Tina Knowles: Interview Your Mama While She's Here

The mic is ON and MOTHER is HERE. TS Madison kicks off Outlaws with Ms. Tina Knowles—fashion icon, businesswoman, and, now, the New York Times #1 bestselling author of Matriarch.

They look back on what inspired Ms. Tina to finally write her book, the moment she knew her children were destined to be superstars, the queer legacy of Uncle Johnny, the poignant stories behind the names Beyoncé and Solange, and a July 29th revelation that moves Ms. Tina, and all of us, to tears. From nights out at Galveston's Kon-Tiki Club to divine signs from ancestors—this is a can’t-miss premiere episode that marks the powerful debut of "Outlaws" and the arrival of TS Madison as one of the great interviewers of our time.

Get cozy. Get into it. And get "MATRIARCH" by Tina Knowles.

Outlaws is proud to be a part of the Outspoken Network from iHeartPodcasts, co-produced by Turtle Run Entertainment.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every time I open up, my mouth something goes viral.
New weave, new weave, 22 inches, Be yourself Bitch, Step
your pussy up, Get a job, Oooh hoo hoo Rickun honey, Rickun,
Read good books and bad people, Haters keep chasing Is it on?

(00:28):
I'm black like that Bitch Loud, Live, and in Color, Baby. This is Outlaws with
TS Madison. Honey? Is it on? Is it on? Is
this thing recording? Listen, ladies and gentlemen. It's not always

(00:49):
often that I get to really sit amongst such greatness. Well,
I'm always sitting the months great I'm sitting on my ass. Okay,
ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for the mother.
Miss Tina knows. Miss Tina, you know it's always good

(01:15):
when I get an opportunity to be in your presence.
I remember we were at the Renaissance Concert. We were
at a couple of other places that that's between us,
but we were at the Renaissance Concert and I came
down there and I hugged you, and I said, it
must be not just overwhelming, but it must be that

(01:39):
your heart must be filled with such amazing enjoy to
see you have such a power house that has changed
the world, changed the world, and not just changed the world,
just changed my life in so many different ways. For
just me being a part of renaissance, but just looking

(02:01):
there and just seeing her. And I watched how you
sat and you just watched her, And I say, now
I see why my mom when she watches me on
TV or she watches stuff you know that happened that
manifests from me, and she watches, she watches with tears
in her eyes. Of course, because I was just on
the Taming Hall Show recently, and when I was there

(02:24):
and my mom was at home and we watched the play,
but and she was crying, of course, and I said, Mommy,
why are you crying? Why are you crying so much?
For She say, shut up? She shut up. I said,
shut up, and let me enjoy looking at you.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
I know that's right, because you manifested this.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
And look at you, I mean, you know, and how
far you've come, and so you get to see, you know,
we moms feel all the pain, all the disappointment, all
the struggles and all the things that you guys go
through to get here. Other people don't know, you know,
they don't know your story, and so we know and
to see all the fruits of your labor is just

(03:06):
I mean, I get overjoyed a lot.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
I saw it, and I was so when I hugged you,
I knew how you felt. I knew I felt the energy,
and I just was like and I was kept wishing
to you. I said, Mom, I know you so proud.
I know you so proud. Mama, I know you so proud.
So I want to go back and I want to
talk to you about something that made me very happy

(03:28):
watching the story of how you, as a mother sacrifice
so many things for the success of your children, which
many mothers tend to do that are really good mothers
that sacrifice their lives and for the children. When did
you know?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
When did I know that my children.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Were were going to be superstars?

Speaker 3 (03:55):
You know? I think with the first with Beyonce was first,
and I think at seven years old, when I saw
her whole personality, her whole confidence, her whole joy that
she had when she went on the stage, because she
was super shy and you know her, so you know,
she's still it's kind of remarkable that she still has

(04:18):
sort of a shyness, but back then, really and she
got on that stage and just became this other person
and at home around us, she was like already a
little superstar because she would dance and sing and do
all these things, but then when she got around other people,
she would shy away and get quiet and try to

(04:40):
be invisible somewhat. And so to see her come on
that stage and be so confident and command the stage,
I knew that there was something really special. That's the
day that my husband at the time, Matthew, and I
saw and we were like, who is that? Because she
was a totally different person. And then when she came
off stage, she became, you know, herself again. She was

(05:01):
like ready to go and.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
You know, humble.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
But I think that's when I knew that it was
something special there. But of course I never, in my
wildest dreams, thought that it would be this big, her
career would be this big, you know, back then. But
I think the first time I really realized I had
to pinch myself was the Super Bowl, which sounds crazy,
but she did the Super Bowl. I don't even know

(05:27):
what year it was, and she sung the Star Spangled banner.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
When she was a kid.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
She said she looked at Whitney and said, I'm going
to do that one day, and I was like, of
course you are, you know, because I always believed in
encouraging them, and I say, you can do it. I mean,
if you put your mind to it, you can do it.
But in my real mind, you know, you say, I
want to encourage my kid, but that's pretty far fetched.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
And then the day, for some reason, that she.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Did the Super Bowl in Houston, I could not stop
crying because I said, she really manifested this from seven
years old, that she would be doing this one day,
and she's doing it. So that was the first time
I really said, this girl, she's already big, but she's
gonna be huge, even bigger.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
I remember watching a documentary about her, and because this
is about you, this is why I want to talk
to you about it. I remember watching a documentary and
in the documentary it stated that you and your husband
at the time, Matthew sold y'all house sold y'all, just

(06:39):
sold everything, just gave everything up, and was like, we going,
We're going to go one hundred miles an hour into
this because I believe this as a mom. Because the
name of your book is Matriarch. So this is why
I'm so as the matriarch of the family. You were ten,

(07:00):
I told you you didn't have any doubts or any
reservations or anything. You just was like, we just gonna
sell it all.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
No, at that point, you know, the group had been
around for I mean, she had been in the singing
group and they were really really young. Like she's starting
in a singing group at nine. Most people get in
it when they're in the teenager years, but she was
very young. But I have to give the credit for

(07:28):
just the pushing, pushing, pushing to my ex husband because
he was always he always said, they're gonna get a
record deal, They're gonna be huge, and he It wasn't
that I wasn't a believer. I believed in my kid,
and I believed in her talent, and I believed in
what she did. But it wasn't because it was entertainment.
He was very attracted to entertainment.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
I was not.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
If my daughter wanted to be a tennis player, I
would have been like, I'll sell whatever. I have follow
her to the ends of the earth to make it happen.
But you know, he was very attracted to the entertainment.
I was kind of scared of the entertainment because you know,
it's it is very scared it'll.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Chew you up.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
And yes, if you don't have a good foundation and
good people around you.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
And see, Mama, you are very fashionable. Like look at you, baby, Listen, listen.
It's so much going on in here today, jewels and
rings and mug and you know it's a fashionista. You
made all of their garments. You made all of their things.
You are the creator basically of the House of Jerry.

