Black Music Month QLS Classic: The Emotions

In this Black Music Month QLS Classic, Grammy Award-winning vocal group The Emotions talk about their unusually early musical start, how hip hop reinvigorated their career and the deep influence of their family on everything they do.

 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Questlove Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic episode
was produced by the team at Pandora.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey what's up, y'all?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
This is Questlove And as you've noticed throughout June, we
are celebrating black music cum by releasing an.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Episode every day.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
So every day you're either going to hear a special
PIIC QLs classic and on Wednesdays we're dropping new two
part episodes with Wayne Brady and James Poyser, both of
which were filmed in studio, so make sure you also
watch us on YouTube. And on this QLs we sat
down with the emotions.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
That's right, the emotions. This is a special comprehensive chat three.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Incredible Grammy Award winners, total manions, ladies and gentlemen. This
is QLs classic from May tenth, twenty seventeen. With the emotion,
we talked to the Grammy Award winning shook Alco Willnoise
songbirds who had five decades under their belts of harmonies,
hits and samples that have become the staple of our lives,

(01:09):
joining them when it's also why am fon of Doctor
Dre's The Pharmacy Show, and they recall their family history.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
And song and memories. It's really cool.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Kills Classic with the.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Emotions Suprimo so So Supremo, roll call Suprema sun So Supremo,
roll call Supremo so some supremo role called Suprema so

(01:44):
So Suprema.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Don't touch that down.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, don't push into yeah, because you getting the best.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah, Suprema Roma suck.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
My name is Fante. Yeah, I am not quest lost,
but it is my love. You get the best.

Speaker 4 (02:08):
Of Bill is my name? Yeah, chilling with the tribe. Yeah,
shout out to the emotions. Yea for my jam love vide.

Speaker 5 (02:32):
Sup My name is Sugar. Yeah, we in l a Yeah,
all these emotions. It's our last day, sup.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Supremom montaid Bill.

Speaker 6 (02:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Drinking cambucha.

Speaker 7 (02:53):
Yeah, it's my ear.

Speaker 8 (03:07):
Yeah, and I'm very excited.

Speaker 6 (03:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (03:09):
Three beautiful ladies.

Speaker 8 (03:11):
Yeah, I know why I was invited?

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Who Suppreval? Whoa came suppriva some supreval.

Speaker 6 (03:21):
My name is Wanda.

Speaker 8 (03:23):
Yeah, you got the best on my leaf.

Speaker 7 (03:25):
I have a.

Speaker 6 (03:26):
Passion, Yeah, from the gift.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Of sure Suprema so sure.

Speaker 9 (03:37):
I'm Waryan Vaughn. Yeah, the voice of reason. Yeah, I'm hot,
I'm spicy. Call me well season.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Whoa supprival, Suppriva some supreval.

Speaker 10 (03:53):
My name is Pam, Yeah, and I just came here.

Speaker 11 (03:57):
Give you my number.

Speaker 8 (03:59):
I'll play your game.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Suprema suck, Suprema Roma, No come.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Suprema son, Supremo bro called suprema some Supremo ro.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Call damn.

Speaker 6 (04:21):
Me.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
I can't but your future rhyme ship rhymes with cam.
It was pay drinking cam. Butch happy than toilets. I'm
from the future.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
At least I got to say those also pretty futuristic
toilets I am.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
I'm so busy trying to coordinate my sample that I
couldn't that I couldn't. I was trying to coordinate my sample. Wowl.

Speaker 8 (04:57):
That is so funny.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another edition of Course Love
Supreme or on Pandorah.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
We are in the presence of Royalty man, Ladies and gentlemen, Yes, royalties.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
For over five decades, the world is has has has
been blessed with a distinct harmony and vocal stylings of
our next guests. From their humble beginnings in Chicago, Chicago
correct Yeah. As a gospel group, the Sunbeam Hutchison exactly
uh later, evolving on the world stage as the Emotions.

(05:33):
Ladies and gentlemen, Please welcome our very distinct guests, our
first group.

Speaker 12 (05:44):
Well, yes, there's our first singing group.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Our first singing group.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Welcome, Oh, Madame, Pamela Hutcheson, Wanda Vaughn, and Hyan Vaughn,
collectively known in our hearts as the emotional.

Speaker 6 (05:59):
So delighted to be here. I just must say, quest,
I just love seeing you play those drums.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
I can't, I really can't.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
I know people think I'm being disingenuous when I say
I can't believe you know that I'm alive.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
But this is this is really a great moment for me.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
So, you know, for the purpose of our show is
to really go in depth into a guest that we
have on the show, because oftentimes, you know, you don't
you have favorites, but you really don't know them as
as people. And you know, especially pre uh this decade,

(06:44):
you know, people's lives are always on display more than
their talent or whatever. You know, there's a lot of us,
me included that you know, I don't know much about
the emotions as at as humans. You know, I know
about your beginnings in Chicago. So you guys started and
obviously in church, in church, that's true.

Speaker 6 (07:06):
We were singing on Sunday sometimes Maya Jackson's Church over
on eighty seventh Street, right down the street from what
was the guys that played the boys, uh from Chicago. No,
not the Shighlights, but okay, the Jackson five Emotions and
the little guy that sings and drums. Oh I know,

(07:30):
huh No not man condition that.

Speaker 8 (07:33):
He said, she said, singing and drum.

Speaker 6 (07:36):
Well, because they played the drums and then their sister
was in the group the Stairsteps steps, the five Stairsteps.
Because we all did the Apollo together. Just so happened
the very first time we did it. Follow Jackson five Emotions. Yeah,
and Ronnie millsap however, but anyway.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Wait about Yeah, he had a hit in the eighties.

Speaker 6 (08:05):
Never had it so good.

Speaker 12 (08:06):
No, No, there was another one.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
It's top forty hight which one I can't remember. I remember.

Speaker 12 (08:15):
I'll get back to you.

Speaker 5 (08:16):
Let's let's we can We did skip.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Played the Apollo, Yes, that is mind blowing. Well he's blind,
so okay.

Speaker 6 (08:34):
Anyway, but we had a gospel show there in Chicago,
called the We actually sang in al Abram's Pontiac. It
was a showroom of all the Pontiacs that were at
that time, Tempest, the Grand Prix, and we were the singers.

(08:57):
My father playing guitar. He also sold the cars and
people insurance and that's where we met Don Carnilius. He
was actually giving insurance. I mean he was a salesman there,
you know. But anyway, and we sang with a Jubilee
showcase which is now on YouTube. It was on the
Unsung But anyway, that was our first and I just

(09:19):
happened to because you know how social Security sent you
your very first thing that you did. That was the
first thing that we did.

Speaker 8 (09:25):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (09:26):
And from what seven to eight years old when we
first met you guys, ye win the emotion. Well we
were they and then of course the Staples Singers.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
I was about to say, so it was sort of
like your father was Pops was our father.

Speaker 6 (09:47):
Like Pop Staples, but he got Purviose Staples to manage.
He was our manager. You know when we got with.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Have a nightclub too, because I know that he.

Speaker 6 (09:56):
Left the seventy ninth Street.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Yeah, he left the State Singers too.

Speaker 6 (10:00):
I had a big Cadillac on the top of it,
and that's when he was going with Melville Moore. But
I remember that we were singing there about once a
month and he would have people that come in town
come there and Joe Simon, I mean, all the best.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
How easy was it to.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Well, obviously you must have had your your your parents'
blessings because they're in the act with you. But I
often hear times of groups that start in gospel, yes,
and try to sort of sneak their way into the
secular world to the night clubs and whatever, like, how
do you.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
Was it easy to switch the two?

Speaker 6 (10:43):
It was more of a situation for my grandmother, dad's
mom out of Terre Haute, Indiana and Mama Rose and
she was like, wow, you know you brought them girls
up to sing for God now singing for the devil.
Ain't bought of that, And I mean she was really
like that. And our first at the what's the Regal

(11:03):
Theater in Chicago when we won the contract and sixty
nine to sing on Stax records, I can't go, I
can't go, and you girls, you got to say, he said,
but you got to promise me. You got to sing
a gospel song every time you do a show, and
if anybody knows us, when we do a show, we
sing gospel. Yeah, so we kept that part in there.

(11:24):
I said, but Mama, we're not singing about people who
aren't married. We're just singing about people were getting married. Yes, yes,
And you know, Sheila wrote the first song, so I
Can Love You, which Isaac Hayes produced. But anyway, that
was the first thing that came out in nineteen sixty nine.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
So what was that whole at least that the grind
between Because I'm certain that you guys between Chicago.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
I'm sure that you went to Memphis.

Speaker 6 (11:57):
That's where we recorded in Memphis, Tennessee.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
But I mean between Chicago, like just the Midwest, between Chicago, Indiana,
just that whole circuit. What was it like like was
everyone i mean a typical day for those contests or
whatever were They're always.

Speaker 6 (12:15):
Yes, And we were still in school, so we always
did the contest at the school, you know, at the
high school and the junior high and we would have
and everyone would want to sing with us because we
still sang in Chicago before we had a record deal,
so people knew of us, you know, in the area
because my father had a radio show on the gospel
morning radio, you know situation, so everyone kind of knew us.

(12:38):
So they would want to sing with the hutcheson sunbeams
when we would do the what do you call the
show the Jubilee showcase, but you know we'd have to
pick someone who's the winner the auditions. Oh yeah, talent
show challenge all the time. That was a big thing
in Chicago. Yeah, and then all of the radio folks,

(13:00):
they always came out to the school. That's what's so
different about this age and before they were more into
the community exactly.

Speaker 10 (13:09):
It was at the Community Process Center. Yes, that even
at nine years old. Yes, my brother had its own
band and I sang Aretha Franklin song by myself.

Speaker 11 (13:23):
That's back.

Speaker 10 (13:25):
I didn't have a you know, at nine years old,
I wanted to be kind of flashy, so I had
an orange dress, red socks, a green pearl necklace. I
was real colorful.

Speaker 6 (13:39):
Rainbow Can't would be the guy, I don't know if
you remember her, the gent from Yes, and he would
come to all the sock hops. We had sock cops.
We tried to start that. We came out here, people
went socks. Communities are going to come on the night.

Speaker 8 (13:58):
I don't know what sock hop in the gym because.

Speaker 6 (14:01):
You can't wear your shoes and dance, so you take
off your shoes.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
I didn't know that.

Speaker 13 (14:07):
I didn't know most people were bobby socks. I thought
that that's what it was. Well, you couldn't wear shoes
on the floor.

Speaker 6 (14:14):
Yet it socks, yes, because you're on the court where
the basketball players and you know you can't wear.

