QLS Classic: Melba Moore

This episode of Questlove Supreme lands Quest and Team Supreme in the presence of the great Melba Moore. Not many people can claim their career began with winning a Tony Award. Melba Moore can, having STARTED her career on Broadway to become an essential voice in R&B music. Her musical journey has been like no other, providing a different kind of blueprint toward success sought by most and she's still on it! So many lessons and great stories. You don't want to miss this one!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio Happy Black
History Month from Quest Love Supreme. This week's classic is
with the incredible Melbourne Moore, first air back in twenty
twenty one, with the highly accomplished singer and actress. We
appreciate you, Melba, hope you guys enjoyed this.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hello, gorgeous.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Hi.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
How you say it? It is how you say it,
you use it.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
You're the person to get her name right. And Lai
has been everything I saw. Boy, she's been everything to
every guest. Guest, Princess Leah.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
Yeah, everybody.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
What's going on, Miss Melbourne?

Speaker 4 (00:56):
Well, good to be here.

Speaker 5 (00:58):
Yeah, good, We're good to have you here.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Great to have you here too, Ladies and gentlemen. This
is Questlove, host of Quest Love Supreme. What can I say? Well,
first of all Team Supreme, Solloy and Steve and unpaid
Bill somewhere paying his bills. I got to say that
this interview is a long time coming. Once again, I

(01:24):
always say that we're honored to be in the presence
of worldty, but this is definitely the case for that episode,
For this episode, Melboln Moore, you know what can I say?
Broadway actress she was in the original here, the original
here with Ronnie Dice. So many questions. Uh, she is

(01:44):
a Tony Award winner for Pearly. I even saw her
in y'all might not remember this, but in seventy eight,
Tim Buck two was a big deal. I saw Tim
Buck two her an Earth Kit, I think so first
week it came out, my mom took me to see
Tim Buck two. Not to mention her music career, signed

(02:08):
to a new Billguard's legendary Buddha Records in the early seventies,
soon too Epic Records, and then of course in the
eighties or legendary run on Capitol Records.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Having discovered and been involved in so many greats, including
one of our favorites, Freddy Jackson managing his career. Not
to mention movies, just everything so legendary about this guest.
Please welcome to our show. Finally, Queen Melbourne Moore, thank you, yes, yes,
thank you so much everybody.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
I'm so excited to be here with you all. Well,
how do you remember all that.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Of yours?

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Id you was.

Speaker 4 (02:49):
One of them geniuses, That's what I heard about.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
I'm just the street, this is my my platform is
nothing but just the having the best seat in the
house and interviewing people that you know excite me. You
know I didn't. I guess I became friends with you
because you would always come to uh you know, are

(03:15):
always on our DJ gigs. You're the nicest DJ gigs
of mine as well, and got to know you. I'm
still doing your jazz set one day. Actually, wait, I
just did your dad. I forgot to tell you. I
finally did your jazz yesterday. You asked the jazz set together,
and wow, I finally I finally got one together, like

(03:35):
last week when you know we shot this away later,
but yes, I finally got one together. So how are you?
Were you right? Are you still a New Yorker? Like,
what part of the world?

Speaker 2 (03:45):
I'm just New York, New Jersey?

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Okay, that part of New York, yes, the Jersey part. Yes,
I feel like everyone in Jersey. Yeah, true, true New
Yorkers live in Jersey. I didn't get remember.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
Well now listen, I'm North New Jersey too.

Speaker 5 (04:05):
Oh wow?

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Okay, So what where were you? Were you always in
New York or where were you born?

Speaker 4 (04:12):
I was born in New York. Yes, what.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
A Harlem hospital?

Speaker 4 (04:18):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Okay, your Harlem night.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
No.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
I lived on one hundred and eighth Street, so it's
like two blocks below Harlem. I'm always on the cusp
of everything.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Okay, okay, almost there, but not quite there. I see that.
I guess in your well, in your beginnings, what was
your your your childhood into at least musically? Did you
grow up in a musical family where you I know
that your parents were also like singers as well, Like,
what was your childhood?

Speaker 5 (04:47):
Like?

Speaker 4 (04:48):
I haven't in my jeans? You might know who Teddy
Hill is?

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Do you?

Speaker 1 (04:54):
I know this name?

Speaker 2 (04:57):
For your time?

Speaker 4 (04:58):
I don't mean that. Yeah, you are walking encyclopedia, so
you might not.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
I know the name Teddy Hill, but I'm not familiar
with correct.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
It was a very famous big band leader. People like
Physical Lesbie and those folks played in his band. Well,
that's my natural father, but he didn't marry my mother.
So my mother was a professional singer. Okay, okay, so
I started out with music in my blood. But you know,
a strange family. My grandmother had strokes, so she didn't speak,

(05:31):
so I don't really know my my family history. My
mother's from pipe shop, Alabama. Didn't nobody ever hear that?

Speaker 6 (05:38):
Right?

Speaker 4 (05:38):
You know about Birmingham, but you don't.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Know about pipe pipe shop. Okay, really, don't sound.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Like I want to go right.

Speaker 7 (05:47):
Everybody's from there, right, So as I started out my
life really with a disjointed, broken.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
Family like many African American people. And then my mother
married my stepfather who was a piano player and they
worked together. So when I moved to Newark because he's
he was from Newark, I then had a step sister
and step brother later on two more blood you know
have blood brothers, and uh Daddy made us all take

(06:19):
piano lessons. So that's when I found out I could
sing about well, I was already ten years old. I mean,
when you were the instrument and you're born into it,
you expect like you're going to start singing about three
or four years old because the instrument is already there.
So really started late, that's my point, I guess I'm ployment.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
So for you, starting at that age was late to
you in your in your mind like, well.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
I mean usually when people have a voice, by the
time at three or four years old, they can sing.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
Okay, is that what happened with your mom? Because y'all
have similar voices and yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
Yeah, I guess you said question you want to know
what you want to know? What is your question?

Speaker 8 (06:59):
Right?

Speaker 5 (07:01):
No?

Speaker 1 (07:01):
No, no, no, well I really want to know. I know
that also in Newark, especially in that time period, the
legacy that Newark had as far as its singers are concerned.
I know that Cissy Houston was around there and at
the time, and the work sisters and whatnot likes. As
far as the musical richness of Newark, what was the

(07:26):
environment like back then.

Speaker 4 (07:28):
Well, there were lots of music bars, clubs with bands
and combos. Later on they were still continued to be
and people like Rhodid Scott and these great organ players
in these clubs all the time. Of course we also
had concerts and it was just very very rich. I

(07:53):
mean to the point too where by the time it
was time for you to go to high school, a
lot would you decided. I don't know if I could
have any little talent, but I wanted to be involved.
I want to be in music. So I went to
music and art high school.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
What high school was that arts high Okay? So there
there was like a performing arts high school, artigs school. Okay,
I see.

Speaker 4 (08:14):
It's like a famous one, right, it's not famous like
the one in New York, but I can tell you
people like Wayne Shorter went there.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
Oh wow, yeah, I was going to say, who else
went there that was of New Well, Wayne Shorter was
one of them. Anyone else?

Speaker 4 (08:28):
Tons? I can't remember them all now, but tons and
tons and tons of like because it's of talented people.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
Oh okay, Like who are your idols during that time period?
Or like at least what was the who was the
person that you looked up to the most, people.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
Like Bobby Tenants or Horror Silver. I thought I was
gonna be a count of player.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Oh well, okay, okay.

Speaker 5 (08:51):
That was.

Speaker 4 (08:54):
Yeah, well, because my stepfather was a counter player and
he played really really well, and he loved and he
made everybody around him just fall in love with it,
So I thought I could do it too.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
So then, what was your first moment, as in an
entry into your professional at least that moment where you
knew that you were going to make this your life calling.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
Well, after I spent about two or three years teaching
vocal music in public schools, I told my father, I said,
this is your dream, daddy. I do it really well,
but I don't want to do it. Please introduce me
to some of your viewer peoplec can you get me
into the industry as a performer. If it doesn't work,
I'll come back and peach school. So, to make a
long story a little bit shorter, one of the first people,

(09:39):
and that was Valerie Simpson. Some music publishers offered trying
to sell her songs already you know, at the beginning
of her life and career, because this was like late
sixties and we changed numbers, and she got me involved
with studio background singing work and singing jingles. That was

(09:59):
my into the industry. I started, you know, if you know,
valuing sense if she's at the top of her change,
she started out at the top. Yes, yes, because she's
just a genius.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
What I'm going to tell you town Yes.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
So then would you say that acting, like did that
come into play before you became a singer, and like
was acting your first fours as far as like doing
plays or whatnot?

