Ray Parker Jr.

On this episode of R&B Money, Tank and J Valentine are visited by the legendary Ray Parker Jr. Ray will talk about his beginnings in music, first learning the clarinet, breaking his leg and learning to play the guitar, which landed him at Motown making more money tan most adults at 15 years of age. Ray will discuss his close relationships with Marvin Gaye, Barry White and teaching Stevie Wonder how to drive. His knack for flying aircrats. And of course, his legendary catalogue of music. Listen and enjoy!

 

Follow the hosts Tank: @therealtank and J Valentine: @JValentine

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Money. Well, say, take Valentine, we are the authority. What's
going on? Is your boy Tank? This is Mr Valentine.

(00:22):
I'm I'm Valentine. You are the Valentine. Sometimes you missed
the Valentine was saying. We all go with the Valentine
to Day and this is the R B Money Podcast,
the authority on all things R and B. Listen, let
me pause for a second. The Valentine. I feel like,
you know, I always do the intros. You know, the

(00:43):
intros is my place, That's why. But I feel like
I feel like this is your intro. I feel like
you should have handled this. This was because today, talking
about to Day, we went back to the essence, right,
we went back to where this whole R and B
money things started. Now, R and B music might have

(01:05):
been around, but they wouldn't getting to the money. So
today on the R and B Money Podcast, we have
Sir m hmm, Capital s Capital Capital are Ray Parker, Junior,

(01:25):
the Ghost Weston himself in the Mill, Harris and Bills.
I don't care it my god, sir, just having Sunday night. Yeah,
that's why I looked at JA, said Sir Ray Parker
to you. Now I'm gonna respected. But can you can

(01:46):
you just before we dive back into the archives, can
you give us like, how do you become sir? What's hell? Am?
I know? I had a neighbor who was who was
a guy he knew the Prince of Spain and the
next year, I guess the two of them were talking about,
you know, he lived down there, and they thought I
was worthy. You don't need to check my background, make

(02:07):
sure I ain't done. They already knew it was out
because the neighborhood though, yeah catch that part though I
had a name, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we know,
so we had to check. You didn't check me out,
make sure I have done no deeds, you know, wrong
deeds and all this stuff, and you're worthy of royalty.
And they said, would he'd be a good guy to
having the order, you know, the royal in the Royal
Royal Order? Yeah, what you know about that? The Royal Order? Yeah,

(02:31):
I have no idea about black I'm a black guy
from Detroit. I mean, I'm as far away from the
Royal watched the Game of Thrones. The Game of Thrones,
so no, it's got something to do with that. Vikings
is a good show. There's a royal order on there. Yeah,
but you're part of the royal order. So that means

(02:51):
when when it all goes down, you're gonna get one
of the phone calls. You're protected. Yeah, and then they
have sovereigns exactly about the sovereignation. So I may get
dual citizenship, I may have a second citizenship. Will give
you some tax advantages, and there's some other things that
can go along with this. I'm just learning. So yeah,
so we spoke about, you know, your sovereignty. You're being

(03:15):
survey from now on, they can't call you nothing else.
But let's go back. Because it's the R and B
Money podcast. We like to uh, we like we like
our podcast to be informative. It's funny and you know,
we want to tell real stories and we want people
to have an understanding of where the music truly comes from.

(03:35):
So from my understanding, it's Motown? Am I right? Kind
of right? I wouldn't say it came from Motown. The
Motown obviously played a big part of my career. It's music.
Music started for me as six years old. I didn't
want to dance with the girls in gym class. The
head is doing some kind of dance in elementary school
if you can remember, being five or six, I remember,

(03:57):
and we had to switch girls, and I'm like, I
don't like this girl, think you know, switching partners. So
I went to the principal of the school at six
years old and told the principle I wasn't happy with
the curriculum. And so she's, first of all, she paused
for about five minutes, like you gotta be kidding a
little kids coming in my office, to the principal's office.
You know, you don't like. I don't I don't like.

(04:18):
I don't like, I don't like, I like. I ain't
feeling it, you know. So she took me to a
music class, of which one I got there. I didn't
know what the music class was, by the way, so
it's not like I wanted to play an instrument. I
didn't even know what that meant. But when I got there,
my best friend Ali Brown and Nathan Watts were already there.
And by the way, they're still musicians to today. So
remember those names because it's relevant. And uh so the

(04:38):
teacher looked at me, says, what instrument you want to play?
I wanted to play the flute because you got to
carry the instrument home. Man. I didn't want to take
the tube but home, it's too heavy. So I picked
the clarinet, and I became very good at the clarinet.
I didn't care, but the teacher was so motivating. My
elementary school teacher was everything to me, you know, And
he was so motivating that he put the three of
us best friends together and formed the band and called

(04:59):
the band the Sting Rays at six. Now, what was
interesting about that? He named the band after me? Put
sting Raids with already White. The other two guys they
didn't know. They just got screwed all day. They hadn't
figured out they got stuff they got. Yeah, they didn't
figure out the name band was named after me, and
they just got screwed. So they didn't do that, and

(05:20):
so we did that for a while. Then when I
got older, about eleven years old, my brother had a
little cheap guitar and I started playing a guitar. Now,
the guitar for me was like magical. It was like
the clarinet. I was working at it. Everything else. I
was working at it, but somebody they put the guitar
in my hand. It was like, yeah, God, just bless me.
This is it, this is where I am. And then
I broke my leg at eleven, and so I practiced