Speaker 9 (14:21):
You didn't want to scuff it up, right, Okay, they.

Speaker 8 (14:25):
Were dancing and flipping and doing all that.

Speaker 6 (14:27):
H Yes. And then at the Catholic Church, which is
amazing because all the black folks went to the Catholic
Church just to the sock hop. There was the skating.
You skate to the seventies music at the UH at
the Catholic Church because they had the big arena, you know.
So but it was amazing because we come out and
then all the white people be standing outside because they

(14:48):
wouldn't come in on the nights that we that we
had to skating.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Integrated well, well at that time.

Speaker 6 (14:57):
Not at that time, and even when it does.

Speaker 13 (15:00):
You know, Chicago has always been an interesting like segregated
type city.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
Interesting.

Speaker 8 (15:04):
Interesting, yes, yes, still.

Speaker 6 (15:07):
But the church let us have it there. And there
was certainly a Catholic you know, it wasn't the Baptist church.
It was, it was, but they wanted to be a
part of the community, which was really something. And uh
and even the largest like the car dealers and so forth,
they would let us have They would move the cars
back and let people have a dance situation or talent.

(15:28):
And you know what, it was really smart because they
got their parents and then you know, they're fixing to
buy a car, so they're going to buy a car
from the place where they can go dance. And I'm like, gosh,
I wish La had that kind of a you know now,
but I don't know.

Speaker 8 (15:40):
I don't know if anywhere has that kind of a thing.

Speaker 14 (15:42):
Now.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
I was going to say.

Speaker 9 (15:48):
That community, it seemed like that was the center of
everything though, that every like the radio outlets, cars, church,
every one sold into the community.

Speaker 6 (15:57):
That's true. That's kind of awesome.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
So okay, so you said that, uh, Don Cornelius would
be there, did you You guys obviously did the local
version of Soul Training correct, Yes, yeah.

Speaker 6 (16:09):
We did. The very first one. Channel twenty six which
was UHF. The very trains were on UHF.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
So how revolutionary was that at the time in Chicago,
Like the idea of a show where you saw black
teenagers dancing and.

Speaker 11 (16:27):
It was a really big deal.

Speaker 10 (16:29):
It was really uh because it was you know they
normally the people would have what was that that guy?

Speaker 11 (16:35):
The real famous dance show American?

Speaker 6 (16:38):
Yes.

Speaker 8 (16:41):
Yes, and this was.

Speaker 6 (16:45):
Before they moved out here, before they moved Soul Trains.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
The local Chicago.

Speaker 11 (16:50):
Yeah, the room, the room a little bigger than this.

Speaker 6 (16:54):
Well, the actual room where the coomber was at that
hotel you know down there downtown. I had to wait
with play. Yeah, that's the whole album. Were not were
the dancing part where the people were Yeah it was small.
Yeah did you do that one with the Monty you
know what she's talking about what we were actually saying.

(17:15):
But the dance part was in the lobby kind of
you know, it was bigger. Yeah, it wasn't.

Speaker 8 (17:20):
It sounds like two different.

Speaker 14 (17:21):
You were nine years Okay, that was.

Speaker 11 (17:25):
In the group I did that.

Speaker 9 (17:28):
It was that question about this is you you both
must know this is a real family business. And it's
so funny because I have to remember, like these are
real sisters.

Speaker 8 (17:39):
I see them as mom and Aunty.

Speaker 9 (17:41):
But when they have their fun times like this, I
have to remember, like as if it was me and
my sisters, that's called step back.

Speaker 8 (17:49):
I don't have jurisdiction. And that the fight was not.

Speaker 6 (17:55):
To us on YouTube. We didn't even know that was
on YouTube.

Speaker 9 (17:58):
That was the one though, when you guys did when
you had the white one and you did. Best of
my love was that.

Speaker 13 (18:03):
It was.

Speaker 8 (18:06):
Telling you about that, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
That's the established one, the before when it's black and
white and before and white before it you know, got
big yes that vers. But you also mentioned, like a
lot of your contemporaries, you just ever so casually like
so because because Chicago is just the epicenter and such

(18:30):
a musical you know, birthplace for for many of our
favorites on a casual week like who were you seeing
that that are gods now?

Speaker 2 (18:41):
But who it was? Just who would you run into?

Speaker 6 (18:44):
And the impressions all the time, and shot by yeah,
Shot we went to school together and when they had
the when King that thing happened and they were looting
and doing all of this so called Chaka and I
went to the Disciples, you know, the gangs, and because

(19:04):
they loved us and knew us, they let us talk
to them and you know, in the same room, and
the police used us to go. I mean, it was
just so wonderful, used us to go into their places
where they would meet to talk to them and like,
don't go over here. You know that's brother so and
so's right business. And they were okay, so they and
they did it, and we were like so shocked because
me and Shaka had these froze like this, and we

(19:26):
had those tops that stopped right here and the mail
bottle pair and they would really listen to yea let's
But anyway, it was it was quite quite a situation.

Speaker 9 (19:46):
Then you had that one picture when you guys were
singing at Maheia's church and Mahea Jackson was looking up.

Speaker 8 (19:51):
Did you see her often?

Speaker 6 (19:53):
Yes, because my dad because he was singing with us
when we were doing gospel and so what we would
go to her church. It would be like a son
the every other it was the tea when they would
have the tea and we would do this repertoire and
when Dad would sing with us, we did uh what
was that? Alba Maria? We would do all these songs
and things like barbershop or for a four or five

(20:13):
part harmony, and he played well, he did play electric
then because he started out not playing electric, but he
would play these songs. And so she would ask if
we did Prodigal Son and Somewhere over the Rainbow, you know,
a lot of songs like that. And she said, she says,
are you going to put these girls in some kind
of music conservatory? I would love to, you know, be
a part of their education. I mean she actually said

(20:35):
that to him. When we were we weren't even thinking about,
you know, music, because.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
Did you realize that she was Yes, because all these
people would come from uh because it was in a
black neighborhood, and they would be coming from Europe or
coming from wherever.

Speaker 6 (20:49):
They hear her sing, and she would do that home song.
She would do the oh my gosh, the song that
was in the movie, you know, Imitation of Life, Oh
my God. But she could sing, yes, the red amazing grace.
When she was your skin would crawl, mind, ye would
just crawl. And then I wasn't even you know, I
was a kid, and I was like, why is my

(21:10):
skin crumb? I mean, and she's not singing all these
runs that everybody does today, she's not. But she's just
singing that gutteral and and and then she had very
little vibrato, and she knew when to make it the
smooth tone and the contralto. And I didn't know those words, Dan,
I couldn't figure out what was it making me go?

(21:32):
You know? But anyway, I kind of enveloped it into
my lead singing. And it was really a thing because
I always sung the gospel, mostly in the group, and
she had a way of doing a guttural low squall
that I've never heard anyone do, and but she she
did it. And I mean, your you just everyone in

(21:52):
the place is crying. It's like, why are they crying?

Speaker 2 (21:55):
You know?

Speaker 15 (21:56):
I mean, but anyway, so, how did you learn because
hearing you use the term contralto and you know, the
ver broader and everything. Did you ever actually take like
formal lessons or with these just things you picked up?

Speaker 6 (22:07):
My father, My father he had us like, you know,
when we would rehearse, he would have us just listen
to uh now, I believe or not. We watched the
Lawrence Welk show, Oh Wow, what's those girls that say?
And we did a lot of commercials in town that were, uh,
those guys the high lows, and we got to go

(22:28):
down there to the barber shop stuff. Yeah, where the
impressions recorded is actually where the CBS studios at that time,
and we got a chance to watch them and we
were like, wow, that's how Dad to are singing, you know,
because we sang a cappella in the rehearsal. We weren't
singing with music and stuff. And so Dad would go

(22:49):
and you knew what this meant? You go, you go high?
Because no one could figure out. I remember when b
Angie b was recording I Don't Want to Lose Your
Love and she said, how did you guys sing the
the harmony?

Speaker 4 (23:01):
You know?

Speaker 6 (23:02):
One time you be on top of the other one. Yeah.
My father was into fourths and fifths because he said
those were the anointed intervals intervals and anytime you see
those movies, do that interval is always a fourth or
a fifth. Well I really didn't know that then, but
Dad would tell us the stuff. I'm like, no, where
did he get this right? Right?

Speaker 2 (23:22):
Right?

Speaker 6 (23:23):
But anyway, that's that's kind of how we got into it.
But it was it was something and the more that
we sang and then saw others that knew I mean
not new as to telling us, but you could hear
it in their voices, like Stevie or you know, someone
just had that voice. But BMGB was like, okay, you
know she recorded I don't want louse you like Hammer

(23:44):
called me one day. I couldn't believe it. I was
cooking or doing something, and she said, hey, Wanda, this
is I'm here with SO and so. You're the guy
who knows you. I'm just calling you because I'm recording
the song on b AB and it's just these words.
I don't want to lose you. I don't want to
lose you.

Speaker 7 (24:00):
I think you need my love.

Speaker 6 (24:02):
When we go to that, you can we go to
a whole nother interval of harmony. He says, who stays
on the bottom. No, don't the reed stay? I said, no,
the lead doesn't stay.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
I ask you.

Speaker 9 (24:14):
And she had to find out in vote they call
for those things, just the harmonies, just how they did
the harmony.

Speaker 6 (24:22):
But Dad did that. He he did our harmonies that way.
And I was like, And then when we got with
Charles Stepney, he was saying, we were doing how can
you stop loving someone, Yeah, how can you stop loving
the one you do? And he says, wonder, how did
you write this song? Do you know this is the Beethoven?
But he named some sonata that Beethoven. I said, I
don't know nothing about. He said, do you know you're

(24:47):
actually doing twenty eight bars of the blah? I said, no,
I don't know anything about that. But anyway, he said, okay,
so I know. And people would ask us those kind
of questions, and I'm like, oh.

Speaker 15 (25:00):
What was Charles Stepneed? Like he was someone the hero
of mine? But I mean he died so young, so young.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (25:07):
We were in this living room. Maurice was in Maurice
White was in l A, and he told us how
to get My father took us over to Charles's house
and so we sat there upstairs and we're just hearing
this lovely music come from the basement where his eight
foot piano was. And he said, oh well, and his

(25:28):
wife carried the Oh what was her name, Liz? She ca?
She said, Oh, don't worry. He does that about three
hours every morning. He has to play. You know. Uh,
it sounds like the Beethoven move the opera kind of music.
Because one he was the director for the phil not
phil Harmony, Chicago Symphony, and I didn't know that then,

(25:48):
and so he was rehearsing because him and Many Ripperton
were fixed the perform about a week that weekend or something.
And I was like, Many Ripperton, but he's playing. I mean,
he's playing. He said that's how he prepares. Wow, that's awesome. Wow.
So when he said that, that really made me feel like, wow,

(26:10):
he thinks I write a song is like a sonata
from somebody.

