Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: All Right, y'all, this is gonna be a long one.
Speaker 1: You ready, And I'm talking about the introduction. All right,
Speaker 1: here we go. All right, let's see how good I
Speaker 1: am at winging this? Are we go? Alright? So, uh,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, this is a Quest Love Supreme and
Speaker 1: we're with Sugar Steve Layah and unpaid Bill Fontacolo. I
Speaker 1: gotta pour out some wheat grass for for the brothers
Speaker 1: who ain't here at the picnic. Yeah. So I just
Speaker 1: want to tell you guys alone, you know, my my
Speaker 1: distinguished QLs co stars, that I'm offering an advance, a
Speaker 1: full apology because you know we already we already know
Speaker 1: that I'm I'm cuckoo for anything uh purple related. But
Speaker 1: unlike our distinguished guest today, I'm throwing all of my
Speaker 1: cool out the window. All my professionalism and whatever so
Speaker 1: called journalistic integrity I had is gone. I'm going fool.
Speaker 1: Chris Farley, Paul McCartney, SNL interview mode. Right now, you
Speaker 1: guys aren't encouraged, You're encouraging trust. This is gonna be bad, um,
Speaker 1: and I'm look. Let me also preface by asking my
Speaker 1: guest to forgive me for all my levels of nerd
Speaker 1: um for this particular episode. Our guest today is probably
Speaker 1: the last plank of the original uh Purple squad or army,
Speaker 1: to whom I have not revealed my true geekdam. I've
Speaker 1: exhausted my I've exhausted my batteries on name, I'm Jimmy, Sheila,
Speaker 1: Apple's Jill, Mark, Wendy, Lisa, Susannah, Alan, James, Shoot, Bobby, Jesse, Terry,
Speaker 1: even Brenda's Susan, and I like St. Paul. I've exhausted
Speaker 1: my batteries asking dumb ask questions to every member of
Speaker 1: that squad except for our guest today. And that's on purpose.
Speaker 1: It's on purpose because I knew there was gonna be
Speaker 1: a day in which we would get him as a
Speaker 1: guest on our esteemed webby winning podcast. Let's listen, alright, um,
Speaker 1: And so okay, that was the That was the preface.
Speaker 1: So here's the actual introductions. Yo, man, you only get
Speaker 1: this one moment once, all right, So, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: as I was as I was prepping notes earlier, the notes,
Speaker 1: it's like a small post it um as prepping notes,
Speaker 1: I realized that, um, almost in every case of history,
Speaker 1: like once you reached that twenty year mark, revisionists license
Speaker 1: sort of kicks in. So that said, I'll say it
Speaker 1: right here that our guest, it's probably my gateway drug
Speaker 1: to the Purple Kingdom. And I'm just saying that because
Speaker 1: I remember when Prince's debut uh was on the radio
Speaker 1: back in when Soft and White debuted on the radio.
Speaker 1: It was only because I remembered it because it was
Speaker 1: literally two minutes after my dad had to break the
Speaker 1: news to my mother that my grandfather just died. So
Speaker 1: for the longest, my Prince association was that song I
Speaker 1: was listening to while my mom was sobbing on the
Speaker 1: kitchen floor, you know, crying to death. And so for
Speaker 1: the next four to five years, Prince was more of
Speaker 1: a fixture on like my sister's girlfriend's bad bedroom walls
Speaker 1: and all that high school right on magazine stuff. And
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, I mean I duck some joints
Speaker 1: as a kid, but you know, I was kind of
Speaker 1: team Jackson. And then shout out to my friend in
Speaker 1: sixth grade, Reginald Chiefs, who told me that his older
Speaker 1: brother told him that our guest today and Prince were
Speaker 1: down with each other, and then he pulls out a radio,
Speaker 1: one of those realistic radio shack cheap things, and he
Speaker 1: transforms my life. I played me the entire ten minute
Speaker 1: version of Cool and instantly, as as a sixth grader,
Speaker 1: I was tessed. I mean, records were five ninety nine
Speaker 1: back then, so I mean I broke the piggy bank
Speaker 1: purchased the album, and you know, I turned the album
Speaker 1: down on the bad parts whatever. My parents are like
Speaker 1: super Christian. But the next thing I knew, me and
Speaker 1: my entire sixth grade squad, for the first time in
Speaker 1: our lives, had brand new heroes to look up to
Speaker 1: who were not born in Gary, Indiana. So that entire summer,
Speaker 1: like all of our Jordan's Sergio Valente begging, all that
Speaker 1: went out the window. And thanks to my science teacher
Speaker 1: who thought that the Time guys look like the second
Speaker 1: coming of like Louis Jordan and Timpani five. He told us, well,
Speaker 1: if you guys want to dress like those guys, you
Speaker 1: gotta go to the five and Time. So you know,
Speaker 1: I've been avoiding going to the good Will all of
Speaker 1: my life. No one wants to go to the good
Speaker 1: Will Salvation Army. But now me and my whole crew
Speaker 1: are privy to a secret the world doesn't know about,
Speaker 1: which is basically, you can copy pair of baggies for
Speaker 1: five bucks, look sharp as hell, pull all the joints
Speaker 1: in sixth grade. Shout out to Minacha Jordan's looks just
Speaker 1: as just as awesome now as fifty as she did
Speaker 1: when she was ten. But basically our parents are late
Speaker 1: because now we're buying all these cheap suits looking good
Speaker 1: and they don't have to spend the money. So yes,
Speaker 1: only because of our guests. Our guests gave Prince the
Speaker 1: green light, not the opposite in my world that I
Speaker 1: gave Prince the green light and eighty two and then
Speaker 1: caught up afterwards, so you know, because Prince Vans want
Speaker 1: to swear that they were all down since the beginning.
Speaker 1: And no, make no mistake. If it wasn't for Mars
Speaker 1: e Day, my entire music direction probably would have went
Speaker 1: to either who I don't know, Luther Man Joe's or
Speaker 1: Leelo Thomas. I don't know. God is here with us,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for Mars e Day.
Speaker 1: This is probably the longest introduction I've ever done was over.
Speaker 1: Now gotta do the disclaimer. This is the first right now. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, when I really love a guest,
Speaker 1: I'll geek out. So uh, thank you. I can't even
Speaker 1: think you're enough. I have a gazillient questions. Actually, I
Speaker 1: want to jump ahead to a question I've been dying, dying,
Speaker 1: dying to know. So every interview that I've heard you
Speaker 1: recall your story. Of course, you get to the part
Speaker 1: where you realize that Prince it's about to choose Bobby
Speaker 1: Z as a drummer and not you, clearly the more
Speaker 1: skilled drummer. And you know, most Prince fans and most
Speaker 1: Quels listeners know kind of know what time it is whatever,
Speaker 1: So we kind of dig the reason why Prince did
Speaker 1: the the band outfit the way he did, sort of
Speaker 1: after sliding the family stone. But what I want to
Speaker 1: know is, in light of everything that's happened for you,
Speaker 1: if you were able to have a time machine and
Speaker 1: this is not even a you know, to bring Prince
Speaker 1: back alive thing, but if you were able to get
Speaker 1: back in the time machine and go back to and
Speaker 1: you knew there was a chance for you to get
Speaker 1: in the revolution as a drummer instead of the path
Speaker 1: you're on right now? What what what? What path are
Speaker 1: you choosing? Are you choosing to still be a drummer
Speaker 1: or your career? Well, first of all, brother quest, I
Speaker 1: want to thank you for that that that grand intro,
Speaker 1: My brother, thank you. Man. You know, I almost forgot
Speaker 1: that I was a guest. I was just like I
Speaker 1: was the host how many pages, you know. But but
Speaker 1: that's an interesting question. I like that question because in
Speaker 1: the moment back then, I definitely would have chose to
Speaker 1: be the drummer because I was all about drumming and
Speaker 1: that was my life, you know, my security blanket, and
Speaker 1: that's what I did every day. That's what I skipped
Speaker 1: school to do. That's what I aspired to do. But um,
Speaker 1: looking back now, you know, hindsight, Um, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: glad that I was kind of pushed, if you will,
Speaker 1: into the position that I'm in because you know, I
Speaker 1: found another aspect of my abilities that that I didn't
Speaker 1: really know about. M m okay, because I still feel like,
Speaker 1: and I try to think of the logical, I'm like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, you were given you were even given
Speaker 1: a choice to be like from my my my personal position,
Speaker 1: like my dad want to be opposite for me, my
Speaker 1: dad wanted me to be assessing drummer because you know,
Speaker 1: in my mind, I'm like, no, I want a career
Speaker 1: like I don't. I don't want to drump for Anita Baker,
Speaker 1: like I want to be the guy that owns the
Speaker 1: stadium that she plays it. Like I always thought that,
Speaker 1: So for me, I would I would just read when
Speaker 1: you would say, like a man, he incused me as
Speaker 1: his drummer, and I'm like, yeah, but you got something better.
Speaker 1: But then I thought about it, Maybe playing with Prince
Speaker 1: as a musician is fun, and perhaps in him you
Speaker 1: found someone that's like a level of musicianship that you respected.
Speaker 1: And you know, it wasn't about being lucrative or or
Speaker 1: having more money or whatever. It was about like, oh, this,
Speaker 1: this is where my joy really is. And so I
Speaker 1: always wondered that, Well, the thing is, it wasn't a
Speaker 1: choice like that. And I never thought that drumming for
Speaker 1: Prince would be fun because he was probably one of
Speaker 1: the worst of Yeah, if you will, you know that
Speaker 1: that you could work under. So it wasn't about that.
Speaker 1: But at that point I never really considered being a
Speaker 1: lead singer. I was a drummer and so that's all
Speaker 1: I knew, and I wanted to play drums. And I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, my man's got this deal. Man, he's like
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers. He's about to hit the big stage. I
Speaker 1: want to be a part of that. And that was,
Speaker 1: you know, all that I was thinking about at that moment. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I see it. So you didn't think, like, oh, this
Speaker 1: guy's gonna be so prolific that he's going to need
Speaker 1: other outlet and channels to express himself and so I
Speaker 1: could be that outlet or something. Yeah, the time didn't
Speaker 1: exist in that moment, so I get you know that came.
Speaker 1: That came about later, and you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: I'm very glad that it did because you know, I
Speaker 1: found something that I can do even better than drummings.
Speaker 1: So you know, it all worked out. We asked when
Speaker 1: and where did he hear your voice to think that
Speaker 1: you needed to make another decision. You know, we were
Speaker 1: in Ah. I was in Princess Group Grand Central back
Speaker 1: in the day when we were like teenagers, and you know,
Speaker 1: I would sing a couple of songs from the drums
Speaker 1: and even I would even come out in front and
Speaker 1: our percussionists at the time would would go back play drums.
Speaker 1: I'd come out and sing. So he knew that I
Speaker 1: could sing, but he didn't know about the front man,
Speaker 1: you know, but he did. He's the one responsible. You know.
Speaker 1: We tried when we were putting the time together. We
Speaker 1: tried Alexander O'Neill. We tried a handful of other singers,
Speaker 1: and it just didn't work out. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: Prince was like, well, why don't you do it? And
Speaker 1: you know, I had to like stop and think about that.
Speaker 1: I was like, because I'm going to be the drummer
Speaker 1: in the band. He said, no, you need to be
Speaker 1: the singer. I said, I don't know how to lead
Speaker 1: a band. He said, put your hand in your pocket
Speaker 1: and be cool, and I said, I can do that.
Speaker 1: Good advice, all right. So it's it's funny to say that,
Speaker 1: because um, I'm I'm actually working on I'm working on
Speaker 1: a book right now. There's a part, there's a chapter
Speaker 1: where I actually kind of explore the idea of what
Speaker 1: black cool is. Alice Walker's daughter, Rebecca Walker, she does this, uh,
Speaker 1: she does this essay about a woman on the New
Speaker 1: York subway and this black woman gets on, She's like gorgeous.
Speaker 1: She sits down, and Alice Walker immediately knew that her
Speaker 1: number one weapon was the way that she ignored people.
Speaker 1: So like this drop dead gorge just walks on the
Speaker 1: te rain. She sits and immediately Alice Walker notices like
Speaker 1: five guys like kind of googling her. But the more
Speaker 1: that she ignores them, the more that they want her.
Speaker 1: And it's almost like she said that that's the story
Speaker 1: of black cool, where you know, normally we're taught to
Speaker 1: to to please and play kate. You know. Motown's thing
Speaker 1: was like, you know, go to charm school. You know,
Speaker 1: we're the right thing that Dada da da or you
Speaker 1: know minstrel see era entertainment where you gotta sort of
Speaker 1: shuck and jive your way into people's hearts and disarmed them.
Speaker 1: Whereas cool is where you're holding everything back, which leaves
Speaker 1: a mystery and it makes people want to know you more.
Speaker 1: Like that sort of thing. It's it's so weird now
Speaker 1: seeing her her breakdown of what cool means and now
Speaker 1: kind of revisiting what the time represented, because you know,
Speaker 1: I guess for people that weren't around at that period
Speaker 1: like you you guys, to me, we're kind of what
Speaker 1: n w A I thought they were, and I don't
Speaker 1: mean and just in terms of you know, n w
Speaker 1: A arrived like the most dangerous group of all. But
Speaker 1: the thing is is that they overdid it so it
Speaker 1: became cartoony and then entertainment, whereas the time was like
Speaker 1: dead pan serious like de Niro, like you don't know
Speaker 1: they're serious or not. You know, it's like hyd your
Speaker 1: daughters like that sort of thing. So, I mean, there
Speaker 1: was I've never seen a black group not so eager
Speaker 1: to please or sort of like unbothered, like you know,
Speaker 1: we could take her to leave you Like That's how
Speaker 1: it looked to me when I was seeing you guys
Speaker 1: when as a kid, like, oh, these guys don't care
Speaker 1: like which you've just never seen that before in the
Speaker 1: black group, because most black groups like we're you know,
Speaker 1: happy to do. That was that the plan more is like,
Speaker 1: was that the plan You already knew what your cool
Speaker 1: was gonna be, and it was no going back and
Speaker 1: forth as to what we're doing and what we're gonna
Speaker 1: look like and how we're gonna wrap well, you know,
Speaker 1: there was an evolution of cool and quite like Quest
Speaker 1: was saying, and in the very beginning, it was a
Speaker 1: very laid back cool where people had to invite themselves
Speaker 1: into the room with us. But you know, I think
Speaker 1: you know, as it evolved, you know it it became
Speaker 1: more of an extrovert type of cool, and you know
Speaker 1: it was it was just, um, it was an evolution.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we definitely, you know, back in the early
Speaker 1: days had that mystique. It's like, you know when we
Speaker 1: did when I did do my laugh or whatever, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like is he laughing? What? What? What? You know,
Speaker 1: what's he laughing about? You know what does what? Time?
Speaker 1: Is it mean? You know? What is all this about?
Speaker 1: So you know, we kind of had people guessing, you know,
Speaker 1: want wanting to be in on the joke. Yeah, made
Speaker 1: you want to be down with him that way. Uh, Mars,
Speaker 1: what was your what was your first musical memory? Um?
Speaker 1: It went way back, you know, um, because I kind
Speaker 1: of just came into the world with the notion that, um,
Speaker 1: I was going to be involved with music. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: born in fifties six, you know, and I can remember
Speaker 1: listening to the Beatles on our little AM radio that
Speaker 1: we had, and um, you know, then later remember doing
Speaker 1: you know, the James Brown running around my you know,
Speaker 1: the house, in the projects and through to the looms
Speaker 1: on doing the splits, trying to do James Brown and
Speaker 1: all that, and then sixty four comes around. We were
Speaker 1: one of the first you know, let you know how
Speaker 1: what priorities were back then, but we had one of
Speaker 1: the first color TVs and the projects, so all of that.
Speaker 1: Back then, I was watching Bandstand and and I'm watching
Speaker 1: the Supremes of four Tops, you know, all these motown
Speaker 1: acts on on Bandstand, and I was like, that's what
Speaker 1: I want to do, you know. So those were my
Speaker 1: early memories, you know, of music. But I just it
Speaker 1: was just in my blood. Okay. And what was it
Speaker 1: about the drums that how did you come to be
Speaker 1: a drummer? And were there any other instruments that you played? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I went through them all, you know, I went through Uh.
Speaker 1: I wanted to play drums first and foremost. But um,
Speaker 1: you know, you probably know in school, everybody takes drums first.
Speaker 1: So the drums were never available, you know, and I
Speaker 1: was always late to to register for what I wanted
Speaker 1: to play, so um, you know, I played the saxophone.
Speaker 1: I got pretty good at that um. That was the
Speaker 1: first time I got invited to be in a band,
Speaker 1: but I didn't want to play saxophone in the band,
Speaker 1: so I passed on that UM. Then I went to
Speaker 1: the base. The only basically had was the upright basse,
Speaker 1: and I said, well, I'm not lugging this home practice.
Speaker 1: So you know, I played a few different instruments, but
Speaker 1: the drums just stood out, you know, And so I
Speaker 1: beat on my mom's couch and pots and pans until
Speaker 1: she finally caved in and bought me my first drum set.
Speaker 1: And you know it was that was just really love
Speaker 1: at first site or whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 1: but that was it for me. So I know that
Speaker 1: you're a left handed drummer along with jelly Bean is
Speaker 1: also a left handed drummer, or at least am I
Speaker 1: assuming that you're also left handed? I am, Okay, that's weird.
Speaker 1: I'm left handed too, but still I play. I play
Speaker 1: drums a traditional way, so or yeah, backhanded. The thing
Speaker 1: is is that you know, I first saw my first
Speaker 1: backhanded drummer like in the late seventies. So like when
Speaker 1: you're setting up the drums, and you decide that this
Speaker 1: is the way I want to face and this is
Speaker 1: my my my positioning, Like no one tried to correct
Speaker 1: you and say, well you should be ambidexterous or drum
Speaker 1: on both sides, or like how did you wind up
Speaker 1: drumming what we would call and reverse the brother you?
Speaker 1: You're asking me questions and making me question myself right now.
Speaker 1: Welcome to quest love, Supree, Man, this ain't gonna be
Speaker 1: the So tell us about my uncle love, Like already
Speaker 1: told you. You've heard that question. I already told you, man,
Speaker 1: I'm a nerd out. No, for real, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just think when I got my
Speaker 1: first drum set, you know, I'm down in the basement,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, pulling out the box and setting it up,
Speaker 1: and I just gravitated toward having my snare, you know,
Speaker 1: um on on on my right side, and you know,
Speaker 1: I just that's just how I set them up, and
Speaker 1: I just continue to play that way. Okay, So doesn't
Speaker 1: that make it hard to quote casually sitting like do
Speaker 1: you have the ability to actually play the opposite way? No? No,
Speaker 1: I was you know, I can't switch the whole set around.
