QLS Classic: Maya Rudolph

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Of Course Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
Ladies and gentlemen, you're in for a treat. This is
Quels classic, the very first ever Quest Love Supreme episode
with Maya Rudolph So awkward. Um. Actually, small tidbit, this

(00:25):
is technically our second episode. We had a pilot episode
that've never made it to hair back when Unpaid Bill
was a guest on the show because he was a
producer of an unknown play called Hamilton's and Sesame Street.
He was our first guest, but I don't know, the
vibe was so good we actually kept Unpaid Bill got
rid of this episode. So yes, My Rudolph is our

(00:46):
first episode, and uh, it's really crazy and awkward. We
learned a lot, a hell of a lot. I hope
you enjoyed my Rudolph LS classic. Here we go two,
No dust Suprema, Suprema, rod call, Suprema, So Suprema. Role

(01:10):
called suprema So so Suprema. Roll call, suprima, so Suprema
roll Call. My name is Quest Love. Yeah, my name's
not RB. Yeah. And with this radio show, yeah, it's
nineteen Suprema so Suprema road called Suprema so suprima roll. Call.

(01:34):
My name is Sponte. Yeah, I drank brass monkey. Yeah
it wasn't never I played. Yeah. Road called Suprema Suprema
road called Suprema su Suprema road. Call. Her name is Sugar, Yeah,
Sugar Steve. Yeah, I can't canny. Yeah, so I eat.

(01:58):
Call Suprema supreme that's good. Supremathing sthing Suprema road. Call.
My name is Bill, Yeah, I got first deb Yeah.
I'm fucking tired because I got kids. Called Suprema Suprema
road called Suprema Suprema road. Call my handboss Bill, Yeah,

(02:24):
I listen to prince. Yeah, I've got so many holes. Yeah,
don't make no sense. Suprema road called Suprema Suprema road called.
My name is Maya. Yeah I am not mean. Yeah,
I am not a nightmare. Yeah, I am a queen.

(02:45):
Ro call Suprema Suprema road called Suprema s Suprema road
called Suprema su su Suprema road called Suprema uh, Suprema
role called Suprema Suprema role called souprima Supremo role called

(03:10):
Suprema Suprema role called so prima suprema. Role call ladies
and gentlemen, boys and girls, Uh, people of all ages, creeds, colors,
whatever you claim in life. This is quest love supreme.
As if I needed another thing to do in life.

(03:32):
So on today show, we're joined by the incompartable Maya Rudolph.
You probably know her from her time on Saturday Night Live.
She was in the movies Bridesmaids. She has her own
NBC variety show called The Maya Marty Show. UM. A
lot of the other projects she's been involved with, and
of course, uh you know, she's the the offspring of

(03:55):
Mighty Musical uh pairing of Minnie Riverton and Dick Rudolph. Um,
and she's connected to a lot more people in the
music community. UM. So we'll be getting into that. So
I don't know, like what we talk about. Did we
talk about music? Did we talk about life? That's talk
about life man music for a little bit, because they

(04:15):
speaking to talk about music. You know what I'm saying, Like,
let's talk about how's life? How how's life going? Life
is going on in North Carolina where I reside, it's
going cool. Uh. You know, I'm about to take a
new step forward in my life. I'm about to start
na oh, no, I ain't getting married, but look on

(04:38):
your faces, like I ain't done that. I mean, I
got it. I got a lady and like we're talking
about getting married. But you know, I ain't doing this
ship tomorrow, you know. But if I let y'all know
when I do it, well, well we might do a
quest of supreme on site those with out here broadcast

(05:00):
from there, yeah, broadcast from the win. So I'm not
ain't getting mad, just thinking about my health man, Like
I'm setting a lot of my homies man, like they
are dying from like you know, old man diseases, like
the young cats that's dying from ship, like gout. And
it's like how to get the gout at thirty five?
You know what I mean? Like the gout? Do you

(05:20):
know the gut you're feeling with the gout? The gout,
the gout? Yeah, yeah, wait, why are you looking at
the gout? I don't have to look that up that Yeah,
it's like it's something saying you have gout. I don't know,
probably got you're scared you can fit in and shoose

(05:41):
you you ain't got got the guy hit you in
your feet or you are like size yeah thirteen, he
got the gut. Let's just go ahead. Yeah. So now
I've been taking something about to start a new like
health regiment. Man, and uh when are you gonna start?

(06:02):
But I was gonna start earlier, but I got called
due to fucking radio show Chicken and who turning that down? Uh? No, man,
I'm good. So I'm gonna start doing like more juicing, uh,
doing like smoothies, Uh more raw vegetables. Um, you know
what I'm saying. I got like one of my I

(06:22):
G holes on Scamra the scammer holes and selling waste trainers.
I'm gonna get one of them probably, And she's selling
detox T and ship you know what I mean. I
might give me some of that, you know, very yes,
right yeah yeah abbreviation And then I realized that one
of your jings. Oh yeah yeah. Now man, I'm just

(06:47):
making some changes. Man. I want to stick around. I've
I've always like been hell, I've never had no health
issues and nothing like that, So I want to keep
it that way. It's important because you know, back when
we were twenty, our main concern was bullets in the
club and in the parking lot. And now like that
we're in our forties. The new concern is bullets in

(07:07):
the driver's seat, right man, listen, come on that too,
and uh strokes, so you know that's not stroke. Ye
I lost the buddy, Uh dead out to a stroke.
Um he was I'm thirty seven. He was thirty Eightyes,
he ahead of me. He had multiple myeloma, beat multiple

(07:28):
my aloma and died of an angrysm Okay, yeah, I
was just gonna say, next week we're only doing salads
like wheat, grass and ship. How's it going, Steve? I mean,
it's like he's talking. I mean, we're talking about strokes,
right were really start himself on a very unhappy note.

(07:50):
I'm laughing, could not laugh. I'm like, look, I'm happy
just to be, you know, alive right now, very moment.
What a time it's alive and the words of great
Negro poet future. Wait what about the other one? Oh
and Rake all yeah, yeah yeah Drake as well. Not
many people know all right, for our listeners out there, Um,

(08:14):
if you know, I mean, if if, if, if investigated,
you will see that Fontigelo is kind of Drake spirit animal.
I mean he's going on record to say that uh
Fante is one of his favorite cats ever, and then
he kind of secretly wishes that he was in Little Brother. So,
I mean, you guys can do your research. And I

(08:36):
know he don't. He didn't say that to you. Look
at the pubs and check to be like, nah, I
don't want to be a little Brother. You know you
guys are you guys are an inspiration believe it or not.
Oh no, no, yeah, I'm aware. And the games they
tell us, they tell you know, it's all good. It's
all good. I know. I know you feel like our
influence wasn't there, But I swear to you I've only listened.

(08:57):
I mean, I get a lot of yo people, people
doing real quick let me know, you know what you
think of it, whatever, whatever, um, But you know I'm
just on general. I don't do that because I don't
want to be there for the law. I don't want
to be susceptible to like a lawsuit. I mean that's big.

(09:17):
But you know, I'll say maybe four or five times
I've had a situation where it was like, Okay, there's
something special about this, let me peep this blow was
one of them. Slum Village was one of them. Jill
Scott was one of them. Little Brother was one of them.

(09:37):
Cody Chestnut, those five are It was like, okay, I'm
not going to use this as a drink coaster. I'm
gonna actually some told me to listen to this and
it was on right right wait was it you? Yeah,
he gave it to it. But then I actually get
in the rain in the rain at Duke but uh yeah,

(09:58):
well you it was a coaster. I remember a little
brother because no, no, no, I felt bad. All right,
it started raining. This is a duke, this is a duke.
This is like two thousand. Chronology came out two thousand
to We did our annual like we were doing Duke

(10:19):
on the regular. It was like the fifth year in
a row we did Duke, and um uh it started raining,
and one of our members of the group, who will
remain nameless, uh kind of you know, through a fit
about getting electrocuted and I'm walking on stage. Uh, And

(10:41):
so I felt like we should stop because you know,
maybe we won't get electrocuted. But I'm the type of
person that I actually want to play on. But I
felt bad, so I figured, let me just go on
the audience and shake some hands. Something I never do,
Like I'm not saying like I'm the avoid my crowd
as you know you've been paying play, was like, yeah
about job, don't get along. So I went to shake

(11:01):
as and then you said yo, and yes you told
me about little brother. I didn't keep yeah man version
because I custom to hell out so wrong. Well, it
was It's just one of those things where you just
don't know the future, so you kind of you know,
so at the time, y'all were gonna give up. No no, no,

(11:22):
no no, and I wanted to give up. We were
just doing records, and you know, putting stuff on the
internet was still kind of new at that time. So
he quote unquote bootleg ship and by putting us up
on the net, by leaking it early. And so I
sent him a a a highly emotional inbox player. It

(11:42):
was the emotions was high. What I'm gonna see you ni,
I'm woulda take a plane at lant It was, it
was real, it was, it was. It was just the
heat was coming offboard side. Note I want had a
message with my mom machine you know who brings child next. Yeah,

(12:07):
one of these things we got to talk about the
time he called me at work he rang out, what
did you say to make it one of you? We'll
talk about this in another episode. We bring it here,
I tell you piece now because actually we made peace
at Brooklyn Ball like one night he was there. We
were both. He remembered, Yeah, he remembered who is like

(12:30):
you are his shrug Jay almost, I don't know. Yeah,
yo is glad that the school man like all the
cats you see popping out and tell you it all
started with okay player, like all the hot podcasters, the
like the mood, it all started, okay player. If you
could survive the lessons or general discussion, you can make

(12:52):
it anywhere, like, yeah, this is this is a result
of this is the result. Yeah, this is a resultant.
So yeah, so our first count was me cussing them
the funk out because see it gave my ship out.
So yeah, but I didn't know at the time that
that was how music was gonna be. Like you just
give the ship out. And you know, I mean you're
pioneer because I mean with fruity loops and you starting

(13:13):
foreign exchange. You know, you didn't even meet nicolay Nick
like when you started out were met in a lesson,
you know, me and Nick met in a lesson. He
posted the beat and was like, Yo, this is a
new beat by mean what y'all think. I was like, Yo,
this is dope. You mind if I do something to it?
He was like cool. So we just started trading files
back and forth and so we were and this is

(13:35):
before this is even before like Gmail, so you couldn't
send big files. So we would be sending it through
instant Messenger and uh, she was in the Netherlands. I
was in Durham at the time, and we did the
whole record just through email and sending You are just
the group without even having met each other. Yeah, we hadn't.
We didn't meet until the record was done and BB
had put it out and they brought us together like

(13:55):
to do some promo ship and that was when we
first met face to face. Pioneer. Pioneer, let's hear it
for getting cutted out for Bill and for for making
commitments on the internet. Going down to the story so
your original going down to the d M. It was, man,
it went all the way to down in d M.