Speaker 12 (26:13):
With you know, did you play piano?

Speaker 6 (26:17):
Piano?

Speaker 15 (26:17):
Okay, okay, and that's where you would start all your songs? Yes,
you wrote on the pianel.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
How competitive were the the talent shows that you guys
were doing, like you mentioned, you know, the Five Stair
Steps and the Jackson's and all those like how I
mean from the Jackson's and I know that you know
they had to rehearse. Oh yeah, yes, question, I mean

(26:48):
just in terms of in preparing for a particular competition.
Was it like, you know, we have to like who
was in your targets as in we gotta be as
good as or.

Speaker 6 (27:06):
Yeah I did. I love Mavis and.

Speaker 8 (27:12):
The competitions When you guys be doing stable singer.

Speaker 6 (27:16):
Excuse me, because we were so much younger.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
Who was in the circuit of the talent shows that were.

Speaker 6 (27:23):
Like, who would you be going up against? M because
that and that's something because the Jones girls had come,
I remember they came, uh and there because we knew
they my dad knew their dad and oh these other girls,
but the Barrett sisters, like you were saying, you know,
and and uh Joe Josephine Howard Caravans. See that would

(27:46):
take us to all the gospel shows, the gospel of
the concerts, and they would be at the high school
auditorium where Vernie went to high school as a matter
of fact, but that's where all of the it was
because of was so huge and the sound was really cool,
and we would see mighty clouds of joy. The Caravans,

(28:07):
oh gosh, those were the say, the harmonies besides those
girl the Lennon's sisters and I don't know, Dad had
seventy eight so those and we he would play them
and so but there were so many talent show just
talent in Chicago that never got out that that was
like like us and for whatever reason, I know a

(28:28):
couple of them, you know, they tried to do some
things in Chicago, but I don't know they just now
you're talking about the singers that live in Chicago, right, Well.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
No, you mentioned doing a talent contest and winning the
Stacks Prize, right, But I just met in the everyday circuit.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Would you always see Jackson five? Would you always see
those types of yeah?

Speaker 1 (28:54):
Like were they always and in your mind was it
like we must win.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
Or was it like you know?

Speaker 6 (29:00):
But they were more helpful. You would go to the
high school, you know situation, You would go to the
the community center, and when you would rehearse, there was
a oh, let's and so come up. Oh this is
so and so family from blah blah blah. And they'd
come up and you would actually help them when you
know these oh can they show us something in that?
And you would do that. That doesn't happen today, but

(29:21):
that's what happened then, you know, because they're so competitive
day nobody wants to help the other one you come up.
But then I mean they were ready to ask and
ready to learn. You know. I remember when we first
met the Destiny Child, we were doing the Robert Thompson show.
He had in the house in some kind of show parenthood, Yes, parenthood,

(29:45):
And you know you always had to sing a song
that you just did a cappella and that one that
day was it was a gospel tune. Well, I'm trying
to think be cause Sheila and and my girl Beyonce
come over town. Remember when he came on in the
House Flowers Together.

Speaker 8 (30:04):
I want to.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
Remember that episode.

Speaker 6 (30:08):
It was on that one and Tyresee was on there
because I had to teach him Maurice's part for Wonderland.
We all sang that at the end together, got it,
got it. But that's the closest thing I brought that
up that reminded me of and and there and beyon
is so humble her heart, you know. And she came
she said, well, y'all know, no'm I'm singing the right part.

(30:30):
I mean, she just wow. And we wouldn't say anything.
I said, well, it's not you, but it's the other girl. No, yes, yeah,
but anyway.

Speaker 7 (30:44):
Like the other.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
But she was.

Speaker 8 (30:56):
She was actually very humble.

Speaker 9 (30:57):
And my mom to us out of high school for
that because we went we went with her and I
was in tenth grade. I was in my geometry class
and they said, uh ms, Vaughan, your your mom has
sent a limo for you outside.

Speaker 8 (31:11):
I was like, we're here. I am sixteen. I got up.

Speaker 9 (31:14):
Like they had a car that sent for us, and
it took us down to I forgot what area we
were in, maybe Century City ish so everything. I wasn't
driving back then, but we went there and it was
so nice the way that Robert Towns had done it,
and everything was so nice in plusure or whatever. And

(31:35):
they had all gone to do their makeup, and I'm thinking,
Mom is coming back to this little cottage place where
where the dressing room ex rest me where we were
all stationed while they were all at makeup, and you know,
we hear the knock and everything, and I'm like, Mama,
and it's Beyonce.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Man.

Speaker 9 (31:49):
I'm just like, I like you, You're amazing. She's like, oh,
I just wanted to come and tell you that I
love y'all, Mom, like I love y'all Mo. I mean, like,
so when she talks about her her admiration for the
emotions and and she's a steward like she is a student,
it's genuine.

Speaker 6 (32:07):
She's not.

Speaker 8 (32:07):
That's so real. And she was a sweetheart then and she's.

Speaker 6 (32:10):
She's still a sweet Yeah, she really is. All around.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
The contract that you guys won, uh brought you guys
to Memphis, yes, were I mean you went down there
by yourselves or your whole family moved.

Speaker 6 (32:29):
Well, you know, the Staples were on stacks, they were
on right and so Purvis who was our manager, he said,
albail good and uh oh, and then you know Maurice
and them had.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
That's right, I forgot lived in Memphis.

Speaker 6 (32:45):
Yeah yeah, so but anyway, that was after I know
that it was Isaac Hayes in Memphis, right, yeah, And
but he produced the Staples singers, uh song Betty Cruck
and what's the guy that did chef? Him? And David

(33:07):
Porter and I mean the writers down there. You really
you know you saw where that the blues because there
was so many Oh Luther and we sung with Luther
the first time. I can't believe that guy. His voice,
the clarity, you know, there's asthm, but a voice like
that actually since him, not even no, but not that pristine.

(33:29):
It's you know, it's another league.

Speaker 8 (33:33):
You all were living down there when you was recording
in Memphis. Did you guys live down there?

Speaker 12 (33:36):
No?

Speaker 6 (33:36):
No, no, no, we stayed there so long. I mean,
we just made it our home. We knew where all
the restaurants were, and the thing that they had were
Martin Luther King Lorraine Motel, which the studio is nowhere
from that walking distance, and so it just to pass
that place. And then the where he would eat all
the time at the four Way. That was the name

(33:58):
of the restaurant at the best peach cobbler in the world.
And oh my gosh, we haven't had lunch yet.

Speaker 12 (34:09):
What was what was the Stax Records operation?

Speaker 15 (34:11):
Like I've seen like just interviews with Al Bell and
seen documentary and stuff.

Speaker 12 (34:16):
What was that like?

Speaker 15 (34:17):
Because at the time they were independent, they were a
small black owned business.

Speaker 12 (34:22):
What was that? What was that like being?

Speaker 6 (34:23):
It was something because Marvel Thomas Rufus Thomas's son Marvel
who played the Oregon and and so forth, and then
what was his sister's name, Gee Wee Thomas to see
them in there, and he's coming up with this song
that he's just writing and his father wi always come

(34:45):
that ain't fast enough every time, you know, he always
say that ain't fast enough, no matter what it was.
But he was so you know, genuine. I mean they
were just something to work with. And and the mad
lad and what was the guys James and them the
rhythm section for the Barcays. Oh, I love just saying that. Okay,

(35:08):
you would go in that studio see them. Then we
go in the studio where Isaac is show me how
that's what we were doing, and he's showing the strings
are sitting there and I'm like, wow, look at and
what he's doing is he's singing the parts to them.
There was no no, maybe somebody wrote it out later,

(35:29):
but what he just heard him in his head and
he could play piano but not you know, real virtuoso
or anything, but he could hear every string part and
he could hear the horn parts and that's how he
did it. And I was like, I didn't know. I
didn't know that's the way you did. He said, well,
most people don't. Most people, Johnny pet and all the

(35:50):
rest they would actually write it out and then they
would play it. But he just sung it to them
and they would play well, they would note it, you know,
and then play it show me how. And that was
something for me to see, you know.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
So the first album was So I Can Love You.

Speaker 6 (36:06):
Correct, Yes, the first song.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
All right, So what is it weird to you guys? Now?
Because from not the world I come from. I come
from all worlds.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
But right, what's weird to me was that I really
not until I started digging. Uh, when hip hop produces,
you know, go through old records that are in their parents'
collection or that sort of thing. So is it weird
for you to see the renaissance of a lot of

(36:39):
your songs, especially from the Stacks period, come up and
sort of find new life in hip hop? Yeah, it's
like it's weird because it's like blind because blind Alley.

Speaker 6 (36:58):
Really Blind Alley, Fine Daddy. If you listen to the lyrics,
you know that's an old school you know, I've got
who I won't God, who I won't? Sorry, you don't.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
You know.

Speaker 6 (37:11):
That's how that would you know? That's you know, a
dad thing, even you know something. And then when Big
Daddy came, Yeah, I learned that I don't know, I
just learned.

Speaker 8 (37:24):
I learned that that was Mom and Them song.

Speaker 9 (37:27):
In twenty fifteen, Dre taught me, oh wow, like fifteen,
like two years ago, to walk me through it because.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
Listen has been simple.

Speaker 12 (37:37):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
By Mariah Carrey yeah, yes, thank you heard the dream
love but.

Speaker 8 (37:46):
Thank you?

Speaker 7 (37:47):
Thank you?

Speaker 1 (37:47):
How okay I played blind Alley for two seconds?

Speaker 12 (37:52):
You recognize it?

Speaker 6 (37:53):
And they did it at un l V.

Speaker 8 (37:56):
Oh yeah, I think a big Daddy came.

Speaker 9 (37:58):
Yeah, the Big Daddy can Daddy can.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, that's clapped your hands.

Speaker 12 (38:06):
But first it's like a million.

Speaker 8 (38:11):
The Remax, the scenario an episode of.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
The Breaks, right, yeah, yeah it is.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
See but what's even weirder is that those actual drums
have like fed at least over four hundred hip hop
songs like you know between and.

Speaker 6 (38:32):
That's muscle shows. Yeah, the random section. Really, that's muscle shows.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
That wasn't the Stax house man.