Speaker 4 (10:30):
Heck no, no, I just mean I didn't have a
clue that would be in my future. But one of
the recording sessions was being performed by Galton and Bermott,
who wrote the music for the show. Here and they
were still casting for it, and they told us if
we wanted to cut any of us, they had really
basically been auditioning us without us knowing it, right, and

(10:53):
if we wanted to, they would find a part for
all of us in the show if we were coming
down and sing for the director and to produce. I
was the only one on the day get about getting
into theater, so I got into my first world would
show that.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Way so okay for our listeners that don't know.

Speaker 5 (11:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah yeah. I was going to say, well, not only that,
I know that hair was just something out of you know,
out of nowhere and very uh, well, you know people
think of hair. At least everyone that I know that
that saw it in real time told me that basically

(11:34):
that was the first time that you know, open front
nudity was such a thing on Broadway. Like, how controversial
was it? Then? To get involved? How did they talk
you guys into it?

Speaker 4 (11:48):
We were in previews and I don't know, someone from
the production team came up with the idea and told
us what we had to do the new scene, and
everybody's threatened quick because we didn't. I got in mind
and was shocking to us. But then when they made
it kind of well, if you want to do what
you can, If you don't, you don't have to. I
was curious, So I did it.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
M M every night every night. Well I don't, I don't.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
Remember if I did it every night?

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Right, do it?

Speaker 4 (12:16):
If you want to, You're gonna have to.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
Can you can you take us through their hair?

Speaker 3 (12:21):
Right? Because I read right that you also replaced Diane Keaton,
which was like the first time the black woman had
ever done that in theater. But can you what was
the what was your your actual process and hair in
that way?

Speaker 4 (12:32):
Okay, Well what happened was I've been in the show
for about a year and they had a lot of
different people coming into to do the lead role of Shield,
and they weren't happy with them, so they kept leaving.
And so one of the girls, one of the black girls,
excuse me to come, he'all, don't never let got play
out for would be great at it?

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Why don't you let Bill?

Speaker 3 (12:53):
But why.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
The same girl?

Speaker 4 (12:57):
She was very loud mouth, big mouth young matter of fact,
one of the parodies that she played, she played Abraham
Lincoln like the gettys Gettysburg Address, but like in rap
I had the birthday, the babe, the birthday to you.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
It was something like that, very irreverent.

Speaker 9 (13:19):
Wow, yeah we did. We did for production of Hair
when I was in high school. I played Hood.

Speaker 10 (13:24):
So yes, we weren't mad Man, we weren't doing but
you know it was a very tone down version, but
you know we did it.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, so she pushed you in front of the bus
and then well what happens?

Speaker 4 (13:41):
They I'd like the audition for so it rehearsed me
in in the role and a couple of different Saturday matinees.
Let me get up and try out for That's how
I got the role.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
Mhm.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Was that your first play or.

Speaker 4 (13:57):
Yeah I didn't. I had no theater background. Oh really, wow,
you know black people, there's musical.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
I mean, yeah, but I'm talking about.

Speaker 4 (14:08):
Back in the day we were allowed to do anything.

Speaker 11 (14:11):
Now.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, well, so many legends came from that production.

Speaker 4 (14:17):
Oh yeah, that's true.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
What was it like? Well, because I you know, you know,
for a lot of my favorites that I grew up
listening to when I was a kid in the seventies, like,
you couldn't find out much about them. I mean, I've
always heard about Ronnie Dyson and how incredible he was
as a singer, but you know, he really didn't get
that much press.

Speaker 4 (14:37):
No, there was no press for black people during that
time except Jet magazine.

Speaker 5 (14:42):
Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah. Besides Ronnie Dyson, was there anyone else notable that.

Speaker 4 (14:47):
Was in there was similar? I'm trying to think of you,
Ben Vereen. Wait a minute, wow, Donna Summer?

Speaker 1 (14:56):
Wow? That right? I forgot Donosam. Okay, was it? How
long was it until what Pearly was? Immediately after?

Speaker 4 (15:05):
Or immediately immediately because that same big Matt black girl, Yeah,
I can say. Her name is Mary Davis. I always remember.
Mary said, you've been in this player a long time.
You just start going up the page. She said, you
don't even know how to audition. Why don't you just
see if you can learn how to audition. You don't

(15:26):
even know how to audition. And she told me about
auditions for Early and she told her out how to
do what they called type passing. I said, well, Mary,
horn is that? He said, Well, you learned something about
the character, and you try to look like the character.
And of course the character was a backwoods illiterate maid.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
But that's what that's who I was raised.

Speaker 4 (15:47):
By because I had what we called a governess or nanny,
because my mother was a single parent. She was gone
and she was she was a backwoods cotton chopper. So
like most of Americans, we have two countries that we
identify as and.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
So gun people's mine. Can you talk about those Pearly days?

Speaker 3 (16:09):
I'm sorry because I was just talking to my dad,
who comes from New York around that time and used
to party with y'all. You don't know him, that's fine,
but he was saying that the parties around Pearly, and
one of the lead dancers, who had two homes, one
for the artists, I think, and one for himself, was like,
just like you've never seen before early Pearly, the cast,

(16:31):
cast parties and whatnot and the good Yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:33):
They were great.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
It is all you can say. Well, I could say more.

Speaker 4 (16:43):
But perhaps I shouldn't.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
Should if you don't tell us, would never know the
history is all.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
Well, I'll tell you who was in the chorus. And he,
you know, showed me like what the tony went about
and told me that I had, you know, have a
formal gown with George. Yes you know he's crazy, Yes, yes.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Love him. Yes, the choreographer of The Wiz.

Speaker 4 (17:09):
Everybody, yes, right, and Sherman Hensley.

Speaker 5 (17:14):
Oh, that's all you have to say.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
We already we already heard about sermon because you.

Speaker 4 (17:25):
Know, he thought he was calming pray.

Speaker 8 (17:27):
Okay, wow, thought he was That's how it was.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
Oh my god, I love it.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
Y'all seem sometimes y'all just seem so much more freedom.
Sometimes in here we're just a little bit more uptight.

Speaker 4 (17:46):
I didn't have a clue what I was doing, so
I was free.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Took about stage love stage.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
Right, I said, but what is that?

Speaker 2 (17:57):
I mean? I know it was your second a this
ship your first audition, that's our first audition, my second.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
So how how shocked were you to get uh A
Tony for Pearl.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
I seen it on tape, but I don't remember half
of it because it was just too shocking. Wow, it's
too shocked.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Let me see what you wore, because I know it
was fierce.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
I was in costume because we performed. I remember the
lights were on because you know it was television, so
I could see Pearl Bailey and Rex Harrison and these people.
I don't know what I did say, I didn't know
where are I supposed to be what the categories were,
so I thought he had already called my category. And
there was a gentleman. His name is an actor named

(18:44):
Jack Jones, and he was doing a lot of the
announcing and saying with categories. I was confused, but he
was always drunk.

Speaker 9 (18:55):
You thought he had got it wrong. You thought he
was drunk, and he did get it wrong.

Speaker 4 (18:59):
Wow, because he said somebody else's first name and my
last name.

Speaker 7 (19:03):
The whole audience started knelling no, no, the more, no more.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
Oh my god, what's going on? You know, it was
shocking to me.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
Wow, are your parents still with us at this point?

Speaker 4 (19:16):
When you ring your tony yes?

Speaker 2 (19:19):
What did they I mean, what did they think?

Speaker 4 (19:23):
Well, my dad was really glad that he didn't insist
that I kept teaching school. I wasn't too happy about
the new scene and hair oh in that part, but
they were.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
Their parents were more like fall back on something that's yes,
secure and not. I was about to say about this point,
do you at least have like a manager? Are you like, Okay,
I'm going to go full throttle and no, so you
just like I got lucky. I got one play and
then oh I gotten another play and I won this Tony.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
So after that, I think I got an agent after that, okay,
because because then, you know, our television show came along.
I was working all the best supper clubs like the
Palmer House in Chicago and Waldorf Astoria in New York,
and you know these so they had to be negotiated, right.
I got an Asian then.