(14:16):
D MS got me a record deal, DM got me
a radio show. Wow, I'm on my way. That's amazing.
So to all the people listening. Your dream could be
in your d M. Is that girl that you scared
of holiday send her a picture, but not a dick
pick because that's disturbing. But just you know, say hey
to us, send us something nice. You know what I'm saying. Yeah,
you know what I mean? And just hey, shoot your shot,

(14:37):
shoot a shoot, not literally, Bill Sherman, how are the
muppets doing fucking fantastic? So I was life on Sesame Streets,
great man, big bird, everybody's live give for season two,
Season two, season forty eight. Well, I mean now that
do you have a new home, like, do you consider No, No,

(15:00):
it's still see I've been there sin season forty so yeah, wow,
that's incredible. Uh, congrats on all your Hamilton's success. Yeah,
but I just feel like I just told you guys

(15:21):
to turn up and eq certain things and pants stuff.
But I believe you said that. Then we high fives,
and that was all my job, So it's all good.
Well yeah, I mean, but you were really like barking orders,
and you know, I was like, I didn't like that
vocal take, sir, And that's sort of like you were.
I was. I was studying you, you know, I was
observing closely. Here we are, Yeah, here we are. So

(15:41):
what are your future plans after? You know? I mean
I don't think Hamilton's mania will ever die down. Well,
you know, a movie is gonna have to come eventually.
That's how you're going to get your Oscar. Yeah, if
it's good, you'll get your Oscar that way. If yeah,
if I work on it, I don't know. Yeah, every
one the thing about the oscars, everyone's convinced that it's

(16:02):
just like this inevitability in my life. Like they just
throw that ship out the window and I'm just catching it.
I mean, you're motivating me, Like, what are you doing
a movie? We're gonna do the Hamilton documentary. There you go,
let's start. You're motivate me. Man, I gotta get I
gotta get your Oscar. No, you're not Oscar, You're Grammy,
and I'm a close call you Emmy, right yeah. Um No,

(16:24):
it's it's like I hear that I have a daytime
Emmy for this project I did six years ago, but
I haven't collected. A matter of fact, I'm the only
Hamilton's that hasn't got my Grammy yet. Yeah. If anyone
knows where my Black Messiah Grammy is and my Hamilton Grammy.

(16:48):
I'd be very appreciative. Like right now, they're two Grammy's
out there with my name on it. That just just
for those listening. If you go to quest Love's house
and you have to go to the bathroom him, you
will find all the other Grammys. My Grammys are. I
keep him in the bathroom. I keep it on display
in the hallway out there and fantastic and it's a
paper weight and in here in this room. I want

(17:11):
to be like quest Low when I grow up, I
could use Grammys. It's goddamn paper weights. Dude, everyone does that.
John Legend like broke four of his Grammys, Kanye the
nineteen Jake, like no one displays the Grammys, like even
Michael Jackson's American Music Awards and Grammys are still in
that Michael Jackson. Sweet at Disney World, Ladies and gentlemen,

(17:31):
please give it up for miss Maya. Rudolph. Yeah, Maya,
thank you, thank you for joining us. Thank you. You
know everyone here you've worked with Fante Actually, um, yeah,
we both got fired from the same show. You guys

(17:57):
got fired, or why don't they need to get fired?
They were never aired. It was Brothers in Atlanta. We
shot in Atlanta, written by Riddle formerly The Tonight Show,
and uh yeah, man. She played a character and she
absolutely killed it. She played a character named Charley who
was a nineties R and B singer. But she was

(18:19):
like the watched up nineties on me. She was like
Mary j never had a hit after my life, Like
she was like a Dina Howard. Actually wait, I take
that back, because Dina Howard was recently, as of this recording,
still trending on Twitter and she came back with T
shirt in my panties on so maybe she was more
like she was like Gina Thompson, like okay, I mean

(18:42):
but and so I had to write songs. Uh wrote
fantastic songs. Thank you so much and said you were
her songwriter? Yeah, I was. You were Puffy, I was
the puff. I was the puff. Were you clean or like,
how where was your character? Where my character was? Well?
I was well outside the show like in the real world.
I wrote the songs for and like me and Sunday Cruise.

(19:04):
Sunday Cruise, you had two big hits. Her big hits
with Sunday Cruise, which was like the knockoff Saturday Love,
and then psych which was like her big nineties bank
head bounce in Atlanta and so then like that was
pretty much what it was. And so that was in
like the real world. But then in the show, I
played Andre and I was one of her background dancers
that toured with her, and I had we had to

(19:27):
learn coreo. We had to learn like coreo to dance. Yeah,
I mean I can dance, but it was you know,
we still had to learn some ship. Yeah. So that
was my first time working with her, and uh, I
knew her work, but I had never met her before.
And what we mets, she exceeded my expectations total sweetheart,
had a lot of fun on set. Uh, we met

(19:47):
keep Swet. I don't know if that was your first
time we met keep Swat. I got financial yesterday. I
was good. I was just fixing my prescription in my
glasses and he came in like and he he has
that like the way that he dances like an arch.
I know, we're radio, so I can't exactly describe, right,
but he even walks like he's doing the whop like

(20:08):
a half while man like. Yeah, he talked just like
he's saying yeah, he said, ye man, yesterday, Yeah, so
that was that, that was Atlanta. That was the last
time we did that. And yeah, man, she just told
so the company didn't love a show that's associated with
the pilot. It was a pilot, we shot a pilot.
She but doesn't every pilot kind of sort of suck,

(20:30):
with the exception of the Sopranos, Like, what what pilot?
I didn't suck? You know, the pilot was hilarious. That
was even more surprising to me, Like, you know, but
I don't know why. I think it doesn't always have
to do with whether it's good or not. Honestly, I
think it's whatever's on their slater who knows trying not
to pay attention. If I did, I'd be too depressed

(20:50):
to ever work again. So you're saying you get your
heart broken often, Really, I think everybody I'd figure like
right now, you're just well, I guess perception depending on
who's watching it. Well I do. I have changed my
attitude about it so that I don't get my heartbroken.

(21:11):
But you've got an occasional no, and we're going to
give this role to someone else. Oh yeah, I think
that happens all the time. It's part of the you know,
it's part of the dystopian world of of being a performer.
I think so even now as a well established well,

(21:31):
I mean, there's always something I don't think about it.
I remember, I remember the very first time I got
cut I got cut out of the first anchor man,
and I was devastated. It was so fun and I
basically played like an Angela Davis bank robber. Hilarious. Yeah,
you and Chuck d and Chuck d we were bank robbers.

(21:52):
How did you see it? It got really Yeah. I
put it out as like its own movie because it
was like fifty minutes of footage O that was like, like,
wake up, it's hilarious. And that was the first time,
like I was ever in something that I could not
wait to be, like, to show off about and be
proud of being a part of. And all these guys

(22:12):
that were my heroes and my I was new on
us to know, new ish, but it was a big deal.
And so you just had to take Will and uh
Adams worried that or you trusted not trusted. Sometimes that
happens with the directors like you and then I and
then I remember at the time I was heartbroken, and

(22:32):
I talked to Paul about it. Who's all you know
already was already like hardened and grizzled by the wait.
We're trying to we're trying to maintain. Listen, I don't
even want to add this because I want you to
know that, you know, we're trying to maintain like a

(22:58):
professor with the core and are but like as Maya speaks,
like all this construction, we try to make a jicken
because I've had complaints. I've had complaints that I've I've
not fed my family here at Course Love Supreme. So
now I go way out and I've ordered the motherload

(23:20):
of Korean fried chicken that we cannot eat. Yes, well,
you know what it's It's kind of weird because first
of its mad for chicken, then it was Mamafuku, and
now it's turntable chicken. Like it's the same. It's a speakeasy.
Have you heard of the spot? Yeah, it's a speakeasy
spot where it's a Korean restaurant. Um, but you go in,

(23:44):
it's it's like it's hidden on top of a pizza spot.
And then what's really weird about it is that the
music they play there is a very specific type of
soul music. It's like right up your alley. It's like
Marvin C's Oh they playing Lookout Ship, Yes, Roy c Richard,

(24:07):
Dimple Fields. Yeah, it's a very special like Frankie Beverly Amazed.
It's to that's it's just too that's too like down
home blues. Yeah, yeah, yeah, hell yeah yeah. At first

(24:30):
when I went there, when I went there, I didn't
know how to feel, because first of all, it was
like you go there and you know, like in the
movie when you go in the alleyway and the little
slide door things, you only see the eyes, Like what's
the password? Like back then, you have to have a password.
And this place is open till seven in the morning.
And this is Despight you go to after you party
all night in New York from four a m. Till

(24:51):
about eight am. It's on like it's overcrowded. So even
my quest Loveness couldn't just get me in. I had
to know the password. What was the password? I forgot?
I mean this is like back when it was Man
for Chicken. It was like five years ago. Yeah, what's
the password number? One? So the point was that when
I walked in. I first of all, to be told

(25:15):
that their brand or fried chicken was better. The way
the person described it was like better than your mama's
or your grandma's. So I already felt some sort of way.
And then to see the the the cosmetic view of
what I was watching. I was the only black person
in there, but they were playing Richard Dimple's fields and

(25:37):
explained like that, we have to be specific. There's a
specific type of soul music that like you only hear
south of the miss and Dixon line. It is like
Malaco Records, like has it. It's like the Melaco Records
Greatest Hits, like the box set. Like so you're growing
up in North Carolina, Like you've heard Marvin's Cease all

(25:57):
the time. Oh my god, man, Mom and Sees was
a legend. Marvin C's his son follows me on Instagram
like Marve life goals. So you and Marven's's son we
kicked it. So Marvin C's for for the listeners. That's
the kind of just giving that. Okay, there's a song
called Candy Liquor. Okay, and this was a song that Okay,

(26:21):
the genre of looker house music, it generally falls under
what we formerly called your southern soul and blues. So
you have these guys that are like, you know, Marvin
C's um, you know, regidmates Fields, Roy c uh zz Hill,
Like Brain said, you know, these are just guys that
were kind of like the underground rappers. They were like

(26:43):
the two Shorts and then oh mansors of that. So
they were like kind of like the underground rappers of
the soul scene. You didn't really stuff on the radio
like that, but when you went to the little clubs
a little like speakeasies, the you know, it's a little
hole in the wall joints, that's where you hear their records.
And so Marvin Season particularly had a record that is
being called Candy, Liquor and Candy. Look I got it
was about Oh, it's not liquor like you drink. Oh

(27:06):
you ain't on this one. It's not We gotta play
it right now, man, can we? Okay, I'm not shame
no more. Have you ever heard that I want to do?
This was actually me and my mom danced this my mom.

(27:31):
Candy just makes sense. Yeah, I'm not a shame. I
want to be your candy girl. Wait wait, blowfly, very
blow fly, heavy breathing. Why not. I think he might

(27:55):
be doing that for real in the studio. I want
to I don't feel like that wheezing is exactly okay,
yeah he had it inhale it next a little. I'm not, well,
that's clear. And this song is like ten minutes heavy breathing,

(28:25):
and Jesus christy it's nine minutes. And what does he
want to remind you that? Just pull out game strong.
I can pack it out side. This is the type

(28:46):
of soul music they would play. And I didn't know
how to feel, being the only black man and uh
a Korean establishment. Uh. And they were serving fried chicken
only and playing this music. But I ordered a lot
and was there every other night, okay every night. I'm sorry.

