QLS Classic: Stephanie Mills

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. March is
Women's History Month as we celebrate at QLs, and we're
going to look back at this plastic episode for twenty
twenty one with Stephanie Mills, who talks about her incredible
music and theater contributions. I love this episode. Hope you enjoyed.

(00:31):
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode of Quest Love Supreme.
Much love and Team Supreme. We got a lay in
the house.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yes, yes, hello, hello, hello.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
We got unpaid unpaid bill? Yeah, you's sorry? All right?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
What up?

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Man man? Yes, sir and Sugar see my whole childhood
right now. Huh, I know, Sugar, Stevie Dare Yeah, I'm here.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
I'm very excited.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
What can I say, Ladies and gentlemen, our guest today,
legendary singer is really putting it lightly before the past
five decades, she's never lost a step in her powerful
vocal range. Be it as a Broadway sensation that came
into our lives in the original cast run of The

(01:23):
Whiz to our legendary run of hits. Working with some
of the greatest producers ever named Phil Ramone for backrack,
how David James and Toomey Lucas, George Duke, David Hawkwazinski,
Nick Martinelli, Robert Brookins, all my favorites. As since she's

(01:46):
worked with all my favorites, she is my favorite. I
never thought this day was coming, but I'm happy to say,
ladies and gentlemen, welcome to quest Love Supreme. Stephanie Mills.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
Yeah, I'm honored to be here. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
How are you today?

Speaker 4 (02:05):
I'm good. I'm good in this crazy world we're living in.
I'm good.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
That's good. That's good. That's good. Yeah, i'd seen you, like,
uh at the airport. Yeah, I was three, three years ago.
It is either the airport or the train station one
and and I could not believe you knew I was alive.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
I was like, Hi, I'm Stephanie, and you said hi.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
I was like, wow, you know who I am. Thank you?
Of course, that is amazing. Yeah, we have a gajillion
questions to ask you. So we're just going to start, Okay,
I always start with your your origins. Where are you from?

Speaker 5 (02:50):
I'm from Brooklyn, New York, but I make my Charlotte,
North Carolina. But I'm from Brooklyn.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Why Charlotte?

Speaker 4 (02:58):
I live in Charlotte for the last two eight years.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Oh my god, wow you neighbor. Yeah from me.

Speaker 6 (03:05):
So my hometown is Greensboro. That's why I'm I was
raised in Greensboro. But home is Raleigh. Me and my
family we live in Raleigh now.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Oh yeah, but no, that's home. Oh wow, Okay, Stephan
music is playing North Carolina. That's what's up. Yeah, everyone's
playing in North Carolina. Man, I feel like that's quiet.
It's beyond the not even a retirement town, but just
everyone I know is relocating there.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:34):
Living is easy.

Speaker 5 (03:36):
It's not chaotic, you know, it's just and my family,
my mom and my dad were from here, so I
spent all my summers here as a child, and I
have a lot of family here.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
So I like that back when you left the city
for the summer to live with grandparents.

Speaker 5 (03:51):
Or yeah, like you would come and stay with my
aunts and my cousins, and like my cousin was here tonight.
Helped putting this all together because I challenge when it comes.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
To all this kind of guess what so were we.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
I like, you know, being able to call them come
over to my house to help me. I have an
interview tonight.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
So Okay, that's cool, that's cool. What part what part
of Brooklyn? Where are you from? Jephst bed sty Okay,
in the beginning, I mean I know that you were,
you know, practically singing out of the womb put just
musically speaking, Like when did you when was that voice

(04:33):
fully not fully developed? But like when did you realize
that you had something that not many people had? That voice?
Like how old were you?

Speaker 4 (04:43):
I don't think I realized it even till this day.
I just like to sing.

Speaker 5 (04:47):
I like, I mean, I went to the Apollo and
I won six weeks in a row. And the six
weeks that I was there, James Brown performed, ROBERTA.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Flacks as well, correct.

Speaker 5 (05:00):
Isley Brothers as well. Yes, and then I got a
chance to perform with the Isley Brothers and do shows
with them. And then after that I auditioned for Maggie Flynn,
which was a Broadway show. I was about eleven years
old and that ran on Broadway about nine years. And
then after that I recorded I Knew It was Love
and that's how they heard about me for the for

(05:21):
the Whiz.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Okay, I know of your sister Cassandra in the industry,
but like the rest of your family are they musically
inclined as well?

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Or no?

Speaker 4 (05:32):
Well, Cassandra was my sister in law. She was married
to my brother.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Oh okay, giant records. Yes, oh wow.

Speaker 5 (05:42):
She still keeps the she still keeps the name. But
she was married to my brother Alan, who's now deceased,
May may God.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
Rest his soul.

Speaker 5 (05:50):
But she managed her and my brother managed me for
a while. Yeah, okay, so best of my family are
not musically inclined. No, they would us really involved management
wise when I was younger in my career.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
So all the talent went to you. Yeah, I see,
all the talent went to you. Yeah, So in can
you just what was I don't think we've yet to
interview someone that was part of Showtime or at least

(06:27):
amateur nighted the Apollo in the seventies, at least like
was it his? Was it as harrowing as the urban
legend will lead you to think it was? At least
for people that told me.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
What did they say about it?

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Well, you know everything brutal? Yeah, man, come out, Yeah
it wasn't.

Speaker 4 (06:49):
It wasn't brutal for me.

Speaker 5 (06:50):
You come out and you rub the stuff and everything,
and I sang my song, I sang Who's Loving You
by the Jackson five and but once in my life
zebe Wonder and you sing those songs every every time
you go up.

Speaker 4 (07:04):
But it wasn't brutal for me. My whole family was
around me, and I.

Speaker 5 (07:08):
Was very protective, and I was able to go up
on stage and watch like James Brown perform and all
of that.

Speaker 4 (07:13):
So it was I It wasn't a bad experience for me.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
You could sing.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
She didn't know to be you can sing, so she
had allow okay, not a I see okay, So I
guess your your career as a recording artist happened after
your first play, that's what you just said, or.

Speaker 5 (07:39):
After my first play after Maggie Flynn. Then I was
signed to Paramount Records, and I recorded.

Speaker 4 (07:47):
A record with.

Speaker 5 (07:50):
Burt Back, not back because that was with Motown Bert
Keys Okay, and I knew it was love came out
was a.

Speaker 4 (07:58):
Single and Ken Harper, who was a DJ on A
what is It A?

Speaker 2 (08:02):
And M?

Speaker 4 (08:03):
Not A and M but What's the morning station? Not FM,
but but AM radio.

Speaker 5 (08:09):
He was a jock on AM radio and they were
putting together The Wiz and they heard my single and
I had gone up for a lot of different things
that I didn't get, so I did not want to.

Speaker 4 (08:18):
Audition for the Wiz.

Speaker 5 (08:19):
My mother made me go that morning and she went
with me, and then I auditioned three times after that
and they told me I had to roll up.

Speaker 4 (08:29):
I did not want to go. I hate auditions.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
I don't.

Speaker 4 (08:32):
I wouldn't I if.

Speaker 5 (08:33):
Someone called and said we'd like to see you for
some I would not go. I'm petrified I cannot audition.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Well, but you chose theater so early in life, I know.

Speaker 4 (08:43):
But I love theater. I love the state.

Speaker 5 (08:46):
In fact, Melbourne Moore and I are working on something
that we're going to do uh next year, and we're
excited about it because I love Melbourne. I think she's
like the queen she I'm I'm on Broadway because of her.

Speaker 4 (08:59):
She paid the way, you know.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
We talked to her yesterday.

Speaker 4 (09:02):
Actually, yeah, she's just brilliant.

Speaker 5 (09:06):
So we've been friends for a long time. In fact,
Melbourne gave me my first yellow Bick road party when
I was Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yeah, And how old were you when you did the Wiz?
How old you at that time?

Speaker 4 (09:19):
I was actually seventeen, but they said I was fifteen.
But I was seventeen.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
Gotcha, Oh, gotcha? Yeah, okay, so you're a child. So
the whiz Yeah, I saw your run when you did
it really well. Yeah, he went deep with it. She
has the tattoo on her arm. You still have that.
I'm sorry what I wouldn't have said that, nod.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
You made me sound like a stalker, very.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Much, a stalker, very much. So I think you know
what I got to say out of I mean, you
could have been one of those mindless people that just
does the you know they do the the Japanese characters,
not what it represents. You have one of the most
unique I approve of your tattoo.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
And admit something to me because, in full disclosure, it
missed something to me because I said I wanted something
that would mean something for the rest of my life.
My godfather's Charlie Smalls. He wrote a lot of the
music and Charlie passed, so I actually call this his angel,
and that's Charlie.

Speaker 5 (10:25):
Charlie Smalls was brilliant. In fact, he was the one
who actually sat down with me at the piano.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
And taught me my songs.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Wow, yeah, I can't wait, I kind of I don't
I just can't wait for you to talk about like
the home process.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
And that song and we're here already, let's go, let's go.

Speaker 4 (10:44):
I mean, first of.