(08:41):
You and Uncle Johnny.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
Me and Uncle Johanny. Well, me and Uncle Johnny was
all about fashion. We lived and breathed fashion every day,
and so you know, I was I was a hairstylist,
but I also sold all I made.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Me and Johnny made all.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
Our clothes in high school, and he made clothes for
other people. But when the girls started, I would go
and shop at like there was a place called King's
Flea Market in Houston, and it was it was basically
a big flea market and an old deserted mall, and
it was very good.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
But we got the best fashions from there.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
And I would buy all the fake cross color a
little outfits and then I would redo them, like cut
them and mix them up. And you know, some of
the things we made from scratch. But Johnny was always
helping me do those things because he was, uh, you.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Know, I called Johnny.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
It's funny I talk about him in a book that
we did a photo shoot one day for the newspaper,
local newspaper, and the people came to the house and
I was trying to get back home from the salon
and my kids had on these beautiful dresses and the
reporter said, oh, your dresses are so pretty, and they
said Johnny made them. And they said, oh, I mean,

(10:00):
who did all these Christmas decorations? Johnny did them. Well
who ooh, something smells good. Who's cooking? Johnny cooking? So
when I got home, they said, oh, we just been
hearing so much about your husband, Johnny, and I said, well, actually,
Johnny is my wife. And that lady was like, oh,

(10:21):
we didn't know that we were doing the Lasbiar couple.
And I was like, no, no, no, Johnny is my nephew.
But he makes things so nice for me so that
I could go to work all day and come home
and know that my kids are taken care of. But anyway,
Johnny was like, you know, he just made everything work
for me.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
So I've printed out the excerpt that you send over
for me to read, which I'm very excited for your book.
It's called a Matriarch. I read some excerpts that you
sent me, and it was from summer of nineteen ninety five,
and you said we were so busy traveling that it
was easy for Johnny to hide that he was getting sicker.

(11:13):
He began having episodes where he acted erratic, which made
him withdraw more from family, and then he was hospitalized
and Selena found out Johnny was her heart and best friend.
She called me immediately and I caught the next flight
to be with him. The diagnosis was AIDS related dementia,

(11:34):
which was causing a sort of delirium and paranoia. It
says Johnny had always been thin, but now he was
very thin from wasting teeny. He said, the doctors are
trying to do stuff to me. They said, I have
AIDS and I'm going to die. At first, I tried
to soothe him, but he would get frustrated. He preferred

(11:56):
it Badass Teeny be his protector. Both said that I
would say curlying my lip to show I was ready
to do battle for him. They don't know what the
hell they're talking about. They're listening to Ian Teeny. Oh,
they are and I would whisper a flood of curses
at them that made Johnny smile, hitting a savage rhythm

(12:19):
as I read these poor innocent doctors to filth, cursing
their every flaw real and imagine to start him laughing,
that beautiful laugh until he forgot. He was so mad
and we were safe together. So when you found out

(12:39):
at that time that his diagnosis was AIDS, you know,
during that time period, Miss Tina, people were very touchy
and like you couldn't if you even said it, you know,
if you even knew somebody that had it, It was like,
how do you get it? How is it? How did

(13:00):
you like, why would you touch that? Would you eat
our spoon? Would you do? And you rushed immediately and
you held them and you you touched them and you
laughed and talked with him. And even when you got
to the hospital and there were other people there, what
gave you the the fearlessness to go in? Was it

(13:22):
or was it just pure love?

Speaker 2 (13:23):
It was just pure love. I mean he was my
best friend.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
So and just to know that, you know, we had
kind of been estranged a little bit because before that
because my best friend, and I'll give you the context,
my best friend had kind of like taken him away
from me, and that just meant that Johnny and I
fell out over you know, his new friend, and I

(13:51):
didn't like him. I didn't trust him, and so we
fell out and he wound up going to work for
my really good friend and so they became like best friends.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
So and she was my good friend.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
But but I didn't see him as much, and I
was traveling and I was traveling with the girls, so
we were not as close as we used to be.
But you know, he was the closest person in the
world to me growing up and and my best friend,
so I didn't even think about all of that other stuff.
I just wanted to be there for him. And you know,

(14:25):
back then, soon as somebody told you somebody had age,
like you thought that they were gonna die the next week,
next week, and he didn't. You know, he got better.
He was in the hospital. That's how we found out.
He got on medicine, but not the kind of medicine
that you know, he missed. That whole boat with things
got to the point where people.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Lived with with HIV.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
But like now, yeah, but back then, you know, it
was a death sentence and so I was like, I
don't know how much time I have and I don't
have time to think about that, you know, and I
just I don't know. I never even thought about the
fact that I could catch it. None of my family
did because we loved us on Johnny, Yeah, like from
day one, and.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
Also in reading this, he loved the girl so much.
And you put the posters of the Destiny Child's poster
up and he was looking at it. It was like,
tend they talking about me? Yeah. That was later.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
That was when he was in the hospice and I
put the poster up for him because he was so
proud of them and so excited about their success.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
But he would just get these.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
Things that he was like they laughing at me and
take it down, and you know, it's like three o'clock
in the morning. I got up and took it down
and I turned it to the back. And then the
next day he was like, all these bitches took my
poster Dawn, and I'm like, yeah they did, and I
just went and got it and put it back up,
you know.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
So, yeah, Johnny was a character.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yes, And what's so amazing about Uncle Johnny is that
the inspiration came from the song Heated with Beyonce, and
I read here that you went to a listening party
with Jay Z.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
It was just at their house in the Hampton's. A
bunch of people were over there and we were just listening.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
To the record.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
Yeah, and she saved it because you know, I always
hear a lot of the record, but that particular song
I heard Heated, but not with that part on it.
And I wasn't even really paying attention to the words.
I was just kind of jamming to the music. And
Jay was like, Mama, you hear that, And I was like,
and I listened to it, and you know, I was

(16:36):
laughing and crying, dancing, laughing and crying at the same
time because it was such a tribute to him. And
you know, my kids would not be the artist they
are without Johnny because all that house music and him
dancing and you know, his style. Everything that they are

(16:56):
is a part of what he was, you know, because
he was there. He was he was there like their
mother at home when I wasn't there, and they just
idolized everything that he did, you know, from everything to
even to the point where you know, Solange was young
and she was like I gotta go get Johnny funny cigarettes,