(29:08):
So this is the this is the place. This is
the speakeasy. Yes, now known as Turntable Chicken, but formally
Man for the Plus Man. Well, no, I'm just saying,
we're tying in all my lives, like you know, the
foodie now, I'm bringing in the foodie world and the world.
See that's how we do it anyway, uh maya, uh,

(29:29):
I kind of want to start in chronological order. Um,
of course we know that the powerful lineage that you
come from. Uh being as though your father is uh
Richard Rudolph or Dick Rudolf, Like professingly was he Richard Rudolf?
For my whole childhood he was Dick Rudolph. But I
think every record said Richard. But everyone's like, your dad

(29:50):
has Dick Rudolph. Okay, I didn't know like he became Richard.
Like once he became like you know, when he was
like fifty, he started telling everybody's name's Ricardo. We don't
know why. I think he was raised in Miami, so
he thinks he's part of Cuban, but he's he's Jewish.
So where where were you born? Gainesville, Florida because my

(30:11):
parents were my parents were in Chicago. My mom was
sick of Chicago, and my parents met in Chicago because
my dad was managing what was it called the Electric
Electric Playground, I think it was. It was it was
a club. It was one of those clubs that was
like I forgot what my dad called it. But they
were on those circuits like if you go to a

(30:32):
little like different boutiques they have, you know, um, they
sell the tickets for these like bands that would go
in like packs of two and three. Like led Zeppelin
would go play this place in Chicago and this place
in San Francisco and this other place, and my dad
was managing the one in Chicago kind of like the
House of Blues of the sixties. Yeah, like yeah, like smash,

(30:54):
you know. The it was very sixties, like what are
those things called, like the trippy like small color thing
where people like, yeah, you know, they like the visual
stuff of like groovy liquids and ship different colors. Yeah,
And and I think I think it was very corrupt,

(31:15):
like the bodyguards were like black belt at like some
karate places. It was it was something about it was
very corrupt and bad. And I know that. He said
he like went to deposit the money one night, and
like when he drove back, it was it was burning down.
He thought it was like an inside job or something.
But I met my mom there when she was in

(31:36):
the rotary connection, and he said, and I quote him,
they met on the steps and she was at the
top of the steps and he was at the bottom.
And then he got it was he like he got
way too into it. And I was like, I don't
care about the story. You're still my parents, Like yeah,
but they like saw each other. So they were living
in Chicago. They had my brother there who's four years
older than me, and it was still Chicago then, like

(32:01):
this is late sixties. My dad had like a long
ponytail and had to tuck it in his jacket to
hide from the landlady. And they had to like hide
my my mom and my brother because they were black,
and so they just got tired of it, I think,
and then they were like looking for places to go
because my mom had just had it with Chicago and
in the hot Yes, so it's always been Chicago, has

(32:26):
always been in Chicago, like it's never not been Chicago.
I don't know where they lived exactly. I know my
mom grew up in the South Side, but I don't
know where my parents lived at the time with my brother,
and then they had friends that lived in this little
Gainesville was gains was a college town, so it was
like quiet and a bunch of because we only lived
there for about a year. Also here that it's the

(32:48):
music capital of Florida. Yeah, Tom Petty, it is from there,
um and who else? My first show there was half
the roots. Only of us made it, and because we
needed the money, we still did it, Like I drummed,
Rosel did all the music with his mouth and tweaked,
rhymed for an hour and a half and they're like, dude,

(33:11):
does the music Capital of Florida. We've never seen anything,
you know. So that's where I learned the history of
Canesville was that the Lesbian Sex Act show No no, no,
that that everyone gets. There's there's a four famous lesbian
sex Act uh show that we did under an alis
at New Eurekan Cafe in New York. It was common Trek.

(33:38):
We just needed a name to make up because we
couldn't be the roots playing a free gig at the
New Urekan Cafe. So we made up Lesbian Sex Act
and that got butts and seats. Yes, we viewed some
things fall apart songs then, but this is before then.
But uh yeah, So you only did a year in Cainesville,
just a year, and then they drove out to h

(33:59):
l A because m well, there's an actual story that
I should know, like all the names of but a
guy came from Capital and felt like my mom thanked him.
I remember, I can't remember guys name, but she was like,
thank you just so and so for coming like coming
Rescue Me from the Gators. So he she had she
had been on chess, you know, so she was a teenager.
She worked at Chess Records when she was in high school. Um,

(34:22):
and she sang in the Gems, which was the girl
group she did well. Andrew Davis was My cousin's name
is Andrew. That's why she was Andrew Davis. But I
don't know. But Andrew Davis had her own like solo single. Um,
Lonely Girl is what the one I know? And then um,
but she also did back up for stuff and the

(34:42):
only thing I know about that she's not credited for.
But weirdly, like when I was in college, my dad
was like, we just got a royalty check for Rescue
Me the Fontela bass song, So my mom's singing on that.
Like she would basically, you know, be the receptionist and
then if they needed back up, she'd run upstairs and
do you back up? And then still like man the

(35:03):
desk quest Love Supreme Trivia moment. Bill, when we first met,
I'm sorry, boss Bill, not unpaid Bill, Boss Bill. Uh.
When we first met, I think you caught the copy
of Thrust by Herbie Hancock. How do you remember that anything,

(35:24):
who's the lady on taxi stupid? Yeah? Mary, I kind
of have a Mary Lou Hitter musical memory. I mean
I can tell you, like, you know, the amount of
times that people mispelled the word on Sultry scramble Board,
But I can't remember to show up one time to
like my own radio show. So it's like, you know,
it's a infancing No, I'm very imperfect. We're here when

(35:48):
I got here, you know, because they they de angeluded me.
Um however. Yeah, but my point was that that I
copped uh three Andrea Dave forty five in Chicago the
first day I met Bill. So we're connected. We're connected already,

(36:10):
we're connected. So you guys uh went to l A. Yeah,
that's just weird because now if I want to find somebody,
I could stalk them on the internet or social media. Yeah.
I don't know how we found how we found her
then and then the then the other part of the
so we went, we moved to Laurel Canyon, and then
my mom's like she was set on Stevie Wonder. She

(36:33):
wanted to find Stevie Wonder. Wait, we there's one crucial thing.
We never said your mom's name, yet maybe we might
want to do that your mother, Okay, so her mother
of course. UH. For those listening to quest left supreme
only on pandor UH is many ripton Uh considered to

(36:59):
be one of the finest UH vocalists of all time.
What was her What was her octave range? I've heard five?
You know this was She died in the seventies, so
we have no way of proving any of it. There's
no There's a lot of folklore behind it, for sure.
But I've heard five, which is a lot more than

(37:21):
I let's just seven. Let's say, hey, sessions reality. I mean,
people will say it and then people will believe it true.
We can set it. We can set the record. Now,
seven octave range. I've actually read seven octaves before I've
read I've read that. I'll be honest, I don't, you know,
I don't. I hear so many things I can't. You

(37:41):
probably know more than I do. I know she can
go high. But how what was her low register like?
Because in order to really be five octave range that
I don't know, you know, your base game has to
be on point. Well, I'm low, I'm nothing but low,
and nobody really has her voice, and our family except
her speaking voice. My Auntie Sandra got her speaking voice

(38:02):
her her older sister. She was really close to um
who who's still around, one of her only siblings that's
still around. And she sounds a lot like my mom
when I talked her on the phone. But she doesn't sing.
I mean, I think when she does, she probably has
some of that in there, but I don't know anybody
else in the family who has it. My mom's brother

(38:24):
was a horn player, but siblings. She was the youngest
of eight south Side Chicago, youngest of eight, so she
needed to leave. Oh, he's waiting for an inappropriate comment
from Farnton. It was not. Well, it wasn't. But now

(38:46):
that's the time. I mean, that makes sense because that
was back in the day. Like, well, no, this is true.
My grandfather was a pullman porter, and you know they
always said that pullman porter has always had like you know,
he he worked for the railroad. So do I say
he had he might have had more kids. Importers go
from one place. Well I know that back then, I mean,
at least with farmhouse mentality. The thing is that you

(39:08):
have a lot of kids so that you can have
hands to to work on your farm or Jackson's or
you know, however you however you want to put it. Um. So,
what was your first cognizant memory of of music? Yeah,

(39:28):
just of the environment you grew up in. Like you
don't remember that Soul Train episode what you were crying
doing your mom's interview segment. M I don't remember it,
but I remember that all that that era for me was.
I mean, we were on the road with my parents
most of the time until I started school. So I
mean when we were a little little sometimes they go

(39:48):
out on the road and they take us with them,
but pretty much, especially when I was a baby, I
think my mom went out on the road for a
minute and then she called my dad. She was like,
you have to come with me. I can't. I can't
be without the baby and without you guys. And so
we were on the road a lot. And I remember
being in a room with my parents, like I remember
somebody lost a tooth in like some town with a

(40:11):
casino and we got like a chip or something, you know,
like I remember like sound check to me, it's like
I think it was it was me or my it
was me me or my brother, like a bar fight
or something. I know, like like the normal things that
happened to a kid. But the tooth Fairy brought me
like a casino chip because we were in like Lake
Taco or something. But like like being on the road

(40:33):
was very normal. And then like, um, seeing my mom, Yeah,
like being being in studios, being backstage, and like seeing
my mom before the show, like before the audience was there.
All that is like tied together as one kind of
large memory. Really yeah, what would the world be like

(41:08):
if everyone saw with their hearts instead of their eyes?
I guess it would be like your smile, one innocent
and color that love I wish every year of the
year and the child so so do I have the

(41:35):
things you learn on Quest Love Supreme? Your own quest
Amy father? This just got real. Um, this is why
we don't need to pay on paid. How are you

(41:56):
doing well? Let's explain. Uh wait for those just tuning in,
Uh is my rootolph? Uh So we just played too
many colors on Tina Marie's second album, Lady t And
uh I always knew of that song, never knew that
that was you. You have to listen to the very end.