(05:41):
all day every day. And to make the story shorter
for you, by the time I was thirteen, I was
on tour at the Spinners What yeah. So then I
then by the time I was fourteen, fourteen and a half,
then I started on Motown. I started working with Marvin Gaye,
last night, Smokey Robinson. I was in the studio with
all the guys. So you were to do the house
of music, whoever that is. Yeah, yeah, I know, dude,

(06:04):
I'm remember. Yeah yeah. So I got it going, and
by fifteen I was pretty much financially independent by fifteen,
and my dad swore I was selling drugs and doing
something right. I mean, so he went to my cousin
and said, you go following him around. There's nowhere in

(06:25):
the world that kid can make that much money playing
the guitar and he's only fifteen years old. And so
my cousin followed me around. I didn't know why he
was hanging with me, was like, his older cousin was like,
you ain't up hung with me before, why are you
hanging with me now? You know. But he was trying
to figure out what I was doing and he had
to go back and report. Well, you know, Ray ain't
really going to class. He's skipped in school, but he
is playing music because the sessions were going on the daytime.

(06:48):
I wasn't going to school. I'm going to play the
Motown We don't go stupard, you know. And I was
working with Hollandojo Holland when they separated from Motown because
they couldn't use the Funk Brothers, which was the Motown band,
so they ended up using me at Hollando Holland and
all their records. So I was doing that three days.
So back then it doesn't sound like a lot of money,

(07:08):
but it was at the time. We can make a
hundred bucks playing three hours every three hours, so I
could do that three times a week. I was playing
at the club called the twenty Grand, which was the
famous club. It's like Cotton Club and Hound and all
the big bands smoke, you know, smoking. Robinson would come
their glass ninety pips. I was making three hundred fifty
dollars a week there and then I do Jewish by
mrs and weddings and I can make another thirty five,

(07:31):
you know, dollars a trip, and so I'm making I
can make it like seven eight hundred bucks a week. Now,
you gotta understand a brand new Lincoln Continental is only
five grand back then, what you got to so like
you look at your car and say, oh, I only
got to work too three weeks and I got the
whole car, you know, And I'm like, yeah, it wasn't nothing.

(07:52):
I could buy a sept a bicycle for fifty bucks
and all the time I had, You know, there was
there was one month I worked with Marvin Gator Studio
all month at fifty I think I was sixteen in
and I made eighteen thousand dollars for the month. That's
more money than my father made all year working at four.
So you gotta kind of, yeah, you gotta kind of

(08:12):
get into that and get a picture that. Yeah, where
were you season can ask this question, you worked with
Marvin Gay. Youre working Marvin for a month. What did
that entail? Where is it? Was it just session work
or were you able to input? Oh? Yeah, yeah, yeah

(08:34):
that working with Marvin game was the most fun I
had at that age because he would let us write
songs with him. In fact, there's an album that came
out last year called Funky Town or something, and it's
the unfinished tracks that Marvin never finished singing. He says
my name on the record while I was naming on
the record, and behind his name on the record, and
all our names on we all got co writers on
all the songs. And so what would it be as

(08:55):
we go all day in the studio going in the world,
we record with Marvin, then we go over Marvin's house
and listen to tapes. Now I'm the youngest one there,
so I'm sitting to taple cord. They're telling me loaded
seven and a half inch tape, you know, put the
tape cord in. And that was the first time I
saw a rack of Macintosh Ampson tan Oi speaker. His
his house sounded better than the studio, you know. And

(09:17):
I'm too young to figure we're just kicking Marvin's house.
You go to Marvin's house every day, I mean, that's
no big deal, you know. And Marvin liked to smoke
a little weed from time to time. So my favorite
story they were they were doing a documentary one time
on Marvin. They were interviewing me because I'm on his
greatest hits and a bunch of stuff. And so he
was smoking a little weed and he looked over at
me and he went his kids under age, and he

(09:40):
got the drivers like yet. So he just looked at
me and says, man, why don't you take my car
and go for you know, go get lost for a
couple hours. You know, I'm still getting paid. But he
gave me the car, not the car he had. If
you saw the current super Fly, the bug Carolin with
the things, Marvin had a burger. Marvin had a Burgundy
when it was cold, love it right through me. The keys.

(10:01):
I didn't. I didn't have a driver's license, you know. Me,
I get in the car, man, I'm not, I'm not.
I'm in this fifty thousand all in Catillac. Man. I'm
leaning over to me and the mirror. My head's under
the mirror like this. And I went to my high school,
you know, rolling because you gotta go somewhere. You gotta
go to the high school. And I'm looking all my boys.
Then it occurs to me that the guys get that

(10:23):
close to me. Man, they're gonna hop in the car.
I just burned, rubbing left all. But they were like
what's that ringing? So I thought that was the most
exciting thing, and I told that story in his documentary.
They took me out the whole documentary because I told
the story. They said they wanted to hear about the
real deal. I gave him the real deal and then
they kicked me out the whole documentary for that. So

(10:45):
I was like, okay. But Marvin was the coolest guy.
He was a great football player. You know. They were
going to sign him to the Detroit Lions, so he
because I think I heard that he tried out for
the Redskins, but he was well, he was with Lyn
Barney all the will come to the studio. So they
were going to sign him to the Detroit Lines. But
he had to say that he wasn't going on two

(11:05):
effects amount of time. I didn't want to do that.
He was gonna really get a real party. He was.
It was a receiver, right something. Yeah, but he I
was too young though he was. But he was also
a great boxer. By the way, Mom had the hands
to Mark, b Oh, yeah, you messed with Marvin's woman.
He was punching this woman guys out, literally punching guys out. Mark,