Speaker 6 (38:41):
They were the muscle shows were in Alaba, Alabama. Well
that's something we didn't know when they said muscle show,
we didn't know that was the place. We thought that
was just that second that Dug Dawn and what's the
white guy on the guitar? Oh, czu is the funkyest
Steve Cropper and.

Speaker 5 (39:00):
Not ask me about any white guy.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Yeah, Donald Duck And okay that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Okay, So does that mean that Al Jackson was on drums?

Speaker 6 (39:16):
Al Jackson, Yes, so crazy?

Speaker 1 (39:19):
So that okay, So I forgot why I went to
the Stack Studio Memphis. But in a cage there is
Al Jackson's one and only drum set, and I'm like,
what are you guys gonna do this drum? So you're
just gonna keep it in a cage? Like if everyone
display would be one thing.

Speaker 6 (39:39):
But it's just like, well, that's what he told you to.

Speaker 8 (39:42):
You know, it's supposed to be turning a display.

Speaker 6 (39:45):
Remember did we all we didn't get.

Speaker 8 (39:47):
The chance to go? We had, Yeah, we went. I
must have came back for something then I must have
had a tea. Yeah, ain't nothing. Y'all did it early,
and that's probably.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
But man, there's also there's a I don't I believe
it's it's on a one of those like the European
version of the Stack Spots set. But you guys have
a version of as long as I've got you. That's well,

(40:21):
I mean, seam El has put it out, but there's
an emotions version that's.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
Like it's killing.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
I always wanted to know, like, for who who makes
the final decisions of what makes you know the album
the albums and those sort of things.

Speaker 6 (40:42):
I'm telling you it was Isaac Hayes because I would
see them going through you know what. And it wasn't
my father, you know, he wasn't involved in that part.
But usually Isaac and David and then sometimes al bail
and they would argue sometimes, but usually Isaac would win.
So nice, that's the way it was.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
Yeah, it's like the Japanese one of those Japanese compilations.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
I got the second you got the only killing though, dang.

Speaker 6 (41:18):
Oh, it's been a long time.

Speaker 7 (41:20):
Is that casual.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
Killing?

Speaker 13 (41:26):
Your mom and your auntie's the ship and you notice
that's Jeanette.

Speaker 7 (41:31):
It is that.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
I think I like this version better.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
And for the like because because that because that that
song is also a hip hop stable and it's not
like you guys can see in nineteen sixty nine like
he is.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
Iron music something that can just revitalize our entire catalog.

Speaker 10 (42:08):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
But it's just like, But then it also goes to
show you that quality things were so much high quality
back then that even your throwaway songs wow, could have changed.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Someone's life thirty years later.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
I always wanted to know why didn't you guys release
that song because.

Speaker 6 (42:27):
It's wow, And I've never heard that me neither. That's
on the Stax compilation.

Speaker 8 (42:33):
We haven't the orange everything around me, that's cream march.
I don't know what you're talking about. That is that's
huge monkey.

Speaker 6 (42:39):
We should redo that, you guys do it.

Speaker 8 (42:44):
I'm floored.

Speaker 6 (42:46):
You know, it's almost like we were on the Tom
Joiner Cruise. We're singing. Bear's Marquis comes up to us.
Isn't this something? He comes up? He says, you know,
there's never any he couldn't find how you say, how
to get in touch with us? Because when he used
the feeling is I said, you used what?

Speaker 2 (43:08):
Yeah? He did?

Speaker 6 (43:10):
Yeah, he actually he right there. He had whoever was
with him, lawyer man, whoever it was, take Arthur. Do
you know he started paying her from that too? And
you know how long ago that had come out? Tom
joined to just started those things cruise a few years ago,
and he did. He got her thing and everything and
start paying her.

Speaker 12 (43:30):
That's so dope.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
Really, I never use it. Yeah, feeling around comes around.

Speaker 15 (43:38):
Quit used it for I got the feeling click mom
loves quick clickly oh quick, yeah, he.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
Loves waitmen, your mind must be blown. I hope you
know about the ray quine only built for links uh
verbally if you think you might as well do it
if you think.

Speaker 8 (43:59):
Don't cry.

Speaker 6 (44:00):
Wow.

Speaker 12 (44:01):
If he hurts me.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
From I don't know what. It's such a it's such
a crucis like that. That sample for me, man, listen, that's.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
Me was because I remember sitting a tour bus and
the way the way that Riza uses samples and he,
you know, he always dug into the stacks records. At
the time, I was like, wait a minute, why are
they rhyming over her talking?

Speaker 7 (44:30):
Right?

Speaker 2 (44:32):
And we sat there the whole time like is this allowed?
Like this is not usually with hip hop you wait.

Speaker 8 (44:38):
For the clean for bar exactly.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
And that was the first time I ever heard anyone
from Wu Tang just blatantly rhyme over and it's like,
we don't care if she's talking just and then ghost
Face started rhyming over the record.

Speaker 6 (44:53):
Wait, so if you think you might as well do it,
you're thinking.

Speaker 9 (44:57):
To Night Wonder shows me so much much. And how
we missed that one because I didn't know that Blind
Alley was in the remix to scenario Yes Jones, I
didn't realize that he showed me some stuff. Dre showed
me some stuff. I've never heard that my mind.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
Wow, No, I'm telling you.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
In your show, like at least four or five of
your stacks classics could be done, and a bunch of
thirty to forty hip hop heads would just be like.

Speaker 8 (45:29):
Wow yo, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yeah, So there's you know, I mean beyond the Columbia stuff.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
So let's move to that.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
So how there was a law between nineteen seventy two,
in nineteen seventy six, before the Flowers album came out.
What was happening between so you were still contractually obligated
to stay.

Speaker 6 (45:51):
Well, they went bankrupt and Union Planners took over everything.
I didn't know a bank could take over songs, but
Union Planner Bank in Tennessee, Memphis took over everything. So
it was getting away from that Hella baloo and and
how to you know, go to the next thing. But

(46:11):
we got you know, we were riding high school and
we were just at the park. We're in a senior
I remember, because we had got I got a scholarship
to go to Northwestern Minnesota in Missouri where Bell Beef
devoted where he went for music anyway, but and we
were like, oh gosh, well that's good, that's not happening.

(46:32):
So now I could go and do like you know,
and then here comes Maurice White. He says, hey, you know,
I just did something I got Nissi yes, yes, and
Ray Lewis and okay, but it was he needs a
yes pockets. He wanted a girl group. And Ron Ellison,

(46:56):
my father's friend, who also was a drummery and Chicago
jazz trum anyway, and he lived with Maurice at the time. Anyway,
they were playing around places in Chicago and he said, well, hey,
n Iron says to Maurice, I could hook you up
because Joe is my buddy, and we'll hook you up.

(47:16):
And their thing is over with Stacks, so you know.
And that's when they arranged the meeting. That was our
first meeting was at Charles Stepney's house because Stepney had
just done U the Ramsey song, the Ramsey Yes Yes,
you had just done It.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
Was the Stax bankruptcy the reason why the third album
didn't come.

Speaker 6 (47:41):
Out, yes, okay, because everything was held up. They put
a hold on everything. You couldn't get no masters. Well
whoever had to get the masters?

Speaker 15 (47:50):
Wow, how did you guys court yourselves in that time
from seventy two to seventy six.

Speaker 6 (47:56):
Well, we were still doing things in Chicago, and we
were on tour. Oh we were doing a little tours
and so forth. So nice, that was how were you?
And then we're doing a lot of commercials too. How
were you guys then at that point sixteen seventeens, because
see that my grandfather started them at three, four and five.

(48:17):
So they're talking about all of this stuff they're doing,
but they still are. Like eighteen, we were on the
Jerry Van Dyke Show. That was the first contest besides
the something mac Hour I forget that, but anyway, the
Jerry Van Dyke Show in Tera Hoote, Indiana, and my
father's mother was the talent coordinator for that show Intero, Indiana.

(48:38):
Then we were on the Ed Sullivan Show and won
the whatever on that, and the what's her name Donna
Show Chevy show was Donna. That just shows you how
many but that's what the Donna Shore Chevy Show. I mean,
I know it had to do with cars. I don't know, right,

(48:59):
looked like everything had to do with cars then, But
and we won that talent show, so it was just
you know, a time. I guess that we got through
those particular ones and I was like, huh, why is
there no other I would always wonder family groups that
we knew of that should be on these shows it,
But I don't know.

Speaker 13 (49:20):
So since you started out so young, did it take
a while for like the men around you to respect
your voice outside of the singing, just your voice and
your opinions?

Speaker 10 (49:30):
Well?

Speaker 6 (49:31):
What was really something? When we sat down with Charles Stepney,
he was saying, you know, Marie sent us all these songs,
but do you guys have any songs? That was the
first time we were ever asked that. Charles did it
and we sat down, boy, we started playing songs. I
had about twenty, Sheila had about how many. Ever, Jeanette
had Love Vibe, you know Jette and oh, so we

(49:55):
had all. He said, well, we go to Charles, we
go throw these all the way we would do and
we kept the one Denise wrote, did he order okay? Okay?

Speaker 2 (50:03):
Uh? Did al write? Al McKay wrote flowers? Was was
it with you guys?

Speaker 6 (50:09):
With Maurice? He brought us all m and who wrote flowers? Maurice?
We saw him writing it right there and okay, okay, yeah,
yeah he was writing it. And at the same time
he was writing it we were like doing just the
hook because he always had we hold the Key to

(50:29):
the World's Destiny. He always had that. And Charles was
on the little Fender Roads electric piano and.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
Uh, but you wrote I don't want to Lose your
left correct, yes, okay, And I.

Speaker 6 (50:41):
Wrote it made it sound like it does now. I
wrote it as a slow. It was a slow torch song,
or Dad called it a torch song. And uh, dinner
is ready, and the way it's chilled, my baby is
coming over. I want to let him know how I feel.
Then with hey Cold, want to Lose Yo Love? I

(51:02):
had a that slow and then my Reese heard it.
He said, wonder that song. You know you've been singing
for fifteen minutes and you still ain't done with that song.
And then he said, I think we should speed it up.
I said, here's somebody said make it faster. Yeah, yeah, exactly,
and you know that was rufous, but anyway, but he said,

(51:25):
he said, well, let's and then his brother got on
the drums. No on the drug Fred Fred played I
Don't want to Lose Your Love. He played the drums
on that, and he got on the drums and start.
So he said, well, I don't know how they figured
out how they could speed it up like that, but
they did. And when he did, I just sung the
same thing faster, you know, because I don't want them

(51:48):
to lose yo love hot, I said, But I gotta
make my runs faster because I used to make them
real slow.

Speaker 13 (51:59):
And I.

