Speaker 1: Of Course. Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora
Speaker 1: Ladies and Gentlemen. This is QLs classic from May tenth,
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen. With the emotion we talked to the
Speaker 1: Grammy Award winning Chicago, Illinois songbirds who had five decades
Speaker 1: under their belts of harmonies, hits and samples that have
Speaker 1: become the staple of our lives. Uh joining them. It's
Speaker 1: also Yan Vaughn of Dr Dre's The Pharmacy Show, and
Speaker 1: they recalled their family history and song and memories. It's
Speaker 1: really cool. We hope you enjoyed this episode of l
Speaker 1: S Classic. With the emotions so prim so so so
Speaker 1: Prima Row call Prima, so prima role call, so prema
Speaker 1: Prima Road called sub prima So Surema road call. Don't
Speaker 1: touch that dial, Yeah, don't push in shove Yeah, because
Speaker 1: you're getting the best. Yeah, rock roll roll. My name
Speaker 1: is Fante. Yeah, I am not quest loss, but it's
Speaker 1: my love. Yeah, you get the best of so Frema
Speaker 1: road spills my name Schilling with the tried Yeah, shout
Speaker 1: out to the emotions for my jam love Vibema road
Speaker 1: Calling Prema Road Call. My name is Sugar. Yeah. We
Speaker 1: in l a Yeah, all these emotions. Yeah, it's our
Speaker 1: last day roam. I'm on paid bill, drinking kambucha. Yeah,
Speaker 1: some ro It's like ea, yeah, and I'm very excited. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Three beautiful ladies. Yeah, I know why I was invited fremarea.
Speaker 1: Road calla road My name is Wanda. Yeah, you got
Speaker 1: the best of my left. I'm a passion yeah from
Speaker 1: that gift a roll call Prima rog I'm wing fine, yeah,
Speaker 1: the voice of reason. Yeah, I'm hot, I'm spicy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: call me, will season call. My name is Pam Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I just came here. Yeah, give you my number.
Speaker 1: I'll play your game. Road call Prima Prema. Road called
Speaker 1: Prima Prima roll call. Damn rise with kim people drinking kambucha.
Speaker 1: Happy them toilets. I'm from the future. At least I
Speaker 1: got to say those pretty futre I'm so busy trying
Speaker 1: to coordinate my sample. I was trying to coordinate my sample. Wow, Sony,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another edition of Course Love
Speaker 1: Supreme Pandur. We are in the presence of Royalty Royalties
Speaker 1: for over five decades. The world is has has has
Speaker 1: been blessed with the distinct harmony and vocal stylings of
Speaker 1: our next guests from their humble beginnings in Chicago, Chicago
Speaker 1: correct Yeah, as a gospel group, the Sunbeam exactly uh,
Speaker 1: later evolving on the world stage as the Emotions. Ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen, Please welcome our very distinct guests, our first
Speaker 1: group on the show. Yes, that's our first singing groups,
Speaker 1: our first single group. Welcome wander Born and y and Vorn,
Speaker 1: collectively known in our hearts as the Emotional I'm so
Speaker 1: delighted to be here. I just must say, Quests, I
Speaker 1: just love seeing you play those strong I can't, I
Speaker 1: really can't. I know what people think I'm being, uh
Speaker 1: disingenuous when I say I can't believe you know that
Speaker 1: I'm alive. This is this is really a great moment
Speaker 1: for me. Um. So you know the purpose of our
Speaker 1: show is to really go in depth into the guess
Speaker 1: that we have on the show, because often times, um,
Speaker 1: you know, you don't you have favorites, but you really
Speaker 1: don't know them as as people. And you know, especially
Speaker 1: pre uh this decade, you know, people's lives are always
Speaker 1: on display more than their talent or whatever. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of us and me included that. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know much about the emotions as a at
Speaker 1: as humans. You know, I know about your beginnings in Chicago,
Speaker 1: so you got started in obviously in church. In church,
Speaker 1: that's true. We were singing on Sundays sometimes, mahya Jackson's
Speaker 1: Church over one street, right down the street from Um.
Speaker 1: What was the guys that played the boys? Uh from Chicago. No,
Speaker 1: not the shy Lights, but uh okay, the Jackson five
Speaker 1: Emotions and the little guy that sings and drums. Oh
Speaker 1: huh no, not man conditioned, that's he said. She said,
Speaker 1: sing well because they played the drums and then their
Speaker 1: their sister was in the group. The stair steps, sir steps,
Speaker 1: five stair steps, because we all did the Apollo together.
Speaker 1: Just so happened the very first time we did it.
Speaker 1: Follow Jackson five Emotions. Yeah, and Ronnie millsap however Nie anyway,
Speaker 1: the third degree. Yeah, he had a hit in the
Speaker 1: eighties and never had it so good. Yeah, we had
Speaker 1: the third No, there was another one. There's top forty,
Speaker 1: which one I can't remember I remember. We get back
Speaker 1: to you. Let's let's we can we could skip Ronnie
Speaker 1: Mills happen, She said, Ronnie millsap pleaded be Apollo. Yes,
Speaker 1: that is mind blowing. He's blind, so you didn't know what. Okay. Anyway,
Speaker 1: but we had a gospel show there in Chicago called
Speaker 1: Them We actually sang and al Abram's Pontiac. It was
Speaker 1: a showroom of all the Pontiacs that were at that time, Tempest,
Speaker 1: the Grand Prix, and we were the singers. My father
Speaker 1: playing guitar. He also sold the cars and people insurance
Speaker 1: and that's where we met Don Crnius. He was actually
Speaker 1: giving insurance. I mean he was a salesman there, you
Speaker 1: know for sure. But anyway, and we sang with a
Speaker 1: Jubilee showcase which is now on YouTube. It was on
Speaker 1: the Unsung So but anyway, that was our first and
Speaker 1: I just happened to because you know how social Security
Speaker 1: sent you your very first thing that you did. That
Speaker 1: was the first thing that we did. And from what
Speaker 1: seven eight years old when we first Yeah, when the
Speaker 1: emotion well we were they and then of course the
Speaker 1: staple singers. I was about to say, so it was
Speaker 1: sort of like your father was Popsy was our fathers
Speaker 1: like Pop Staples exact, but he got pervise Staples to manage.
Speaker 1: He was our manager, you know when we got with
Speaker 1: doesn't he wants to have a nightclub too? Because I
Speaker 1: know that he left them. He left the Staple Singers too,
Speaker 1: had a big kettle. I got the name of it though,
Speaker 1: and that's when he was going with Melbourne more. But
Speaker 1: I remember that we were saying there about once a
Speaker 1: month and he would have people that come in town
Speaker 1: come there and Joe Simon, I mean, oh, all the best.
Speaker 1: How easy was it too? Well, obviously you must have
Speaker 1: your your your parents blessings because they're in the act
Speaker 1: with you. But yeah, um, I often hear times of
Speaker 1: groups that start in gospel and try to sort of
Speaker 1: sneak their way into the secular world to the nightclubs
Speaker 1: and what like. How do you it was it easy
Speaker 1: to switch the two? Well, it was more of a
Speaker 1: situation for my grandmother, Dad's mom out of terror Haute, Indiana,
Speaker 1: and she was Mama Rose and she was like, wow,
Speaker 1: you know you brought them girls up to sing for God,
Speaker 1: now singing for the devil. Ain't bought of that? And
Speaker 1: I mean she was really like that. And our first
Speaker 1: at the uh, what's the Regal Theater in Chicago when
Speaker 1: we won the contract and sixty nine to sing on
Speaker 1: Stax records. Um My, my, I can't go. I can't go,
Speaker 1: and your girls you gotta say, he said, but you
Speaker 1: gotta promise me you gotta sing a gospel song every
Speaker 1: time you do a show. And if anybody knows us,
Speaker 1: when we do a show, we sing gospel. So we
Speaker 1: kept that part in there. I said, but mama, we're
Speaker 1: not singing about people who aren't married. We're just singing
Speaker 1: about people getting married. Yes, yeah, And you know, Sheila
Speaker 1: wrote the first song, so I Can Love You, which
Speaker 1: Isaac Hayes produced, and uh, but anyway, that was the
Speaker 1: first thing that came out in nineteen So what was
Speaker 1: that whole at least that that the grind between Because
Speaker 1: I'm certain that you guys between Chicago. I'm sure that
Speaker 1: you went to Memphis. That's where we recorded in Memphis, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: But I mean between Chicago, like just the Midwest, between Chicago, Indiana,
Speaker 1: just that whole circuit. What was it like like was
Speaker 1: everyone I mean, a typical day for those contests or whatever.
Speaker 1: We're there always, yes, and we were still in school,
Speaker 1: so we always did the contest at the school, you know,
Speaker 1: at the high school and the junior high and we
Speaker 1: would have u and everyone would want to sing with
Speaker 1: us because we still sang in Chicago before we had
Speaker 1: a record deal. So people knew of us, you know,
Speaker 1: in the area because my father had a radio show
Speaker 1: on the Gospel morning radio you know situation, So everyone
Speaker 1: kind of us, so they would want to sing with
Speaker 1: the Hutcherson Sunbeams when we would do the what do
Speaker 1: you call the show, the Contintion Jubilee showcase, but you know,
Speaker 1: we'd have to pick someone who's the winner, the auditions, challenge,
Speaker 1: challenge all the time. That was a big thing in Chicago. That, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then all of the radio folks, they always came
Speaker 1: out to the school. That's what's so different about this age.
Speaker 1: And and before we were, they were more into the
Speaker 1: community exactly. It was at the Community Process Center. Yes
Speaker 1: that I even at nine years old. Yes, my brother
Speaker 1: had his own band, and um I sang Aretha Franklin
Speaker 1: song by myself That's back and I didn't have a
Speaker 1: you know, like nine years old, I wanted to be
Speaker 1: kind of flashy, so I had on an orange dress,
Speaker 1: little red sox, a green pearl necklace. I was real
Speaker 1: colorful and he can't would be the guy I don't
Speaker 1: know if you remember her can't the gent from yes,
Speaker 1: and he would come to all the so cops. We
Speaker 1: had so cops. We tried to start that. We came
Speaker 1: out here, people went, sock cops. Communities are going to
Speaker 1: come on the night. I don't know what is so
Speaker 1: cop in the gym because your shoes take off your shoes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. I didn't know. People, That's what
Speaker 1: I was. Well, you couldn't wear shoes on the floor, yess, yes,
Speaker 1: because you're on the court where the basketball players and
Speaker 1: you know you can't wear hard you didn't want to
Speaker 1: scuff it up right, okay, and dancing and flipping and
Speaker 1: doing all that. And then at the Catholic Church, which
Speaker 1: is amazing because all the black folks went to the
Speaker 1: Catholic Church just to the so cop. There was the skating.
Speaker 1: You'd skate to the seventies music at the uh at
Speaker 1: the Catholic Church because they had the big arena, you know.
