk in with a
Speaker 2: stopwatch and go that was seventeen seconds. You had to
Speaker 2: come in under fifteen seconds on anything you said, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, it was just so finally I was gone.
Speaker 2: I was gone. I said I can't do this, I'm leaving.
Speaker 2: And I had a job offer in l A and
Speaker 2: uh so they offered me the music directorship to keep me,
Speaker 2: so I stayed and then I worked under this music director.
Speaker 2: My music director was he's a brother, but he had
Speaker 2: so much or let me be careful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, we get it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we need Muller to investigate this. But uh. He
Speaker 2: we would have our record meetings or every week, you know,
Speaker 2: the music meetings, and he'd go around the room. I
Speaker 2: was the music director under him. He was the program director.
Speaker 2: And I had two assistants, and both of them were
Speaker 2: political appointees. This is DC. One was David Brinkley's son,
Speaker 2: the other was this senator's son. He go around the room.
Speaker 2: He play I'll never forget this when he played Beast
Speaker 2: of Burden, Rolling Stones, you know, so he goes, so, John,
Speaker 2: what do you think of that? Oh? I love it.
Speaker 1: I think it's great.
Speaker 2: Dave, what do you?
Speaker 1: I think it is great? I think Donnie, what do
Speaker 1: you think?
Speaker 2: I think it's great? We can't that ship you? Right?
Speaker 2: You know? I mean, I love it, but it's got
Speaker 2: the fit brothers.
Speaker 1: Can I assume that that was the single after Miss You?
Speaker 1: Were you guys playing Miss You?
Speaker 2: No? That was that was before Miss You, because I
Speaker 2: Miss You came after, as I recall it, because I
Speaker 2: played Miss You as a program director. So I wasn't
Speaker 2: programming then yeah, we I'm pretty sure we could. We
Speaker 2: could check the records. I always uh yeah, I think
Speaker 2: that's the way it went because I played Miss You
Speaker 2: that works, Beast Burden does not. Little River Band reminiscing.
Speaker 2: We can't play that, man, you know. Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 2: I love this.
Speaker 9: I love because you also got to consider the area, right, like,
Speaker 9: it's not just the people.
Speaker 2: In the area in d C and go go baby.
Speaker 2: You know it was hard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's my next question. Okay, out as the the
Speaker 1: top taste maker of DC that had the world's ears,
Speaker 1: how is such a beautiful subculture like go go? How's
Speaker 1: it met so many obstacles? And I feel like the
Speaker 1: ripple never gets to expand West West more West than
Speaker 1: West Virginia or Ohio, West Virginia or Okay, it's like,
Speaker 1: let's let's just go back to Virginia. Yeah, but it's
Speaker 1: you've lived in d C for decades. I assume you
Speaker 1: still do.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: How is black people's jam bam music not resonated to
Speaker 1: the rest of the United States of America at least?
Speaker 2: I have no idea why that is. It's like, I mean,
Speaker 2: we thought it was going to break out when we've
Speaker 2: we've had yet.
Speaker 1: Well and good that movie came out.
Speaker 2: Chuck was the first Bust and Loose was the first
Speaker 2: number one go Go song in the country. I mean
Speaker 2: it was number one song in the country. That was
Speaker 2: Go Go and uh. And then the second was the
Speaker 2: Butt by EU with the help of the movie School Days.
Speaker 2: You know. So we're thinking, man, this great breakout now,
Speaker 2: and it never did. Those are the only two to
Speaker 2: this day that ever went number one in the country.
Speaker 2: You know, you had people like Grace Jones, some people
Speaker 2: used it. Elements, yeah, used elements, yeah, but it just
Speaker 2: never broke out for some reason. And I don't know,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know why Western world never caught
Speaker 2: on to drop the bomb on the White Boy.
Speaker 7: You know, I just don't get We see no idea that.
Speaker 2: Shocker.
Speaker 1: So on the other side of that coin, though worrying
Speaker 1: about someone going rogue, there could be the other side
Speaker 1: of that coin of having artists that are simn reclusive. Now,
Speaker 1: as as I as obsessed as I am with all
Speaker 1: of David Rich's work as a as a writer and
Speaker 1: read both of those Aretha books, I know that she
Speaker 1: was a frequent guest of yours on the show and
Speaker 1: you go into her house and her plan for you
Speaker 1: and she, you know, she was rather loquacious. She talked
Speaker 1: a lot, which if she didn't know you, you could tell that,
Speaker 1: you know, there was a distance there. So how did
Speaker 1: you what was a hard interview for you, like for
Speaker 1: an artist that wasn't that talkative or did you ever
Speaker 1: interview Prints in your career?
Speaker 2: Yeah? On radio okay with Video Soul. This was about
Speaker 2: seven years ago. I was like, oh no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: no no, because you remember Prince didn't do any I
Speaker 2: was going he had done that one interview I think
Speaker 2: it ran on MTV and he interviewed himself.
Speaker 1: Actually, I was.
Speaker 11: Watching a clip on YouTube today of you introducing that
Speaker 11: on Video Soul?
Speaker 1: Is that right?
Speaker 11: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so no, And it was Prince and Michael
Speaker 2: were the only two artists that I always wanted to interview,
Speaker 2: you know, but never got to have them on Video Soul,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Even though we ever get them off of Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, being Prince were friends and you know, as
Speaker 2: a matter of fact, the night you referenced earlier when
Speaker 2: we went to uh flight time for the Pandemonium album
Speaker 2: for the time, uh we party that us at Paisley
Speaker 2: Park that night. You'll love this story.
Speaker 1: This is so funny. Yes, we bring the story.
Speaker 2: That Wednesday, we're recording video soul. I had David Bowie
Speaker 2: on the show, and who was so cool, and so
Speaker 2: after the show we were talking and I was telling
Speaker 2: him I was going to Minneapolis that Friday to do
Speaker 2: this time thing and he says, I'm playing Minneapolis Friday.