(11:28):
you don't mess heavyweight. You don't you don't play. But
he said all the records with Jaz you know, you know,
you know, you know, jan said hello stuff. Don't talk
to me him because Marvin would knock you out. So
but he was. He was a wonderful guy, just a
great human being, wonderful guy. One of my So you've

(11:49):
been around all of them because the other the other
person I wanted to ask you about, Verry White, very White,
wasn't one of our closest friends. Yeah, me and very
White man. We you know, Barry comes from Houston, Texas
and grew up here in competent and stuff. So he's
like sort of a roughneck kind of guy. But I
like those kind of guys because I grew up in Detroit,
and so we we showed her identified each other. You know,

(12:11):
when I first made Barry White, Gene Page invited me
to the studio and he had speakers of really really
loud champion. You'll be like going like this got his
diamonds on here, diamonds or he's doing that way before
the rappers, he had aling out. Oh he was blame
blaing out yellow suit. You know, he's like he's sitting
there around like that, and I had an idea for
a song and in me from Detroit, and I'm like, well,

(12:32):
how do I get this guy's attention? And I would
never do this now, I'm way too refined, and you know,
I been living here for too long. But at that
time I went to stop on the button, stopped this music.
He turned around, looked, he looked in the back. Let's go,
and I got a big afro, and I've got my shirt.
I got my little tank top on says I'm a

(12:53):
fucking genius on the shirt. So I'm trying to I'm
not hiding myself. I mean, I'm feeling over maybe a
little overcomfident people more, saying he was the most modest
guy in the world. So I mean, I had to
go on. And then he looked back and before he
could like shoot me or kick me out, he says, well,
didn't get in there and play it there, you know.
So I went in and worked on one of his

(13:13):
earlier albums and I played the line, and I thought
he's gonna back up and let me play it all
the way down. He came on the speaker said keep
playing like that, you know, and so on the actual
record that I did. There's like two bars where I'm
not even playing, right he because that's who I'm saying,
keep playing, And he just kept the whole thing and
just played it and we were good ever since. Yeah,

(13:33):
and then we had other things that were you know,
his scene was that he got ten writer signed him,
he says, but nobody gets a song on Barry Waite,
no way, no how. And he had a Love and
Limited and then he had Loving Limited Orchestra. So the
first thing I did is I condom into getting me
a song on Love and Limited. You know, Love Limited.
He used to write him all himself. Oh yeah, he
write them on himself. So I kind of into getting
me one on Love Limited Orchestra. Yeah, And so I

(14:00):
had him, I had to. I had Jeane Page was
doing the chart, the famous arrange, and he was with
my buddy. So Jeane had done the charts from me
all the stuff. So when I pushed Barry and by
the way, Barry White, he paid us all triple scale.
And if you were done with the music early, you
can go home. You still get paid. So we were
done one day early, and I waited to that day
and the music radio and all this stuff ready, and

(14:22):
then you know, he was in my car which he
cut his arm, sitting a little Mercedes convertibles. Look, that
was a good idea, idea, But I played in the music.
He was like, yeah, that's nice, real, Okay, I'm going home.
I said, some wanting him to cut this song. He said, well,
we're finish, the musicians are going home, and said, you
ain't got no chart to get that. I said, I
got the charts, I got everything. I said, why don't
you just going home? I beat there like half and
I don't worry about this that so I talked to

(14:43):
all the guys in the band. Didn't cut the track.
He put it on the Wreck pent my song now,
but that wasn't I wasn't satisfied with that, which everybody
else said. Man, we thought he kidding. I want a
song on Barry White that I wrote that he wrote
together the whole thing. So his manager live upstairs with
me on Ali Drive, Shoka can live next door here,

(15:03):
very White lit upstairs. I wrote this tune for Verry
White card you got the Love right. He wouldn't record
it unless Stevie here. He wouldn't record, so I cut
it on Shotka. Can we have number one record on
Rufus and Shotgun. Yeah you got the love Rubig Shotgun.
So now I'm getting a little more respect from Barry Whitey.
You know. It's like that little kid, that little punk

(15:25):
kid rolled a hit some of that, and that's when
they call me a little punk kid, you know, because
it was snody knows punk kid talks too much. Where's
too much flashy stuff. So you know, Barry white comes
over to the department because his road manager and lived upstairs,
and he's very white. So he's parking wherever he wants.
He parked his kind of right where the gate thing is.
It's O can't nobody to get in there. You can't

(15:46):
abody get in. So me not thinking about that. All
I'm thinking about is I want him to cut my song. Yeah,
So I get in my car, I go get it,
put the cassette and the corn. I'm a blast and
I drive around thing. Then I triggered the thing up. Oops,
and he's got his white Mark three and the gates
kid it. It lifted the front of his car up
off the ground and then the car was heavy to

(16:08):
the gate, so the gate fell off the thing and
then crashed on top of his car and for and
for the people that's watching. I don't know if y'all know,
but in R and B music, Very White it's probably
top two gangsters all time, probably not number two. He's
probably my number two real gangster, real gangster. So he

(16:32):
looked at me and said, thanks for I needed that,
you know. His cards off to him, and I said, yeah,
but man, you know, I'm sorry, Mr White, but you
gotta listen to this song. So I played him the song.
Believe it that I actually play him the song that
I give him a copy of song. He wrote the
lyrics to it, and that song it's called You See
the Trouble with Me We're so six man, right, And

(16:53):
then all of his writers were like, but you told
us nobody gets a song on Very White. No way,
no how, nobody's writing a song everyway. And I'm like,
I got me a song fifty with Barry White, you know,
so that's it. Congratulations. Yeah, Now, by the way, it's
business wise. I wanted to publish it, but I couldn't
get the post. Beery White said, you ain't getting the