Speaker 9 (20:16):
So explained that to us, like exactly when you say
a supper club, what was that type of entertainment?

Speaker 4 (20:22):
Then you like, beautiful, fancy club. Let me see you
know the City Wineries, yes, ma'am.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
Oh okay, yeah yeah, city Winery.

Speaker 5 (20:30):
Yeah, we played City Winery.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
Before something like that.

Speaker 4 (20:33):
Very class and very very you know. And you have dinner, you.

Speaker 5 (20:37):
Have supper, you have dinner, gotcha.

Speaker 4 (20:39):
Yeah. And you could have a big orchestra or small ensemble,
but the top entertainment.

Speaker 5 (20:46):
Okay, got it?

Speaker 4 (20:47):
And you went down. Excuse me if you want to.
I love this business. I gotta tell you.

Speaker 5 (20:58):
He loves you back.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
So your recording career, I knew that you got signed
and I think in the seventies, but I made a mistake.
Buddha wasn't your first label, right, No.

Speaker 4 (21:13):
Mercury was because I got that, I guess in the
early early seventies while I was still in Pearly.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
Yeah, that was my first I look what you're doing
to the man? I think that was what seventy one?

Speaker 4 (21:27):
Yeah, yeah, because I got that as a result of
early I got and I got a recording offer as
a lead singer. You know.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
Wait, so even then, it's not like, by the time
you get a record deal, surely by this point your
fully operational business, I should hope.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
So well, not if you don't know the business.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
Wait, how can one navigate without well, you know, at
least in today's terms. You know, it's like everything has
to be in place, like your manager, your tour managers,
your social media manager, your business manager. But back then,
it just none of that ever occurred.

Speaker 4 (22:10):
No, No, I think it was more structured then than
it is now. You can almost be a one man
man now, and you know, to your own media or
you can because a lot of things that you can
kind of outsource might call it there. It was very
kind of a systematic, and especially being a black woman,
somebody had had to go before you negotiate these things.

(22:32):
I mean, the only reason I was even talked about
being allowed into these venues was because it became it
came through theater, which essentially it was white. Not essentially
it was white. I mean I remember seeing Patty Lebelle
on Tonightshell and then we're going to let her sit down,
but the people wouldn't let him let her go because

(22:53):
it's you know, systemic racism. So you have to have
some kind of management team to carry out in the office.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Cake.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
You had to go through somebody, you know, because.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
It wasn't it.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Still it's funny because I was sitting here thinking like,
but you came from a family full of musicians, but
yet and still they're black musicians. So business was never right.
So it's not like you could look to them and
be like, well, what should I do when.

Speaker 5 (23:17):
There's still a level of information that's held from us, right.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
And then you're still you're evolving because you're in a
place where they've never gone.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
And so it's like, precisely.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Right, that's ill.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
The one the one album in your your arsenal that
I'm fond of is Peach Melbourne, which came out in
seventy five. First of all, before I ask you anything,
I gotta know during the height of lean on me

(23:49):
itis and not deal with this. Lean on me if
you were, if you were alive and awhere at the
time when the song was at its height in the seventies,
most people will know that you hold a note for

(24:12):
Lisa Good thirty seconds. I'll stay longer than longer than
Bill Withers singing day on Lovely Day. Yeah, And I
used to. I used to actually try to, and you
would do this song often. I've seen you doing on
the Tonight Show. I've seen you even when you did it,
when you did it live, you held a note longer.

(24:34):
And I just never knew a person that could hold
one note for like almost fifty seconds. Did you? Did
you regret having to do that every time? Like I
almost felt like it was it was its own Olympic
comp like competition, like the duration of holding that note,

(24:55):
like it was fun and for.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
Me it was an athletic activity. It was something that
was It wasn't always there everything that I'm able to do.
It seems like I had to work twenty five times
harder than other singers. I had to go jump, rope, boat,
swim dog, you know, and do my vocal study, holler
and scream and yell and everything, and then after a

(25:18):
while the stamina due to the point where one day
I remember I was singing this song tim every Mountain
for some little group in a nursing home in some
way I don't know right, and I took one of
the big, big, big breath and I said, you know,
let it out, and it kind of went over across
the room. You know, it's through travel. And I was

(25:42):
strong enough so that I was standing there holding it,
but I wasn't so conscious that I was doing it,
and I said, only wait, that's me. So I kept
holding it. I said, well, I wonder if I could
always do that when I started to develop stamina to
do it. And it's just to become something that I'm
so grateful for. I'm happy about it. Now I understand,
like I can't.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Eat everything and do this. That's why what I call.

Speaker 4 (26:04):
It, let it activity. Now. I can't go and handle Daniels.
I can't handle no fried chicken.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
What? So what is what is? What is your h
regiment as far as keeping your your your your muscle intact,
because again, to hold it for that strong and that
much vibrato over forty seconds is not normal. I thought

(26:34):
it was cheating. Method where you know.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
Somebody, somebody says circular breathing. I said, I'm not an.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
Yeah, I thought you were circular breathing because you know,
we know and what do you yell at the end
of the song?

Speaker 2 (26:53):
Oh youse?

Speaker 1 (26:54):
That was tough, like what are you talking in tons?
Like what?

Speaker 2 (26:59):
Of course?

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Okay, I never knew what you yell at the end.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
Of that was the whole topic. And I forget what
show we were doing, but we talked about that.

Speaker 5 (27:10):
Yeah, I remember that. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
I think the last times that I've been doing it's
evolving to make it so, it's make it come.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
Okay when you're a five year old listening to that,
I thought you were doing some sort of taekwon do
I never heard of before.

Speaker 3 (27:28):
I do want to hear the answer to that question, though,
because you never what is your prep when it comes
to your voice?

Speaker 4 (27:33):
A lot of baked chicken, you know, or you lean protein.
I know you think chicken is a gospel bird, but
it is.

Speaker 12 (27:41):
Yes, what because I just thought you were gonna say
no dairy or okay, well, no dairy, yeah, okay, yeah,
no fried foods, no oil, you know, no what.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
A lot of fish?

Speaker 4 (27:55):
You know?

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Vegetables.

Speaker 4 (27:56):
But then I got to work out and I think
the swimming hell mm hm hmm. I've always loved swimming,
and I thought it was a scorpion water scign.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
It's not, is it. No? They walking on the on
the desert, so well, I'll be walking to.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
I'm in mountains. Aerobic exercises thing, but make you breathe hard.
It build up the lung capacity.

Speaker 9 (28:26):
I was curious to know the producer for Peach Melbourne
was Eugene McDaniels and to hip hop to my generation,
he means something totally different.

Speaker 5 (28:37):
But what was it like working with him?

Speaker 9 (28:38):
I've never really heard stories of you know, what he
was like in the studio and his you know, creative process.

Speaker 5 (28:44):
What was what was that like?

Speaker 4 (28:45):
I wouldn't stay with him and his wife and his home,
come to California Hills and so I'm very what do
you call it, I'm affected by my environment? And he
looked way up and was probably sitting, So I was affected.
I sound to me on that pitched album, I sound

(29:06):
different or like, I mean another zone. That's Jamie Jangles
to me is like.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
That were you were you aware of his kind of
his at least at the time in seventy five is
controversial political zeros, Yeah, like stance with the government. I
know that the story was that when his second album
came out, Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse, Spiritual Agnew kind

(29:37):
of placed a call to I'm at Ertigan and kind
of had him blackballed, you know, had his musician's union
card revoked.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
Cool.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
So thus he was kind of left to make a
living as a singer songwriter. So this he worked on
your record, roberta Flex Blue Lights in the Basement, Like.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
Oh the what did he lean on the side of
Was he the big C word?

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Well, no, no, no, not even that. I think just
I think it was rare for an artist to just
you know the way that we call out the government
now on Twitter, Instagram, Like his albums were Twitter. You
just didn't hear of black people like just blatantly call

(30:26):
the government's you know, liars or that stuff. And he
had it in for Nixon to the point that you know,
the Nixon administration just did all they could to silence him,
and he couldn't. He lost his record deal, so you
know him not if he didn't write that's the time
I feel like making love to you then that would

(30:47):
have been that would have been curtains for him. But
I mean, he produced people in the meantime. They couldn't
stop him from producing other people. So I just wanted
to know, like just as a as a human being,
like was he kind of bitter what the government was
doing to him?