Speaker 2: You got to come to the show. I said, all right, cool,
Speaker 2: I'm there, So get my buddy to go with me, Sugar,
Speaker 2: Ray Letter. So we rode to Minneapolis and we do
Speaker 2: the thing. Yeah, well that's me and Ray hung every day. Man,
Speaker 2: my boy still to this day. But so anyway, we
Speaker 2: get to the show that Friday night and they had
Speaker 2: set like eight seats at the sound board, right, So
Speaker 2: we go to sit in our seats and so I'm
Speaker 2: going by and I bump this lady in front of
Speaker 2: me and I excuse me, and Prince turns around. So
Speaker 2: what he says, Hey, Donnie Man, so sorry about that.
Speaker 2: And so then he turns back around a minute or
Speaker 2: two later he says, I'm having a party at Paisley
Speaker 2: Park tonight. You and Ray ought to come, I said,
Speaker 2: all right, cool. So we go to the party. Man,
Speaker 2: you know, it's like twelve people there.
Speaker 1: Man, he always parties with just yeah, six people.
Speaker 2: I know. It's me, Prince, Ray, David Boy and his
Speaker 2: band members, Cat who was dancing with him, and my
Speaker 2: boy Jeff Newman, who produced my show video Soul. And
Speaker 2: I mean that was like, that was it, you know.
Speaker 2: But we had the greatest time. Man. It was just
Speaker 2: the coolest night. And he played the Black Album that night. Wow. Okay.
Speaker 2: And now now this is so years later he tells me,
Speaker 2: because you know that album was notorious because it wasn't released.
Speaker 2: And so years later Prince told me, he said, you
Speaker 2: know you're the reason I didn't release the Black Album.
Speaker 1: What And I said why? What do you mean? He says,
Speaker 1: you remember what you said that night at Paisley Park.
Speaker 1: I said what he said?
Speaker 2: You said, this is such a groove and I was
Speaker 2: about so much more?
Speaker 1: Wow?
Speaker 2: And I thought, wow, is he serious or.
Speaker 1: Is he just.
Speaker 2: Seriously? That was really deep to me that because that
Speaker 2: is what I said. It's like, man, this is such
Speaker 2: a groove, you know. But but what Prince needed to
Speaker 2: know is that you could be about that much more
Speaker 2: but I can't hear it. I don't hear lyrics, I
Speaker 2: hear groove, I hear vibe, I hear feel. You know,
Speaker 2: I know where it is. But man, it could be
Speaker 2: thirty years later and I'd be like, damn, that's what
Speaker 2: they were talking about. You know, too close.
Speaker 1: He was, see the thing is. It's like the thing is.
Speaker 1: I know, I know that you know a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of his earlier Nelson George reviews of his
Speaker 1: post Rise post nineteen ninety nine Rise kind of got
Speaker 1: under his skin and that he didn't want to be
Speaker 1: that philosophical and he just wanted to let y'all know
Speaker 1: that he was still down. And I you know, that
Speaker 1: was his statement of letting y'all know, like, Yo, I'm
Speaker 1: still down and this is me. But and you validated
Speaker 1: you're still down because that's such a groove. But maybe
Speaker 1: there's that itch in his soul that's just like say
Speaker 1: the deep statement and you're right right and we're stuck
Speaker 1: with love Sexy, Sexy.
Speaker 2: I got to tell you this is going back to
Speaker 2: something you said earlier. But it's so cool that because
Speaker 2: Jimmy and Terry, my boys and uh my mom introduced
Speaker 2: me to the time. That's who told me about the time.
Speaker 2: How well I was in d C. Mom still at
Speaker 2: a record shop in Detroit. You talk about that diversity.
Speaker 2: Simpson's Record Shop still there years? Fifty years, man, fifty years.
Speaker 2: I've never been there.
Speaker 1: No, I always shop. I always shop in uh gross
Speaker 1: point blank? What's gross point in Michigan? Yeah, a place
Speaker 1: called Melodies and Memories out there that I do all
Speaker 1: my digging. But Simpson's Record Shop is still there.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, a mom and pop YEP, mom and pop
Speaker 2: record store. Well, I told you that's where I started
Speaker 2: my career. Still there, man, Right now.
Speaker 1: Stephen a week tour of America record stores.
Speaker 2: We have more hot dogs and candy than she does records.
Speaker 10: Now, can I interject a question, Donnie? So what's your
Speaker 10: what's your record collection looking like? These days?
Speaker 1: We said, oh wait, there's a frown over there. Are
Speaker 1: you in a situation where you had to get rid
Speaker 1: of stuff and put it in storage?
Speaker 2: With marriage my records?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Record?
Speaker 2: Are you asking what am I into or what.
Speaker 4: Do you still have your physical and stuff like that?
Speaker 2: I still have everything everything, man. I would assume it's
Speaker 2: worth some money. Man.
Speaker 1: Okay, fire in the house hypothetical. That's a Knockwood situation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: fire in the house. You're saving five records?
Speaker 2: Okay, top five? What albums?
Speaker 1: What's your forty five is into? Okay? Yes? What out?
Speaker 1: What five albums are you saving?
Speaker 2: What's going on? Hot buttered Soul?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Who off the wall?
Speaker 1: Wait now before you name the last two, I also
Speaker 1: mean that I'm certain that you have rare items of
Speaker 1: your your collection as well. Can we just save his
Speaker 1: whole collection?
Speaker 4: We'll all we'll all show up at the fire and
Speaker 4: help him get out.
Speaker 2: Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road. I got one more. That's hard. Well,
Speaker 2: look at they all fighting, they trying to get out
Speaker 2: the fire. Oh wow, one left? Oh god, I got Marvin.
Speaker 1: Let's see fires.
Speaker 2: Okay, Stevie's anthology. I'm cheating that.
Speaker 1: Stevie right now.
Speaker 2: Wow one ee Oh my goodness, man, you'll get Sophie's choice.
Speaker 1: You'll stream, you can stream the rest on Pandora. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying that.
Speaker 2: Fulfilling this first finale.
Speaker 1: That's the Stevie one.
Speaker 2: Joh, I don't know.