Speaker 5 (10:45):
All, I had never that was my first time being
around like someone like Andre the Shields, who was a
brilliant whiz and Jeffrey.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
Holder and.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
The original wins yes.

Speaker 5 (10:58):
Behold the design, the cost stills, and then he later
became the director because they fired Gilbert Moses.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
But Gilbert Moses was the original director.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
Wait, Jeffrey yeah, Nelson Nelson from Boomerang, we got I'm
more Boomerang. I barely remember. He was pun Jabbin' Annie.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
Okay, yes, yes, and the colon that.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, he was there. He was seven he was the
seven up guy.

Speaker 4 (11:32):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, I forgot yes.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
So yeah, so the process, Yeah, can you who? I mean,
I knew who you were when I was five, But
I mean, what was it like to be in the
eye of that storm? And you know, because I feel
like the whiz was just something that we've never seen
before as as black people.

Speaker 4 (11:55):
And it was it was amazing.

Speaker 5 (11:58):
It was it because you know, being a black shell
and and doing the whiz. Of course, the the what
do you call the critics hated us. I mean they hated.

Speaker 4 (12:10):
We got terrible, terrible reviews when we first opened.

Speaker 5 (12:13):
Because my belonged to a big church, Cornerstone Baptist Church
in Brooklyn, and Ken Harper's mother belonged to a big church.
Before we actually did our our commercial, they would sit,
they would come in bus loads and that helped us
until we did our commercial. Once we did the commercial
for the Whiz, we were fine. But it was it

(12:34):
was there was a lot of things working working against us,
but we we prevailed. We really prevailed because they did
not want us on Broadway.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Wow, you're saying that it was not critically acclaimed. No, no,
you know how the movie wasn't either though I get
it now, but I just it was too.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
Different, right, and it was it was too different and
it was all black.

Speaker 4 (12:57):
And you know, Judy Garland was.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
Right, Julie chat protective of there. Okay, I get it.

Speaker 4 (13:06):
And I used to watch The Wizard every year when
it would come on.

Speaker 5 (13:10):
Never did I imagine that I would play, you know,
Dorothy because that was one of my favorite, uh fairy tales.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
So can you tell the people who are listening, because
everybody didn't get a chance to see your version of
a lot of people have seen the movie version. What
are the major like different breakdowns between the two.

Speaker 5 (13:28):
Well, first of all, I was a young girl, Diane
was a woman, and we basically took version from The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It's just black cass, you know.
But the movie was different. It It went somewhere somewhere else.
Even though Michael was was in it, and I felt

(13:51):
like he was brilliant, and I felt like Diane was
brilliant too, But I always was more like The Wonderful
Wizard of Oz.

Speaker 4 (13:58):
It was just called the Wiz.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
The same musical numbers though right like same song.

Speaker 5 (14:03):
It's known because Charlie broke all news. We had all
original music. We had these on down the road. They
had followed the Yellow Bick road. I had home, and
she had Somewhere over the Rainbow.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
So it was.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
In the movie was the original one. We're comparing the
movie in the Broadway version.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
I was talking about the yes, what you said, but
I do have a.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
Question though your second label was Motown. Yes, so I
would assume that you were kind of in Barry Gordy's radar.
So being as though you were Motown, artists pre whiz.
Once you got it, How weird was it? Was it

(14:57):
ever up in the air that you might do the
movie version at all? Like was it even a discussion
or when.

Speaker 5 (15:04):
They had a different uh uh, there was a different
director first, I forget his name, so not Sidney.

Speaker 4 (15:12):
It wasn't Sidney Lamet.

Speaker 5 (15:13):
They had a different director and it was coming through
twentieth Century Fox and they were going to have a
meeting with me. But then once Sidney Lamett took over,
it was almost definite that Diana was going to play Dorothy.
And she would she would come to the show.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
All the time, all the time, all the time to study.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
You know show. You knew even in the run of
the Broadway show that they were going to do a
movie adaptation, and yes it was going to.

Speaker 5 (15:38):
Okay, But really do they use the person that does
Broadway the same people the same person?

Speaker 2 (15:47):
So you took it like it's this business, business business.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
I didn't, you know, I was.

Speaker 5 (15:51):
Such a fan of Diana Ross and all that. I
didn't I didn't look at it as a bad thing.

Speaker 4 (15:57):
I just that's the way it goes.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
I will say, though, because of how Home is associated
with you, and that's known as a show stopper. Uh
is there a pressure especially with I mean, how long
was your your initial one run was? Was it two years?
Three years?

Speaker 4 (16:21):
Five years?

Speaker 1 (16:22):
Wow? Five years?

Speaker 4 (16:24):
Bad? Way? For five years? Now?

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Understudy or no understudy? Whatsoever?

Speaker 4 (16:31):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (16:31):
I did have an understudy?

Speaker 4 (16:32):
She went on? Maybe for one week?

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Okay, people were met that week. Weren't they in five right?
One right? One week and five.

Speaker 4 (16:45):
Five years? Yeah? That's all they week?

Speaker 1 (16:49):
So is it? I mean? You know, I mean, of
course when you think of like the show stopper song
along with you know, with Jennifer, where I am telling
you like home is sort of the you must do
a grand slam every night?

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Like?

Speaker 1 (17:06):
How much pressure was that to sing like your like
no audience life depends on it? How much pressure? How
hard or is that on your vocals? Every like? Vocally?
How much? How hard is that?

Speaker 4 (17:17):
It wasn't hard on me at all?

Speaker 5 (17:20):
Really, Because I'm a sleeper, I always get sleep. I
know I need a certain amount of sleep. And because
I started in theater, it teaches you such discipline that
you're doing eight shows a week.

Speaker 4 (17:33):
You can't do anything else. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (17:35):
You can't go out, you can't party, no, nothing, no,
And I'm not a partier anyway, so you can't. You
can't do anything else but physically sometimes when I get
a cold, it was hard, you know, to sing above that.

Speaker 4 (17:48):
But the show must go on. You're taught that in theater.
There's no matter if you're sick.

Speaker 5 (17:53):
I've had sprain, ankles and everything, but the show must
go on. And that's how I was trained and taught.

Speaker 4 (17:59):
So it wasn't that hard for me.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
I was just gonna ask, did you ever get a
chance to talk to Charlie about the lyrics of that song?
My father talks about when he wrote that song, he
had like nothing and was like eating apples and was
going through the struggle. But I was just curious if
he ever walked you through where it came from like lyrically. No,
he never did.

Speaker 4 (18:18):
But we used to sit at the piano and he
taught me that song.

Speaker 5 (18:21):
And then he also wrote a song called Opening Night,
which was a wonderful song. They didn't put it in
the show, but he taught me that song. But sitting
with Charlie and watching him play and create that music
was just awesome, and I was glad that he taught
me my song. He was the one who taught me.

Speaker 4 (18:40):
Be a Lion is actually my favorite song because it's
so positive.

Speaker 5 (18:45):
Everybody thinks home is mine, but be a Lion is
is really my favorite song in the show.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
Thank You. The original Whiz.

Speaker 5 (18:55):
Absolutely Ted Ross and Stuve Gillim was the original Scarecrush Aircraft.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Okay, okay, it wasn't Debbie Allen in the chorus Alita.

Speaker 4 (19:06):
She was was she was a munchkin.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (19:11):
She was understudy for Glinda's Yeah Glinda and who wow.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Really too little to know?

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Okay, Okay. I was going to say, at the height
of what New York City was during that time period,
how are you able to avoid or did you avoid
the trappings of what was starting to unfurl in the

(19:48):
summer of nineteen seventy seven. I mean, Studio Wars is
like a big thing, and you know, like basically the
culture is shifting during the time period. But you know,
if you're the talk of the town in like one
of the most popular praise plays on Broadway, like, how

(20:10):
does one avoid kind of the trappings of that life
at such a young age.

Speaker 4 (20:19):
My mother sat in the dressing room every night.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
That's the answer.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
There. You go.

Speaker 4 (20:27):
With me every night. When I did go out and
I went to Studio fifty four, my brothers and my
sisters went with me.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
You were allowed to go, But what was it like?
I didn't mean you got out the house? All right, Great,
tell me what's like.

Speaker 4 (20:44):
I was allowed to go. Michael and I would go
sometimes together.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
And if people wait, Michael, yes, you just can't, you
said Michael casually. Michael, Michael, Michael.

Speaker 4 (21:03):
Michael Peters was in the wits too, he was the
wing monkey. Yeah. It was the young Road.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
Ah okay, wow. So you and Michael Jackson in Studio
fifty four. What is that like?

Speaker 4 (21:16):
It's exciting?

Speaker 1 (21:18):
You know.

Speaker 5 (21:18):
Diant Van Furstenburg was there, and and uh Mick Jagger
and Andy Walhole. We went out to dinner with Andy
Walhole because Michael was being interviewed with uh mister Walhole,
and he wanted me to go with him, so we
would go after Studio fifty four and have dinner and
he would interview Michael.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
Was it any truth to the room that you and
Michael were seeing each other or were all just friends?