Speaker 2 (31:07):
Or he just I never heard.

Speaker 4 (31:09):
Him speak anything about his politics. That's what I thought.
He was kind of, you know, kind of theory like
me sweet and gentle and okay, you know, but he
was No. I didn't know anything about his pologies for
actually it.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
Oh okay, So were you aware that at the time
when you made the record? Did you meet the kids
that did Sunshine Superman with you? I didn't. I'm certain
that people have reminded you that Wendy Melvoy of Wendy
and Lisa Prince in the Revolution and her twin sister

(31:51):
Susannah were the background singers on Sunshine Superman. So I
probably knew it, but here at the time. Okay, I
see you. Also, at least two albums later, you worked
with Van McCoy. I know he produced the This Is

(32:15):
Hit record? What was what was that?

Speaker 2 (32:17):
Like? He put me in disco?

Speaker 1 (32:22):
I was gonna say how can you describe what it's like. Two,
every every artist I see that was recording in the seventies,
disco was more like a kind of like that film
and Louise Mountain Jump, like can we make it to
the other side or are we going to fall underground?

(32:43):
Like what were your thoughts on on conquering that? And
you know, I know Neil Bouregart was your was your
president at the time, Like what was he like? As
not not much as said about Neil boorg Art's time
at at Buddha and at Casablanca. I know that a

(33:03):
lot of his artists were like, you know, colorful, and
he really I guess you could say he was like
the original Diddy, almost to the point where he was
just as famous as his artist was.

Speaker 4 (33:13):
H I met him, I knew who he was, and
he was very, very famous, But I really didn't have
an awful lot to do with it because by that
time I had good management. So they were the ones
that actually went out and got Van and they and
the label got Van McCoy for me m hm and

(33:34):
put us together. Then then he and I, you know,
worked on what we were going to do and try
to establish and be as an recording artist and helped
me develop a style and you know, an identity I
didn't have. Yes, I had the note. Then what I
was interested in Van McCoy for. I mean, he gave

(33:55):
me this is Zip, which put me into the disco
or the dance dan genre. But I knew he had
written me in on me ah and the reason I'm
so he wrote me Yeah, that's so weird.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
I can't imagine Van McCoy writing any non uptempo.

Speaker 4 (34:19):
He wrote lots of ballads, is very prolific songwriter.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
So that's how it reached you.

Speaker 4 (34:26):
Well, no, yes, but no. I had heard my favorite
artist this a Rutha Franklin singing and I know I
couldn't sing like her, but the lyrics and everything just
moved me so much I started singing it. So I
developed my own little arrangement of it with the long note.

(34:49):
And I think the long note came in there because
I was just so excited and so trying so hard
to express something. And then once it had presented itself
and I came in in contact and touch with so
in the court, I made him do my arrangement me.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Okay, you also worked with McFadden and Whitehead. I'm a Philadelphian,
so like any of those guys that are in the
arsenal of under the umbrella of Gamble and Huff and
Mixter Wanzel and you know Tom Molton, like all all
those guys under the Philly umbrella. What was it? What

(35:30):
was it like working with McFadden and Whitehead? Let me see, well,
they produced the Portrait of Melbourne album.

Speaker 4 (35:40):
Yeah, I told you what it was like working with
Sherman Henson.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
Right, I guess you did.

Speaker 4 (35:46):
It was like that, Yes, good times, they were crazy.
I've heard stories, especially Whitehead.

Speaker 5 (35:56):
Really wow Philly.

Speaker 2 (35:59):
I mean if he walked.

Speaker 4 (35:59):
Out on the streets, strange things happened.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
How strange? Did you record that in Philadelphia? Was it
recorded in New York?

Speaker 4 (36:11):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (36:11):
In New York?

Speaker 4 (36:12):
Okay, we kind of stole them from a Philly International.
Matter of fact, we were managing our company, Hush Production.
We're managing Jean and John and so we were the
ones that produced them or managed them to do you know,
stopping us Now, it wasn't Philly an International.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
You better tell that story.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Oh wait a minute, yeah you can't just casually like.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
You better tell it. It's more.

Speaker 4 (36:38):
Yeah, kind of borrowed them.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
So you see hush production started in nineteen seventy six.

Speaker 4 (36:47):
Well you remember the years it hadn't been around that
time here.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
Well, I only knew of I only started hearing of
the term hush productions closer to you, like your capital,
but I never knew when it when it started. So
you got you and your husband got into management.

Speaker 4 (37:06):
I could have a manager because I didn't have a
manager still yet at a certain point, I had an asient.
But by that time I had already lost my career
for the first time.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
By this point, Uh yeah, yeah, that's that's unusual for
an artist to start a manager at least you don't
hear of that in the seventies, like it was like
a separation of church and states. Like artists were artists
and CEOs were CEOs, So what right?

Speaker 2 (37:36):
That was?

Speaker 4 (37:37):
What wasn't That was the case with me. But I've
a husband was a gifted and was a gifted business person,
and when we met, we started. We tried to find
a manager for me, but everybody told me it was
she's brought, but she can't do this, she can't do that.
I started in the record industry as a backup, saying
but so my point is that everything that they said

(37:58):
I couldn't do had already done. So instead of having
a stable of artists, we started a stable of managers.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Mm hmm brilliant.

Speaker 4 (38:08):
Oh okay, So once we got me started, then we
got Freddy and Kashif and you know, a whole bunch
of people.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
I was wondering what your roster looked like? Can you
can you brag some more with wils was on the roster?

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Let me see some.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
More Agan.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
All the capital Bo Higgins or Huggins, Huggins, I remember
Bo Huggins, I remember?

Speaker 5 (38:32):
Or summer was that you guys?

Speaker 2 (38:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (38:35):
It was a record company, lady.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
You mentioned Thomas.

Speaker 4 (38:40):
Paul Enforced, m DS Force and D's.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
And Paul Lawrence to Lawrence from the Ages. Now I
see how the rain came together.

Speaker 4 (38:57):
Yeah, I had some music that you then.

Speaker 5 (39:02):
What was what was? Because she like he was always
one of those guys that I just really.

Speaker 9 (39:06):
You know, admired, and you know we I had a
music class in college and they made us read like
his book, you know, everything you know about.

Speaker 5 (39:13):
The business, and she yeah, what was what was? What
was he like?

Speaker 4 (39:17):
As a as a well we became well his daughter
and his wife and I became real good friends because
we for the recording studio in our little building at
two thirty one west of the Ah Street, and when
she would come, he would record the stuff in our studio. Well,
you said, what was he like?

Speaker 5 (39:37):
Well, it was like a vocal coach mmkay.

Speaker 4 (39:42):
And the way he stacked the background voices almost like
you take individual sounds and singers and you put them
in different places, not like a background. But he structured everything.
And he he was, I guess, uh, affectionist. And we'll
go over one phrase all day. So you all got it.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
I said, good, I'm.

Speaker 4 (40:08):
Gonna get this. I'm gonna learn how to sing.

Speaker 5 (40:09):
Bet.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
I was fine with me. You know, I'm a student.

Speaker 4 (40:14):
I'm a teacher. They're gonna have patience with me to
like get it.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
So you're not one of those singers that is like okay,
three takes and I feel like it's enough, so let's
move on.

Speaker 4 (40:24):
And no, the more I do it, the better I get.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Okay, I see under that under that production unit. So
you guys managed to conceived. Did you guys also manage
like uh, well no, there was uh, there was Ronnie
Harris as well.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
Yeah, with your nat Ronnie.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
Yeah, Ronnie Harris like a bunch of like Tri State
guys that I know that were kind of under the
were they under like Cashief's tutelage or because he had
a very Vronnie.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
Was his own and the team was parallel.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
Another okay, another.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
I see yeah, like for me, especially the the about
to say somewhere with it, the other side of the
Rainbow album, that's probably yeah, one of my favorite records.

Speaker 5 (41:19):
That was the one. My aunt used to play that
record all the time. I was. I think that was
like three when that came out, But I remember the
one with.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
The art is uh you think of Melbourne?

Speaker 2 (41:33):
Did you?