Speaker 1: But I can at least stare in the high hat man.
Speaker 1: It makes it makes the feel sound interesting when you're
Speaker 1: going back quiser round. Okay, Okay, I see that. I
Speaker 1: don't I know that uh Garibaldi is his holds dear
Speaker 1: to your heart. But like was he was he your
Speaker 1: who's your first drumming hero? Oh my, my drumming heroes
Speaker 1: were definitely all the James Brown drummers, you know, and
Speaker 1: and and and and listening you know, back to can't
Speaker 1: stand it and and I got the feeling and stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean to me, the pockets and the meters brothers
Speaker 1: came up with was nothing short of incredible. And I
Speaker 1: definitely see where Garibaldi got his chops from listening to them.
Speaker 1: And but I just there was a technical way that
Speaker 1: he put it together that I that I just thought
Speaker 1: was very clever. But definitely all the j B s
Speaker 1: drummers in the early days and still to this day
Speaker 1: from me. Okay, well, I know that at some point
Speaker 1: you guys were all under the same management. Have you
Speaker 1: ever out into talk or get cool with Dave Garibaldi
Speaker 1: at all? Or we've talked a couple of times, you know,
Speaker 1: I go, you know to a show when I whenever
Speaker 1: I can catch him when I know he's drumming, and
Speaker 1: you know he knows, you know that that I did
Speaker 1: um his style. But you know that's about the extent
Speaker 1: of it. Okay, So just like nice pleasant trees, but
Speaker 1: never like yeah, yeah, that's it. You guys call you yo, man,
Speaker 1: check this thing out. Okay. So you know, we asked,
Speaker 1: We asked Jimmy jim his version of this. Can you
Speaker 1: break down your version of growing up in Minneapolis as
Speaker 1: far as you know, the side of town you grew
Speaker 1: up on, where the cool side of town was, where
Speaker 1: the side of town you don't go to radio socially, like,
Speaker 1: could you just give us a kind of run of
Speaker 1: what your your preteen life was in Minnesota. My preteen lie,
Speaker 1: you know in Minnesota was I pretty much lived in
Speaker 1: the don't go to areas. Oh you live on the
Speaker 1: quote the other side of the tracks. You know, both
Speaker 1: sides south side and north side were the areas that
Speaker 1: if somebody said, hey, where should I not go in Minneapolis,
Speaker 1: they would have said both of both sides of the
Speaker 1: town that I lived on. But what my experience and
Speaker 1: my takeaway from Minneapolis is I I can't hate on
Speaker 1: it because that's obviously where I really found myself and
Speaker 1: musically and and and in a great circle of musicians.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, my experience in Minneapolis,
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised with the whole George Floyd situation because
Speaker 1: I saw Minneapolis as being a racist town, um, and
Speaker 1: it just doesn't It didn't surprise me. First avenue which
Speaker 1: Prince chose to glorify didn't really even um cater to
Speaker 1: to blacks at all. You know, it was all about
Speaker 1: rock bands, and yeah, we didn't hang out there at
Speaker 1: all and never really felt welcome there, So you know,
Speaker 1: that was just um, you know, it was interesting that
Speaker 1: he chose that and it worked out, but that's not
Speaker 1: the you know, the Purple Rain Minneapolis is not the
Speaker 1: Minneapolis that I grew up in. So you guys had
Speaker 1: to build that utopian because like, okay, yeah, I was
Speaker 1: one of those people that like, you know that the
Speaker 1: modern era then the modern narra scene where you know,
Speaker 1: you and Apples are sitting in the audience with your
Speaker 1: champagne and all these black and white and mixed race
Speaker 1: people are just dancing. Like in my mind, I thought like, oh,
Speaker 1: Minnesota's this utopian sort of you know, this mythical utopian
Speaker 1: place that we need to go to. But that was
Speaker 1: basically up something that you guys had to build. Hey,
Speaker 1: you know what, you know, I just there's good and
Speaker 1: bad people, you know. But you know, Minneapolis grew to
Speaker 1: be that because so many people saw Purple Rain. And
Speaker 1: I think Prince did a great job of making Minneapolis
Speaker 1: really look like this music mecca and this melting pot
Speaker 1: and um, you know it, I don't know, you know,
Speaker 1: but it it wasn't like that, you know, And I
Speaker 1: think he helped he helped the city a lot by
Speaker 1: choosing to use First Avenue and glorify it like that. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not trying to, you know, sound lean
Speaker 1: in one direction the other. Had a lot of good
Speaker 1: white friends and all of that. But I was, you know,
Speaker 1: um stopped by the cops a lot, you know, throwing
Speaker 1: on the hood in my car in front of my
Speaker 1: five year old daughter at the time over really trivial stuff.
Speaker 1: So when you were were it was on the weight,
Speaker 1: it was on the way, you know. But but still,
Speaker 1: you know, I had one of the first uh uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I was one of the first brothers. You know,
Speaker 1: I bought a porch back in nineteen eighty, you know too,
Speaker 1: and I stopped for you know, just having a high
Speaker 1: end car. So you know, it was just it was
Speaker 1: it was crazy stuff, you know. So wait, can I
Speaker 1: ask what that being said? Now? I want to know
Speaker 1: about your people then, because like where were your parents
Speaker 1: from and what was their background? I know you said
Speaker 1: you grew up in the projects, but who were your
Speaker 1: who were your parents? Well, my parents were all out
Speaker 1: of Illinois, so um. I was born in Springfield, Illinois,
Speaker 1: and you know, all my folks were like Springfield, Decatur, Ellinois, Chicago,
Speaker 1: that circle down there. And you know, a couple of
Speaker 1: my relatives moved up to Minneapolis, and the story goes,
Speaker 1: and like I always like to say, it's in the book,
Speaker 1: you know, but you know, my mom took us up
Speaker 1: to Minneapolis. We're supposed to be going to Cali, and
Speaker 1: I was sold going forward to that, and we stopped
Speaker 1: in Minneapolis to visit my sick aunt, so my mom said,
Speaker 1: And we ended up there for the next twenty years.
Speaker 1: And I was a little bitter about that, I understand,
Speaker 1: but it got good, you know, I got really good,
Speaker 1: you know, I met some really good people. I met
Speaker 1: Prince and Mett, Andre Salmone and and all my guys.
Speaker 1: You know, because I I couldn't find myself. I wasn't
Speaker 1: an athlete, and I wasn't popular in school for for
Speaker 1: no particular reason. So once I got in the band,
Speaker 1: and once I found myself with the music, then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you know what I mean, life change
Speaker 1: for me. So Minneapolis were for me was the place
Speaker 1: to be, okay, and the idea of well, first of all, um,
Speaker 1: I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact
Speaker 1: that and I'm going on Jimmy Jam's account about how
Speaker 1: how radio was at the time. How are you guys
Speaker 1: getting culture like it's it's it's it's it's baffling to
Speaker 1: me that for a group of people, and meaning that
Speaker 1: all of you in Minnesota who basically dictated what black
Speaker 1: culture would be um and entertainment from the eighties on,
Speaker 1: and that's you know, music, attitude, style, all those things
Speaker 1: for you guys that not even have that foundation to
Speaker 1: even know to build upon it. Like, how are you
Speaker 1: learning about whatever was hipp and black in the day
Speaker 1: if it's not in Minnesota? Like, how are you getting
Speaker 1: what's your Internet? How do you know about the meters?
Speaker 1: How do you know about a group called heat Wave?
Speaker 1: Like how are you getting hip to this? Okay? So
Speaker 1: you know, first of all, you got diverse um parents
Speaker 1: from different parts of the country moving from Chicago to Minneapolis,
Speaker 1: moving from uh California to Minneapolis, and and they're bringing
Speaker 1: their record elections. And then also we had back in
Speaker 1: the day it was called k XL AM radio station
Speaker 1: that played all the soul music and it broadcasted from
Speaker 1: maybe eight in the morning until the sundown and had
Speaker 1: like a five block radius. But you listen to you know,
Speaker 1: you could get you know, all of the new music there.
Speaker 1: And then so then we would hear the new Parliament
Speaker 1: funka Delic, We would hear the new the new Commodore's
Speaker 1: or or whatever. And then we would go to the
Speaker 1: mom and pop and we say, hey, when we when
Speaker 1: are you getting when this record? When is this record
Speaker 1: coming in? And they would tell us we'd be waiting
Speaker 1: on this record. And then on the other hand, you know,
Speaker 1: we could listen to the groups like the Commodore's and
Speaker 1: Um Diana Ross and Lou Lou Rawls and that had
Speaker 1: surface to pop radio. And we hear their music, and
Speaker 1: then we would hear the pop music. And then so
Speaker 1: this is in our brains when we sit down to
Speaker 1: say we're gonna write a song, and then we're thinking
Speaker 1: Parliament FUNKA delic would think of James Brown. But then
Speaker 1: we're hearing, you know, all of the pop bands in
Speaker 1: our brains, and so you know, these melodies, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of mailed together, and and I think that's how
Speaker 1: we really came up with what we ended up with.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, I see, I see, I'm I'm familiar with
Speaker 1: the kind of mixture of Enterprise slash Grand Central slash
Speaker 1: Flight Time amalgamation. But were there any other bands in
Speaker 1: the area that you were frightened of or just like, yo,
Speaker 1: they're going to make it, or or even other people
Speaker 1: who were from the area, like uh the d Train guys,
Speaker 1: or or even the what's his name rock Rocky Robbins
Speaker 1: like We're or the Lips Incorporated people like None Purple associated,
Speaker 1: uh Minneapolis musicians like how fierce was the competition or
Speaker 1: was it just like the four main groups that eventually
Speaker 1: wound up working all together. The competition was amazing. It
Speaker 1: felt like there was a band on every block. But
Speaker 1: for some reason, I always felt like, you know, in
Speaker 1: flight time. You know, it was amazing. You know, there
Speaker 1: was a group called the Family that Sonny Thompson. I
Speaker 1: think Sonny plays in one of the spinoff Prince bands
Speaker 1: right now. And he's the guy that came by and
Speaker 1: he plays everything like Prince did. I think he taught
Speaker 1: Prince some things. And he's the guy that really came
Speaker 1: by and and taught me my first real drumbeat and
Speaker 1: how to really start mashing on the drums. And he
Speaker 1: was that kind of guy. But you know, there was
Speaker 1: the competition was fierce. But the reason why I got
Speaker 1: in Grand Central was because I went to a high
Speaker 1: school dance. I thought I was going there to see
Speaker 1: a girl, to meet up with a girl. I saw
Speaker 1: them playing, and I forgot all about the girl that
Speaker 1: you were on the day. I stood there right at
Speaker 1: in front of the band, and I was a mesmerized.
Speaker 1: You know, you got Prince thirteen years old on the guitar,
Speaker 1: Andre simonem his Princess cousin, Charles Smith, they call him Chaz.
Speaker 1: These guys are playing Santana Hendrix. They're playing everything like
Speaker 1: they're twenty one years old. Prince is doing the amazing
Speaker 1: guitar solos at that age, and and I just said, man,
Speaker 1: you know, and I've been wood sharing on the drums
Speaker 1: for years at that point, and I said, I gotta
Speaker 1: be a part of this. And you know, my whole
Speaker 1: point is I got to know Andre uh Simone. He
Speaker 1: came by my house one day. It's in the book Quest,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, you know, and we're just skipping in
Speaker 1: school and he heard me play drums, man, and you know,
Speaker 1: I played some Garibaldi soul vaccination what is hip? You know,
Speaker 1: And I'm firing up all my grooves and I stopped
Speaker 1: playing and he's looking at me like eyes all stretch.
Speaker 1: I was like, man, He's like, I didn't know you
Speaker 1: could play like that. And he said, you know, we're
Speaker 1: having trouble, you know, with a little you know, our
Speaker 1: drummers chasing women. He's not showing up a rehearsal and everything.
Speaker 1: We're looking, you know, to replace him. We're looking for
Speaker 1: somebody serious. You should come by bringing drums, you know,
Speaker 1: let Prince hear you. So I take my drums over there,
Speaker 1: I set them up. I started firing up the groups.
Speaker 1: We do some of the songs I'm I'm, you know,
Speaker 1: doing my thing, and you know, so we stopped. Prince.
Speaker 1: You know it was a man of very few words
Speaker 1: even back then, he looking at me very mysteriously, you know,
Speaker 1: never really said ship to me. But then Andre came
Speaker 1: to me and he's like, man, you know, Prince loved it.
Speaker 1: You're in. So my point is that I felt like
Speaker 1: I was getting into a superior situation from the time
Speaker 1: that I got into Grand Central, so I already felt
Speaker 1: like I was in a band that was even as
Speaker 1: fierce as the competition was. I felt like I was
Speaker 1: in the best band in Minneapolis at that point in time. Wow, Okay,
Speaker 1: often this name comes up anytimes we do these types
Speaker 1: of episodes, and I never asked, and I gotta ask you.
Speaker 1: The common denominator between everyone associated with Minneapolis that the
Speaker 1: name holds holy is the name of Sonny Thompson. But
Speaker 1: is there a reason why he was never in the
Speaker 1: first draft of any of these projects coming up? Like
Speaker 1: was he did you guys ever figure like, oh, how
Speaker 1: can we get Sunny down with us? Or was he
Speaker 1: just so advanced that you know, you guys never even
Speaker 1: considered that he'd be down with y'all or because everyone
Speaker 1: speaks of Sunny Thompson with this like religious like the
Speaker 1: best thing I've ever seen. But he's an amazing musician
Speaker 1: and way ahead of his time, and his name I
Speaker 1: do believe came up to be in the time. But
Speaker 1: I had a different idea myself of what the band
Speaker 1: should be. And I already had my eyes focused on
Speaker 1: Jimmy and jam and Terry Lewis because I had heard
Speaker 1: him play. I knew Flight Time was an amazing band,
Speaker 1: and I heard they had done some songs, produced some
Speaker 1: songs on Cynthia Johnson, who was the one that ended
Speaker 1: up saying funky town and yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and
Speaker 1: um so I already had that in mind, and you know,
Speaker 1: he didn't argue with me on that, but I believe
Speaker 1: he wanted Sonny in the band, and you know, he
Speaker 1: had this idea what the time should be, and I
Speaker 1: had mine. Unfortunately, you know he would he went with
Speaker 1: my version of the time. Okay, cool, So how do
Speaker 1: you wrestle, Like, what is the story of how you
Speaker 1: got kind of your own all star draft if you will,
Speaker 1: um grabbing these people from various groups and making your
Speaker 1: your your own band. Oh you know, um it was
Speaker 1: pretty easy actually, because you know, everybody knew that. You know,
Speaker 1: Prince had done his thing. He had this big deal
Speaker 1: with Warner Brothers. He showed up, he wouldn't got the deal.
Speaker 1: And you know, he always used his pick for his afro,
Speaker 1: you know, cake cutter. I don't know if you remember
Speaker 1: the cake cutters. You know what I'm saying, that pick
Speaker 1: with the handle on it. Yeah, yeah, with that cake cutter. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm very familiar with that. Yeah, he always had his
Speaker 1: cake cutters. So he wouldn't got his deal with Warner Brothers.
Speaker 1: They cut him a check for eight d g s.
Speaker 1: We had never seen nothing like that. They had his
Speaker 1: name on it, and just just to you know, seal
Speaker 1: the deal, he said his cake cutter right next to
Speaker 1: the check, you know, so we got that it was
Speaker 1: his for real. But anyway, um, you know, I I
Speaker 1: just wanted flight time, you know, Jimmy, Terry and Monty
Speaker 1: and um, I really wanted jelly Bean to be the drummer.
Speaker 1: But I was a drummer. So at that point we're
Speaker 1: looking at different singers. And that's when Prince said, hey,
Speaker 1: why don't you sing? And you know, at first, I
Speaker 1: wasn't fond of that idea. But then when I thought
Speaker 1: about it, I said, hey, that means Jelly Being could
Speaker 1: be in the band, and so everybody's in. And meanwhile,
Speaker 1: you know, when I was playing in Enterprise Band of Pleasure,
Speaker 1: you know, I had heard about this guitar player down
Speaker 1: in Rock Island, Illinois who was doing twenty minute solos
Speaker 1: where his band would leave the stage and he'd just
Speaker 1: stand up there and sold over twenty minutes. And I said,
Speaker 1: this has got to be our guy. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: I I told um Maridi Holmes, who told me about Jesse,
Speaker 1: I said, can you have him come up? Had him
Speaker 1: come up? He started, Uh, he stayed in my house
Speaker 1: and my little town house and in my living room
Speaker 1: on my couch, and you know, he started playing with Enterprise.
Speaker 1: Amazing guitar player. You know, I played Prince a tape
Speaker 1: of him playing, and Prince said, oh, yeah, that's our
Speaker 1: guitar player. So I mean, you know, the history, that's
Speaker 1: pretty much how it came together. Was anybody hard to
Speaker 1: get with the Was it a struggle with anybody took events? No,
Speaker 1: because we were all struggling already. So just to be
Speaker 1: you know, in a group that you know, under Princess
Speaker 1: Production Company with with some promise to do something big.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody was in you know. Okay, So when
Speaker 1: you guys are in this period of your lives, am
Speaker 1: I assuming that you guys had like day jobs to
Speaker 1: go to as well, and how do you balance like
Speaker 1: rehearsal versus pocket change? Yeah? Well, I pretty much failed
Speaker 1: at everyday job I attempted, you know, I think the
Speaker 1: longest I last was maybe six months. And you know,
Speaker 1: pretty much every job I ever had, the manager would
Speaker 1: end up. You know, I'm that guy singled out that
Speaker 1: he'd be looking at, you know, to two hours into
Speaker 1: every shift, He's like called me to his office. She's like,
Speaker 1: you don't want to be here to do you? Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know how to answer that question. So anyway,
Speaker 1: by the time we got to put in a band together,
Speaker 1: I was pretty much um living with a girlfriend of mine.
Speaker 1: She was working and paying the big bills, and I
Speaker 1: was doing the musician thing, you know, and making fifty
Speaker 1: dollars a show or whatever, thirty five dollars a show
Speaker 1: or whatever I made, And that was pretty much what
Speaker 1: I did. It was just all about music at that
Speaker 1: point in time in my life. Okay, I see, I
Speaker 1: do want to know, is at any point was was
Speaker 1: Alexander O'Neill at all like at any of these rehearsals.