Speaker 4 (21:43):
We were so young and you couldn't have told me that.
I wasn't going to marry Michael.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
I loved.

Speaker 4 (21:50):
We were friends. I would braid his hair and I
stayed with him, you know, a big afro.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
So that's right, okay.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
That join I was like, I want to get a j.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
Rad And I asked you, seventy, what was the moment
when you knew that you and Michael were gonna be
we're gonna be friends? Like I do you remember?

Speaker 5 (22:17):
Like you you know, it just sort of happened, you know,
because I was always around. I was always around the family.
I became friends with Hazel and Jermaine, and then I
moved to California and I was always at the home,
at Jackson's home and always around. I mean I saw
the girls outside the gate crying and just go hi.

(22:38):
Because Michael liked to drive. He didn't like to drive
on a freeway. He liked to drive like right up
and down Ventura Boulevard. So he would always go and
he would always pick me to go get the ice
cream or popcorn. He loved popcorn from the movies, but
we weren't always going to the movies, but he would
always send.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
Me in there to get it because he knew I
would I would get it. I wouldn't let them tell me.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
No.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Damn, my thought was the only human being that did that. Oh,
we'll just get popcorn, and I don't want to. I
just want to buy some popcorn. Yeah, likeley story, that's
still nine ninety nine.

Speaker 6 (23:13):
Yeah, when you are you mention your earlier stephan You
mentioned earlier about your brothers and sisters.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
How many of you of you? Was it?

Speaker 4 (23:20):
It was six of us, three girls, and where were you?
I'm the youngest girl, so.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
I was spoil That's why she stayed in the dressing room.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Wow, I get it now.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
Your was really when y'all went to the club, they
really was protecting you like they were your auntie.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
Absolutely, the Brooklyn Mills.

Speaker 5 (23:43):
Yes, absolutely, all right, So.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
It takes four years for your follow up album? Well,
first of all, you only recorded one album for Midtown
and wait, I got it. Yeah, it was whose decision
was it to work with uh Bert and how as producers?
Because you know the last time that they worked with

(24:11):
each other was with Dion Worick.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
Right.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
You know they had like a kind of a legendary
split breakup. So you're the project that brings them back together. Like,
what was the whole the decision to.

Speaker 5 (24:25):
Work with at that time, you know, everybody was making
decisions for me, So I don't really know whose idea
it was.

Speaker 4 (24:33):
All I know is one day I.

Speaker 5 (24:34):
Was at Blackres's apartment learning, you know, songs and how
David and then were teaching me songs and I'd go
to his apartment.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
Did you did you know their legacy at that point
or just like these are Dion Worrick guys and I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
I didn't know.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
Well, yeah, because didn't they write. They wrote for Oh
what's the uh, the Team, the Girl and the Guy.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
Team, Carpenters, Carpenters, Yes, for the Well.

Speaker 4 (25:04):
Only just Begun.

Speaker 5 (25:05):
Yeah, So I knew about that because I love the Carpenters, okay,
And I would listen to their songs and you know,
I just thought, Okay, this is legendary. These are great writers.
They're gonna write. But I think it was that album
was definitely ahead.

Speaker 4 (25:20):
Of its time.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
Who else were you listening to?

Speaker 6 (25:24):
Like growing up, we didn't really talk about your influences,
like what kind of stuff were you were you damning
at that time?

Speaker 5 (25:29):
Motown, Jackson Fly See, Wanda, Uh, Diana Ross, I just
love I wanted to be Diana Ross, you know people,
you know, a slide in the family, Stone, Marvin Gay,
you know.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
So when you hit Motown you must have been in
awe of your life, like, oh my god, Yes, I
can't believe it.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
I'm here.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yeah yeah wow. So with your your third record, you'll
work with the legendary James and Too Ma and Reggie
Lucas for the next next four albums. Can you talk about, uh,

(26:15):
at least the transition to what I mean, I no, no, no,
no of you with what you're going to do with
my loving I had my father had the second the
Motown album, but I came to know you through your
third album. So I mean at that at that period,
was that where you took the reins and sort of

(26:35):
wanted to have control over the songs you sang in
the stylistic No, that was like the last year and.

Speaker 5 (26:43):
A half of the Whiz And I was signed to
twentieth when Alan Livingston was president of twenty set Box
and the guy that was president of the Grammys he
was he was vice president. Wow, And so they wanted

(27:05):
they loved into Man and Lucas, so they wanted us.
They put us together. But I wasn't used to singing
like love songs that what in two men?

Speaker 2 (27:15):
That?

Speaker 4 (27:16):
So we sat down and I was like, well, what
am I? How am I gonna sing? What are you
gonna do with my love? And what what does that mean?

Speaker 2 (27:21):
You know?

Speaker 5 (27:23):
Okay, to Waka would sing my demos for me, and
then I was gonna ask you about her. Oh to
Wa sang all of my demos for me, and she
and most of the singers that sang with Luther. In fact,
Luther Vandros wrote can you feel a brand new day
for the Whiz on Broadway?

Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yes, I was gonna say, like during that period, like
uh that whole crew to Watha Lannie Lannie, uh Nnie
Groves sang with stevee Qween Guthrie, like that whole whole crew.
Were you sort of immersed in that the background fraternity

(28:04):
sorority of what New York was offering at the time
or was it sort of like you came after the
fact like they I.

Speaker 5 (28:11):
Came after the fact, but they all sang on my
record and I would be there when they would sing,
and to Waker with you know, like I said, sing
on my demos for me.

Speaker 4 (28:23):
But they all say Okay, all.

Speaker 6 (28:26):
The backgrounds, what were into me and Lucas were, What
were they like in the studio and kind of what
was the division of labor between those two in terms of.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
How they worked with you.

Speaker 5 (28:36):
Oh my god, it was so loving and positive because
you know, they were working with Miles Davis at the time.

Speaker 4 (28:43):
They were doing the song with ROBERTA.

Speaker 5 (28:45):
Flack and Donnie Hathaway, so they had a lot of
things going on at that time. But they were so
dedicated and so loving. It was the best experience. In fact,
just before Reggie passed away, we were going to get
together and write some stuff. He was gonna and I
was going to try to get them together.

Speaker 4 (29:03):
To do something with me.

Speaker 6 (29:04):
But wow, So it was Reggie. Was he more of
the lyricists than James was more music?

Speaker 4 (29:10):
Or how did that was more music?

Speaker 5 (29:12):
They both were music and and and I would say
Reggie was more of the lyricists, but there was music.

Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, got you, got You? Yeah. Two Hearts is like
my favorite. I mean I love that song.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
Yeah, and singing with Teddy it was good.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Yeah. What was that session like? Do you remember that day?

Speaker 2 (29:32):
It was?

Speaker 5 (29:33):
It was well, they because I was still still doing
I don't think I was doing the wiz at that time,
but I was Teddy and I.

Speaker 4 (29:43):
Eighty one.

Speaker 5 (29:44):
No, I was in California, so they did my vocal
first and then they did his. But we were in
the studio together to fill the fire. I was like, uh,
in Philly International.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
Talk about that, please, I'm just begging you.

Speaker 4 (30:03):
Teddy was a piece of work.

Speaker 5 (30:05):
Teddy was my brother, and uh, you know, when you're
that famous and that good looking and all the women,
you know, you, they really had to baby him. I
didn't baby Teddy. I'd be like, look, let's do this song,
Let's get it over it, Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
You know.

Speaker 5 (30:19):
I really talked to him like a sister. But he
was loving and I loved working with with Teddy. We
wanted to road for like eight months out of a
year back then.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
Oh wow, it just hit me that I believe Shep
was your manager at the same time, because I was
trying to figure out how you two hooked up and
Courton yes, and I know that he's connected to Teddy.
I was going to say, how how did that pairing happen?

(30:50):
Was that through him or just that was through Teddy?

Speaker 5 (30:53):
I think I was out on the road with them,
and I really liked the way they were handling Teddy
and everything, and so I just asked them if they
could manage me, and they did.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
I know she'd been a part of a lot of historical,
legendary things, but I was going through some old fifth
pictures and I just remembered that you were at something
that just s marked history, and that was, Oh my goodness,
Stephanie Mills. I found this picture of you at the
White House, President Carter's White House for the first Black
Music Month.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
I remember that picture.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
I know my dad, he's a he's a sneaking photographer.
He you know, Wow, I did.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
I went to the White House twice.

Speaker 5 (31:35):
I went to the White House when Carter was there,
and I went to the White House when President Reagan
was there.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
Wow, what was it like to sit out on the
lawn of the White House and him dedicate.

Speaker 5 (31:46):
It was wonderful to see, you know, the White House,
what we built, and just to be there and and
have all those people around us sit and talk, and
a lot of historical people.

Speaker 4 (31:58):
You know.

Speaker 5 (31:58):
I remember being a girl and going to Eberneza in
Atlanta and meeting you know, correct King used to come
and sing it out church at Cornerstone Baptist Church and
do uh uh you know how they have bibles. She
used to come and do the Bibles and then Daddy
King would come and preach. So I got a chance
to go to their house and you know, and and

(32:21):
and hang out.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
You know.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (32:22):
Yolanda King was one of my friends. God rest her soul.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
So yeah.