Speaker 1: And so but it was amazing because we come out
Speaker 1: and then all the white people be standing outside because
Speaker 1: they wouldn't come in on the nights that we that
Speaker 1: we had to scap. It was. Chicago wasn't integrated well
Speaker 1: well at that time, not at that time, and even
Speaker 1: when it does, Chicago has always been an interesting, like
Speaker 1: segregated type city. Yes, the church let us have it there.
Speaker 1: And there was certainly a Catholic you know, it wasn't
Speaker 1: the Baptist church. It was. It was, but they wanted
Speaker 1: to be a part of the community, which was really something.
Speaker 1: And uh and even the largest like the car dealers
Speaker 1: and so forth, they would let us have They would
Speaker 1: move the cars back and let people have a dance
Speaker 1: situation or talented show. And you know what, it was
Speaker 1: really smart because they got their parents and then that
Speaker 1: you know, they're fixing to buy a car, so they're
Speaker 1: going to buy a car from the place where they
Speaker 1: can go dance. And I'm like, gosh, dude, I wish
Speaker 1: they had that kind of a you know now, but
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know if anywhere has that
Speaker 1: kind of a thing now. Yeah, I was going to say,
Speaker 1: I want to work there. Was great. It seemed like
Speaker 1: that was the center of everything though that every like
Speaker 1: the radio outlets cars, church, everyone sold into the community.
Speaker 1: That's that's kind of awesome. So okay, so you said
Speaker 1: that uh Don Cornelius would be there, did you You
Speaker 1: guys obviously did the local version of Soul Train. Correct, Yes,
Speaker 1: we did the very first one, channel twenty six, which
Speaker 1: was UHF. The very first trains were on UHF. So
Speaker 1: how revolutionary was that at the time in Chicago, Like
Speaker 1: the idea of a show where you saw black teenagers
Speaker 1: dancing and it was a really big deal. It was
Speaker 1: because it was you know, they normally the people would
Speaker 1: have what was that that guy the real famous dance
Speaker 1: showcase And this was before they moved out here, before
Speaker 1: they moved Soul Try Chicago. You're right, Yeah, a little
Speaker 1: bigger than this. Well, the actual room where the cook
Speaker 1: was at that hotel you know down there down Hathaway
Speaker 1: would play. Yeah, but not with the dancing part where
Speaker 1: the people were Yeah, it was small. Yeah, did you
Speaker 1: do that one with them? Yeah, you know what she's
Speaker 1: talking about where were actually saying, But the dance part
Speaker 1: was in the lobby kind of you know, it was bigger, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it wasn't. It sounds like two different sky was in
Speaker 1: the group. None that that question. This is you both
Speaker 1: must know. This is a real family business. And it's
Speaker 1: so funny because I have to remember, like these are
Speaker 1: real sisters. I see him as mom and Aunty, but
Speaker 1: when they have their fun times like this, I have
Speaker 1: to remember, like as if it was me and my sisters.
Speaker 1: That's called step back. I don't have jurisdiction in the fight.
Speaker 1: Wasn't there, but I was not to us on YouTube.
Speaker 1: We didn't even know that was on YouTube. That was
Speaker 1: the one though, when you guys did when had the
Speaker 1: white one and you did best in my love was
Speaker 1: that I'm telling you about that. Yeah, that's the established
Speaker 1: when I before when it was black and white and
Speaker 1: before black and white, before it you know, got big
Speaker 1: cover the soldier. But you also mentioned, like a lot
Speaker 1: of your contemporaries, you just ever so casually, like because
Speaker 1: because Chicago is just the epicenter and such a musical
Speaker 1: you know, birthplace for it for many of our favorites,
Speaker 1: or a casual week. Who were you seeing that? Gods now,
Speaker 1: but who it was? Just who would you run into?
Speaker 1: And the impressions all the time and time shock my baby. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we went to school together and when they had they
Speaker 1: when King that thing happened and they were looting and
Speaker 1: doing all of this. Sole shock, and I went to
Speaker 1: the disciples, you know, the gangs, and because they loved
Speaker 1: us and knew us, they let us talk to them
Speaker 1: and you know, in the same room, and the police
Speaker 1: used us to go. I mean, it was just so wonderful,
Speaker 1: used us to go into their places where they would
Speaker 1: need to talk to him and like, don't go over here.
Speaker 1: You know that's brother so and so business, and they're okay,
Speaker 1: so they and they did it and we were like
Speaker 1: so shocked cause me and Chaka had these froze like this,
Speaker 1: and we had those tops that stopped right here and
Speaker 1: mail bottle pat and they would really listen to let's
Speaker 1: go home. But anyway, it was. It was quite quite
Speaker 1: a situation. Then you had that one picture with when
Speaker 1: you guys were singing at Mahellas Church and Mahey Jackson
Speaker 1: was looking up. Did you see her often? Yes, because
Speaker 1: my dad because he was singing with us when we
Speaker 1: were doing gospel. And so when we would go to
Speaker 1: her church, it would be like a Sunday every other
Speaker 1: it was the tea when they would have the tea
Speaker 1: and we would do this repertoire, and when Dad would
Speaker 1: sing with us, we did, uh, what was that album, Maria.
Speaker 1: We would do all these songs and things like barbershop
Speaker 1: or four or five part harmony, and he played, um,
Speaker 1: well he did play electric then because he started up
Speaker 1: not playing electric, but he would play these songs, and
Speaker 1: so she would ask it. We did Prodigal Son and
Speaker 1: Somewhere over the Rainbow, you know, a lot of songs
Speaker 1: like that. And she said, she says, are you going
Speaker 1: to put these girls in some kind of music conservatory?
Speaker 1: I would love to, you know, be a part of
Speaker 1: their education. I mean she actually said that to him
Speaker 1: when we were we weren't even thinking about, you know, music,
Speaker 1: because she realized yes, because all these people would come
Speaker 1: from because it was in a black neighborhood, and they
Speaker 1: would be coming from Europe or coming from wherever they sing,
Speaker 1: and she would do that home song. She would do
Speaker 1: the oh my gosh, the song that was in the movie,
Speaker 1: you know, Imitation of Life. But she could sing just
Speaker 1: amazing grace. When she was your skin would crawl, mind
Speaker 1: would just crawl. And then I wasn't even you know,
Speaker 1: I was a kid, and I was like, why is
Speaker 1: my skin and she's not singing all these runs that
Speaker 1: everybody does today. She's not. But she's just singing that
Speaker 1: gutter and and and then she had very little vibrato,
Speaker 1: and she knew when to make it the smooth tone
Speaker 1: and the contral tone. And I didn't know those words, Dan,
Speaker 1: I couldn't figure out what wasn't making me go? You know?
Speaker 1: But anyway, I kind of enveloped it into my lead singing.
Speaker 1: And it was really a thing because I always sung
Speaker 1: the gospel, mostly in the group. And but she had
Speaker 1: a way of doing a guttural low squaw that I've
Speaker 1: never heard anyone do, and but she she did it.
Speaker 1: And I mean, you're you just everyone in the places crying.
Speaker 1: It's like why are they cry? You know? I mean
Speaker 1: that anyway, So how did you learn because hearing you
Speaker 1: use the terms like contralto and you know, the bra
Speaker 1: and everything, did you ever actually take um like formal
Speaker 1: lessons or with these just things you picked up? My father,
Speaker 1: My father he had us like, you know, when we
Speaker 1: would rehearse, he would have us just listen to, uh
Speaker 1: I believe or not. We watched the Lawrence Wilke Show
Speaker 1: and what's those girls that? And we did a lot
Speaker 1: of commercials in town that were uh of those guys,
Speaker 1: the high Lows, and we got to go down there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: whether the impressions recorded is actually where they did the
Speaker 1: CBS studios at that time, and we got a chance
Speaker 1: to watch them, and we was like, wow, that's how
Speaker 1: Dad to our singing, you know, because we were sang
Speaker 1: acapella and in the rehearsal, we weren't singing with music
Speaker 1: and stuff, and so Dad would go and you knew
Speaker 1: what this meant, you go low, you go high because
Speaker 1: no one could figure out. I remember when b Angie
Speaker 1: b was recording I Don't Want to Lose Your Love,
Speaker 1: and she said, how did you guys seeing the harmony?
Speaker 1: You know, one time you'd be on top of the
Speaker 1: other one. But my father was into fourth and fifths
Speaker 1: because he said those were the anointed intervals, intervals and
Speaker 1: anytime you see those movies do Do Do Do? That
Speaker 1: interval is always a fourth or fit. Well. I really
Speaker 1: didn't know that then, but Dad would tell us the
Speaker 1: stuff and I'm like, no, where did he get this right?
Speaker 1: But anyway, that's that's kind of how he got into it.
Speaker 1: But it was it was something and the more that
Speaker 1: we sang, and then saw others that knew, I mean
Speaker 1: not knew as to telling us, but you could hear
Speaker 1: it in their voices, like Stevie or you know, someone
Speaker 1: just had that boy. But B and G B was like, okay,
Speaker 1: you know she recorded I don't only love Uh. Hammer
Speaker 1: called me one day. I couldn't believe it. I was
Speaker 1: cooking or doing something, and she said, hey, Wanda, this
Speaker 1: is that I'm here with SO and so. You're the
Speaker 1: guy who knows you. I'm just called you because I'm
Speaker 1: recording this song on BnB and it's just these words
Speaker 1: are I don't want to lose your love. I don't
Speaker 1: want to lose your love. I think you need my love.
Speaker 1: When we go to that you can't defeat, we go
Speaker 1: to a whole another interval of harmony. He says, who
Speaker 1: stays on the bottom, No, don't lead stay. I said, no,
Speaker 1: the lead doesn't stay. And she had to find out
Speaker 1: they called for those things, just the harmonies, just how
Speaker 1: how they did the harmony. But Dad did that. He
Speaker 1: he did our harmonies that way. And I was like,
Speaker 1: and then when we got with Charles Stepney, he was saying,
Speaker 1: we were doing how can you stop loving someone? Yeah,
Speaker 1: how can you stop loving the one you do? And
Speaker 1: he says, wonder, how did you write this song? Do
Speaker 1: you know? The says the Beethoven? He named some sonata
Speaker 1: that Beethoven. I said, I don't know nothing about. He said,
Speaker 1: do you know you're actually doing twenty eight bars of
Speaker 1: the blob? I said, no, I don't know anything about that.
Speaker 1: But anyway, he said, okay, so I know. And people
Speaker 1: would ask us those kind of questions, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: what was Charles Stephanie like he was someone that a
Speaker 1: hero of mine but me and he died, so you okay.