Speaker 1: That was a great cruschetto. I mean, what would you say?
Speaker 1: That's what we're talking about, because out of the genius period.
Speaker 1: That's my least favorite Stevie record of the genius period. Really,
Speaker 1: that's the one I know the least songs on. I
Speaker 1: know it, but I mean besides uh, my Mind, for me,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I like Music of My Mind
Speaker 1: out of the five of them because it was the
Speaker 1: first of the five. But even then I was like one,
Speaker 1: So I mean it was the first of the five.
Speaker 1: He was just more raw and that it was the
Speaker 1: first of the five and it was the or do
Speaker 1: you I'm coming from it?
Speaker 2: Yes, my first the first record I ever bought was
Speaker 2: by Stevie wich tight. Really, that's the first purchase I
Speaker 2: ever made of music.
Speaker 1: The first your your very first record.
Speaker 2: Yeap, because that's before my mother. I didn't buy records
Speaker 2: for law because you opened the record shop and then
Speaker 2: I got into radio. But yeah, I paid sixty nine
Speaker 2: cents for Babe Everything is all Right?
Speaker 1: So forty five were sixty nine cents back in well
Speaker 1: that came out sixty.
Speaker 2: Sixty, yeah, sixty six or sixty seven.
Speaker 1: Well, I also know that your your your your you
Speaker 1: as a concert spectator, that you've probably seen some of
Speaker 1: the best shows of all time. Now in your radio career,
Speaker 1: you told us about your your childhood career. But what
Speaker 1: what were the experiences like, because I'm certain that you
Speaker 1: know you saw the your first Mothership connection shows like
Speaker 1: stuff we take ranted now, like the ideas of the
Speaker 1: Jackson's levitating or earth Winding fire levitating and all that stuff. Like, Man,
Speaker 1: what concert will stay with you forever? As far as
Speaker 1: like all the Michael concerts?
Speaker 2: Really, I mean, he's just the greatest ever to me, Yeah,
Speaker 2: without doubt, Michael the fire you know, see Earth Wind
Speaker 2: and fire Man in their prime, you know, with Maurice,
Speaker 2: you know, was amazing. The very first concert ever saw
Speaker 2: in my life James, you know where Cobo Arena in Detroit.
Speaker 2: This had to be sixty seven Jesus something like that,
Speaker 2: maybe sixty eight?
Speaker 1: Did he do say it loud?
Speaker 2: So? No, it was before said loud, so six, say
Speaker 2: it loud. I'm black and I'm proud with sixty eight,
Speaker 2: you know. And James was my king, right, you know,
Speaker 2: And I used to tell them that all the time. Man,
Speaker 2: you my king, I'm your soldier. There ain't nothing I
Speaker 2: wouldn't do for you. And I meant that, man, because
Speaker 2: he taught me to be proud of who I was
Speaker 2: you know my skin color Man said Loud was the
Speaker 2: most significant song ever for me. There would never be
Speaker 2: a song more important than that for me, you know.
Speaker 2: And so James gave me all that that sense of
Speaker 2: prime you know me. He had assists from Curtis Mayfield
Speaker 2: and you know, but but it was James. So to
Speaker 2: see James and concert was just amazing early on because
Speaker 2: I remember as a kid sitting there at twelve years old.
Speaker 2: So wow, I was twelve. So that was that was
Speaker 2: sixty six and all I can think of. I'm not
Speaker 2: a musician, so I don't know why, but I'm like, damn,
Speaker 2: this dude's got two drummers. He's gonna wear one out.
Speaker 2: He knows that. So wow. I saw Sammy Davis Junior.
Speaker 2: That was a maze to see Sammy. You know, ah wow,
Speaker 2: oh wow. You'll appreciate this. And I know shifting gears
Speaker 2: a little bit, but say it people that I've had
Speaker 2: the opportunity to spend time in the studio with It's okay. Now,
Speaker 2: of course you know there are a bunch of them.
Speaker 2: But before the just when I think back on my
Speaker 2: life in my career, to just blow me away, Marvin
Speaker 2: Sly Prince. Prince invited me in the studio one night,
Speaker 2: and that's rare. He didn't, you know, didn't have people
Speaker 2: in the studio and Stevie, you know, to spend time
Speaker 2: in the studio with Stevie, Man, it was just, oh
Speaker 2: my goodness.
Speaker 1: You speak of watching Marvin in the studio. Can you
Speaker 1: speak of watching Marvin in the studio?
Speaker 2: Actually it's kind of cheating because he wasn't he wasn't
Speaker 2: doing his album. He was recording the originals. He was
Speaker 2: doucing the originals. Yeah, did you know that, you know? Yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: in the bell Yeah. Yeah. But Pam was with me.
Speaker 2: She was just my girlfriend then she's my wife of
Speaker 2: forty three years now, but crazy said she only forty four.
Speaker 2: But I remember Pam saying to me, like, because Marven
Speaker 2: was trying to show him how to sing the song,
Speaker 2: and she goes, why didn't he just sing it? Can't
Speaker 2: nobody do that? Yeah? But you know, Marvin when he
Speaker 2: invited me to the studio, how cool is this. I'm
Speaker 2: hanging out with ron Banks of the Dramatics. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 2: me and Ronnie. Ronnie was my best friend and that
Speaker 2: side of the music, of the business of music. Ronnie
Speaker 2: was my best friend all the dramatics, but Ronnie in particular.
Speaker 2: And so we're riding down the street and we see
Speaker 2: Marvin going in his house, going up the driveway, and
Speaker 2: uh so, Ronnie says, it's Marvin. Man. Let's I'm say
Speaker 2: hello to him. I'm sorry. Cool. So we stopped and
Speaker 2: he introduces. He said, yeah, man, I listen.
Speaker 1: To you every night.
Speaker 2: Man. I was like, all right, cool. And he says,
Speaker 2: you ought to come in to check me out in
Speaker 2: the studio. I said, all right, I'd love to do that.