(42:19):
I know that song, but I never knew that was
you and what's like there was this a string of
seventy soul songs where like somebody went in part like
this wisdom w a kid like you and on cool
the Gang's uh wild and peaceful together at once, you
know cool? Well, young Timmy. Like the thing was, now

(42:48):
that I know that's you, I feel like you draw
from her, Like I I now see you channeling that
seventies soul energy and you're acting when you do any
singer that you do, the way that you talk like

(43:09):
I see you channeling that. Do you channel that moment
or I'm not not consciously? I mean my dad when
I wasn't around the studio that my dad did that
record because you know, we didn't have like babysitters and
stuff then. So I would just like spend a lot
of time. I remember when he was writing behind he
helped right behind the groove and he lets sell the
story like I would sit in the passenger seat and

(43:31):
like he would with a legal pad and you would say,
like write this down, and I would like write down
the lyrics for him. A Zanna, do did you know
that with the X because of the movie, Um, I
don't know. I don't think I've ever in the years
I've known you ever really never like thoroughly discussed your

(43:52):
mom's exit from this this particular plane. But I definitely
know that, uh that was the that's the first time
that I had to deal with, Uh, I guess loss.
Like my parents used your mom's passing as a way

(44:14):
to explain to me what death was. Yeah, because I mean,
if that's how seven seven, I was eight years old.
Um So even though my grandmam passed when I was five,
like I you know, I they never told me or
sat me down explained to be like, Okay, this is

(44:35):
what death is. And da dada. So sense too, because
it's also like easier to like explain it about someone
that's like, you know, like, oh, ship, what are we
going to tell him grandma died? Then we're like, you're like, oh,
make good stuff up. But then if it's like, Okay,
we're sad because this thing happened and we have to explain,
like I had to explain why the Freedom Tower was
there yesterday my five year old son and explain why

(44:56):
the buildings were gone, and I just said it very
like you know, it's simply in as matter of fact
that he could handle it. Yeah, he was like, why
did they do that? Well, but yeah, maybe because it
wasn't someone personal, but but personally in a different way.
You know, your relationships, the music is personal. So that's
that period in the summer of seventy nine. I mean,

(45:18):
was your father working on this album as that was
happening on My dad wasn't working on the record. Then
he met Tina later. She was a big fan of
my mom's. I don't know how they can seventy July twelve,
seventy nine, but she had recorded her last record and
didn't finish it when she died, so posthumously. Then my
dad then then he went in the studio and had

(45:39):
That's when I got to meet the Jackson's because like
people would come and play stuff on each song. Michael
was on a I'm in love again, remember my dad.
I remember one of the I don't remember who was
somebody one of the Jackson's helping with my math homework
and I was like, Jackson helped me with my fourth
grade math homework And it wasn't Michael. No, Michael was
too shy. Michael Michael. They were in the studio and

(46:02):
they were friendly. Michael was really shy, and my dad
gave him, like I remember, he gave him like a
Pittsburgh Pirates hat because my dad it's from Pittsburgh originally.
But I but I that's how I can't remember, like
people were coming in, you know, he was putting stuff
on songs with different people. It's such a blurry time
to me. It's you know, now that I have a
daughter who's about she was, she's the age my daughter,

(46:24):
Lucy's the age that I was when my mom died.
Right now, she's six and a half, she's almost seven.
It's so fascinating as an adult to see that person.
She's she's so into me, she's so into her mommy.
But she's a kind of a baby still, like in
a lot of ways. And so my my memory it's like,
you know, because my mom was my mom, people asking

(46:45):
about her a lot, but my memories are from a
child's brain, so it's really warped. And I always talk
about magical thinking. There's like a lot of my memory
that's like a little bit make believe because that's how
kids cope, you know. You know what I remember about
that record, that last album um Stevie wanted his autograph

(47:08):
was his thumb prints. I would the first time I
ever got in trouble with playing with matches, Like, I
get it. I get a big pen, then light the
ink so that can spill on the table, and SI
put my thumb frint in just thumbprint everything because yeah,
because Stevie did it. Yeah, I was impressionable that way.

(47:29):
And I also noticed that Michael had an immaculum pamanship
on his autograph on that album because his dad probably
go in um. Yeah. So just that that transition period too,
it's also transitioning from seventy nine leaving the eighties, leaving

(47:53):
the eighties. It's such a trippy, it's such a trippy
era to have such an imprint on my life. If
the seventies is is everything, I mean, how did you cope?
Like did you have big sister figures? And well, who
was there to sort of feel that void or just

(48:13):
who was there for you to leave? Really just my
dad and my brother honestly, And I mean we were
the only ones that lived in la because everybody we
came to l A. My dad's family was in Miami,
my mom's family was in Chicago. We were the only
ones like out there. We were kind of on our own.
So you know, when I come from, like, you know,
pretty big families, but everybody was somewhere else. I'm kind

(48:36):
of a disconnection in a lot of ways, especially because
she she was the only one that was like in
the entertainment business and her family which always as you know,
with death and fame and all that, that all just
becomes so strange when people people die, it's it makes
it makes family even you know, you know how how

(48:58):
it is. I know it's so. I mean, you're dad,
obviously my dad, My dad raised us. It was so
my dad. I cannot believe, like he was in the
studio all night while like our housekeeper was like sleeping
at the house so that there was someone in the
house with us, and then he'd get up in the morning,

(49:18):
make my lunch, pack my bag, send me off to
school if he wasn't the one that was driving me
as I got older, because that's what I remember, and
then go back to bed. Where did you go to school?
I went to high school in Santa Monica, school called
Crossroads that was like a Lady Aready school. I was
gonna say, it was, so when did you realize that
you did? You always have a talent? Were you always

(49:39):
singing around the house. I didn't know I was. I
was saying, I was just like a handbone. Like, don't
like always doing shows like my kids do, not like
always doing a show. My brother was always playing sports.
I was always doing a show. So for you, was
it like I'm going to be a singer or yeah?
I think I wasn't an actress. I think it was
a combo in my head of But I don't know

(50:00):
where the comedy came from. Because my dad says that
if my mom wasn't a singer, she would have been
a comedian. But I don't know anything, that's what he says.
I don't know. I don't remember any of that. But um,
but the music seemed normal, so they're all it's kind
of a hybrid in my mind, you know. But I

(50:21):
would go to shows like I would. I would watch
people on stage and think that's what I'm gonna do,
and then I'd watch a movie and say, like that's
what I'm gonna do. But it was mostly like in
my house, we watched a lot of comedies. It was
like a lot of mel Brooks movies and stuff. Do
you remember your first concert? Not your mom's. I remember
going to see Funkadelic and the Mother's Ship Landing. I

(50:42):
was sitting on somebody's shoulders. I think we were in Chicago.
I don't know what the first I mean, if it
wasn't my mom's. I mean, my mom played with George Benson,
and I remember being at like it was like the
Greek Theater or something, just that perfect magical outdoor summer night,
like don't don't, didn't didn't. Um, So all your conscience

(51:05):
were related to your mom in some sort of way,
I guess. So, I mean the Parliament when when my
brother was huge. My brother was crazy huge into Parliament
Funkadelic when I was a kid, and so I think
we I think we went to go see them because
he wanted to. He was like infatuated with George Clinton
when we were the two of you together and some

(51:28):
family members I don't even remember who. I think we
were into the Silver's. We were really, me and my
brother were really into the Silver's. Trying to remember, like
it's actually because I've been asked that question, it's so
hard to remember. Like the first first, I mean, when
I was like a kid kid, it was like Duran Duran,
but that doesn't that doesn't count well because that was
like my choice when I was like fifth grade, but

(51:49):
when I was little, I don't remember. So Duran Duran
was your first love? Like Nick Rhodes poster on the
walls and all that stuff was Nick Rhodes. I wouldn't say,
was it first I really liked? I was really in
love with Stuart Copeland from the Police Drummers. I want

(52:10):
to say thank you, and of course sting, but you know,
and then uh, and then and then I remember it
being like band wise, but my Prince love was early.
It just wasn't as much of a connection. Like like
Dirty Mind was the first record that I really truly

(52:32):
listened to and understood. And I was little because my
cousin Ingrid came out from Chicago. She was much older
than us. She bought that record she was staying with us,
and she shouldn't have played it for me my brother,
but she did, and we all like in the record
players in my dad's bedroom and we all just like
danced to it in our socks. But but then, like

(52:54):
I didn't have a poster of Prince or anything like that,
and I didn't, but it was like it was in there?
Did you really lies what you were listening to? Know?
But I remember staring at the record and staring at
him laying on the bed with his trench coat open,
and I was like, wow, he's got a lot of
hair under his thighs, Like that's man thigh. But it

(53:22):
wasn't until when Purple Rain happened. Then I made like
a conscious shift in the conscious voice, and that I
was eleven, I think right right? Were twelve? Uhl? You
were allowed to see Purple Rain when my dad took
me to see purple because he didn't he didn't know
what it was. I was Rabbi took None of us

(53:52):
knew that we were going to see Apollonia's boobies. I
didn't see purple until way later, regular Bill. I didn't
see until it was on HBO. Oh wow. So I'm
the only one to which purporin was like contraband in
the household. Oh no, it was contraband. You weren't allowed
to go see it. Hell no, Prince was got on,

(54:16):
Like all my punishments was Prince related? Really? I would
have otherwise been the perfect child, except the day that
you know, I discovered Prince's music and then you know,
but it's because during those punishments, my punishments, I mean
some of them were corporal on carp on corporal, carpoal corporal,

(54:39):
some of them were corporal because I mean black household,
black father. You know, the belt is always used. Um
My dad wasn't black, and he always talked about the belt.
Oh I'm gonna get the belt in. It's just more
of a threat. The belt was. The belt was the
impending terror, and doom'na that belt and get the belt.

(55:01):
I don't remember, I don't remember having about I got
the build, I got several times. I got the belt,
I got the switch, I got the hot wheels, race
car track, I got I got a cover of things.
It was pretty sure that comes through this child abuse
flip flop and not like the like the like the
qte cee, like the just the throne flip. You know

(55:24):
what I mean? Oh yeah, brother, it got it went
down and the d M look at him. Pay Bill
all traumatized right now. I don't know anybody for I
got hit once for drawing the family on the freshly
painted walls and crowns. My mom was, yeah, it was

(55:45):
it a tito Jackson moment, like Joe Jackson beat Tito
for breaking a guitar string, and it was like, oh, wait,
my son has talent. And then that's how the Jackson's
became to be. Oh, he didn't realize that his son's
had talent until he had to beat Tita. You can

(56:08):
talk about it. Oh, what the switch did Jackson switch?
Oh no, man, my my my dad has a doctorate
degree in Jackson ology. I mean, that's why I had
to be so you know, I mean, you know, I
was always like the not the goodie kid, but I
always did what my parents said. I was home before

(56:31):
the light went out. And you know, I always joked
to people that if I ever came home one minute
after that Oprah theme, oh that was my ass. And
I mean even into high school, like, I mean, it
was just that their fear of me being out on
the streets in the eighties was it was too risky.

(56:52):
So it's just like you come straight home, don't go
record shopping, don't go to uh, you know, you don't
go to the arcade, hang with your friends at the mall.
You run home. So it was like that's why, I know,
fly to the bumblebee. So well, because soon as school
let out, it was like you're get like, that's that's

(57:20):
that's pretty much what life was. What was the what
was the Prince record that you got into. I'm just
curious what the relationship was for your parents that said,
like alright, so Prince Gott introduced, all right, it's it's
weird that my Michael Jackson obsession led to all of
my musical knowledge. Um because even those groups you mentioned,

(57:42):
Duran Duran and the police and all that stuff. The
only reason why I know all of those MTV ready
acts is because you'd sit in front of MTV for
hours waiting for right that one to watch all night long,
to do that for forward moonwalking all night long or

(58:04):
beat it or or so wait for that one black
video to come on. You'd have to sit through Thomas
Dolby and all these others. So after you know, five
weeks of doing this, suddenly you know I'm singing like
Hyperactive by Thomas Dolby, and I remember, yes, had like
twelve Robert Palmer No, Hyperactive definitely wrong, thank you may

(58:33):
because Steve would have you see the smug look on
gays right now? How about I can't emit when I'm wrong.
Now there's a theory, right, there's a big Thomas yeah again.
Well that's what I'm saying, like waiting for Michael Jackson videos,
let me to just studying everything else because you didn't

(58:56):
want to take your eyes off the television. Um. And
so back when I wanted to see the Rock with
You video, knowing that was coming on midnight special, UM,
Prince was the second song as a guest, I Want
to be Your Lover, and my dad just felt the
need to add on. It was like twenty four hours later,

(59:19):
and his whole thing was like, why is this boy
wearing a diaper? Why is he wearing a diaper? So
just the next day he says, don't don't you listen
to that boy that was wearing the diaper, which wasn't
like you know, like when your parents tell you know
then it's like, oh, automatic, yes, I really didn't care,
like I now know that with parenthood with and of

(59:41):
course I'm not a parent, Sam's I'm just saying that
if you are adamant about a no, you might as
well tell your kids just do it, because I'm certain
that Prince would have been just a footnote in memory
had they not made a big deal of that boy
in his diaper. I remember Soft and Wet b I
remember being exactly where I was standing. Our garage door

(01:00:03):
was open and we were in the driveway doing messing around,
doing something. I had one of those you know, those
green like inch worm things and you would like bounce
on it, and I was like playing with that or something,
and then Soft and Wet came on, and I remember
we were all listening to it on the radio, like
it's a very inappropriate revision. But I didn't feel that

(01:00:23):
wrisk slap of like, oh boy, we'd better turn this off,
you know. It was sort of like, oh, this is
a print song and the song is kind of good.
So I didn't. I don't. But then again, my dad
there was no no concept of PC. And my dad
was so young, like I mean, my my mom and
dad were like twenty five when I was born, you know,
and so my mom was thirty one when she died,

(01:00:44):
like they were kids, and I don't, and that politically
correct thing was not in ordinance yet, so you know,
I was. We were watching movies with our parents because
they were young and they wanted to watch them too.
When we saw boobies, and but it's weird because I
don't know necessarily consider soft and wet that memorable to
be that. Where was I when I first heard print?