Speaker 1: We were in this living room. Maurice was in um
Speaker 1: Maurice White was in l A, and he told us
Speaker 1: how to get My father took us over to Charles's
Speaker 1: house and so we sat there upstairs and we're just
Speaker 1: hearing this lovely music come from the basement where his
Speaker 1: eight foot piano was. And he said, oh, and his
Speaker 1: wife carried the old folks and nameless she carried. She said, Oh,
Speaker 1: don't worry. He does that about three hours every morning.
Speaker 1: He has to play. You know, uh, it sounds like
Speaker 1: the Beethoven movie, the opera kind of music because one.
Speaker 1: He was the director for the Field Not Feel Harmonic
Speaker 1: Chicago Symphonies, and I didn't know that then, And so
Speaker 1: he was rehearsing because him and Many Repreton were fixing
Speaker 1: the UH perform about a week that weekend or something.
Speaker 1: And I was like, Many Repton, but he's playing. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's playing. He said, that's how he prepares. Wow, that's awesome. Wow.
Speaker 1: So when he said that, that really made me feel like, wow,
Speaker 1: he thinks I write a song that's like a sonata
Speaker 1: from somebody with you know. Okay, okay, I think, and
Speaker 1: that's where you would start all your songs you wrote
Speaker 1: on the piano. How competitive were the the talent shows
Speaker 1: that you guys were doing, Like you mentioned, you know,
Speaker 1: the five Stairsteps and the Jacksons and all those like
Speaker 1: how I mean from the Jacksons and I know that
Speaker 1: you know they had to rehearse Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean just in terms of in preparing for a
Speaker 1: particular competition, was it like you know, we have to
Speaker 1: like who who was in your targets, as in we
Speaker 1: gotta be as good as or Yeah, I love the
Speaker 1: stables in the competitions When you guys be doing the
Speaker 1: Staples Staple singers. Excuse me no, because we were so
Speaker 1: much younger who was in the circuit of the talent
Speaker 1: shows that were like who would you be going up against?
Speaker 1: Because and that's something because the Jones girls had come.
Speaker 1: I remember when they came and there because we knew
Speaker 1: they did. My dad knew their dad and um oh
Speaker 1: these other groups. But the Barretts just just like you
Speaker 1: was saying, you know and and uh um, Josephine Howard
Speaker 1: Caravans see that would take us to all the gospel shows,
Speaker 1: the gospel concerts, and they would be at the high
Speaker 1: school auditorium. We're Vernane went to high school as a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, but that's where all of the it
Speaker 1: was because it was so huge and the sound was
Speaker 1: really cool, and we would see mighty clouds of joy.
Speaker 1: The Caravans um, oh gosh, those were the say the
Speaker 1: harmonies besides those girls, the Lennon's sisters and I don't know,
Speaker 1: Dad had seventy eight of those and we he would
Speaker 1: play them and so but um, there were so many
Speaker 1: talent show just talent in Chicago that never got out
Speaker 1: that that was like like us and for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: I know, a couple of them. You know, they tried
Speaker 1: to do some things in Chicago, but I don't know
Speaker 1: they just now you're talking about the singers that live
Speaker 1: in Chicago, right, you know. I mean just you mentioned
Speaker 1: uh doing a talent contest and winning the Stacks p
Speaker 1: But I just meant in the everyday circuit, would you
Speaker 1: always see Jackson five? Would you always see those types
Speaker 1: of five stairs? Yeah? Like were they always and in
Speaker 1: your mind was it like we must win? Or you
Speaker 1: know what? They were more helpful. You would go to
Speaker 1: the high school, you know situation, You would go to
Speaker 1: the the community center and when you would rehearse, there
Speaker 1: was like, oh that's go on, so come up. Oh
Speaker 1: this is so and so family from blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: And they'd come up and you would actually help them
Speaker 1: when you know these hues son, Oh can they show
Speaker 1: us something? And you would do that. That doesn't happen
Speaker 1: to day, but that's what happened then. You know, they's
Speaker 1: so competitive day nobody wants to help the other when
Speaker 1: you come up. But but then, I mean they were
Speaker 1: ready to ask and ready to learn. You know, I
Speaker 1: remember when we first met the Destiny Child, we doing
Speaker 1: the Robert Thompson show he had in the house, some
Speaker 1: kind of show. Yes, parent whod and you know you
Speaker 1: always had to sing um a song that you just
Speaker 1: did acapella. Uh, and that one that day was it
Speaker 1: was a gospel of tune. Well I'm trying to think
Speaker 1: cause Sheila and and my girl Beyonce come. Oh remember
Speaker 1: when he came out in the house. I want to
Speaker 1: say what flowers? Yes, it was on that one, and
Speaker 1: Tyrese was on there because I had to teach him
Speaker 1: Maurice's part for booking Wunderland. We all sang that at
Speaker 1: the end together, got it, got it. But that's the
Speaker 1: closest thing I brought that up that reminded me of
Speaker 1: And then and Beyonce is so humble her heart, you know.
Speaker 1: And she came she said, well, y'all know that, am
Speaker 1: I singing the right part? I mean, she just like wow,
Speaker 1: And we wouldn't say anything. I said, well, it's not you,
Speaker 1: but it's the other girl, yes, the other someone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but anyway, I'm like the other. But she was. She
Speaker 1: was actually very humble. And uh, we my mom took
Speaker 1: us out of high school for that because we went.
Speaker 1: We went with her and I was in tenth grade,
Speaker 1: I was in my Geomeragy class and they said, uh ms,
Speaker 1: von your your mom has sent a limo for you outside.
Speaker 1: I was like, here, I am sixteen. I got up
Speaker 1: like they had a car that sent for us, and
Speaker 1: it took us down to Uh. I forgot what area
Speaker 1: we were in, maybe Century City ish so everything. I
Speaker 1: wasn't driving back then, but we went there, and um,
Speaker 1: it was so nice the way that Robert Towns had
Speaker 1: had done and everything was so nice and plush or whatever,
Speaker 1: and um, they had all gone to do their makeup,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, Mom's coming back to this little cottage
Speaker 1: place where we're the dressing room expressing where we were
Speaker 1: all stationed while they were all at makeup, and you know,
Speaker 1: we hear the knock and everything. I'm like, Mama, and
Speaker 1: it's Beyonce, and I'm just like I like you think
Speaker 1: you're amazing. She's like, oh, I just wanted to come
Speaker 1: and tell you that I love your mom like I
Speaker 1: love your mom. I mean, like so when she talks
Speaker 1: about her her admiration for the emotions and and she's
Speaker 1: a steward like she is a student, it's genuine. She's
Speaker 1: not that's that's so real and she was a sweetheart
Speaker 1: than and she's still sweet. Yeah. Around the contract that
Speaker 1: you guys won, uh brought you guys to Memphis, Yes,
Speaker 1: we're I mean you went down there by yourselves or
Speaker 1: your whole family. Well, you know, the staples were on
Speaker 1: stacks were stacks right, and so um Purvis who was
Speaker 1: our manager, he said, he albey and uh oh and
Speaker 1: then you know maur Recent them had that. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: but anyway, that was after I know that it was
Speaker 1: Isaac Hayes in Memphis here right, yeah, and but he
Speaker 1: produced the staple singer's uh song Betty Crutcher um. And
Speaker 1: what's the other guy that did? Chaff? David Porter? Him
Speaker 1: and David Porter And I mean the writers down there,
Speaker 1: you really you know you saw where the that the
Speaker 1: blues because it was so many Oh Luther and we
Speaker 1: sung with Luther the first time. I can't believe that guy.
Speaker 1: His voice, the clarity, you know, there's somebody voice like
Speaker 1: that actually says him, not even um no, but not
Speaker 1: that pristine. It's it's you know, it's another league. You
Speaker 1: all were living down there when you was recording in Memphis,
Speaker 1: did you guys live down No? No, no, no, you
Speaker 1: just always stay there so long. I mean, we just
Speaker 1: made it our home. We knew where all the restaurants were,
Speaker 1: and the thing that they had where Martin Luther King
Speaker 1: Lorraine Motel, which the studio is nowhere from the walking distance,
Speaker 1: and so it's just the past that place. And then
Speaker 1: the where he would eat all the time at the
Speaker 1: four Way that was the name of the restaurant. Had
Speaker 1: the best peach cobbler in the world. And oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: we haven't had lunch yet. What was what was the
Speaker 1: Stax Records operation? Like, um, I've seen like just interviews
Speaker 1: with Al Bell and seen documents and stuff. What was
Speaker 1: that like? Because at the time they were independent, they
Speaker 1: were a small black owned business. What was that? What
Speaker 1: was that like being? It was something because Marvel Thomas
Speaker 1: Rufus Thomas's son Marvel who played the Oregon and so forth,
Speaker 1: and then uh, what was his sister's name, gee, Carla
Speaker 1: Thomas to see that in there, and he's coming up
Speaker 1: with this song that he's just writing him and his father,
Speaker 1: a welcome that ain't fast enough. Every time he he
Speaker 1: always say that ain't fast enough. And no matter what
Speaker 1: it was, but he was so you know, genuine. I
Speaker 1: mean they were just something to work with. And and
Speaker 1: the Mad Lads and the what was the guy's James
Speaker 1: and them the rhythm section the barcades. Oh, I love
Speaker 1: just saying that. Okay, you would go in that studio
Speaker 1: see them. Then we go at the studio where Isaac
Speaker 1: is show me how that's what we were doing, and
Speaker 1: he's showing the strings are sitting there and I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: look at and what he's doing is he's singing the
Speaker 1: parts to them. There was no no maybe somebody wrote
Speaker 1: it out later, but what he he just heard him
Speaker 1: in his head and he could play piano but not
Speaker 1: you know, real virtuoso or anything, but he could hear
Speaker 1: every string part and he could hear the horn parts.
Speaker 1: And that's how he did it. Like I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that's the way you did he said, Well,
Speaker 1: most people don't. As people Johnny Pate and all the
Speaker 1: rest of they would actually write it out and then
Speaker 1: they would play it. But he just sung it to
Speaker 1: them and they would play well, they would note it,
Speaker 1: you know, and then play it show me how. And
Speaker 1: that was something for me to see, you know. So
Speaker 1: the first album was so I can love you correct, Yes,
Speaker 1: the first song? All right, So what is it weird
Speaker 1: to you guys? Now? Because from not the world I
Speaker 1: come from. I come from all worlds. But right, Um,
Speaker 1: what's weird to me was that I really not until
Speaker 1: I started digging. Uh when hip hop produces, you know,
Speaker 1: go through old records that uh are in their parents
Speaker 1: collection or that sort of thing. So is it weird
Speaker 1: for you two see the renaissance of a lot of
Speaker 1: your songs, especially from the Stacks period, Uh come up
Speaker 1: and sort of find new life in hip hop? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like it's weird because because my father wrote that
Speaker 1: really blind Dalli find Dallie. If you listen to the lyrics,
Speaker 1: you know that's an old school you know, I've got
Speaker 1: who I won't God, who I won't? Sorry you don't
Speaker 1: you know that's how that would you know? That's you know,
Speaker 1: a dad thing even you know something. And then when
Speaker 1: um big Daddy came. Yeah, yeah I learned that, ya know,
Speaker 1: I just learned. I learned that that was Mom and
Speaker 1: them songs Dre taught me like fifteen, like two years ago.