(17:14):
publish you know, and nobody got published and at that
time in your career, and I like to tell new
people too. Sometimes you got to give up some stuff
that you normally wouldn't give up later, you know, once
you become Stevie wonder, you ain't gotta do that, you know,
but in the beginning you might have to give up
a little bit to get something, you know. And having

(17:35):
a cut on Barry White at that time was very significant,
you know. So I did that one. It was happy.
I did, made a lot of money. You know, I'm
gonna mess up his car. Man said, if I get that,
do whatever you want to do, whatever you want your question,

(17:56):
then what no room for this? So this full here,
this seguay till our next name. This fool here just
did an interview and he says, because listen, you you
here now, and you're somebody that can either confirm or
deny this this food gonna get on an interview and
say that Stevie wanted can see a little bit? No

(18:17):
he can't, right, you see a little bit? Can he?
Me and Stevie wanted the boys, I mean, we were
like more than just working together. And he feels see no, no,
see like could he stay in a lane while driving

(18:40):
if you coached him and we did that, you did
what Lets Stevie want to drive? You have to tell
us how that plays out, because you're still here first.
I but I mean, I mean back in the day,

(19:03):
you know. But this is before you know, all the
bodyguards and no, this is here. Yeah, but this is
after I quit the band too. I mean I'd already
quit the band and I'm out here and he's out here,
and where were you still go pick him up all
the time with him and go hang out. We go
go girls house and just do some crazy stuff, you know,
and Steve were kicking. Yeah, yeah, I gotta you gotta

(19:25):
hurry if it becomes Stevie, I have that kind of
talk man killing us right now. So there, if you
go down let's see, I think San Vicente wherever it ends,
somewhere near Pico or something goes way down there. There
was like a may company or a big department store
something down there, you know. So anyway, Stevie thought we

(19:47):
were on lost the end of or something. He wanted
to drive, So I put in the car and I
told him when we get to the light, you're gonna
do this. And then but we really were in the
parking lot of Make Company, like two in the morning.
What nobody there, right, So he wanted to drive. He's

(20:12):
really good at driving. But I said, when I say left,
you go left. When I say stop, you stop. When
I go right, you go right. And so he did it,
you know, and we were good. He didn't hit nothing.
I mean, we had a lot of space, but we
have a lot of space. But still my heart was
beating a little bit. And you know, did you at
some point telling you Finesta, did you No, he's gonna

(20:32):
find out. We got a bunch of other crazy stuff
we did too, but you know, we don't need we
don't need to confess to everything. Yeah, but no, he
could drive. He's good at it, you know. In fact,
when he did that, was it James Corman Show or whatever,
you know, when they put you in the car with you,
I thought he was gonna drive. I was like, watch
any minute now, Steve, he's gonna drive. And they were

(20:54):
in there singing, and at the end of the show
he didn't drive. I was like, that would have been
the bar. Sure. I was sure they're gonna mess up
the world because Stevie gonna start driving, and that's gonna
be it. You know, if I had known James Cordon.
Then I would have said, let's Stevie drive. Tell your show.
Your show would be number one. Let's see the world

(21:15):
in the world. I just let's Stevie drive. Let's Stevie drive.
I don't know what to say after that. But no,
he can't see. But I'll tell you this. You wouldn't
know it. Yeah, it's incredible. I mean we were when
I got in the band. Man, I remember he got
into a argument with the drummer and I don't know why. Man,
the drummer, by the way, Stevie those days, he's only

(21:38):
a few years old me, so he was. He was built,
rip buffed, push up to the whole thing. And the
drummer got the attitude and said, man, I'm tired of Steven.
Put a blindfold on me. I'm gonna fight Stevie. Think
that this is not a good idea. This is just
not a good stee the drum This is the way

(21:58):
I mean, so I can fight Steve. Wh This the
way I got my best friend Alie Brown in the
band from Detroit is the drummer got I think if
the drummer is gone, then I can get my guy in.
But it wasn't that. It was like, here's the moment
where the drummer getting ready. I got the blind phold. O,
yeah that's good. Yeah, I put the blind phold on him.
And we put the blind phold on the drummer and

(22:20):
they're gonna do it out. And you should have seen
together the guy man is doing like this. He's trying
to find Stevie. And every time he went bam, I
mean it was like just pu, I mean, straight punch.
We just went on for a couple of minutes and
we we threw the towel. We're like, you gotta stop.
Oh he Stevie was beating him that. I don't think

(22:52):
he got one punch on Steve. And every time he
yause he could hear it heightens and yeah he he
was hitting the gup so fast, and it was just
like this ain't no fight. This ain't the fifth to
the town throwing it town like Rocky thro the town.
At some point out it took off the blind photo.
And how about this, if he took the blindfold off,

(23:17):
he may still have gotten the same it's probably got
because he was Stevie was ripped. He was built. Stevie
beating niggas out man. You were killing me right now,
the drumma sound drum, I got a whole new meeting.
Are you kidding? No, we had a lot of fun.