Speaker 1: I mean, before you know, the the eventual fallout or
Speaker 1: his exit or whatever. But is there any point in
Speaker 1: which it was the seven of you or Aunt if
Speaker 1: jelly Bean was there? Like? No, at that point it
Speaker 1: was it was pretty much songs that that that either
Speaker 1: Prince had cut or Prince and I had cut. Uh,
Speaker 1: And we were just trying singers out in the studio,
Speaker 1: never as a band. But you know, Alexander was was
Speaker 1: was the lead singer of Flight Time, so they were
Speaker 1: actively working together at that time. Okay, I see, I
Speaker 1: know that you also, like I assumed, traveled with Prince
Speaker 1: when he was touring. Well, I assume that the first
Speaker 1: major TORI did was Rick James, so I guess you
Speaker 1: were on that tour with him. Am I correct? Were
Speaker 1: you at all like president during the Rick James Prince shows?
Speaker 1: I think that was over. I caught the next round
Speaker 1: when I came to town he was doing the Dirty Mind.
Speaker 1: I think that's what I went out with. Okay. Were
Speaker 1: you eyewitness to the Rolling Stones incident? Yes, I was
Speaker 1: the book. Uh, okay, so I've heard that you you know, well,
Speaker 1: first of all, I know that you were like recording
Speaker 1: these shows and being a collector of these shows. I'm
Speaker 1: assuming that maybe one of these shows that I have
Speaker 1: is your camera work. Um. First of all, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's who who even has the the vision to know
Speaker 1: to record themselves every night? To judge, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: that's an amazing technology to have, because okay, well, I
Speaker 1: believe that the legend is that you know, Mars would
Speaker 1: set up the tripod camera and record print shows on
Speaker 1: VHS or Beta Max whatever, um, so that Prince could
Speaker 1: watch himself and of course, like suckers like me who
Speaker 1: indulge a lot in the bootleg market in the last
Speaker 1: twenty five years whatever, like all these types of surface
Speaker 1: and whatnot. And I'm not saying them maybe or maybe not.
Speaker 1: I paid how many mid five figure for stuff? I
Speaker 1: don't know you got do history history, but I'm playing anyway. Um,
Speaker 1: But my my question is, yeah, like, who's for me
Speaker 1: in eight eight one, who's thinking of like purchasing a
Speaker 1: video camera recorder and and recording these shows night after night?
Speaker 1: Like because it's a rare technology that wasn't a household
Speaker 1: name yet until least so absolutely, and it wasn't It
Speaker 1: wasn't compact technology either. We're talking big VCR and some
Speaker 1: pretty nice size cameras, um that. How do you get
Speaker 1: the tapes tonight after night like like the big ones
Speaker 1: like this? Right? Yeah, you know tripod and I had
Speaker 1: I had my own road case case that I was
Speaker 1: so you know, anyway, that was me after Prince said, hey,
Speaker 1: Bobby's he's my drama and he's that, but I offer
Speaker 1: you a gig to take the shows. So you know,
Speaker 1: you know, I pay you a hundred fifty dollars a
Speaker 1: week that I'm like, I can travel and you know,
Speaker 1: go to shows and at least, you know, somehow be
Speaker 1: a part of this for you know, I said, I'll
Speaker 1: take it. And so you know, I was a video
Speaker 1: on the shows. And and that's something that stuck with
Speaker 1: Prince throughout his career. And I don't care, you know,
Speaker 1: even when we did the Musicology tour with him, or
Speaker 1: the dates that we did do, he would make everybody
Speaker 1: his band and everybody had to go to whatever club
Speaker 1: he rented out afterwards, and he would have that show
Speaker 1: on the projection, right and everybody had to watch it.
Speaker 1: Everybody had to watch it. He could yeah, like a coach,
Speaker 1: like getting on the musicians. Hey, you were behind on
Speaker 1: that song, the whole thing, the whole show, every show.
Speaker 1: He didn't in the nightclub though, in the nightclub, but
Speaker 1: damn you know that. Yeah, okay, so I feel like
Speaker 1: you should start some ship with the roots. You don't
Speaker 1: playing back. But here's the thing though, here's the thing though.
Speaker 1: Now now I don't feel so bad because you know,
Speaker 1: there's my nightclub story is the fact that he took
Speaker 1: me off turntables and wanted to watch Finding Nemo in
Speaker 1: the nightclub. You were there, like you yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: I said, I remember, Dad, Yeah, And it's such like
Speaker 1: you don't know then, embarrassment. You don't know what the
Speaker 1: embarrassment it is being a world class DJO. What's the story?
Speaker 1: So the story is basically, uh, Princess in Philly for
Speaker 1: the Musicology tour and I get ten tickets and in
Speaker 1: true a mere fashion, I forgot to count myself as
Speaker 1: part of the tens. So I got ten friends and
Speaker 1: so we're walking in one and I realized ship, I'm eleven.
Speaker 1: It was well, it was like more than sold out,
Speaker 1: and it just so happens that Ruth and him happened
Speaker 1: to be in a golf cart whizzing by, and I
Speaker 1: was just like, man, shoot your shot. And I said, look,
Speaker 1: I know I got ten tickets from you guys, but
Speaker 1: I forgot to include myself in the ten. He thought
Speaker 1: it was silly. He thought it was funny. He laughed
Speaker 1: and was like that moment, that was the girl that
Speaker 1: was with you, Just so you know, well there was
Speaker 1: ten of you. Go ahead. Oh, anyway, My point was
Speaker 1: that I sat under the stage and watched the show.
Speaker 1: But then towards the end of the show, Ruth rushes
Speaker 1: to me and says, Prince Princess this thing with me,
Speaker 1: like my relationship with him is like I Prince has
Speaker 1: this thing where he tells you to do something and
Speaker 1: automatically you're like, oh, I work for you, yes, sir.
Speaker 1: So I'll go to club. Hey, run the sound board.
Speaker 1: And I'm like at the sound board, like I don't
Speaker 1: know what I'm doing, But Prince told me runs the
Speaker 1: sound play bass, right, So Prince would had me just
Speaker 1: do ship. I never did a month like I've going
Speaker 1: to supermarket to get milk. I've played bass I'm like, wait,
Speaker 1: I don't play bass. So this one night he this
Speaker 1: one night he asked me, well he he, They command
Speaker 1: me to find him a nightclub to have uh an
Speaker 1: acter party, and so then of course I hit up
Speaker 1: our good friend Stacy Wilson from Philly find me a nightclub.
Speaker 1: She finds me a nightclub, but it's a five story
Speaker 1: walk up. And then at the last minute, Prince is like,
Speaker 1: and I want to play pool and so now they
Speaker 1: got an hour to find a pool table and and
Speaker 1: dismantle it and lug it up five stories to the
Speaker 1: to the rooftop of this nightclub. Uh, and I want
Speaker 1: you to DJ. So now I got this were Seratos,
Speaker 1: And now I gotta run to my dungeon grab all
Speaker 1: these records so you know I I do it, and
Speaker 1: three records in. Prince obviously didn't take a liking to
Speaker 1: to fail. I was playing afrobeat and they're like, put
Speaker 1: this on instead, and I'm looking as a DVD and
Speaker 1: it's finding Nemo and I'm like, uh wait, what am I?
Speaker 1: What am I supposed to do with this? So so
Speaker 1: can Florence? Can you translate that? What was he trying
Speaker 1: to say to a mirror in that moment. I still
Speaker 1: don't understand. Really, you don't understand where he was telling
Speaker 1: you he's getting fired right now. Well, I was hoping
Speaker 1: that wasn't it. Maybe it was something else. Well, he
Speaker 1: just I've just never seen someone put a videotape on
Speaker 1: in a nightclub like we're in. And the thing is,
Speaker 1: it's like it's two thousand and four, so our version
Speaker 1: of the nightclub is more like Diddy era, where it's
Speaker 1: sexy and you know, smokey and lasers and stuff. And
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, like you here, Ellen de
Speaker 1: Generous and and you know, Albert what's his name and
Speaker 1: finding Nemo, we're watching a Pixar film in the club
Speaker 1: like it was normal. And now that I know that
Speaker 1: Marns has told us that, okay, that he just puts
Speaker 1: tapes on anything but music on the club just seems
Speaker 1: weird to me. So yeah, well I'm surprised he don't
Speaker 1: have't making everybody watch the show, because that that's usually
Speaker 1: what he did. It was a man, It's like he
Speaker 1: had to see himself. Wow. Love that he was a coach.
Speaker 1: I think that's dope. That means he's an athlete, but
Speaker 1: he's a real athlete When it comes to this this, I
Speaker 1: get it down. That is the approach. So I gotta ask,
Speaker 1: so can you give us your version of the Rolling
Speaker 1: Stone Show? Oh? Man? Um, that was traumatic because you know,
Speaker 1: you know, I I know I knew this brother, you know,
Speaker 1: to his level of professionalism and his need to um
Speaker 1: be accepted as an artist. And um, so I think
Speaker 1: he's going up there thinking, you know, he's um straight
Speaker 1: up in Billy idol Molde, you know, half moment, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, half naked. You know, I'm gonna show him
Speaker 1: how I can rock and roll, you know, with the
Speaker 1: bikinis and the leg warmers and all that on. And
Speaker 1: you know, you're straight up in front of a hardcore
Speaker 1: rock and roll crowd. A lot of these guys were bikers,
Speaker 1: and you know, and and and and they just wasn't
Speaker 1: hearing it. Man. So you know, he comes out and
Speaker 1: he's doing this thing and uptown and all that, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you know, you start hearing the
Speaker 1: booze and the beer bottles start flying up on stage.
Speaker 1: And I knew, you know, right at that moment that
Speaker 1: it was time to start making my way with my
Speaker 1: you know, little cameras camera equipment backstage because it wasn't
Speaker 1: gonna be nice. So that shows on tape. I never
Speaker 1: saw it on tape, but I taped it, you know,
Speaker 1: happened to it somewhere in this earth. Is that show
Speaker 1: somewhere on this planet? That show is on DVR vhs.
Speaker 1: It's labeled. It's labeled. That's right. Oh my god. Wow. Okay,
Speaker 1: and Moors, how long did you keep this job, this camcording,
Speaker 1: this gig? We'll see, that's the whole thing. You know.
Speaker 1: I was just staying close, you know, because when I
Speaker 1: moved away, you know, when he got his record deal,
Speaker 1: I was living down in Gaithersburg, Maryland side of d C.
Speaker 1: You know, and so you know, things didn't work out
Speaker 1: well for me. So I moved back to Many and
Speaker 1: once he found out that I got back, he was
Speaker 1: real happy that I was there. So I started hanging out,
Speaker 1: going to rehearsals, and that's when I kind of said,
Speaker 1: you know, hey, man, I really like to be the drummer.
Speaker 1: And he's like, now I have a drummer. And that's
Speaker 1: when I got offered the job to video shows. And
Speaker 1: so you know, he told me, you know, he said,
Speaker 1: you know, um, you can use the studio anytime you want.
Speaker 1: And of course I took advantage of that. And so
Speaker 1: one of the first songs I cut was this slow
Speaker 1: funk track and um, you know, I put the drums down,
Speaker 1: then I put the base down and it was the
Speaker 1: party up baseline. But I played it way funk here.
Speaker 1: You know. I was in a funk mode with it.
Speaker 1: And he's like, you know, and so I go home
Speaker 1: when I come back the next day to cut some
Speaker 1: more stuff, and he's like, you know, I like that
Speaker 1: track that you cut. He's like, if you give me
Speaker 1: that track, he said, I'll give you. I don't know,
Speaker 1: tim k, I don't I forget what he said. He said.
Speaker 1: Or I'll help you put a band together. You pick it,
Speaker 1: I said, And he said, I get your record deal.
Speaker 1: I said, of course, I'll take the band and the
Speaker 1: record deal. Yes. So that was pretty much the end
Speaker 1: of my video career. Videoographer a career, and um, you know,
Speaker 1: from that point on, it really really happened fast. You know,
Speaker 1: we he sent U. He had me sing a couple
Speaker 1: of songs, he said to the Warner brothers. They signed
Speaker 1: the band and the concept of the time side unseen
Speaker 1: and so then we had like two weeks to complete
Speaker 1: the record, and it was just a whirlwind from there. Okay,
Speaker 1: so it's ten thousand. In my mind, I thought it
Speaker 1: was substantial, like and I was doing the math and
Speaker 1: I was like, wait a minute, well twenty back that
Speaker 1: was like seventy dollars today, Like I don't know, It's like,
Speaker 1: of course, yes, you made the right choice by choosing
Speaker 1: the band situation, but I'm also thinking, you know, you
Speaker 1: could have had your cake and eat it too, because
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's is he even expressing again
Speaker 1: the need to have other outlets to express Like are
Speaker 1: you seeing this this o c d Obsessiveness to channel
Speaker 1: more music through other acts? Yet, because in my mind,
Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, why couldn't you get both? Yeah, well
Speaker 1: you're right, but you know that was probably his inside
Speaker 1: his brain, right, my brain is you know I can
Speaker 1: you know, I know that we can put something nice together.
Speaker 1: And he had already played me as he had played me,
Speaker 1: get it up Um, which he had cut believe it
Speaker 1: or not, for the group Brick and why absolutely, And
Speaker 1: he had cut it for Brick Brick. He sent the
Speaker 1: song to them. They didn't want it, Oh God, they
Speaker 1: didn't want it, and I was like, man, I will
Speaker 1: take it, so m yeah, yeah, So I didn't get them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's crazy, I know, because they were hot at the time,
Speaker 1: you know, and he was just thinking, you know, he
Speaker 1: had cut a song that they might like. But that's real.
Speaker 1: That's that's a true story, though a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't know that. I don't even know if that's in
Speaker 1: the book though it's definitely not in the book. By
Speaker 1: the way. Um uh yeah, Brick Brick's um you guys,
Speaker 1: that's Sleepy Brown's uh okay, yes, yeah, Sleepy Brown's father.
Speaker 1: Um okay. So this is what I want to know
Speaker 1: the hearing you speak right now, and I'm assuming that
Speaker 1: this is your natural speaking voice when you're in the
Speaker 1: character of Mars Day or when Princess in the character
Speaker 1: of Jamie Starr. Who who is the figurehead that you
Speaker 1: guys are. Who's the figurehead to whom you guys are
Speaker 1: mocking or or imitating or like where did this this character?
Speaker 1: You know, the that that pre Cat. Yes, I've talked
Speaker 1: to Cat Williams himself and he even said that, yes,
Speaker 1: you guys were kind of his impetus for that voice,
Speaker 1: so bad, Like me exactly who is who is that
Speaker 1: voice to what you guys took and perfected? Is that
Speaker 1: how brothers talked to Minnesota? Now, you know what you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's really everything that you hear from from my
Speaker 1: laugh too. When I get into that zone. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a way that you talk, you know, when you're
Speaker 1: just in chill more regular mode. And there's a way
Speaker 1: that you talk when you have hyped up talking to
Speaker 1: your partners, talking ship, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: it's just it's just a it's just an elevated level
Speaker 1: if you will, of you know, of of of my
Speaker 1: normal self. You know. So when I go into that mode,
Speaker 1: that's pretty much how we were when we were just
Speaker 1: talking shipped to each other, you know, laughing, and you know,
Speaker 1: and and and you know when I when I got
Speaker 1: in that mode that I would laugh loud like I laughed,
Speaker 1: and principles like man, we gotta put that on the record,
Speaker 1: you know. So it was just you know, it was
Speaker 1: it was kind of our inner circle, the way we
Speaker 1: talked to one another. You know. Okay, right, this this
Speaker 1: this is my favorite part of the interview. Okay, So
Speaker 1: now I finally get to figure or ask you grill
Speaker 1: you on the work mode operation of the t view.
Speaker 1: So are you the are you the complete drummer on
Speaker 1: most of the Times albums? Um? I played drums on
Speaker 1: most of the early out albums, and I played drums
Speaker 1: on a few of Princess songs as well, you know.
Speaker 1: So that's what I wanted to know. What what Prince
Speaker 1: songs or other non Time records have you drummed on
Speaker 1: that I might not know about. I did Partner Let's Work.
Speaker 1: I played all Let's Work in Prince. You know, he
Speaker 1: kind of he played on it as well, so he
Speaker 1: kind of took parts of his his track and mind. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I played drums on Controversy New Power Generation, Yo. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I played on a lot of this stuff, but I never,
Speaker 1: you know, got credit, just like he didn't necessarily in
Speaker 1: those days take credit for playing on the Time stuff.
Speaker 1: But I played on a lot of Prince's songs as well. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I'm trying. I've been trying to explain to people
Speaker 1: what what the process is because we all, you know,
Speaker 1: most most purple heads or whatever, they're very familiar with
Speaker 1: chlorine bacon skin, which was initially I guess the impetus
Speaker 1: of it was was supposed to be a workout that
Speaker 1: would eventually morph into an actual song. But then I
Speaker 1: guess it was so good you'll just let the workout
Speaker 1: be the song. So if you guys aren't familiar with
Speaker 1: chlorine bacon skin, thank you don't symbol, you just get
Speaker 1: so Steven. Steve is my engineer. So Steve, you know,
Speaker 1: like when you set up a click track for me,
Speaker 1: So basically Prince would play that the role the click track,
Speaker 1: So Mars would this drummer beat, and to keep Mars
Speaker 1: sort of you know, in the zone or whatever, Prince
Speaker 1: would set up his base, set up a microphone the
Speaker 1: way that I talked to the guys on the show whatever,
Speaker 1: Talk Ship, whatever, and then you record the drum thing,
Speaker 1: and then of course that morphs into something else. And
Speaker 1: this one particular case, Klarene Biggenskin actually wanted up being
Speaker 1: so good it stayed on its own. Yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: it's just a fifteen minute song where Prince is just
Speaker 1: talking ship and it's mad hilarious, but it's also mad funky.
Speaker 1: So for that song alone, I know that it was
Speaker 1: intended to be a work song that turns into something else.
Speaker 1: But when it was over. Why didn't you guys turn
Speaker 1: that song into something else? Um, because I think we
Speaker 1: were both you know, um, you know, just kind of
Speaker 1: really cool with the way it turned out. You know,
Speaker 1: he was talking ship you know. Uh, you know at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the song. We started the song and
Speaker 1: he's talking and you know, he's getting on me. He's
Speaker 1: like the headphones and then my headphones were on the floor,
Speaker 1: so I'm laughing and I put my headphones on here.
