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Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Howard Hewett.
Rushion McDonald invited legendary R&B vocalist Howard Hewett to share the lessons behind his four-decade music career, focusing on perseverance, preparation, personal vision, integrity, and long-term success. The conversation was designed not only for music fans, but also for entrepreneurs, creatives, and professionals seeking insight into how sustained success is built over time.
The interview blends Howard's personal journey—from Akron, Ohio, to becoming the lead voice of Shalamar—with practical life and business principles that helped him remain relevant and respected throughout his career.
Executive Summary
Howard Hewett reflected on his early years as a performer, the unexpected opportunity that led to his joining Shalamar, and the mindset that enabled him to capitalize on life-changing opportunities. He emphasized that success is rarely accidental; it comes from preparation, visualization, discipline, and maintaining integrity.
A major theme throughout the interview was that individuals must prepare for opportunities long before they arrive. Hewett explained how years of practice and dedication allowed him to seize the moment when an audition unexpectedly presented itself, eventually launching him into one of R&B's most successful groups.
Key Takeaways 1. Preparation Creates Opportunity
Howard stressed that talent alone is not enough. Success occurs when preparation meets opportunity.
- He spent years singing and performing before receiving his breakthrough.
- When the opportunity to audition for Shalamar arrived, he was ready because he had already done the work.
- Being "ready" often matters more than being lucky.
Business Lesson: Continuous preparation allows people to act decisively when opportunities appear.
2. Visualization Is Powerful
Howard discussed the importance of mentally seeing success before it happens.
- After moving to California, he regularly visualized performing in front of thousands of people.
- He imagined achieving professional goals long before they became reality.
- Visualization strengthened his confidence and focus.
Business Lesson: Successful people often create a clear vision of their future and work consistently toward it.
3. Your Reputation M
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to my show. I'm Rashon McDonald, a host of
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Well, we encourage people to stop
reading other people's success stories and start planning your own. Now,
you don't want to miss an episode, so please take
a moment right now to follow or subscribe to Money
Making Conversations Masterclass.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
It's free.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
You can follow me on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your podcast. New Money Making
Conversations Masterclass episodes drop daily. I want to keep you
on alert because my guests provide tips on how you
can uplift your community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or
advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Now, let's
(00:38):
get this podcast started. He's here again. I have to
make this a two parter. Two parter. I'm so blessed
that he's stayed with me. You know, entertainment career spanning
more than four decades. Known for his smooth tenor and
emotional delivery, his voice remains one of the most recognizable
in R and B and soul music history. He captivates
(00:58):
audience worldwide before with both Charlamar as well as solo
artists himself when he left Charlama. That's bringing fans the
best of both worlds, the group's iconic classics and his
timeless solo hits. As we discussed in the previous we
talked about how the career started. He was a dreamer,
like all people, you're dreamer. Now you're not dreaming anymore.
(01:20):
You're doing collaborations. I gotta jump right to the new
collaboration you're doing with Ronnie Lass.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Ronnie laws Man.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
You know Ronnie. Ronnie is like an interesting cat man.
We've been friends for years and years, but.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Running laws out of Houston, Texas.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Ranny Laws, right.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
And it was funny because I was sitting in and
how I forget which houses I think I was in.
I think I was in wood Ranch, a place called
wood Rats. Then that's what the household was in. And uh,
I'm sitting there the middle afternoon and like my doorbell
rings right, and I go to the door and open
(01:57):
it is running right, and he looks to me.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I look at him. He says, Howard, Ronnie, what's up man?
How you doing?
Speaker 4 (02:06):
And you know, Ronnie's Jehovah witness, so so like he
was doing his house the house thing. The witnessing thing,
and and he just happened to come come to the
crib and like we sat, we sat and talked for
for a while. You know, as far as that was concerned,
I knew all about Jehovah Witness.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
And my sister was Jehovah witness.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
For years and uh. But then you know, we stayed
in contact and stuff. And then finally fast forwarding to
about I think I think we recorded uh this thing
about a year year and a half or so ago,
and he got in touch with me and and a
ribbon in the sky Steve Stevie.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Want is one of his one of his many many
hits was one of Ronnie's.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Uh, his wife who just passed away, that was that
was one of her favorite songs.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Let me this, Let me ask you how when you're
doing a song like that, do you have to get
permission from the artists?
Speaker 4 (03:08):
You talk to the artists, you know, sometimes there's a
permission thing.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
You know, Like I did a cover.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Of of uh, a Bob Dylan song just like a Woman,
and we called the people, the publishing and the publishing
his publishing people, and they gave their their you know,
their approval, They gave their stamp of approval of it.
(03:39):
But then we have to get permission to do it.
That's that's a whole other thing. I believe, as far
as long as you make sure all the publishing and
everything writers publishing goes in the right directions, in the
right channels and stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
He said, you know, it's pretty much things.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
You know, let's talk about that because this is new music.
And then you have a staple of people or don't
want to hear new music. They want to hear it.
They you know, they won't shit around. They keep down,
hugged up, ready to sing. They want to hear Charlama.
They want to hear your solo. Say amen, you know
if you if you left the stage, I did a
concert without saying they say, it'll be a right. Some
(04:23):
people just come in for just that one song. So
how do you balance howard new music which you have
to do. It's an artist you you you you you're
creative soul. But then you you left Charlamar. Let's talk
about why you left them, and then the nervousness of
building a solo career.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
It was like leaving leaving the group because a lot
of people ask that question, and and there was like
you know it was for me, it was more or
less just a natural progression. Okay, you know what I'm
saying when Jeffrey and Jody, because Jeffrey and Jody split
it first. A lot of people think I split first,
(05:03):
but Jeffrey and Jody split first.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
In fact, when we did.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
When we did, when I I did uh dancing in
the Sheets, the tune that was on the Footlooks soundtrack,
it was like at the time, it was funny because
because Leon Silvers, because this cat, Dean Pitchford is the
cat that did he wrote all the music for Ford
for the Footloose movie. Right, So he called me and
(05:30):
Leon Silvers, who Leon is our producer, uh, and wanted
us to come watch a rough cut of of of Footloods.
They had all all temporary music in there and stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
So we go to.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Paramount, right the Paramount Studios. We's sitting in this little
this little theater and watch it. And then Dean Pitchford
tells us what where he wants the Shalamar song or whatever,
and we're dancing in the sheets, a song that he
had written, and so like you know, he tells us,
you know, and so like you know, Leon and I
(06:05):
are walking back to the to the to the parking lot,
right and I asked Leon, I said.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Well, what do you think?
Speaker 4 (06:12):
And Leon says, man, I got a I got I
got a lot on my plate right now, you know,
he said. And then he says, and I don't think
it's going to be that big of a movie for this.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
And so he said, I got a lot on my plate.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
He said, I might not be able to work that in.
You know. He said, well, what do you think?