Speaker 1: Because you don't sample a right carry Yeah, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you? How about okay? I played blind
Speaker 1: Alley for two seconds recognizing and they did it at
Speaker 1: un l v oh. I think a big daddy can
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah from the big Yeah, that's clap your hands.
Speaker 1: But it's like a million the remakes the scenario an
Speaker 1: episode of The Breaks, right, yeah it is, see is.
Speaker 1: What's even weird is that those actual drums have like
Speaker 1: fed at least over four hip hop songs like you
Speaker 1: and that's muscle shows. Yeah, random section. Really that's muscle shows.
Speaker 1: That wasn't the Stax house Man, but they were the Uh,
Speaker 1: muscle shows were at something we didn't know when they
Speaker 1: said muscle so we didn't know that was a place.
Speaker 1: We thought that was just that sex that dug Don
Speaker 1: and um, what's the white guy on the guitar, the
Speaker 1: Steve Cropper and uh asked me about any white guy,
Speaker 1: Donald Ducking. Okay, that makes sense. Okay, So does that
Speaker 1: mean that Al Jackson was on drums? Al Jackson? Yes,
Speaker 1: so crazy So that okay, So I forgot why I
Speaker 1: went to the Stack Studio, Memphis. But in a cage
Speaker 1: there is Al Jackson's one and only drum set. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what are you guys gonna do this? You're just gonna
Speaker 1: keep it in a cage like everyone. Display would be
Speaker 1: one thing, but it's just like, well, that's what you know,
Speaker 1: it's a display. Remember did we all? We didn't get
Speaker 1: the chance to God, Yeah, I must have came back
Speaker 1: for something that I must have had to teach. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's probably what happened. But man, there's also there's uh.
Speaker 1: I don't I believe it's it's on a one of
Speaker 1: those like the European version of the Stack Spots set.
Speaker 1: But you guys have a version of uh. As long
Speaker 1: as I've got you that's well. I mean, Sean mel
Speaker 1: has put it out, but there's an emotions version that's like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's killing. I always wanted to know, like
Speaker 1: for who who makes the final decisions of what makes
Speaker 1: you know that the album the albums and those sort
Speaker 1: of things. I'm telling you it was Isaac Hayes because
Speaker 1: I would see them going through you know what. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't my father, you know, he wasn't involved in
Speaker 1: that part. But usually Isaac and David and then sometimes
Speaker 1: Al bail and they would argue sometimes, but usually Isaac
Speaker 1: would win. So that's the way it was. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: like on the Japanese Uh, one of those Japanese compilations.
Speaker 1: I got you got the killing them dang White. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's been a long time killing your mom and your aunties.
Speaker 1: The ship. You notice that's Janette. It is like this
Speaker 1: version better and for the life because because that because
Speaker 1: that that song is also a hip hop stable and
Speaker 1: it's not like you guys can see in nine like
Speaker 1: using something out there that can just revitalize our entire catalog.
Speaker 1: It's just like, but then it also goes to show
Speaker 1: you that quality things were so much high quality back
Speaker 1: then that even your throwaway songs couldn't change someone's life
Speaker 1: some thirty years later. But I always wanted to know
Speaker 1: why didn't you guys release that song because it's and
Speaker 1: I've never heard that neither. We haven't around me. Would
Speaker 1: you talking that? Is that we should redo that? You guys,
Speaker 1: I'm floored. You know, it's almost like we were on
Speaker 1: the time Joiner Cruise. We're singing bis Marquis comes up
Speaker 1: to us. Isn't this something He comes up and he says,
Speaker 1: you know, there's never any he couldn't find. Um, how
Speaker 1: do you say how to get in touch with us?
Speaker 1: Because when he used the feeling is I said, you
Speaker 1: used what she wrote that? He actually he right there,
Speaker 1: he had whoever was with him, lawyer, manager, whoever it was,
Speaker 1: take Arthur. Do you know he started paying her from
Speaker 1: that too, And you know how long ago that had
Speaker 1: come out? Time joint to just started those things a
Speaker 1: couple a few years ago, and he did. He got
Speaker 1: her thing and everything and start paying her. I never
Speaker 1: come around. Yeah, quick used it for uh, I got
Speaker 1: the feeling quick. Mom loves quick quickly quick. Yeah. Yeah, women,
Speaker 1: your mind must be blown. I hope you know about
Speaker 1: the requine only built for cue links. Uh, if you
Speaker 1: think it, if you might as well do it. Don't
Speaker 1: don't don't cry. Wow, But what if he hurts me
Speaker 1: from It's such a it's such a cruci like that.
Speaker 1: That sample for me was because I remember saying the
Speaker 1: tour bus and the way the way that Rizar uses
Speaker 1: samples and he, you know, he always dug into the
Speaker 1: Stax records. At the time, I was like, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: why are they rhyming over her talking right right? And
Speaker 1: we sat there the whole time like is this allowed?
Speaker 1: Like this is not usually with hip you wait for
Speaker 1: the clean four And that was the first time I
Speaker 1: ever heard anyone from wootank just blatantly rhyme over and
Speaker 1: it's like, we don't care if he's talking, We'll just
Speaker 1: and then the record. Wait, So if you think Wonder
Speaker 1: shows me so much? And how how we missed that
Speaker 1: one because I didn't know that Blind Alley was in
Speaker 1: the remix to scenario. I didn't realize that he showed
Speaker 1: me some stuff. Dre showed me some stuff I have
Speaker 1: never heard that my mind. In your show, like at
Speaker 1: least four or five of your Stacks classics could be
Speaker 1: done and a bunch of thirty to forty hip hop
Speaker 1: heads would just be like, oh my gosh. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: there's you know, I mean, beyond the Columbia stuff. So
Speaker 1: let's move to that. So how there was a law
Speaker 1: between nineteen two in nineteen seventy six, before the Flowers
Speaker 1: album came out? What was happening between so you were
Speaker 1: still contractually obligated to stay well, they went bankrupt and
Speaker 1: Union Planners took over everything. I didn't know a bank
Speaker 1: could take over songs, but Union Planner Bank in Tennessee,
Speaker 1: Memphis took over everything. So it was getting away from
Speaker 1: that hullabaloo and and how to you know, go to
Speaker 1: the next thing. But we got you know, we were
Speaker 1: right in high school and we were just at the
Speaker 1: part we're in a senior I remember, because we had
Speaker 1: got I got a scholarship to go to Northwest Minnesota
Speaker 1: in Missouri where Bell built where he went for from
Speaker 1: music anyway. But um, and we were like, oh gosh,
Speaker 1: well that's good, that's not happening. So now I could
Speaker 1: go and do like you know, and then here comes
Speaker 1: Maurice White. He says, hey, you know I just did something.
Speaker 1: I got Nissy, Um, yes, yes, and uh, Ramsey Lewis
Speaker 1: and so who was okay, but it was he needs
Speaker 1: yes pocket, he wanted a girl group. And Ron Ellison,
Speaker 1: my father's friend, who also was a drummer in Chicago
Speaker 1: jazz drum anyway, and he lived with Mares at the time. Anyway,
Speaker 1: they were playing around places in Chicago and uh he said, well, hey,
Speaker 1: Iron says to uh Maurice, I could hook you up
Speaker 1: because Joe was my buddy, and we'll hook you up.
Speaker 1: And their thing is over with Stacks, so you know,
Speaker 1: and that's when they arranged the meeting that was our
Speaker 1: first meeting was at Charles Stepnie's house because Stepnie had
Speaker 1: just done uh the Ramsey song, the Ramsey Uh, yes,
Speaker 1: he just done it was the Stacks bankruptcy the reason
Speaker 1: why the third album didn't come out because everything was
Speaker 1: held up. They put a hold on everything. You couldn't
Speaker 1: get no masters. Well whoever had to get the masters right?
Speaker 1: How did you get support yourselves in that time from
Speaker 1: seventy two to seventy six? What we were still doing
Speaker 1: things in Chicago, and we were on tour. We're doing
Speaker 1: a little tours and and so forth. So that was
Speaker 1: you and then we're doing a lot of commercials too.
Speaker 1: How are you guys in at that point, m sixteen
Speaker 1: seventeens because they that my grandfather started them at three,
Speaker 1: four and five, So they're talking about all of this
Speaker 1: stuff they're doing, but they still are Like we were
Speaker 1: on the Jerry Van Dyke Show. That was the first
Speaker 1: contest besides the Something Mac Hour. I forget that, but anyway,
Speaker 1: the Jerry Van Dyke Show in Tara Haute, Indiana, and
Speaker 1: my father's mother was the talent coordinator for that show
Speaker 1: in Indiana. Then we were on the Ed Sullivan Show
Speaker 1: and wand the whatever on that and the uh what's
Speaker 1: her name? Donna show Chevy show was Donna. That just
Speaker 1: shows you how many but that's what the Donna Shore
Speaker 1: Chevy Show. I mean, I know it had to do
Speaker 1: with cars. I don't know what looked like everything had
Speaker 1: to do with cars then, but um, and we won
Speaker 1: that talent show. So it was just, you know, a time,
Speaker 1: I guess that we got through those particular ones and
Speaker 1: I was like, why is there no other I would
Speaker 1: always wonder family groups that we knew of that should
Speaker 1: be on these shows. But I don't know. So since
Speaker 1: you started out so young, did it take a while
Speaker 1: for like the men around you to respect your voice
Speaker 1: outside of the singing, just your voice and your opinions?
Speaker 1: What was really something? When we sat down with h
Speaker 1: Charles Stepney, he was saying, uh, you know, Maurice sent
Speaker 1: Tousaw these songs, but do you guys have any songs?
Speaker 1: That was the first time we were ever asked that.
Speaker 1: Charles did it, and we sat down, boy, we started
Speaker 1: playing songs I had about Sheila had about how many. Ever,
Speaker 1: Jeanette had loved vibe, you know, and so we had all.
Speaker 1: He said, well, we go to Charles, we go throw
Speaker 1: the so the way we would do, and we kept
Speaker 1: the one Denise Road though, did we owed it? Okay? Okay?
Speaker 1: Uh did al right? Al McKay route Flowers was was
Speaker 1: it with you guys? With Maurice and who flowers? Maurice?