Speaker 1: At the end of the song, we got done, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's like it was just so hilarious. We said,
Speaker 1: we gotta leave this alone. We gotta just let it
Speaker 1: be what it is, you know. So yeah, I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, one of the one of the rarest highest
Speaker 1: things I've paid for. I didn't realize that you guys
Speaker 1: were actually intending to release this, So, you know, I
Speaker 1: one of the up there there. There's there's like I've
Speaker 1: mastered her her Powers, mastered twelve inch of klarine that
Speaker 1: was supposed to see the light of day, and I
Speaker 1: guess at the last a minute was sixth Night, or
Speaker 1: maybe just had one printed up at one of one
Speaker 1: or whatever. But is that how all the songs were created?
Speaker 1: So like when you're doing like wild and Loose, you know,
Speaker 1: when you're drumming, are you drumming to something totally different?
Speaker 1: And then it eventually morphs into wild and loose? Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1: It started out as a you know, prints on the bass,
Speaker 1: which you know, probably one of the funks bass players.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know in two seven seven uh seven
Speaker 1: three eleven. Nobody can play that song. Nobody can play
Speaker 1: that song the way he did, so exactly. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of the songs we just um, we started
Speaker 1: like that, him on base neon drums, and then we
Speaker 1: would find a pocket or if he had an idea
Speaker 1: of pocket, he telling me to go there, I'd hold
Speaker 1: the pocket and you know we would just um kind
Speaker 1: of go from there. But most of all, most all
Speaker 1: of our songs that I played on were you know,
Speaker 1: they start out as jam sessions. So jam sessions and
Speaker 1: totally different keys and totally other things. And then you
Speaker 1: go home and then you come back the next day
Speaker 1: and then that drum performs you gave turns into something else. Yeah,
Speaker 1: possibly that or possibly the actual session itself, you know,
Speaker 1: and he was master at um cutting two inch take
Speaker 1: because you know how it was packing the day, so
Speaker 1: you know, he would cut out the sections that we
Speaker 1: didn't need and uh spice them together and then start
Speaker 1: overdubbling overdubbing from that point, you know, so he could
Speaker 1: raise or splice his own tapes. Were you guys working on?
Speaker 1: Was it a sixteen track or twenty four? Like? What board?
Speaker 1: Do you know? Like? The Yeah, the boards that we
Speaker 1: started on sixteen um, and that's what we uh that
Speaker 1: get It Up and all Cool Girl, all those songs
Speaker 1: that first album were cut on sixteen track and then
Speaker 1: after that graduated to track and then after that graduated
Speaker 1: to twenty four tracks, where we had forty eight tracks.
Speaker 1: You know. Oh, okay, I see, okay, So let me
Speaker 1: ask about the twin of bacon skin, which is tricky.
Speaker 1: Why did you big toss sided here, don't toss snagly,
Speaker 1: don't funk inhabit form, leatherwear being pulled black? Oh, it
Speaker 1: was tricky. Initially intended as one of these sessions that
Speaker 1: should turn into another song, and then again, you guys
Speaker 1: were just clowning around and decided, okay, let's just leave
Speaker 1: this as as it is. Tricky happened when um um
Speaker 1: we heard that? I believe it was was it Boots
Speaker 1: But anyway, it was either it was either Bootsy or
Speaker 1: George George Clinton when I've had a song that said
Speaker 1: Mia Mia Morrison copycat. Immediately after we heard that, we
Speaker 1: went into the studio and that was our rebuttal. That was,
Speaker 1: it's like why you be wait? You so toss solid hair?
Speaker 1: Do have? And that was Boots Man the Michelin Man.
Speaker 1: That was George Clinton. So we went in and you know,
Speaker 1: had a field day, you know, as a rebuttal to
Speaker 1: them talking shit about us. Dude, this okay, this is huge.
Speaker 1: Heads are dude, you literally I didn't expect this because
Speaker 1: in our mythical made up land, we had decided that
Speaker 1: that was directed after the James Brown incident, you know,
Speaker 1: the James Brown Michael Jackson, and because we thought like, okay,
Speaker 1: well he has to be talking about somebody. At first,
Speaker 1: I just thought that YouTube, we're just ranking on each other,
Speaker 1: because you know, I didn't realize again, like Prince never
Speaker 1: made his voice known to us during that period in
Speaker 1: real time, so I had no idea that like the
Speaker 1: waiter on the skits and the Italian guy on the Walk,
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that was Prince, right, I'm just thinking
Speaker 1: that's you and some of the guys. And so once
Speaker 1: I became aware of that, then I was like, well,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, that's Prince and Mars, Like who are
Speaker 1: they talking about? So in my mind I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I know that James Brown incident happened and he was
Speaker 1: really embarrassed, and oh maybe that's who he's talked. That
Speaker 1: is crazy. So did you ever get actual verification that
Speaker 1: was actually out you or you know, were they like, no,
Speaker 1: we're talking about the actual marks the cat from the
Speaker 1: Frisky's commercial and we knew exactly, you know, and I'm
Speaker 1: not sure, you know, maybe they thought maybe they thought
Speaker 1: Get it Up was you know, sort of a parliament
Speaker 1: funkadelic group. And I could see that, you know, and
Speaker 1: you know, I could see the influence of that, but
Speaker 1: I by no means I feel like we were biting
Speaker 1: their sound at all. But now, I mean, there were
Speaker 1: no strangers to bucking shots, you know, because like, let's
Speaker 1: take it to the stage. They playfully call out you know,
Speaker 1: earthwhen and fire and rufus and slide and even you know,
Speaker 1: the people that they're down with, but still like playfully
Speaker 1: doing Wow, man, I had no what so was he
Speaker 1: actually eating chicken while he did that? No? No, okay, no,
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe I acknowledge you mention that I
Speaker 1: think we might have bought a buck in a change. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like, I think he was just chewing chicken.
Speaker 1: I think chicken on it. And now did you mention it?
Speaker 1: So that's okay. I want to know what was the
Speaker 1: awareness of your contemporaries at least? Again, the myth of
Speaker 1: my head was that you guys were too cool for school.
Speaker 1: You didn't listen to nobody else, like nobody like Zap
Speaker 1: them and Da Da Dad or whatever. But now that
Speaker 1: I'm older, I'm like, it's almost impossible for you guys
Speaker 1: to not know about the Dazz Band or Zap or
Speaker 1: even like these new groups groups coming up like z
Speaker 1: Look and Real to Real and Click and you know,
Speaker 1: all these all these groups post at two that were
Speaker 1: trying to fit into that mood that you guys were. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, how aware were you guys of other groups
Speaker 1: and their music? Like did you ever come in and say, like, yo, man,
Speaker 1: this group called the System from New York, listen to
Speaker 1: this ship like you you're You're absolutely right. We were
Speaker 1: on We were on that page, Um, but on a
Speaker 1: larger scale for us, we were listening to new wave
Speaker 1: groups like The Cure, and you know, we were listening
Speaker 1: to a lot of the cross over pop groups and
Speaker 1: trying to because we'd already you know, we we had
Speaker 1: the funk thing down. So what we were trying to do,
Speaker 1: and if you think about it, you listen to um
Speaker 1: ice Cream Castles and you know, listen to the verses
Speaker 1: on that in the whole vibe of that song. We
Speaker 1: were trying to get that that the Cure, you know,
Speaker 1: we were trying to get that slightly new waves sound
Speaker 1: integrated and and and and that's that's really where we
Speaker 1: were thinking. We were we were already passed the funk
Speaker 1: thing because we had that. Wow, I never thought of that,
Speaker 1: So you guys were aware of Okay, I see, I
Speaker 1: see it. So humor. Humor is also another important weapon
Speaker 1: in in the arsenal of the time, which you know,
Speaker 1: humanize you guys. And that was sort of the difference
Speaker 1: between you know, your presentation and Prince's presentation because your humor,
Speaker 1: even though it's inside baseball jokes, it still made us
Speaker 1: want to be down with you, and it endeared us
Speaker 1: to you more because it showed a side of you,
Speaker 1: Like Prince didn't show a sense of humor until way
Speaker 1: later in his career. So like, but what I want
Speaker 1: to know is the fact that you guys would actually
Speaker 1: stage visa kind of vignettes, and you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's really the precursor to skits that de Las Soul
Speaker 1: and n w A and them started doing, except they
Speaker 1: would actually make skits where you guys would just do
Speaker 1: the skits on the record, So like when you're doing
Speaker 1: songs like the Walk, uh or even Wild and Loose.
Speaker 1: Wild and Loose is probably a better example because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm assuming that's that's Lisa. Is that Lisa and Jill
Speaker 1: Jones talking to each other, them talking to each other
Speaker 1: on Wild and Loose when you guys are there, I
Speaker 1: actually think it's just some some random girls that come in,
Speaker 1: you know. H But however, on the wall that was
Speaker 1: that was vanity. That was vanity. I know that. But
Speaker 1: the reason why I'm asking about Wild and Loose is because,
Speaker 1: you know, in my mind, over analyzing this song, I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: there's a thirty two bar break, and then that thirty
Speaker 1: two bar break on the left side, the two girls
Speaker 1: have to set up the narrative perfectly where they're explaining
Speaker 1: how they got your phone number when they talk to you,
Speaker 1: and god da da da. But then on the right hand,
Speaker 1: you hear you know, you Jesse or whoever talking shit
Speaker 1: about the same thing that they're talking about, and and
Speaker 1: and it's it's coordinated perfectly, and it doesn't sound casual,
Speaker 1: like it doesn't sound like it was just a happy accident,
Speaker 1: like yes, we're just gonna take this thirty two bar
Speaker 1: break and talk shit, like there's an actual narrative that
Speaker 1: goes on. And like, so when it comes to those
Speaker 1: those those moments in the time songs when it's time
Speaker 1: to talk ship or do humor and I'm talking about
Speaker 1: the kid Came, Ike you Come, or even Chili Sauce
Speaker 1: or those songs, Like how important is that or was
Speaker 1: it just prince? Like, Okay, don't I don't have another
Speaker 1: I don't have a third verse, so let's just do
Speaker 1: a skit real quick, Like how is that organized? Well,
Speaker 1: you know I think it was. I think it was
Speaker 1: more once we got the body of the song, you know,
Speaker 1: versus hooks, and you know, then you know it was
Speaker 1: always Prince's planned to to to make these to bring
Speaker 1: our personality to these songs, and you know, to make
Speaker 1: them you know, you know accessible, you know, and and
Speaker 1: not I mean, we have the great musicianship. And then
Speaker 1: on the other hand, you know, make it accessible through
Speaker 1: you know, like these vignettes and a little comedy in there,
Speaker 1: and just have fun with it, you know, just kind
Speaker 1: of you know, help people enjoy. And I don't think
Speaker 1: that that was the plan outright at that moment, but
Speaker 1: you know, that's what it ended up being. He just
Speaker 1: wanted to bring personality to the records. And you know,
Speaker 1: we always laughed and talk ship. We would go to
Speaker 1: the club, we would have a good time, then straight
Speaker 1: to the studio and you know, listen to what was
Speaker 1: on and get that fresh in our brains, and then
Speaker 1: straight to the studio and start cutting, you know, with
Speaker 1: with what was hot in mind and and you know,
Speaker 1: doing our own thing with it. Okay, I knew you
Speaker 1: guys had to present to us that you were above
Speaker 1: funk and above you know, like what what you what
Speaker 1: you mortals do? Like we're above that? Um, However, can
Speaker 1: you just name one or two songs or groups that like,
Speaker 1: all right, I respect that. Like, I know, you guys
Speaker 1: toured with Zapp, Like to them, were they like they
Speaker 1: all right or was it like okay this like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know Zapp was a hell of a band. I
Speaker 1: mean more bounced to the ounce. Who couldn't deny that? Man,
Speaker 1: that's you know, that's that's one of the funkiest songs.
Speaker 1: You know, and and and you know that's the way
Speaker 1: Roger always presented it. He would make his band like
Speaker 1: stay in that pocket, you know how. You know, sometimes
Speaker 1: you get excited and we we do that and and
Speaker 1: our our temples, yes, and they're higher than the record is.
Speaker 1: And you know that was okay because you know you
Speaker 1: were in concert, you know, the energy and and and
Speaker 1: then the excitement is there. But Roger always had his band,
Speaker 1: you know. It's almost like he would click it out
Speaker 1: and say, you know, keep it right there. And it
Speaker 1: was always just slow and funky and know and they
Speaker 1: they always you know, had a great show. So you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, uh, there's a thousands of funk
Speaker 1: songs that that I love and could get down with,
Speaker 1: you know, but you know, we just we just wanted
Speaker 1: to present ourselves a little differently, you know, Okay, I see,
Speaker 1: what's what's the reasoning behind you didn't find it a
Speaker 1: little unusual that, like all of your records were just
Speaker 1: six songs. You know, it's it's you know, it's just
Speaker 1: like would you like a bucket of twenty four pieces
Speaker 1: of fried chicken? Taste? All right? Like six pieces? It's
Speaker 1: real good quality, not quantity. I'm like, but as the
Speaker 1: person who has made a multi track album in retrospect,
Speaker 1: is that kind of genius? Gonna wait those as you
Speaker 1: all get paid? Is way harder to make a classic
Speaker 1: with less songs, like to me because all all the
Speaker 1: records that we look at that our classic are really
Speaker 1: under forty five minutes, intervisions off the wall, dirt mind
Speaker 1: what time is it? Like short of you know. But
Speaker 1: it's also the thing the risk of six songs is
Speaker 1: like when you shoot your shot, you better hit that ship,
Speaker 1: hit right right on target. Got to be confidence. So
Speaker 1: I mean were you were you at all like uh worried?
Speaker 1: Like okay, well, after you heard cool and these songs done,
Speaker 1: did you know instantly like oh man, we're gonna blow
Speaker 1: up so big? Like did you feel that at all? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was crazy like that I felt, you know,
Speaker 1: that we were really onto something. Um, you know, when
Speaker 1: when we finished seven seven, seven, nine, three eleven, I'm
Speaker 1: like thinking, but they ain't hurt, nothing like this, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's like, you know, we just you know, we
Speaker 1: always just felt like we were on point with it.
Speaker 1: You know, we were in the moment and we knew
Speaker 1: we were doing something innovative, and um, you just felt
Speaker 1: like we had something different, you know. So you know
Speaker 1: I felt real good about you know, uh, each each
Speaker 1: song on those six song albums. What was your life
Speaker 1: like two months after the first time album at least
Speaker 1: in Minnesota, Like was like when did your life transform
Speaker 1: to whoa you know? Now now on this level well,
Speaker 1: you know Reggie Hammond and in forty eight hours like
Speaker 1: buy it out. I'm sure you know, brother, but you know,
Speaker 1: if I went from you know, trying to stretch my
Speaker 1: little five dollars to do the cover charge, to get
Speaker 1: a drink, to hold onto to the ice cubes milk,
Speaker 1: you know, by the end of the night, you know,
Speaker 1: to you know, to to get an offered you know,
Speaker 1: bottles of champagne, getting for free. You know, it's like
Speaker 1: when brothers need something for free, you can't get it
Speaker 1: when you don't need it for free, when I'm asking
Speaker 1: everything at me for you know, change like that. You
Speaker 1: know what I just want to know. I want to
Speaker 1: circle back to this band leader thing now because now
Speaker 1: you are the band leader, and I'm curious about your
Speaker 1: evolution as a band leader. And if you thought, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is in the beginning, this is who I'm gonna be,
Speaker 1: but then everything kind of changed for you because it's
Speaker 1: a lot of responsibility. You know. I've never you know,
Speaker 1: been like uh, you know, like Prince was a he
Speaker 1: was a band leader. You know what I'm saying that
Speaker 1: you don't play one note, you don't wear one sock
Speaker 1: that he doesn't approve of, you know, and you know
Speaker 1: everything is controlled and he's in control. You know. I've
Speaker 1: never been like that. You know. I've always given my guys,
Speaker 1: you know, a little room to express themselves. Just never
Speaker 1: been a hands on, like dictator type of guys. So
Speaker 1: you know, I I you know, I always took a
Speaker 1: light handed approach and I always found that, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of like when you let people express themselves a
Speaker 1: little more, you get a little more out of him.
Speaker 1: And I think that's kind of what happened with the time.
Speaker 1: The only time that it really we really got clamped
Speaker 1: down on is when when Prince showed up to rehearsal.
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask, what's he thinking? He was a punk, like,
Speaker 1: come on, man, you get them together. Yeah. No, it
Speaker 1: wasn't like that because he felt like it was all
Speaker 1: his ship anyway, because we were signed to his production company.
Speaker 1: So you know, when he comes in, then the hammer
Speaker 1: comes down. But you know, I think some of our
Speaker 1: greatest moments when we came up with the dance moves,
Speaker 1: the bird and a lot of the grooves we came
Speaker 1: up with were when he wasn't there, but they show up,
Speaker 1: and you know a lot of times he liked what
Speaker 1: we came up with, but you know, if he didn't,
Speaker 1: he would say. He was quick to say he didn't.
Speaker 1: And sometimes he say, I don't like that ship. And
Speaker 1: then he turned around and come back and he wrote
Speaker 1: a song with the same groove that he heard. So
Speaker 1: he was just one of them kind of people. You know.
Speaker 1: He was good cop so with with his with his
Speaker 1: with his attention to detail. You know, how hard was
Speaker 1: it and trying to bring seven seven, seven eleven alive
Speaker 1: and Jelly being not really nailing the snare apart. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well yeah, you're you're right, um, you know being I'm
Speaker 1: sorry to be diplomatic, you know, never really able to
Speaker 1: grasp that drumbeat. But he found a version of it.
Speaker 1: I guess that it works for him. Yeah, that's straight
Speaker 1: on the snare. Yeah, but okay, how come you guys
Speaker 1: in opt to do the drum machine thing that the
Speaker 1: Revolution was doing, because you know, we always prided ourselves
Speaker 1: on being the live band. No samples, no click tracks,
Speaker 1: you know, none of that. So you know we always
Speaker 1: opted to you know, whatever it is. You know, keep
Speaker 1: it real. You know, I'm not the greatest thing on
Speaker 1: the planet. You here bad, No, guess what you're gonna
Speaker 1: hear a few bad notes if you come to my consort.
Speaker 1: But guess what you're gonna know that it's me singing.