(17:16):
which I used to We would fall out about that
all the time because I would love to make smoke
weed and he called them funny cigarettes, and he would
have Solange go get his funny cigarettes, and I'm like, Johnny,
I don't want I don't want you telling my kids
about the funny cigarettes. They're just little kids, but just
everything about them that is art, you know, definitely was

(17:40):
affected by him.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, it had to be amazing that to know that
he's looking down from heaven and to hear the world
chanted ohs.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
I mean on that tour, it was like every night
I would videotape it and and I would be in
this little VIP area right there with the you know
you in there too, and I will see people that
would remind me of him. And it was just such
a tribute to him, because you know, these young young

(18:16):
people would come up to me and say, you know,
I didn't have the support that Johnny had, but this
has given me such hope and he influenced even though
he never met them. You know, he's bigger than life
up there on the screen. I had no idea that
at the end of the concert there was this photo
of me and him, and that's how the concert end ended.

(18:40):
And you know, it's been a long time, but I
swear when I even when I talk about Johnny, even
to this day, as long as it's been, it just
you know, I can feel it in my heart.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
But I feel his spirit all the time, you.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
Know, and he's probably he's living through your you, he's
living through your kids. He's a part of our ancestors.
And you know, when when we pray and when we
light a candle or whatever it is that we do
to honor their memory, they they're always there. I just
was talking to another person just recently. My aunt has

(19:19):
been dead for thirteen years. And at first when I transitioned,
my mother was it was if because she had two
other sons and so she didn't put me out the house, mama,
but she was like, I got two other boys, right,
and you know I'm forty seven. I'll be forty eight

(19:41):
this year. So that was like thirty thirty years ago,
so you know the way how time thirty thirty years
and so she was like, I have two other boys.
And I was like, well, you know, I'm gonna find me, yes,
So I left the house. So I don't want people
out there to think that my mom threw me out
because I treads it was it was not accepted because

(20:03):
the raising the church, that's her time. And so my aunt,
which is her sister, and I we were we became
really very close like that. Even though she was trying
to tell my mom like she was, she was still
caught on me in And you know, about two days ago,
maybe three, I dreamed of her. We were in the bank.

(20:29):
We were in the bank, and I was in the
bank with my mom and my mother told me to
reach over and get a bank slip because she don't
remember the numbers, the round numbers at the bottom of
the This was in the dream. So I reached over
there to get the bank slip and I looked up
because I smelled her. Wow. And when I smelled her,

(20:54):
I turned around and she was walking and she had
on a she had on me I kill it pants suit,
her hair was whooped, she had on jewel. She was done.
She was done. You know, it gets you an emotional
place because I haven't seen her in thirteen years. She
was done. And I called her name, I said Darlene Rayford,

(21:20):
and she said yes, yes, And I said, you look amazing, bitch,
and she said, I heard you were in town. I said,
are you coming to my show? She says, but of course.
And then she turned to get in the elevator and

(21:43):
I went and I got in the elevator with her,
and she kicked her toe on the door elevated door,
and when the door is closed, she says, shit, I
just kicked my doing it, and we burst out, left
and around. I woke up, really, but what was so
amazing to me about that, Miss Tina was I smelled her,
Like you know how when you have an encounter aute,

(22:05):
you have an encounter with with someone in a transition
and moved on and passed into the next realm. It's
different having a conversation. But I recognized her because I
smell now, and I was like, she's here. And I
woke up and I was still could smell her. Wow.

(22:25):
So that was a real thing. So I know, when
you hear and you have those emotions and things like that,
you know it's because you've loved those people so much
and they've attached themselves to you even in this in
the afterlife, and this is why you're so prosperous. This
is why Beyonce is so prosperous, Why so, lunch, this

(22:48):
is why your grandkids flourish. It's because I start to
tell myself when somebody that I love crosses over to
the other side, I tell myself, after I've grieved, yes,
I say, well, I know the book says, for we

(23:08):
restare not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities
of darkness and wickedness and high places. And so we
can't fight those battles.

Speaker 4 (23:21):
No.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
So he sometimes he gets ours the souldiers that have
walked on the field for us in life. Wow, And
he takes them and he puts them on the battle,
on the spiritual battlefield for us. And so I usually
rejoice like it's it's a hurtful thing once someone separates you.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
Yes, from the natural realm, well for you, especially because
you don't have them in your life.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
You don't have a life. You can't see them, but
they have bigger duties to do for you while you're here.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
That's comforting.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yeah, that's the way. That's the way I see it,
and I absorb it like that. And so so uncle
Johnny is all of our uncle now. Yeah, and he's
forever immortalized. That's right in the Renaissance concert, the Renaissance film,
all the things of the results. Just in your level,
it's immortalized. That's something that people would chant all the time.

(24:14):
And I know that this had to feel great.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
It had to feel great.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
And also he manifested it because he used to always say,
I'm Mary, I'm gonna be famous, you know. And he
was such a great designer, and you know, he went
to New York and it just wasn't for him because
the city was too big, and he wound up.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
He got a scholarship to.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
The Fashion Institute there and he would have been I
have no doubt that he could have been a huge designer,
but I guess that wasn't in the cards for him.
So he wound up coming back to Texas. But he
would always say Mary, I'm gonna be He called everybody Mary.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
Ye know, yeah, let me tell you why, because that's
the thing I got with everybody in here is myrtle, myrtle, myrtle, myrtle, myrtle.
So it's like it was except for him, he ain't.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
You don't play that. See, let me tell you a
funny story. Do you know who Reggie Wells is. I
think Reggie Wells was a famous, the first probably huge
makeup artists, right, And he did Aretha, he did Uh,
Diana Ross, he did all the old divas, and he

(25:30):
and and he was Beyonce's he was Destiny's Child makeup artist,
and then he became Beyonce's makeup artists. And then we
went to Oprah and Oprah actually wound up hiring him,
and we were happy for him because, you know, he
got to stay in one place because he's getting older,
and he did Oprah's makeup for years. But we were

(25:50):
going to the Oprah Show and Destiny's Child and were
at a hotel and the cars went to a different hyatt,
you know how they have different mutations, and so the
cars weren't coming.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
So Reggie was out there. He was a big old diva.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
And my ex husband, who is very non no nonsense
probably like you, he said, Reggie, you're just kind of
have to get in the cab. I got all these
cabs waiting. And he was like, Mary, I don't do
cabs too, And my husband said what he was like,
I'm Mary.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
He was like, but Reggie didn't care who you were.
He called you married right.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
And he was say, Mary, you heard me, and you know, Matthew,
I'm not going to tell you what he said.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
He cussed him out and said you better get your
ass in.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
That car, and he got in the car. But it's funny,
so he didn't play that. He was like, you better
talk to him and tell him don't be calling me Mary.
I said, that's a term of endearing, right, it is.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
But he know that, he know that, he knows I
didn't get murdered from Okay, so you want me to
tell you. So I'm from Miami and so when I
moved to Atlanta, my gay mama, which is miss E,
she's she's, she's crossed over to she's, she's. You know,

(27:11):
she used to be like murder. I said, what the
hell is murders? Did you call me murderer? She's that girl.
It's a street that the it's a street that.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
The girls work, all the girls.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yeah, so the girls walked there. It was murder street.
So she called everybody murder.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
I love it, I love it.