(23:37):
Stevie's a nice cat. He's he's a wonderful guy. I
sit next to Stevie and we sang and played together
one night. So you got a picture. If I'm eighteen,
he's twenty one. Oh yea, he's the boss. So who's
controlling this stuff? I mean, we got the boss is
just as crazy as the rest of us doing it.
And you know how you are at nineteen twenty. It's

(23:57):
that krand of crazy. So I go pick, we go
dry right, were doing crazy stuff, you know girls, I
mean we're just doing whatever. So how old are you
when you moved to l A. I was nineteen? Okay, yeah,
just turn the nineteen. May have been eighteen, but just
turned the nineteen because I got with Stevie when in
the Rolling Stones when he called me outside, hey, hey, hey,

(24:21):
just you can't rolling Stone. You'll see. And this is
a this is a great story because I'm in college,
which I hated, and I got to college early. So
I'm seventeen in college and and they're making me draft
car parts and all that stuff. All I want to
do is drive the car. I don't build no car,

(24:41):
you know what I mean. I'm just not feeling it.
But my dad worked for for forty eight years, and
he's like, son, you got to get a white college job,
pension retirement. You know this after you make an eighteen
thousand and them's way past that. Yeah, and I'm seventeen.
I don't think. I don't think that work seven ain't
gonna work there. I'm seventeen and I'm in the lunch
roing with some friends of mine, and I'll never forget

(25:03):
they looked at me and they said, we're tired of
hearing about you and Smokey Rob. If you knew Marvin Gay,
you wouldn't be sitting here with us, right. And I
looked at the guy said that's the first thing anybody
said to me that made me sense. Watch this, take
my books, and I just walked out to lunch room,
never to return. So I went home, talked to my
dad and and Stevie Wonder had called just then, and

(25:23):
I'll never forget when he called me. Music from My
Mind was my favorite album of all time. I mean,
I never heard those news sounds that was the first
time anybody heard synthesized days. Yeah, remember Stevie started all that.
I mean, so when you heard in your car, you
just went, is it good? Is it bad? I don't
even know what it is that I never heard it before.
It was like, you just never heard it before. What's that?

(25:44):
What's all these sounds? You know? And he had the
voices with the sounds. So the only album I hand
in my car was music from my Mind. So when
he called me up, he needed to get time from
I guess everybody said, he said. Everybody spoke to said
call Ray, you know, call this kid Ray. So he
called me. The first thing I did was hang up
on him, you know, click. Then yeah, I thought, I
ain't know Stevie, want to come? Me's some one of

(26:05):
my friends, and you know, then he called a couple
he was first. He called a couple of times back
then I hung up, and I think the third time
I put some four letter words and then hung up.
You know. But it wasn't it wasn't pretty, you know.
So you called back again, said, man, I don't think
we filmed each other. Uh, let me let me play
you a little bit. And he played me the rhythm
track the Superstition he was working. I was like, holy

(26:26):
crap a tongue I am about Stevie one. I mean,
I got, you know, correct this. And so he asked
me to go on tour with him and the Rolling Stones.
They were doing that. That's the biggest tour of the
year at that time. There was nothing bigger than the
Rolling Stones and Stevie wanted together. I'm just gonna be
stadium tour. Everything sold out, limbousines, tear gas, you know,
massive stereo, British. Yeah. It was that kind of stuff,

(26:48):
you know, you got to back them up. Yeah, yeah,
So it was crazy. I mean it was like, you know,
but I told him first, I got to talk to
my dad, you know, get because I'm respecting by my parents.
And my dad was crying. He was like, son, I
eving money for you to go college since before you
were born, you know. And I was like, yeah, but
I don't want to do that. I want to go
with the rock and roll band, you know. So we
headed out, you know, and then I repeated back to

(27:08):
my dad and very respectfully. After about two days, he
gave up, you know, he said, I can't do nothing
with this poor kid, he's going down. You know, he's
gonna make twenty to night. I said, I don't think so, Dad,
I'm gonna do a little better than that, you know.
And so I went on that tour and that that
was a life changing for me. That was the big
eye opener life because everything I did was in Detroit,

(27:29):
and this is the first time I got to see
the rest of the world and see what everybody else
on at any team, what everybody else was doing, you know,
And it just opened my eyes to everything. I mean,
I didn't know no publishing and no writing songs or produced.
I didn't know what none of this stuff. I don't
even know what it was. I just want to play together.
When you had any form of representation at all, know
what not. The only person you just had to talk

(27:50):
to his pops. Exactly, can I go, yeah, exactly. And
my dad was pretty smart, by the way, especially with money.
My dad, I'm never forget even when we were younger,
he used to There were no calculators and computers, but
he used to make me amateurize the mortgage and figure
out each payment, which is difficult because the interest rate.

(28:10):
Once you make a payment last month, it's a different
payment the next one between the principle in the in
the in the in the the interest. Each month the
payment is the same, but the balance is I had
to figure that out. Like eleven years old. He was
setting Yeah, he was setting me up. So my dad
had some great ideas, some of them should have listened

(28:32):
to a little more, especially with the girls and accountants
and a bunch of others. We're gonna get that. They
have a look at the dollar bill and his thing.
We says, see that way, says what is this sayce
in God? You trust? You know God? We trust. My
dad says, Now if you trust anybody else, it says
right here who to trust? He says, if you trust
anybody other than God, you're in trouble. In trouble. And uh,

(28:56):
later in life I found out, boy, he's really he's
really right. You pay attention to this. You should have
put some red marks beside that. I said by my
mom all the time, I'll be mad something she said
from teen years ago, like you know what she told
me that. Yeah, so you're going on tour with Stevie
and the Rolling Stone. Yeah, biggest tour in the world,

(29:19):
tear gas limousines and we you know the other things
that I'm sure, oh my God, can get into. Yeah,
we don't. We don't have to a little more x rated.
So you said at this point you don't know publishing.
You don't know none of these songs. When did you
start being like the soft after songwriter. Yeah, but that