Speaker 2: He says, well, I'm going in tomorrow night. He says,
Speaker 2: but here, let me give you this phone number. Call
Speaker 2: me tomorrow morning, man, because I'll get up in the
Speaker 2: morning and decide to climb Mount Everest and I'll be gone,
Speaker 2: you know. And he said it in such a way
Speaker 2: it's like I'm not trying to act like I'm eccentric
Speaker 2: or something like that. I'm just telling you, dog, you
Speaker 2: need to check because I do that, right.
Speaker 1: He's doing for that right. He is known for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Man, So now many cats know that Marvin lived in
Speaker 1: a bread truck for seven months in Hawaii.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, is that right?
Speaker 1: Right? After Dream Lifetime came on, he took his remaining money.
Speaker 1: That was right before I thought it was before a
Speaker 1: minute love. I thought, well, yeah, after dream before he
Speaker 1: did that, before he moved to Belgium and lived in
Speaker 1: the monastery and did what you call it. This is
Speaker 1: around eighty Yeah. Yeah, he purchased a bread truck because
Speaker 1: I add a good room in to it. Oh you
Speaker 1: mean in our lifetime?
Speaker 8: Yeah, in our lifetime is I'm sorry, in our lifetime.
Speaker 2: If I had to pick one voice, I mean one artist,
Speaker 2: I mean, Marvin's my favorite vocalist ever.
Speaker 1: I just love Marvin.
Speaker 2: But the most intimate is that the right word. Most
Speaker 2: emotional moment I ever had with music was with Marvin.
Speaker 2: One night, I was sitting there listening to a Flying
Speaker 2: High in a Friendly Sky and I'd heard the song
Speaker 2: for forty years. I told you, I don't hear lyrics, right,
Speaker 2: so not really, I mean Flying I in the Friendly Sky,
Speaker 2: all right. I guess it's commercial.
Speaker 1: For uniting it.
Speaker 2: I don't know, you know, but that night I'm sitting
Speaker 2: there and I'm listening to it, man, and I heard
Speaker 2: every word after It had to be thirty years at
Speaker 2: that point, and man, you know, I'm telling you bruh.
Speaker 2: I set there and cried for forty minutes, and I
Speaker 2: mean bawling, man, because I saw Marvin's life and his
Speaker 2: drug addiction. It spells it out so well. You know,
Speaker 2: my second oldest brother was classic Vietnam case, you know,
Speaker 2: came back from the non decorated war hero addicted to heroin,
Speaker 2: you know, and watched that struggle that he went through
Speaker 2: and sent my family through. You know, we you know,
Speaker 2: we all got touched by that thing. And you know,
Speaker 2: I just sat there, man, It just it just took
Speaker 2: me to a place where nothing but music could take
Speaker 2: me to where I went that night, you know. But
Speaker 2: you know, I go to the place where the danger
Speaker 2: waits me, self destructions in my hand. You know, in
Speaker 2: the morning, I'll be all right, but then the pain
Speaker 2: soon the night comes and the pain, oh man, it
Speaker 2: just I was out of it running yesterday morning. And
Speaker 2: that's I always have my iPod on random, yeah, on shuffle,
Speaker 2: and that song came on. I'm running, cry people, you
Speaker 2: saw me, You thought I was sweating.
Speaker 1: So can I ask? I mean, it's it's it's no
Speaker 1: secret that, uh, where we are now in twenty seventeen
Speaker 1: is a long way from where we were in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty seven or sixty nine when you first started. So
Speaker 1: I know that it has to be bothersome to not
Speaker 1: necessarily watch the evolution of where black music and black
Speaker 1: cultures go, the evolution or yeah, just the evolution of it.
Speaker 1: Does it wear you that very few of the next
Speaker 1: generation aren't necessarily grabbing onto the baton that the forefathers
Speaker 1: had and sort of not even dropping it, but just
Speaker 1: having a disregard or a sheepish shrug like eh, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: like is it?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that you seem to be an open
Speaker 1: book culturally to everything, like you know in sixty nine,
Speaker 1: you know, say loud, I'm black, I'm proud changed your life.
Speaker 1: I'm certain that Prince's arrival with or the onslaught of
Speaker 1: Dirty Mind and what he would later unleash was new
Speaker 1: and shocking, but you seem to be a board of
Speaker 1: it and what came after me. Yeah, at what point
Speaker 1: and you don't have did specifically mention names or whatever,
Speaker 1: but at what point or at least the year did
Speaker 1: you were the seeds of indifference there for you? It's
Speaker 1: sort of man like, I guess, I guess this is
Speaker 1: what this is what passes for talent, or this is
Speaker 1: what passes for music, or hm, I guess I'm just
Speaker 1: getting older.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know, well, first of all, I have
Speaker 2: to tell you this that I was. I was always hesitanting.
Speaker 2: I never wanted to make the statement that they don't
Speaker 2: make music like they used to, okay, because I felt
Speaker 2: like every generation makes that statement, and they're right, they
Speaker 2: don't make it like they used to. They never have,
Speaker 2: they never will. It's always changing. So uh.
Speaker 1: And then I remember when we did.
Speaker 2: The interview with Quincy Jones from his house to back
Speaker 2: on the Block album.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, you committed him on being
Speaker 1: open minded, and that always stuck with me, like, I
Speaker 1: never want to be the old guy. That's like exactly,
Speaker 1: you know, I hate this music, right and you said that,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, okay, that's what I need
Speaker 1: to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like Quincy, you know you look, I mean that album,
Speaker 2: I go to do this interview with Quincy. I mean,
Speaker 2: there's Ray Charles and Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Big Daddy Kane,
Speaker 2: Iced Tea. You know, let me kick my credentials. Young
Speaker 2: player Bread in South Central LA, home of the body
Speaker 2: Bag you want to die. We had the colored rag
Speaker 2: I used to walk in stores in the La down
Speaker 2: you finch an inch Ak Sprayder whoa man.
Speaker 1: I just wrapped with that. He said, you deserve that.
Speaker 2: But the first time I heard that, me and La
Speaker 2: Reid had this conversation because I was telling him, said, man,
Speaker 2: when I first got that album, I was listening to it.