Speaker 4 (06:32):
I said, Well, I said, considering, I said, first of all,
I said, first of all, I don't.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Think it's that it's going to be that big of
a movie either.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
I said, you said that to you, and so, like
you know, I said, but considering where the group is
right now, because where the group was at the time
was Jeffrey and Jody had split.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I had told I told Dick at the time.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
I said, well, maybe this is a good time for
me to do a solo thing, do my solo thing,
because we had always talked about that. And Dick says, well, no,
you got two and a half more years left on
this contract and so Shalamar contract, and you can either
spend it doing nothing or you can go to court
(07:18):
and get out of it, try and get out of it,
or you can do another Shalamar project and ride this
contract out. I wasn't gonna sit around not do nothing exactly.
I can't exactly, and and I and I and it
was just it was like, you know, I hate court.
You know, court is like throwing dice. You know, you
(07:41):
don't know what the judge is going to come back with.
So I avoid court as much.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
As possible throughout my whole career.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
And uh and so like I said, okay, we're going
to do another Shalamar project. And when this, when the
Footloose thing came up, I said, I think that it
would be a good look for it because even though
I don't think it's gonna be that big of a
movie famous last words, right, I don't think it's gonna
be that big of a movie, it would still be
(08:11):
a good look for the group to be associated with
a paramount and a crossover projects. It was it was
gonna be, it was gonna do one thing we did know,
his first big movie, and so like, you know, I said,
I think, you know, I think.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
We're gonna do it.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
And then they pulled in this cap Bill Wolfer, who
ended up producing Dancing in the Sheets and so and
Dancing in the Sheets was the second biggest selling single
Shalamar had up under second time around Wow, and you.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Know it was crazy. It was crazy.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
But I mean, like I you know, I do, I'll
do dancing in the sheets sometimes we'll do it. We
just really started incorporated into the show with with Shalamar now,
which is me Jeffrey Jeffrey Dan and you ain't Carolyn Griffy,
you know, but yeah, we get we'll get out there
and we'll do we'll do dancing in the seats, especially
(09:08):
overseas because you have a large white audience over there
and they're familiar with it. But if we do it
when we're here, you know, my my couple of white
white folks to get up and start dancing while brothers
and sisters.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Is in there, like what the hell?
Speaker 4 (09:24):
You know?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
That sound like new music? Please don't go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations masterclass. Now,
I need for you to do me a favor right
now to follow our subscribe to Money Making Conversation. It's
free and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app. Spotify,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please do
me that favor. Follow a subscribe Money Making Conversations. Welcome
(09:55):
back to Money Making Conversations master class with me Rashawn McDonald.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
But getting back to that, there's you know, just like
I always when when they when you're talking, when people
talk about new music, are you doing new music?
Speaker 3 (10:08):
You don't, Thank God, Rashan.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
It's that I'm at the point of my career where,
like you know, people like you said they want to
hear the hiss.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I went to see. I went to see a group.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
I'm not even gonna say who it is, but big group,
popular group, nothing but hits, nothing but hiss. They came out.
When they came out, as soon as they hit the stage,
they're hitting. Everybody's up, everybody's moving, everybody's you know, grooving
and stuff. And then towards like forty five minutes into
the show or so, they they said, we're gonna do
(10:40):
some new music for you. Right now, people sat down,
they started talking.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
About themselves going to the concession.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
You know, it treated like it was a break Yeah,
no exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
And I'm sitting there and I'm sitting there peeping this,
I'm like, people don't want to hear it. As soon
as that fifteen to twenty minutes of that new music
was over, they.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Start back into the hits.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Everybody's up and they're moving for the rest for the
rest of the show, right, And I said, people don't
want to hear If you do new music, you.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Got to set it up.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
You got to set it up the right way, you know,
Like I'll challenge, Like I do a new song in
my show. Sometimes it's kind of a new song, a
song that that Leon Silvers and I wrote, Well Leon
wrote it and produce it and we did it, and
so like, you know, I've set it up with you know,
I want to do some new new material.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
I tell them, I said, I know, sometimes we do
new material is almost.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Like singing Japanese because because y'all got familiar with it.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
But then I but then I challenge.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
But I know I'm standing in front of a very
sophisticated audience tonight, isn't that right?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Okay, now I got Now, Now the setup for the
new music was set up, so it's cool. And plus
a lot of things that I do these these days
also are really intimate things, you know, like I'll do
the City Wineries, which is a real intimate crowd.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
So when you say that, Howard, because it's so entertaining
when you talk about it, because for decades, multi generational audiences,
you know, a parent or bring their daughter, and grandparents
bring their their daughter and their grandchild, you know, and
that's a beautiful experience to see that right in front
of you. But I know, as a fan, I got
(12:29):
to hear say amen.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Amen, I got some show.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Every show ends with saying man since since almost since,
well since I did it, thank God, you know, back
in the day.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
So how did that song come about?
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Man?
Speaker 4 (12:43):
I always before I left the group, Before I left, shallamar,
I remember saying the prayer.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
A couple of years.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
It was a couple of years before I left, and
right after Jeffrey and Jody are split not long after that.
But I remember saying a prayer and I said, Lord,
you know, when I'm by myself, when I'm responsible for
what I say, you know, not two other people in
the picture, not saying that they didn't believe, that they
(13:11):
didn't have a sense of belief or whatever. But songs
like say men and I did a complete inspirational album
some years ago. But those type of songs are personal.
Those are those I'm saying this is a personal thing.
You know, thank God, people gravitated towards it. But in
(13:31):
the beginning, I want to thank you God for giving
me one more chance to raise my voice and senior praise.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
That's a personal statement.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
So I made a promise then that every album that
I did, every solo album that I did, I would
always honor honor him, you know, God Christ's Holy Spirit
on every album. And Same Men was the first one.
A lot of people there was a lot of stuff
going on in my life at the time, so a
lot of people kind of you know, equated that to that,
(14:03):
but that wasn't what was going on. I had written
that song, you know, the Lord gave me that song
that about two or three months before all this craziness
went down, and and so like it was basically myself,
Monty and Monte Seward.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
That was one of the first songs. That was the
first song we ever wrote together, which we So let
me ask.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
You this, because how music like that, Because you know,
Charlam Maul, you're an R and B star, you know
all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Did you go gospel like that?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
How do you, how does one transition that to get
the airplane Because people can pigion hold you.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Yeah, they can pitchon, they can pigeonhole you and stuff.
Those those things that's literally rashone. Those are those are
things that you got to leave up to the Lord. Okay,
you know what I'm saying. I didn't know. I didn't
know how you know it was going to be accepted.
All I knew is that I made a promise to
the Lord to do that, and that that was the
(15:02):
main thing.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It wasn't about, Okay, how is this going to be
accepted by.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
The R and B field or the or the gospel
or the church situation, and how.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
It's going to be accepted from there. It wasn't about that.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
It was a promise that I made to God, which
was way more important to me than how it was accepted.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
But when it was accepted, how did you feel?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I felt great?