(29:39):
took a while, by the way. That came after the
very white stuff, after you got the love, And I'll
tell you exactly when it really flipped for me in
a big way. You know where I could with things change.
I wrote this tune call you made Me feel like dance? Okay,
you make me feel like and won won the Grammy
Song of the Year. Yeah we we No. Well, here's

(30:01):
what's bad. My name ain't on the song nowhere, and
I got no credit. I got completely screwed. Should have
been millions of dollars. I got nothing. And not only
did I write the song at home and bring it in,
the producer did me in, by the way. And I
mean I thought he was my boy because I had
my name on the sign to bring me fresh cut
watermelon juice every day, and he just did me in

(30:24):
big time to me, And not only did I write
the song at home, but I mean, i's me playing
on the record. I put the band together, so there's
no question of what happened everybody. I wrote it and yeah,
put the band in it because all the producers, Yeah,
pretty much. And so the good news to that is
that's like me being a basketball player winning and winning

(30:45):
the series and I ain't got no deal. I wouldn't
sign anybody. So Clide Davis like this song I had
called Jack and Jill, which I had also given to
the same guy who stolen song. Yeah, that's that's the thing.
Not to cut you off, but in this business, right
when you when you when you link in with somebody

(31:06):
and you believe that there you're in two things, you
kind of give them whatever you you're the best of
the best of you. So like you said, he had
already stolen one, but you were giving him another. Well,
I'd already given him that at the same time before.
So this is part of the bat. I don't think
I gave him the second one after Okay, okay, no, no,
because something we got some people do and that's why

(31:28):
I wanted to. I wanted to say that. Yeah, And
so when Clive Davis got wind of it, I think
I was like twenty one or two years old. He says,
get me this ray Pocket guy here. He got a
little studio in his house. You know, he's got all
this stuff going on. He's written these songs. Just bring
him to me. So I got to him. And what
was nice about it. I'm like an athlete, not who

(31:50):
don't hand no deal. I'm I'm out in the street.
Are So, I'm my first deal was like somebody else's
second record deal. He's like, he's already proved himself. He
did this, this and this, and we're gonna do this.
He said, don't worry about the other guy. He says,
we don't even call him to tell him he ain't
got the other song to more. He says, I'll do that.
He says, I'm your divorce attorney. He says, I'll take

(32:10):
care of all that. He's all I want you to
do is cut jack and jail for me. He said,
you were about the music. I got the rest of it.
And he did, and we've cut like I just went
to a ninety of birthday party a month ago. And

(32:31):
he's a wonderful guy. Aretha Franklin says, the wonderful guy.
He is a wonderful guy in the music business. He's
the guy. Yeah you've heard that before probably, but he's
he's a mazing yeah. Okay there, Yeah, he's the man.
So he's he's a really good guy and he took
good care of me and the rest is history after that.
So then you got the money. Yeah, you got the

(32:52):
right lawyer, right, stuff going on and around, So you
got it. Okay, that's a big change for me because uh,
and we're skipping over this, so let's not. But when
I got to l A, I became one of the
top session guys. So what you got the pictures I'm
making just playing the guitar, not writing songs two d

(33:15):
a year in Yeah. Uh, A lot of people that's
that's gonna be tuning in may not even know what
a session player is computer exactly. But I'm the guy
who's playing on Seals and Cross, Tom Jones, Ingleberd Hunter
and the carpenters and guitar and all this stuff and

(33:35):
then then more and so for just playing the guitar
right in those days, I'm making like two hundred plus ran.
To give you some idea what it is. You could
buy a house in Trusdale for three fifty and I'm
making two hundreds and the houses is crazy. Okay, so
you got to cut a picture in your mind. If
I work for two years about that's how much money

(33:59):
that was back in It's like millions, you know, over
a million dollars just playing the guitar and nobody even
knows who I am. I anathing it. So I did that,
and the big flip came. And I'll give you the numbers.
When I turned twenty three, that's the first time I
hit over a million. But I went to like two
point two million a year, and that was a lot,
a lot of money back there. Yeah, and this in

(34:21):
the seventies, Oh my god. So since it's a money show,
it's important to say that because if I knew what
I knew now, I would have kept all the real
to state about all the stuff. But I didn't know
that much about stock. I should have been invested in that.
I could be worth a billion dollars. I could see
the billion easy from then to now, but I didn't

(34:43):
know what I was doing. I'm buying cars and have
a good but I could have done the living too.
It's still done other stuff. I just didn't know about it.
I come from Detroit, the inter city. Nobody in my
family even knew what a mortgage was, but you know
sort of back then. Yeah, yeah, so you learned a
lot of stuff. Then you look back at the money
and go. But I thought, that's a little bit of it.

(35:04):
That was a lot of money. I could have bought
the whole area. If I came to the valley, I
could have bought the whole block for that. Back then
your houses were like valley. Yeah. Yeah, that is amazing,
And that's the that's one thing I learned. It's true. Uh,
I regret every piece of real estate, and so I

(35:27):
regret just about a couple of just about every stock
I've ever sold. Would have held on everything. I wish
I would have held on everything. I could have been
super rich just holding on everything. Yeah, every time, I
thought every time I sold the property for three or
four times. But the one I bought in the next
near Lamont Dog, I think we paid me and my

(35:47):
best friend on We bought it when we were teenagers
for like a hundred and five grands. Dusty Springfield's house,
the Singer which we bought her house man. We sold
that house for four hundred thirty grand we thought we robbed. Yeah,
we call people three four million maybe more, maybe more,
you know, And so I wish I kept every house,

(36:08):
you know. And so when you look at it now,
you said, man, I paid this, and you think I
paid a little bit too much. I mean, they really
bait me over a little bit later. Man, that's that's
It's gonna be chump change. You know. It's just just
just the way the things. People told me that in
the day. But I mean I didn't really see it,
you know, to me. I mean I looked at the
house on Sunset Plants and Drive. It was forty five ground.
They ain't paying on forty five graph in the house?