Speaker 6 (52:02):
Was Tina Turner. I love Tina Turner, so I was
Tina Turner. But he didn't. He wanted me to sing
it faster so that it's a good call.

Speaker 14 (52:11):
Then my love to keep it and you know, breakdown.

Speaker 13 (52:27):
Did it takes being she be the same amount of
time or she doubled. It took her longer to learn
the song since.

Speaker 6 (52:31):
It's well yeah, because they just were singing the wrong lyrics,
you know, in the breaks.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
And there wasn't a Wikipedia back then to look up
the list.

Speaker 6 (52:43):
See you won't believe my love, and she would say
you you won't can she see my love or something,
But we weren't saying. We were saying you won't believe,
but she just had the little words she just didn't hear.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
It's crazy like today's technology, we could just look on
our phones and get lyrics instantly.

Speaker 15 (53:01):
But back then, you actually but it's dope that they
actually called they respected. That's that's that's dope. What was
working with Maurice like, working with Mauric's white What was
that process like for you guys? What was he like
in the studio?

Speaker 6 (53:15):
He was so cool him and Skip Scarborough looks like
I got saying Scarborough because Sheila, you know the slow songs,
I was the fast song when he we were staying
at the Franklin Plaza at that time, and he gave
us these songs to sing, gave Sheila's cassette, gave me one,
and we had our little cassette player. And so I

(53:38):
came in the next day and he said, okay, put
the track on. Put the track on, and so I
was singing. It doesn't take much to like Maybos down
there like me. He said, Wanda, what are you doing?
I said, I'm singing. He said, I want you to
sing an octave hier. I said, well, you didn't say that.
I don't sing high. I sing lo. I sing maybe

(54:00):
and a.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Little register at one point.

Speaker 6 (54:02):
No, that's how I came in that I was glad
to night.

Speaker 11 (54:10):
I was.

Speaker 6 (54:12):
I was you know, Mahaya Jackson, I was, I was
low and and but anyway, I said, oh, no reason,
I don't think. He said, just stab at it, just
just see and I said, okay, I'll do it. But
she lost the high singer enginete. They're the ones that
sing high I sing. Just try it, just try it, okay.

(54:33):
So I did. I did everything octave hiher. He said,
just belt it, don't worry about it, just belt it out.
And I did. And believe or not, that one was
the one you guys heard. We did about seven others,
but they didn't like that, but they liked the first one. Wow.
I was like, but I was, even if you listened
to I mean, there's some little cracks of a little

(54:54):
like you know, I can't believe I'm these notes, you
know these. But anyway, and that became the one that
they used. So then I started singing higher. You know,
I wasn't singing you know, as low.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
Oftentimes in history you'll see when singers do multiple takes
of a song, they always go back to take one
or take two.

Speaker 12 (55:21):
That's the one I think is the most honest.

Speaker 15 (55:23):
The more you keep doing it, it gets kind of rehearsed,
and it's like I can't recreate that first thing.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
How is it.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
How exciting was it for uh, you guys to because
that song was number one for five weeks.

Speaker 6 (55:37):
I believe, yes, number one. I have the the what
do you call bill bill board? Yeah, and the other one.
And there were two songs the best of My giving
you the best of My and every week they would
change to one and we'd be two, and then they
would be two and then bill board.

Speaker 8 (55:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (56:00):
Yeah. It would be you know, back and forth like that.
And but it was that was amazing. Nothing like that.

Speaker 15 (56:08):
There was a song I had on I think it's
Believes on Flowers. The changes we go through that was
like a good y'all.

Speaker 6 (56:14):
I wrote that it was a long gospel song and
and uh, but they said, oh, let's just try. And
then Maurice, of course, he just or let's lose it
as an interval. He called it an interval piece that
we take through the album. I said, okay, And all
we would do is we go to change changes.

Speaker 9 (56:32):
We gold to this to this day, that's a very
very difficult harmony. I've learned it for like some of
the shows that we do. But if my sisters try
to join in sometimes it we'll just be doing something.

Speaker 8 (56:43):
They do what stereotypically.

Speaker 9 (56:45):
You know, you have your your your note, you have
your third and your fist.

Speaker 6 (56:49):
No no, no.

Speaker 9 (56:50):
They and they interweed. They don't the first time, then
Auntie is high. Then every time they.

Speaker 6 (56:58):
S we go to change changes, we go to and
we go to change is the melody changes, we go
to yeah and wow. But that's how my dad would
do it because he didn't he didn't want anyone to

(57:21):
sound like us. So he said, I know, we'll just
switch up into I mean, you know, make it sound
like one thing when it's another.

Speaker 13 (57:27):
So does the whole family sing? You just said your
sister's wyan. Yes, So I'm like, does everybody w yes?

Speaker 8 (57:37):
Oh no, the Christmas is the one Christmas is the one's.

Speaker 9 (57:41):
Concert. Everybody is singing. It's pretty amazing. And so we're
all the w's Wayne Wanda, Wayne Windy, Wyan, Whitney Warren.
There you go, all ws on this side of Wayne Wanda,
Wayne Wendy, Wyane, Whitney Warren. They all sing rap do
me music, all of us. And then I say, Wayne,

(58:03):
my husband wrote let's grew tonight? Yes, he wrote yes,
yes exactly, and.

Speaker 6 (58:09):
About six other songs and by side Yeah, all right, yes, yes.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
The other where were the other one.

Speaker 6 (58:32):
Wrote?

Speaker 2 (58:36):
Who's Who's the cat I work with? In Japan? Yeah,
between ninety six.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
And like two thousand, uh, Japanese singer named Toshi Koboda
like the Lord Jesus Christ in Japan, like he played stadiums.

Speaker 6 (58:52):
Of like.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Of eighty he would play like eighty thousand uh uh
seed arenas, but uh.

Speaker 2 (59:02):
He came to Philadelphia to work with us, and.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
To him, he explained to me, I was always afraid
of a fan of that raised album. Yeah, Earth Went
in Fire, and for him, he's just like, you know,
I want to be with you by Earth Wind and Fire.
That's that's what I want to sound like. And all
the ad libs at the end of that song, yes,

(59:28):
all that he that was his life goal. So in
four songs, literally all the ad libs that Maurice White
would do on that.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
Was literally on every song. I can't believe that. What
else did he write?

Speaker 8 (59:50):
Those are the three that I know the best. I
don't know if you know what Daddy did.

Speaker 9 (59:53):
Please, I'm not gonna say that because I'm not sure,
but I know those are three. And like I was
telling Fante earlier, I'm I could be better at this.
But I've I've kind of fell in love with greatest
hits albums first, Yes, and hip hop actually helped me
go back into digging in crates and stuff like that

(01:00:15):
and understanding how dope you know the catalog actually is.
But yeah, everybody sings Chloe. But my cousin, my Auntie's daughter,
she's artistically inclined in the fine arts and the visual arts.
So she's like an animator and a and a painter, and.

Speaker 8 (01:00:32):
She does illustration.

Speaker 9 (01:00:33):
I did a poetry book, shed all the illustrations from
my book and her other cousins. There, everyone is singing
some sort of art though, everything art, dancing, this, that,
some everyone is doing something.

Speaker 8 (01:00:43):
It's always a party.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
You came aboard for the Rejoice record, correct, So what
was it like coming in cold to to fill in
that spot and to it?

Speaker 6 (01:00:57):
Was great.

Speaker 10 (01:00:58):
It was the best part of my life. I as
a baby, was always in all the rehearsals. So when
she said that when we were talking about the soul train,
the local soul train, I was thinking about it, and
possibly I was just there in the background and I
just didn't remember. But I wasn't as young as she said.

(01:01:20):
Because I do remember dancing in the with you know,
an audience, and the room was small.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
But photo photos, yeah, it's like living room small.

Speaker 6 (01:01:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:01:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:01:34):
But and as long as I can remember, I've always
been around the music, and then I've always looked forward
to joining the group. And then one day when Dad
asked me what I like to you know, he gave
me a tape to start rehearsing. And this is like
I'm about sixteen then, and I actually joined after I

(01:01:55):
graduated in seventy six. Okay, so yeah, uh, but I
had he had started training me, and he had his
when they were out of town.

Speaker 6 (01:02:07):
Uh.

Speaker 10 (01:02:08):
He had his friend uncle Billy, Billy Shelton, one of
the guys from his own singing group that he used
to sing with when he was singing gospel, and he
would train me and he would teach me all those songs,
like you know with the harmonies, the groups, the andrew Sisters,

(01:02:30):
what is that gosh, I can't think of their name,
but another girl group. No, no, it was a men's group,
but it was the different harmonies barbershop style. And he
would give me the album to listen to and then

(01:02:50):
he would have me sing each.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Part and part. Yes, And that was.

Speaker 11 (01:02:57):
When he trained me, my dad.

Speaker 10 (01:02:59):
He would have me each part of the girls songs,
so because he would call me the utility girl, which
has but I could. I could sing every part of
every everything everybody was doing. Yes, So whatever they you know,
if they wanted me to go there because they were
horse or something, I would go there. Or if they're

(01:03:19):
having problems on stage, I would go there. You know,
I can't go to any part.

Speaker 9 (01:03:24):
Uh, it's so weird because you have the highest I
think you have the highest voice.

Speaker 10 (01:03:29):
Well yeah, but on harmonies I can go low too,
real Yeah, well but you know I know all your parts.

Speaker 9 (01:03:44):
It's difficult, I promise you. I the the the stepping
up to the plate. Because like we say, it's a
family business. So that my grandfathers who put you know,
the girls together, my mom and uns together, and my
you know grandmother of course is hold down the four
there's so three were always on the road and three
were always at home. Right, So now being up in

(01:04:05):
age and stuff, my grandmother is the one who needs,
you know, her children's help. So currently my aunt's Auntie Sheila,
whose place I'm taking in the group, and Auntie Jeanette
are you know, being assisted by my grandmother is being
assisted by them right now, you know, and everything because
we're just self contained and everything is organic. But when

(01:04:26):
my Auntie Sheila was teaching me technically how to become her, well,
she was showing me some things because I come from
you know, it sounds like they're beginnings. I'm even hearing
more of this than on Unsung and in the House.
So this is educational for me right now. But barbershop
and gospel is a lot of their humble beginnings. Well,

(01:04:47):
throw my dad in there, mister. You know Les groove
and stuff.

Speaker 8 (01:04:50):
I knew.