Speaker 1: You know. It's not a perfect track that I put
Speaker 1: together that we hit and play just to get by.
Speaker 1: You know, it's me doing what I do, speaking of
Speaker 1: seven seven. Um, yeah, when we when we when a
Speaker 1: lot of us, Jesse was all too gleeful to let
Speaker 1: us know that. You know, Dave Garibaldi's beat number fourteen
Speaker 1: on the Lyne drum was actually that like that program
Speaker 1: like in our minds were thinking, like, yo, it's the
Speaker 1: most genius drum programming of all time, and Jesse's just
Speaker 1: all too happy like that was press right. So at
Speaker 1: the time, did you know that Garibaldi had pre programmed
Speaker 1: the Lynn drum machine. Yeah, I absolutely knew that. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why I was cool with it. You know, it's
Speaker 1: using that, you know, because I was like, hey, this
Speaker 1: is one of my my drum rolls beats, you know,
Speaker 1: so right, so yeah, yeah, you know, so I was
Speaker 1: good with that. Was he ever made aware that, oh,
Speaker 1: you guys used beat number four teen from what I programmed.
Speaker 1: I told him that, you know, I told him when
Speaker 1: when when I finally met him. You know, I met
Speaker 1: David some years later, man, I when I was living
Speaker 1: in Vegas. You know, they were doing a show at
Speaker 1: one of those small show rooms, and you know, I
Speaker 1: had a hot second to go back there and wrap
Speaker 1: with him and other guys. And I definitely told him.
Speaker 1: Was he familiar with the song, Like, oh, I'm sure,
Speaker 1: I'm sure he knew. You know, probably when he heard
Speaker 1: the song, he's probably that's my beat. Okay, I see
Speaker 1: you know at that point it's public domain once you
Speaker 1: put it on the drums, come after somebody and say, hey,
Speaker 1: that's my beat, you know, because at that point he's
Speaker 1: already been paid for it. Yeah, yeah, no, No, I
Speaker 1: didn't even mean for lititious reasons. Somebody's thinking that though.
Speaker 1: I was just me at my little too sense at case.
Speaker 1: So the thing is with you know, we're we're rehearsals
Speaker 1: as super rigorous as the Prince rehearsals, because again, you
Speaker 1: guys only have like I can see you know Brown
Speaker 1: Mark's point of like, man, we're playing the same group
Speaker 1: for four hours, but you know, Brown Mark is also
Speaker 1: dealing with the artist that not only has four five
Speaker 1: albums under his belt at that time, but you know,
Speaker 1: other music pouring out of him. But you guys are
Speaker 1: basically like in those first two years, when you're only
Speaker 1: dealing with the six songs, it's like, how many ways
Speaker 1: did you guys have to perfect something that I'm certain
Speaker 1: that you had downpacked by a week? You know, well,
Speaker 1: you know, we the rehearsals were super rigorous. That's like
Speaker 1: that's almost brother, that's almost like saying how many ways
Speaker 1: can you cook eggs? Because you know, we we went
Speaker 1: in there and we we rehearsed the song a certain way,
Speaker 1: and then we would flip the arrangements and he would
Speaker 1: be there, and I mean, he taught us a work ethic,
Speaker 1: you know, that was unbelievable. We would rehearse every day,
Speaker 1: day and day out, then go in. Then when the
Speaker 1: next single come out, then we would we would flip
Speaker 1: the arrangement of the songs, change the arrangements of the
Speaker 1: song and of all the songs. And then it was
Speaker 1: just always we rehearsed all the time. When we weren't
Speaker 1: on the road, we were rehearsing. I know, rehearse it
Speaker 1: makes a better band. But part of me also felt
Speaker 1: like maybe just had you there just to keep you
Speaker 1: from off the streets or just you know where my
Speaker 1: eye was on you. But possibly, but we rehearsed to
Speaker 1: the point. And you know, I mean because if you
Speaker 1: uh and and you you may have the quest, but
Speaker 1: if you look at you know, our shows and all
Speaker 1: of the things that we did, uh, you know, with
Speaker 1: those six songs and once it turned into twelve songs,
Speaker 1: and and from there on we had you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of choreography, a lot of of of of arrangements,
Speaker 1: different arrangements from the record, and it was second nature.
Speaker 1: We rehearsed so much that you know, it was second nature.
Speaker 1: And at one point, you know, I look at the
Speaker 1: shows and we were so tight, you know that it
Speaker 1: was you know, it was amazing to watch. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not I don't even feel like I can put
Speaker 1: myself in that mindset to be as tight as we were.
Speaker 1: The moves me and Jerome did together, and the band
Speaker 1: did together, and the arrangements, um, they were super tight.
Speaker 1: And that's like I said, we had gotten to the
Speaker 1: point where, you know, people were walking away from the
Speaker 1: show when we did shows of principal man, Time kicked
Speaker 1: that ass tonight, you know. So it was it was intense,
Speaker 1: and you know, you might be right about what his
Speaker 1: motives were. I weren't. I'm not sure, but I just
Speaker 1: felt like he just wanted us to be um as
Speaker 1: tight as we possibly could, and you know that we
Speaker 1: definitely achieved. Okay, So all right now I'm vicariously become
Speaker 1: a member of the Time for a seconds. Okay, jelly
Speaker 1: Bean is no longer your drummer. I'm your drummer, And
Speaker 1: it's how much money am I making? A week when
Speaker 1: if I'm in the time by the time that what
Speaker 1: time as it comes out, you make it about hundred
Speaker 1: fifty two hundred a week plus perd M. Was that
Speaker 1: quasi normal? Was like my inflation calculator calculator? Yes, I do,
Speaker 1: because I always I'm so derivative of the past. I
Speaker 1: even want to know what prices were back in the day. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So if alright, so a hundred and all right, let's
Speaker 1: be nice to say that I'm a good drummer that
Speaker 1: you guys gave me two hundred dollars um? What does
Speaker 1: that formula? Yeah, I'm so good. Curious, Well, you gotta
Speaker 1: get there's literally there's there's an app called inflation calculator.
Speaker 1: There you go. So I thought you were doing math.
Speaker 1: I'm quasi smart. So two hundred dollars uh in two
Speaker 1: uh when you get to it is hang on, Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm actually solving a math problem. Every calculated. Okay, so
Speaker 1: that would be sixty today. That's something kind of paid.
Speaker 1: I want to carry my records. Okay, yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: I get it. Um, but you get your own room, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But you know, back then, you know, none of us
Speaker 1: were really used to a steady paycheck, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, And you know, plus a per diem. You
Speaker 1: know the per diem. I don't know. It's another ten
Speaker 1: fifteen dollars a day. So you know it was okay.
Speaker 1: You know, I might have got it up to eight
Speaker 1: hundred dollars today by today's standards. All right, But I'm
Speaker 1: only well, I'm trying to figure out the thing is
Speaker 1: is that in our situation, we were definitely not making money.
Speaker 1: So our whole thing was, we're going to stay on
Speaker 1: the road forever because once we come home, that's when
Speaker 1: we become broke. At least on the road forever. There's okay,
Speaker 1: So I ask you in two is there such thing
Speaker 1: as a writer like in my day? I knew early okay,
Speaker 1: I want Golden Graham's and Captain Crunch on every show.
Speaker 1: We want, no, I mean, but that's how we realized that, Okay,
Speaker 1: we get a writer, so we'll make the promoter go
Speaker 1: to supermarket and stock up one. Yeah, brilliant. So at
Speaker 1: the end of the tour, I'd mailed home, you know,
Speaker 1: fifty boxes of cereal. Now, of course, unfortunately I became
Speaker 1: morbid Leo beasts, I've lost the weight, stop playing. But
Speaker 1: I'm saying there's a downside to that too. But you know, like,
Speaker 1: are you able to take care of home? I don't
Speaker 1: know what home is, like, get your own apartment, that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. Or is it just like hand to mouth,
Speaker 1: hand to mouth, hand to mouth? I got a VCR.
Speaker 1: Now I'm going back to my aunt's couch. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: I I was making more money as as you know,
Speaker 1: the band leader. I think I be honest, I think
Speaker 1: I gotten up to maybe you know, when we were
Speaker 1: out there with Prince and tour regularly. I gotten up
Speaker 1: to maybe five grand a week. Nice, that's awesome, that's all, okay.
Speaker 1: But I was asking if I was the dum at
Speaker 1: the time you were still getting to Okay, I get it. So,
Speaker 1: but the writer was was cold cut Sandwiches. That was
Speaker 1: our writer. Okay. Now, traveling wise, like is it fifteen
Speaker 1: passenger van? Is it station wagon? Who's driving? Well, you know,
Speaker 1: we started out in station wagons and by the time,
Speaker 1: you know, we graduated to doing the tours that we
Speaker 1: were on, the tour or whatever tours were on. Um,
Speaker 1: we had our own tour of us. Okay, I see
Speaker 1: all right, Now the dumbest question I'm gonna ask, and
Speaker 1: I've never asked to anyone from Purple. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't I'm not I'm not a got you journalism person,
Speaker 1: so I'd never like, like gossipy questions or whatever, like
Speaker 1: technical questions. But i just gotta know. Okay, So you
Speaker 1: guys are also in the midst of some of the
Speaker 1: finest women on earth, at least that's how they were
Speaker 1: presented to us. Again, you guys seen Susan bringing all
Speaker 1: them like in morning, So I understand that there's the
Speaker 1: magic of the makeup artist in the hair and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. No, no, no, I'm just saying that I
Speaker 1: don't expect them to wake up and camasaws and ship
Speaker 1: But I'm just saying you don't. But my Malone and
Speaker 1: Vanity was hot in the morning. I don't care what
Speaker 1: you say. They woke up like that all the time.
Speaker 1: My whole, my whole point is that in you know,
Speaker 1: I know, or at least my perception of how you
Speaker 1: guys were, were there unspoken ground rules on the cock
Speaker 1: blockage tip. The combination of those words. You know, I've
Speaker 1: never heard those words put together, Like, I can't believe
Speaker 1: I said those words. I'm very proud of you. Yo.
Speaker 1: I've been in situations where, you know, motherfucking drum text
Speaker 1: trying to holl at my join or whatever, and like
Speaker 1: that's called fired. Well, you know, I'm not that petty,
Speaker 1: because then I want to begin. Oh man, he fired
Speaker 1: me because I was trying to talk through his leaning whatever.
Speaker 1: But the unspoken rule was they all belong to Prince,
Speaker 1: so leftovers are good and if that's if that's what
Speaker 1: you was down for me, the unspoken rule was, hey,
Speaker 1: you know printing all mine, So I'm nerve can't handle
Speaker 1: all of them. That's that's rather amazing. And I don't
Speaker 1: mean that in the sort of the pimpish Wow. I
Speaker 1: want to be that when I grow up, But I
Speaker 1: can't even. I feel like Jesse would have rebelled. I
Speaker 1: don't know, I just can't. I can't even. I can't
Speaker 1: even juggle the Tonight Show, a roots album, a movie
Speaker 1: and a book and man, my girlfriend, like, imagine that
Speaker 1: three of them. Isn't that what you're doing? Maybe I'm
Speaker 1: asking for tips. How did he do it? Dude? Multiple
Speaker 1: women is the whole thing. I can't that, Like, I
Speaker 1: can't yeah, yeah, So I mean in in being around
Speaker 1: in that atmosphere where they actually, I know that the
Speaker 1: power of beautiful women around Actually they make the best wingmen.
Speaker 1: You know, they make the best wingmen almost so in
Speaker 1: terms of that, like, what was it like just in general?
Speaker 1: Oh wait a minute, I'm sorry, I gotta stop this question.
Speaker 1: Stop this question. No, I got some more important asks.
Speaker 1: Something that just hit me right now, Jimmy, jim just
Speaker 1: recently revealed to me that quote, uh, co co co
Speaker 1: co and the kid can't make You come is Baby?
Speaker 1: Was your version Vanity's at lib and Nasty Girl. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know you got Look, I know I'm talking inside
Speaker 1: baseball right now. I will explain to you guys way later. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm hosting a podcast, so I gotta explain, ladies and gentlemen. Listen. Okay, So,
Speaker 1: at the end of Nasty Girl, when Vanity has to
Speaker 1: add lips somewhat before the breakdown the song, she reaches
Speaker 1: war a few notes, which one of them is a
Speaker 1: high note whatever. So I'm assuming that she tried to
Speaker 1: reach this high note in concert, and I'm imagining, uh,
Speaker 1: that there was some mocking going on of her be
Speaker 1: not hitting the notes or whatever whatever the case was.
Speaker 1: There's a skit, and I was talking about these skits earlier.
Speaker 1: There's a there's a skin. There's a skit where I'm
Speaker 1: assuming that that's Mark Mars's orgasm voice. And when he
Speaker 1: hits his orgasm on this song on the skit, he
Speaker 1: does the I don't know it at the time, but
Speaker 1: he's doing the vanity at lisb whatever. And at first
Speaker 1: I just thought he was imitating a chicken, and then
Speaker 1: Jimmy jam reveals to me, No, that was him. That
Speaker 1: used to be our inside jokes. So can you can
Speaker 1: you explain to me the genesis of how that. I
Speaker 1: don't even think you need to explain it to me
Speaker 1: because I can almost imagine that there had been some
Speaker 1: ribbing or teasing going on. Man, Yeah, we used to
Speaker 1: do that a lot, you know, when we were putn't
Speaker 1: hit on him, so you have to treat him like
Speaker 1: second grade sandbox teasing. You know, we we we could,
Speaker 1: you know, hit on, don't take our best shot, see
Speaker 1: high went. But you know, no Tony M situation I
Speaker 1: just found out about to M carmon. You don't know
Speaker 1: about Tony M and Karmen elector oh yes, elect yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I never knew how Tony Um, Okay, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: I found out that he allegedly got dismissed because he
Speaker 1: crossed that line. Anyway, so finish what you were saying
Speaker 1: that was that was a line that if you cross
Speaker 1: was a dismissible lines. But you know anyway, no, we uh,
Speaker 1: we just used to kind of make fun of her
Speaker 1: and she really would get piste. You know, we walked
Speaker 1: by the dressing room, you know, it was just yeah,
Speaker 1: that was our version ad nasty girl. Since you're asking
Speaker 1: dumb questions, gonna ask a dumb questions, yes, please ask
Speaker 1: dumb questions. But Mars, I really I really appreciate you.
Speaker 1: I know you're doing this just to be polite, Like
Speaker 1: I thank you for letting us ner it out on you.
Speaker 1: I just had to say that, but go ahead, do
Speaker 1: I do too. But just this is not my question,
Speaker 1: just for everybody else who may have still thought this.
Speaker 1: So just officially, More's Day and Prince not related, right,
Speaker 1: they are your cousins, That's that's the story. But we
Speaker 1: were just we're just brothers in the brother from another
Speaker 1: mother sense, you know, but not not blood related at all.
Speaker 1: And one more, because I know you talked about this
Speaker 1: in the book, But I just need to know now, um,
Speaker 1: bringing Jerome in at what point did you was was
Speaker 1: it thought that he needed to be there? I know
Speaker 1: Jimmy told his version of the story and the evolution
Speaker 1: of your relationship. Can you just talk about that a
Speaker 1: little bit. You know, he's just one of those guys
Speaker 1: you know to this day, you know you you you
Speaker 1: know Jerome. You know, he's a lovable guy, you know,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, he was just there at first.
Speaker 1: He was a real valet where and and he would
Speaker 1: collect our luggage. You know, we're out on the tour bus,
Speaker 1: you know, twelve o'clock, they say, having your luggage outside
Speaker 1: the door. Jerome's getting the luggage, He's putting it on
Speaker 1: the tour bus. He's getting us pizzas and whatever we
Speaker 1: want and doing all that. And so we go back
Speaker 1: into rehearsal after the first tour and we're rehearsing Cool
Speaker 1: because that's gonna be our our our second single, and
Speaker 1: so you know, uh, we're rehearsing. We get to the
Speaker 1: part where I say, somebody bring me a mirror, and
Speaker 1: you know, Jerome takes off, grabs a mirror off the wall,
Speaker 1: runs back up, shows up in front of me holding
Speaker 1: up a mirror and everybody just kind of stopped playing.
Speaker 1: We all looking at each other like that's gonna be
Speaker 1: in the show. So that was it, you know, from
Speaker 1: that moment on, Jerome was part of the band, and
Speaker 1: it just evolved from there. In Pant's minds, we just
Speaker 1: speaking of y'all are just so close at this point.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I just that always felt like that. No,
Speaker 1: you know, it got to be that way speak speaking
Speaker 1: of Jerome and his duties. Okay, I've asked this question
Speaker 1: a lot, practically to every artist that has uh An
Speaker 1: on stage reputation, and the answer never satisfies me. Now
Speaker 1: you're in a very specific situation because in your initial
Speaker 1: five year iteration, at least of the of the first
Speaker 1: draft of your your period with the time, you guys
Speaker 1: have basically warned the same outfit every time I've seen you.
Speaker 1: And the thing that that is that is baffling to me.
Speaker 1: And I've seen your I've seen these concerts and you
Speaker 1: guys are dancing, moving, sweating and whatnot. When the show
Speaker 1: is over, are you getting into street clothes? And how
Speaker 1: is your your your pressley jacket and your outfits? How
Speaker 1: is it clean and ready for the next night show,
Speaker 1: especially when you have to do six hours on the
Speaker 1: tour of us to the next city, and da da
Speaker 1: da da da da. Like I just never understood how
Speaker 1: one outfit because the stain like that's your everyday outfit.