Speaker 2: I said, it took me forty minutes to get through
Speaker 2: the first song, and he said me too, because you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, I know Gula Matari, Quincy Jones. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm like and then I opened up. The first thing
Speaker 2: I hear is this gangster rap. But then all through
Speaker 2: the album was like a lesson to me that you know,
Speaker 2: you can embrace it all all right. So now they're
Speaker 2: doing the human beat box, all right, So all right,
Speaker 2: little let's get l Sarah Sarah Bobby McFerrin and take
Speaker 2: six no instruments. All right, Well, let's do that. You know,
Speaker 2: it was just he could make it all work, all right.
Speaker 2: Now get past that, and I'll have to tell you
Speaker 2: that in the last five, six, seven years, you know,
Speaker 2: it's not like there was any particular moment where I
Speaker 2: felt like, well, where are we where is R and B?
Speaker 2: But you know, I look at the charts. It's like
Speaker 2: me and Jimmy and Terry have had this conversation like
Speaker 2: it's just like it's just hip hop and pop, you know,
Speaker 2: like we're not there.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I miss those days. Man, when the top ten pop songs,
Speaker 2: you know, half of them are black, you know, and
Speaker 2: I mean black black, you know, right, so the soul charge, right,
Speaker 2: you know, I miss that. It seems like it's just
Speaker 2: it's changed. And that's very frustrating.
Speaker 1: For me, you know. And and and.
Speaker 2: You're asking me the question, but I ask you the question.
Speaker 2: Is it Is it that the musicians have bailed on
Speaker 2: it they're just so nonchalant about it, or is it
Speaker 2: that the music companies don't I haven't thought that ever
Speaker 2: giving it voice.
Speaker 1: I have a theory no, because they're there. I can
Speaker 1: name about six or seven people on the internet that
Speaker 1: are like killing that might not get a shot because
Speaker 1: they're not easily digestible. But I also feel as though
Speaker 1: I don't know where black people are spiritually. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know where we are spiritually now, as opposed to
Speaker 1: fifty years ago, where we relied on the church as
Speaker 1: a training ground for singers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now that's true, you know musicians. I never thought
Speaker 2: about that.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be This is probably the most explicitly
Speaker 1: honest I've ever been concerning my spirituality on this show.
Speaker 1: But just lately, just as far as the political turmoil
Speaker 1: that we're living in right now, House of Cars season six, Yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty much, and what's been going on in the past
Speaker 1: three years as far as justice is concerned, as far
Speaker 1: as the unarmed killings of black boys and black women.
Speaker 1: You know, I used to question on Twitter, like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, where's the spiritual center that says that this
Speaker 1: is wrong? Like if this were if the injustice that
Speaker 1: was happening in twenty sixteen, all those unarmed shootings were
Speaker 1: happening in sixties sixty seven, I would have heard from
Speaker 1: the church from now. And I'm not saying that. Okay, well,
Speaker 1: I'm maybe questioning, you know, because it's so blasphemous for
Speaker 1: black folks that have been raising the church and even
Speaker 1: have thoughts of atheism or whatever. But you know, just
Speaker 1: where the idea of Christianity in twenty sixteen it seems
Speaker 1: very tainted to me then it was when I was
Speaker 1: a kid growing up in church. And you know your
Speaker 1: grandmam took to U church. You had to be there
Speaker 1: for eight hours. So I know that if I'm sort
Speaker 1: of questioning that, then I know there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people that are just like me that are moving away
Speaker 1: from that spirituality. I'm not saying that, oh, well, God
Speaker 1: doesn't exist if all this injustice is happening, but I
Speaker 1: know that, you know, our answer was always primarily always
Speaker 1: hang on to the Lord. The Lord will make it
Speaker 1: all right. And just you know, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if black people are there now, like even in our singers,
Speaker 1: like the hero now is Rihanna who is about is
Speaker 1: not in the church anti She's more the mall or
Speaker 1: the you know, like I don't know where, Like her
Speaker 1: home base is where you think of a reef. It's like,
Speaker 1: oh that's the church, you know. But the generation that
Speaker 1: Rihanna's raising isn't spiritual.
Speaker 9: Based like Lauren Hill in a way.
Speaker 2: And it's not just blank. I mean, you look at
Speaker 2: what the Christian right just allowed to happen in our
Speaker 2: last election, you know, I mean, if you you can
Speaker 2: give him a pass for talking about grabbing women, how
Speaker 2: he wants to grab and and that's Okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've just lost spirituality, not even religion, but just spirituality.
Speaker 1: So I just feel like.
Speaker 8: That that reflects in the music and if that's not there,
Speaker 8: then we've pretty much lost soul music unless the spirit
Speaker 8: of it has just gone to the UK where there's
Speaker 8: still people there.
Speaker 9: And we're also becoming more inclusive as a people as well,
Speaker 9: and I think that has a lot to do with
Speaker 9: it too. We weren't, you know, we can know, I mean,
Speaker 9: not watered down for lack of a better term, but
Speaker 9: you're talking about the sixties and when music was made
Speaker 9: then it definitely was not as inclusive as it is
Speaker 9: in twenty seventeen. And then you have to do with
Speaker 9: the cultural appropriation and who's making the money off of
Speaker 9: this soul.
Speaker 11: Mean figure, I just point out a labels not wanting
Speaker 11: to do more work than you know, if they can
Speaker 11: just market one artists one certain way instead of having
Speaker 11: to do it a whole bunch of different ways to
Speaker 11: target you know, all.
Speaker 1: These different audiences.
Speaker 9: And if they can sing soul and not be black
Speaker 9: and capture two different audiences, whoa whoa whoa?
Speaker 1: So do you find it, ironically where that some of
Speaker 1: the more popular soul artists are not looking like the
Speaker 1: person in the mirror when you're listening to it, like
Speaker 1: or is that to you? Just I'm sorry you no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm saying that now. If you think of soul music,
Speaker 1: nine times out of ten, it's sam.
Speaker 2: Right right, right, right, right right right.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 2: I know, yeah, it's strange. Yeah, it's it's strange, you know.