Speaker 4 (15:25):
I felt I felt I felt amazing because it so
for one thing, it showed me that people are are
ready to accept that type of situation, accept that type
of of suggesting and honesty and honesty as far as
like you know where your music is and the whole thing,
and it's like you know, you you you know, it's
(15:48):
you look at you know, the things in your life
and the things that go on in your life and
the things that you allowed to because you know this
is this is a public life, you know, but there's
still some things that you want to keep you know private,
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
But those type of.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Things I believe are things that you should always you know,
because because he's not a shame to you, right, so
you can't be shamed to him, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Stay with us.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
More Money Making Conversation master Lass coming up next. Welcome
back to Money Making Conversation Master Class hosted by me
Rashawn McDonald.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Let's get back into it.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
It's really interesting when I look at your solo career
and then the career that you had with Charloma Howard.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Okay, because that was an up.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Tempo you know dance, you know, really make that move
time you've all done music always don't feel good music.
Let's just put that out, you know, solo all with them,
But there tend to be like a slower beat on
your solo career versus what you isn't the producers that
(16:58):
came into your life. Oh, that's just your style.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Is my style. It was like what I was really,
what I was about.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
I love I love you know, romantic music, right, I
love you know.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Uh, you know relation what I call them relation trips.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Which means that's what R and B used to be.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Yeah, okay, exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
I don't want dive it so fast. But R and
B has changed.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Yeah, well, George Duke used to say. So used to say,
how well you know what R and B stands for?
Speaker 3 (17:29):
I said, what is that? He said, replaced by? Replaced by.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Everybody tries to replace something with R and B with
something else. But R and B is the foundation. R
and B is a foundation of rock. R and B
is the foundation of hip hop. It's the foundation of
neo soul, it's foundation of all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
So you can't replace a foundation, you know, a foundation
can only make something stronger. Like I used to always
look at the houses, Like when in my neighborhood when
I was a kid, they.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Used to build.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
You know, there was a lot, somebody buy the lot
and they start building the house. Well, they first thing
they do is dig the hole for the basement and
the foundation of that house. It took him forever because
we always have dirt dirt ball.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Fights, you know, because the big old piles of dirt.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
So they took him forever to build this foundation, you know,
reinforce still, reinforce, cement, whatever, And they take forever to
build the foundation of this house. Once the foundation was done,
the house boom boom boom boom boom would go up.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
You know.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
And if you built that foundation strong enough, you can
even tear that house down and build a whole nother
house on top of it.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
So I started, you know, as I got older, I
started looking at that analogy as far as life is concerned, right,
you know, foundation, what kind of foundation are you laying
down for your life? And if you if you take
that thing seriously and lay a strong foundation, strong enough foundation,
(19:12):
you can build two, three, four different lives on top
of that hole, that one foundation. But as long as
you got that one thing happening strong enough, you know
what I'm saying right then, Like you know.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Because foundation is the key to relationships, everything, you know,
everything you do.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
If you don't have a foundation, you don't have anything.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Yeah, if they didn't make this chair with the right
nuts and bolts.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I'd be sitting here in Bam.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
It'll fall down and eventually.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
You know, when I look at the songs, you know,
of course, you know, a night to remember, Charlama, second
time around, Charlama.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
This is for the lover and you or all these songs.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Either I want to move or I want because I
got you know, I can't remember the whole.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Song, you know, the hook, the hook.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
But that's the thing is and and it's it's like
I said, you know, with my shows and stuff, I
love it when I come out because the first part
of my shows are always Howard Hewitt stuff. Okay, and
I say in the show, I'm gonna take you back
to some old Howard Hewitt, to some old Salamar and
then we're gonna praise.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
The Lord and get up, get up out of here.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
So it's like you know, I do the the first
part of the show is Howard Hewitt basically. So and
that's that's when you sit and like you know, fellas,
put your arm around your woman, like I tell them
during the show, put you just repeat after me whatever
and now that and then and and I tell me
(20:45):
you're gonna thank me later on, you know. So and
then once we get past you know, the Howard Hewitt stuff,
then then the time to get up.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
And dance is when it's the second time around. Make
that move for the love and your unise.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I would give a.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Little personal here out because it's about longevity, you know
for decades. Yeah, when you when you went to California,
you wouldn't thinking about thirty forty, fifty, sixty, low seventy,
you know. But we all want to live a good life. Yeah,
so what does it take to live a good life?
Speaker 4 (21:18):
I think integrity is one of the most one of
the most important things. That you're yes, be or yes
and you're nob yar no, that's biblical, you know what
I'm saying. So integrity is is very important to me
in life. You know, looking at you're gonna you know,
am I am I perfect? By no means am I perfect?
(21:42):
Do I believe in what I believe in totally completely, God, Christ,
the Holy Spirit? Stay true to that? For me, I
have to stay true to that.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Where did that come from?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Uh? This came from our foundation again.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
I started out in in gospel, in the in the
in the gospel situation when I was ten eleven, twelve, thirteen,
fourteen years old, and my mom was a gospel promoter,
you know in the acron Cleveland cat area. And plus
she had a radio broadcast for like thirty or forty years.
She was eventually inducted into the Radio Ohio Radio Hall
(22:20):
of Fans awesome, and so her when she would do
her shows, she would bring in people like James Cleveland,
Albatina Walker and the Caravans when Shirley Caesar was still
with him, Pilgrim, Jubilee, Soul Stirs, Volinaires, Swan, silver Tones,
five Line Everybody, and so like once our group, which
(22:44):
was called the Hewett Singers, I was the lead singer
and three of my sisters backed me up once we
were in shape enough to do shows. Of course, nepotism
was live and well in our family. So we would
open up for every show that my mom would bring in,
and then during the summer we would we would go
out on the little gospel.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
To get another nugget.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
I knew nothing about Howard, so that even ties say
a mint either.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah, that's a natural correlation.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
Although I look at say Man, I look at say
Man as inspirational music.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Okay, I don't look at it as gospel.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Gospel, Gospel is a whole another thing which I have
totally respect for. But when when I think about gospel,
I think about Shirley Caesar. I thought about think about
the quartets and stuff and casts like that Highway QCs.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
And all those cat back in the day.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
That's a different beat now, yeah, a different calling to
different calling.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
And it's like and it was one that as a kid,
I had to make that decision as to whether I
wanted to stay in the gospel situation or go to
the R and B situation. Which one of my reasons
when I when because I'm writing a book, putting my
little chat and stuff together, and when I finally stopped procrastinating,
(24:05):
I'll get I'll get consistent with it. But one of
the things, one of the mindsets that I had at
that time was that, you know, I was fourteen, about
fourteen years old, really starting to get into girls and
and and loved loved women, love the girls, loved that
whole thing, and and I knew that that was something
(24:27):
that was going to be, you know, kind of prominent
in my life. So did I want to stay in
a field where I would feel like a hypocrite?