Speaker 5 (32:27):
And then you know, with a lot of people coming backstage,
like I got a chance to meet Alan McGrath and
Steve McQueen and Jacquan on Nassas and you know, so
many people came back and said hello and brought flowers
and but my favorite was Pearl Bailey Wow.

Speaker 4 (32:46):
And Ella Fitzgerald Wow.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
But not at the same time because that would be
the same time.

Speaker 5 (32:53):
But they all said the same thing that they always
They all said, there's gonna be some wolves out there,
but you're gonna be okay.

Speaker 4 (33:00):
Just keep going. That's what they said, you just keep going.

Speaker 5 (33:04):
It was just and then Pearl Bailey gave me a
gift from Birddoffs and I still have it in the
box and everything today.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
So for your your twentieth century run with in two
Main and Lucas because with the second album with a
sweet sensation. I know that that was your first real
you know pot I mean even though black radio was

(33:33):
playing what You're going to do and put your body
in It and all that stuff your breakout with never
love like this before. It's how like, can you describe
at least the song, not the songwriting process, but at
least the choice of songs because that was a major,

(33:54):
major pop song. I didn't realize that that song actually
did better on the pop charts, and it did on
the R and B chart. So just at the time,
and you want a Grammy for it? Yeah, what how
did how did it feel at least at that point
in eighty one like that, being at that point you're

(34:14):
the highest point of your career. What was what was
that feeling?

Speaker 4 (34:17):
Like? It was amazing?

Speaker 5 (34:19):
But you know what's so funny is that now being
sixty three and looking back at at that I didn't
have time to stop and smell the roses, you know
what I'm saying. Everything was moving so fast, so fast
you didn't have time to really like enjoy it. Like
I wasn't at the Grammys.

Speaker 4 (34:39):
I was working. Teddy picked up the Grammy for me
when I won the American Music Awards. I was there,
but everything was just happening so fast. You know, I
didn't get a time to like.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
Enjoy it and be in the moments. Wow.

Speaker 4 (34:58):
At that time, my family I was controlling everything, So
I guess they thought it was better for.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
Me to be on a road than I got one question. Wait,
I gotta get this out. Let me get this out please.
All right? So all right, fifty year old Quest Love
is not asking this question. Nine year old Amir Thompson
is asking this question that kiv nine year Oldimir Thompson. So,
nine year Oldimir Thompson has an aunt who owns a

(35:24):
beauty salon, and where any beauty salon in America? There
is an overabundance of Jet and Ebony magazines, and so
that's basically where you get all your information about any
black artist ever. Very true, right, occasional ride on Jet

(35:45):
and Eban. Now I'm nine years old, I don't know,
and I tried to look it up here and it's
really not much on it. And you actually instagrammed a
photo this week as of this recording. So all I
remember was did you have a shotgun wedding with Jeffrey

(36:09):
Daniels and why was it so controversial at the time. Again,
I was nine years old, so I didn't get into
I just knew one day your commercial for one of
your albums had you in a hot tub. I forget
which the album was, either dantalizing, and I remember like

(36:33):
the talk of the beauty shot was and Jeffrey Daniels
got married and that was like, you know, and then
I didn't hear anything else about it. And slight disclosure,
I'm an avid Soul Trained watcher. Yes, so I worked

(36:55):
for Soul Trained. So I'm going through your episodes and
one of your appearances you're dancing with Cooley and uh
Coolly from a solid gold like Jeffrey's guys, the guys
that talked Michael Jackson, yes, Casper and Cooley. So I
started putting two two together, like okay, that really did
happen because I was like, wait, so she got married

(37:19):
And then I looked on your ig you acknowledged that
because I guess his birthday was recently. What was that
period like and why were my aunts going out of
their mind over that moment. I was nine years old
at the time, so I didn't understand anything.

Speaker 5 (37:34):
Well, you know, Jeffery and I dated for like six months.
Somebody from RCA introduced us. They felt like, oh, Stephanie,
you would like Jeffery.

Speaker 4 (37:43):
He's so much funny.

Speaker 5 (37:43):
Because I was so my family was very guarded with me, okay,
and when we Jeffrey and I would go on dates,
my brother and my sister had to go with us.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
It was that oh wow.

Speaker 4 (37:56):
So I was ready to kind of like get out
of the house. And Jeffrey was just so much fun.
So we got married. You know. He said you want
to marry me?

Speaker 5 (38:06):
And I said yes, And we thought that I was
going to have a big wedding everything, but my family
was very.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
Much against it.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
So how old were you at that time?

Speaker 4 (38:14):
I was twenty two, Okay, I knew it wasn't crazy
jef So I ran away to uh uh, what's the preacher?

Speaker 1 (38:30):
Very nice house? James Cleveland.

Speaker 4 (38:33):
Yeah, James Cleveland married us?

Speaker 1 (38:36):
Why right now? A little brown black history facts? Oh
my god, are you serious?

Speaker 4 (38:44):
James Cleveland married us? Yep.

Speaker 5 (38:47):
He took us to Beverly Hills, bought our rings, everything,
and that night he was preaching at a church and
I'm telling you, the god down the street he was teaching.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
James Cleveland, James Cleveland, Yes, James, Reverend James leaving the.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
Right, I know who that is.

Speaker 4 (39:04):
And we went to the church. He stopped the service
of what he was doing. He married Jeffrey and I
and then we left.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
When you said that the castle and stuff, we went
out for ice cream and then Michael and then Michael. Right,
was Michael there? This is like earlier after Michael, Wow,
that is crazy. Yeah, I was saying that I'd never
I mean, my my first foray into beauty shop girlfriend

(39:36):
talk girl.

Speaker 5 (39:39):
Rea, and why I put Jeffrey sent me those wedding
pictures and and because one of our friends had had them,
so he said, I'm gonna send you because he lives
in Nigeria.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
Now he just had a beautiful Wow what baby girl?

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yes, dang, when it's still worked, they still use it.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Jeffrey had just had a girl, right. Why I thought,
I told you, we won't stop. We can't stop, we can't.

Speaker 5 (40:11):
I put it on because I heard that there was
so much talk of who actually taught Michael the moonwalks
walk that it was Casper and Jeffrey.

Speaker 4 (40:21):
Because I was at those rehearsals, so I know I
was there.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
Wait, I was going to say, I was going to say,
and one of your performances of the Medicine song, you
actually broke out into the moonwalk.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
Yes, I did.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
How could I live in.

Speaker 4 (40:42):
Hills? How could I live with him and they rehearsal
all the time and not know how to do it?
Of course? Yes, I need to see that.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
I knew thousands of hours of watching the solitary would
help me to Wow, that's crazy. Yeah, so okay, I'm
just trying to go through everything.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
So any questions.

Speaker 3 (41:04):
What else did nine year old get into? I'm just interested.
Like nine year old a mere at the barbershop.

Speaker 4 (41:10):
I just do.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
There's nothing to do but sit there and read Jet
all the Jets and wait for my my grandmam to
get her hair done at at nine pm. Second, go home,
I'm impressed and read them.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
I just went for the photos of the week.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
I would start of at the back. I would start
reading them at the back. I always see you jet backwards. Yeah,
I want to see the albums. That's what they have read.
The first twelve pages of Jet Ever my life fact
you starting backwards and then you end after photos of
them after after the Jet beauty the week. Right, that's it.
That is over.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
Not a deep dive, but not the deep dive. But Stephanie,
you've been to that. You went to the Ebony and
Jet building before?

Speaker 4 (41:52):
Right? Oh?

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Yes, can you tell people because they have no idea
of the layout of the floors, and the colors were
kind of like the whiz right where every floor. Yeah,
and the kitchen it was a different color every floor.

Speaker 4 (42:05):
It was a different color every floor.

Speaker 5 (42:07):
And they had big posters of all the jets and
the magazines and the covers, and they had lunch.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
You would go and have lunch free, soulfuld lunch free.

Speaker 4 (42:18):
I had it. I've met a couple of times.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Yeah, there's a I'm on the board the Museum and
Modern Art of Food. Well, there's going to be a
food museum coming in I thing like twenty twenty five.
But they just purchased that kitchen, and that kitchen had
to be delivered like in the state that it's always

(42:45):
been in sermon you hear of like people like tearing
down Banksy walls just to get his artwork. So they
literally delivered that kitchen intact from Chicago, uh to New York,
like in all of its seventies tacky psychedelic must Yeah,

(43:11):
it's it's a very unique looking you know something, all right?
So you you have a you you you have a
rarity in which you know. Princess is well known for
his disdain for anyone covering his music, Yet he loved

(43:33):
your version of how Come you don't how Come you
Don't Call Me Anymore? Two things though, One, well why
did you choose that? But you also opened your album
with that. I always have questions about artists that opened
their albums with slow song cover, especially with that song,

(43:54):
like why did that happen? Especially when that was a
merciless had pilot era on it, E Yeah, Like I
don't think stand back, but I think yeah was like
that was the lead single. But always wanted to know
why did you open that album with how Come you

(44:16):
Don't Call Me Anymore?