Speaker 3 (27:28):
It. So what he called me, Johnny called me Lucy
like Lucy oball. But sometimes he say Mary, Mary, you know, so.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Mss Tina, So you've been adjacent to the to the
queer community for.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
A very absolutely.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Yeah. What made you so was it? Was it just
uncle Johnny?

Speaker 3 (27:55):
It was Johnny, because you know Johnny did It's so funny,
and I, you know, want I want everybody to.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Read the book. But Johnny was my best friend.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
And Johnny was so lonely because even though people respected
him and they didn't treat him bad because my mom
taught him how to sew and she was like, when
you sew, if you sew for people, make beautiful clothes,
they're not gonna never they gonna respect you and they'll
always love.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
You and do anything for you. And that was true.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
So that saved Johnny in that time, because this is
way back when, and you know, we became like super close,
and I think I might have been in tenth grade
and I found him a place because I said, you
need a boyfriend, and he never had a boyfriend and

(28:44):
he was just always with us.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
And so I went to school and there was.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
A guy that I had biology class, a white kid,
and I said, where do y'all go like to meet
people and have fun? And so he said, oh, the Kentiki,
And the Kentiki was this club in Galveston that was
there for years and years and years. I and he

(29:12):
told me where it was, and so I told my mama.
We were going to the Session, which I used to
go to with his Johnny's mom. That's my mama never
let me go anywhere but with them, And we were
supposed to be going to a session, but we went
to the Kentiki.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
Well with the session. The session was just.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
A dance thing that they had every Friday night.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
But the Kentiki was this club that didn't have a
sign or anything.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
The bar, it was the bar, and we walked in
there and.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
It was a gay club.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
At the bar.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
He just had I mean, he met people and he
was like, oh my god, because you know, people back
then hid their sexuality a lot. And he felt at home,
and I felt like, oh no, I can be free
to have me a boyfriend. I just always felt like
I had to take care of him and with him
and go and do stuff with him. And you know,

(30:03):
he just was at home. But he started doing the
drag shows. So I was always doing hair and helping
him with the makeup. And they lived above It was
a duplex and his parents lived downstairs and he lived upstairs,
but you would go through the house to get up
to his place. And it was so funny because my
brother in law used to drink a lot. He started

(30:25):
on Friday. As soon as he get off.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
He would be two sheets to the wind and he
would say teeny you know, them them boys went up
there and they.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
Never came down, but it would be girls coming down
here because we would do the hair and the makeup
and the clothes and all of that.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
And so I started very young.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
I was probably like fourteen fifteen years old, helping him
with you know, with doing the hair and the makeup
and all of that stuff. And then he would take
me to the balls and because he would do everybody's clothes.
So it was always a part of my life, that culture.
And he always accredited me to like turning him on

(31:05):
to those people because now he had all these friends
and you know, and he lost most of his friends, yes,
a lot of them, god yeah, but but we had
some good times with that. So it's always been a
part of my culture and just have always it just
seems to be the people that I'm surrounded with, you.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Know, well, it's because you know, I think that in
other lives, I think that we've all been bound to
each other. My first time I did I ever told
uh person that I was at the time, gay, Yeah,
it was. It was a woman, a woman, and you know,

(31:49):
you learn everything from a woman. You learn. You know,
she didn't you know, judge me and all that type
of stuff. You know, she helped me get into the things.
But then when I said I'm a woman, I think
I told that to a man.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
Your first time we were naked though, Yeah, well you know.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
That makes it easy.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
I'm a woman covering that thing up. You don't need
to do nothing with that unless you want to come
it up. God damn it. So miss Tina, I have
to say, like the Renaissance concert, the Renaissance tour that
was so massive, and to see all the girls, the
queens and stuff, and that I just seen the way

(32:42):
that your heart was so full, and the way the
way Beyonce just you know, but the fullness from me came.
You know, I didn't even know that I was on cozy.
I didn't know it. No, I didn't. Well, you know,
Beyonce had you know her the business, like the business park.
The park would handle off the business. But I didn't know.

(33:06):
I remember me. I was because you know, I'm a
judge on drag Race, and so I was judging drag
Race and we went on commercial break. And so when
we were doing a commercial break for which is the
girls going back to the chair, I was sitting next
to Rue and I said, Ruth, uh, you see bes
and a clear out all hug social media. And Ruth said,

(33:29):
your girl, I think that they are finna get ready
to do a Destinance Child album. That what Ruth said,
this is Rue tell me. And so you know, I'm like, well, Rue,
you in there so you may know something that we
don't know. And I said okay. And I remember sitting
next I remember saying, Ruth, she always used freedom. She
always used freedom. I wish she just used me.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
Really, I didn't know that. That's a great story. And
there it was see You Manifest.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
It was in July, do miss Tina. It was in July.
You know the album came out? Ironically, did July twenty
ninth is when the album draw Wow? July twenty nine.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
You did not know? No, I didn't know.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
Listen this because I know she clears everything, but yeah,
she cleared the last minute.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
You don't know what she's gonna use.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
So she cleared it.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
Now she took care what did you do when you
how did you hear about it? But I'll tell somebody
calling let me tell you Mama comes because that was
just how it was. So it was July.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
I left from filming Drag Race and I went to
Costa Rica and I'm over here like, well, I think
you know, you know they're finna do it. You know
we talking about they're going to do the distance. I
can't wait to they get the destiny. Shout say girl.
I kept getting an email from Parkwood saying we need

(34:52):
clearance now, wow, And I was like whatever, I didn't
read the bottom of the email. Mama, you didn't, girl,
I told you can't holler damn see, so I couldn't.
I didn't read the bottom of the email. It just
kept saying we need to clear because I had gave
clearance for them for you know, your daughter, how your
daughter moved? Your daughter. Don't tell nobody nothing. You don't

(35:14):
even know something, you know? So you know she so,
So they had came through another company, and I and
you and they I gave them permission to use my
voice and stuff like that. You know. So I was like,
you know, they're fast forward a year later and the
company that came back but nice unmasked it's part Wood

(35:38):
at the bottom right, So you know, I didn't know,
didn't So I was like, I didn't know, yes, Mama.
So then when I when I looked at the bottom,
they said part, I said, ooh, you know I'm black.
I said, oh that's so how much money they got?