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Right?
Speaker 3 (24:40):
You know as far.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Even though even though I believe and my beliefs and
all that kind of stuff even now, but still at
least I'm not sitting out there.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Thank you Lord, thank you. Hey, what's your name?
Speaker 4 (24:51):
You know what I'm saying and not saying, not not
judging or whatever, but I just yeah, and I just
underspent exactly, especially the respect for what you what you say.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
You believe that.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
There was a couple of things before we wrap up here.
I got to bring up I know we're talking we
on fun here cooking now you know, now you know
because I didn't. I didn't realize you love. Your love
for cooking ook till I read your bio. Okay, you
know I know everything about Howard okay, except to cook
it because you know my on my social media, I
(25:27):
have Rushawn's kitchen, so I love. I cooked chid lings
onions and I posted they eat me up. Don't matter
what the slave food. But I just love down home cooking.
Tell us about your love for cooking.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
You know, I love cooking.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
The thing the thing that I got into cooking for
was basically, I like I always say, I cooked well
enough not to starve. And there's certain things that I've
gravitate to ma, and I've mastered for myself, you know,
chicken wings and all that kind of stuff and and
(26:06):
uh seasonings, different guys of seasonings and.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Know all that.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
So you know, I'm not a gourmet cook. I've been
I've been married a couple of times where I had you.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Know, uh, my wife was a mat so I know
what a go made.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
But like again, I'm you know, I'm not married now,
so I had to I had to figure certain things out,
you know, along the way, a long way, the path
through the kitchen, the path and to not starving.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Because you know, we were joking off off flying that guy.
It's not really a joke, you know. We you know,
we live our lives. You know, Uh, you've hit seventy.
I'm two years behind down there, you know, And we
was laughing. Steve Harbor right in the middle of both
of us, Okay, and I look at the mirror. I
don't know what seventy looked like, but I don't know,
(26:58):
but you don't look like man.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Thank god.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
The biggest, the biggest thing when I turned seventy, the
biggest thing that I thought about was I thank god,
it doesn't look like what I thought it was going
to look like when I was thirty or forty years old. Right,
I'm thinking, Man, I'm gonna be on a on a
walker and there's a back aching. But no, it's it's
(27:27):
you know, you you figure you figure stuff out. I
believe as you go along and you figure out, you know,
the things that are important. I think that you live
because somebody has said something about.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I read the other just the.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
Other day, how you you know, the way that you
live your life, the things that you allow allow to
come into your life, the stress or or drama that
you allow to come into your life. And I stress
that allow the word, because that's the thing. We have
(28:09):
a choice. You know, God even gave us a choice
whether to follow him or not, right, so we have
a choice as to what we allow to come into
our lives. You know, some people say, well, but you
have to No, No, you have control over all that stuff.
You got total control over all that stuff and what
(28:30):
you allow. And I refuse to allow, you know, drama,
I refuse to allow stress. I just went through a
thing and which just just just solidified my whole concept
of that whole thing. For two weeks, I was going
through I'm not even going to get into it right
now as far as because it was some craziness, but
(28:53):
it was drama.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
It was drama as you said. You know, drama can
impack your heart.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yep, every n your sleep.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
That's stress and how you do it.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
And that's the whole part about health, delivering and controlling
that moment and when you go through that, because that's
an entertainer. I always tell people you're a small business owner,
which means that you're putting food on the table. Nobody
paying for your insurance. Nobody's saying you're gonna get paid
fifteen or thirty dollars an hour. I'll give you forty
hours a week to pay because you just don't know.
A tour can cancel, somebody might not show up. You
(29:26):
might get an album deal and the label goes bankrupt.
There are no guarantees in anything, especially when you're a
small business owner. If you were to give somebody advice
as a small business owner, what would that be, hout.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
I don't know, but what you're talking about is like
a perfect example COVID. When COVID comes in, my schedule
had been the same for like thirty years. You know,
you know, thank god. I never being concerned about having
a gig has never been on my play of concern
(30:01):
right the years, because thank god that foundation. You lay
that foundation, so you were always you know some of
the second time around, make them Some people work all
their lives on one or two his I got second
time around, make that move for lovering. You show me
I'm for real. But I can go on on right
out of fingers, run out of finger I got to
(30:23):
go to the other hand, you know, and those are
That's something that I thank god. But like this, as
far as stress, like I said, somebody told me a
long time ago, you know, stresses.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Like a rock and chair.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
It gives you a lot to do, but when you
get done, you're still in the same place.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
So what's the sense in it? What was the sense
in the stress?
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Was?
Speaker 3 (30:45):
What was the whole?
Speaker 4 (30:46):
I remember, I was twenty two years old when I
conscientiously started taking the word worry out of my vocabulary.
And like it took a while, took years, from four
by six, seven, eight years or whatever. But before as
time went on, it got to be a situation where
like I because one of the you have a big
(31:10):
ocean liner. Okay, the thing that guides that that big
ocean liner, that ship, and any boat, any boat. The
thing that guides that boat through the water is that
little rudder on the end. Little rudder compared to the
you know, relative to the ship is little, you know,
relative to the row boat.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
It is little, a little rudder.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
That's your tongue, man, Your tongue. Your tongue will get
you in so much trouble and.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Get you and so like you always for me is
it was like, okay, I got to be aware of
the things that I allow to come out of my mouth.
Everything is a choice. Everything in life is a choice.
It's a choice. And so you know, and and so
at too. There was a situation that went down that
(32:04):
I had a plan, a twenty two year old plan,
my man in my mind that went crazy, you know,
and like I'm.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
Like, oh, what the what am I going to do now?
Speaker 3 (32:15):
You know?
Speaker 5 (32:15):
And I start worrying and weren't doing this doing that?
Speaker 4 (32:19):
And then I got a pamphlet from my church that
I used to go to back when I was back
at Akron.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
They had my mailing.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Address, Pastor Fowler, the Arlington Street Church of God, and
they my dad gave him my address. You know, I
was about twenty twenty one, twenty two, and they used
to send the pamphlet every every week, you know, that
was happening every weekly thing.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
And on the back of the.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
East pamphlet, Pastor Follower would always pick a subject and
he write a summary on it.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
And right when I was going through all this stuff.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
And I found out the tour got pushed back, and
money all this and there's we were supposed to go
to Helsinki, Finland, and as with the show group and stuff,
and that got pushed back. And I'm worrying about this.
I can't get the money for my dad because he
had just sent me fifty bucks a week or so before,
(33:17):
and so like you know, but I go to the mailbox,
I get this paraphly. I look on the back of it,
and on the back of it the subject that Pastor
Fowler had had chosen was worried wo a sign of disbelief.