Speaker 2: And I mean I don't fault you for that, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean you got sold. I mean the artists that
Speaker 2: you just named very soulful, and I love their music,
Speaker 2: you know, but you know, it reminds me of watching
Speaker 2: and gosh, should I call this out and American Idol
Speaker 2: or you know these shows and you know, my wife
Speaker 2: and my daughter would get so mad at me. Was
Speaker 2: they finally just stopped watching it with me because I'm
Speaker 2: sitting Oh god, he's so crazy. It's like, what you know,
Speaker 2: So you you like, I take you to church this
Speaker 2: Sunday and find and just on this Sunday and find
Speaker 2: you three four voices better than anything you've heard on
Speaker 2: this whole season.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: That's that's how I always.
Speaker 6: Felt about Fantasian Jennifer Hudson.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, there were moments right right.
Speaker 1: The thing that I find problematic about reality shows and
Speaker 1: the contest is that, you know, I feel like since
Speaker 1: ninety seven we've negated the idea of subculture or an underground.
Speaker 1: You know, Aretha Franklin wasn't made in thirteen weeks, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, she was made in seventeen years, started at eight,
Speaker 1: you know, and it took slow development in her father's church,
Speaker 1: in a subculture, and you know, because of the rush,
Speaker 1: because music is more as a means of escape for
Speaker 1: poverty for a lot of black folk. You know, it's
Speaker 1: more or less probably used now as a means to
Speaker 1: survive as opposed to express your spirituality. So yeah, i'd
Speaker 1: find those shows rather dangerous. But that's a whole another episode,
Speaker 1: of course.
Speaker 5: And those shows aren't really about music. They're about TV,
Speaker 5: you know, I mean, it's not even about that's true,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying about who's the greatest?
Speaker 1: It's about That's why you get William Hunks.
Speaker 2: Out there right right, try to get you to watch.
Speaker 1: So what would you By.
Speaker 2: The way, I found a CD at my mother's record
Speaker 2: shop of Aretha singing in her church, in her father's
Speaker 2: church when she was twelve. How good is that? My
Speaker 2: mad that in her record shop? Oh my god, I
Speaker 2: haven't she doesn't have anymore.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, did you guys sell a Reverend C. L.
Speaker 1: Franklin's cermony?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, man, we're making a pilgrimage because I
Speaker 1: know somewhere in the storage unit there's a gym in there.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, oh yeah, we.
Speaker 1: Are going up there.
Speaker 2: She more or less specializes in gospel music now anyway,
Speaker 2: as a matter of fact, Wow, going back, I remember
Speaker 2: I used to send Elton gospel music to London because
Speaker 2: he couldn't get it right right. I'd send the stuff,
Speaker 2: send him stuff from my mom's record shop. Man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, we are coming to Troy.
Speaker 6: Is that where? Okay? So it's right because the record
Speaker 6: store is still in existence, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's still for right now.
Speaker 1: It's struggling though.
Speaker 2: It's tight because it sounded.
Speaker 6: Like he might have half of the records in DC too.
Speaker 2: No, I got a few.
Speaker 1: We'll come and save the store, don't no worry. We wait.
Speaker 1: I want to ask one. This is kind of backwards
Speaker 1: to go back then. But since uh, there's a movie
Speaker 1: about Detroit coming out in August about the sixty seven riots.
Speaker 1: I want to ask, how is your mom's story. How
Speaker 1: was that unscathed from because sixty percent of the city
Speaker 1: went up in flames during those riots up there, Like,
Speaker 1: how are you guys able to protect the store and
Speaker 1: not have it affected.
Speaker 2: Well, we also had Simpson's patrol service that started first.
Speaker 2: Actually my dad had a rent a cop service, so
Speaker 2: he actually he protected at the store. But you know,
Speaker 2: she was protecting anyway. Everybody in the neighborhood knew.
Speaker 1: They knew, okay, oh yeah.
Speaker 2: Man, she was protecting. They weren't you know Mama's They weren't.
Speaker 1: Going to burn the gems.
Speaker 2: No, they weren't gonna burn no, none of that. No,
Speaker 2: but uh, you know, and Mama's always been cool. Man,
Speaker 2: Like you go over there. My mother has always say
Speaker 2: it has the best security force there is.
Speaker 1: The Whinos.
Speaker 2: They don't miss no days, don't. Yeah, you know, they
Speaker 2: were always so cool with mom. You know, if they
Speaker 2: need a cigarette, whatever, man, you know, Mom's got them. Man,
Speaker 2: just whatever. MISSI they called Mississippi. But uh, you know
Speaker 2: she come to open up, man, they'd be standing in
Speaker 2: front of her store. They stand there, make sure she's in. Okay,
Speaker 2: once she's in. They gone across the street because they
Speaker 2: know it's bad for business, you know, but let somebody
Speaker 2: come in there looking threatening the enforced Baby, I'm telling.
Speaker 1: You what side of Detroit? Was it on? East side?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Not far east?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah yeah yeah yeah right yeah. You start thinking
Speaker 2: about your pilgrimage. I was like, I.
Speaker 5: Want to ask you, do you still keep in touch
Speaker 5: with any of the old crew, like Sherry Carter, Madeline,
Speaker 5: like all those.
Speaker 2: Everybody you just named?
Speaker 9: Yes?
Speaker 6: Is it a Facebook group somewhere that y'all have?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: You be going there?
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, no, we still talk? Yeah? Yeah, Man,
Speaker 2: did they ever.
Speaker 6: Talk on it? I was just on the strength of
Speaker 6: what you just said.
Speaker 9: Is there ever talk of like a full out reunion
Speaker 9: on B E T with you?
Speaker 2: Everybody?
Speaker 6: Okay?
Speaker 1: That that was a very quick.
Speaker 2: Are you no? You know? For me? You know when
Speaker 2: it was done, it was done, And that's the way
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 1: When I wanted you know, the end.
Speaker 5: When When was when the video sold officially end?