(01:01:07):
Everyone has a soft and wet story like the first
time they heard Prince, which only because the circumstances that
I was in I remember more. And he just happened
to be playing at the time. My grandfather had just died,
and my dad came to my mom said babe, come here.

(01:01:28):
In one second, they went out of the room, and
I never heard my mom freak out crying, so she
screamed and everything, and I was like, well, I mean,
you know seventy I was seven, so I guess in
order to just she OpEd me and protect me from
my sister, just took me from the kitchen, took me
up to the bedroom, got these big gass headphones, and
just put the radio on and Street Wave by Brothers

(01:01:51):
Johnson was playing on WDS. It faded out, soft and
Wet came one and the only thing that I remember
my seven year old self saying was that this is
the same instrumentation that Graham Central Station would have used.
Later I found out that yes, he also recorded at
Solace Uh in South Alida, the same recording studio, the

(01:02:15):
same art, the same mood, the same patches um which
probably explains is Larry Graham obsession. And even that told
me that that's straight Graham Central Station. So that's the
only thing I remember. I remember this song, I don't
know remember here in this really worldly synth part that
reminded me of yeah, like it was Graham Central Station.

(01:02:38):
And that's all I remember about Prince. Uh. And again
leading back to you. They never told me my grandfather died.
I just knew that Mom was freaking out, and then
she went away for a week and I stayed at
my Grandmam's house. But that's what I remember. But yeah, like, really,
it wasn't until I got into the Time and then

(01:03:00):
someone told me the connection between the two and then
and then that's how I got finally caught up to Prince.
But it really wasn't until the Time's first record. My
brother got us into the Time, and then it started
becoming I was like, what is a seven seven seven eleven?
Like songs with phone numbers were so exciting. Yeah. So,

(01:03:27):
but then by that point, I just it was punishment
every you know, uh, like the church I went to
had a sermon on why thriller was demonic party? Children
and if any of your parents owned this record, and
they had a record, and he turned it upside down,

(01:03:48):
said this is a penis and this is a six
six and your kids are being led and you know
six on their look made attention to that, right, I
just saw the penis. I thought it was one with
a football in it, you know again unless you pointed

(01:04:13):
out like, I don't know these things. And so it
was just like then we went home. Don't you have
this record of mirror? And they went in my room
and took everything through it away. Then it snowed, and
then I did some shoveling and got it back from
the money I earned shoveling, and then it was missing again.
And then after that it was just like contraband it

(01:04:33):
was just punishment. So uh, I'll say between eighty two
and eighties seven, life was hell in West Philadelphia based
on it was just hell, like you know, yeah, it
was the best and worst times of life. That's a classic.

(01:04:56):
Like you clearly like driven towards something in your parents
and so you know you you needed to find out,
You needed to turn everything over and find out for yourself,
like and I don't even know if. I mean, I
don't know if it affected me in the way that
they thought I was going to affect me or not.
I mean, he made me aware of ship that I
didn't know about, like, you know, just like what's a
cherry and all this stuff. Like I would ask my

(01:05:17):
friends at school, like what does this stuff mean? Whatever
they explained to me. But really I was just about
I'd never heard music sound like that, Like it sounded futuristic,
and you know, I was obsessed with the patches and
all those things. But I think it made me realize
later because I put all the pieces together when I
got older, that I wasn't really truly like identifying and
obsessed with Prince until the Revolution actually had Wendy and

(01:05:41):
least in it because I could identify with girls in
the band, and then I wanted to be in the band.
I wanted to I wanted to be Wendy. So were
you besides knowing Jil, Well, you knew Jill Jones during
the teena Mury period. I remember meeting her. I think
I think of my memory, serge, and correctly her mom
was Tina's manager. Who's your mom? I don't remember her name,

(01:06:06):
but I think Joe's mom. I think she. I think
she worked with Tina, remember ging their house or something,
or maybe better at Tina's house or something like that.
So you didn't put two to do together when you
see the video and be like, oh my god, that's late,
way later grinding on Lisa for some strange reason. Best friends. Yeah,

(01:06:28):
there's a lot of that and Lisa best friends. Yeah yeah,
it's yeah, yeah, yeah, anyway, yeah, I didn't really know.
I didn't know people's names yet then, Like I didn't.
I just it was all about Prince to me, and
even though there was a revolution, like, it was just Prince.

(01:06:49):
But then because of the movie, I think it gave
me like a little bit of a story. Whether I
knew it was real or not, I didn't know it.
Do you know that was Jill when you saw bin
or I think so? Actually maybe not, maybe not. I
think I put it together later, So uh, yeah, Princess,

(01:07:09):
I'm skipping over, of course, the the part of your
life which a lot of our listeners know, which is
your acting career. But I have to you don't need
to tell them that ship. I have to an actor.
I'm an actor. Um. Yeah, So, like what kind of
stuff do you do? What? No, what what made you

(01:07:32):
want to uh do? Princess? What is princess? Princess is
me and my friend Gretchen's cover band, Prince cover band. Cool.
That sounds like something that people always say they're going
to do but they never do. Also, we've been doing
it for like five years and I'm forty three years old.

(01:07:52):
Like yeah, and a cover band, a cover band, but
it's so fucking legit, Like it's just from such a hardcore,
deep place of of love and like like a burning
desire to play these songs. She and I run a
band together in college and when we met it was

(01:08:14):
called Super Sauce. It was a nine piece funk band
headed by me and Gretchen. You can find I think
you can find our one video on YouTube. We did well.
We only played like locals. We we went to school
in Santa Cruse and we only played, Um, we went
to school in Santa Cruz. Yeah, you see Santa Cruz.
Isn't that one Northern California hippies. Gretchen's from the Bay Area,

(01:08:38):
She's from Berkeley. Berry's got its own, its own thing,
and up there they were. You know, it's a small
town and a lot like um there's a there's a
theater called the Catalyst, which is kind of the only
like it was the only theater in town for a
long time, and we would play there. But it was
like when Nirvana came to town, they'd play there, or
when Gwen when Gwen out, when No Doubt played, we

(01:09:02):
opened for them because we were like the local band opener.
It was a tiny, tiny town. And then they had
another place for what was called Yeah. I don't think
you'll find much super sauce, but there. We had one
song that we wrote called Milkshake and I think I
think it was on YouTube. Well, I don't know if
it still is. Okay, I'll say it. Did it bring
all the it was pre pre Farrell, Uh defended. Just

(01:09:30):
let the joke be a joke. It's all that's all. Um.
So you stole it? Oh he goes us money? No
we didn't. I don't even it wasn't enough. Well, what
what I'll say is, uh, we did a cover that
was just very recently allowed to sort of return to

(01:09:52):
the internet, um our cover Darley Nikki that happened on
UM back then was Late Night with Jimmy fallon Um
and I have to say that he watched it and
enjoyed it and loved the fact that you guys got
the backwards part. That was when we went to go

(01:10:13):
see him play. The last time I saw him play
like a proper show was like that tour he was
doing with Third Eye Girl and we had to go
down He wouldn't play in l A and you got
us in because of Ramadan, and we went down Anaheim.
He was playing in Anaheim and I was so pregnant,

(01:10:33):
but we were back there. We were uh we went
backstage afterwards and uh he and he came out and
he saw us and the first thing he said to
me was, how are y'all going to do the backwards part?
Fucking cool? That was a whole moment. Well, you had

(01:10:54):
prepped me because you told me it was when it
was it was guitar gate, when when he came and
through Kirk's guitar and he had been here and he played,
and you told me that he had mentioned that he
he had it like recorded on his DVR. Yeah. Never
took me to win the story. I was like, I
was trying to picture, like where's his DVR? Like where

(01:11:17):
is he? Is he on a bus? Is he in
his house? Like? Where is he watching this over and
showing it to his friends? He said, he said he
was showing it to his friend. He told us that
his friends he watched it. I mean he does that often.
I know that. Uh. When I worked on the Chappelle Show, Uh,
Marris and him, uh had spoken on the phone for

(01:11:38):
like the first time on a second Uh about that
yes Mars Day, the Morris Day, Yes day. Um, I
mean my visit at Paisley Park. I was very shocked.
You've actually been. You've been to pay but I've been

(01:12:00):
there a few times. I went for the first time. Well,
I mean it's after he passed. You went as a pilgrimage. Yeah,
as a pilgrimage. We had a show, We had a
gig in Minneapolis, and uh Jellybean actually came out to
the gig and uh, the next day we were we
had a day off. We were traveling somewhere next I
can't remember this and we went there and uh I

(01:12:21):
went out and the first thing came up. I was like, damn,
this sh is like a call semer and like it
just you know, I mean, it just looked real, you know,
watching you. I don't think you know I was watching me.
It was oh god, the controversy eyes like yeah, when
I was there, there was a painting. He'd have these,
uh I meant life size paintings of his face from

(01:12:42):
like various album covers. But during the walls and when
you get to the controversy pick you know, you know,
like those uh three stooges, things were like moving. Yeah,
the moving eyeballs are watching you through the picture. Um.
We swore that he was watching them somewhere like hidden
camera Erica. Erica told me when she first visited Paisley Park,

(01:13:06):
I said, did you see the eyeballs moving? It's like, yeah,
I said, were you freaked out? She's not. I took
my titties off. Hey, er that's one. That's the one approached,
she said. She tried to figure out where all the
hidden cameras were Paisley Park. She just took her t

(01:13:29):
shirt off and she's like, I just showed him these titties.
Apollo Leaden, Yeah, I didn't. I didn't make it in
we went because it was out of the past. This
is recently, so we were just there and actually we
were there and you know there's people out, you know,

(01:13:50):
like a police liner, like a police takee Nah. No, no,
we went I mean this is like not elevator. No,
I didn't see the elevator. I didn't go in. We
were just outside, just kind of walking around. And so
then the news truck pulled up would be like, what
the hell is the news doing here? And it was
the day that they announced, uh, the autopsy rees, so
that was why I was like, oh that's why they

(01:14:12):
were here. Yeah, yeah, well it's it's it's super normal inside.
And the one thing I noticed was there were a
lot of you remember there was a point where they
had combo television and VHS for quarters. Like I feel
like he really spruced that place up. I mean it

(01:14:36):
came up, and it came up in seven, but I
felt like he had a redo in like he redid
the place in ninety six for the when the baby
was supposed to come. Oh the entire place. They were
like it was all white inside and then they did
all the paintings and stuff. And then that explains it
because uh, well there were a lot of vhs, uh

(01:14:58):
TV combos everywhere. There was like a Sega genesis, uh
he obviously was or whoever was inside Paisley part. They
were really a fan of What's What's the second game
with the Cat? That Sonic there's a lot of Sonic
the Hedgehog games um and apparently a Tripod Quest fan

(01:15:20):
because I found three copies of Midnight Marauders. I would
say from the inside, his life was seemed pretty much normal.
I mean, there was nothing that unusual except for the
giant eyes and cameras. Yeah, except for the well I
know that I know that it's wired for there to

(01:15:41):
be microphones anywhere. So if he has a song idea,
including in the oh God, including in the bathroom for
which kind of freaked me out because had to be right.
That's like on my second day there, I remember really
happened to go and so my solution wants to just

(01:16:04):
constantly flush the toilet. That thought you didn't hear nuts
around end up on emancipation too. I think I drained Like, yeah,
I think I just drained out late Minnetonka. That's how
many times that was Miss Maya Rudolph singing with the rentals.