Speaker 1: Well that yeah, that that that pressley uh as I
Speaker 1: called it, uh it kind of it was, you know,
Speaker 1: it was like a uh is a minus. You know
Speaker 1: the security blanket. Man. You know, I don't even know
Speaker 1: the dry clean it back then because show show and
Speaker 1: then my Stacy's my black and white Stacy's when I
Speaker 1: say about to walk ahole in my Stacy Adams, I
Speaker 1: looked up, and you know, Stacy Adams have some thick
Speaker 1: souls on them. I had actually walked a hole. There
Speaker 1: was a whole at one of them. And so you know,
Speaker 1: that's just that's just what it was, man, and and
Speaker 1: and the and the pressley I wore I think until
Speaker 1: it felt it basically fell off of me. And after
Speaker 1: it did, you know, we looked up and I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're doing well now. So then we I started I
Speaker 1: started getting custom clothes made from that point on. But
Speaker 1: you know, that got me through my first at least
Speaker 1: tour and maybe first two tours. Um, and you're right
Speaker 1: it probably. I was scared to dry clean it because
Speaker 1: it would have fell apart a lot sooner. Where is
Speaker 1: that original Pressley jacket? Now? I don't know it's in
Speaker 1: It's it's in Uh, it's in stage closed heaven right now,
Speaker 1: you know, Yeah, and I don't. I have no idea
Speaker 1: if it literally fell apart. I looked up one day
Speaker 1: after I came off stage and it was hanging off
Speaker 1: of me, and that was a sad day for me. Yeah. Listen,
Speaker 1: I'm literally in Nashville. The Black is a museum that
Speaker 1: should be in there, right, that's right. Damn, I'm sorry
Speaker 1: I can't make it. Um. Wow, that's that's crazy. So no,
Speaker 1: the movie premieres. So okay, at what point are you
Speaker 1: taking print? Seriously when he's saying, all right, we're gonna
Speaker 1: do a movie, and before I even answer that question,
Speaker 1: do you have any information whatsoever about the quote unquote
Speaker 1: the second Coming movie or at least you know some
Speaker 1: some clips have finally wound up online of you know,
Speaker 1: whatever the idea he was flirting with with doing before
Speaker 1: that morphed into Purple Rain, Like, were you guys going
Speaker 1: to be a part of that presentation as well, or
Speaker 1: was that just him at the time. It must have
Speaker 1: been just him, because you know, all I know is uh,
Speaker 1: you know, he came to me. You know, one day
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, Mars, we're going to do the movie.
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, you know whatever, And then
Speaker 1: you know, next thing, I know, we're doing dance classes,
Speaker 1: we're doing acting classes, and all of this going on.
Speaker 1: And I'm still not really taking it serious because I've
Speaker 1: never been involved in anything like that. I'm taking it
Speaker 1: all with a grain of salt. But the next thing
Speaker 1: I know that these directors and cinematographers and producers are
Speaker 1: starting to come to town. I was like, Okay, we're
Speaker 1: serious now. And next time I know, we're in production.
Speaker 1: So I think at that point I started to take
Speaker 1: it serious. Okay. So then by that point it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're really doing this. Yeah, it's real now. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: so I had Okay, I just got to ask, at
Speaker 1: what point I assume that you always knew that that
Speaker 1: Jimmy and Terry got snowed in Atlanta? Correct? Absolutely, Okay.
Speaker 1: At this point, it's it's Jamie Shop that's sort of you, guys,
Speaker 1: is tour manager or your wrangler if you will. Pretty much. Okay,
Speaker 1: So at the point where they're like, we can't get
Speaker 1: a flight out, what's what's happening on your side of
Speaker 1: the the fence? It's just the four of you, no base,
Speaker 1: no keyboard player. So at what point do you realize
Speaker 1: that you're about to do a timeless show? Like, are
Speaker 1: you guys trying to keep this from Prince's camp until
Speaker 1: the very last minute? Like, at what point do you
Speaker 1: have to break down to him to say, uh, they
Speaker 1: aren't going to make the show? Um? I think that
Speaker 1: Prince was. He was in on it. You know, he
Speaker 1: knew more details than I did about it, because, like
Speaker 1: I said, you know, we were on tour, you know,
Speaker 1: and um, he was there with us, and he knew
Speaker 1: that they weren't going to make the show, and he
Speaker 1: was pissed about it because he didn't want any of
Speaker 1: us producing or writing for anybody else or doing anything
Speaker 1: that wasn't related to the time. He suspected that they
Speaker 1: were producing. He knew that for a fact, or did
Speaker 1: he just think like, oh, y'all sucking around with girls
Speaker 1: or something? Now? He he just knew that they were
Speaker 1: snowed in uh in Atlanta, and so guess what he
Speaker 1: ended up with um off to the side of stage
Speaker 1: playing bass with the keyboard in front of him. So
Speaker 1: he actually played those instruments that night, and we put
Speaker 1: Jerome over where Terry would have been. So we had
Speaker 1: three people in front, Jesse, uh Me and Jerome and
Speaker 1: we just did the show like that with Prince playing
Speaker 1: bass off to the side of the show and you
Speaker 1: put a hat on Jerome and the audience wasn't any
Speaker 1: of the wiser. No, we didn't put a hat on
Speaker 1: and we just left let him beat Jerome, you know,
Speaker 1: standing in that spot. But you know they heard the
Speaker 1: base going just like normal, so it was all good. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, these stadiums aren't totally like you know, I'm
Speaker 1: assuming that somebody from some angle had to see Prince
Speaker 1: on the side playing, like is he hiding behind a
Speaker 1: curtain or how's he seeing? Yeah, how's he seeing the cues?
Speaker 1: Or like where is he standing as this is happening.
Speaker 1: He didn't need to see the queues. He knew the
Speaker 1: show one. He need a show that and we did.
Speaker 1: Did it feel just a little bit better when he
Speaker 1: was playing bass. Oh yeah, well it felt good. You know,
Speaker 1: we didn't need to sleat man, it was you know,
Speaker 1: it was it was awesome. Who played keyboards? He did
Speaker 1: tandem at the same time. We had basse and keyboards,
Speaker 1: so you know, when the basse was more necessary, he
Speaker 1: played that, and when the keyboard was necessary he played that.
Speaker 1: Oh wow. Okay, So when the ax is supposed to
Speaker 1: come down, are you two talking first or is he
Speaker 1: just going into executive order action without even consulting with
Speaker 1: his senate in his house first? Like, what should we do?
Speaker 1: Executive order? Brother, We're in the studio, I want to
Speaker 1: say sunset sound, uh, you know, And he had them
Speaker 1: come in and I didn't know we were in. They're cutting, Um,
Speaker 1: we had cut ice cream castles that day. You know.
Speaker 1: I did my vocals and we were just putting some
Speaker 1: fishing touches on, and you know, Terry and Jimmy come
Speaker 1: in and I didn't know. I was glad to see him,
Speaker 1: you know, And right at that moment he told him,
Speaker 1: he said, you know, you guys have fired from the band.
Speaker 1: You know you you went to Atlanta, you missed the show,
Speaker 1: and you know you're fired, and that you know that
Speaker 1: hit me like a ton of bricks because my band
Speaker 1: was my band. You know, we were all brothers, you know,
Speaker 1: we had love for each other, and I was always
Speaker 1: one of you know, I was always one of those
Speaker 1: kind of guys that, you know, if Dave Garibaldi left
Speaker 1: Power Power or you know whoever, you know, they lost
Speaker 1: an original member, then the band didn't feel the same
Speaker 1: to me. And I never wanted to be one of
Speaker 1: those bands. And and it it just hit me like
Speaker 1: a ton of bricks that all of a sudden, we're
Speaker 1: one of those hands you know where where what was
Speaker 1: his name? He used to saying, um lead and Sammy
Speaker 1: Hagar came in. Yeah, yeah, exactly, Ben Healing. It's just
Speaker 1: you can't change members, like it's just not the same.
Speaker 1: So you know that that that just hit me like
Speaker 1: a ton of bricks, man, And just no, you were
Speaker 1: you just had to roll with it. And yeah, and
Speaker 1: I had to roll with it. And all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: here comes these new members and I'm looking back and
Speaker 1: and that's the moment. Really we're really hit me where
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's really time for me to start
Speaker 1: to think about going and doing my own thing. So
Speaker 1: was he it's so weird because I would imagine that
Speaker 1: I don't know. I never pegged him as being super
Speaker 1: confrontational because he's so his image wise was so elusive
Speaker 1: or mysterious that I can't you know, I have I've
Speaker 1: probably had to fire you know, maybe five people in
Speaker 1: my entire career. And man, I'll be losing sleep over
Speaker 1: that ship at night, therapist, Like, man, how I do
Speaker 1: letting people slide? All right? All right, man, just don't
Speaker 1: let it happen again, please, But like he was confrontational
Speaker 1: like that, like just yeah, yeah, cuts, just point blank
Speaker 1: just saying whatever's on his mind, just and and and
Speaker 1: a lot of times, not not really much emotion behind it.
Speaker 1: Just how you would think of him to talk, you know,
Speaker 1: your fight. You know, you guys missed the show if
Speaker 1: it's not your priority, you know, and that's and that's it.
Speaker 1: You know. I wouldn't say necessarily he wasn't afraid of
Speaker 1: of of confrontational act, you know, because again it's like
Speaker 1: I want to make sure I'm covering my ass because
Speaker 1: like I mean, not for nothing, but you also dealing
Speaker 1: with brothers and ship, you know, so it could have
Speaker 1: went another way, like motherfucker you have someone them and
Speaker 1: then yeah, well you know he always kept you know,
Speaker 1: you know, big three under pound, you know, tours her
Speaker 1: off to the side, you know, gotten to the point
Speaker 1: where you just kept security with him. So you know, well,
Speaker 1: are you allowed, are you allowed to answer back? Are
Speaker 1: you allowed to say that song was whack? Or you know,
Speaker 1: like are you allowed to make fun of him? I
Speaker 1: always spoke my mind, you know, with him, you know,
Speaker 1: and and that was that was both good and bad
Speaker 1: for us. But you know, I always told him if
Speaker 1: he played something for me that I liked, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, I would say it, but I wouldn't lie
Speaker 1: to him, you know, just like when he played, uh
Speaker 1: and this is in the book, you know, but when
Speaker 1: he played when Doves Crying for Me. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: listening to the song, and you know, we're three three
Speaker 1: quarters of the way through the song and I ain't
Speaker 1: heard a base yet. You know, I'm like, I'm like, uh,
Speaker 1: I said, there ain't no base in the song, man,
Speaker 1: And and uh it's like, yeah, that's what I said. Man.
Speaker 1: I got out the card, said, man, next time you
Speaker 1: play something for me, make sure it's funky, and make
Speaker 1: sure you has some base in it, I kind of
Speaker 1: slammed the door, you know what. And that one, that
Speaker 1: one kind of came back to bite me on the
Speaker 1: ass because it ended up being a number one smash
Speaker 1: for me. But when I first heard it, I wasn't
Speaker 1: feeling it, and I expressed that to him. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was gonna say, um, it's so weird because all of
Speaker 1: you guys are our characters, and the thing is is
Speaker 1: that you know, there's there's a side of himself that
Speaker 1: he expresses, especially with sexuality that um, yes it it
Speaker 1: works spot on and it's bull's eye. But it's also like,
Speaker 1: you know, is he going to you guys to be like, look,
Speaker 1: I created a new song called do Me Baby. It's
Speaker 1: eight minutes long and it's gonna be a little awkward,
Speaker 1: but listen to it, Like, is it weird where he's
Speaker 1: playing you guys like some of his weirder ship where
Speaker 1: it's sort of like, okay, where are you going with this?
Speaker 1: Or does he just like only give you the function?
Speaker 1: Like okay, this is this is you know, like, I'm
Speaker 1: did he ever get was it ever an awkward thing?
Speaker 1: When he's showcasing a song that uh kind of crosses
Speaker 1: the lines or boundaries Like today, there's no line that
Speaker 1: can't be crossed, like you know, make the stallion, can
Speaker 1: release some ship and it's be like okay, yeah she's
Speaker 1: talking about her web ass pussy. But you know, back
Speaker 1: in the day, like someone says, I sincerely want to
Speaker 1: fund the taste out of your mouth, Like yeah, that's
Speaker 1: like you've never heard that ship before unless it's a
Speaker 1: blowfly record. So like it said, awkward in front of
Speaker 1: you guys, where like you're hearing your boss have your
Speaker 1: five ft three boss have like orgasms on records and
Speaker 1: ship talking talking in an English accent right right. He's
Speaker 1: especially me. You know, he would corner me with a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff, you know, because that's just how we
Speaker 1: were back in the day. We hung out. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: we cut you know all the time. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I played a lot on a lot of these songs,
Speaker 1: and you know, obviously he played on just about every
Speaker 1: time song until um maybe after Ice Cream Castles when
Speaker 1: we did Pannemonium. Then you know he started to kind
Speaker 1: of slack off. But he would always play me stuff
Speaker 1: because I would always be there in the studio. So
Speaker 1: he's always and you know I understood his avant gardens,
Speaker 1: his his weirdness and and and he just wanted to
Speaker 1: be different, and you know that was his thing. And
Speaker 1: that's that's really what got him, you know, in trouble
Speaker 1: at the Rolling the Stones concert, because he wanted to
Speaker 1: switch from I Want to be Your lover, you know,
Speaker 1: and and all of a sudden he's you know, run
Speaker 1: around half neck and you know, playing new wave songs.
Speaker 1: And you know, he could have I think, you know,
Speaker 1: he could have rose a lot quicker. And he took
Speaker 1: a dive you know, um in his popularity and sales
Speaker 1: for that Dirty Mind record. But it took him in
Speaker 1: a direction that you know, actually led to where he
Speaker 1: ended up being. So that's definitely a risk taker. And
Speaker 1: he played me a lot of stuff and I just
Speaker 1: kind of understood, you know, his thought process, you know,
Speaker 1: and some of the stuff I liked, some of it
Speaker 1: I didn't. Is there a song of his that you
Speaker 1: wish you guys have for yourselves? Uh? Well, okay, I
Speaker 1: know that International Lover was supposed to be for you.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, um yeah. At any point, did you actually
Speaker 1: cut your own version of it? Oh? Where can we?
Speaker 1: You can't unless you can get it into vault, you know,
Speaker 1: you can. But I sang that song. I sang. I
Speaker 1: sang it first okay, and then um, I just think
Speaker 1: he decided that he liked it, you know, more than
Speaker 1: he thought. And and then you know, next thing, I know, uh,
Speaker 1: he came back to me. It's like, I don't like
Speaker 1: I don't like your vocals. I don't like what you did,
Speaker 1: he said. You know, I said, okay something. The next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, he's like, well, I did it for myself,
Speaker 1: you know. So I listened to it, and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: that's great, you know, you wrote it. So but he
Speaker 1: did the same thing with seven seven seven night through eleven.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm up, you know, he said, you know,
Speaker 1: I got some stuff to do. I leave you sing
Speaker 1: the song. I'll come back. I did the vocals. He
Speaker 1: came back from wherever he was, and he's like, I
Speaker 1: don't like it. You know, you know, he said, I
Speaker 1: hate how you sound on it. Blah blah blah. I said, uh, okay, cool.
Speaker 1: So I go back to the hotel. About nine ten
Speaker 1: o'clock the next morning, he's calling me, you know, lead
Speaker 1: me downstairs in the car. We're getting a limo. He's like,
Speaker 1: I love this man. I love the wear your voice.
Speaker 1: So he wasn't he wasn't cutting your vocals half the time?
Speaker 1: Oh no, I I you know, I gotten to the
Speaker 1: point where I would do you know, I cut the
Speaker 1: vocals myself? Was it? Yeah? I was gonna say, is
Speaker 1: it cutting vocals is such an intimate experience? Uh? We're like,
Speaker 1: were you like, were you uncomfortable if he's sitting there
Speaker 1: like micromanaging your vocals or it's just like all right,
Speaker 1: I'll leave and come back. And no, I was very
Speaker 1: comfortable with him because you know, he's such, you know,
Speaker 1: such a great producer, you know, and he knew how
Speaker 1: to get the best out of me, and that's how
Speaker 1: he taught me. And so, you know, and then he
Speaker 1: just got to the point where he's like, I'm leaving
Speaker 1: you handle it, and so, you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: he he comes back some hours later. I'm done. I'm chilling.
Speaker 1: You know. He's like, you know, tells the engine lem here,
Speaker 1: you know, and he's like, I don't like it. Oh God,
Speaker 1: I'm like okay, whatever. Man, I'm like, you know, I
Speaker 1: gotta go to the hotel and you know, get some wrestling.
Speaker 1: And like I said, the next day he comes back
Speaker 1: he loves he keeps playing, I love how your voice
Speaker 1: sounds here and all that. I was like, okay, dude, whatever, man,
Speaker 1: can I just how was what was your what was
Speaker 1: your approach on International Lover? What was the big difference
Speaker 1: to you and the way y'all approached it? It was just,
Speaker 1: you know, if you listen, you know, his voices different.
Speaker 1: You know, he's a lot better singer than I am
Speaker 1: as far as that goes, you know, so you know,
Speaker 1: he just I kind of did it and more of
Speaker 1: a raw fashion, you know, if you can imagine the
Speaker 1: way I do stuff. And then he came back and
Speaker 1: he put all of the the print screams and all this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, like, is your version of International
Speaker 1: Lover with a monologue at the end that's a little
Speaker 1: different than No, No, I didn't. I hadn't gotten to
Speaker 1: the monologue part, but I just did the vocal part.
Speaker 1: But mine was a lot cooler. I'll say that is
Speaker 1: it harder for you to do ballots than the fast stuff,
Speaker 1: because like a song like Old Baby, where you really
Speaker 1: gotta you know you you you have to put in
Speaker 1: work to to nail the ad libs and to really
Speaker 1: give off a performance like our ballots more challenging for
Speaker 1: you than the faster songs. Yeah, well, you know it was,
Speaker 1: it was, you know, it was somewhat challenging. But you know, um,
Speaker 1: you know the uptemple songs were were difficult too because
Speaker 1: back then, you know, Prince was at the board guide
Speaker 1: me through the vocals. He was very, very difficult because
Speaker 1: you know, he wanted he wanted the attitude to be
Speaker 1: at a certain level on the timber. You know. So
Speaker 1: he's really what you know, Uh, he's the one that
Speaker 1: really helped me make Jungle of sound the way it sounded,
Speaker 1: you know, and all those songs. You know, he helped
Speaker 1: me get that that attitude on the vocals the way
Speaker 1: it needed to be there, and that you know that
Speaker 1: that you know that took some work, you know, getting
Speaker 1: it right. You know why was the original version of
Speaker 1: the Bird the studio version? Why was that scrapped? Well?
Speaker 1: Of course, yeah, I heard my I heard my question
Speaker 1: as I asked it, and I was like, the live
Speaker 1: album was better, but the studio version kind of kicks
Speaker 1: ass too. I'm not I'm not gonna lie to you.