(36:29):
Are you crazy? Now? You play for the parking space,
you had one of those sitting exactly. That's what I'm saying,
you know. I think I think that's also in our
in our community and amongst our people, with everything that's
going on, with everything that we go through in life.
I think a lot of the younger guys, younger than
even us, they don't even see that far. They don't

(36:52):
see reaching sixty five, reaching seventy years old, still being
in good shape, still moving around, still living your life
good at like I don't know what's going on tomorrow. Yeah,
so I'm gonna go ahead and get this. Yeah, yeah
do that's not yeah right, which, like you said, you
can do that, and still you can. You can you
can put the money up, set yourself up, and still live.

(37:14):
They still live. Yeah, absolutely, Because I think guys start
to think that they you know, they're gonna take away
from how much fun. It's not gonna take away from
how much fun you got. And then at the same time,
nobody needs thirteen of the same car. Either. These guys
go out by thirteen show I thought I used to think.
I used to think I needed four or five cars.

(37:35):
I had them. You know what I'm saying. I'm reading
about guys who buy third They got way more than
four or five cars, but they got thirteen of the
same car. I'd be like, why did you buy thirteen?
It's crazy. I was talking. I'm talking to uh, your nephew,
talking to Jordan, because he's, you know, he wants to
get a car. He's talking about I'm gonna hook him
up with my guys, you know, to get in my car.

(37:55):
And I'm like, well, what do you want to do.
He's like, well, you know, I just want to get
something nice. You know. I pull up and I said,
I said, no, I said, I get it, I said,
I said, but think about this, all the cool things
you've been able to do up until this point, you've
done without a car. You've done without this crazy thousand

(38:16):
dollar overhead. Like when you walk into a place, your
car don't go with you. Now, I said, you pull
up in an uber, walk in there, and what happens?
He said, I'm lit. I said, so let's just we
gotta go crazy. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Get
something cool, get something nice. I said, you're you're the bar.

(38:37):
It's you. They want to see you. So so I
get I have one car. Now I've graduated to a point.
I've elevated my nice car. It's nice, don't get wrong,

(38:58):
but it's one. I mean I come from. I come
from landing in the back of the hatchback of a picture. Yeah, okay,
that's where I come from. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
You know, not getting the new pair of shoes until
my foot was out of the shop, right, Yeah, you
understanding that. So certain parts, certain things for me are triggers. Yeah,

(39:20):
you're making that for lost time. I'm making for lost time, baby.
But let me tell you one car care what it was.
One car is fine, And I'm gonna give you an example.
This is what I tell my kids. Like back in
the day. See, I lived in Beverly Hills. I think
I was twenty four and I had and I was
twenty four. I know it was because I had a
Rose Royce. I had a Rose Royce at a Porsche,

(39:40):
at a g Hat, a Honda or something like that.
And I'll never forget I made when I made the
big money, I wanted to buy a Rose Royce convertible
because Slide the family stone Head one on his album.
Because I just gotta have Rose rog convertible. I gotta
be gram Street and Rose RoCE convery. But it was
important to me. Yeah, I'm like, what was so important
about that? But it was important at the time I had.
It was the driver, it was it was something give

(40:06):
me as Corniche convertible. It's definitely a foss And I'll
never get the car at that time was a hundred
and seven thousand dollars. Now, so I made that first money.
Jack and Joe the album Radio albums Head and I
first made I first passed a million for the first time.
I got the money, not my accounting lawyer. They're all
giving it up. You gotta pay you all your bills,
pay your manager, pay your account pay your lawyer, pay

(40:28):
all the bills, pay your taxes, gotta pay your taxes.
I paying all my taxes, and I had enough money left.
I got my mom and dad a house, and I
upgraded my house, and and I had this money left.
And I'll never forget my lawyers said, man, he said,
you like Slice so much. I got this whole catalog
you can buy for four and fifty thousand dollars. I

(40:48):
was like, what am I doing with them old songs?
You know, just being uneducated. I'm like, you know, yeah,
I know what. I'm dance to the music every day.
People with a my heart, my heart, And so I said, well,
I said, I gotta get my mama house. That's that.
And then there was so much of money left. I
wasn't thinking of finance. I just said, man, I gotta
get my rolls Royce. Don't y'all mess up the budget

(41:09):
with my rolls Royce, and I'll never get my lawyer
look at me, says, well, can't you use these songs.
He says, you know, people, we were both young. He said,
you know people are buying published and now they you know,
maybe they some value to but it was so early
nobody was doing that yet. You know, I said, man,
skip that pubs and at Rose Royce convertable right, and
and so in hindsight now I'm now we're gonna go

(41:30):
in hindsight, which is always okay. So in hindsight, Frankie
Cronker WBLS was the biggest station in New York. I
passed him on Las Airelea. He took my music off
the air for a year and a half in New York.
So I got no airplane in New York. Now, luckily
for me, I was selling so many records. I was
gonna go and planet anyway. But I know I felt

(41:50):
that missing. The New York said, what was that million?
I don't know how many million to that lost back?
I mean seventies dollars a million plus because I had
no air in New York for a year and a half.
Because he was pill Don Cornea saw me driving. I
passed him, and they'll give you that look like so
the Rolls Royce is making him feel this way Oh,
they liked me until they saw me rolling down the