In other words, if you know that you're a child
of God, you say the God is my savior, you
(33:39):
confessed with your mouth, believe in your heart that he
was raised from the Daddy's your savior.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
And he takes care.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Of those little birds and those little animals out there
that don't even aren't even able to worship him. And
you say that you're a child of God, what are
you worried about? If you're a child of God, and
if you truly believe that you're a child of God,
what are you worried about? Why are you worried? It
(34:07):
doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
I love it, I love it.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
He's the one and only.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Howard are you man?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Brother? Brother? Never will we part this long?
Speaker 5 (34:16):
Never ten years or so.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
I know you do.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Just chicken wing, but I gotta bring you in Ushawann's kitchen.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Man those chicken wing.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
But again, man, beautiful, beautiful interview, beautiful person.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Thank you for coming on Money Making Class.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Finally, finally.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
We've been talking about this a long time, so you know,
but it's good seeing you.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Thank you, thank you, thank you for listening to this episode.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
No, I need for you to do me a favor
right now to follow our subscribe to Money Making Conversation.
It's free and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify,
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keep winning
Welcome to my show. I'm Rashon McDonald, a host of
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Well, we encourage people to stop
reading other people's success stories and start planning your own. Now,
you don't want to miss an episode, so please take
a moment right now to follow or subscribe to Money
Making Conversations Masterclass.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
It's free.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
You can follow me on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your podcast. New Money Making
Conversations Masterclass episodes drop daily. I want to keep you
on alert because my guests provide tips on how you
can uplift your community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or
advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Now, let's
(00:38):
get this podcast started. He's here again. I have to
make this a two parter. Two parter. I'm so blessed
that he's stayed with me. You know, entertainment career spanning
more than four decades. Known for his smooth tenor and
emotional delivery, his voice remains one of the most recognizable
in R and B and soul music history. He captivates
(00:58):
audience worldwide before with both Charlamar as well as solo
artists himself when he left Charlama. That's bringing fans the
best of both worlds, the group's iconic classics and his
timeless solo hits. As we discussed in the previous we
talked about how the career started. He was a dreamer,
like all people, you're dreamer. Now you're not dreaming anymore.
(01:20):
You're doing collaborations. I gotta jump right to the new
collaboration you're doing with Ronnie Lass.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Ronnie laws Man.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
You know Ronnie. Ronnie is like an interesting cat man.
We've been friends for years and years, but.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Running laws out of Houston, Texas.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Ranny Laws, right.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
And it was funny because I was sitting in and
how I forget which houses I think I was in.
I think I was in wood Ranch, a place called
wood Rats. Then that's what the household was in. And uh,
I'm sitting there the middle afternoon and like my doorbell
rings right, and I go to the door and open
(01:57):
it is running right, and he looks to me.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I look at him. He says, Howard, Ronnie, what's up man?
How you doing?
Speaker 4 (02:06):
And you know, Ronnie's Jehovah witness, so so like he
was doing his house the house thing. The witnessing thing,
and and he just happened to come come to the
crib and like we sat, we sat and talked for
for a while. You know, as far as that was concerned,
I knew all about Jehovah Witness.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
And my sister was Jehovah witness.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
For years and uh. But then you know, we stayed
in contact and stuff. And then finally fast forwarding to
about I think I think we recorded uh this thing
about a year year and a half or so ago,
and he got in touch with me and and a
ribbon in the sky Steve Stevie.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Want is one of his one of his many many
hits was one of Ronnie's.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Uh, his wife who just passed away, that was that
was one of her favorite songs.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Let me this, Let me ask you how when you're
doing a song like that, do you have to get
permission from the artists?
Speaker 4 (03:08):
You talk to the artists, you know, sometimes there's a
permission thing.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
You know, Like I did a cover.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Of of uh, a Bob Dylan song just like a Woman,
and we called the people, the publishing and the publishing
his publishing people, and they gave their their you know,
their approval, They gave their stamp of approval of it.
(03:39):
But then we have to get permission to do it.
That's that's a whole other thing. I believe, as far
as long as you make sure all the publishing and
everything writers publishing goes in the right directions, in the
right channels and stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
He said, you know, it's pretty much things.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
You know, let's talk about that because this is new music.
And then you have a staple of people or don't
want to hear new music. They want to hear it.
They you know, they won't shit around. They keep down,
hugged up, ready to sing. They want to hear Charlama.
They want to hear your solo. Say amen, you know
if you if you left the stage, I did a
concert without saying they say, it'll be a right. Some
(04:23):
people just come in for just that one song. So
how do you balance howard new music which you have
to do. It's an artist you you you you you're
creative soul. But then you you left Charlamar. Let's talk
about why you left them, and then the nervousness of
building a solo career.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
It was like leaving leaving the group because a lot
of people ask that question, and and there was like
you know it was for me, it was more or
less just a natural progression. Okay, you know what I'm
saying when Jeffrey and Jody, because Jeffrey and Jody split
it first. A lot of people think I split first,
(05:03):
but Jeffrey and Jody split first.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
In fact, when we did.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
When we did, when I I did uh dancing in
the Sheets, the tune that was on the Footlooks soundtrack,
it was like at the time, it was funny because
because Leon Silvers, because this cat, Dean Pitchford is the
cat that did he wrote all the music for Ford
for the Footloose movie. Right, So he called me and
(05:30):
Leon Silvers, who Leon is our producer, uh, and wanted
us to come watch a rough cut of of of Footloods.
They had all all temporary music in there and stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
So we go to.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Paramount, right the Paramount Studios. We's sitting in this little
this little theater and watch it. And then Dean Pitchford
tells us what where he wants the Shalamar song or whatever,
and we're dancing in the sheets, a song that he
had written, and so like you know, he tells us,
you know, and so like you know, Leon and I
(06:05):
are walking back to the to the to the parking lot,
right and I asked Leon, I said.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Well, what do you think?
Speaker 4 (06:12):
And Leon says, man, I got a I got I
got a lot on my plate right now, you know,
he said. And then he says, and I don't think
it's going to be that big of a movie for this.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
And so he said, I got a lot on my plate.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
He said, I might not be able to work that in.
You know. He said, well, what do you think?
Speaker 4 (06:32):
I said, Well, I said, considering, I said, first of all,
I said, first of all, I don't.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Think it's that it's going to be that big of
a movie either.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
I said, you said that to you, and so, like
you know, I said, but considering where the group is
right now, because where the group was at the time
was Jeffrey and Jody had split.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I had told I told Dick at the time.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
I said, well, maybe this is a good time for
me to do a solo thing, do my solo thing,
because we had always talked about that. And Dick says, well, no,
you got two and a half more years left on
this contract and so Shalamar contract, and you can either
spend it doing nothing or you can go to court
(07:18):
and get out of it, try and get out of it,
or you can do another Shalamar project and ride this
contract out. I wasn't gonna sit around not do nothing exactly.
I can't exactly, and and I and I and it
was just it was like, you know, I hate court.
You know, court is like throwing dice. You know, you
(07:41):
don't know what the judge is going to come back with.