Speaker 1: I love the studio version. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I was kind of pissed, you know when uh, he
Speaker 1: said we're gonna do it live, you know. And I
Speaker 1: grew to love the live version. But there was just
Speaker 1: something about that studio version that was really funky, man,
Speaker 1: you know, and and um it was more it was
Speaker 1: a funkier version, but the student the live version was
Speaker 1: just a more upbeat, fun version. Right. So speaking of
Speaker 1: the live version, so I actually have the video um
Speaker 1: of your quote last performance with the time at First Avenue, Uh,
Speaker 1: when you're cutting Jungle loving the Bird and you know,
Speaker 1: I guess before the movie gets shot, and there there's
Speaker 1: that whole monologue bit with the passing of the hat,
Speaker 1: your your Morrison preacher mode. Yeah, I forgot. I'm talking
Speaker 1: in in inside baseball people speaking. As far as you're concerned,
Speaker 1: You're like, I did this forty years ago. I don't
Speaker 1: I don't remember what you're talking about. But the whole
Speaker 1: like you know, Prince charging twenty five bucks you took?
Speaker 1: Did you give that whole thing? Do you remember this
Speaker 1: night at all? Yeah? And was was that part of
Speaker 1: the act then or like it? Actually you sounded damned serious,
Speaker 1: like we had kind of put that together, you know,
Speaker 1: just for that night. It wasn't. It wasn't a regular
Speaker 1: part of what we did. And to be honest, that
Speaker 1: segment where we did Jungle Of and the Bird was
Speaker 1: actually we were finishing. We were pretty much done with
Speaker 1: UM filming in Minneapolis. Okay, we actually resumed in California,
Speaker 1: so we did pick up shots in l A. But
Speaker 1: we were done. And because the story goes that I
Speaker 1: went off stay from doing those songs and saw me
Speaker 1: again in Minneapolis. You know, I moved to Collie from
Speaker 1: there and never went back. Oh see. The thing I
Speaker 1: was confused about was because I thought that show was
Speaker 1: the show that was recorded so that you can do
Speaker 1: those songs in Purple ring the movie. It was right,
Speaker 1: so eventually you had to shoot the movie that we
Speaker 1: were done shooting the movie. Oh okay, I get it,
Speaker 1: now get I see. Yeah. But yeah, that was what
Speaker 1: was his response to that? And in your mind like
Speaker 1: that that was I don't feel like that was comedy.
Speaker 1: I feel like you were actually saying that it was.
Speaker 1: It was definitely UM. I mean, we were making it
Speaker 1: sound serious, but it was definitely comedy. And he definitely
Speaker 1: had a lot to do with that segment of what
Speaker 1: we did that night at that point he was still
Speaker 1: hands on with everything that the time did. I can't
Speaker 1: just gloss over Purple Rain. One thing I always wanted
Speaker 1: to know was how many takes did it take you
Speaker 1: to do the what's the passwords? Seam? Because that that
Speaker 1: was damn near impressive as someone that had to study
Speaker 1: who's on first, You guys executed that awesomely and that
Speaker 1: was one of the you know, the you're acting in
Speaker 1: Purple Rain is you know, was a highlight that definitely
Speaker 1: add in the film. I appreciate that. I actually think
Speaker 1: we me and Jerome nailed that in like two takes.
Speaker 1: I think we nailed it on the first take, which
Speaker 1: was pretty crazy, and then we did a second one
Speaker 1: just for you know, for for they call it posterity
Speaker 1: or whatever, but yeah, we nailed it. You know, Wow, Okay,
Speaker 1: I would Okay, that's that's impressive. That's damn near impressive.
Speaker 1: Having having recently just seen the first draft of Purple
Speaker 1: Rain when it was called Dreams, way darker and way
Speaker 1: you know at the time when you received dreams, did
Speaker 1: you guys receive Dreams before it was redone into Purple Rain?
Speaker 1: When I when I saw Purple Rain, it was purple Rain.
Speaker 1: I never saw Dreams, so you gotta tell us what
Speaker 1: was it different? I mean just Dreams was like it
Speaker 1: was just darker. I mean, Purple Rain was definitely the
Speaker 1: better script. But in Dreams, you know it ends at
Speaker 1: the father's suicide. I think Prince commits suicide. Um, the
Speaker 1: one scene that was really disturbing, the one really disturbs
Speaker 1: every right exactly, But like one of the most disturbing
Speaker 1: scenes in Dreams was so the scene where you know,
Speaker 1: Prince and Napollonia are finally about to have their night
Speaker 1: together getting on. There was a there was a comedy
Speaker 1: component to it where Marrison Jerome followed Apollonia to princess
Speaker 1: house and like are spying on her like through the window,
Speaker 1: like it's it's yeah, it's it's it's crazy shit. You know.
Speaker 1: A lot more happened with the trash can scene, and
Speaker 1: like it was definitely more that film would have been
Speaker 1: like the straight out of Compton of movies. You know,
Speaker 1: I never I ain't gonna lie boy. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: a doozy. It was a doozy. How hard was it
Speaker 1: for you really to walk away from that moment right
Speaker 1: when it was on the crest of what what I
Speaker 1: assumed that you were working for up to that point
Speaker 1: where you become just as equally on on an a
Speaker 1: star level as print. Well, it was. It was just
Speaker 1: the more successful, you know, Prince became more difficult. It
Speaker 1: became to be around him, and um, you know I
Speaker 1: saw that when he fired Jimmy and Terry. I saw that,
Speaker 1: you know, he wasn't loosening his grip when I I
Speaker 1: said time and time again, you know, I'm an artist.
Speaker 1: I write, I write every day. Um, that's how the
Speaker 1: whole deal came about in the first place. And then
Speaker 1: you know, he wouldn't take my song serious. I told him,
Speaker 1: I told Covalo Ruffalo far Knowli that I needed to
Speaker 1: do a solo album. I said, I'm good with being
Speaker 1: you know, in the camp, but I need to do
Speaker 1: a solo album. And he he just wouldn't let any
Speaker 1: of that happen. So, you know, I just kind of said,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just you know, I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: walk if if I'm gonna do anything other than what
Speaker 1: Prince wants me to do in my life, whether you know,
Speaker 1: whether it's it's great or whether it's not so great,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to walk because it's not gonna happen here.
Speaker 1: You know, I told them straight out I need to
Speaker 1: do my own album that I write and produced. And
Speaker 1: then they came back to me and said, yeah, Prince
Speaker 1: said you could do that as long as he's the
Speaker 1: executive producer. Well, y'all do with that, man. So you know,
Speaker 1: at that point, I just made the decision that I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do my own thing. So at that point, did
Speaker 1: you already have you know, the character or Don't Wait
Speaker 1: for Me or or Love Sign or the Oak Tree,
Speaker 1: like the songs that wound up on Color Success. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had a lot of you already have those in pockets?
Speaker 1: Like when did you start writing those songs? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: had a lot of songs at that point. So at
Speaker 1: that point it was just me picking the ones that
Speaker 1: I was going to use, you know, because like I said,
Speaker 1: I've been writing all along and you know, just wasn't
Speaker 1: able to use any of my songs. So you know,
Speaker 1: I was busting at the scenes with songs. So you know,
Speaker 1: it was just a matter of me and I wrote,
Speaker 1: you know, one or two after the fact, but I
Speaker 1: had a lot of them already just done. You know,
Speaker 1: I see how weird was it on day one where
Speaker 1: you are now in control of your own starship, where
Speaker 1: you now have to answer to yourself. You now have
Speaker 1: to sign the checks, You now have to hire the band,
Speaker 1: the two ladies that are singing side by side with you,
Speaker 1: Like now that you're really calling the shots. Like how
Speaker 1: odd was that that now you had to be in
Speaker 1: that position? Well, you know it was odd, But then
Speaker 1: you know, the same token, it was almost like I
Speaker 1: had been in training for that the whole time that
Speaker 1: I've been with the time, because you know, I learned
Speaker 1: how to put a show together. You know, I learned
Speaker 1: all the ins and outs and the production and you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, you know, by by by the end
Speaker 1: of you know, the whole run with Prince, you know,
Speaker 1: I was doing my own own vocals in the studio,
Speaker 1: and so you know, I kind of, you know, I
Speaker 1: kind of just I think I had you know, some
Speaker 1: some some high class training, you know, so you know,
Speaker 1: I kind of knew what to do at that point. Okay. Um.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, with your acting career, because I
Speaker 1: know that you know, there was there was high expectations
Speaker 1: for you to become like this next big comedy star
Speaker 1: and of course. Um, a lot of the early reviews
Speaker 1: of Purple Rain actually had you pegged. And I felt
Speaker 1: it too that you know, you could have actually fulfilled
Speaker 1: the cinematic promise that Richard Pryor should have filled but didn't.
Speaker 1: I wasn't able to. So what was it like acting
Speaker 1: with him and moving? Yeah? It was, it was, you know,
Speaker 1: it was. It was a double edged situation, you know,
Speaker 1: because even though I did well acting, I didn't feel
Speaker 1: like I was an actor and I didn't like you
Speaker 1: know what. I kind of hate to say this, but
Speaker 1: I didn't like acting so much. Okay, so by this
Speaker 1: point in six, now that you're at the height of
Speaker 1: of danus like, how exhausting is it now? Now you
Speaker 1: have to wear suits, Now you have to your hair
Speaker 1: has to be primped and prepped in dada da da da.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure everybody, whatever your version of I'm Rick
Speaker 1: James bitches like, like, is everyone running up to you
Speaker 1: saying yes and all these things? Yeah? You know that
Speaker 1: that part, Um, You know, there was there was a
Speaker 1: point where you know, you couldn't turn on the radio,
Speaker 1: uh pop or urban or whatever without hearing jumple over
Speaker 1: the bird, and you know, people just you know, they
Speaker 1: had their expectations, you know, because I tend to get
Speaker 1: into my laid backness, you know, and uh and and
Speaker 1: everybody expects, you know more. She walk in the room
Speaker 1: doing the bird, you know, sliding in and you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. You know, it's all good, you know,
Speaker 1: because that's what I signed up for. But that's definitely
Speaker 1: the expectation, uh that that that people had and still
Speaker 1: have to. But wait, let me ask you though, because
Speaker 1: I just had to remember this, had to look this up.
Speaker 1: Did you feel like that before after you did a
Speaker 1: new attitude, well, you know, a new attitude with Jack
Speaker 1: hid right with No she was the hair thing right
Speaker 1: the shop. Yeah, yeah, I remember in Jeff magazine. Okay,
Speaker 1: I remember that. Yeah, I was still and I was
Speaker 1: kind of still in the mode of acting, you know
Speaker 1: at that point. But then, um, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, it just it kind of got to be.
Speaker 1: We're with my music, you know, I kind of call
Speaker 1: the shots, you know what I mean. And I'm not
Speaker 1: a workaholic by anybody's stammards, but you know, I just
Speaker 1: kind of like to be able to go when I
Speaker 1: want to and to be the boss and you know,
Speaker 1: acting somebody else is telling you be here this time,
Speaker 1: be dressed, hurry up and wait and how long you
Speaker 1: have to stay at work and when you could go home?
Speaker 1: And it's like prints all over again. Yeah right right right?
Speaker 1: You know, I mean I would probably still do it again,
Speaker 1: but I don't know that I could just be a
Speaker 1: full time actor, that's all. Okay. I'm afraid of this
Speaker 1: answer because if you don't know who your Pressley jacket is,
Speaker 1: then I definitely know you don't know about this. Do
Speaker 1: you have a copy of the pilot that you and
Speaker 1: Jeroom shot for ABC back in was it seven? I believe? Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think I heard a rumor that you guys did
Speaker 1: a like a detective yeah kind of thing. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it was Fox. It was called Hotel Dicks. Wait
Speaker 1: what Hotel Dicks? Yes, detectives okay, and you worked at
Speaker 1: what was the what was the what was the plot?
Speaker 1: What was the plot of the series. The premise pretty
Speaker 1: much was, you know, we were like the over over zealous,
Speaker 1: like Barney Rubble, you know, uh protective you know, uh
Speaker 1: spying on people, you know, sending like little um remote
Speaker 1: control cars with cameras through the air condition events to
Speaker 1: spy on rooms and you know, kind of make sure
Speaker 1: everything was good in the hotel, but but doing a
Speaker 1: you know, way over the top job of it. So
Speaker 1: you guys were like head of a security force inside
Speaker 1: of a hotel. And yeah, I have seen a show yet,
Speaker 1: Hotel Dicks, do you have a copy of this pilot?
Speaker 1: I might have it because you know, I have h
Speaker 1: boxes full of VCR taps. You know that VHS takes.
Speaker 1: I have no idea what you know. Then they probably
Speaker 1: dried out, brittle and don't work anymore, but I have
Speaker 1: boxes of them. Before I leave this Earth, I'm watching
Speaker 1: that before with this Earth, I'm watching it. Um. And
Speaker 1: in making your follow up album, Daydreaming getting back with
Speaker 1: the Jimmy and Terry, you know a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of your fans were trying to will this time
Speaker 1: reunion way before. Um, at what point was this sort
Speaker 1: of like, okay, let's let's test the waters and see
Speaker 1: if we could do this again. Well, we're always just
Speaker 1: a phone call away from from that kind of thing,
Speaker 1: you know, Um, Jimmy and Terry and we we keep
Speaker 1: up with each other, and um, you know, Jimmy's always
Speaker 1: you know, like hey, you know, he's his affiliation with
Speaker 1: Nerra's you know, which puts on the Grammys. You know,
Speaker 1: he's always you know, using our name or putting our
Speaker 1: name out there, and a lot of times they bite.
Speaker 1: So you know, when when he calls and says, hey,
Speaker 1: let's do this, you know, I'm always down to do
Speaker 1: something with the original members. It's always a treat. Okay,
Speaker 1: I see this. I was specifically talking about the fish
Speaker 1: Net period even before y'all yes that too. You know. Um,
Speaker 1: you know it's because Jimmy and Terry you know, produced
Speaker 1: fish Net for me, and you know, so you know,
Speaker 1: we just thought it would be a great idea to
Speaker 1: do the video together. First of all, did you expect
Speaker 1: them to be as red hot as they became? I
Speaker 1: wasn't surprised because, um, you know, if you call earlier
Speaker 1: when I said, um, I had heard you know when
Speaker 1: you know, prior to them being in to me bringing
Speaker 1: in them into the time, you know, I'd heard some
Speaker 1: songs that they had produced on Cynthia Johnson you know,
Speaker 1: ended up saying Funky Town, which was a world, big,
Speaker 1: world hit. But I'd heard their work, and I told Prince,
Speaker 1: I said, these guys are talented, man. I heard the
Speaker 1: production work, and I said, and they really got something
Speaker 1: special going. And so then once they got into band,
Speaker 1: we would always get together. Man, we had these little,
Speaker 1: uh cassio I don't know if you remember these cassio pianos,
Speaker 1: and they came in these little plastic cases and both
Speaker 1: they had opened them up, and we would get together
Speaker 1: and fire up the four track on the road and
Speaker 1: put together some real fire tracks. So, you know, I
Speaker 1: knew that they had in them. I can't say that
Speaker 1: I knew that they were going to blow up the
Speaker 1: way they did, but I definitely knew that they had
Speaker 1: something special as as rights and producers. Was there every
Speaker 1: consideration to even let them do an entire album on you?
Speaker 1: Or was it more like, okay, well I just fought
Speaker 1: to get out the swamp, Like why would I take
Speaker 1: a step back and take direction from someone else? No?
Speaker 1: I mean I would have considered that in a heartbeat.
Speaker 1: But you know, I had already done most of the
Speaker 1: Daydreaming Daydreaming album, you know, when um, you know that
Speaker 1: the idea came up that maybe they should do a
Speaker 1: couple of tracks. You know, I was pretty much, you know,
Speaker 1: knee deep into the project at that point. But you know,
Speaker 1: if it presented itself earlier, I would have done more
Speaker 1: songs of them, for sure. Okay, I don't know the
Speaker 1: exact I don't know the reason why. Okay, I understand
Speaker 1: that Graffiti Bridge was a flop. So that said, however,
Speaker 1: the reception and the reviews of Pandemonium, it was definitely
Speaker 1: one of the bright spots of how come you guys
Speaker 1: didn't do a full scale tour or was it at
Speaker 1: that point? You guys were an all star team and
Speaker 1: it's just like nobody could take the time off to Yeah,
Speaker 1: at that point, you know, Um, definitely, Terry and Jimmy's
Speaker 1: schedule was was you know the roof they were they
Speaker 1: were producing a little bit of everybody and um, you
Speaker 1: know so and we all had, you know, our our
Speaker 1: thing that we were doing. So it was just too
Speaker 1: difficult at that point, and it probably would have been
Speaker 1: way too expensive, especially for Terry and Jimmy to take
Speaker 1: that kind of time to go out and tour. I see.
Speaker 1: So then we're gonna wrap this up soon because I'll
Speaker 1: be here twelve hours asking you about like, did you
Speaker 1: know about the Jimmy interview? Morris? Have you heard in
Speaker 1: the book? I know it's in the book. No, I know,
Speaker 1: I know Jimmy jams a talker though. You know, his
Speaker 1: episode was six hours and forty minutes. So I was
Speaker 1: like the longest day of my life, like the greatest
Speaker 1: day of my life. Aw it was awesome. It was
Speaker 1: just like the longest day somebody more nerdier than me
Speaker 1: answering questions about himself. Yeah, no, Jimmy damn good at
Speaker 1: this thing, man, So you know we're not trying to
Speaker 1: reproduce it. Jimmy, Jammy. That was a couple of years ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm fifty now, I can't handle it. Um. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think a couple of years ago I saw a
Speaker 1: clip of your son singing. I didn't know that your
Speaker 1: son was even a singer or whatever, and that's so amazing. Like,
Speaker 1: how is that to see your kids like sort of
Speaker 1: follow want to follow in that path, And you know,
Speaker 1: as a parent, do you feel like they need to
Speaker 1: have cautionary like is there kind of concern or fear
Speaker 1: of like making sure that he doesn't fall down the
Speaker 1: same path that I've held down or whatever? Like what
Speaker 1: advice do you give your kids when they want to
Speaker 1: pursue singing? Well, you know, it's always been a requirement
Speaker 1: in my household. You know that that that they pick
Speaker 1: up an instrument. Oh you are Joe Jackson. I get it. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'll say this. You know a few of them got
Speaker 1: stuck with it, like my son Darren that you're talking about,
Speaker 1: who is the incredible singer and yeah, right right, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a chip off field. I actually don't know how
Speaker 1: many kids do you have? Marks? So how many? Oh? Wow? Okay,
Speaker 1: word okay. My boys one girl and they're all musically inclined. No, um,
Speaker 1: I have three that actually care about music. Um still
Speaker 1: and they're really good. Um. And but you know my
Speaker 1: older kids that they do when they got fourteen years
Speaker 1: old and they say, hey, Dad, I don't want to
Speaker 1: I don't want to play the piano anymore. I don't
Speaker 1: want to do I was like, hey, that's fine, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, you know, and I'm good with that.