(01:16:55):
How old were you when you did that stuff with
the rentals? Yeah? Think I was just out of college
to the five year plans. So I was probably like two.
I got involved with the rentals because my friends, um,
my childhood friends Rachel Hayden and Patrick Hayden were in
a band called That Dog with my friend Anne Warnker

(01:17:16):
and um war Warnker. We were just talking about well
daughter of and Joey joy brother. So you say I
grew up with those girls and uh with the girls
of the man at Sign Prince. Well, yes, Anna, I
knew um growing up and yeah, yeah that's true. Yes,

(01:17:41):
And then Joey is the brother. Joey is her brother. Yeah,
he's amazing drummer. How do you know about the warrant?
Joey plays on like all the big stuff. He plays
with Becca. He plays a couple of the cats too,
but he's all over back stuff. Yeah he's what is
this man? I mean very impressed. The house her house

(01:18:02):
to Beck. We are now rechristened in the show as
Liquor House or like Fante Supreme. Right now, your my, my, my,
my friend. Rachel Hayden, who is a triplet. Rachel, Tanya
and Petra are triplets, the Hayden triplets. They their their

(01:18:23):
musicians as well. Their father was Charlie Hayden, amazing jazz bassist,
and um. We all grew up singing together, we all
grew up harmonizing together, and Um I was like an
honorary member of their band for two seconds, but then
I want to wait to college. So when I came
back from college, they had recorded that first record with
Matt Sharp from originally from Wheezer. They were all l

(01:18:46):
A local bands together and so he put them on
the record. Then he wanted them to tour, and they
were going on their own tour. So Rachel said, you
should call my friend Mike because she she can harmonize
and she can play keyboards, and that whole record it
is just all the harmonies that those girls always did. Okay,
So that was why I ended up touring with them.
So I wasn't on that first record. It was actually

(01:19:07):
Rachel and Petri's voices. You played piano, Yes, I played.
I played the mogue. I did not know that. Well,
just on that tour I did. I just played piano
growing up. Okay, So we are at the point of
our show. If you're still here, we're at the point
of Okay. So we're at the point of our show
where we uh kind of do this thing blind test,

(01:19:32):
which you know we'll play you some music. Am I
gonna have to drink something? No, you just will play
it for you and you give some sort of commentary
live on what you think about reason. Okay, all right,
am I supposed to know this song? Now you've got

(01:19:53):
to know it. You're not supposed to know it? H

(01:20:16):
a lot. It sounds like I need tis drapping this
thinks you won't do I hear a little bit of

(01:20:38):
love as a battlefield? Isn't that like little drum breakdown?
He sadly, it sounds like a lot of the demost
people wh time my dad when I was a kid,
we listen to him in the car when we way
to school and laugh. Oh but is this somebody like

(01:21:01):
Tory Amos or for somebody who went on to do stuff?
This person sort of connected um to you, Joe, I
didn't like kill close your eyes listen to this boy?

(01:21:25):
Just nice and wow. Yeah, I'm paying attention to the word.

(01:21:47):
I'm not a lyrics guys, I'm a music guy. I mean,
just from the doodle, what did you think? Wow? See
it's the proper down threw me off. I needn't see
the two or before. Okay, so you're listening. It's a
Strens related, isn't it. Yeah, it's it's Vanity's strap on Um,

(01:22:12):
which I guess now that I thing of It's very
apropos being as though the very last song she did
with Vanity six was Vibrator but Brita, I actually am
shocked that I didn't recognize her vocal quality. It's very distinct.
All right. This leads to our second song's Right for

(01:22:37):
the World sounds like alert. I'm not right now? Is it?
Is it? R F T wh Yeah, there it is.

(01:23:06):
There's that voice seven months never didn't but making time.
I mean I didn't listen to this song. I listened
to Oshila and got like an auxiliary prince um, you know,
like satisfaction. It was like close enough. Which one is?

(01:23:29):
It is this digital split? Now? Which one is? No?
Digital was pretty good? This is the second hour h
but this is this is actually one of my favorite
filler Ready for the World, Like they did a lot
of fast French song. Why did it sound like there
was no h in Sheila when he said it a

(01:23:56):
real song about pop art? So did he just did
he just use all the same machines. Is that how
you got the sound? It's kind of weird because this
this is actually I believe this is a d m
X drum machine. So this is not even len drum.

(01:24:16):
But they often use the Oberheim and the lendrum, so
this is one of the rare times in which they're
not using that. Here is your next song? Sounds very familiar.

(01:25:00):
This is probably in second place. Yeah, of my Brenda
Brest song best songs that Prince never wrote, I'm sorry,
it's the chicken bread songs. Well, I know this artist.
You probably won't. I mean you should know. It's not

(01:25:23):
Brenda's low Boy. Isn't that Annie? Isn't that any lady

(01:25:46):
that was like, is this camering the thing? All right?
This tomorrow in the scene. Okay, I don't know how.
Remember she's got his hand on his phone. I mean
that she did a minor stand with Prince. Uh in
the nineties. Uh, well she saw that punk coopulations. Well

(01:26:11):
she was actually gonna good group the mambo combo. No, well,
Prince had a she had a project called you C
five that Prince put the old busses all the wait
what yeah, in like eighty nine and people but I
didn't know that was her. Yeah, that was her, Margie Putts.
I consider this like a lead Prince associated reference to
be the play. I heard the song once that with

(01:26:34):
the strangest of her patients. It was a spitball a
competition and Nike was doing somewhere like right off the
canos piece, and key Tip was musing for some reason
started playing this song like the know the message when
you're starting. If you're playing this and you're you're trying
to send a message to somebody, like this is one

(01:26:55):
of those cuts that you can hear. You want to
let somebody waiting for take. So this is the cut
that he play. We're here all right, here's our next song.
Public Jelan Public Jean. I've heard this before. I'm telling

(01:27:21):
you I've heard this before. Don't have to watch. Like
farant is looking off in the corner light. He can
he can't put his he can't put his hand on it,
but he knows that whoever saying this often has to

(01:27:42):
wipe back the activated kerfire here or or do it
backwards from or stroke his ear with the opposite end.
It's kind of y'all rocket chick Billy's eyes Kelly's eyes.

(01:28:18):
Oh yeah, he told me about this song. This is
Andre Simone. Oh yeah. When Andre Simone left the Controversy
touring one, so Larkin Arnold left Capitol Records, took a
gig at CBS, and uh signed Andre Simone. Alright, so

(01:28:42):
my here is your dang phone. So much shakedown, shakedown, shakedown, shakedown, space,

(01:29:11):
ship down, shakedown, clouds, kill me, shickdowns like the like
wild girls, like slop kind of this is that same

(01:29:38):
who can show me how or down? Okay? That was
I want to Evelin Champagne came out Shakedown. One of
the main reasons why Jimmy Damon Tarry Lewis were released

(01:30:01):
from the Time for Moonlighting writing their first number one
single for uh the S O S band Just Be
Good to Me, was that he thought that they were
also giving secrets away um to other acts. Uh Leon
Silver's in producing just Keep On Loving Me by the Whispers.

(01:30:25):
Prince never believed that Leon Silver's wrote or produced that song.
He thought that it was jamm and Lewis using him
as a mask and okay, so we gotta rewind back. Um,
So how did you uh come across the attention of
our beloved Steve Higgins, announcer of the Tonight Show in

(01:30:47):
head producer of Saturday Night Live. I was I was
performing at the ground Links in Groundlings Theater in Los Angeles, California.
How did you get in? I started from the I
started from the bottom and now I'm here. You were
getting you were getting coffee first, and then you worked

(01:31:08):
your way up for you know, you take classes there
you start it's like a straight up theater program. You like,
start there, you take classes and you have to pass
on to the next class. Then you start writing and
then you start performing. Then I started performing in the
Sunday Company, which is kind of like it's kind of
like ju vy Like it's kind of like j v
SNL like on on a little stage. It's like UCB style,

(01:31:31):
but UCB didn't exist then it's UCB is more more
like indie and hip and this is just like UM
been around since the seventies. Well who puts you up
to it? Like who said you know what? You should
go to the ground like I did because I always
I always wanted to be on Saturday Night Live. I
fell in love with the original cast because my parents
were watching it and so I saw it like I

(01:31:53):
got I got an idea of it, and then when
the reruns were on, then I fell in love with
Gilda and Um and the whole the cast as a
whole is like this New York idea, like I've got
to get to New York. I want to go where
those people are. And that was like later when they
were showing reruns and then I could start taping them
and stuff like I would you know, I would tape

(01:32:15):
everything off of TV that I liked. UM And then uh,
he came in two thousand one, right, I think so well.
I came to the end of the of the season
for three shows, so I don't remember episode was your
first real episode? That was your first episode. That was

(01:32:36):
my first episode of the of the first official year.
But I came for basically instead of instead of auditioning,
they brought me in for the last I did an audition,
which is so so stupid and weird and it's a
miracle that I ended up on the show. But instead
I came and I had a meeting with Lauren because
I met Higgins and t shan Chen, who was right in.
They came to the show and they're like, you should

(01:32:57):
come audition, and I had a Jankie ass Man manager
who was like, don't do it. The contract is really bad.
And I listened to because I was an idiot. I
was like maybe twenty six and old enough to know better.
But I listened because she knew about it. And so
I didn't come. I don't know how, but I saw
Steve again. He was like, you really should come back,
and and then I got the call like come meet

(01:33:19):
with Lauren. I met with Lauren. They had my tape,
like I sent a tape of like my sketches and
then um, and then I came and I just did
three weeks here and I didn't really know what the
hell I was doing. Like they brought me in, they
took my picture. That's that like on my first day.
That ends up on seventeen and you're just like, what's
this four? And then we didn't have a pitch meeting
that day because John Goodman was the host and he

(01:33:41):
didn't want to come in. I don't know something. We
didn't have a pitch meeting on Monday, so we just started.
I just started on a Tuesday. And I remember I
knew Chris Parnell because he was from the ground leth
and I said what do we do? And he was like,
we right, And I said till when and he said
all night. And then everyone's doors just started closing, and
I was like, why the funk am I supposed to do?
And you have a mate? Who were you paired with? Well,
me and Zach Galifinnakis were weirdly put in an office together.