So I avoid court as much.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
As possible throughout my whole career.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
And uh and so like I said, okay, we're going
to do another Shalamar project. And when this, when the
Footloose thing came up, I said, I think that it
would be a good look for it because even though
I don't think it's gonna be that big of a
movie famous last words, right, I don't think it's gonna
be that big of a movie, it would still be
(08:11):
a good look for the group to be associated with
a paramount and a crossover projects. It was it was
gonna be, it was gonna do one thing we did know,
his first big movie, and so like, you know, I said,
I think, you know, I think.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
We're gonna do it.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
And then they pulled in this cap Bill Wolfer, who
ended up producing Dancing in the Sheets and so and
Dancing in the Sheets was the second biggest selling single
Shalamar had up under second time around Wow, and you.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Know it was crazy. It was crazy.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
But I mean, like I you know, I do, I'll
do dancing in the sheets sometimes we'll do it. We
just really started incorporated into the show with with Shalamar now,
which is me Jeffrey Jeffrey Dan and you ain't Carolyn Griffy,
you know, but yeah, we get we'll get out there
and we'll do we'll do dancing in the seats, especially
(09:08):
overseas because you have a large white audience over there
and they're familiar with it. But if we do it
when we're here, you know, my my couple of white
white folks to get up and start dancing while brothers
and sisters.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Is in there, like what the hell?
Speaker 4 (09:24):
You know?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
That sound like new music? Please don't go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations masterclass. Now,
I need for you to do me a favor right
now to follow our subscribe to Money Making Conversation. It's
free and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app. Spotify,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please do
me that favor. Follow a subscribe Money Making Conversations. Welcome
(09:55):
back to Money Making Conversations master class with me Rashawn McDonald.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
But getting back to that, there's you know, just like
I always when when they when you're talking, when people
talk about new music, are you doing new music?
Speaker 3 (10:08):
You don't, Thank God, Rashan.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
It's that I'm at the point of my career where,
like you know, people like you said they want to
hear the hiss.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I went to see. I went to see a group.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
I'm not even gonna say who it is, but big group,
popular group, nothing but hits, nothing but hiss. They came out.
When they came out, as soon as they hit the stage,
they're hitting. Everybody's up, everybody's moving, everybody's you know, grooving
and stuff. And then towards like forty five minutes into
the show or so, they they said, we're gonna do
(10:40):
some new music for you. Right now, people sat down,
they started talking.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
About themselves going to the concession.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
You know, it treated like it was a break Yeah,
no exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
And I'm sitting there and I'm sitting there peeping this,
I'm like, people don't want to hear it. As soon
as that fifteen to twenty minutes of that new music
was over, they.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Start back into the hits.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Everybody's up and they're moving for the rest for the
rest of the show, right, And I said, people don't
want to hear If you do new music, you.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Got to set it up.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
You got to set it up the right way, you know,
Like I'll challenge, Like I do a new song in
my show. Sometimes it's kind of a new song, a
song that that Leon Silvers and I wrote, Well Leon
wrote it and produce it and we did it, and
so like, you know, I've set it up with you know,
I want to do some new new material.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
I tell them, I said, I know, sometimes we do
new material is almost.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Like singing Japanese because because y'all got familiar with it.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
But then I but then I challenge.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
But I know I'm standing in front of a very
sophisticated audience tonight, isn't that right?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Okay, now I got Now, Now the setup for the
new music was set up, so it's cool. And plus
a lot of things that I do these these days
also are really intimate things, you know, like I'll do
the City Wineries, which is a real intimate crowd.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
So when you say that, Howard, because it's so entertaining
when you talk about it, because for decades, multi generational audiences,
you know, a parent or bring their daughter, and grandparents
bring their their daughter and their grandchild, you know, and
that's a beautiful experience to see that right in front
of you. But I know, as a fan, I got
(12:29):
to hear say amen.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Amen, I got some show.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Every show ends with saying man since since almost since,
well since I did it, thank God, you know, back
in the day.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
So how did that song come about?
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Man?
Speaker 4 (12:43):
I always before I left the group, Before I left, shallamar,
I remember saying the prayer.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
A couple of years.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
It was a couple of years before I left, and
right after Jeffrey and Jody are split not long after that.
But I remember saying a prayer and I said, Lord,
you know, when I'm by myself, when I'm responsible for
what I say, you know, not two other people in
the picture, not saying that they didn't believe, that they
(13:11):
didn't have a sense of belief or whatever. But songs
like say men and I did a complete inspirational album
some years ago. But those type of songs are personal.
Those are those I'm saying this is a personal thing.
You know, thank God, people gravitated towards it. But in
(13:31):
the beginning, I want to thank you God for giving
me one more chance to raise my voice and senior praise.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
That's a personal statement.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
So I made a promise then that every album that
I did, every solo album that I did, I would
always honor honor him, you know, God Christ's Holy Spirit
on every album. And Same Men was the first one.
A lot of people there was a lot of stuff
going on in my life at the time, so a
lot of people kind of you know, equated that to that,
(14:03):
but that wasn't what was going on. I had written
that song, you know, the Lord gave me that song
that about two or three months before all this craziness
went down, and and so like it was basically myself,
Monty and Monte Seward.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
That was one of the first songs. That was the
first song we ever wrote together, which we So let
me ask.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
You this, because how music like that, Because you know,
Charlam Maul, you're an R and B star, you know
all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Did you go gospel like that?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
How do you, how does one transition that to get
the airplane Because people can pigion hold you.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Yeah, they can pitchon, they can pigeonhole you and stuff.
Those those things that's literally rashone. Those are those are
things that you got to leave up to the Lord. Okay,
you know what I'm saying. I didn't know. I didn't
know how you know it was going to be accepted.
All I knew is that I made a promise to
the Lord to do that, and that that was the
(15:02):
main thing.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It wasn't about, Okay, how is this going to be
accepted by.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
The R and B field or the or the gospel
or the church situation, and how.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
It's going to be accepted from there. It wasn't about that.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
It was a promise that I made to God, which
was way more important to me than how it was accepted.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
But when it was accepted, how did you feel?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I felt great?
Speaker 4 (15:25):
I felt I felt I felt amazing because it so
for one thing, it showed me that people are are
ready to accept that type of situation, accept that type
of of suggesting and honesty and honesty as far as
like you know where your music is and the whole thing,
and it's like you know, you you you know, it's
(15:48):
you look at you know, the things in your life
and the things that go on in your life and
the things that you allowed to because you know this
is this is a public life, you know, but there's
still some things that you want to keep you know private,
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
But those type of.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Things I believe are things that you should always you know,
because because he's not a shame to you, right, so
you can't be shamed to him, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Stay with us.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
More Money Making Conversation master Lass coming up next. Welcome
back to Money Making Conversation Master Class hosted by me
Rashawn McDonald.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Let's get back into it.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
It's really interesting when I look at your solo career
and then the career that you had with Charloma Howard.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Okay, because that was an up.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Tempo you know dance, you know, really make that move
time you've all done music always don't feel good music.