(36:00):
I said, so much money they got. Girl. So my
lawyer got on there and he went talking back and forth,
and there boom and then it was boom, and then
when it when it dropped and I heard it, I
I cried. I cried because you know, me and Ti
is really good friends.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
With me now, I mean he's staying with me now,
he's down here working on yeah the tour.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
Yeah, me and Tye are really good friends. And said
he said it was boiling in his so bad that
he wanted to call me and tell me because I
didn't know to tell He wanted to tell me because
he went he.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Went to listen excited. Yes, he went to the listening
telling me, yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
He went to the listening party. And at the listening party,
he said, when when when when the voice came up.
I was like, but he said that was one of
the he couldn't tell me. Yeah, you know, so your
baby listen, I ain't got no money. I can't do that. Hell,
I ain't got nobody of course that so he.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Uh I cuet missi Oh.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
I cried because after the words, I listened to the words,
and I listened to how my voice missed with hers.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
It was beautiful.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
It was beautiful.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
This is one of my favorite songs.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
And it became an anthem. Yes, black people, that's right.
I mean the princess Megan. She loved Megan Marco. She
said that's her favorite one. She said that is her
because you know she fluorescent. Yeah, that's right, you know.
And so it was just it was just so it

(37:41):
was one of those things that you know, And when
I had got the opportunity to talk to Beyonce about
it and I hugged her, we talked about it and
stuff like that, I had to tell her, you know
how much I loved her for that, because that she
don't even know. I didn't really get a chance to
really deeply tell her that. She didn't know that I had.

(38:02):
I was sitting next to RuPaul.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
I gotta tell her that. Did you get to tell her?

Speaker 1 (38:06):
I ain't get to tell her.

Speaker 3 (38:06):
I'm gonna get I was sitting next the root and
I said, she always used freedom.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
I wish one time that she would use me. What time?
And it was already done.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
It was already done, already done.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
And you know, she's such a genius because she quiet
about her moods, She do her things, She watched, she
she keep her eyes and ears to the streets, and
she know what's going on out here. And that's what
I love about her. Now I want to talk about you,
Vis Tinney. Okay, you know you you know I'm your
knees honey. So I'm fun to get to the dog part.

(38:42):
You know, I got old dog part of me, Miss Tina.
How you keep these men off of you? Oh?

Speaker 2 (38:48):
Girl?

Speaker 1 (38:48):
Can you it's gorgeous? Can be writing all this stuff?
I ain't like none of that stuff that say. You know,
it made me mad because you know, but you're a
beautiful woman, and you know, and you also you're a matriarch,
you know, and you produce great things. You produce great clothes,
you produce great fashion, you produce great individuals. So those

(39:10):
men be over to cut in their eyes at you, honey,
all ages, all time, they be over eyes, honey. Do
you get offended about any of the things that, like
any of them say like with that little and I
don't want to bring that up like that. I'm just
talking around it, so you don't really have to address that.
I'm just making a general Do you get offended, like

(39:31):
if you see something or work, they've written something or
said something inappropriate?

Speaker 3 (39:38):
Do I get offended? I don't really put that much
energy into it, you know. I have a way of
dealing with life where I deal with the things I
want to deal with and the other things. I don't
even give them that much energy. So it doesn't offend me,
It doesn't compliment me. It doesn't really affect my life
one bit. So I just say, you know, and and

(40:00):
it's something about I'm seventy one years old, and I
at this point don't give a shit. Honestly, I'm just
being real. I things don't affect me the way they did.
I am not worried about what people are saying about me.
I know the truth. One of the reasons why I
did the book is because I am so tired of

(40:22):
people telling my story. Yeah, and telling my family's story
and not getting it from me. So that's what made
me do a book.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
So you've done this book and it's out, but it's
sounding like hotcakes and girl, it's juicy. You're telling all
the stories. What was the inspiration behind it? You was
it I'm tired of people talking about me. Let me
tell it myself.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Exactly what it was.

Speaker 3 (41:01):
I've been asked to do a book for many, many years,
and every time somebody came to me, you know, to
talk about it, I was like, I'm not doing a
book because too much of my life is about my kids,
and I, honestly, just to be really totally transparent, always
felt like nobody wants to hear about my life, Like

(41:22):
they don't care. They just gonna try to give me
to my kids business. And you know, I'm a vault
when it comes to my kids. Oh yes, I know.
I don't play about that. And so I was like,
I'm not telling my business. I don't want it twisted
and turned and you know, regurgitated.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
To the world.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
And so there's a lot of reasons why I didn't
want to do a book. But when I got a
divorce at six, i was fifty nine years old, and
I started just recording while I was traveling. I was
traveling so much, you know, for those back and forth
to New York to Houston there be five six hour flights.

(41:59):
I would just sit there were my recorder and records.
So I had so much on fout. But it was
with the intention of writing a book for my grandchildren,
my great grandchildren, all the people you know that came
behind me because my parents had me at forty four.
I never met my grandma. I didn't know anything about

(42:21):
my family other than just my parents because they were
older and everybody was dead.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
And I would ask.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
My mom would talk to me about my family, about
her mother and how they were all seamstresses, and how
they had to Louise, you know, how they left Louisiana
and the whole thing, which is all in the book.
But I still never met these other people. And she
didn't never talk about anybody past her mama, so her

(42:51):
mother's mother, I didn't even know her name or anything like.
So I wanted down this journey of ancestry dot com.
You know how you can look up stuff, and I
started looking up, trying to find things.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
And all of that.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
So I had some of that, but it still was
so vague. So anyway, I started recording this, but it
wasn't a book. It was just supposed to be. I
was going to have it binded, have me a little
cover put on it, and give it to my daughters
to give it to their kids, to give it to
their kids and pass it on, which I encourage everyone
to do. You know, before your mama passes away, go

(43:26):
and interview her, put it on tape, let her tell
the stories about your grandparents, write a book, whatever, because
think about it, if you don't know your grandparents, all
that history gets lost. And if everybody dies away, which
is the case for me because I'm seventy one, so
you can imagine everybody's gone, I can't ask the questions.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
So that's what it started off as.