Speaker 1 (41:33):
I think did you specifically work with I just have
one question about the seventy eight record because I know
I knew you did a cover of you Stepped into
My Life? The b specifically write that for you?

Speaker 2 (41:50):
Or instead.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
The begs wrote that for you?

Speaker 4 (41:55):
No, No, that was I forgot that the album? Was
it done well? All those songs up from Saturn it Saturday?

Speaker 1 (42:02):
She might Eman might have done it. Someone else did it,
but I didn't know who did it first. First Okay,
I see.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
Do you get anything?

Speaker 3 (42:10):
Every time d Nice plays that record because he plays
that record and I hear it in my dreams.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
Thank you that us. It's like a new record. I
love it.

Speaker 4 (42:23):
D nice and all your deep days, you're gonna make
us relevant.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
Yeah good, I'm hoping that you was okay good? So
it does matter. It does matter, okay.

Speaker 4 (42:36):
Absolutely, because you know, God keeps me. Don't get too religious, bodes.
God keeps doing, you know, new things, at least every
decade or so, and he changes it. And so you've
got to change the context. You gotta change the neighborhood.
I can't do that. I'm not even a songwater mm
hm oh.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
DJs.

Speaker 4 (42:59):
First of all, you used to just spend records. Now
that's grown into their songwriters, producers, You promote shows. You
created a genre, so you have some autonomy, you have
some authority, and you you have created a well, yeah,

(43:21):
a community, a beat days and I'm not saying it's
all black but sweet, So we have some place to
be like in the early days, especially since somebody like me,
my opportunities came through theater soul racist. But what they

(43:42):
try to get you to do and you wanted to
do was a crossover. But if you do that, you
leave your community and they try to convince you don't
belong here, you don't belong there. Well it was too late,
thank god for that to being convinced that. So then
you know, we try to get a manager. And when

(44:03):
we couldn't do it, then we said, okay, well won't
we tried it. You've done theory, you've done TV, you've
done this. So we got somebody from each of those
areas and then said, okay, what kind of music we're
going to do. So and like I said, my then
husband is gifted a business, so nobody taught him business.

(44:24):
If you learned it, just like many of us have
centered people, you didn't get a chance to go get it,
get taught it. Then you learn it some kind of way.
You learn it. You know, you have to learn how
things go and create a space for yourself. And you know,
they call it r and you put it in the
back on the corner, and that turns out to be
the foundation of American music. Anyway, that's my humble opinion

(44:51):
right now.

Speaker 5 (44:52):
Don't be humbled about it. It's true.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
There's one question I missed before we skipped to uh Becashi.
I always wanted to know this, so you worked with
another legendary producer, Peter Pete Bai. Yeah, I guess, uh, well,
I'd like to know at least what was the decision

(45:17):
in getting him? People a lot they did, uh, like
a lot of his music, like between him and Georgio
or Moro, Like those guys were like into like teat
your electronic past that I mean, what what we now
know is like electronic music, Like those guys were pushing
Well they were German producers, so sort in line of

(45:38):
what crap work was doing and all that stuff. What
was it like working with him? That was the decision
to sort of go into sort of like a futuristic
dance mode or like what was it like working with him?

Speaker 4 (45:51):
Well? Yes, because we were trying to stay current and
once again, like I said, my husband went out and
found the songwriters and producers who irrelevant for the time
and seeing where things were going and could we fit
into it, they decided they would work with me, and
so I co wrote a lot of the songs that
we did together because by then we told me I
should learn how to write.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
Yes, yes, you get your money out, yeah the money.

Speaker 4 (46:18):
Guess he was trying to teach me that here so
did you.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
I felt like you made the transition to the eighties.
It was for a lot of artists, it was hard
transitioning to the eighties. But of course with you know,
you work with with Paul Lawrence and Kashif and and
all those cats, those New York Cats or Jersey New
York Cats. Just what was the what was the environment

(46:45):
like at the time, because also like uh, you know,
there's there's Lala, There's like so many, so many of
these greats that are in the what R and B
was at the time. What I what I say is
with with at least the style of Kashif was him

(47:05):
being kind of instrumental on the sound of boogie, which
is you know, post disco kind of the sound that
uh Leon Silver's ushered in, like that boogie sound. Could
you explain what the environment in the early eighties was
like in New York as far as like that whole

(47:26):
cruise concerned Freddy Jackson, La La like all those people.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
Oh, of course I may be, you know, particularly actually
describing it was so much fun. It was on the musical.
It was like you were exploring a place where everything
functioned and worked, probably because we were in charge and
you could negotiate with the record company. I didn't. I
didn't mine then husband did. It was good at it.

(47:53):
So we were touring. We were sending up and mean artists.
It's always fresh downs. And I mean, I'm a musician,
so I mean that that was like being in heaven.
We have fun. We liked each other. You know, we
have no problems. It was great. And then you know,

(48:14):
there was no lack of money or or or work.
It was wonderful. I was happy, but my baby was
was you know. I just I was a new mother.

Speaker 9 (48:24):
Do you is there is your former husband? He's still alive.
Him and his brother, they're still alive. Okay, are y'all
on good terms or how is it that relationship?

Speaker 4 (48:34):
Now?

Speaker 5 (48:34):
Y'all good?

Speaker 4 (48:35):
That we're family? Hey, you get religious, but God creates us.
So I want to, you know, suck up to the balls.
I see and our daughter is happy and you know,
coming into her own So yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
He's got an eighties baby.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
It sounds like, okay, what was the story in developing?

Speaker 6 (48:57):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (48:57):
Freddy Jackson? Like I feel like of your stadium. He
was definitely your your breakout artist. How did you discovery?

Speaker 4 (49:08):
I told you by Sherman Henslady too as a party.
That's how it was. I remember one time we were
in the studio and he was going to come around
to my house, you know, for a break, just you

(49:28):
know a little bit.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
So I got dressed up.

Speaker 4 (49:31):
I forgot what I had on, but I had to
get him, you know.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Mm hmmm.

Speaker 11 (49:35):
So so I opened the door and it was so
he was so shocked he fell down on the uh
the hallway floor laughing.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
I said, now, what was the outfit? Do you remember?

Speaker 4 (49:52):
I forgot? It was some crazy I don't know. Nobody
else would see this but know him and me?

Speaker 3 (50:01):
Where is Freddie Jackson from from of course, oh that's
that's too much, okay, all right.

Speaker 4 (50:08):
But but he likes to keep it and Doug's he's
a darker. He could probably do stand up if you
wanted to. That's his real personality, was laughing. And of
course you know he could sing anything you can hear, right, So.

Speaker 3 (50:24):
Wait, I'm gonna ask you can I just asked the
question that some of the eighties babies might want to know.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
I'm sorry, I don't know this is touchy, but.

Speaker 3 (50:30):
Were he and Luther as question that beef? Because we
grew up thinking it was beef.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
I was going to say, like, in my mind, I
felt like there's some pot biggie.

Speaker 11 (50:46):
Going on.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
He was going to be the king of the hill, don't.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
I don't think they were friends, but I think it
was just like a lively uh friendly competition, especially on
Freddie's part, m because Luther was the man. Luther is
the man.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
Yeah, Mini has his own spot.

Speaker 4 (51:07):
Yeah true that you sure everybody would want to aspire
to that. But that's just my humble opinion because I
don't really know.

Speaker 9 (51:15):
What was the relationship, like with with you with like
Hush and Capital.

Speaker 5 (51:20):
I remember I was watching two years back.

Speaker 9 (51:23):
I think I was watching Freddy's Unsung and he was
talking about how his records were like going crazy, and
the people at Capital didn't They had no idea, Like
they didn't even They were just so unaware of what
was going on in black music at that time that
when his record kind of took off, it, you know,
they weren't prepared for it.

Speaker 5 (51:41):
They weren't prepared.

Speaker 4 (51:42):
It wasn't only what was going on in black music.
Our company became really uh and I jumped to the
record company. We were the ones that started.

Speaker 5 (51:51):
Street promotions with the gotcha.

Speaker 4 (51:55):
And actually working your own record in your your own areas,
and your own marketing people and your own salespeople.

Speaker 5 (52:05):
Got you.