Let's just put that out, you know, solo all with them,
But there tend to be like a slower beat on
your solo career versus what you isn't the producers that
(16:58):
came into your life. Oh, that's just your style.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Is my style. It was like what I was really,
what I was about.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
I love I love you know, romantic music, right, I
love you know.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Uh, you know relation what I call them relation trips.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Which means that's what R and B used to be.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Yeah, okay, exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
I don't want dive it so fast. But R and
B has changed.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Yeah, well, George Duke used to say. So used to say,
how well you know what R and B stands for?
Speaker 3 (17:29):
I said, what is that? He said, replaced by? Replaced by.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Everybody tries to replace something with R and B with
something else. But R and B is the foundation. R
and B is a foundation of rock. R and B
is the foundation of hip hop. It's the foundation of
neo soul, it's foundation of all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
So you can't replace a foundation, you know, a foundation
can only make something stronger. Like I used to always
look at the houses, Like when in my neighborhood when
I was a kid, they.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Used to build.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
You know, there was a lot, somebody buy the lot
and they start building the house. Well, they first thing
they do is dig the hole for the basement and
the foundation of that house. It took him forever because
we always have dirt dirt ball.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Fights, you know, because the big old piles of dirt.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
So they took him forever to build this foundation, you know,
reinforce still, reinforce, cement, whatever, And they take forever to
build the foundation of this house. Once the foundation was done,
the house boom boom boom boom boom would go up.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
You know.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
And if you built that foundation strong enough, you can
even tear that house down and build a whole nother
house on top of it.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
So I started, you know, as I got older, I
started looking at that analogy as far as life is concerned, right,
you know, foundation, what kind of foundation are you laying
down for your life? And if you if you take
that thing seriously and lay a strong foundation, strong enough foundation,
(19:12):
you can build two, three, four different lives on top
of that hole, that one foundation. But as long as
you got that one thing happening strong enough, you know
what I'm saying right then, Like you know.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Because foundation is the key to relationships, everything, you know,
everything you do.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
If you don't have a foundation, you don't have anything.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Yeah, if they didn't make this chair with the right
nuts and bolts.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I'd be sitting here in Bam.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
It'll fall down and eventually.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
You know, when I look at the songs, you know,
of course, you know, a night to remember, Charlama, second
time around, Charlama.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
This is for the lover and you or all these songs.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Either I want to move or I want because I
got you know, I can't remember the whole.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Song, you know, the hook, the hook.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
But that's the thing is and and it's it's like
I said, you know, with my shows and stuff, I
love it when I come out because the first part
of my shows are always Howard Hewitt stuff. Okay, and
I say in the show, I'm gonna take you back
to some old Howard Hewitt, to some old Salamar and
then we're gonna praise.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
The Lord and get up, get up out of here.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
So it's like you know, I do the the first
part of the show is Howard Hewitt basically. So and
that's that's when you sit and like you know, fellas,
put your arm around your woman, like I tell them
during the show, put you just repeat after me whatever
and now that and then and and I tell me
(20:45):
you're gonna thank me later on, you know. So and
then once we get past you know, the Howard Hewitt stuff,
then then the time to get up.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
And dance is when it's the second time around. Make
that move for the love and your unise.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I would give a.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Little personal here out because it's about longevity, you know
for decades. Yeah, when you when you went to California,
you wouldn't thinking about thirty forty, fifty, sixty, low seventy,
you know. But we all want to live a good life. Yeah,
so what does it take to live a good life?
Speaker 4 (21:18):
I think integrity is one of the most one of
the most important things. That you're yes, be or yes
and you're nob yar no, that's biblical, you know what
I'm saying. So integrity is is very important to me
in life. You know, looking at you're gonna you know,
am I am I perfect? By no means am I perfect?
(21:42):
Do I believe in what I believe in totally completely, God, Christ,
the Holy Spirit? Stay true to that? For me, I
have to stay true to that.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Where did that come from?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Uh? This came from our foundation again.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
I started out in in gospel, in the in the
in the gospel situation when I was ten eleven, twelve, thirteen,
fourteen years old, and my mom was a gospel promoter,
you know in the acron Cleveland cat area. And plus
she had a radio broadcast for like thirty or forty years.
She was eventually inducted into the Radio Ohio Radio Hall
(22:20):
of Fans awesome, and so her when she would do
her shows, she would bring in people like James Cleveland,
Albatina Walker and the Caravans when Shirley Caesar was still
with him, Pilgrim, Jubilee, Soul Stirs, Volinaires, Swan, silver Tones,
five Line Everybody, and so like once our group, which
(22:44):
was called the Hewett Singers, I was the lead singer
and three of my sisters backed me up once we
were in shape enough to do shows. Of course, nepotism
was live and well in our family. So we would
open up for every show that my mom would bring in,
and then during the summer we would we would go
out on the little gospel.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
To get another nugget.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
I knew nothing about Howard, so that even ties say
a mint either.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah, that's a natural correlation.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
Although I look at say Man, I look at say
Man as inspirational music.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Okay, I don't look at it as gospel.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Gospel, Gospel is a whole another thing which I have
totally respect for. But when when I think about gospel,
I think about Shirley Caesar. I thought about think about
the quartets and stuff and casts like that Highway QCs.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
And all those cat back in the day.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
That's a different beat now, yeah, a different calling to
different calling.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
And it's like and it was one that as a kid,
I had to make that decision as to whether I
wanted to stay in the gospel situation or go to
the R and B situation. Which one of my reasons
when I when because I'm writing a book, putting my
little chat and stuff together, and when I finally stopped procrastinating,
(24:05):
I'll get I'll get consistent with it. But one of
the things, one of the mindsets that I had at
that time was that, you know, I was fourteen, about
fourteen years old, really starting to get into girls and
and and loved loved women, love the girls, loved that
whole thing, and and I knew that that was something
(24:27):
that was going to be, you know, kind of prominent
in my life. So did I want to stay in
a field where I would feel like a hypocrite?
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Right?
Speaker 3 (24:40):
You know as far.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Even though even though I believe and my beliefs and
all that kind of stuff even now, but still at
least I'm not sitting out there.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Thank you Lord, thank you. Hey, what's your name?
Speaker 4 (24:51):
You know what I'm saying and not saying, not not
judging or whatever, but I just yeah, and I just
underspent exactly, especially the respect for what you what you say.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
You believe that.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
There was a couple of things before we wrap up here.
I got to bring up I know we're talking we
on fun here cooking now you know, now you know
because I didn't. I didn't realize you love. Your love
for cooking ook till I read your bio. Okay, you
know I know everything about Howard okay, except to cook
it because you know my on my social media, I
(25:27):
have Rushawn's kitchen, so I love. I cooked chid lings
onions and I posted they eat me up. Don't matter
what the slave food. But I just love down home cooking.