Speaker 9 (01:04:52):
I knew Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and weather Report more
than I know any gospel. I can probably name you
a couple gospel people, uh Mahelia being one of them,
and anyone else. I'm like Clark Sist jazz all day,
jazz all day. I was scatting and stuff. I was
like that, such sort of person Auntie Sheila, But is

(01:05:12):
that true? She is more of the She's the jazziest
singer of the girls. So it was almost seamless how
that ended up happening. Yeah, And she and so she
would teach me stage control because she's also the animated
one on stage. She's the actress, you know, she's the
you know, get out there. And when she says show
me how, oh my lord, some of the stuff, I

(01:05:34):
just sit there and just be like, show me more,
because you can't take your eyes off her, Like like
she's whenever she's singing, you believe her. Whatever she's saying,
You're gonna believe it because she's that you know everything.
You know. I wish you guys could see what I'm
doing in the studio right now. I'm just kind of
being a black woman right now.

Speaker 7 (01:05:53):
You know, I got the.

Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:05:59):
But she's she's that sort of a singer.

Speaker 9 (01:06:01):
So if she was telling you not to ask her neighbor,
or if she wants you to show her how, she's
going to make you see that. Oh absolutely. And that's
probably what the most of the learning because our voices
and textures were kind of similar. She was like, no,
you get out there, NISI, and you own it. You
have to own It's people gonna look at you and
be like, hey, she's not an original emotion, she's young nothing.

(01:06:24):
You are, my baby, You're gonna get out there. I'm like,
come on, Aunty, she was so but that's exactly what
ended up happening, and that happened. It happened a couple
of times so far as me stepping into the group.
But by two thousand and nine fall semester, my first
semester of my master's program, I think that was when

(01:06:46):
I most consistently started.

Speaker 8 (01:06:49):
Being with mom and all Mama and all the girls and.

Speaker 15 (01:06:53):
Everything, so the other your other aunties, because I want
to get the lineup straight. Beginning it was it was
humans wander huh, and it was it was yes, and
then Uhila, and then.

Speaker 6 (01:07:11):
That's my neighbor girl.

Speaker 8 (01:07:16):
That's what I'm telling you. Look to that dog.

Speaker 6 (01:07:18):
She did g whiz and and Carla, I mean she
sat there and just cried. I mean when we were
doing that, Marvel was playing. He's a genius too. No
one really knew, but but I just love it. And
how even Purpose Staples, who not that he wasn't a
producer singer type, but he said, you you got always

(01:07:41):
seen the sool song, that you got to always seen
the fast song. And I'm like every producer after that
said that, and they never met Purpose, but that was
just the way it was.

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
You know, what was it make him a Rejoice album.

Speaker 1 (01:07:59):
Uh, probably the The notable absence on that record was,
of course, Charles Stephanie passing away was the Flowers album,
one of the last albums he worked on that And
this is nasy.

Speaker 2 (01:08:13):
I know Flower, I think he was. I think they
were working on Spirit.

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
When okay, but I thought that your records came out
after after Spirit. I thought that Flowers came.

Speaker 10 (01:08:27):
Out seventy and then Flowers Flowers, Yes, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
But I mean what was it like?

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
Because I know that he was such a father figure
in the studio and working with him, How was it,
How was it making that transition from the.

Speaker 6 (01:08:47):
Two, from Maurice to.

Speaker 2 (01:08:49):
From Charles to Maurice.

Speaker 1 (01:08:52):
Was it pressure on him to be the rock and
to fill in the blanks where what you.

Speaker 6 (01:08:58):
Know, the poet that Maurice was. That's the way he
talked to you, like if you didn't know what we
hold the key to the world's destiny. If you didn't
know it, then that's on you. But he would tell
it to you like that. Charles would tell you where
a little two year old will know exactly what you're saying.

(01:09:20):
And I believe it or not. Yes, Now, I went
through it, and so did Ramsey. When Ramsey would be
in there and they would be playing, you know, like
the last thing that actually they were working on was
Ramsey's album, and they were having another thing about the

(01:09:43):
cord where it should go here, which one should be
the course of it, and which one should be the hook?
You know that I know nothing about that today when
we talk to young kids, but because everything is, it's
just eighty bars of whatever it is. But anyway, so
they were they were having a thing with that and

(01:10:03):
Ramsey and I'm just sitting there and I just love
the fact that Maurice and Stephanie they would never have
anyone in their recording sessions. That was their thing. They
no one but I could always come and it was
And one day I came in with Johnny Paty said, wow,
you know, yeah, but I'd like seeing I don't talk,

(01:10:23):
I don't ask any questions. I just you know, that's
all I do. And reached knew it and you can't
ask any questions, you can't have any and that's okay
because it's not your tyme. And but they were having
a okay, which one should it be? Should be? And
I thought it was one time I wanted to say.
So Ramseys was the one. And guess why I got it,

(01:10:47):
because it's something my father had nothing to do. Actually
probably with what they're thinking. But it was the fifth
of the quarter of where the where the verses were,
and I always thought you should go there for the reprize.
I just always thought that, just in my observing different things.
But I didn't say. And when they left her that afternoon,

(01:11:09):
because they said, well, let's just break, we kind of
you know, they had to break. Let's go to lunch,
you know, And Ramsey said that I think, and so
they did. Stepney never came back. That's when he died.
He went up at the hotel and we were knocking
on the door, like well, he said he was going over.
He was going to stop by Famous Samos and his
I know, his wife didn't want him to stop by
Famous Samis because diabetic and that was.

Speaker 7 (01:11:32):
A store.

Speaker 2 (01:11:35):
Had a store.

Speaker 8 (01:11:36):
I remember him. I didn't know he had yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:11:41):
And and so we're all waiting for him, and so
they went on with the session and they sure he's
gonna come sooner or later, and never did, and they
went on with the thing. They finally did it though
the reprised the way Ramsey, you know, uh so I
for whatever he did, it just happened that way. Maybe

(01:12:01):
because that we weren't there. I don't know, you know,
because it was it was too much. It was a
short period of time that you know, when they found
it out, and so when they've got the hotel key
to go in his room, that's.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
How Yeah, how did boogiey Wonderland come to be? A?

Speaker 12 (01:12:21):
Willis?

Speaker 6 (01:12:22):
Ali Willis? And I'm gonna tell you this, It's really
something there's always a story.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
Was it an easy transition? I'm not an easy transition.

Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
I know much has been said about well much has
been said about it. It sort of like, you know,
I've talked to Philip about it. I've talked to Maurice
about it. They kind of have conflicting stories. It was
conflicting and even David Foster has his two cents about it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
What what is your you know?

Speaker 1 (01:12:51):
I mean, a Grammy one is a Grammy one, and
that's something that you can't take away from you know.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
But at the time, like, how how did it? How
did you?

Speaker 6 (01:13:00):
Even Marie was in New York doing Sergeant Pepper and
he got a call and then Ali he said, listen,
I just got this song, and I got to call
Ben because I want Ben h to arrange it. When
he when he heard it, he heard just this look
huh dance. He just heard like the that little eight
bar thing, not the verses or anything. He said, Oh,

(01:13:22):
the Emotions have got to sing this. But Ali of course,
Oh no, it's gonna be earth Wind and Fire, well,
Lord from Fire, of course it's gonna finally do it. Yeah.
But he heard it, you know, like that. And so
my father said. And at that time they were into
a thing with the Cavallo and them as to the
record company, going uh, you know, by itself or something.

(01:13:45):
And at that time I didn't know what they had
to do it. But it was just the fact that
my father wanted the song to be on album too,
and that.

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
Whole Bookie wanted the land was supposed to be an Emotions.

Speaker 6 (01:13:56):
Yes, it was our album on that smile, Yes, yes,
And you went to happen you mean it's supposed to
be on your album as well. Yes, it should have
been on our album. And and and and my father
nearly had a heart attack with with you know, fussy,

(01:14:18):
and I didn't understand why they wouldn't let it. So
what it's it's too look like they get to double
the money or it just looked like to me. But anyway,
I don't know what the head trip was with it,
but uh, we went out and den I said, well,
you know we're doing this on our record time where
you know, you're interrupting the you know, our session to
do it, to do the vocals, So why would there

(01:14:40):
be a problem with it going on our See That's
why that just sounded like like, uh you no brainer.
You know that it was supposed to go in there.
They wouldn't allow it. It was they call and ruffalo
and I don't know, you know, bad guys. I don't know, Yeah,
but uh and it didn't happen that way. But when
we heard the song we did the you know, the

(01:15:02):
dance dance, Buggy went down and he said, Ben Wright's
got to uh Ben every time I hear him now
on the justin Timberlake stuff. You know, you know he
had to do it. But anyway, it was just amazing
how how that part went down, and Maurice wasn't going
to be able to even sing on it or anything

(01:15:23):
until he got back from Sergeant Pepper so he was
there doing the song for Sergeant Pepper. Yes, yes, and
I don't know why he wasn't doing it in l A.
But you know, we didn't know a lot of stuff then.
But so he was doing that in New York. He said, well,
happed him put the hook down, you know, I have
him put the I'm gonna send you the track, Massenberg,

(01:15:45):
And that's what happened. He sent him the track and
we went on doing it. And then my father was like, oh, no,
we got to get this on paper. No, because you're
doing it on the girls session timing you Well, you know,
I didn't really know what that had to do with it,
but no, of course I know now.

Speaker 2 (01:16:02):
So your father was on it like a hawk.

Speaker 6 (01:16:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:16:05):
So those guys were they managing you guys as well?

Speaker 8 (01:16:08):
Or yes?

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
Yes?

Speaker 6 (01:16:13):
And on all the tours, of course, it was always
them meeting you know, Dad and uh, you know uncle
on what we did and where and.

Speaker 2 (01:16:22):
What was tour? What was touring like for you guys, because.

Speaker 6 (01:16:26):
We used to travel on a bus catching up with
the airplane. And then I said, that's it, they're not
going We're not traveling no more. If you don't get
us in the airplane really, so then they got us
in the airplane, but Denise wasn't an airplane, and then

(01:16:47):
the other pocons was in the airplane. But but we're
singing these songs. We I mean, we're actually it'd be
different you are on paper with us, you know, doing
and then well I didn't say that, and you know
that's probably was dad thing.

Speaker 15 (01:17:01):
But that's the Boogie Wonderland episode that that kind of
lead to the deterioration of you guys working relationship with Maurice.

Speaker 6 (01:17:09):
Oh yeah, at the same time, See, he got away
from Sony, he got away from Right and he got
a ARC. That was when that happened. So we were
signed to his production company. So it became a conflict
of interests that what was told to us. It was

(01:17:30):
a conflict of interest.

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
So Bill, Bill and I Boss Bill and I often
have these conflicts when I always say that the turning
point of a career is once a producer is given
his own studio complex and in vanity.