Speaker 4 (52:09):
You know when we're going to say, when we give.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
You a hit, do you find that that it's harder,
harder to be both artist and artist manager. Yes, it
involves a lot of babysitting and Jedi mind tricks and yeah,
but you.

Speaker 4 (52:27):
Know what, I think, I'm naturally a mentor, so I
can't manage. That's his whole skill that I don't really have,
and I don't think I have a real great interest
in it. But I'm always interested in showing you and
opening the way. Like for instance, we took Freddy on
the road with me and he was my opening act.
I didn't let him open for me. I put him
in the middle of my show and introduce people Tom

(52:49):
and set him as soon as he starts saying, you're
gonna start screaming, so I'm gonna tell you who he
is now famous Freddy. Put him in the middle of
my show instead of trying to make him they're all
black share when you're first trying to get out there. Yeah,
So naturally, I think a mentor I'm not a manager.

Speaker 9 (53:07):
Now, and that is a different there's a distinction. I
understand exactly what you mean. That makes sense.

Speaker 3 (53:12):
I have a lot of other thingers been coming to
you for, like mentorships throughout the years. I was curious
about that, especially with all the with the voice stuff
were I.

Speaker 4 (53:21):
Think they don't come to me because you know, I
have a team of people and they deal with everything,
and so they don't come to me. But whenever I
have an opportunity, thank god, people are interested interviews. People
want to know, well, how do you do this? And
how what would you tell somebody else? And so in
that that way I can I can offer you know,
information with suggestions even better.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
You mentioned, uh, Melissa Morgan was also part of that stable, correct, Yeah,
again these are I'm just asking because again, like there's
just a period between eighty two to probably ninety two
of a bunch of artists that you know, there wasn't
social media out back then. There wasn't anything unless they

(54:06):
were in Jet Soul train or ride on magazine you
really didn't know or ebony, you really didn't know about them.
What was Melissa like in working? How did she become
part of the stable.

Speaker 4 (54:22):
Once again, Hush signed her as an artist, and so
their relationship with her was with her. But Melissa and
I have become friends and well, what can I say?
She likes me, so, I mean when I had difficult times,

(54:45):
she's what.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
Now do you need a ride?

Speaker 5 (54:51):
Wow?

Speaker 4 (54:53):
I help you? You know, where do you go? And
you called the find out and see how I am?
And whatever? We just spent you know, and we've we've
done some shows together now that I have no manager,
and you know, we can do shows ourselves and say
who we want to be with. We often work together.
We've been in okay, a lot.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
You know, I do in you know what, when when
the when the when the iron was hot in that
period in the eighties, did you think about making uh
a return to your other to the other arenas that
you were in as far as like you're acting and

(55:37):
plays and whatnot.

Speaker 4 (55:38):
Well, yes, I I made my then husband put Pearly
on videotape. Okay, well the only thing I've seen on video.
I'm sure the others it's Hamilton since then, because it's
still not a common thing for people to do.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
Oh okay, so there was unusual back then. Wait, would
you involved with the what was your involvement in all right,
this is a deep one. Are you guys familiar with
Death by Temptation?

Speaker 2 (56:07):
Yes?

Speaker 9 (56:08):
Wait, yes, wait wait all Over You by Freddy Jackson.

Speaker 5 (56:13):
That was the joint. But it was the joint with
kadem Hardistan and Building, yes.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
And James the third on the He created that. Ye
oh wait, he created Death by Tentation Okay, yes, he wrote.

Speaker 4 (56:28):
And produce that, well, we produced it was to.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
Say, were you the producer of the film as well?
Or yes? Okay?

Speaker 9 (56:36):
You know what was that like stepping into film and
like producing your own film?

Speaker 5 (56:40):
I mean, that's a lot we were because we started.

Speaker 4 (56:43):
To learn how to try to promote it and get
it into theaters, and so I started to get into that.
But my whole relationship with my husband and and hush
production broke down shortly after that.

Speaker 5 (56:54):
Oh man, what what led to the breakdown? In your opinion?

Speaker 4 (56:58):
I don't think I should say not with not.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
That, not with the daughters sitting there. She's like, Mama, Mama.

Speaker 4 (57:09):
I love you.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
I can already hear it. Field, let me ask because
we're in the nineties now, But.

Speaker 4 (57:14):
But literally that, you know, trying to be uh men,
are ways and be better.

Speaker 8 (57:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (57:22):
Yeah, and it's such a different place now. And I
think because of the COVID and everything around the world stopping,
we do have a chance to start over. And maybe
the playing field will never be even, but we've all
grown so much we have a chance to try to
start over.

Speaker 5 (57:39):
So trying to really do that, that's real, that's fact.

Speaker 3 (57:42):
But that period is when you credit like things went
bad and then because I think you said something early
on where you were like, my my career fell, it
fell down, or something like that, and then you that
was you said that was the first time, so you
can reckon.

Speaker 4 (57:54):
Right, that was that was before this time? We now, okay, okay, Well,
one thing I've gotten very good at is falling and
getting back up.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
That's it is, it is.

Speaker 4 (58:08):
But you got to work out. See you got to be.

Speaker 5 (58:11):
Now you look amazing, like you've really I wasn't.

Speaker 3 (58:14):
Gonna be in your business, but I was about to
ask about your moisturizing.

Speaker 5 (58:17):
I was.

Speaker 3 (58:20):
Because you said, you know, you know, I was like,
is that not for the fried foods? If I didn't
eat fried foods, is that what I would end uble?

Speaker 4 (58:25):
Looking like that?

Speaker 2 (58:30):
Okay? Can you can she answer that? Daughter? Yes, okay,
I'm waiting.

Speaker 4 (58:39):
You know, massages and heat and my screams and stuff,
you know, and masks and and exercise the face and
exorcise you know, like exorcism.

Speaker 3 (58:53):
Yes, because my mother always said you supposed to do
I oh and all.

Speaker 4 (58:58):
Like you have to exercise it.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
Yes, people don't know that. Okay, so that's real. Yeah. Yeah,
like a mere you got to so you know, black
don't crack. But it could rust, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (59:08):
Yeah, you had to take the little forms of rust sometime,
you know.

Speaker 3 (59:13):
But can we can we talk about nineteen eighty seven
because is that when lay miss?

Speaker 2 (59:17):
When did they miss?

Speaker 4 (59:18):
Yes, yes, that's no, the miss was I thought it
was later?

Speaker 2 (59:25):
Was it later?

Speaker 3 (59:26):
I think it was.

Speaker 4 (59:27):
I think it was little because.

Speaker 2 (59:29):
Or ninety nineteen ninety, Well it was.

Speaker 4 (59:31):
Around that time because that's the times. And then I
lost my family and hush and all of that, and
I really was homeless.

Speaker 5 (59:41):
Oh wow, But I never.

Speaker 4 (59:43):
Heard of Michael Matthews.

Speaker 5 (59:46):
Michael Michael Matthews.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
Oh no, we want to know.

Speaker 4 (59:53):
Well, he created the gospel musical that Tyler Perry has
taken to the Lanks that he has Okay, the first
one to Tyler, do No, Michael Matthews did the first one.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Okay, that's what.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
I'm the very first gospel. Okay, gospel pioneered the gospel part.

Speaker 4 (01:00:11):
Yes, he pioneered it. And what he did was he
went to the churches around the major cities that have
black populations and he sold to them. So that's that's
why we have gospel plates because they're from there. The
audiences were the church. And so by the time I
met Michael, I was just about to be evicted. Uh

(01:00:35):
my daughter had run away and didn't know where she
was because of all the trouble was going on. I
uh found out that that I was divorced and I
had to go figure out all that stuff. But uh,
Michael had called me and invited me to come out
to Saint Louis. It was he was doing one of
its plates and it's this.

Speaker 6 (01:00:55):
Huge, like two thousand seater, three thousand theater theater. There
was jan pat None of the black people knew whose churches,
so he know he learned he out how to market.

Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
The churches and fill him up every day of the week.
And so what he did then he said these incredible
actors and singers that he had put into the shows
and musicians. That's where Mary and Mary came from.

Speaker 6 (01:01:23):
Oh wow, you know they're mad, right, you're ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (01:01:28):
Well, and the one of them that's married to the
piano player. He was a piano player from Mark, not
Warren Campbell Canty. But to give you the and I
give the quality of the music and what we were
doing with what was raw, and I came out to start.