Tell us about your love for cooking.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
You know, I love cooking.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
The thing the thing that I got into cooking for
was basically, I like I always say, I cooked well
enough not to starve. And there's certain things that I've
gravitate to ma, and I've mastered for myself, you know,
chicken wings and all that kind of stuff and and
(26:06):
uh seasonings, different guys of seasonings and.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Know all that.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
So you know, I'm not a gourmet cook. I've been
I've been married a couple of times where I had you.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Know, uh, my wife was a mat so I know
what a go made.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
But like again, I'm you know, I'm not married now,
so I had to I had to figure certain things out,
you know, along the way, a long way, the path
through the kitchen, the path and to not starving.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Because you know, we were joking off off flying that guy.
It's not really a joke, you know. We you know,
we live our lives. You know, Uh, you've hit seventy.
I'm two years behind down there, you know, And we
was laughing. Steve Harbor right in the middle of both
of us, Okay, and I look at the mirror. I
don't know what seventy looked like, but I don't know,
(26:58):
but you don't look like man.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Thank god.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
The biggest, the biggest thing when I turned seventy, the
biggest thing that I thought about was I thank god,
it doesn't look like what I thought it was going
to look like when I was thirty or forty years old. Right,
I'm thinking, Man, I'm gonna be on a on a
walker and there's a back aching. But no, it's it's
(27:27):
you know, you you figure you figure stuff out. I
believe as you go along and you figure out, you know,
the things that are important. I think that you live
because somebody has said something about.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I read the other just the.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
Other day, how you you know, the way that you
live your life, the things that you allow allow to
come into your life, the stress or or drama that
you allow to come into your life. And I stress
that allow the word, because that's the thing. We have
(28:09):
a choice. You know, God even gave us a choice
whether to follow him or not, right, so we have
a choice as to what we allow to come into
our lives. You know, some people say, well, but you
have to No, No, you have control over all that stuff.
You got total control over all that stuff and what
(28:30):
you allow. And I refuse to allow, you know, drama,
I refuse to allow stress. I just went through a
thing and which just just just solidified my whole concept
of that whole thing. For two weeks, I was going
through I'm not even going to get into it right
now as far as because it was some craziness, but
(28:53):
it was drama.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
It was drama as you said. You know, drama can
impack your heart.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yep, every n your sleep.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
That's stress and how you do it.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
And that's the whole part about health, delivering and controlling
that moment and when you go through that, because that's
an entertainer. I always tell people you're a small business owner,
which means that you're putting food on the table. Nobody
paying for your insurance. Nobody's saying you're gonna get paid
fifteen or thirty dollars an hour. I'll give you forty
hours a week to pay because you just don't know.
A tour can cancel, somebody might not show up. You
(29:26):
might get an album deal and the label goes bankrupt.
There are no guarantees in anything, especially when you're a
small business owner. If you were to give somebody advice
as a small business owner, what would that be, hout.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
I don't know, but what you're talking about is like
a perfect example COVID. When COVID comes in, my schedule
had been the same for like thirty years. You know,
you know, thank god. I never being concerned about having
a gig has never been on my play of concern
(30:01):
right the years, because thank god that foundation. You lay
that foundation, so you were always you know some of
the second time around, make them Some people work all
their lives on one or two his I got second
time around, make that move for lovering. You show me
I'm for real. But I can go on on right
out of fingers, run out of finger I got to
(30:23):
go to the other hand, you know, and those are
That's something that I thank god. But like this, as
far as stress, like I said, somebody told me a
long time ago, you know, stresses.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Like a rock and chair.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
It gives you a lot to do, but when you
get done, you're still in the same place.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
So what's the sense in it? What was the sense
in the stress?
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Was?
Speaker 3 (30:45):
What was the whole?
Speaker 4 (30:46):
I remember, I was twenty two years old when I
conscientiously started taking the word worry out of my vocabulary.
And like it took a while, took years, from four
by six, seven, eight years or whatever. But before as
time went on, it got to be a situation where
like I because one of the you have a big
(31:10):
ocean liner. Okay, the thing that guides that that big
ocean liner, that ship, and any boat, any boat. The
thing that guides that boat through the water is that
little rudder on the end. Little rudder compared to the
you know, relative to the ship is little, you know,
relative to the row boat.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
It is little, a little rudder.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
That's your tongue, man, Your tongue. Your tongue will get
you in so much trouble and.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Get you and so like you always for me is
it was like, okay, I got to be aware of
the things that I allow to come out of my mouth.
Everything is a choice. Everything in life is a choice.
It's a choice. And so you know, and and so
at too. There was a situation that went down that
(32:04):
I had a plan, a twenty two year old plan,
my man in my mind that went crazy, you know,
and like I'm.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
Like, oh, what the what am I going to do now?
Speaker 3 (32:15):
You know?
Speaker 5 (32:15):
And I start worrying and weren't doing this doing that?
Speaker 4 (32:19):
And then I got a pamphlet from my church that
I used to go to back when I was back
at Akron.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
They had my mailing.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Address, Pastor Fowler, the Arlington Street Church of God, and
they my dad gave him my address. You know, I
was about twenty twenty one, twenty two, and they used
to send the pamphlet every every week, you know, that
was happening every weekly thing.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
And on the back of the.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
East pamphlet, Pastor Follower would always pick a subject and
he write a summary on it.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
And right when I was going through all this stuff.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
And I found out the tour got pushed back, and
money all this and there's we were supposed to go
to Helsinki, Finland, and as with the show group and stuff,
and that got pushed back. And I'm worrying about this.
I can't get the money for my dad because he
had just sent me fifty bucks a week or so before,
(33:17):
and so like you know, but I go to the mailbox,
I get this paraphly. I look on the back of it,
and on the back of it the subject that Pastor
Fowler had had chosen was worried wo a sign of disbelief.
In other words, if you know that you're a child
of God, you say the God is my savior, you
(33:39):
confessed with your mouth, believe in your heart that he
was raised from the Daddy's your savior.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
And he takes care.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Of those little birds and those little animals out there
that don't even aren't even able to worship him. And
you say that you're a child of God, what are
you worried about? If you're a child of God, and
if you truly believe that you're a child of God,
what are you worried about? Why are you worried? It
(34:07):
doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
I love it, I love it.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
He's the one and only.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Howard are you man?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Brother? Brother? Never will we part this long?
Speaker 5 (34:16):
Never ten years or so.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
I know you do.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Just chicken wing, but I gotta bring you in Ushawann's kitchen.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Man those chicken wing.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
But again, man, beautiful, beautiful interview, beautiful person.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Thank you for coming on Money Making Class.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Finally, finally.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
We've been talking about this a long time, so you know,
but it's good seeing you.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Thank you, thank you, thank you for listening to this episode.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
No, I need for you to do me a favor
right now to follow our subscribe to Money Making Conversation.
It's free and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please do
me that favor, follow or subscribe money Making conversation stations
keep winning
Host
Rushion McDonald
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