Speaker 3 (43:51):
So when they came to me a couple of years ago,
and because it took me two years to write the
book and said, somebody did, did a book offer for you?
And I said, oh, I will do a book, but
not a memoir. I'll do a book about behind the scenes.
Because I don't know if you have seen my Instagram post,

(44:12):
but I'll see a night and I'll say, oh, my
God on this night they.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
Left the clothes and I've seen I follow you.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
Okay, well you know, I'll tell it was funny because
this girl who I mentor called me and she's an attorney,
and she said, miss Tina, stop giving away all your
into what do you call it, international something properties, intellectual properties,
and stop giving it away because people would just I

(44:40):
get one hundred thousand people like liking it, and they
would say, tell us more stories. And so the plan
was to just do that kind of book, and that's
what it started off as. But the guy who they
got to organize I call it an organizer because he's
the fact finder, and he helped me with the book.

(45:00):
I would dictate it and then he would go and
put it in a ropper contest, go check the dates,
check the facts.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
You know, the whole thing. And he was great. His
name is Kevin O'Leary. He just was tricky.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
So as I'm telling these stories that's supposed to be
behind the scenes stories, I started telling him other stories
and he was very interested in Johnny and so then
the next thing, you know, he was like, mis Tina,
just think about it, just think about making it a memoir.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
And that's how it got. That's how it got to
be a memoir.

Speaker 3 (45:34):
But I don't want somebody else telling my story, you know,
I want to tell it from my perspective.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
And what I found in this is that people do
want to hear about me.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
Yes, you know, it was an awakening for me because
I just figured nobody wanted to hear about me in
my life. But my life has been so interesting and
so full of so many great things, and I have
so much wisdom to impart to young people that it
was just time.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
And I want I didn't. I wanted you to know
I've read this and what was significant about July twenty ninth,
And I want to make sure here because I have
the excerpts from your book. That's the day that Uncle
Johnny passed away. July twenty ninth. Yes, that's the day
that the Renaissance album was released, July twenty ninth. Are

(46:27):
you serious?

Speaker 3 (46:28):
Yes, Oh my god, I had no idea that's where
I was going. I was trying to get hes Yeah,
I was just so I was going here through the
and Beyonce doesn't know that really, No, July twenty ninth,
and I was reading it here and I want that's
where I was trying to go, like, I want to
make sure before I say this that Johnny passed away

(46:52):
on July twenty ninth and the Renaissance album was released
July twenty nine.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
I can't wait to tell her that.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
I read that, and I was like, and because on
July twenty ninth, that's when my all of my social media,
all my stuff was going crazy because Cozy came out,
all of this stuff came out, and so that's why
I was and I didn't want you to think I
was being rude, but I was going through these pages
because I was like, I gotta get here because I
read it.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
July twenty ninth and July twenty ninth, twenty twenty two
is when a Renaissance dropped, yead.

Speaker 3 (47:30):
I can't wait till tell her that, you know, and
it's just been so many things in my.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Life that work out that way.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
You know that, And I know that that's him speaking
yeah to her, Yes, and she is, I mean, that's crazy.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
Yeah, I wait to tell her.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
That's why I was trying to get through my papers,
like I gotta get it because I know, and that's
why I wanted to know that did you.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
Know that no, no, yeah at all.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
July twenty ninth, and that that is the day that
July twenty ninth, twenty twenty two is when renaissance dropped.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
It's crazy. That was him just speaking.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
Of all the way all, all the way through. And
so it's great to hear that the inspiration behind your
book was not for you to tell a story, but
before you to leave a lineage, to talk about your
lineage to your grandchildren and to their children and their
children they're after. And the best advice that you just

(48:29):
gave was interview your mama. Wist.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
Yes, I mentor kids and right now we have one
hundred and twelve kids, and one of the projects was
that they had to go and interview the mama, the aunt,
the grandma, all their relatives and hear their stories. And
so when they pass away, they're going to have that
to show to their kids and their grandkids and their

(48:54):
great great I mean that.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
Goes on forever. Yes so.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
And I got the idea because my sister passed away
and I did this movie like of her life and
it was so funny because my whole family was mad
because they were, like you doing too much as usual
and But from that, so many people have died since then,
and I have all of them on records. So every

(49:20):
time there's a funeral, they say, can I get that footage?
You know what I'm saying. So it just gave me
the idea that we should preserve those memories. But that's crazy. Yes,
that's why you're not planning. Nobody knew about that.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
That's why I was over here physics because I remember.
Because I was, I said, I want to make sure
because I read here that uncle Johnny passed away on
July twenty.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
So happy you made that observation.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Oh yeah, I didn't. Oh, listen, listen, I'm very thorough.
I'm a Libra.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
What's your scientistic I'm a Capricorn.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
That's why you make so much money.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
That's fine.

Speaker 3 (49:57):
And you know you're a Libra, so you're creative. And yeah,
my grandson is a Libra.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
Oh he's a Yes, he's a model. Model, he's a model.
I remember we were all at the in the circle
and uh, you know he was there. He's very proud of.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
His ay is proud.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
It's just it's just the look of the way that
you I stood back for a moment just to watch
you watch her, I don't think that you really understand
like how my mother is. Uh. She looked, she watched
you too, watching her, Yes, and she said, the look

(50:40):
that you have in your eye for your daughter, and
the look that your daughter has in her eye for
her daughter, it's the look I have in my eye
for you. That's right.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
It's just you know, unconditional love and and just to
see your kids get to do what they love every
day day and to be good at it. And you know,
people ask me all the time, what's your proudest moment,
And I'm you know, it might sound like a cliche
or corny, but you know, my proudest moments are when

(51:15):
she is doing something for other people. And when I
see her on stage, I take it as not only
her just performing and doing a good job, but she
inspires people. I mean, I can't tell you how many
times people have come up to me and say, you know,
I was considering suicide and that music got me through it,

(51:37):
or I was you know, just the whole section of
people that she'll have that are in wheelchairs and they
survivor comes on and they just lift their hands up.
I mean, I've had so many moments where it's inspiring
people and helping people, and that's the pride, Like the
pride is really about.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
That she's a good human being too.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
And Laune and Kelly and all my kids are. They
make me the most proud when they are doing something
for other people and that they are unaffected by being
a star. That's great, but that they got a good heart. Yes,
you know, and they're good people.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
I want to tell you, and then I know we
got a rap because I know I want to tell
you I love you just because you mama and I
love my mama.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
I'm so glad you love your girl.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
I would tell I don't know, that's right, That's how
I would tell roof Off about my mama. And my
mother has mobility issues. Okay, so she can't really move
and she can't really come out to my shows. She can't.
But we took her to uh we took her to
the Renaissance. She can't. Yeah, we can't. That's why. No,

(52:54):
because she couldn't. Event them brought her up to the
Oh she couldn't get J Box, Okay, good, Yeah we
was then then Justine came down. You're just seeing them
brought me down there too, Yes to the circle and
so that's what we was able to bun and stuff
over there. But my mother watched. She watched because they'll

(53:17):
put the camera on you looking, they'll see you, and
she's she stayed watching everything. My mama is baby Listening's birthday.
My mama is a airy, she's a she powerful. Oh God,
oh Lord, I love her, but God damn, I want

(53:37):
to say, I love the way you protect me. I
love the way you protect her, because it's so many
times she can't say nothing.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
Yeah, and she's never gonna say nothing.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
She could, she's not. She can't say nothing. But sometimes
you're gonna set that foot in there. You're gonna tell.