Speaker 1: We saw him writing it right there and okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: he was writing it. And at the same time he
Speaker 1: was writing it, we were like doing just the hook
Speaker 1: because he always had we hold the Key to the
Speaker 1: World's destiny. He always had that. And Charles was on
Speaker 1: the little Fender Roads electric piano and uh, but you,
Speaker 1: I don't want to lose your left correct, yes, And
Speaker 1: I made it sound like it does now. I wrote
Speaker 1: it as a slow It was a slow torch song,
Speaker 1: or Dad called it a torch song. And uh, dinner
Speaker 1: is ready and the wine and it's chill. My baby
Speaker 1: is coming over. I want to let him know how
Speaker 1: I feel that with hey cold, I don't want to
Speaker 1: lose your love. I haded that slow and then my
Speaker 1: ree heard it. He said, wonder that song. You know
Speaker 1: you've been saying for fifteen minutes and you still ain't
Speaker 1: done with us. And then he said, I think we
Speaker 1: should speed it up. I said, here's somebody said make
Speaker 1: it faster. Yeah, exactly, and you know that was rufus.
Speaker 1: But anyway, but he said, he said, well let's and
Speaker 1: then his brother got on the drune. No on the
Speaker 1: dr fred Fred played I don't want to lose your love.
Speaker 1: He played the drums on that, and he got on
Speaker 1: the drums and start. So he said, well, I don't
Speaker 1: know how they figured out how they could speed it
Speaker 1: up like that, but they did. And when he did,
Speaker 1: I just sung the same thing faster, you know, because
Speaker 1: I don't want him lose y'all love getting I said,
Speaker 1: but I gotta make my runs faster because I used
Speaker 1: to make a real slow and I was Tina Turner.
Speaker 1: I love Tina Turner, so I was Tina Turner. But
Speaker 1: he didn't. He wanted me to sing it faster, so
Speaker 1: he did. God then when he did, my love to
Speaker 1: keep it and you know, breakdown ain't but take being
Speaker 1: be the same amount of time or she double it
Speaker 1: took her longer than learn the song since it's well yeah,
Speaker 1: because they just were singing the wrong lyrics, you know,
Speaker 1: in the breaks, and there wasn't a Wikipedia back then. See,
Speaker 1: you won't believe my love, and she would say, you
Speaker 1: you won't can she see my love or something? But
Speaker 1: we weren't saying we were saying you won't leave, but
Speaker 1: she just had the little words. She just didn't hear
Speaker 1: him yet. That's crazy. Like today's technology, we could just
Speaker 1: look on our phones and get lyrics instantly, but back
Speaker 1: then you actually but it's dope that they actually called
Speaker 1: the respected. That's that's dope. What was working with Maurice
Speaker 1: like working with Maria's white? Um, what was that process
Speaker 1: like for you guys? What was he like in the studio?
Speaker 1: He was so cool? Um him and Skip Scarborough look
Speaker 1: like because Sheila, you know the slow songs that I
Speaker 1: was the fast song when he um. We were staying
Speaker 1: at the Franklin Plaza at that time, and he gave
Speaker 1: us these songs to seeing, gave Sheila's cassette, gave me
Speaker 1: one and we had our little cossette player. And so
Speaker 1: I came in the next day and as he said, okay,
Speaker 1: put the track on. Put the track on it, and
Speaker 1: so I was singing it. Um, it doesn't take much
Speaker 1: like maybe us down there like me, He said, Wanda,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? I'm singing that? He said, I
Speaker 1: want you to sing an octive fire. I said, well,
Speaker 1: you didn't say that. I don't sing hi, I sing low.
Speaker 1: I sing maybe sing in a little register at one point. No,
Speaker 1: that's how I came in you. Yeah, I was glad
Speaker 1: it's night, I was, I was tax and I was
Speaker 1: I was low. And but anyway, I said, I don't
Speaker 1: no reason, I don't think. He said, just stab at it.
Speaker 1: Just just see and I said, okay, I'll do it.
Speaker 1: But she lost the high singer enginette. They're the ones
Speaker 1: that sing hi, I sing I just try it, just
Speaker 1: try it, okay. So I did. I did everything I
Speaker 1: octive her. He said, just belt it, don't worry about it,
Speaker 1: just belted out. And I did. And UM believe or not,
Speaker 1: that one was the one. You guys heard what you
Speaker 1: did about seven others. But they didn't like that. When
Speaker 1: they liked the first one, I was like, but if
Speaker 1: you listen to I mean, there's some little cracks, a
Speaker 1: little like, you know, I can't believe I'm hitting these notes,
Speaker 1: you know. But anyway, and that became the one that
Speaker 1: they used. So then I start singing higher. You know,
Speaker 1: I wasn't singing you know, as low. Oftentimes in history
Speaker 1: you'll see when singers do multiple takes of a song,
Speaker 1: they always go back to take one or take two,
Speaker 1: because that's the one I think is the most honest.
Speaker 1: The more you keep doing it, it gets kind of rehearsed,
Speaker 1: and it's like you can recreate that first thing. You
Speaker 1: are right, that spontaneity. How is it? How exciting was
Speaker 1: it for you guys to because that song was number
Speaker 1: one for five weeks? I believe number one. I have
Speaker 1: the the what do you call bid? Yeah, and the
Speaker 1: other one. And there were two songs, the best of
Speaker 1: my giving you the best of my and every week
Speaker 1: they would change to one and we need to be too,
Speaker 1: and then they would be too bill boys. Yes, it
Speaker 1: would be you know, back and forth like that. And uh,
Speaker 1: but it was that was amazing. I nothing like that.
Speaker 1: There was a song I had on I think it's
Speaker 1: Believes on Flowers. The changes we go through that was
Speaker 1: like I wrote that, it was a long gospel song
Speaker 1: and and uh but they said, oh, let's just try
Speaker 1: and in my rece of course, he just or let's
Speaker 1: lose it as an interval. He called it an interval
Speaker 1: piece that we take through the album. I said, okay,
Speaker 1: and all we would do is week, go to change it,
Speaker 1: change this week to this to this day. That's a
Speaker 1: very very difficult harmony. I've learned it for like some
Speaker 1: of the shows that we do. But if my sisters
Speaker 1: try to join in sometimes it we'll just be doing something.
Speaker 1: They do what stereotypically, you know, you have your your
Speaker 1: your your know, you have your third and your no no, no,
Speaker 1: they and they interweave, they don't the first Mama's high,
Speaker 1: then Auntie is high. Then every time they her part,
Speaker 1: we go to change. Changes we go to and we
Speaker 1: go to change the melody changes, we go to Yeah.
Speaker 1: And but that's how my dad would do because he
Speaker 1: didn't he didn't want anyone to sound like us. So
Speaker 1: he said, I know, we'll just switch up into it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, make it sound like one thing
Speaker 1: when it's another. So that's the whole family thing. You
Speaker 1: just said your sister's So I'm like, does everybody yes?
Speaker 1: So what's Thanksgiving? Like? Oh? No? The Christmas is the one.
Speaker 1: Christmas the one. It's a humongous concert. Everybody is singing.
Speaker 1: It's pretty amazing, and so we're all the ws Wayne Wander,
Speaker 1: Wayne Wendy Wyane Whitney Warren. All on this side of
Speaker 1: Wayne Wander, Wayne, Wendy Wyan, Whitney Warren. They all sing rap,
Speaker 1: do music, all of us. And then I think it's all.
Speaker 1: My husband wrote Let's grove tonight, Yes, yes, yes exactly,
Speaker 1: and about six other songs and side by side all
Speaker 1: right yes yes, y were the other one stating, man,
Speaker 1: Who's who's the kid I worked with in Japan to
Speaker 1: Kapoda between nineties six and like two thousand, uh Japanese
Speaker 1: singer named Toshi Kapoda just like the Lord Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: in Japan, like he plays stadiums of like of he
Speaker 1: would play like eighty thousand uh seed arenas, but uh
Speaker 1: he came to Philadelphia to work with us, and to
Speaker 1: him he explained to me, Now, I was always a
Speaker 1: phrase of a fan of that raised album earth Wind
Speaker 1: and Fire, and for him, he's just like, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to be with you by earth Wind and Fire.
Speaker 1: That's that's what I want to sound like. And all
Speaker 1: the ad libs at the end of that song all
Speaker 1: that he that was his life goal. So in four songs,
Speaker 1: literally all the ad libs that Mary's White do it
Speaker 1: literally that is I can't believe that he write, but Uh,
Speaker 1: those are the three that I know the best. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you know what that is. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna say that because I'm not sure, but I know
Speaker 1: those are three. And like I was telling Fante earlier,
Speaker 1: I'm I could be better at this, but I've I've
Speaker 1: kind of fell in love with Greatest It's albums first
Speaker 1: and then Yes and hip hop actually helped me go
Speaker 1: back into digging in crates and stuff like that and
Speaker 1: understanding how dope you know the catalog actually is. But yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody sings Chloe. But my my my cousin, my my
Speaker 1: auntie's daughter, she's artistically inclined in the fine arts and
Speaker 1: the visual arts. So she's like an animator and a
Speaker 1: and a a painter and she does illustration. I did
Speaker 1: a poetry books, all the illustrations from my book, uh,
Speaker 1: and our other cousins there everyone seeing some sort of
Speaker 1: art though, everything art, dancing, this, that, some everyone is
Speaker 1: doing something. It's always a party. Now. You came aboard
Speaker 1: uh for the Rejoice record? Correct, So what was it
Speaker 1: like coming in cold to to fill in that spot
Speaker 1: into it? Was great. It was the best part of
Speaker 1: my life. I as a baby was always in all
Speaker 1: the rehearsals. So when she said that when we were
Speaker 1: talking about the Soul Train, the local Soul Train, I
Speaker 1: was thinking about it, and possibly I was just there
Speaker 1: in the background and I just didn't remember. But I
Speaker 1: wasn't as young as she said, because I do remember
Speaker 1: dancing in the with you know, an audience, and the
Speaker 1: room was small, but I've seen photos. Yeah it's like
Speaker 1: living room small. Yeah. Yeah, but um and as long
Speaker 1: as I can remember, I've always been a on the
Speaker 1: music and then, um, I've always looked forward to joining
Speaker 1: the group. And then one day when Dad asked me
Speaker 1: what i'd like to, you know, he gave me a
Speaker 1: tape to start rehearsing. And this is like I'm about
Speaker 1: sixteen then, and I actually joined after I graduated in
Speaker 1: um so Yeah. Uh, but I had he had started
Speaker 1: training me, and he had his when they were out
Speaker 1: of town. Uh. He had his friend uncle Billy Billy
Speaker 1: Shelton hit one of the guys from his own singing
Speaker 1: group that he used to sing with when he was
Speaker 1: singing gospel, and he would train me and he would
Speaker 1: teach me all those uh songs like you know with
Speaker 1: the harmonies, the groups, the andrew Sisters. Um, what is that? God,
Speaker 1: I can't think of their name. But another girl group. No, no,
Speaker 1: it was a man's group. But it was the different harmonies,
Speaker 1: barbershop style and um. He would give me the album
Speaker 1: to listen to and then he would have me sing
Speaker 1: each part. And that when he trained me, my dad,
Speaker 1: he would have me sing each part of the girl's songs.