Speaker 2: That's a cool question. No, it was before hold on,
Speaker 2: it was like nineteen ninety seven, I think I know,
Speaker 2: because they brought me back to do a special Millennium show.
Speaker 2: Or the top videos of the century and uh, and
Speaker 2: so I came back for that. But for the last
Speaker 2: two years that I did the show, I'm telling you, man,
Speaker 2: it was on New York Avenue, and every night I
Speaker 2: would drive up New York Avenue and all I could
Speaker 2: think was, God, forty minutes more and you could be
Speaker 2: at the Bay having dinner with Pam. That's all I
Speaker 2: thought about every night. And that told me that it
Speaker 2: was time. Yeah, that it was time. I didn't want
Speaker 2: to do it anymore, you know, And it just changed
Speaker 2: for me, I think because I started.
Speaker 1: They started before.
Speaker 2: We used to do it in the afternoon at one
Speaker 2: o'clock and sometimes for a number of years we did
Speaker 2: at the three, but always live. And then we started
Speaker 2: recording it at seven o'clock at night, and you know,
Speaker 2: with me doing my morning radio show, it's just too much.
Speaker 2: I just it didn't feel the same to me. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I just I don't know.
Speaker 2: And it was fourteen years, you know, and so no,
Speaker 2: I you know, it was done. It was people always
Speaker 2: go mad. God, don't you miss it? You know, I don't.
Speaker 2: I mean, well, I missed the people. The show was fun,
Speaker 2: but I always think about those last two years, man,
Speaker 2: where it was just like, no, it was time. Everything
Speaker 2: has its time, you know. That's the way I feel, man.
Speaker 2: And we had our run and it was cool. It
Speaker 2: was great. It served its purpose for that moment and
Speaker 2: we're done with it.
Speaker 9: But you did miss TV because you came back with
Speaker 9: Donnie have the dark a little bit?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I decided I wanted to. That was Pam's fault. Really,
Speaker 2: she wanted you out of the house.
Speaker 1: Quest.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you how she put it though. She said, Donnie,
Speaker 2: everywhere we go, all you hear is how much they
Speaker 2: love you and want you to do something else. You know,
Speaker 2: God has giving you a talent that you should be
Speaker 2: sharing with people. That's the way she put it. What
Speaker 2: I heard was get out. It's been five and a
Speaker 2: half years.
Speaker 1: I brought you out of the house. All those records.
Speaker 2: Because I didn't do anything for five and a half years. Man,
Speaker 2: what was that like?
Speaker 5: We're going from this going going going having years that
Speaker 5: chill cool?
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: It was great.
Speaker 2: I tell everybody I started I started a shuttle service.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I would shuttle grand babies back and forth.
Speaker 2: And I was good at it. And in the summer
Speaker 2: I became a pool boy. You know, for my grandkids. Man.
Speaker 2: So so I loved it, man, but but I'm happy
Speaker 2: to be back in the game. You know. It's you know,
Speaker 2: I love music in particular, and I felt like it
Speaker 2: was five and a half years of me not knowing
Speaker 2: what was going on, you know, and I don't and
Speaker 2: I never experienced that before. I'd never been out of
Speaker 2: loop since the time I was twelve, you know, I
Speaker 2: always knew what was happening, you know. So uh, you know,
Speaker 2: so it's been cool, man, and then and then the
Speaker 2: love of the people give you two man.
Speaker 1: You know, it's just.
Speaker 2: You know, it was almost like me and Ray Leonard
Speaker 2: had this conversation because we were talking he took off for
Speaker 2: five years before he came back and fought Hagler, and
Speaker 2: he was talking about how it was so much more
Speaker 2: intense when you came back, because you know, people, you know,
Speaker 2: they're used to you, and then you're gone for this
Speaker 2: and you figured that's it. There's no more than all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, you come back and it's a different
Speaker 2: level of appreciation, you know, and uh, you know, people
Speaker 2: just people treat me swell.
Speaker 9: Did you realize that you probably could never do radio
Speaker 9: anywhere else, but the d m V, like the d
Speaker 9: m V might not let you. Was there a moment
Speaker 9: where you realize that you can't or that you.
Speaker 2: Just wouldn't a dog you got you paid them straight up?
Speaker 9: Gangs now him right like you on Ben's chili bowl
Speaker 9: wall now like you can't leave.
Speaker 2: You are not like Barry are like no, I never
Speaker 2: felt like that, like they wouldn't let you leave. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean because I was always so. You
Speaker 2: love DC across the country anyway you love it? Oh,
Speaker 2: I absolutely love d C without doubt.
Speaker 1: Because I'm certain that at one point you could write
Speaker 1: your own ticket and let me see what it's up
Speaker 1: in Chicago or go to l A or but.
Speaker 2: For what I mean, you know, I mean you d Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I love Detroit. I mean Detroit, that's you know,
Speaker 2: that's home.
Speaker 1: Baby.
Speaker 2: But you know, I mean, I'm already I've been in Chicago.
Speaker 2: Be Et video Soul put me in every city in
Speaker 2: this country. I don't need radio to do that. So
Speaker 2: I've never felt the need to to leave to go.
Speaker 2: Do you know? That's another reason why I've never felt
Speaker 2: pressure to do syndication. You know I'm gonna you know, b
Speaker 2: E T put me in more homes and syndication could
Speaker 2: ever put me in from radio, you know it could
Speaker 2: that could never be matched with radio what B E
Speaker 2: T did for me.
Speaker 1: So that's not that big a.
Speaker 2: Deal to me, you know. And when I've had those
Speaker 2: conversations and I go, well, I play some of everything,
Speaker 2: you know, So what happens on this station in Detroit
Speaker 2: kim all the time? What happens when I play Drake
Speaker 2: or Tupac or whatever, you know, whatever it is, I
Speaker 2: might well, you can play them, but you know, and
Speaker 2: you can talk about them. But will cover the Tupac
Speaker 2: song with Luthor?
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, you won't.