Speaker 2 (53:59):
That too, because it just gets to be too much.

Speaker 3 (54:03):
You know, I deal with a lot in the day,
and I hear such craziness every day, and it's so
hard not to put my fingers on there.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
And because I get in trouble all the time, I'm
always in trouble.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
And yesterday I was going through Instagram and it was
a Fox News thing and they were saying Beyonce's tickets
aren't selling, the tour is a flop, and the tour
is like ninety five percent sold out everywhere and they're
adding shows every day, and so I was like, you

(54:39):
know what.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
But then I.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
Said, Tina, you're gonna get in so much trouble. So
I was able to not have my fingers do the walking.
But it's so tempting because how does somebody just get
to lie and try to slander your name?

Speaker 2 (54:56):
Like, yeah, it's so disgusting.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
My mama do the same. This. This is who I'm
saying to you. My mama be over there, My mama
be ready to burn it down. That's right. They get
to talking about oh ts ts messing don't like women
and ts messing, heya ts message, that's a man in
a wig and this and the other. I'm gonna be
over there and I'll be like, Mama, I'll be having

(55:18):
to give up, Mama.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
Do you do you have to call me?

Speaker 3 (55:23):
I mean, they like, Mama, we're gonna take your phone,
and I'm like, y'all ain't taking nothing because I'm grown
and y'all had y'all days and I got my days.
But you know, and I understand it because they're protective
of me and they don't want people coming for me.
But listen, I told you, when you get to be
in your seventies. You don't give a ship.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
That's what my mama said, that's right.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
And if you come for me, what can you do
to me? All you can do is talk stuff.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
You know.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
It's funny because in the book I talk, I talk
about people saying, ooh that Teina know she can't keep
a man, and I'm like, I kept a man for
thirty three years and the second one for ten.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
And I can keep them as long as I want
to keep them.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
But there if there comes a time, then there comes
a time that you you know, But it's just the
things that people say that are so ridiculous and they're
so untrue, and so what are you supposed to do?
Just sit up there and let them just say anything
they want to say, right and do anything they want.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
To do to you.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
It's not cool. It's not cool. It's not cool.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
And they think and then they'll say things like, oh,
well you're a star, so you signed up for it exactly.
It's like, Nigga, I didn't sign up.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
That's right, you didn't sign up for abuse and lie, yes,
that's right. I said, God knew what he was doing,
not to make me real rich, because if I was
I'd be suing everybody. I would take them all the
court because that's the way, that's what you have to do,
because people just get so comfortable when you are trying
to mind your own business and do your own thing

(56:55):
and not be all mixed up and stuff. But I
can honest say in my life, I just mind my
own business. I wish the best for everybody. I try
to lift people up because that is what I believe
is the reason why I have the blessings that I have.
You know, yes, and so leave me alone.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
We'it fucking with me.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
That was exactly That's what I want to say.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
But I love that you addressed that in your book,
Yes about I can't about keeping the man, And I
love that you address that because you know, people get
out and they get very talkative about you know, I
don't know, no girl, I could keep a man. I
kept one for how many of you just say miss.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
The first time? Thirty three years?

Speaker 1 (57:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (57:40):
Yeah, And so how can you say that I can't
keep a man like anybody can keep a man if
they want to deal with whatever, you know. So it's
it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
There's things that they say, and at some point you
just get tired of it. You know, you just want
to let.

Speaker 3 (57:59):
Your fingers do walking, but I have to, you know,
restrain myself, especially if it's going to go back and
hurt my kids. And that's what happened. Yeah, they try
to use your AMMO to Hirschule exactly. So this book
is definitely a it's not a tell all. Is it
a tell all? No, it's just telling my story off

(58:22):
of your chest. And no, it's not even getting anything
off my chest. It became a labor of love. It
starts with my parents and how they got run out
of Louisiana and the racism that I dealt with growing up,
the insecurities, the happy times, the art, you know, just

(58:43):
just my whole life. And there are some parts about
my kids because they have been such a part of
my life.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
But I'm not telling their business.

Speaker 3 (58:51):
So if somebody thinks they're reading the book to find
out their business and the inside scoop, they're gonna be disappointed.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
It's a great book without it.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
Yes, this is the book is called Matriarch, Honey. Matriarch
means the mother of the house of all things, Mother, Mother,
ms Tina. I love you, I love you, I love
you so much. I love that you any time that
I can call for anything and you say, yeah, it's
my girl. Thank you for coming sitting with us.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Thank you, and thank you for finding out about that.

Speaker 3 (59:25):
July.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
I read that, and I read it in the book.
I read it and it was and it's because it's
so significant with me too, and it was important that,
you know, I said, I wanted does she know this? No?

Speaker 3 (59:37):
And I'm going to get on the phone soon as
I get out of here and call her and tell
her yes. But she's gonna be you know. It's things
like that that happened in my life is so interesting
because I just went back to look for my grandmother
on my daddy's side, because I never really knew my
daddy's people. I didn't meet my grandparents, but I didn't

(59:57):
know a lot of his people because they was kind
of funny stuff. But I was trying to find out
my dad's mother's name, and then I came across this
thing on ancestry, and do you know that my grandmother
and my great grandmother and my great great grandmother's middle
name was Solange. And I had no idea, so out

(01:00:21):
of all the names in the world, I chose Solange
from a French baby name book that I got in
Paris when I was like twenty six years old, and
I pulled that book out and I picked Solange out
of three hundred names and never knew that my grandmother's
name middle name was Solange.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:00:43):
Now, if that's not my ancestors talking to me, then
I don't know what is because and so many things
in my life have happened that way. It's almost like,
you know, if you I don't even understand people not
believing in God, because God is you know, he's the power,
and he puts everything together. That's a source, that's not

(01:01:04):
a cost. That was my great grandmother and my grandmother
telling me, so, Lange is the name and.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
The way that you the way that you took your
name and made it a legacy.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:01:17):
Beyonce, Yeah, because my daddy, you know, I talked about
it in the book. When I told my daddy that
I was gonna name Beyonce Beyonce, I thought he was
gonna be flattered because that's his last name. And he said, girl,
that maybe gonna be mad at you because you're naming
it a last name.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
And I was like, nobody knows. It's the last name, but.