Speaker 1: So because he would call me the utility girl, which
Speaker 1: man and I could. I could sing every part, uh,
Speaker 1: every everything everybody was doing. So whenever they you know,
Speaker 1: if they wanted me to go there because they were
Speaker 1: horse or something, I would go there. Or if they're
Speaker 1: having problems on stage, I would go there. You know,
Speaker 1: I can go to any part. It's so weird because
Speaker 1: you have the highest I think you have the highest voice.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, but on harmonies I can go low too. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well but you know I know all your parts. It's difficult,
Speaker 1: I promise you. The stepping up to the plate because
Speaker 1: like we said, it's a family business. So um that
Speaker 1: my grandfather's who put you know, the girls together, my
Speaker 1: mom and unts together, and my you know grandmother of
Speaker 1: course is hold down the fourth. They're six kids, so
Speaker 1: three were always on the road and three were always
Speaker 1: at home. Right so now being up in age and stuff,
Speaker 1: my grandmother is the one who needs, you know, her
Speaker 1: her children's help. So currently my um aunt's Auntie Sheila,
Speaker 1: whose place I'm taking in the group, and Auntie Janette
Speaker 1: are you know, being assisted by uh my, my, my,
Speaker 1: my grandmother is being assisted by them right now, you know,
Speaker 1: and everything because we're just self contained and everything is organic.
Speaker 1: But when my Auntie Sheila was teaching me technically how
Speaker 1: to become her, when you're showing me some things, because
Speaker 1: I come from you know, it sounds like they're beginnings.
Speaker 1: I'm even hearing more of this than on Unsung and
Speaker 1: in the house. So this is educational for me right now.
Speaker 1: But barbershop in gospel is a lot of their humble beginnings.
Speaker 1: Will throw my dad in there, mr, you know, let's
Speaker 1: groove and stuff. My I knew, I knew Herbie Hancock,
Speaker 1: Wayne Shorter and weather Report more than I know any gospel.
Speaker 1: I can probably need a couple of gospel people, uh
Speaker 1: Mahelia being one of them, and anyone else. I'm like
Speaker 1: Clark Sister, which jazz all day, jazz all day. I
Speaker 1: was scatting and stuff. I was like, that s sort
Speaker 1: of person, Auntie Sheila, Is that true? And she says
Speaker 1: more of the she's the jazzist singer of the girls.
Speaker 1: So it was almost seamless how that ended up happening. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and she and so she would teach me um stage
Speaker 1: control because she's also the animated one on stage. She's
Speaker 1: the actress, you know, she's the you know, get out there.
Speaker 1: And when she says, showed me how, oh my lord
Speaker 1: some of the stuff, I just sit there and just
Speaker 1: be like I did show me more because you can't
Speaker 1: take your eyes off her, Like like she's whenever she's singing,
Speaker 1: you believe her. Whatever she's saying, You're gonna believe it
Speaker 1: because she's that you know everything, you know. I wish
Speaker 1: you guys could see what I'm doing in the studio
Speaker 1: right now. I'm just kind of being a black woman
Speaker 1: right now, you know. But man, I got the fingers,
Speaker 1: you know. But she's she's that sort of a singer.
Speaker 1: So if she was telling you not to ask her neighbor,
Speaker 1: or if she wants to show her how, she's going
Speaker 1: to make you feel that, oh absolutely, And that's probably
Speaker 1: what the most of the learning because our voices and
Speaker 1: textures were kind of similar. She was like, no, you
Speaker 1: get out there, Nancy, and you own it. You have
Speaker 1: to own it. She's people are gonna look at you
Speaker 1: and be like, hey, she's not an original emotion, she's
Speaker 1: young nothing. You are, my baby. You're gonna get out there.
Speaker 1: I'm like, come on, I feel like I do so,
Speaker 1: but that's exactly what ended up happening. And um, that happened. Uh.
Speaker 1: It happened a couple of times so far as me
Speaker 1: stepping into the group. But by two thousand nine False semester,
Speaker 1: my first semester of my master's program, I think that
Speaker 1: was when I most consistently started being with mom and
Speaker 1: a mama and all the girls and everything. So the
Speaker 1: other your other aunties, because I want to get the
Speaker 1: line up straight. In the beginning, it was it was Humanswanda,
Speaker 1: and it was yes, and then uh and then my girl.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm telling you. That she did Ge
Speaker 1: Wish and and Carla. I mean she sat there and
Speaker 1: just cried. I mean when we were doing that, Marba
Speaker 1: was playing He's a genius to no one really knew,
Speaker 1: but but I just love and how even perfect Staples,
Speaker 1: who not that he wasn't a produce singer time, but
Speaker 1: he said, you you gotta always see this little song
Speaker 1: that You've got to always see the fast song. And
Speaker 1: I'm like every producer after that said that. And they
Speaker 1: never met purposes. But that was just the way it was.
Speaker 1: You know, what was it making the Rejoice album? Uh?
Speaker 1: Probably the the The notable absence on that record was,
Speaker 1: of course, Charles Stephanie passing away was the Flowers album,
Speaker 1: one of the last albums he worked on that And
Speaker 1: this is an easy I know Flower, I think he
Speaker 1: I think they were working on Spirit when okay, but
Speaker 1: I thought that your records came out after after a Spirit.
Speaker 1: I thought that Flowers came out seventy and then yes, okay,
Speaker 1: But I mean, what was it like? Because I know
Speaker 1: that he was such a father figure in the studio
Speaker 1: and working with him, how is it how is it
Speaker 1: making that transition from the two from Maurice too, from
Speaker 1: Charles to Maurice. Was the pressure on him to be
Speaker 1: the rock and to fill in the blanks where well,
Speaker 1: you know the poet that Maurice was. That's the way
Speaker 1: he talked to you, like if you didn't know what
Speaker 1: we hold the key to the world's destiny. If you
Speaker 1: didn't know it, then that's on you. But he would
Speaker 1: tell it to you like that. Charles would tell you
Speaker 1: where a little two year old will know exactly what
Speaker 1: you're saying. And I believe it or not. Yes, now
Speaker 1: I went through it, and so did Ramsey. When Ramsey
Speaker 1: would be in there and they would be playing, you know,
Speaker 1: like the last thing that actually they were working on,
Speaker 1: um was Ramsey's album, and um, they were having a
Speaker 1: thing about the court, where it should go here, which
Speaker 1: one should be the course of it, and which one
Speaker 1: should be the hook? You know, they know nothing about
Speaker 1: that today when we talk to young kids, but um,
Speaker 1: because everything is it's just eighty bars of whatever it is,
Speaker 1: you know. But anyway, so they were they were having
Speaker 1: a thing with that and Ramsey and I'm just sitting
Speaker 1: there and I just love the fact that Maurice and
Speaker 1: Stephanie they would never have anyone and their recording sessions,
Speaker 1: that was their thing. They no one but I could
Speaker 1: always come and it was. And one day I came
Speaker 1: in with Johnny Page said, wow, you know John Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I like seeing I don't talk, I don't ask
Speaker 1: any questions. I just you know, just h that's all
Speaker 1: I do. And reach knew it and you can't ask
Speaker 1: any questions. You can't have it. And that's okay because
Speaker 1: it's not your dyme. And but they were having a
Speaker 1: okay which one should be said? And I thought it
Speaker 1: was one time I wanted to say so Ramsey's was
Speaker 1: the one. And guess why I thought it because it's
Speaker 1: something my father had nothing to do actually probably with
Speaker 1: what they're thinking. But it was the fifth of the
Speaker 1: court of where the where the verses were, and I
Speaker 1: always thought you should go there for the reprise. I
Speaker 1: just always thought that, just in my observing different things.
Speaker 1: But I didn't say things. And when they left her
Speaker 1: that afternoon because they said, well, let's just break, we
Speaker 1: kind of you know, they had a break, let's go
Speaker 1: to lunch, you know, and Ramsey said that I think,
Speaker 1: and so they did. Stepney never came back. That's when
Speaker 1: he died. He went up at the hotel we were
Speaker 1: and we were knocking on the door, like, oh what
Speaker 1: what what? He said? He was going over he was
Speaker 1: going to stop my famous names and his I know
Speaker 1: his wife didn't want him to stop our famous sameings
Speaker 1: because diabetic. Uh and that was a store store. I
Speaker 1: remember him, I didn't know yet, say oh yeah, and
Speaker 1: and this is we're all waiting for him. And so
Speaker 1: they went on with the session. They sure he's gonna
Speaker 1: come sooner or later, and never did, and they went
Speaker 1: on with that. They finally did it, though what the
Speaker 1: reprised the way Ramsey? You know. Uh So for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: it just happened that way. Maybe because Stepanie weren't there,
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, because it was it was
Speaker 1: too much. It was a short period of time that
Speaker 1: you know, when they found it out. And so when
Speaker 1: they've got the hotel key to go in his room,
Speaker 1: that's how, yeah, how did Boogie Wonderland come to be?
Speaker 1: Mr Ali Willis And uh, I'm gonna tell you this
Speaker 1: is really something there's always a stadn easy transition, a
Speaker 1: lot of easy transition. I know much has been said,
Speaker 1: much has been said about it, and I'm sort of like,
Speaker 1: you know, I've talked to Philip about it. I've talked
Speaker 1: to Maurice about it. They kind of have conflicting stories.
Speaker 1: It was conflicting, and even David Foster has his two
Speaker 1: cents about it. What what is your you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: a Grammy One's a Grammy one, and that's something that
Speaker 1: you can't take away from, you know. But at the time, like,
Speaker 1: how how did it? How did it? Even was in
Speaker 1: New York doing Sergeant Pepper and he got a call
Speaker 1: and then Ali, he said, listen to I just got
Speaker 1: this song, and I gotta called Ben because I want
Speaker 1: Ben uh to arrange it. When he when he heard it,
Speaker 1: he heard just this look um, huh huh dance. He
Speaker 1: just heard like that, that little eight bar thing, not
Speaker 1: the burs suits or anything. He said, Oh, the Emotions
Speaker 1: have got to sing this. But Ali, of course, Oh no,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be Earth Winn and Fire, well North through Fire.
Speaker 1: Of course it's gonna finally do it. Yeah, but um
Speaker 1: he heard it, you know, like that, And so my
Speaker 1: father said. And at that time, but they were into
Speaker 1: a thing with the Cavallo in ms to the record
Speaker 1: company going uh, you know, by itself or something. And
Speaker 1: at that time I didn't know what they had to
Speaker 1: do it, but it was just the fact that my
Speaker 1: father wanted the song to be on all album too,
Speaker 1: and who was supposed to be an Emotions. Yes, it
Speaker 1: was our album on that Yes, yis, yes, and then
Speaker 1: that happened. You mean it's supposed to be on your
Speaker 1: album as well? Yes, okay, it should have been on
Speaker 1: our album. And and and and my father nearly had
Speaker 1: a heart attack with with the cavallo and that, you know,
Speaker 1: fussing about. And I didn't understand why they wouldn't let it.