Speaker 5 (44:18):
Because I love the song? I love Prince. I got
a chance to meet Prince and go to Paisley Park
when Prince was honored at the Soul Train Awards. Somebody
else was going to sing how Come you Don't Call Me?
And he called me personally and and switched it and

(44:39):
wanted me to sing the song on the train Awards.

Speaker 4 (44:42):
Yeah, so I I just think Prince is a genius
and I wanted to open with that on the album.

Speaker 6 (44:50):
There was a producer you worked with on on the
Sweet Sensation album that I've We've never had anyone on
the show that has been able to talk about him
if if you knew herb huber Eves who did all
the D train stuff.

Speaker 5 (45:06):
Hubert's played piano and stuff for all my stuff on
Into May and Lucas.

Speaker 6 (45:12):
Yeah, what was he like because I've we've never we've
never had anyone that you know, was able to talk
to about it.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
He was just a cool dude, just with.

Speaker 5 (45:19):
Sitting in the studio and just because most of the
time when I did all my stuff with Intu May,
I was in the studio live with my band with
the band Okay God would be in the booth and
they would be.

Speaker 4 (45:30):
Playing, and he was just a cool He was an
easy going, beautiful brother. He was just easy going.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
That's what's up.

Speaker 6 (45:36):
Because all that D trains though, I mean that was
my you know, I was a kid and I played
that stuff. My mom used to play that stuff.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
All the time.

Speaker 4 (45:43):
Yeah, he was cool.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
That's what's up.

Speaker 4 (45:47):
I know that.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
Uh, you worked with uh Hawk was David Hawk was
from from Rufus. I have to Okay, So I heard
a rumor that were you supposed to be the initial
recipient of Ain't Nobody? I know that according to Shaka,

(46:10):
that was a last minute like Rufus getting that song
was the last minute resort because initially I believe that
the talk was that Cimbello, Michael Simbelo and Hawk Wazinski
was trying to place it on Thriller didn't make it.
And then I heard that when Hawk was working on

(46:32):
I've Got the Cure, he wanted you to do that?
Is there truth to that? Like? Were you offered Ain't Nobody? First?

Speaker 4 (46:38):
I wasn't offered. I wasn't offered. I wish that I was, though,
but I wasn't. I wasn't offered that song. No, okay,
but you know Patty was supposed to do I feel
Good all over and wowed and took the song. You know,
songs are taken from artists every day.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
Are you aware of how of hip hop's relationship to something?
That way? You made me feel you would cut it
up free fat Joe?

Speaker 4 (47:07):
I love that, Joe. But yeah, you know they told
me about it. Kick Cabre definitely told me about it and.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
Fat Joe you finally did it with him, I believe
last year like live where he Yes, we were at
I was at.

Speaker 4 (47:22):
My manager's charity event and uh uh Indianapolis.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
Uh yeah, they still got it. Good for them, and
uh I.

Speaker 4 (47:39):
Did it with him. We went to the there was
there's a white party that they had and I got
on stage and did it with him.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
That's so dope.

Speaker 4 (47:47):
We recorded We were going to record it and Teddy
Rowley was going to do it, but I don't. I
think it kind of just like fell apart. But I
was going to sing it over with him and let
him do his thing.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
So at that time, they were just explaining to you
what that song meant to the hip hop nation, like
you you were just unaware.

Speaker 4 (48:08):
I was unaware of it.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
Yeah, so for our listeners, so yeah, for our listeners
out there. With the advent of like mixtapes and being
a kick, Capri was sort of out the gate as
one of the very first like mixtape pioneers or what
we know is mixtapes. It was just a radical idea
back in the day to take a cappella well, first

(48:31):
of all, to fine any a cappella versions of songs
was hard enough. So there was an a cappella version
of something the Way You Feel on the twelve inch
and then he would put it under the Honey Drippers
and Peach the President break beat, and that was like
our first taste of a blend where you could take
someone's vocals from here and put it under a beat

(48:53):
over there, and like that's basically what inspired like and
the thing that was smarter about women.

Speaker 6 (49:00):
Yeah, kid was smart enough to know that, like you
put that vocal under just a raw breakbeat and the
key would match because it's just a raw when you
had other duties there just be putting may be putting
vocals under whatever and I'm like anything, I'm like, this
is not match at all.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
So yeah, that that became. That was like one of
kick Capri's signature mixes. No kick Capre party would be
complete without him opening up his For thirty years, he
would open up his set with Stephanie Mills and Impeach
the President. So wow, yeah to see that happen that
was like super legendary. Yeah, yeah, you know, it was

(49:46):
super legendary. Stephanie again, like we're also using you as
the conduit to figure out like about our favorites. You
worked under the tutelage of Loose Silas at mc Yes, Yeah,
that was what was working with lou like, Like, what
was he like as well? I mean was he president

(50:11):
of the Black division at MCA or was he just
head A and R?

Speaker 2 (50:14):
Like?

Speaker 1 (50:14):
What was his position?

Speaker 4 (50:15):
He was head of A and R. But he did everything.
He did all my mixes. He did the remixes of
Power of Love and a lot of songs. I loved
working with lol.

Speaker 5 (50:27):
Lull had a great ear. I mean he had a
great ear. He was working with you know, a New
Edition and Bobby Brown and all of that. He put
all that stuff together. He put them all all together
and worked and and he was the one who chose
my songs. And when things didn't work out with one producer,

(50:47):
Jerald Buzzby would come and take that song and give
it to another producer. Jerald Busby and Lull worked hand
in hand.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
Yeah, I was going to say he discribed what was
what were they like? Because it's hard to find anyone
that was really, you know, in proximity to where they
were at the time.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
I was with them a lot.

Speaker 4 (51:05):
I would go up to the to the office a lot.
They were just cool guys.

Speaker 5 (51:08):
I always had lunch with with Joe Busby and Louel.
I would go to the basketball games with him because
Lowell later on was dating Cassandra, you know, was a
manager at the time. So I was with loll And
over Lowell's house all the time. And Joe Busby we
became close, very close.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
I also know that you uh worked with Richard Rudolph
and also with Rod Temperton. Yes, well, I know that
he did.

Speaker 4 (51:39):
I've working with Rod Templeton. Now. He was a genius
with background vocals and making and blending things together. Oh
my god. And he was the nicest, nicest, most humble guy.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
He was.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
So I was going to ask, like, how much of
a task master was he with his background vocal stacking, Like, oh,
was he super intense?

Speaker 4 (52:03):
Yes it was.

Speaker 5 (52:04):
It was intense, but he wasn't mean about it. He
wasn't like okay, he was very nice about it.

Speaker 4 (52:13):
And I was used to working in the studio and
as long as you get me in the studio.

Speaker 5 (52:17):
Early, I'm good. I don't do night time student because
I go to bed early. I get sleepy, but early
in the day, I'm good.

Speaker 4 (52:25):
So I loved it and I learned so much.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
So an average session, how long could your voice last
before it's starting to give out? Like are you good?
For two hours? And then it's like stop?

Speaker 4 (52:37):
But I do I don't.

Speaker 5 (52:39):
I don't beat a song. I do one or two
takes and that's it because I do my homework at home.
So I'm not you know, I'm not gonna sing all day.
I've never I've never been one to sing all day.
Most of my songs are done in one take.

Speaker 4 (52:52):
That takes. That's it. We got to fix with it.
But other than that one or two, do it right?

Speaker 2 (52:59):
Do it?

Speaker 1 (53:00):
I love it? Wow?

Speaker 2 (53:01):
Do you do you think do you think that like
and of course God given talent is definitely a part
of it, but do you think that like your theater
background has a lot to do with that?

Speaker 5 (53:09):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (53:10):
Absolutely absolutely.

Speaker 5 (53:12):
My theater background definitely definitely taught me the discipline. You know,
I was They knew that when I came in the studio,
I was going to be ready.

Speaker 4 (53:22):
I was going to know my songs, and that's it.

Speaker 5 (53:25):
My theater background and being in theater and and being
around those because I was around like Liza Minelli and
Rivera and and all these legendary theater people. Broadway was
like a community, So I learned, and I and I
was the kind that would just sit and watch. I
wouldn't talk when other people was working. I'd watch the

(53:48):
director because I found that fascinating. So I would just
sit and watch and learn. And and Cheetah was became
very good friends with me, and and and I did
the Sammy Davis Junior Show and Liza. Sammy gave me
a gold bracelet, but Eliza, miss Manelli, had given it

(54:08):
to Sammy, so he had to come and get it
and then buy.

Speaker 4 (54:11):
Me another one. Did you got Eliza?

Speaker 5 (54:16):
I had it, but he forgot that Liza gave it
to him, and she reminded him, and so then he
came to the theater and got it, and then he
brought me another one.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Wow, you had a relationship with Liza like y'all have. Actually,
I mean, miss Manelli, y'all had a relationship where you
were actually speak to you.

Speaker 5 (54:35):
Respect, you know, because she was there was nobody bigger
on Broadway than Liza Manilla right right, geta Rivera, you know,
And and then Pippin and Ben Vereen and all those people.