Speaker 2: Know because you know, for me, it's not like I'm
Speaker 2: not a bit driven show.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I just I play music. We talk about it, and
Speaker 2: you know that's what I do. So music is such
Speaker 2: a big part of what I do. I can't you
Speaker 2: can't take them, you can't cover It's got to be
Speaker 2: like a listen line. I mean, you know, you got
Speaker 2: to listen to the same thing in Chicago and San
Speaker 2: Francisco that they're listening to in DC. You can't cover
Speaker 2: my music with something else, right, you know, that's part
Speaker 2: of that's the biggest part of the experience to me.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's good to be local, you know. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, man, this is one of those cases
Speaker 1: where it to be local is to be better. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm old school in that way. I like that.
Speaker 2: But again, I'm very blessed in that TV gave me
Speaker 2: that thing that most people in radio are seeking through syndication.
Speaker 2: I had it in TV already.
Speaker 5: One question I had for you was in regards to
Speaker 5: the culture of BT when you talk about the early
Speaker 5: years and you were saying that it wasn't pretty.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: I remember those early years and I remember it was
Speaker 5: kind of rough, but it was also really real. And
Speaker 5: I mean just from watching your show, and I remember
Speaker 5: there was this other show I think you just come
Speaker 5: on after the video so the it was a movie
Speaker 5: show and it was this lady had a segment called
Speaker 5: Popcorn and pig Feet what Yes, But in this this
Speaker 5: particular episode was notable because they dissed Graffiti Bridge, like,
Speaker 5: I mean, straight up smashed Graffiti Bridge, and I was
Speaker 5: like whole, Like, I.
Speaker 1: Mean, there was that segment. There was another segment where like.
Speaker 5: Dwayne Martin was going through the record store like holding
Speaker 5: up records like on some like kiss of the Disc
Speaker 5: kind of shit like Yo, this new Tony Tony Tony.
Speaker 5: I was crazy, Yo, this is the new tap and
Speaker 5: this ship is whack like I mean, they were just
Speaker 5: it was ruthless, you know what I mean? And so
Speaker 5: and even like on your show, I mean you would
Speaker 5: give like I mean, god man, was it like vertical hole.
Speaker 5: I think that was the first place. Seems too much,
Speaker 5: too busy.
Speaker 1: I remember that interview too. She had had a cold.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so like you can't remember so much, so real
Speaker 5: and it was no PC, no cut card.
Speaker 1: It just seemed to be.
Speaker 5: I mean, as much as you described those early years
Speaker 5: as they were kind of rough and kind of ugly,
Speaker 5: to me, that was the charm because I knew I
Speaker 5: was getting just uncut.
Speaker 1: But when did that change?
Speaker 5: Do you or do you remember when it kind of
Speaker 5: shifted and they were like, all right, maybe we gotta
Speaker 5: polish it up, like we can't just you know, be
Speaker 5: thissing people like can't.
Speaker 1: Play commercial you know?
Speaker 2: No I don't. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I can't play the rough side of the Mountain commercial
Speaker 1: every I found.
Speaker 2: Coming up Jesus, But no, I don't know when that
Speaker 2: when that changed. Man, I don't know, you know, I've
Speaker 2: I've always felt like you got to keep it real.
Speaker 2: Like there are times when I'll play a song to
Speaker 2: this day and I'll go, you know, wow, my boys
Speaker 2: will kill me, but I'm will say it anyway. Cooling
Speaker 2: the Gang celebration I played that you are talking about
Speaker 2: that song on the air, is like, God, I can't
Speaker 2: take that song anymore, I said, I you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm happy for Cooling the Gang that this every bar,
Speaker 2: it's for wedding, any celebration you got over the last
Speaker 2: thirty five years they played that song, I said, But
Speaker 2: when I go down to Jamaica and I hear it's
Speaker 2: a celebration, it's.
Speaker 1: Like you can't escape it.
Speaker 2: Escaping it, you know, give me some of the other
Speaker 2: cooler stuff. That's but you know, I think the people
Speaker 2: appreciate that because it's real. And that's just my opinion.
Speaker 2: You know that if everything is great, then you can
Speaker 2: no longer be believable because everything's not great. You know, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you should sometimes say yeah, you know that song is
Speaker 2: not for me, but I play it. It's popular. People
Speaker 2: are crazy, you.
Speaker 1: Know, Well, Donnie, uh, we thank you for coming on
Speaker 1: the show and this has definitely been a master class, and.
Speaker 2: Manks for having me.
Speaker 1: I wanted to have one final question.
Speaker 5: This is from my mother, who like absolutely loves you.
Speaker 5: She wants to know, I guess I want to know,
Speaker 5: did you have a smoke before you went on the Earth?
Speaker 2: No, definitely not always waited to laughter the show. How
Speaker 2: people used to ask me that all the time. And
Speaker 2: one show I actually came out I addressed that. I said,
Speaker 2: people always ask me that, and but no I am
Speaker 2: not high, I said, but when I smile, I squimped
Speaker 2: my eyes closed. They would try at kind of make
Speaker 2: up and stuff trying to get my eyes to look
Speaker 2: more open. And it's just that's just who I am.
Speaker 2: It's just so I explained all that on the air
Speaker 2: and I said, so anyway, so no, I do not
Speaker 2: get high. But let's get our show started. We're gonna
Speaker 2: play this video and I'm gonna go in the back
Speaker 2: and smoke a joint. We'll be back in a minute.
Speaker 1: Oh God, I thank you Donnie Simpson for all that
Speaker 1: you've done for us. And you know, raising, I don't
Speaker 1: want to put it like nod.
Speaker 5: He pretty much raised like any any left of center
Speaker 5: like black stuff you got put on like it came
Speaker 5: through video.
Speaker 1: So yes, thank you, hey man, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: We appreciate it. One more time.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank y'all.
Speaker 1: I want to be happy to be here. I won't
Speaker 1: be happy here, Sugar Steve, Boss Bill on me, bron Tegelo.
Speaker 1: This is Questlove. You've been listening to Quest Love Supreme
Speaker 1: only on Pandora. We will see you on the next program.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
Speaker 1: episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For more
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