Speaker 1: But you know, I just wanted to give them, you know,
Speaker 1: that opportunity to you know too. And then they say
Speaker 1: that it helps stimulate the brain, you know, for a
Speaker 1: math and stuff like that. So I just want to
Speaker 1: keep them engaged. It's not you know, when when they're
Speaker 1: old enough to make that decision, and by all means
Speaker 1: that they made that decision, you know, and they could
Speaker 1: never say you didn't try, unlike my daddy who's a drummer,
Speaker 1: who never taught me how to play the drums. Five digress.
Speaker 1: It helps with creativity, though I did. Yeah, yeah, it
Speaker 1: helps with creativity, and it gives something else to do
Speaker 1: besides getting Trump that. So Mark's speaking speaking of your book, Um,
Speaker 1: I really have to commend you um on the creative
Speaker 1: way that you um structured it. Where you know, the
Speaker 1: voice of what's in your head as Prince's voice and
Speaker 1: how it never leaves you is in the book sort
Speaker 1: of the same structure with Momenta, where Richard is talking
Speaker 1: to me before you died, this sort of structure the
Speaker 1: same way where Prince kind of has his version of
Speaker 1: the story and and Mars sort of has a conversation.
Speaker 1: So that's sort of like each chapter is peppered with
Speaker 1: sort of conversations between them. Yeah. I gotta say, how
Speaker 1: how hard was it or just how therapeutic was it
Speaker 1: for you to finally get your story out? It was
Speaker 1: It was both of those. It was hard to do
Speaker 1: and it was therapeutic at the end. Of the day
Speaker 1: because to actually sit you know, with with David Ritz
Speaker 1: and the great David, Yes, the great, Yeah, he would
Speaker 1: love it. But you know, and to go back down
Speaker 1: some of those dark corridors, um was very difficult, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: And it kind of resurfaced a lot of feelings that
Speaker 1: I had buried, you know, um. And and so you know,
Speaker 1: it brought a lot to the surface. And at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, you know, it was like a
Speaker 1: breath of fresh air once we got through it and
Speaker 1: saw how it translated onto the pages. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it just ended up being a good thing. You know,
Speaker 1: that was the ultimate uh therapy session. Kind of is
Speaker 1: there a sound scate with this audio book? Now? I
Speaker 1: want to go back and listen to the audio book.
Speaker 1: I'm like, is it Isn't you on the audio? No?
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have done it, but I was gonna say, man,
Speaker 1: what happened? I still need you know, with with David
Speaker 1: Rich productions, things can be done over again. Look at
Speaker 1: the Rich James book. Look at I. I would appreciate
Speaker 1: it if you actually readid the audio to it because
Speaker 1: I feel like you're you, I mean you your guy
Speaker 1: did it good? You know, and it helped because you know, whatever,
Speaker 1: when I take my morning walk or whatever, usually I
Speaker 1: listen to audiobooks or dry places. It was cool, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like it needs your voice. And I agree
Speaker 1: with that. Hell, it needs your voice. I know that
Speaker 1: at least for the era of the eighties, that mystery
Speaker 1: was a key component. Like you shouldn't do too much
Speaker 1: to keep them engaged, but you know, to see what
Speaker 1: was under the hood, man, And it's like you've been
Speaker 1: through the fireman, And I gotta say that that, you know,
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed the you're sharing your truth like that. Um,
Speaker 1: you know in the story. Yes, okay, I'm I am
Speaker 1: going to wrap up, but I wanted to save one asked,
Speaker 1: frothy story for the end. This is the encore, and
Speaker 1: you guys can be very happy that this is the
Speaker 1: last time I'm gonna ask this question. This is the
Speaker 1: most besides the Latin Quarter. No, No, besides the Latin Quarter.
Speaker 1: This is the most asked question on quest Left Supreme
Speaker 1: to anyone that's ever been in the Purple Army Mars,
Speaker 1: can you please give me your account of the Cincinnati
Speaker 1: Food Fight show. So here's here's the deal. Speaking of
Speaker 1: the Huntsberry family, dude, crazy negotiations. I was able to
Speaker 1: secure and get that performance or on tape. So of
Speaker 1: course I don't I don't know what's happening backstage, but
Speaker 1: I at least see the point where Chick grabs Jesse. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I guess you guys went guitar list for a second. Whatever,
Speaker 1: can you please explain and fireside chat way whatever of
Speaker 1: the food fight in Cincinnati? Yeah, of course I can.
Speaker 1: You know it's in the book though, the book on
Speaker 1: Time of Princely laughing fung. Yes we will. We will
Speaker 1: rigorously promote this book. Yes, you no, I got to
Speaker 1: do it, you know, I got to do it. But anyway,
Speaker 1: so we're in Cincinnati, we're on stage and you know,
Speaker 1: this the Prince that everybody thinks they know, they're serious minded,
Speaker 1: you know, straight talk, you know, um st Yeah, he
Speaker 1: decides he's gonna funk with our show and him and
Speaker 1: his band are gonna start throwing eggs at us while
Speaker 1: we're you know, port Yeah, that's real fun. Up. Let
Speaker 1: me ask you. Let me ask you though? Is so
Speaker 1: there was never a playful high school kind of nature
Speaker 1: between the two bands or not like that, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, because his his his crew were kind of
Speaker 1: straight lace you know, um, you know, just kind of
Speaker 1: boring people, you know. With with my crew, you know,
Speaker 1: we were you know, we was all cool. You know,
Speaker 1: had a little you know, pimp vibe to us. And
Speaker 1: you know, you know, for instance, anytime the time had
Speaker 1: a party, everybody would be there. We always be at
Speaker 1: the little cheap hotel. And if we were at the
Speaker 1: same hotel as him, we had a little low cheap
Speaker 1: on the low cheap floor. He'd be upstairs and the
Speaker 1: sweeps and all of that, but everybody would be at
Speaker 1: our party. So you know, that's that's just the vibe
Speaker 1: that we had. So it wasn't that kind of party
Speaker 1: with us. We didn't interact with this band like that.
Speaker 1: You know, you're talking Matt Fink and uh Bobby's Z
Speaker 1: and all that. I mean, there's Dickerson. These are all
Speaker 1: like you know, I don't even know, but they're they
Speaker 1: weren't they just wasn't cool. Like okay, okay, I gotta
Speaker 1: briefly interrupt. So since you since you kind of opened
Speaker 1: the door, I gotta ask. And I never asked as
Speaker 1: a artist or whatever because it's their personal thing, but
Speaker 1: just in that environment was it everything we ever thought
Speaker 1: it was in terms of whatever hedonistic party atmosphere that
Speaker 1: we imagined that any figure from the eighties was living
Speaker 1: at that point. It was pretty crazy. You know, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't I wouldn't give it the hedonistic stamp, but you
Speaker 1: know it was, you know, we we were parbatied hard,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You come in, you know,
Speaker 1: you couldn't tell where the bed was, where the floor was.
Speaker 1: Folks to be danced on the bed floor. People have
Speaker 1: the lampshades on their head, the musically going, and you know,
Speaker 1: it was just kind of that kind of you know,
Speaker 1: free social media, the good life, yeah, pre social media. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean like coming to America was like white bros
Speaker 1: like yeah, and other things that go along with that. Anyway,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, I get the sun always goes down,
Speaker 1: you know, but the lights went low, but just the
Speaker 1: party was going, you know, it was you know, we
Speaker 1: just have some good, clean, fun party and having a
Speaker 1: great time. And it was so it was to the
Speaker 1: point where Prince would start coming down. He'd come down
Speaker 1: with Chip you know or whoever his bodyguard was having
Speaker 1: breaking because he's like, what's going on down there? You know,
Speaker 1: he wanted to know, like that coming to ruin the
Speaker 1: party or is it like he's cool? He No, nobody
Speaker 1: skipped the beach, you know, they see him show up,
Speaker 1: and you know, people were so happy to be that
Speaker 1: our parties that you know, they wouldn't acknowledge him as
Speaker 1: much as you thought they would because everybody would just
Speaker 1: be having a great time, you know, and you kind
Speaker 1: of show up with a bodyguard. What's kind of a
Speaker 1: buzz kill to begin with it, you know. But you know,
Speaker 1: so that that that was the deal with that. But
Speaker 1: you know, so we didn't interact with his band, so
Speaker 1: it wasn't that kind of fun environment between the two
Speaker 1: bands where it was a laugh. When they started throwing
Speaker 1: eggs at us on stage, you know, I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: what's What's what's happening here? I'm seeing eggs flying and
Speaker 1: hitting some of my band members and splatting on the
Speaker 1: stage and on the speakers and stuff. And I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, and then so I happened to look up.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to concentrate on doing, you know, my show,
Speaker 1: and I see you know, Prince and his crew laughing
Speaker 1: down there, you know, and running and off to the
Speaker 1: side and throwing eggs out of it at us, and
Speaker 1: I was like, what is this, you know, and so
Speaker 1: so he's he's not worried about like being seen by
Speaker 1: the audience and none of these things. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: know what got into him that night. I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you that was That was also the last night of
Speaker 1: the tours. So I'm certain that whatever resentment and whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, any of those things that are happening. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's like we're gonna throw water balloons at the bus,
Speaker 1: you know, on the last day, you know, when the
Speaker 1: kids are leaving or something, eggs, you know. And so
Speaker 1: then we come off stage and you know, he's really
Speaker 1: laughing about the ship, you know, but in the same
Speaker 1: breath he's saying, you guys, better not bother me while
Speaker 1: I'm on stage. What So he's basically asking you to
Speaker 1: bother him on stage. Yeah, exactly exactly. So we sent
Speaker 1: our guy, you know, and we told him to get
Speaker 1: us a box of glad bags, the green ones, the
Speaker 1: big the big trash bags and some and some a
Speaker 1: few dozen eggs. So we geared up, you know, just
Speaker 1: in cases some retaliation. And when he went on shure
Speaker 1: enough we was firing up the stage with eggs. He
Speaker 1: gets Piste, he has Chick, like you said, Chick grabbed Jesse,
Speaker 1: took him into the dressing room and handcuffed him to
Speaker 1: a cloth was racked those kind of clothes racks that
Speaker 1: they screwed into the wall with the tow on the mill.
Speaker 1: Handcuffs into that, and Jesse's going crazy, you know. He
Speaker 1: eventually ripped the uh the rack off the wall, came
Speaker 1: out swinging at people with and it just went, it
Speaker 1: just went totally bizarre. Prince was pissed, his band was mad.
Speaker 1: They was acting like they wanted to fight. And then
Speaker 1: so I ended up in the back room with Chick
Speaker 1: and Prince, and Prince is yelling at me all night
Speaker 1: and I'm like, you started this ship, I said, you
Speaker 1: started throwing eggs at me, and he's threatening to fire
Speaker 1: me from the production coming that would be on tour again,
Speaker 1: and blah blah. It was just when it was. It
Speaker 1: was a crazy night, That's what I could tell. I
Speaker 1: could hear. It was crazy. It got real deep. It
Speaker 1: went way before, way beyond. And then I ended up
Speaker 1: paying five g's. He made me pay for the clean
Speaker 1: up at the venue, five thousand bucks. Yeah, bringing up
Speaker 1: the calculator right now, so inflation, like I'm going, I'm
Speaker 1: going two grand the inflation calculator for uh, this fight
Speaker 1: happen with nineteen eighty three, so let's see five thousand bucks.
Speaker 1: Oh Jesus christ Man, that was thirteen thousand, two d
Speaker 1: seven dollars and fifty five cents today. That's a lot
Speaker 1: of money, you know what I mean, records talk about
Speaker 1: with that ship three. So do you feel as though,
Speaker 1: even though you know the food fights supposed to be
Speaker 1: an endearing thing amongst friends, but do you feel the
Speaker 1: underlying thing was maybe sort of resentment that you guys
Speaker 1: were getting better reviews or like your only revenge was
Speaker 1: to kick his ass on stage. Yeah. I think it
Speaker 1: was part of that. And I think, you know, in
Speaker 1: his own way, you know, like you said that being
Speaker 1: the last night that particular tour, you know, I think
Speaker 1: he was thinking he could kind of sabotage it so
Speaker 1: we definitely wouldn't get better reviews. Hey, brother, Prince, forgive
Speaker 1: me now, you know what you know, but you know,
Speaker 1: but but you know, it's it was all, you know,
Speaker 1: just as part of like I said, when I when
Speaker 1: I would run into him as much animosity as I
Speaker 1: could muster up for some of the ship that we
Speaker 1: went through together. That that wasn't so cool. I was
Speaker 1: always happy to see him, you know, I was always
Speaker 1: happy to see him. Well, thank you for sharing your
Speaker 1: story with us, brother day. Wait a minute, Marris, you
Speaker 1: knew it couldn't wait? Well, no, no, no. Have you
Speaker 1: ever revealed what the E means in your name? Well,
Speaker 1: like I always say, the E is, it's in the book,
Speaker 1: the E is sometimes for Morris every day, you know,
Speaker 1: the changes. It just depends on the mood and the moment,
Speaker 1: you know. Okay, I felt like that. I feel like
Speaker 1: that's the first personal I feel like that's the first
Speaker 1: personal question I asked you, like, your your political affiliation
Speaker 1: and what is the E stand for? More entertaining date?
Speaker 1: I see? Wait a minute, Marris, I can't no, Well,
Speaker 1: it would be disrespectful. Dude. You you're working, you're working
Speaker 1: on you got new material out now with Snoop. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm so busy trying to get off the clock so
Speaker 1: he doesn't hang up on us. Cute. Can you talk
Speaker 1: about working now that now that you're in Snoop's camp?
Speaker 1: What what what it's been like it's been real cool.
Speaker 1: You know. Snoop's a real gracious guy. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: he invited me to come down to that. I went
Speaker 1: down really because I wanted him to to get on
Speaker 1: a song that I had, and then he just said, hey,
Speaker 1: I want to do you know a bunch of stuff
Speaker 1: with you. So you know, we started cutting down there.
Speaker 1: So you know, we ended up. You know, we have
Speaker 1: a lot of great stuff, a lot of stuff I
Speaker 1: cut with Snoop. You know, we got Snoop on our
Speaker 1: new project. We got flow right on the new project.
Speaker 1: We got Trinidad James, you know, and this keeps growing.
Speaker 1: So you know, we're just we're having fun, you know
Speaker 1: with some of the more seasoned members of the musical
Speaker 1: community these days, and uh making good music. But we
Speaker 1: got to get together on one too. Yes, actually we
Speaker 1: can close on a really glorious new Oh wait before
Speaker 1: you close at the reissue too, right, Yes, the reissues
Speaker 1: of the of the Time record and What Time Is It?
Speaker 1: And ice Cream Castles as well, just the first two
Speaker 1: records is the first to the reason he is here today. Alright,
Speaker 1: good stuff forget one of the one of the many,
Speaker 1: one of the reason that we got you the book.
Speaker 1: We've been trying to get you for the last few years,
Speaker 1: so but this is how we finally you know, I'm
Speaker 1: actually pleased. I'm very happy to say that technically the
Speaker 1: Roots and the Time have a song together on the
Speaker 1: new Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis album. Yes, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think you knew that the musical backdrop you
Speaker 1: were singing to was a Root song. That's how That's
Speaker 1: how much work I'm doing nowadays. I totally forgot that
Speaker 1: we we have a song together on that. Yeah, and yes,
Speaker 1: no it's by by the time this airs, it'll be done.
Speaker 1: And I think I just let a serious cat off
Speaker 1: the bag, but I'm not certain later Jim Jim, Jim
Speaker 1: Jim won't punish me for revealing this again. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was gonna say that, uh, Jim actually just yeah, he
Speaker 1: told me like day before yesterday, so that, yeah, exclusively that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: both the routes of the Time made the final cut
Speaker 1: of Well Morris, we're talking about together at the same
Speaker 1: time when he did. Yes, of course now that now
Speaker 1: that the pandemics over allegedly now now we can now
Speaker 1: we can be creative. Yes, I would love to do
Speaker 1: that Yes, you're you're you're. As I said, man, you're
Speaker 1: you're one of my true heroes, not just like a
Speaker 1: guy down with that other guy, but like, you know,
Speaker 1: you're you're kind of our you're north Star and no, seriously,
Speaker 1: like a lot of black people got pulled into this
Speaker 1: fear via you guys first and then catching up later. Yes, yes, y'all,
Speaker 1: but the blackness that lured is in exactly. I want
Speaker 1: to thank you for doing this. I've been you know,
Speaker 1: I still deny that we've been on for five years,
Speaker 1: but yeah, this is this is definitely one of the
Speaker 1: dream interviews. Yo. Can I just mentioned by the way,
Speaker 1: people don't know this at home, but this is the
Speaker 1: first time we've ever done a quest left Supreme where
Speaker 1: we didn't see our guests. Mariah tried to do this
Speaker 1: and we was like, nas, you got to see you,
Speaker 1: Morris Day. This is how much we loved you that
Speaker 1: we actually did it blind. Yeah, I appreciate that. You know,
Speaker 1: my my my, I didn't get my hair did today.
Speaker 1: My lady, my hair lady wasn't available, So you know,
Speaker 1: all good brother, As long as as long as you
Speaker 1: tell the story that I'm fine with that and you
Speaker 1: find regardless Morrison, don't nothing change? All right? Well, I
Speaker 1: wanna being Bill Sherman, Sugar Steve. I know I hugged
Speaker 1: all the questions. Yeah, that's why I apologize at the beginning.
Speaker 1: A great job, Sugar Steve, you have you have any
Speaker 1: last words? I know? I love you, Marris, thank you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: That great? All right? When be having the crew fantacolo,
Speaker 1: you were missed. I hope that was a great picnic.
Speaker 1: Bill and Sugar Steve. The great Mars entertaining day every day,
Speaker 1: every day. Yes, I like it to is ever changing,
Speaker 1: might be one of the ease and every more. So.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, and this is question Love Supreme.
Speaker 1: We'll see on the next que round y'all. Thank you
Speaker 1: right now. Hey, this is Sugar Steve. Make sure you
Speaker 1: keep up with us on Instagram at q l S
Speaker 1: and let us know what you think. Who should be
Speaker 1: next to sit down with us? Don't forget to subscribe
Speaker 1: to our podcast. What's Love Supreme is a production of
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.