(01:01:48):
He was bringing stars into those incredible companies.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
Which they do.

Speaker 4 (01:01:54):
Okay, yeah, So actually that's how it really began. To
learn how to sing gospel because I'm like but opera though,
well no, I s opera. I was born doing that.
I had to learn how to sing the hospital.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
Wow, okay wow verse reverse?

Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
What was what was the question?

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
I was asking about le mis?

Speaker 4 (01:02:20):
But oh okay, So so I was telling you about that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
But then I didn't have anything.

Speaker 4 (01:02:27):
So I was trying to write a play where I
could be the star so I could get up and
get some work. But Richard J. Alexander, who casts the
miss A Rob was in this little town called Hollywood, Florida.
He came to see my play and he didn't know
I could see classical music because you don't sing classical
in parly right, it would be great for them. That's

(01:02:51):
how I got it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
You know you mentioned you mentioned something earlier that I
wanted to ask. So, you know, in twenty twenty, a
lot of people in our profession and entertainment, especially in March,
I'm one of them, was definitely panicking because you know,

(01:03:14):
a lot of artists didn't know if they were coming
or going. You know, this is how I make my
living and you know that. So I personally went through
about a good six to seven weeks of just straight
up like panicking, I'm about to lose everything. But you know,
so I will say that it takes a steady mind

(01:03:37):
to navigate yourself out of that situation. How were you
able to the first the first time around when you
were about to lose everything and sort of not knowing
where your career was going to go? Like what how
is your mind state in that keeping slowan state daddy

(01:04:00):
to get to agree in or pastor if you will,
or a safer space that you could still be And
like how how were you able to to mentally overcome that.

Speaker 4 (01:04:14):
I don't think I overpayment.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:04:16):
I don't think I was calm and settled. I was depressed.
I was oppressed, repressed, it was desperate.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
Yeah, but I believe you overcame it because you're here
speaking with us, yeah, right now, and you were you know,
yeah so. But just at the time, what I was
saying was that after two months of just oh man,
I'm gonna, I gonna, I'm gonna time I lose everything
and we'll lose everything, then I just had to stop,
sit silent and restart all over again.

Speaker 6 (01:04:46):
You have to.

Speaker 4 (01:04:48):
You have to. There's really nothing else you can do.
But I'll tell you the part of I've always had
help when people who came to my aid, even going
through the Grand Sister's station, people me a hand money.
I mean, I was embarrassing and a shameful because they
knew my story. But people came to my aid. And
one of the things I guess is out standing for

(01:05:09):
me about going on the road with Michael Matthews and
the the the Gospel shows is they really were saved people.
Well they did, as I found out. I would say,
he invited me to come out on the road. But
I remember the first rehearsal what's Steek's last name? John
Jackson just good morning, says pays the Lord. Everybody that said,

(01:05:34):
oh my God on the back because I met around me,
so I was cussing, you know. Oh, and you know
and Michael, they would pray beforehand, and sometimes I would
be just so.

Speaker 2 (01:05:48):
Broken.

Speaker 4 (01:05:49):
I'm sure I didn't inquire anything I was because I
was too No, I didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:05:54):
I would just sit there.

Speaker 4 (01:05:56):
But there was somebody would come and sit by me,
maybe coming to my room and just be with me.
You don't know how to talk, and I know I
was spiritually oriented. To be dropped into that. Then you
kind of discover what's going on and what is saving you.
And you know, Charlie Wilson, right, his brother Rodney Wilson

(01:06:20):
was was on on the road and we used to
call him Elebition. Well he's hilarious, but saved people. This
is what they do, this is how they live. And
of course all the shows were about family in different situations,
some of them kind of raw, but the whole point

(01:06:42):
was you need Jesus. But that's really what I am
and who I am. What happens is I can go
back and tell you some of these incidents is that
it never occurred me to do anything harmful to myself.
But I wasn't numb. I couldn't think or figuring anything.
But someone always came and said, what about this, well,

(01:07:04):
how about this? Well you need this, you know, or
like like I could didn't know what was going on
with me, as it turned out. That's why I know
there's you know, no coincidences or accidents. He put me
on the road with him just when I was going
to get invicted and I had filed bankruptcy, so I
didn't even have a bank account, but he paid me

(01:07:25):
seven thousand dollars cash every week. My only problem was
I was going married and the favor back, especially with
all them singles.

Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
Wow, but that's the truth.

Speaker 4 (01:07:39):
You know, when you and you. It was my first
time going on a tour, any kind of a tour.
You're riding along the highway and you know, travel tour
buses and the bus driver he praised before we go there,
serious about it, and just just an amazing presence. I

(01:08:00):
can only say it's the presence of God. You know.
However you can describe it or I'm not so good
at describing it all the time, but I know you
just are and you're not by yourself. You might think
you are.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
I feel it you're not actually speaking of which I
totally forgot to mention. We should note that you were
part of the ensemble cast of The Fighting Temptations.

Speaker 4 (01:08:29):
Yes, that's the gospel show.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
I totally forgot about that. What was it like doing
that production?

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
Fonce and Cuba good and Jr? Right?

Speaker 4 (01:08:49):
Several wonderful all of the wonderful experiences. But I wasn't
going to the movies or watching movies on TV. So
I didn't know that Couba Gooding Junior was acrobat. He
was he stiver.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
I wouldn't. I wouldn't. Nobody knew that.

Speaker 5 (01:09:08):
No, we didn't know.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
Cuba he's a real acro. You mean slips?

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
Yeah, he was. He was training to be in the Olympics,
like he No, if you look at the if you
if you look, God, I'm really dating myself here, uh.
Line of Richie closed line Richie closed the nineteen eighty
four Olympics in Los Angeles, and Cuba Gooding Junior was
He's sort of like the Alphonso Robero of line Richie's

(01:09:39):
Michael Jackson. Uh at the at the closing ceremonies for
uh the like to and break dancing and all that stuff.
I did not know that we I'm telling you we
have to get Cuba on the.

Speaker 4 (01:09:56):
Show because he's amazing, the nicest.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
Craziest story I've ever heard. Like, he's one of the
most interesting people.

Speaker 4 (01:10:06):
I know. It's like saying you too that you know
there were nice people? And I would say about Beyonce,
she made everybody look short and ugly.

Speaker 2 (01:10:16):
Well, what you're gonna do? But I remember the.

Speaker 4 (01:10:18):
Last song of when the credits are coming down, she
and Angie so On and I are strutting down the runway,
you know, doing I saw I could dance if I
wanted to know.

Speaker 2 (01:10:30):
But.

Speaker 4 (01:10:33):
Replicate that? Do you remember the opening song that old
Anne Nesby and Shirley Caesar are singing to me You're
about to master?

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
I don't not remember.

Speaker 5 (01:10:47):
We watched that on the two of US.

Speaker 3 (01:10:49):
I got so because we fast forward. Can I get
the whole story to Let Freedom Ring? From the song
to the video? Can I just can I get some
left Freedom Ring story?

Speaker 4 (01:10:59):
Can I well? Let me see it? Okay? I was
on sabbatical. I think I've gotten sick, and then I
was no just taking time off, and I was watching
TV and I saw the na A CP Awards and
they were honoring doctor Dorothy Height. Oh my goodness, who

(01:11:21):
is that lady? I want to meet her. So I
found out how to get in touch. And when I
called her and she said, why don't you come out
with us and the Black family reunions that we do.

Speaker 3 (01:11:34):
My dad has a picture of you and Dorothy Hype.
My dad's a photographer in DC. He has a picture
of y'all two at that Black Family reunion.

Speaker 4 (01:11:41):
You know I'm not lying, You're not lying.

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
I was there to him.

Speaker 4 (01:11:44):
I'm sorry, go ahead, I was at the time.

Speaker 3 (01:11:47):
Oh, I mean I was, you know, like one.

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
Don't worry.

Speaker 4 (01:11:53):
She was younger than me. So I started to travel
with doctor Hight and uh go to the breakfast and
you know we had people like Maxine Waters and you know,
alexis Hermon.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
And alexis Herman.

Speaker 13 (01:12:12):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:12:14):
I mean I met Cored Scott King.

Speaker 2 (01:12:17):
I that was at the Black Man of reunion.

Speaker 4 (01:12:19):
The Jackson's came, hey, this is crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:12:21):
I remember.