Speaker 3 (01:01:37):
You and if he I wish that my dad could
have seen how famous that name became.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
He can see it, I can. I know he can.

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
So it got to carry the name on. Now it's
a bunch of little bat Beyonce's running around. The name
carries on, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
Yes, yeah, miss Tina. I love you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:56):
I love you too, and I enjoyed this. I'm just
talking like I'm at home, because you at home. I'm
one of your nieces, right and before you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
Go seeing, I want to gift you. I have my
own perfume line. It is called Everything. It's company called
Everything and Everything Black. This is your Yeah, it's it's simple.
It ain't like saying that's that's the company. But when
you open, I want you to open Everything Black. There's

(01:02:25):
something special in that. I want you to. I want
you to see that. It's open. Drink Come help us,
Come help her, come busting open now. We got our
nails and stuff. Open up that. Do that now, and Jeffery,
you can't have it. It's hers. I know you got
your own, but this is her. You know, this is
my Julius right here. Okay, now when you open now, okay, there,

(01:02:49):
go to my car Okay, now you flip the car over, okay,
and what it says.

Speaker 3 (01:02:54):
House of merthro Artistan luxury fragrance, made with the finest
ingredient Modern Elevate Express. And there's the man dark brown,
dark skin, light skin paige for wrestling age, bitch, I'm black.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
Yeah, love it. You know I love that because you
fluorescent beige. I love you. And that's that's that's that's
the that's the dark. That's the one you wear at night,
that's the one you wear in the daytime. Girl, I
like listen, it all depends on what time of day
you get. Eight up in the day or eight up,

(01:03:29):
and I know that's true. Get it up. Thank you
so much, queen. I love you. I love you. This
was great. And listen, make sure you tell Beyonce.

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
I'm going right on the phone right now. She's gonna
I know that's gonna touch your heart. Yeah, I've read that,
Johnny doing that. You know the picture that was at
the end. I don't know because you probably don't get
to stay to the inn.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
Okay, well you remember that photo that they put up there.

Speaker 3 (01:03:56):
So she calls me one day and she's like, Mama,
I need a picture Johnny, and I was like, THEE
I'm heading out to work, and she said, just go look,
go look, And I have all my pictures so disorganized
in like these four plastic binds. Do you know the
second being I pulled out the first bind and I
pulled out the second bind and I just opened the
top and that picture was on top.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:04:18):
And I called her and I was crying and I said,
Johnny just gave me the photo, but it's me on it.
You can just cut me off and do him because
I didn't have time to.

Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
Go through the photos.

Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
But it's so many stories like that that I know
that he is like and I could just hear him saying, yes,
you know, I told you that was going to be
and he sent that picture to me.

Speaker 1 (01:04:41):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
So the fact that she did that and didn't have
any idea and released it on that date because you know,
I only have that date because we researched it, because
I knew it was in the summer, but like I
didn't even I'm bad with years or whatever, but that
is amazing that it was that day.

Speaker 1 (01:05:02):
And I'm telling you, I read that and when I
read it, I was I was blown away because that
date changed my life too. That that changed my life,
that's true. That sent me in a different trajectory. Yeah,
it did a lot of things for me. Yes, people,
you know, because Beyonce is a person whose voice reaches

(01:05:25):
the masses and for hers and myn to mission.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
That's right. It was its history.

Speaker 3 (01:05:31):
Yes, that's gonna be history forever. And that is such
a powerful thing that you said in that. But what
why is that from?

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
That came from me ranting about me being black, me
being trans, and me being tired while being black and
trends and I gotta fight white supremacist that's right. I
gotta fight racism, and then I gotta turn around. I
gotta fight black people for not want to me the
love and I see me.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
I'm black, and celebrate and celebrate me. Bitch, I'm black,
I know that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
Bitch.

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
I'm dark brown, dark skinned, light skin, beige, fluorescing beige. Bitch,
I'm black. Wow, I'm black. I'm probably one of the
blackest motherfuckers in this place. I'm probably one of the
blackest motherfuckers in this county. Black black that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:21):
I know, that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
Black.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
So was that like a poem.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
Or was it was me renting. I was mad.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
But I'm saying, was that had that been out or
did you do it?

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
I did it on video because listen, the spirit told me.
The spirit told me, Miss Tina. The spirit told me.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
But I'm saying, did you come there?

Speaker 1 (01:06:42):
I want to tell you the spirit I was what
happened was George Floyd had got killed.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
Yeah, oh God.

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
And in the same week, the same week, they had
jumped on this trans girl.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
Her name was I remember that was everyone are right?

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
Beat it up in the gas station. The the spirit
told me, put on your afro wig bid put on
the put on his cheetah print dress, and go down
in your basement and just cuss. I cussed for about
an hour. And my engineer at the time, his name
was Oliver Twigt. He edited the video and we put

(01:07:20):
it out the YouTube.

Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
Oh so we probably saw it on your YouTube and
said that's perfect. Ye.

Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
Wow. And then a year later.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
See how that it was. That's right. That's how God works.
We all into into connected, connected, all into.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:07:43):
That's a great story. We might be some kids from
floor Miami, Miami. From listen, we all colored, so we're
from the same place everywhere. Yeah, we came from the
same the same place. I love you, Love you to this.

Speaker 4 (01:07:59):
I'm Outlaws is a production of the Outspoken Network from
iHeart Podcasts and Turtle Run Entertainment Call. Created by Tyler
Rabinowitz and Olivia Peace, I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:08:16):
Your host Tias Madison. We are executive produced by Tyler Rabinowitz,
Maya Howard and Tias Madison. Our supervising producer is Jessica
Krincch and our producers are Joey pat and Carmen Morel.
Our video editor is Tyler Rabinowitz and our sound editor
is Just Crimechicch. Our associated producer is Trent high Tower

(01:08:37):
Special thanks to our producer's assistant, Daniel Rabinowitz. Our theme
song is composed by Wazi merrit Our show art is
by Pablo Martin. Day not Catch you next week, Honey,