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
Label, and that often the same Bill does not agree
with me, but.

Speaker 12 (01:17:58):
Not in everything.

Speaker 1 (01:18:00):
But in both of our cases, yeah, I don't know,
it's it's a if it's not broken, don't try.

Speaker 2 (01:18:09):
To improve it got it even to this day. Yeah,
I'm serious.

Speaker 1 (01:18:15):
Like the studio conditions that I recorded and have to
be as dire and cheap as possible. Like if I'm sorry,
I don't need to throw you under the bus to
Tarika is the one likes the fruit plates and the.

Speaker 2 (01:18:27):
Fresh cookies, the fresh big cookies and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:18:30):
Nah, I need I need roaches running around my studio
so I can feel I feel at home.

Speaker 2 (01:18:38):
Was was I mistaken?

Speaker 1 (01:18:40):
I believe sometime in nineteen ninety eight, was there not
an off Broadway play about you guys' career bigger than Yeah? Okay,
this makes sense now because there was a group that

(01:19:01):
my band was working with at the time called the
Jazzy Fat Nasties. And I remember this is like when
we were making our fourth record and we were living
in New York in an apartment, and I think for
a week straight they were going to see I guess
I think they were going to do something with the play.

(01:19:21):
I don't know if they saw in the players something
like that, but they kept telling me that, yeah, you
know that the emotions are trying to get their off
Broadway play ramped up to do.

Speaker 2 (01:19:34):
But what was the what was the basis of the
play was just about you guys.

Speaker 11 (01:19:37):
In the beginning.

Speaker 6 (01:19:38):
Yes, how we started and it opened with the scene
my father. We were at the church and he's in
the Uh, he's being he's in the coffin. It's a
funeral row at his funeral, and we're rememberacing all of
the things. How we started singing, and we started singing
that our theme song, which was the Hutchison Jesus want

(01:19:58):
was before awesome, too shy for him. Each day then
we would sing that, then we would sing some of
the other songs that back in the day and uh,
but we would end up going on the road meeting Maurice,
and then you would see all of these guys coming, promoters,
you know, come here, come here, and do this, do that,

(01:20:19):
and then you know, but and then it culminated with
the fact of us having the Grammy, the American Music
Award and receiving all these things, and then the breakup.
And then it had the part, you know, the reconciliation.

Speaker 12 (01:20:37):
What were some of the causes of you guys breaking up?
What happened?

Speaker 6 (01:20:42):
Well, the promoters singing, well, the record company sing different
ways than my father, and that caused when the art
thing happened that actually because we had to rewrite the
contract because it's no, we don't rewrite it, you just
stay with the Oh no, that says we got to
rewrite the track because it was it was going to

(01:21:02):
from one company to another.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
And this is after this who produced the New Affair album?

Speaker 6 (01:21:09):
Uh, Billy, what was the Billy? It was Maurice and
and the guy.

Speaker 11 (01:21:17):
No New Affair that was fair.

Speaker 6 (01:21:19):
Yeah, that guy if you can't take his name, I know,
and he's got to show out right now. And he's
got those two sons. Uh, after the Love is Gone,
David Foster. David Foster and Maurice. Why did I get
with Billy?

Speaker 2 (01:21:36):
I know?

Speaker 6 (01:21:36):
And I'm like, Billy, I'm going there's another guy, guy.
I know you know him too, because these the songs
he wrote.

Speaker 1 (01:21:46):
You know, you know, have you guys ever done recording
as a four as a quartet?

Speaker 13 (01:21:51):
No?

Speaker 6 (01:21:53):
Really, it was always whatever well on some of the
songs something yes, all the lessons and even my uncle
Joey wasn't his uncle Rejoice because he wrote that my
brother yeah Joice.

Speaker 8 (01:22:07):
My uncle Joey was on there.

Speaker 9 (01:22:08):
And and when they would do their tour, you asked
about tour life when they were out on tour stuff.

Speaker 6 (01:22:12):
Like that, on the line everything while Marie sung it
on the record. Yeah, but we sung it all four
of us. You're right, tour, I.

Speaker 8 (01:22:21):
Was gonna say.

Speaker 9 (01:22:22):
So they had some of some of them were it
was a quartet, but it was it was three girls
and my uncle uh Joey and Joe huh and everything,
and then I think that would be what that would
be Mom, Auntie, Sheila and Billy.

Speaker 8 (01:22:37):
There you go. You just remembered it, okay, and uncle Joe.

Speaker 9 (01:22:43):
So that when they did do a court tete quartet
sort of a situation, it was three girls, one brother,
right right.

Speaker 8 (01:22:49):
It was always I don't think it was ever all
four of you.

Speaker 10 (01:22:51):
It was unblessed and blessed, Yes, blessed and rejoice, and
it was one more.

Speaker 2 (01:23:01):
So were you fine with it ending in eighty one
like okay, well, let's.

Speaker 6 (01:23:08):
Oh yeah, because I start having a baby every year,
and then eighty one, eighty two, and then eighty six,
well yeah, and then we were doing that, and then
I was writing with other with Patty and doing stuff
with Rita, writing songs for her, and.

Speaker 8 (01:23:30):
They both write a whole for them.

Speaker 2 (01:23:32):
What did you write after.

Speaker 6 (01:23:34):
Two thousand Miles Away from Me the Diva album Diva? Yeah,
did you see that? Did you hear that?

Speaker 1 (01:23:43):
I'm sorry, No, it's just so much has been made
of that particular record. But there's this is it's a
duet that she did. Yes on there you wrote that song?

Speaker 6 (01:23:55):
No nothing, No.

Speaker 8 (01:23:57):
That's the album you're saying, that's the album that your
song was on.

Speaker 6 (01:23:59):
You know that?

Speaker 2 (01:24:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:24:04):
To this day, uh Aretha explains that her transferring to
Clive at Arista and her anger at uh the old
regime at Atlantic was because of the them dropping the
ball on the Ladiva record.

Speaker 6 (01:24:23):
Yeah. Wow, that was something. That was something.

Speaker 8 (01:24:27):
Yeah, but they were doing that. You was doing.

Speaker 9 (01:24:29):
You was doing a lot more stuff at home because
I remember when she did the Soul Train, like when
they were in the white suits and that was in
l A. She had to leave us and I was
I saw them on TV and I was grabbing at
the TV like mom, no, like.

Speaker 8 (01:24:45):
And my dad just oh.

Speaker 6 (01:24:47):
Yeah that was Midnight Special?

Speaker 2 (01:24:53):
Is that?

Speaker 6 (01:24:53):
Don Kirscher or.

Speaker 2 (01:24:56):
You can Rejoice of rock concert? Yes, I'm sorry, my
middle name is well at.

Speaker 9 (01:25:03):
Wait where were you guys wearing on when you guys
did the soul tray. I thought Dad said that I
was going crazy over.

Speaker 16 (01:25:08):
The yeah dresses, Okay, okay, we had different uh designs.

Speaker 9 (01:25:19):
Of the same right, Well, I was going nuts and
I wasn't. I wasn't happy. I was three.

Speaker 8 (01:25:28):
Yeah number one.

Speaker 9 (01:25:29):
You couldn't understand, you know, I couldn't explain why she
was this tall, like five inches when I'm like, but.

Speaker 7 (01:25:35):
She's here, she's so much taller.

Speaker 2 (01:25:39):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:25:39):
I thought there was something wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:25:40):
You know, But when did you put two and two together?
That mom was something?

Speaker 9 (01:25:45):
Oh late, I'm so late on that stuff because she
was just mom. So I'm talking about like high schools.

Speaker 1 (01:25:53):
There wasn't there wasn't a mantle piece with these things.

Speaker 9 (01:25:57):
And but I never thought I never thought about it
like that, because like Maurice was like a godfather for us.

Speaker 8 (01:26:04):
Oh, Stevie would be at the house and this is.

Speaker 2 (01:26:06):
Just this was ding you.

Speaker 8 (01:26:08):
That was so regular. That's so regular to me.

Speaker 2 (01:26:12):
I feel like helping him walk in the living room.

Speaker 8 (01:26:14):
Ya oh, how about this? You want to talk about pressure.

Speaker 9 (01:26:19):
I wrote my first song on the piano at ten
years old, and the first person I had to audition
it for with Stevie because She's like, WHOA, just.

Speaker 8 (01:26:26):
Play that for Savie.

Speaker 9 (01:26:27):
I'm like, now I do know who Sev is? In
my head at ten, I'm like, yeah, no, I'm not
gonna do it.

Speaker 8 (01:26:32):
Nah, are you serious? And everything, and so this was
New Year's even she finally had me on one.

Speaker 9 (01:26:38):
I just I was like, oh my lord, heavens. So
I ended up doing it or whatever and he did
not laugh at me. And I respect that man to
this day for just letting me be. And I'm like,
fingers shaking and plunking and.

Speaker 8 (01:26:51):
Stuff or whatever.

Speaker 9 (01:26:52):
But yeah, for Mom and them, I would say, it's
so funny, no, not even you know, putting on hip
hop is what explained to me how serious Mom and
them were from the sampling type stuff and from when
people would see me in the studio and learn me
and it would be like, oh she said, oh she's
a great girl, great energy, so nice blah blah blah blah,
and wait her mom is what who know?

Speaker 6 (01:27:14):
Who?

Speaker 12 (01:27:15):
We met?

Speaker 2 (01:27:16):
Like I was.

Speaker 15 (01:27:16):
I was kind of insulted because because she was like
because she because we did this.

Speaker 12 (01:27:21):
It was after Foreign Shane show.

Speaker 15 (01:27:22):
We did it, and so how we met and she
was like, what's going on? We did an interview and
she was like, oh, well, you know, my mom is
no wander what I know? And she was like yeah,
She's like I'm sorry, I just most of these young
guys I don't know.

Speaker 12 (01:27:37):
I'm like, listen, thank.

Speaker 2 (01:27:40):
You for calling me a young guy.

Speaker 12 (01:27:42):
I'm like, honey, I think you know you're talking to
like your mom is who of what?

Speaker 6 (01:27:47):
Like?

Speaker 15 (01:27:47):
Do you understand how I grew up? Like how my
mother used to play these records? Yes, every day, Like
don't ask my neighbor was the morning song going to school?

Speaker 2 (01:27:58):
Like dude, do you yes?

Speaker 12 (01:28:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:28:03):
That was well.

Speaker 15 (01:28:04):
I want to ask you about covers because on it
was Jade's album and night they cover Blessed and yeah,
I thought they sounded great.