Speaker 4 (54:47):
I just learned from all of them.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
I asked about Liza specifically because you remixed the role
of her mother. So I was just curious if that
that ever came into conversation or she ever lets you
know that she was aware.

Speaker 4 (55:02):
She was aware, and she felt like I did a
good job, and she told me not to worry about
what people said.

Speaker 6 (55:08):
Yes, we were wanted to know your work with Nick
Martinelli was yeah. Was that like were you a fan
of the loose end stuff that he had done?

Speaker 1 (55:21):
Like before that? Like how did y'all hook up?

Speaker 5 (55:25):
I think Louel put that together and then Philadelphia and
I went to his house and we talked about it.
But Nick allowed me to be free, like the first
part of Home. I wrote that I and I told
Nick that I wanted Home to be a little bit
more urban because I was coming out. You know, I

(55:46):
had done the Whiz, but I wanted to be a
little bit more urban. And I wanted people to remember.

Speaker 4 (55:52):
How great Charlie Small songs were. I didn't want them
to forget, you know.

Speaker 5 (55:57):
So when we went in the studio and take six,
did the backgrounds, Oh, that's them, I didn't.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
Let's take six casual flex n Wow, yeah I can.

Speaker 6 (56:13):
I can hear you saying it because I well maybe
as was because you know, I was thinking particular about
if I were your woman, and how that just sounds
like nothing that he had done like previously before that.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
It sounds nothing like the loosen stuff for like none
of that. I was going to say, that's his first
parade outside of eight o eight.

Speaker 4 (56:30):
Yeah, Jam and Lewis.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
DNA talked.

Speaker 4 (56:35):
I loved Nick. I mean even when Nick went to prison,
I went to visit him there.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
Oh he's at the prison. Yeah, that's why we gotta
interview Nick Martin. By the way, I missed that. Jimmy
Jam actually told me you guys got to interview them
and find out why.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
I gotta google that. Damn all right, No I.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
Didn't know my so yeah, no, we we definitely got
to get Nick Martinelli episode out because yeah, it's a story,
it's a story. I was going to say, why did
you decide to reclaim or recover Home in eighty nine

(57:23):
when for the home album?

Speaker 5 (57:26):
Because so many of the cast members had passed on
and I just wanted people to remember and I wanted to.

Speaker 4 (57:37):
Do a tribute, and that was my tribute to the original.

Speaker 5 (57:40):
Cast members, to Charlie Smalls and Ken Harper and Charles
who was our director, and a lot of people that passed.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
On, even Michael Peters, Yes, Michael Peters, Yes.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
So okay, after I asked about Angela, well, I mean
there's so many other producers. Well, first of all working
with Angela Wimbush. I know she wrote those songs, but
does she actually produce power love and something that make
me feel as well?

Speaker 4 (58:15):
Or well, I won't tell you the story about Power Love.
I'm not gonna tell that story.

Speaker 5 (58:20):
But they started producing it and then Gerald had to
come in and take it and give it to have
Mercy cursy, cursy, and he finished it. But yes, she
wrote Power of Love was originally power of God. Angela
wrote and produced something in the Way You Make Me
Feel and uh uh another.

Speaker 4 (58:43):
Song on my album.

Speaker 5 (58:44):
But I think Angela is a brilliant writer and producer.
She's one of my good friends.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
That's what's up. And she still she's still like like
active and stuff.

Speaker 5 (58:54):
She's still like helpwise, she's well, yes, going to the
church now, but she's still act that.

Speaker 4 (59:00):
You know, I get her to do a song and stuff.
But she's still active.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
Yeah, she sang at a AT's funeral. Oh wow, oh man,
I know that was a little weird. Yeah, like me
and me and di'angelo were her impromptu band. Oh but
we were at the Apollo first of all. I was
at the Apollo and then like, oh, we're playing angel

(59:28):
Tino Angeli Wick. So we're like winging it. But she's
also kind of quasi throwing us under the bus because
we know the chord changes. Like I was just here
to look at the casket and leave. Now I'm playing
drums with you. Okay.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
I was gonna ask seventy who are like you mentioned Angelo,
you mentioned Twala and Elba, But who are your your
sisters and song like the ladies especially you've been catching
on during these these times.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
Yeah, did you have a crew? Like who were your BFFs?
Like people that you could.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Lean on and they're not in the industry though, Wow,
that's what I meant. I thought somebody who you were
going through it. You're both going through the same, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:00:12):
The only person that probably uh would be Angela. It's
hard to be friends with sometimes the women in the
business because it's.

Speaker 4 (01:00:21):
A different kind of thing, you know, it's hard. It's hard, oh, Ques.

Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
Who said that?

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
And you said earlier that the record label and your
family kind of controlled a lot of stuff. So I
thought about that, and I was like, I wonder if
it was at times where it was like pitting against
and whatnot, because you know the whole mentality of there
can only be one and what.

Speaker 5 (01:00:44):
I never had that mentality, not you, but but I'm
saying like there are some artists that really do have
that mentality. But I always competed with myself being better
for myself. You know, I tried to be better or
sing better than anybody else. I just did me and
that always worked for me.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
That worked because there is no like you know, she
just like Stephanie Mills.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
There's no no, no, you know there was, now that
I think about it, there's a There was a kind
of a what do you call it? For Christmas? When
they do no no, no, not a Christmas album. But
a friend of mine took me to a church in Harlem,

(01:01:29):
and this church it's like six thousand seats. I just
remember it was you and Felicia Rashad. I saw is
that when they.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
Had the real live animals and stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:01:42):
Oh no, that we didn't have real live animals, but
we did Black Nativity.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
Oh yo, I was going to say, okay the night
the night I finished Master in il Adelph Half Life,
I got off early, and friends of Mine is like, yo,
we're gonna see Stephanie Mills go singing at a church
this Nativity thing, and like Felicia Rashad was the narrator,

(01:02:09):
and what was always wanted to know because the thing
was they were doing it was the story of Black
Nativity scene. But it was a sold out audience, and
you were incorporating kind of your catalog. I mean, you
sort of had to bend the narrative so that it
could fit the story of the Nativity. So like, yes,

(01:02:33):
you're gonna do I feel good all over. But it
was sort of bent into whatever. The story of Mary
explaining to Joseph, well she got prayed. It was the
weirdest thing, like it was. It was basically in my head.
I was sitting there like, okay, so she's doing six songs,
She's doing six of her hits, and they had to

(01:02:55):
figure out a way how to incorporate those hits into
the narrative of the birth of baby Jesus. So it
was like, but feel the fire, like all these songs
that were not Nativity ready, but they twisted. Always wanted
to like, how how did that come to be? Obviously

(01:03:17):
that wasn't the first time you did it, so it
was like, was that a something normal for you? Because
literally they.

Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
Felt like I think I did I feel good all over?
And I think I did home or something. I don't
think I did feel the fire.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
I swear it was like three or four songs, and
I was like, Okay, how they going to incorporate this one?
But anyway, but yeah, how how did they how did
that come to be?

Speaker 5 (01:03:47):
They they wanted they felt like if people came to
see it, they'd want to hear me sing something that
that people know for right, Okay, that they're more famili
we're with then just that and that's how they wanted
to sell it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
Okay. I was a board. I was like, okay, to
reinterpret all of your songs through the gospel filtering. I
thought that was Matt clever. So I wanted to know
was that something that you would return to or I
didn't know if maybe that point in your life you
were just going to do non secular versions of your
regular Songho.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
I did one.

Speaker 5 (01:04:28):
Gospel album and everybody all thought, oh, she's doing gospel now,
But I wanted to do you know, I eventually would
love to do a Broadway album.

Speaker 4 (01:04:36):
And sing yeah, oh wow tune. So I want to
do that.

Speaker 5 (01:04:40):
That was one of the reasons why I left MCA,
because they no longer Well first, I didn't want to
record contract anymore. I just wanted to kind of do
what I wanted to do, and so I'd love to
do a Broadway album.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
We got two Broadway show producer and composers right here
on this uh we do you you?

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
That guy?

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
You? And William Bill that guy.

Speaker 3 (01:05:06):
I was just gonna ask along those lines, Ms Mills,
how do you feel about being one of the only
that I can think of at the moment or at
all like Broadway folk who began as a Broadway person
and then graduated into pop star them if there are
plenty who are pop stars who take on stunt rolls
and musicals, but you're one of the only people I
can think of who began as a Broadway person and
then became this sort of big pop sensation.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
What is that like?

Speaker 3 (01:05:31):
I can't even think of anybody else who's along those lines.

Speaker 5 (01:05:34):
They always reminded me of that. They always like, Stephanie,
it's really odd that you came from Broadway. Usually Broadway
people don't have the voice to be commercial, and that's me.

Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
It's a different voice.

Speaker 4 (01:05:46):
It's a different It really is a different voice. But
I don't really know how I did it. I mean,
I get I have to.

Speaker 5 (01:05:53):
Really thank the producers. And I never really left. I
never let I never left my soul. Even though I
was on Broadway and singing, I still kept my soul.
I think I didn't like turn into this Broadway singer.

Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
Did they try to change you though? Like I mean,
like Broadways known for vibroadbo and like epic whatever it is,
and I don't at.

Speaker 4 (01:06:17):
All then sound. Yeah, you know that whiny kind of sound.

Speaker 5 (01:06:21):
But I uh, they tried to change me later in
my career. They wanted me to take some of the
soul out of my voice because they wanted me to
be so. They would say, you're sounding a little bit
too black. I mean, even my videos and things were
never played on MTV or v h one because they
said I was too black.

Speaker 6 (01:06:41):
Oh, I was gonna say, I remember you did a
song that I thought was kind of to me, it
felt like a comeback, so to speak, when you did
I Just Want Love and it was it was on
the Strictly Business soundtrack. I would never get this song soundtrack.
It was on the it was on the Strictly Business soundtrack.
It's the last song. It's the Streetly Business, the movie

(01:07:02):
with Halle Berry and Tommy Davis and I Can't Home
from the Cosby Show, Super classic.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
Remember that song, God, literally I can't because we used.

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
To I just want to from you, I just want
you love from you. It was on the it was
the first song on the soundtrack, but it's the last
jam in the movie.

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
It sounds nineties very I was in like.

Speaker 6 (01:07:26):
Seventh grade, but but I was. But but the thing
was because it was other people on that soundtrack. I
think I think like Mary was on that soundtrack, and
I just remember Uptown m A.

Speaker 5 (01:07:36):
And you know it was Mary, Patti LaBelle, Jody Watley,
myself and we were all on m c A. We
would always come out first quarter, second quarter, third quarter,
fourth quarter, released by records.

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
Well at least, yeah, same time.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
That's good.

Speaker 6 (01:07:53):
I thought that was just a good way of them
kind of uh you know, it was a voice that
was familiar to me, and I heard it and I
was like, man, they found a way to, you know,
make material that puts Stephanie in like a modern day context,
you know. And it didn't sound like like you said,
you know, it sounded like you were still you were
still doing you. You weren't trying to do like what
the younger generation was doing. It didn't sound like you

(01:08:14):
were pandering. It just sounded like, oh, this is Stephanie
Mills in this context. And I always thought that's I
always really liked that song.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
My question is, as as a quote real singer or
a singer singer.

Speaker 4 (01:08:31):
How what's your funny.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
Not questions even funny?

Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
As a real singer? How hard is it to make
sense where we are now? This is not not like
to dispara or bring no no, no no.

Speaker 2 (01:08:47):
I love it Stephanie Mills. I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
Let's go No Oh wait what am I missing?

Speaker 4 (01:08:55):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
On Twitter? I forgot?

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:08:58):
I just.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
I just love that she don't hold her tongue.

Speaker 1 (01:09:01):
That's what I forgot. Yes, I totally forgot you bring
smoke to Sam about Michael Jackson. I forgot about that.
But I mean, just where we where we are now,
Where we are now where? I mean, you know what
music is now, I don't have to auto tune everything. Yeah,
it's just it could be frustrating sometimes. I mean even

(01:09:26):
me now, like as a music fan and actively in
the music business, you know, I don't have any expectations
for people to blow me away with their singing anymore,
or good songs to be written or any of those things.
But how do you do you even make sense of
what's happening today at all? Or is it just like
R and B.

Speaker 5 (01:09:48):
Well, I think that they've just kind of like killed
dur and B. They're trying to but we're trying to
hold on to it as you know. No, I think
it's very easy for people today to become pop stars,
and they use the word legends and icons and things
very loosely.

Speaker 4 (01:10:07):
And I think that's why.

Speaker 5 (01:10:11):
A lot of people can't sing live. I mean a
lot of shows are taped. A lot of shows, you'd
be surprised. I've been on the road with quite a
few artists and mostly predominantly.

Speaker 4 (01:10:22):
All their whole show is taped.

Speaker 1 (01:10:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:10:25):
So, but I come from theater, you know, and I'm
so glad, I'm so thankful every day that you know,
I've learned how to sing, whether I can hit that
note that night, or point to my background singer and
hit it. But what I do before I go on
the road is I sing all my songs every day
so that I can sound somewhat like I sounded, you know,

(01:10:49):
and people won't be scared to hear me. I do
sing every day because I just love to sing. But
today's music, I don't think any of today's music you'll
hear five and ten years from now like you do
Stevie and Aretha and and and the people from the
seventies and eighties.

Speaker 4 (01:11:08):
I don't think that you'll hear this music today. One
I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
I'm trying to think in my head like you. I'm sorry,
I was trying to argue that fact, but okay.

Speaker 4 (01:11:19):
I don't do I don't know. I mean, I love
Jasmine Sullivan, but I feel I love her as a vocalist,
uh a, Deborah Cox. I think it's a brilliant vocalist.

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
And but that's still not in this in the next
to ten years, in this last years, that's not that's.

Speaker 5 (01:11:39):
Not like immediate, Like do you think that we'll hear
Cardi b stuffed ten to fifteen years from now, no man,
So you know that.

Speaker 4 (01:11:49):
And that's not to take away from anybody.

Speaker 5 (01:11:52):
I'm not because I don't knock anybody's hustling, But I
just don't think that you know their music is going
to last ten to fifteen year Miss Stephan.

Speaker 6 (01:12:01):
I was gonna ask so with your jam with hip hop?
When hip hop, you know, kind of came into the
just into the industry. You know, every episode of Unsung
they all have the same story. It's like they they
were doing great and then rap and it was over.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
You know what I'm saying. How what was it like
for you?

Speaker 6 (01:12:23):
You know what I'm saying when you saw the industry
kind of starting to shift and you saw what hip
hop was becoming.

Speaker 1 (01:12:29):
What was that like for you? And what was your
relationship to hip hop? If any I didn't have.

Speaker 4 (01:12:34):
A relationship with hip hop, but I enjoyed it. I mean,
I don't know, I guess something different because I just
I just keep doing me. I just kept doing what
I did.

Speaker 5 (01:12:45):
I didn't try to change and try to adapt, you know,
I just I just kept doing another version of me
whatever that you know, just keep doing another version of me.

Speaker 4 (01:12:56):
I love hip hop, you know I I would I
Oh my Christmas album, I wrapped, I wrapped the Red Bars.

Speaker 1 (01:13:06):
You know, yes, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:13:12):
I just I you know, everybody has their thing to do,
and I think, you know, hey, you just keep on
going and to come back around.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
I've seen it, but it didn't bother you like the
Unsung bother me.

Speaker 5 (01:13:24):
No.

Speaker 4 (01:13:24):
I didn't freak out about it now because I could
always go and do theater. I can do other things.
So I didn't. I didn't like, Oh god, No, I
didn't want anymore anyway.

Speaker 2 (01:13:37):
If there was a show, what would the show? Is
there a show you have in mind that you would
love to do as far as a theater.

Speaker 4 (01:13:43):
Yes, Melody and I are going to do run It's
woman show Happen. We're writing it now.

Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
Oh yes, I'm here. We're here for that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
We're writing.

Speaker 4 (01:13:56):
Melbourne is just wonderful on stage.

Speaker 5 (01:13:58):
We did a we did a show called If You
Had to Talk, and it was just wonderful being on
stage with her.

Speaker 4 (01:14:06):
Talk recently and that she was like, let's work together.
I said, let's do it. We found a writer. So
they're writing it now.

Speaker 1 (01:14:13):
Oh it's good. Get my ears ready, Okay, since I
wasn't going to ask the question, but I mine as well.
Have you heard back from Sam Smith? Quiet back at him? Oh,
I only forgot about that's she brought smoke. I love.

Speaker 4 (01:14:37):
You know what it is? This is really what it
is about it.

Speaker 5 (01:14:40):
People don't really know my personality because I've always just
been a singer.

Speaker 4 (01:14:46):
And on Broadway. But I'm really just a hood girl
from Brooklyn. You know what I'm saying. I'm really just
that that girl. And I love Michael.

Speaker 5 (01:14:55):
He's not here to take care of herself and I
to speak up for herself. And I get tired of
people who I know have copied sounds. I mean, Sam
Smith is nothing but Sylvester all over.

Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:15:12):
So you know when you say you don't like our music,
how can you say that? So I really had to.

Speaker 5 (01:15:20):
I felt like I have to say something. And my
manager's always like, Okay, I'm gonna let you say this,
but you gotta say it like this, because sometimes I
just think people need to back off.

Speaker 4 (01:15:31):
I don't like when they they need an education, and
they need an.

Speaker 5 (01:15:34):
Education, they need it, And I don't think people should
say things about people and they're not here to defend themselves.

Speaker 4 (01:15:41):
I mean, if you wanted to.

Speaker 5 (01:15:42):
It's just like when fifty was talking about Michael and
you know, and then his daughter said, please don't talk
about my father, and then fifty wanted to, you know, go,
she's a child, you know, so I kind of I said,
why don't you talk to me? I'm more your speed,
I'm older, you know, so I just I just don't
like when people are bullies.