Speaker 1: So what it's it's to look like they get to
Speaker 1: double the money. I just looked like to me. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I don't know what the head trip was with it.
Speaker 1: But we went on and ja I said, well, you know,
Speaker 1: we're doing this on our record time. We're you know,
Speaker 1: you're interrupting the you know, our session to do it,
Speaker 1: to do the vocals, So why would there be a
Speaker 1: problem with it going on here? See That's why that
Speaker 1: just sounded like like uhh no, Wrainer. You know that
Speaker 1: it was supposed to go in there. They wouldn't allow it.
Speaker 1: It was they following Ronfalo and I don't know, you know, guy,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, but uh and it didn't happen
Speaker 1: that way. But when we heard the song, we we
Speaker 1: did that you know, the dance dance you want to
Speaker 1: and he said, Ben Wright's got to uh every time
Speaker 1: I hear him now on the Junston timber Lake stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, you know he had to do it, but um, anyway,
Speaker 1: it was just amazing how how that part went down.
Speaker 1: And Maurice wasn't going to be able to even sing
Speaker 1: on it or anything until he got back from Sergeant Pepper.
Speaker 1: So he was they're doing they the song for Sergeant Pepper. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: And I don't know why he wasn't doing it in
Speaker 1: l A. But you know, we didn't know a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff then. But um, so he was doing that
Speaker 1: in New York. He said, well, have them put the
Speaker 1: hook down, you know, haven't put that. I'm gonna send
Speaker 1: you to track Massemberg, and uh, that's what happened. He
Speaker 1: sent him the truck and we went on doing it.
Speaker 1: Then my father was like, oh no, we got to
Speaker 1: get this on paper note because you're doing it on
Speaker 1: the girls session time and you you know, I didn't
Speaker 1: really know what that had to do with it, but no,
Speaker 1: of course I know now, and your father was on
Speaker 1: it like a hawk. Yeah yeah, so what those guys
Speaker 1: were they managing you guys as well or no? You yes?
Speaker 1: And on all the tours, of course, it was always
Speaker 1: them meeting you know Dad, and uh, you know, uncall
Speaker 1: on what we did and where and what was to
Speaker 1: what was touring like for you guys, because we used
Speaker 1: to travel on a bus catching up with the airplane.
Speaker 1: And then I said, that's it. They're not going We're
Speaker 1: not traveling no more if you don't get us in
Speaker 1: the airplane. So then they got us in the airplane,
Speaker 1: but Denise wasn't in the air plant, and then the
Speaker 1: other Pocons was in the air play. But but we're
Speaker 1: singing these songs. We I mean, we're actually would be different.
Speaker 1: You are on paper with us, you know, do it?
Speaker 1: And then uh, well I didn't say that, And you
Speaker 1: know that's probably was Dad's thing. The Boogie Wonderland episode
Speaker 1: that that kind of lead to the deterioration of you
Speaker 1: guys working relationship with Maurice. Oh yeah, at the same time.
Speaker 1: So he got away from CB Sony, he got away
Speaker 1: from Right and he got a ARC. That was when
Speaker 1: that happened. So we were signed to his production company.
Speaker 1: So it became a conflict of interest. That was what
Speaker 1: was told to us. It was a conflict of interest.
Speaker 1: So Bill, Bill and I Boss Bill and I often
Speaker 1: have these conflicts when I always say that the turning
Speaker 1: point of a career is once um, a producer has
Speaker 1: given his own studio complex and vanity label, and that
Speaker 1: often does not agree with me. But in both of
Speaker 1: our cases, yeah, I don't know. It's it's a if
Speaker 1: it's not broken, don't try to improve it. Even to
Speaker 1: this day, I'm serious. Like the studio conditions that I
Speaker 1: record and have to be as dire and cheap as possible,
Speaker 1: Like I'm sorry, I don't need to throw you under
Speaker 1: the bus to trek is the one like the fruit
Speaker 1: plates and the fresh cookies, fresh bake cookies and stuff
Speaker 1: I need. I need roaches running around my studios. I feel,
Speaker 1: I feel at home. Was I mistaken? I believe sometime
Speaker 1: in um was there not an off Broadway play about
Speaker 1: you guys career? Okay, this makes sense now because um
Speaker 1: there was a group that my band was working with
Speaker 1: at the time called the Jazzy Fat Nasties, And I
Speaker 1: remember this is like when we were making our fourth
Speaker 1: record and we were living in New York in an
Speaker 1: apartment and I think for a week straight they were
Speaker 1: going to see I guess. I think they were going
Speaker 1: to do something with the play. I don't know if
Speaker 1: they were sorry in the play something something like that,
Speaker 1: but they kept telling me that, yeah, you know, the
Speaker 1: motions are trying to get their off Broadway play ramped
Speaker 1: up to do. But what was the what was the
Speaker 1: basis of the play. Was it just about you guys?
Speaker 1: In the beginning always started and it opened with the
Speaker 1: scene my father. We were at the church and he's
Speaker 1: in the Uh, he's being he's in the coffin. It's
Speaker 1: a funeral, at his funeral, and we're remembinancing all of
Speaker 1: the things. How we started singing, and we started singing
Speaker 1: the our theme song, which was the Hutchison Uh, Jesus
Speaker 1: wants to be for sun be too shine for him.
Speaker 1: Each day then we would sing that, then we would
Speaker 1: sing some of the other songs that back in the
Speaker 1: day and uh. But we would end up going on
Speaker 1: the road meeting Maurice, and then you would see all
Speaker 1: of these guys coming promoters, you know, come here, come
Speaker 1: here and do this, do that, and then you know,
Speaker 1: but uh, and then it culminated with the fact of
Speaker 1: us having the Grammy, the American Music Award, and receiving
Speaker 1: all these things, and then the breakup and then it
Speaker 1: it had the part, you know, the reconciliation and what
Speaker 1: were some of the causes of you guys breaking up?
Speaker 1: What happened well, the uh, the promoters seeing well, the
Speaker 1: record company seeing different ways than my father, and that
Speaker 1: caused when the art thing happened. That actually because we
Speaker 1: had to rewrite the contract because it's no, we don't
Speaker 1: rewrite it, you just stay with the don't know that says.
Speaker 1: We got to rewrite the contract because it was it
Speaker 1: was going to from one company to another. And this
Speaker 1: is after we had who produced the New Affair album? Uh,
Speaker 1: Billy what was the billy? Um? It was Maurice and
Speaker 1: and the guy Yeah, that guy if you can't take
Speaker 1: his name, I know, and he's got to show out
Speaker 1: that right now. And he's got those two sons, uh,
Speaker 1: after the love is gone, David Foster and Maurice. Why
Speaker 1: not get with Billy? I know? And I'm like Billy
Speaker 1: one like that's another guy, another other guy. I know
Speaker 1: you know him too, because these the songs he wrote.
Speaker 1: You know. You know, have you guys ever done recording
Speaker 1: as a fourth as a quartet? No? Really, it was
Speaker 1: always ever well on some of the songs, yeah, and
Speaker 1: even my uncle Joey wasn't his rejoice because he wrote
Speaker 1: that my brother. Yeah, my uncle Joey was on there.
Speaker 1: And when they would do their tour, you you asked
Speaker 1: about tour life when they were out on tours like
Speaker 1: that on the line, Well, Marie sang it on the
Speaker 1: red yeah, but we sung it all four of us.
Speaker 1: You're right to. I was gonna say, so they some
Speaker 1: of them where it was a quartet, but it was
Speaker 1: it was three girls and my uncle Joe and Joe
Speaker 1: and everything, and then I think that would be what
Speaker 1: that would be Mom, Auntie, Sheila and Billy Meyers. There
Speaker 1: you go. You just remembered it, okay, and uncle Joe,
Speaker 1: so that when they did do a court quartet sort
Speaker 1: of a situation, it was three girls, one brother, right right.
Speaker 1: It was always I don't think it was ever all
Speaker 1: four of you bless it and returned bless its. Yes,
Speaker 1: bless it and rejoice. It was one more two bless
Speaker 1: So were you find with it ending in eighty one
Speaker 1: like okay, well let's you oh yeah, because it's I'd
Speaker 1: start having a baby every year and then who is
Speaker 1: eighty two? And then eighty six? Well yeah, and then
Speaker 1: we were doing that, and then I was writing with
Speaker 1: with Patty and doing stuff with Ritha writing songs for
Speaker 1: her and they both writing a whole lot of them.
Speaker 1: What did you write after two thousand miles away from me?
Speaker 1: The Diva album? The Dyeah? Did you see that? Did
Speaker 1: you hear that? It's just so much has been made
Speaker 1: of that particular record. But there's this it's a duet
Speaker 1: that she did Yes on there you wrote that song?
Speaker 1: No nothing, that's all you're saying. That's the album the song. Yeah.
Speaker 1: To this day, Aretha explains that her transferring to Clive
Speaker 1: at Arista and her anger at uh the the old
Speaker 1: regime at Atlantic, was because of the them dropping them
Speaker 1: ball on the Ladiva record. Yeah. Wow, that was something
Speaker 1: that was something. Yeah, but they were doing that. You
Speaker 1: was doing You was doing a lot more stuff at home.
Speaker 1: Can I remember when she did the Soul Train, like
Speaker 1: when they were in the white suits and that was
Speaker 1: in l A. She had to leave us and I
Speaker 1: was I saw them on TV and I was grabbing
Speaker 1: at the TV like mom, no, like here and my
Speaker 1: dad just a white Oh yeah that was Midnight Special?
Speaker 1: Was that? Or you did Rejoice with Rock? Yes, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: my middle name is well actually, wait, where were you
Speaker 1: guys wearing on when you guys did the soul try?
Speaker 1: I thought Dad said that I was going crazy over
Speaker 1: the oh yeah dresses. Okay, okay, we had different um
Speaker 1: designs of the same right. Well, I was going nuts though,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't. I wasn't happy like the two or three. Yeah,
Speaker 1: number one. You couldn't understand, you know. I couldn't explain
Speaker 1: why she was this tall, like five inches when I'm like,
Speaker 1: when she's here, she's so much taller. Only this thing,
Speaker 1: you know, I thought there was something wrong, you know,
Speaker 1: But when did you put two and two together? That? Oh,
Speaker 1: mom was something? Oh uh late. I'm so late on
Speaker 1: that stuff because she was just mom. So I'm talking
Speaker 1: about like high school when people there wasn't there wasn't
Speaker 1: a mantel piece with these things. But I never thought
Speaker 1: about it. I never thought about it like that, because
Speaker 1: like Maurice was like a godfather for us. Oh, Stevie
Speaker 1: would be at the house and this is just this
Speaker 1: was that was so regular that so regularly would come
Speaker 1: over for I feel like helping him walk in the
Speaker 1: living room. How about this? You wanna talk about pressure?