Speaker 6 (01:28:13):
I did. I thought it was wonderful. I remember Skip
Scarborough telling anybody he said, I like it, but they're
using the wrong chords.

Speaker 2 (01:28:23):
Well actually, there you go.

Speaker 15 (01:28:27):
Yes, did any people ever seek you out after, you know,
after eighty one, once you know you guys had kind
of disbanded. Did you do any like backup work because
or session work for just for uh.

Speaker 6 (01:28:38):
Yeah, we did a lot of commercials.

Speaker 11 (01:28:41):
I went on to its.

Speaker 2 (01:28:43):
Yes, right, Yes, Jeffrey Osborne.

Speaker 10 (01:28:55):
Well, we were when she had her they had their
song Forget Me Nuts, Yes, Forget Me Nuts.

Speaker 17 (01:29:02):
Yes, I remember eighty two, yes, because my dad was
still alive.

Speaker 8 (01:29:11):
So yeah, yeah, what was working with Patricia?

Speaker 11 (01:29:17):
Patrice's rushing like it was great?

Speaker 6 (01:29:19):
I was.

Speaker 10 (01:29:19):
It was just me and her as the only girls.
She would always go play racketball and she would invite
me to go and and.

Speaker 2 (01:29:28):
The people love.

Speaker 8 (01:29:38):
They did.

Speaker 6 (01:29:39):
I learned backgammon on the plane with earth Wind Fire, Yes,
when I learned black and then we would always play
tennis and Andrew Woolfolk and I was always Maurice, Maurice
and uh who would always be party besides Dad? Someone
else but me and Andrew.

Speaker 2 (01:29:57):
We were.

Speaker 6 (01:29:58):
We were the net, you know, Lord, I was the
best of BALI.

Speaker 9 (01:30:04):
They really she literally in her head she coaches Serena
and Venus as she watches them on everything they do today.
But yeah, yeah, so you did that back in eighties,
but she always yeah, eighty two, eighty three.

Speaker 2 (01:30:19):
So seventy eight. For the longest, my aunt and I
would go to record store and harassed the sales clerk.

Speaker 1 (01:30:37):
About do you have the emotions forty five? You're going
to make me love somebody else?

Speaker 6 (01:30:43):
Oh wow, four weeks?

Speaker 2 (01:30:45):
No, no, no, no, no, not that one. It was.

Speaker 1 (01:30:50):
It took us seven weeks to realize that was not
the emotions.

Speaker 2 (01:30:55):
What were your feelings on.

Speaker 1 (01:30:57):
The Jones girls, You're going to make me love somebody?

Speaker 2 (01:30:59):
Was like, what, I love.

Speaker 6 (01:31:03):
Them, but I love singing them and I love their voices.

Speaker 2 (01:31:06):
You guys are severely diplomatic.

Speaker 15 (01:31:08):
Wow you did you feel any way like they biting?

Speaker 1 (01:31:13):
Or it was because when Free came out, I just
naturally assumed that because I Williams.

Speaker 2 (01:31:19):
Here's the thing though, I mean, this is all is
just coming out when I'm six and seven.

Speaker 6 (01:31:23):
So I'm not.

Speaker 2 (01:31:25):
I'm not a super adult, but super you're not. You're seven.

Speaker 1 (01:31:31):
But I was maturre. I'll say that at seven I
was probably No. I was probably nineteen as a musician
because of the household I grew up here, n nice
I knew. I knew earth wind and fires backdrop when
I heard it, that's my yea certain.

Speaker 2 (01:31:47):
Because they were using that stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:31:49):
So in my head, I thought, oh, Free, that's the emotions.
And I also thought, because of a certain it's a
certain clave. Uh uh that that spoon thing that uses
it's a lot on your choice is on joy.

Speaker 2 (01:32:10):
Yeah, but it's also when you're going to make me
love somebody else.

Speaker 6 (01:32:14):
I was like, the emotion right right, and it wasn't
It wasn't cost Costa.

Speaker 2 (01:32:23):
It probably was, but I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:32:25):
Usually Philly international musicians are self contained. It wasn't him, however, Like, okay,
so you were saying that we love the Jones girls.

Speaker 2 (01:32:33):
No, no, no, no, okay, not ones. We are like.

Speaker 6 (01:32:39):
But you know what, everyone had that perception that we
should have been.

Speaker 15 (01:32:46):
Yeah, it's it's it's it is definitely building on you, guys.

Speaker 6 (01:32:50):
I'm gonna tell you that Riah called Carrie called me
from m t V. I'm sitting in my living room
and that song that came out that everybody thought she
bid off of yes emotions and everybody wanted us to
be mad at her, but.

Speaker 2 (01:33:12):
It was obviously.

Speaker 6 (01:33:13):
I thought it was just the most wonderful thing that
she did that. And I said it, you know, because
I had no idea she was gonna call or anything,
and that was just so happened. I was like, oh
my gosh, I thought it was wonderful. I thought it
just made me feel special. Maybe, you know, I don't know,
I just thought it was wonderful. And then I had
met her some time ago and there anyway, she was
so cool. What is the backup singer for.

Speaker 13 (01:33:38):
Luther?

Speaker 6 (01:33:39):
It was Luther and Lisa? What Lisa? Yes, they were
both on the Anita Baker Luther.

Speaker 8 (01:33:46):
It's crazy because Lisa was a background singer.

Speaker 11 (01:33:48):
I love it.

Speaker 6 (01:33:48):
I remember that I would go to hear the background.
I knew what Luther was.

Speaker 2 (01:33:55):
Just watch them.

Speaker 6 (01:33:56):
Amazing to hear them swing back.

Speaker 12 (01:33:58):
What is life like for you guys?

Speaker 6 (01:34:00):
Now?

Speaker 15 (01:34:00):
I know y'all still toured? You still write Miss Wanda
like what do what do y'all do now?

Speaker 2 (01:34:06):
Right?

Speaker 6 (01:34:06):
And we are touring with all the seventies uh stylistics.
We're always the only girls that are there but from
the seventies except for one Atlantic Star though when some
of them are yeah and heat wave and oh yeah
he waves blue notes, blue magic, blue magic, Coober Cooper. Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:34:34):
And we did temps. We did the temps. The Temptations was.

Speaker 6 (01:34:36):
On, and then Billy Paul. That's amazing that Billy Paul
past was. I mean we're in nine days we were
together on stage, yes, then nine days later he was gone.
That was and we know we know his wife really well,
and but that was something and he could be some
kind of way off stage and you wouldn't know. I mean,

(01:34:58):
he was.

Speaker 8 (01:34:58):
Cool to me.

Speaker 9 (01:34:59):
He always thought me the youngster on on the You
would tell us so I love no, I love them
every time us like, hey, I got my young my
youngsters here. I'm like, hey, you know so, don't I
always bring the hip hop to the seventies soul jam?

Speaker 13 (01:35:13):
Why are you the only second generation on those kind
of shows? Are the other second generation?

Speaker 8 (01:35:17):
There are some other replaced members. I don't remember the
Timp Temps, Paul Paul, Oh, Paul's son son.

Speaker 6 (01:35:26):
With the oldest, Yeah, otis I'm sorry.

Speaker 9 (01:35:30):
With Dennis, Yes, with Dennis, he's he's a second generation.
But the other ones, they have people who are in
who aren't the original members.

Speaker 8 (01:35:41):
But I don't know the girls right, Yeah, they do.
We haven't been on anything.

Speaker 6 (01:35:49):
One thing and that was the same night.

Speaker 8 (01:35:51):
That was it. It was in Las Vegas.

Speaker 9 (01:35:52):
They were in the we were in the stands, in
the stands, we were in the we was watching and
we were on a different night, so it was like
a whole thing they were just doing or whatever, and
we just got to stay for all of them. But
I got to see uh Kathy and her man that
she says something that baby the new generation is that
girl is pretty.

Speaker 8 (01:36:13):
She's a pretty her name.

Speaker 6 (01:36:18):
Gorgeous.

Speaker 8 (01:36:19):
She's gorgeous. A little sweet.

Speaker 9 (01:36:24):
But yeah, so on the when we're out there, though, yeah,
we're all it's it's very rarely that we have anyone
my age. But wait, what's my boy from the del Phonics.
He's the most hip hop of everybody I've met on
those things, and he'll keep up with any young thing
that anything.

Speaker 8 (01:36:44):
What what what you got for me? What you got
for me? Who out there?

Speaker 6 (01:36:48):
And her heart is.

Speaker 8 (01:36:56):
Work with his son and he's the coolest one.

Speaker 2 (01:37:02):
He just did that record with Adrian Young a couple yeah,
a couple of years.

Speaker 8 (01:37:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's really fun.

Speaker 6 (01:37:08):
Cool man.

Speaker 8 (01:37:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:37:09):
So I go there and mom always has to advise
me to be more my R and B self than my.

Speaker 6 (01:37:16):
Yeah, than my hip hop self.

Speaker 8 (01:37:18):
So I know I.

Speaker 9 (01:37:21):
Am way too amp some nights, I'll be honest, and
I know better. So now and now I've been doing
this since what two thousand and nine, so here it
is twenty seventeen, so we I'm.

Speaker 6 (01:37:31):
Starting almost doing the crip walk on Best of My Life.

Speaker 8 (01:37:33):
I stopped it.

Speaker 7 (01:37:34):
I stopped it.

Speaker 8 (01:37:35):
I stopped it.

Speaker 2 (01:37:41):
I had to.

Speaker 9 (01:37:43):
Lady.

Speaker 6 (01:37:44):
When they first did it in l A, I didn't
even know why I heard.

Speaker 2 (01:37:54):
You were doing that.

Speaker 6 (01:37:55):
Yes, you're not supposed to do something, he said. We
weren't supposed to do the step on there or something.

Speaker 9 (01:38:03):
He appreciated us though, he appreciated. Yes, he calls them
unty and and yeah he does. He did him proud Yes,
then shout out uncle Snoopy.

Speaker 2 (01:38:14):
That's amazing.

Speaker 6 (01:38:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:38:16):
Well, ladies, we thank you very much for doing our
show today so much.

Speaker 12 (01:38:23):
It was amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:38:24):
Thank you, Thank you so much, Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:38:27):
Yes, yes, yes, aunts on behalf of Ronnie Mille, Steps Sugar, Steve, Boss,
Bill Fan Ciccolo, Unpaidabill and lie Here. This is Quest Love,
Quest Love Supreme, only on Pandora.

Speaker 2 (01:38:42):
We'll see you on the next cover.

Speaker 12 (01:38:44):
Thank you, West.

Speaker 1 (01:38:48):
Love Supreme is a production my Heart Radio. This classic
episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For more
podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.