Speaker 4 (01:16:02):
I don't like bullies. I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:16:05):
There you go, Stephanie Miles. I'm telling you, Stephie Mills
Yon word, they sat in Twitter on fire.

Speaker 4 (01:16:11):
Okay, she doesn't play, Leon does not play. And you
know who didn't play, Aretha? Aretha didn't play.

Speaker 1 (01:16:19):
She didn't really. Oh now what was she like? Did
you y'all have worked together or anything? Were y'all just colleagues.

Speaker 5 (01:16:26):
I lived in Detroit for a couple of years and
she used to come. I did a play there and
she used to come and see me, and towards.

Speaker 4 (01:16:34):
The end of her life we would talk.

Speaker 5 (01:16:36):
I talked to her about two months before she passed away,
and she told me a lot of things about Motown
and how Barry started it and how her sister was involved.
And her father, And it's a conversation I could never
talk about. But I loved Aretha. But Aretha took no prisoners.

(01:16:57):
When I tell you she didn't, she didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:17:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I you know, I guess in closing,
I would just like to know from this journey you had, like,
what is your in a career with so many highlights
in it, what is your like, your your favorite what
means the most to you of your entire journey, your
creative journey, That I'm still.

Speaker 4 (01:17:22):
Here, that I didn't get on drugs.

Speaker 5 (01:17:28):
I didn't, you know, because I think about Whitney, and
I think about Michael, and I think about Prince, I
think about Gerald and.

Speaker 4 (01:17:37):
So many times as artists, we have so much pressure
and wait on us that just destroys us.

Speaker 5 (01:17:44):
And people don't really understand sometimes what an artist is
going through.

Speaker 4 (01:17:49):
So I think that I'm still.

Speaker 5 (01:17:50):
Here and somewhat my right mind, and and that I
enjoyed it. I'm able to enjoy it and sit back
and relax and just enjoy it.

Speaker 6 (01:18:01):
I was going to ask you earlier because you were
saying that you know, when you look back over your
career and just over your life, it was all kind
of going really fast and you never really had a
chance taking in in what ways, if any has twenty
twenty like with us being kind of locked down with
COVID and everything, what has that given you a chance?
What is this year giving you a chance to reflect

(01:18:21):
on and you know, kind of change or any shifts
that you may be making in your life now?

Speaker 5 (01:18:28):
You know, when I turned forty forty five, I had
my son, and I didn't I didn't have a It
all changed for me when I separed my ties with
MCA because I didn't want to be a fortying artist anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:18:43):
And what year was that around? What time?

Speaker 5 (01:18:45):
Oh my, I was looking the nineties. Okay, the nineties, yeah,
and I just I slowed down.

Speaker 4 (01:18:53):
But it wasn't until i'd like hit fifty fifty five
and I was like, oh man, you.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
Know, I like this.

Speaker 4 (01:18:59):
But my sixth seas have been the best. Really, oh
my sixties have. Really. I don't care what I.

Speaker 1 (01:19:08):
Say.

Speaker 4 (01:19:09):
I don't care about nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:19:12):
I can't wait.

Speaker 5 (01:19:14):
So it's like, I don't care what you say about me.
I don't care, you know, It's just you don't care.
It's but when you're like in the thirties, you're caring
about what everybody. The sixties have been just wonderful. My
fifties and my sixties have been just wonderful.

Speaker 1 (01:19:29):
Yeah, that's so great. Twenty one. Yeah, I was gonna say,
you look amazing, amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:19:36):
Before in March.

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
You look like that same little lady I saw on
stage when I was six.

Speaker 4 (01:19:41):
Yeah, they're all in here.

Speaker 2 (01:19:44):
You and melbur got something going on.

Speaker 4 (01:19:46):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:19:46):
I don't want to hold you a little secrets, but
you and Melbourn, they got something going on.

Speaker 4 (01:19:51):
You know what I think it is.

Speaker 5 (01:19:52):
I just think I get a lot of sleep. I
don't really smoke or anything. And I just started drinking
wine at sixties.

Speaker 1 (01:19:59):
What really?

Speaker 4 (01:20:00):
That's yes, I just.

Speaker 1 (01:20:05):
What they start drowning to me because I just started that,
uh earlier this year.

Speaker 4 (01:20:10):
And everyone you're drinking now.

Speaker 1 (01:20:13):
Yes, the rest of the.

Speaker 2 (01:20:16):
Ve been drinking since we was seing.

Speaker 4 (01:20:17):
They I just started.

Speaker 1 (01:20:21):
I just started.

Speaker 3 (01:20:22):
Thank you, you've been missing out.

Speaker 1 (01:20:27):
Wait a minute, wait a minute, this all right, this one,
this one thing I gotta know, okay, Senior in concert
once Yes, and you're doing if I was your woman,
mm hmm, and you always did it. You had a
chair as a prop.

Speaker 4 (01:20:44):
Yes, four chairs.

Speaker 1 (01:20:47):
Yeah, okay, this is what I gotta know. I don't
know if it was just the Philadelphia air, but you
went extra on throwing that chair above your head in
a way it was almost like a no look pass
from Like I just want to know in performing that

(01:21:10):
particular song, was that a nightly ritual. I don't even
know if you remember, but you just you you pick
this chair up and it was like you know them
chairs that comedians use when they do their routines, like
them those talk like literally she hoisted it to the
other side of the stage, And I always wanted to know, like,

(01:21:33):
was that a part of your routine where you Pete
Townshend Pete Townsend from the who that reference? Was that
a part of your repertoire every night when you did
that song?

Speaker 5 (01:21:46):
Or I was to throw it but not not probably
like that. But sometimes I get so involved and I
go to another.

Speaker 4 (01:21:55):
Space on stage.

Speaker 5 (01:21:56):
So that was probably one of the nights that I
was in another space. Maybe my boyfriend made me mad
or something, I don't know, and I just took it
out on the chair.

Speaker 1 (01:22:06):
That was Olympic level of chair throwing, which.

Speaker 4 (01:22:09):
I was like, those chids were really light though, they
weren't heavy.

Speaker 2 (01:22:15):
They were really like, what's your sign, Stephanie, I'm ari,
Oh yeah, you do that?

Speaker 4 (01:22:20):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (01:22:25):
Can I just.

Speaker 2 (01:22:30):
Ask before we go? Because I asked Melb this, and
I think we should probably just get in the habit
of doing this, Like for folks that are listening that
love you and being a fan and stuff like, where
do you tell them, especially in COVID, like how to
support you and make sure that they are tuned into
how they can support you.

Speaker 4 (01:22:46):
On my I G, I'm on i G, I'm on
Twitter and.

Speaker 2 (01:22:52):
Had you for sharing too. On IG you share your
story with your son and whatnot.

Speaker 4 (01:22:56):
And I just have my story with my son and
I talk about people a little bit, but not too bad.
I don't think, you know. I just kind of keep
them straight a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:23:07):
To somebody got to.

Speaker 4 (01:23:10):
Just a little bit. But people kind of get afraid
or whatever don't want to talk to me. But that's cool.

Speaker 2 (01:23:15):
Ever, we should have a counsel for this kind of ship.
You should have help and tap somebody in.

Speaker 5 (01:23:21):
But I think people should say, I mean, this year
has been so tough on everybody. I have crazy faith,
you know, my faith has always gotten me through situations
and I just think people need to wear their masks
and wash their hands and it. You know, I guess
some people will take the vaccine. I don't think I'm
gonna take the vaccine. I'm gonna wait and see you.

(01:23:43):
I wait and see what they're doing, because I don't
trust it.

Speaker 2 (01:23:47):
That's you know, Spring, We cain't, none of us take
it right now anyway, Let's just wait for the fourth
match to get their second shot, you.

Speaker 3 (01:23:55):
Know, exactly get that iPad never first generation, right, exactly right.

Speaker 1 (01:24:05):
Well, once again, we thank you for doing our show,
and I'm happy you said you agreed to do it's.

Speaker 4 (01:24:13):
Going to have you invited me. Thank you so much.
I've had a good time.

Speaker 1 (01:24:18):
And you live in North Carolina. I'm so proud I
did all this time. Man, Yes, Carolin, I love you.

Speaker 4 (01:24:26):
New York too, but I could never live in New
York again.

Speaker 2 (01:24:28):
It's to get too over that ship. Oh I'm too
old for it. I'm too old for that ship. A love.

Speaker 1 (01:24:38):
And he rich yet we're not even Just wait till
February then I'll join you know. All right, y'all, let
me wrap this up. We'll be having Flo and uh
unpaid Bill and Sugar Steve Sugar stevens Okay, just thank

(01:25:02):
you for all the music think thank you all right?
Uh yeah, thank you once again to our special guest
Stephanemils on Quest Love Supreme. We will see you on
the next greground. Have a great twenty twenty one people
you next time. Thank you, yo, what's up? This is fante.

(01:25:25):
Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at
QLs and let us know what you think and who
should be next to sit down with us. Don't forget
to subscribe to our podcast, all right, Peace West Love
Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts

(01:25:47):
from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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Episode Transcript

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Laiya St. Clair

Questlove

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