(01:34:04):
But he didn't know he had auditioned, but he didn't
know if he was there to be in the cast
or as a writer. And he found out the hard
way that he was brought in as like a guest writer.
And we were just walking back to our hotel at
the time like so bombed, like just disillusion and like
we just did not know what was going on. It
was so bizarre, and it was like it was like
starting school at the end of the school year when
like everybody has a place to sit in the cafeteria,

(01:34:26):
you know. So who warmed up to you first? Molly
and Will and I knew part now because they had
Molly and Will had nothing to lose. They were like
the prom king and queen, so they were like, hey,
how you doing. And then I had a mutual friend
um because Anna at the time, there were a lot.
That's the thing about the Groundlings is that I knew

(01:34:47):
that people from there went onto the show, and I
was like, Okay, so I gotta go there first, because
at the time when I got out of college, I
was like, all right, I'm gonna go to the Groundlings.
That's gonna be my graduate school. And at that time
it was the that were there from the Growlings were
Um Will Farrell on a Gas Star, Chris cat and
Chris Parnell and who am I forgetting somebody else Wan

(01:35:10):
Chero Terry Um. They were like five current cast members
that were all out of the ground Links. I was like,
all right, so I'm gonna do I'm gonna go here
because I had gone to the ground Links. I weirdly,
I was weirdly introduced to the Growning Theater when I
was fourteen because I went to school with Jack Black,
who was like a couple years older than me, and
this like theater kid that I just connected with right away,

(01:35:32):
and he became kind of like my mentors. He was
just like a little bit older and got me into
improv and everything, and he took me to see the
ground Links when I was like fourteen, Um so I
knew about the theater and then I knew it was
in l A. Like it was a way to get
into it because people out here go to Chicago, they
go to Second City, and so I just went, you know,

(01:35:54):
in my own backyard. Was it hard at the ground?
Links No, it was exactly where I should have been,
because it was like it's like when you find your people, like, oh,
this is where I should have been. I shouldn't. Why
did I go to college in the woods in northern
California and study women's studies with like Angela Davis, Like
I should be here with all these you know, horny nerds.

(01:36:16):
This is this is where I belong. God see, I
don't know if I want to share this story. And
I okay. So I once dated a comedian and um
damn okay, so go in and sun Yeah about black
and Jewish? No no, no, no no. The thing The

(01:36:39):
thing was was that we saw like like we were.
Me and my friends would watch her act, uh, and
she wasn't fully developed yet as a comedian. And the
thing was is that my friends started laughing at me
because they were like facing me or she's not funny.

(01:37:00):
So every time we come to the club. They were
laughing at me and at her, but in her head,
she's like, your son, I'm killing killing like a stand up,
just stand up. I've never ever done standup. That's a

(01:37:21):
whole other animal. And that's even worse. Like that's why
I won't do it, because like, you fail at that,
you're that's it. Yeah, I think you have to drown
first before you yourself, and it's just like you gotta
be horrible and then you learn the tricks of the trade.
I thought that if you were if you want to
be a community, had to do stand up. So when

(01:37:41):
I was in college, i wrote some stand up and
I was like, I'm never doing this. Terrifying because I
don't like to be exposed. I don't I really, I
don't like to be vulnerable, and stand up is vulnerable.
Sam is so much more difficult, in my opinion, and
I just like to be other people. I mean, it's
that's what that's what I'm programmed to do. That well,

(01:38:04):
I mean, I know, it's just it's just so much
easier to be to not be vulnerable. And I'm sure
when I was a kid, that's like how I hit it.
And then I was like, oh, my friends liked U.
I should I should keep doing it. But I also
think that being around music, I just developed. I think
having a musical ear made me like a little like

(01:38:26):
a like a parrot, like a little bit of a mimic.
So I didn't realize I was doing voices and stuff
when I was doing them. But I think I was
just always doing them. Like if you tell a story
about somebody and you're like, and then she was like,
why do you why why did you get the spicy chicken?
And then you talk like the person and then you
realize like, oh, I'm I'm just copying sounds. I have
a question. Do you think like growing up around music

(01:38:50):
helped you with your comedy, like with timing and all that,
with rhythm and I kind of think they're intertwined. I
do I feel like they're I do I feel like
they're vice versa? Yes, they do. And I've never I've
never I've talked to many musicians about this, and I've
never gotten an answer why. But musicians and comedians are

(01:39:13):
each other's their counterpart, that we're totally connected, absolutely, But
I think I think that's because they are also skills
that other people you can't just you can't just acquire them,
you have to naturally possess them both. Do you think
that the way you, in a sort of therapeutic way,
dealt with Absolutely. I know exactly what you're asking, because

(01:39:35):
I know no comedian or funny person, especially with all
the time that I spent at the comedy Seller and
really getting to know all those people, Like behind every
person that's ever made me laugh, there's like a big
giant bowl of pain somewhere in their backyard, buried somewhere. Well.

(01:39:56):
I would also I would also go out on a
limb and say, I mean, I'm no therapist, but I
would guess that it was also an active rebellion from
my from my family. You know, my parents were musicians.
So I was like, I'm not gonna sing because that's like,
that's like my that's too painful, that's too hard, Like
I don't want to expose that, pardon me, because that

(01:40:18):
like I don't even think I truly sang in my
own voice, truly truly sang songs in my own voice,
and publicly until fairly recently, um, I've only ever sung
at like channeling other people because it was too painful,
because it was just like so connected to my mother,
so I can sing a funny a song like for

(01:40:40):
the rest of my life, Like I can sing anything funny,
and that's probably why it. Covers are easy, but when
it comes to like my actual my real voice, singing
is very very intense for me. And I think the
probably the natural like just the light from common to
you just was so much more. You can hide, you

(01:41:03):
can hide in comedy and I can. You can hide
and be a million things. And then I'd also just
think it's so fascinating to like be mixed and then
just like pretend to be other people, you know, because
you're like it has so much to do with the
time I was growing up, Like being mixed wasn't as
cool as it is now, you know, like the Cosby Show.

(01:41:24):
Everyone on the show was considered black, but like Lisa
Bone was mixed, you know, like people didn't even say
what mixed was. And so I think it's just easier
to like just pretend to be other people and it's
just all undertwined. But yes, I think it's absolutely that.
And it's also like that rebellion from what your parents do,
you have to do something else. But it was also

(01:41:44):
cool comedy was cool to them, like my mom was,
Like I think I remember my parents going to see
like Richard Prior concerts and there's some famous Mr Mr
Rudolph and the Monkey. Yes it's called Rudolf my dad. Yeah,
I knew it. I knew it. He had a character

(01:42:05):
called Miss Rudolph that his my bone character would have
to give like a chicken's leg to like like an
old toothsayer lady like. Miss Rudolph was always a name
that I always heard, and it was about my mom
and she and he would funk with my dad, like
when they would be sitting there. But it was I
think because I even have some outtakes of Richard Pryor

(01:42:27):
concerts where like your mom was always in the audience
three concerts in which I know that's what I heard too.
And I actually don't know them as well as you
do because as a kid, I don't think they were
exposed me to the recordings, but I knew about it,
Like enough, Um, I need to revisit this Rudolph in
the Monkey. We'll see the tables have turned now because

(01:42:48):
now I think it's like, you're my Rudolph, and that's
my Rudolph's mother, like it's not even well that's again
you was like, you know, the escaping the shadow of
being Many Ripton's daughter as opposed to well, you know
what though, that doesn't exist for me because I will

(01:43:08):
say growing up, I didn't feel like my mother was
a household name. I feel like people who knew my
mother knew my mother, or they'd go or they'd know
that song. But I didn't feel I wasn't Diana Ross's daughter,
like it was a different thing and some people in
the know. How was that like for you? Like did
you know that your mother was yeah? Yeah, Like was

(01:43:31):
that ever or did you or even like every entirely
did you know even like what your dad was doing?
Like did you know that you were maybe a little
more privileged or had you know than maybe other kids
or whatever, not even with like even our or like
Tribe samples, where like many Ripton was like such a
I didn't. I mean that was really fascinating to me,

(01:43:53):
Like starting college was when that Tribe album came out
that was literally like half of it was like my mother,
you know, or or songs that songs that I'd grown
up listening to and had stopped listening to because it
was too hard to put those records on. But it
was just becoming cool that like my friend who was
like the DJ in college, would play like, you know
those songs where I was like, are you playing my mom?

(01:44:15):
You're playing my mother's music. And then I was like,
wait a minute, that's why that's familiar to me. That's
that's my that's my mother, you know, that's the beginning, Yes, exactly,
And that was the stuff my dad and I would
talk about, like because sampling was so fascinating to him
at the time and talking about that and what that
had become in the industry, explained an artist and was like,

(01:44:37):
but you know what that that to me was that
was such a prideful moment of like those cool people know,
like my people that it took me a long time
to realize, well, yes, and also to realize that people
were out there. Plus, my last name is Rudolph, so
until I really started acting, people didn't know that was

(01:44:58):
my mom. And then and then and then the other
part about my mom, that's just so Fascinating's like people
are so I don't know what it is. I don't
know if it's because she was so young when she died,
and it was like, you know, pre YouTube, we didn't
have a look like you were the first person I
ever met was like I have footage of like your
MoMA talked shows and I was like what, I didn't
know that stuff. I thought all that stuff was gone.