Speaker 1: I wrote my first song on the piano at ten
Speaker 1: years old and the first person I had to audition
Speaker 1: it for with Stevie because she's like, oh, just playing
Speaker 1: that for Sevie. I'm like, now I do know who
Speaker 1: Stevie is. In my head at ten, I'm like, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do it and everything. And so this
Speaker 1: was New Year's even she finally had me on one.
Speaker 1: I just I was like, oh, my lord, heaven. So
Speaker 1: I ended up doing it or whatever, and he did
Speaker 1: not laugh at me. And I respect that man to
Speaker 1: this day for just letting me be. And I'm like
Speaker 1: fingers shaking and clunking and stuff or whatever. But yeah,
Speaker 1: for Mom and them, I would say, it's so funny. No, no,
Speaker 1: not even you know. Putting on hip hop is what
Speaker 1: explained to me how serious Mom and them were from
Speaker 1: the sampling type stuff and from when people would see
Speaker 1: me in the studio learned me and it would be like, oh,
Speaker 1: she's oh she's a great girl, great energy, so nice,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah, and her mom is who know
Speaker 1: who we met? Like I was. I was kind of
Speaker 1: insulted because because she was like because because we did
Speaker 1: it did absolutely so how we met and she was
Speaker 1: like was going on? We did an interview and she
Speaker 1: was like, oh, well, you know, my mom is the
Speaker 1: wand of what I know. And she was like yeah,
Speaker 1: She's like, I'm sorry, I just most of these young guys,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm like listening, thank you for young
Speaker 1: guy every but I'm like, honey, I don't think you
Speaker 1: know you're talking to it like your mom is who
Speaker 1: of what? Like do you understand how I grew up?
Speaker 1: Like how my mother used to play these records? Yeah,
Speaker 1: every day? Like don't ask my neighbor was the morning
Speaker 1: song going to school? Like, dude, do you Yeah? That
Speaker 1: was well. I want to ask you about covers because
Speaker 1: on it was Jade's album and Night they covered Blessed
Speaker 1: and I thought they sounded great. I thought it was wonderful.
Speaker 1: I remember Skip Scarborough telling me about it. He said,
Speaker 1: I like it, but they're using the wrong chords. Well, actually, yeah,
Speaker 1: did any people ever seek you out after, you know,
Speaker 1: after one wants you know you guys that kind of disabandoned.
Speaker 1: Did you do any like backup work because the session
Speaker 1: work for just for Yeah, we did a lot of commercials.
Speaker 1: I went on to pat Russian and she yes, we
Speaker 1: were the big when she had her they had their song,
Speaker 1: um forget me Nuts, Yes, forget me nuts. I remember,
Speaker 1: yes because my dad was still alive. So so yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: what was working with Russian? Like? It was great? I was.
Speaker 1: It was just me and her as the only girl.
Speaker 1: She would always go play racquetball and she would invite
Speaker 1: me to go and and there people locket good. Sure did.
Speaker 1: I learned backgammon on the plane, and then we would
Speaker 1: always play tennis and Andrew will Folk and I was
Speaker 1: always Maurice, Maurice and who would always be his party
Speaker 1: besides Dad someone else but me and Andrew. We were
Speaker 1: We were the net you know, lord, I was the best.
Speaker 1: They really Yeah. She literally in her head she coaches
Speaker 1: Serena and Venus as she watches them on everything they
Speaker 1: do today. But yeah, yeah, so you did that. But
Speaker 1: she always so seventy eight. For the longest, my and
Speaker 1: I would go to record store mhm and harass the
Speaker 1: the sales clerk about do you have the emotions forty five?
Speaker 1: You're going to make me love somebody else? Four weeks? No, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: not that way. It was. It took us seven weeks
Speaker 1: to realize that was not the emotions. What were your
Speaker 1: feelings on the Jones girls, you're going to make me
Speaker 1: love somebody like I love them, but I love singing
Speaker 1: them and I love their voices. Guys are severely diplomatic.
Speaker 1: Did you feel anyway, like like they biting? It was
Speaker 1: free came out. I just naturally assumed that because here's
Speaker 1: the thing, though, I mean, this is all this is
Speaker 1: coming out when I'm six and seven, so I'm not
Speaker 1: a super adult, but a supers not your seven. But
Speaker 1: I was mature. I'll say that at seven. I was
Speaker 1: probably I was probably nineteen as a musician because household
Speaker 1: I grew up in, I knew. I knew earth wind
Speaker 1: and fires backdrop when I heard it certain because they
Speaker 1: were using that stuff. So in my head, I thought, oh, free,
Speaker 1: that's the emotions. And I also thought, because of a
Speaker 1: certain it's a certain clave. Uh uh, it's that that
Speaker 1: spoon thing that uses it's a lot on your choice,
Speaker 1: but it's also when you're going to make me love
Speaker 1: somebody else. I was like, emotions, emotion right right, And
Speaker 1: it wasn't It wasn't you know, did cost? It Probably was?
Speaker 1: But I don't know. Usually Philly international musicians are self contained,
Speaker 1: so it wasn't it however, Like, okay, so you were
Speaker 1: saying that we love the Jones girls. No, no, no no, okay,
Speaker 1: not Ones. We are like but you know what, everyone
Speaker 1: had that perception that we should have been. It's it
Speaker 1: is definitely building on you, guys. I'm gonna tell you.
Speaker 1: Maria called Kerrie called me from MTV. I'm sitting in
Speaker 1: my living room and that song that came out that
Speaker 1: everybody thought she bit off of yes, and everybody wanted
Speaker 1: us to be mad at her, But that's it O.
Speaker 1: I thought it was just the most wonderful thing that
Speaker 1: she did that, and I said it, you know, which
Speaker 1: because I had no idea she was going to call
Speaker 1: or anything, and that was just so happened as I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my gosh, I thought it was wonderful.
Speaker 1: I thought it just made me feel special maybe you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just thought it was wonderful. And
Speaker 1: then i'd met her some time ago and there anyway,
Speaker 1: she's so cool, like a backup singer for Luther. It
Speaker 1: was Luther and Lisa what Lisa, Yes, they were both
Speaker 1: the monster on the Anita Baker Luther's crazy because Lisa
Speaker 1: was a background singer. I love it. I remember that.
Speaker 1: Remember I would go to hear the background. I knew
Speaker 1: what Luther was, watched them amazing to hear swing back.
Speaker 1: What is life like for you guys? Now? I know
Speaker 1: you're still toured? Um you still right? Miss Wander Like,
Speaker 1: what do y'all? What do y'all do now? Right? And uh?
Speaker 1: We are touring with all the seventies stylistics were always
Speaker 1: the only girls that are there but from the seventies. Um,
Speaker 1: except for one Atlantic Star though, when some of them
Speaker 1: are yeah, heat Wave and oh yeah heat Wave, Harold
Speaker 1: Melvin's Blue Notes, Blue Magic, Blue Magic, tuber Sor Cooper
Speaker 1: and still got yeah. And we did Tempts. We did
Speaker 1: the Tempts. The Temptations was on. And then Billy Paul.
Speaker 1: That's amazing that Billy Paul past. I mean we're than
Speaker 1: nine days we were together on stage, yes, then nine
Speaker 1: days later he was gone. And we know we know
Speaker 1: his wife pretty well and U but that was something
Speaker 1: and he could be some kind of way off state
Speaker 1: and you wouldn't know. I mean, he was cool to me.
Speaker 1: He always called me I love no, I love them
Speaker 1: every time. Using he's like, hey, I got my young
Speaker 1: my youngsters here. I'm like, hey, you know, so I
Speaker 1: don't I always bring the hip hop to the seventies
Speaker 1: soul jam? Why and are you the only second generation
Speaker 1: on those kind of shows or the other second generation?
Speaker 1: There are some other replaced members. I don't remember the
Speaker 1: Timp TIMPs, Paul Paul, Oh, Paul's son son with the oldest.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. With Dennis, yes, he's a second generation er.
Speaker 1: But the other ones, they have people who are in
Speaker 1: who aren't the original members. But I don't know, Like
Speaker 1: the Sledge Girls, Yeah they do. We haven't been on anything.
Speaker 1: One thing and it was the same night that was
Speaker 1: it was in Las Vegas, were in the we were
Speaker 1: in the stands, in the stands watching and we were
Speaker 1: on a different night. So it was like a whole thing.
Speaker 1: They were just doing or whatever, and we just got
Speaker 1: to stay for all of them. But I got to
Speaker 1: see uh, Cathy and her man. She'll say something that
Speaker 1: baby the new generation is that girl is pretty. She's
Speaker 1: a pretty is her name. She's gorgeous, a little sweet
Speaker 1: like a thing. But yeah, so on the when we're
Speaker 1: out there though, um, yeah, we're all it's it's very
Speaker 1: rarely that we have anyone my age. But wait, what's
Speaker 1: my boy from the del Phonics. He's the most hip
Speaker 1: hop of everybody I've met on those things. And he'll
Speaker 1: keep up with any young thing that I'm anything. What
Speaker 1: what what you got from me? What you got from me?
Speaker 1: Who out there? Dog? And this talk? Is that heart?
Speaker 1: Is it? Man? Yes? And he's the coolest boy. He
Speaker 1: just did that record with Adrian Young couple couple year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's really cool man. And yeah, so I go there
Speaker 1: and Mom always has to advise me to be more
Speaker 1: my R and B self than my yes than my
Speaker 1: hip hop self. I know I have way too amp
Speaker 1: some nights, I'll be honest, and I know better. So
Speaker 1: now and now I've been doing this since what two
Speaker 1: thousand nine? So here it is twenty seventeen. So we'll
Speaker 1: started doing the crip walk on best of my life.
Speaker 1: Stop stopped. I stopped it. I stopped it. I stopped
Speaker 1: lazy gentlemen. When they first did it in l A,
Speaker 1: everybody I didn't even know why. I heard, yes, you're
Speaker 1: supposed to do something, he said, we were supposed to
Speaker 1: do the step on there or something he appreciated us though. Yes,
Speaker 1: he calls them aunty and yeah he did him proud
Speaker 1: and then shouts out uncle Snoopy, that's amazing. Yeah. Well, ladies,
Speaker 1: we thank you very much for doing our show today
Speaker 1: so much. It was amazing. Thank you, Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Yes, Yes, motions, anti motions or behalf.
Speaker 1: Ronnie mill Stap Sugar, Steve Boss, Bill Fielo, unpaid, Bill
Speaker 1: an Lie. Yeah. This is Quest Love Quest Love Supreme,
Speaker 1: only on Pandora. We'll see you on the next Girl Run.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Corss. Love Supreme is a production in My
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. This classic episode was produced by the team
Speaker 1: at Pandora. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.