Speaker 4 (01:12:21):
Yes, that's where I first met Sewers. Uh the Clark's sisters. Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:12:27):
Okay, who were one?

Speaker 2 (01:12:29):
Left? Rightom ring right? Okay's telling the story right.

Speaker 4 (01:12:31):
Right right there on that, but there was performing at
one of the reunions. I said, oh my god, what
was that? That's how it was. It was so exciting.
She says, well, no, you should sing something. And at
our breakfast meetings or some of our meetings, why don't
you sing the new natural anthem? But I didn't know
we had one.

Speaker 6 (01:12:54):
Out?

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
Okay, I'm sorry, go ahead. More.

Speaker 4 (01:12:59):
I found undoubt about it. And I was with Capital
Records at the time, so I went to our a
R person and who's with the label at the same time?
Was B B and C C One Yes, that a
gospel artist was on a regular label, and he went

(01:13:21):
and got BB one.

Speaker 1 (01:13:22):
Is for me, mhmm.

Speaker 4 (01:13:24):
And Bby got everybody else.

Speaker 3 (01:13:28):
BB got everybody else from Dion to I'm trying to remember, takes.

Speaker 13 (01:13:32):
It Wonder the Wonder, Howard hewittt Bobby Brown, Bobby Brown
like that was Bobby Yes, And he was the green
screen because.

Speaker 3 (01:13:45):
Obviously Bobby didn't make it to the day of shooting.
He was one of the only ones with a green screen. Right,
I'm guessing, right, Melville, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:13:52):
I wasn't there.

Speaker 4 (01:13:52):
What they did? You know?

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
A lot of it now I'm talking about the video.

Speaker 3 (01:13:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Bobby was on the green screen.

Speaker 2 (01:13:59):
I remember PAG.

Speaker 4 (01:14:01):
Six and The New Virgin. She just got a Grammy
nomination for the recent recording of I think so.

Speaker 3 (01:14:08):
And who was the decision because I know that Jasmine
Guy is dope in her al Eli history, But who
made the decision to have to have her dancing in
the video?

Speaker 7 (01:14:16):
And probably Debbie Allen right, because she directed, She directed,
video directed.

Speaker 4 (01:14:21):
It was her concept and she directed it. And kind
of think, well, I think I think w was my
understudy in Pearly. She was one of the lead dancers.
You know, she was dancing with George Fazon.

Speaker 2 (01:14:33):
Right, because she did the of.

Speaker 4 (01:14:34):
Course, you know, she went did all those other wonderful
things later on Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:14:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:14:40):
It was her concept and we had Loucassin to the narration,
but on the audio version it was Jesse Jackson and
we got permission from nub A c PECE. We didn't
want it to be money thing. We wanted to donate
all the all the funds of NUBA CP and it

(01:15:00):
was my idea to have all of the different celebrities
because I figured if I didn't know that we had
a Negro national anthem, other people would know, they would
think it was my hip record. So it was my
idea to have and I.

Speaker 3 (01:15:11):
Did, and I may have done that that was hit record.

Speaker 2 (01:15:21):
I thought it was left free to ring. I was like,
that's not the way to yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:15:25):
Right right, So okay, before before I wrap, I gotta
do I mean, because I have a lot, a lot
of them. I mean, I could say fall in or
just a little bit more love coming at you, but
of your of your songs, of your arsenal, what songs
are your personal favorites.

Speaker 4 (01:15:45):
Well, I don't have personal favorites. I have favorites of
people liking it, and their two favorites seem to be
Love's coming at you and lean on me.

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
Even to this. So when you performed that to this day,
are you still as intense when you're performing it?

Speaker 4 (01:16:02):
Yeah, because for some maybe it's because I'm still not
really trained in a certain way. If I really focus
and get everything out, I still get so scared.

Speaker 1 (01:16:13):
H to this day, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:16:16):
It never goes away. It's like, I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
That's a good thing. That means you still care.

Speaker 4 (01:16:24):
I think so because you stop and you focus when
am I doing it, that it's not the same show
you did before, and I thought, okay, because this is
not something that's just naturally uh okay, I have to
take care of it. So I have to make sure
everything is. Like I said, I could give you a
run for your money for whoever is the fattest person
you've ever seen if I didn't watch it. So I

(01:16:46):
got to make sure I can still get.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
On my clothes.

Speaker 4 (01:16:48):
I think you know.

Speaker 1 (01:16:51):
Wait, I was gonna ask, like, have you ever been
in a situation where you were a horse one night
or able to kind of had to slide under the
slide under the bar like y'all see you just Bobby
brown them y'all. Okay, there's so.

Speaker 4 (01:17:10):
Many, so many times I haven't had background cigarettures and
nobody you know.

Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
So what do you do? You make sure you're ready.

Speaker 4 (01:17:19):
That's why you now. I know I'm going to get scared,
so I try to prepare.

Speaker 1 (01:17:26):
I assure you that her audience were just sing the
the ad libs verbatim.

Speaker 2 (01:17:33):
Before we go.

Speaker 3 (01:17:34):
Can I ask boss, because it's it's funny. We were
talking about COVID and stuff, and I'm just curious as
for fans and stuff, we see you on the nicest
show we see you all around? How can people continue
to like support you? I see you got a little
poster back there that your daughter might want you to
shout out. But I mean for folks who just want
to support since you can't come see you.

Speaker 4 (01:17:53):
So she told me where I am on Instagram?

Speaker 5 (01:17:59):
He told me right.

Speaker 4 (01:18:01):
On Instagram at nulber one more.

Speaker 2 (01:18:04):
M hmm.

Speaker 5 (01:18:05):
I'm going to it right now, okay.

Speaker 4 (01:18:07):
And the website is Melbournmore dot com. Am I anywhere else? Honey?

Speaker 2 (01:18:14):
And what's your daughter's name? Charlie C h A R
L I Charlie. Shout out to Charlie.

Speaker 1 (01:18:21):
Thank you, Charley, baby girl shout out, shout out. Yeah.
I gotta say that this this is definitely one of
the silver linings of of the COVID era because when
I first saw you on on the scroll, I was like,

(01:18:41):
there's no way that that's actually Melbourne Moore possible.

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
What's the scroll?

Speaker 11 (01:18:49):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:18:49):
I'm sorry? The scroll when when when I'm DJing and
I can see who's in the room in the comments
and you get the comments and I'm like, oh my goodness,
thank you. Yeah, I'm just you know this, this is
this is one of the few bright spots of twenty twenty,
which you know, I can have a conversation and link
up with with my childhood heroes. And you're definitely a hero.

(01:19:13):
And I thank you for sharing your story with us
on the show.

Speaker 5 (01:19:17):
Thank you for everything that you've contributed, like yes, seriously.

Speaker 2 (01:19:19):
Absolutely flowers Flowers, Yes, I'll take a look.

Speaker 4 (01:19:23):
I'll say. You know, I've heard about your quest and
I was very very much intimidated because you are walking
encyclopedia just a thing, you know. But fortunately you decided
to come mindly, you know, let me be comfortable. I
really thank you for that, because you could really take
it somewhere else. I've seen and I've seen. I've seen
you played the druones.

Speaker 1 (01:19:46):
I play Yes you did, No No, all things to
you and I appreciate it. Yeah, this is this is
one for the books, Ladies and gentlemen. Al but more
on Quest, Love Supreme, on behalf of Fun, Tigelow, Sugar
Steve and Uhigo Bye Sugar Steve.

Speaker 5 (01:20:08):
Thank you, I have done. I have your nineteen twenty
one album.

Speaker 2 (01:20:12):
Look at God.

Speaker 1 (01:20:15):
He doesn't say much, but you know it always counts
uh Liyah and unplayabill uh you know it's the team
Supreme and we will see you on the next go
round of course, Love Supreme. Thank you, Thank you for
listening to Quest Love Supreme. Hosted by Amir Quest, Love Thompson,
Why You, Saint Clair, Sugar, Steve Mandel an unpaid Sure

(01:20:40):
Executive producers are Amir Quest, Love Thompson, Jean g and
Brian Calvin. Produced by Brittany Benjamin Cousin, Jake Payne and
Liah Saint Clair. Edited by Alex Convoy. Produced by iHeart
by Noel Brown. What's Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

(01:21:12):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.