(01:45:21):
And people have always like used me to vent like
there their feelings about her. I'm like this weird funnel
for like many like your mother was so like and
it's so I get stopped on. Yes, it's so deep.
It told me like seven years to even start to
bring it up. Like I was just like a big fan,

(01:45:43):
but that's different and that that's not I mean, I
truly like I'll get the occasional just random adult you
know who will just be like it's like it's like
they're like you know, and they just find me. And
this was way before I was ever on the show
or anything like that. Um. But there's always been some

(01:46:07):
layer of her that is otherworldly. I think because of
that that element of her voice being something else, something
that feels sort of like non human to a lot
of people. Um, people just associate her with like something else.
There's like I've just always gotten people stopping me about

(01:46:29):
her in that way. I think it's because she's she's spiritual,
she'son that Stevie Wonder careagory. Because your mom didn't really
come from the gospel background of black music. So I
would say she's almost the of her you know, meant
a lot too black people and white people like, but

(01:46:53):
you know, she didn't come from a gospel, you know,
down home background, at least the way that she project
to herself there was like a class. A would say,
it was very classic. My mother, I mean, my grand
I'm sorry. My aunt was a big MANI ribbons and
fan and that was the first time I got uh,
I was introduced for music. And this is like, you know,
you talk about how your parents. That was the first

(01:47:16):
time they used you to talk about death, like her
death talking about I remember my mom because my mom
would play loving You like just she would just play
loving you, and I just remember here. I was like, Mama,
who is that? And she was like this many ribs.
I'm like, oh, who is that? And she would tell
me this lady, you know, she died and you know,
and so then you know, I looked at the album
cover and it was like, I think the Avengers in Paradise,
so she's with the Lion. I think that's the Lion

(01:47:36):
covers that one. And so my aunt would have all
our records and this is in the eighties, and so
my aunt was like she was very this is kind
of like she was like a black yuppie kind of
you know what I mean. She was teaching school shot
on apartment. She had the first like answer machine, Like
that was the first time I ever saw answer machine ever.
And so she would play your mom's music all the time,

(01:47:58):
and it was just like what said, it was really
like classy. I just remember seeing her and it wasn't
like the disco stuff, like she didn't like you. I mean,
y'all shot for record. So you know if you see
an album cover and you know, and it's like nine
niggas in silver suits and ship. Your mother was always

(01:48:19):
just really she just had her own things. It's really classy.
And I just always remember that you ever cv Lion
attacking her video, Yes, you can see my dad coming
in and make sure she's okay. It was like a
promo commercial. She was actually a recreation of the because
I think we me and my brother were there for
the photos to because I remember having ice cream and
seeing like a mother is sitting next to a lion,
and we were like, look, we were like far away

(01:48:41):
and everything, like can the lion see my ice cream?
It was a different lion the second time they shot it,
and this line wasn't this He's just kind of like
I guess he had been declauded, so she wasn't hurt
or anything. And there's no sounds, so if you can't
tell if anyone screaming or not. It was like somebody's
super eighty chills. So I hear that you are going

(01:49:05):
to be spending a lot of time in New York City,
hopefully doing the Mayan Marty es, yes, what made you
want to bring back the variety show format? This is
what I do, and this is what Marty does. We
you know, I like, what's that Martin short? Martin short, Yes,

(01:49:26):
it's Martin short. That would be a very different show,
although I would love to do that. So yeah, the
show is. It's it's all the stuff that we love.
It's it's music and comedy and performance bace and really
just all the elements of STARTNT love that I love
that are, you know, getting people together and being goofy

(01:49:49):
and all that stuff. But but I think like just um,
just the stuff that I think probably is the imprint
for all of us, which is people coming on and
doing things that you didn't normally get to see. Um,
well them. Do you know? I just did a thing
with um I'm a Stone And it was like a
perfect example of like, that's why I wanted to show

(01:50:10):
she and I sing a song together, and it's not
something you would normally see her do. But those were like,
those were the things that when you saw a variety
show that like wow, I didn't know that guy saying,
or I didn't know that person was that funny, or
just like these just like extra delicious based on the
super viral nous of that particular clip that you did

(01:50:31):
with him. First of all, how many times, like how
many takes did you guys complete that? We only did
it and we only did it twice. But I can't
imagine something over and over and over. Can you explain
to our listeners who may not have seen that like
what you guys did in that video? Um, I saw
these Swedish girls, this band called Errato, Um, these girls

(01:50:51):
from Sweden sitting in their kitchen playing buttertubs to do
you know the cup song which um, which I guess
became famous. Uh and Kendrick did. So it's the same rhythm,
but they did it to the Robinson call Your Girlfriend,
and they did these really beautiful harmonies. Um. And I
don't know why, but I was like, I feel like

(01:51:13):
I heard Emma can sing. I wonder if she'd be
into doing this, and so I sent it to her
and she immediately she was like, wow, that sounds great.
And then she immediately sent back a video of her
practicing it and she had picked it up right away.
And my daughter, my ten year old daughter, Pearl, was
actually helping me out with it. Like the day before.
My my ten year daughter and my twenty three year

(01:51:34):
old cousin were like showing me how to do the
cups because I loved the song and I and I
in my head, I was like, yeah, let's do it.
And then when it came time to do it, I
realized like, I don't want to do it, but um,
but I didn't. We rehearse a little bit and it
was one of those things like you can just tell
when someone can harmonize, and she just she was amazing.
She just did it. You guys nailed. That was great.

(01:51:54):
Thank you well. I I hope even for selfish main reasons.
I hope all you guys get picked up and you
become a fixture at the thirty Rocket Build until we
can do projects together. Yes, please, that would be awesome, awesome,
that would make me happy to well. We thank you
very much for joining us. It's a pleasure, gentlemen, ladies

(01:52:21):
that are listening, lady fellas, oh two women dogs. Yeah,
so we thank you very much. It's my pleasure. You
made me. You made me feel knowledgeable about many things.
We learned a lot, actually did we learned a lot? Tonight,
ladies and gentlemen. Uh wow, this concludes the Quest Love

(01:52:45):
Supreme Experience. Uh any last words, Boss Bill? Uh non,
just come back and check us out next week. Uh
we start at Wednesday, Wednesday one pm Eastern Standard time
today Pacific standard time. I'll be listening and uh we
replay until Friday, and then after that you can check
out our mixtape featuring more songs. And there's the only

(01:53:08):
time you hear. It's not like you can go back here.
Oh no, no, you can't come back one time. You
gotta here, so you gotta you gotta listen, you know,
between now and Friday afternoon or you are you know
you might well, actually, you know what they can listen
to it, you know, highlights from the show on the mixtape,
but it's nothing beats here in the full show. Hey,

(01:53:28):
I'm paid, bill Man. Where do we learn today? I
don't even know where to begin. Are you just waking up? Okay, okay,
I'm waking up to the dawning of Prince Knowledge, of
which there was a lot today. Yeah. I kind of
overdid it on the Prince Knowledge. I apologize, but you
know it's only going to get worse. Well, no, I

(01:53:49):
think is probably the biggest Prince nerve until we get
uh probably Fred in here. Uh, as far as celebrities
are concerned, Fred Savage, yes, no, Fred Armison, okay, Fred Savage,

(01:54:11):
Kevin yes. But all right, so you learn about liquor
like at houses today? I'm PayPal. Yeah, yeah, so may
we shall. I'll make a pilgrimage to Memphis about Street
and go to going forward, we should make pilgrimages to
a lot of different places, like south of the Mason
Dixon line. As we say, all right, we'll do that,

(01:54:34):
We'll do corn the corn liquor experience. So sugar Steve,
you uh, would you learn a Dama? I learned that
Gainesville is the music capitalist Larida. Somehow that's all you learned. Um.
I love Maya. I really love Maya. I love her.
She's great. Yeah. I think it's funny and interesting and talented.

(01:54:56):
Yeah she is. She's amazing. I love it. I wish
we could ask her out her performance with de' angelo
on the tonight show of I thought that was great.
That was that was awesome. Yeah, well ask him about it.
We'll just ask the Angelo about it when he gets here, Yes,
when he yes. But that just means we have to,
you know, be on the air for another ten years,

(01:55:20):
because if you schedule the Angelo now, he'll show up.
I guarantee you. We want to have d' angelo on
before the year's out. Damn, okay, can we put money
on that. I'm down to put money on that. I
don't have any money. Yeah, you're listening to Witness. If
I cannot get d' angelo on this show by December

(01:55:42):
thirty one, two thousand sixteen, I will give my four
constituents here two thousand dollars. That's five each each person.
I thought, yeah, really saying nothing to a boss space,

(01:56:03):
but okay, find that I need to make sure that
alf Yeah, well then with alright, so are you singing
Miss You? Right now? He's doing the trading places this guy.
Now I can go to the movies by myself. Okay,
I'm sorry, I thought you were singing Miss You by

(01:56:24):
written by the Glimmerton Twins. Very expensive to clear. Yes,
dog man man. I learned today about Mary Rudolph that's
singing her it's hard heard of singing her own voice,
which I found very interesting because I really love her voice.
So she you know, she says it was hard for her,

(01:56:45):
like she can do funny stuff and kind of high,
but you know, singing in her own voices is uh,
it's kind of intense and painful. That's and that was
interesting to me, you know what I'm saying. But I've
never You've never heard of I've never heard anyone talk
about the process in that way. Well, when you sing,
I mean, don't you sometimes channel um Man? Honestly with
my saying, it kind of just happened, so um I

(01:57:08):
would say, I mean for the years that I've been singing,
Like seriously, I probably really just found my voice. My
voice probably like two or three years ago with that
um just because for me it was just you know,
a lot and and I. And that's why I could
relate to a lot of what she was saying, because
on the Little Brother records, I was just singing hooks
really just as placeholders, just to kind of okay, come

(01:57:32):
along and somebody else come along. But nobody else came along,
so I was like, fucking keep it. But you're the
Lauren Him of that crew. Like man, it was. I
was just doing it just to get it down. So
then once it had, you put that on him, Oh no,
I show up on time. Ain't me stand for late?

(01:57:53):
I come on time to ship. I got cheer in
the feed and I got you to do so no, man,
I'm no, but yeah, it never I never saw it
that way. So a lot of times I was just
doing it just to kind of just hold that place.
And then after the album came out, I was getting golf.
He was like, YO, give me a verse, but we
want to hook too. I was like, y'all really, like seriously,
you really want to hook? He was like, yeah, we want. Man,

(01:58:15):
it didn't know that you were already home. I did
not know I was already home. Is that what happened
with you the Players Circle Joint, That's exactly what happened.
They de non at the time he wanted to produced
that track, the non porter who was Isaacson. No, No,
he's uh he did p im People fifty cent. He's
done like a couple of M records. Like he's like

(01:58:36):
after Math Crew, uh and DE twelve all that, And
so he hit me. He was like, look, man, I'm
burned out, just give me some hook ideas. I said,
all right, cool, and so I did it and it
was a song for Players Circle back in oh eight
I want to say, oh eight o nine, and before
he became too change, he was titty boy and uh
names right right, yeah, but yeah, but he we did

(01:58:58):
the record, and so I just did a like as
a reference and Eller heard it and was like, yo,
I like this kid keeping on it and that was
at work. So yeah, for singing for me, it never.
I never. Only until a few years ago, maybe like
two years ago. Honestly, I was like, you know what,
I really can do this and let me sing in
my own voice rather than trying to be D'Angelo or
trying to be this person or this person or mimic

(01:59:21):
it or being Steve Steve Arrington, the great Steve Arrington
with the most epic lives of all time. It's like
it's like Mel Blank. I believe Mel Blanks in the
speriend Steve Arrington. I learned a lot today. I learned
that I'll be really surprised if we're here next week.

(01:59:46):
I'm playing. I hope you all join us, and uh,
you know we're only going to get better with time.
We're gonna be professionals by thousand episodes. Yeah, we got
put in there, gonna die together. Guy, how does that feel?
I feel it? Man, this is now. It's cool. I
always want to die in a closet fried Chicken and

(02:00:11):
five other men. That that would be just a great
story tell at my funeral. That note, ladies and Teleman.
Until the next Quest Love Supreme. This is Quest Love,
Fantigolo Jones, Steve Chenckens, Bill Thompson. Wait, why did I
give you my last name? Because we're related? Because it's

(02:00:35):
with my last name, Bill Jackson, h exactly. Uh, and
we'll call her uh Maya Clayton. Uh this Quest Love.
I hope to see you next week. All right, goodbye,

(02:00:59):
What's Love Supreme and as a production of I heart Radio.
This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.

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