(42:13):
Rose Royce and they're in the Rose Royce. They looked
at me like this. When I went frank Frankie Crocker,
who I thought we were boys. I mean, I played
his concerce for for free and you know all the
other stuff. Man, When he saw me pulling in the road,
he looked at me like this. I knew I was
in trouble when he when he looked at me like this,
he folded his arms at the red light and like that,
you know, and just the way he looked at me,

(42:34):
I knew I was in trouble. You know. I was like,
I know, if Clive Davis called me and said, what
did you do? Bang his wife or something? He said,
I can't buy your music on the radio. He said,
they won't even take the money to put you on
the radio. He said, what did you do? And I went,
I know, I know what happened. I saw it in
his eyes when I drove, you know, and I'm like happy,

(42:55):
like you're proud of me on having no No, that's
the other that's the other side of it. So now
let's let's talk about that. Like when just tell people
don't buy to me cars. How much did the rules
first cost? It did not cost me a hundred and
seven thousand dollars. First of all, I didn't buy a
Slack Catalog that's worth a hundred million dollars just that.

(43:16):
So the car cost me over a hundred million dollars. Okay,
it's cost So you gotta think, you know, and I'm
trying to teach my kids, you know, give him take.
I did really well. My best investment in all is
that little electric car that came out with Tesla. You know,
I heard I heard about it that on the streets. Man.

(43:36):
I had a whole bunch of Tesla stock. Okay. And
and when did you do that? Oh? I did in
two thousand twelve a lot of it, like over a
hundred thousand ships. Okay. So I took so some shares
when it was on its way up because I wanted
to build a studio. I want to build a house
next to my house, put a nice studio, and all

(43:57):
this to cast a couple of million dollars. That cup
a million dollars of what I sold just to building
that costs me like million, right, So you look at
it back and go if he just waited, not build
that put the bill there. Yeah, so everybody looks at
the different that's really nice, man, increase the value your house,
but not twenty five millions and didn't increase the vout

(44:18):
my house. But that costs that. You know, I sold
something I did carefully. I didn't keep all of it.
I sold it on the way I made it. You
made it reasonable, but it had I held just that
people just that one portion another twenty five million. Now,
so I tell my sons, I said, it's not that
you And by the way, you can't count everything like that.
Like you said, you get your one. You gotta have
some fun you're working for. You gotta have something to

(44:39):
motivate you to go. He's a nice place. You gotta
have something to motivate you to go to the next step.
But just know that some of those extra little things.
Did you think it ain't a big they only spent
three hundred grand that right, you know what exactly it
could cost you. I mean I got examples of that
all day long. Cause you're a lot more than that.
You think you can't to do this, then that went

(45:03):
there because even crazier part right, just aside from just
like the money stuff right and its success and in
the waves of different times, right of your successes from
the Motown days, Very White to Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye,

(45:23):
all those things. The way I found out about you
was missed a Telephone Manah right like you are? You
are generations of R and B music. No, it's a
wealth of catalog and a wealth of stories and amazing things.
And I remember the first time I heard that record,

(45:44):
and I remember what the video looked like, and and
they on the street and the guys got the little
telephones and they man, you know what I'm saying, Like
I remember it vividly. For me, that's a screw up.
What yeah? I mean? Telephone Man is a song called
a Woman's Love just like you did? Remember the hit

(46:05):
on hand and one of these loves number one. I
don't know that. I don't know. You better listen to
that because that was a huge record. And I didn't
like what I did with Telephone Man, which I wrote first,
so I changed the move. The music is almost the same.
I changed the words and wrote a Woman's Loves just
like You with number one record pop everything I just smashed.
Then the new edition heard Telephone man, which I should

(46:27):
have recorded myself, because you know, if you're the star
and you wrote it, it's much better than just giveing
it to somebody else. Okay, so what I do that for?
So the new edition did it, and I was nervous
and scared, and even when I gave it to the
Joe Buzzby the record come, I got slid under the
door and ran out, you know, and he's like, this
is the second thing I said it is. I'm like,
oh my god, You're like, I just missed. I misread

(46:49):
that song. I didn't think that was gonna be any
didn't really think anything I told. I told the guys
that too. I said, man, you guys really delivered this
one because I just didn't think it was gonna do
you know, we're gonna do that, you know, And it
was a smash supersmanish that mistake. It's like, well, what
did not? That could have been another one? Another notch
in my bilt? You know what am I doing? Do

(47:10):
you think? Though? Okay? So here we go with that
from from the artist side and the writer's side, because
you know, Tank is fully immersed on both. But with me,
I just you know, I learned early. I forgot. I
don't know who even told me this, but they told me,
don't fall in love with the records as a songwriter. Right.
They were like, because you know your feelings that get hurt,

(47:31):
your feelings that get hurt in this thing by you know,
you're giving away your children in a sense because you
know this this comes from us, right, and so for you,
how how was that process at times? Thinking? You know,
I see you had a piece of it where you're like, well,
I should have kept it. But do you think you

(47:51):
at this point you're grown? Man? You probably what thirty
years old when you were man or somewhere in there?
Are you still nineteen? Then? Yes, it was I wrote Jack,
when I wrote Jack and Jill another song, So this
record don't come out for a minute, don't come out
for almost ten years. They don't come out till they're
almost a team. And there the age I was when

(48:12):
I wrote it, Mr telephone man, it's ten years old
when it comes out. Yes, oh yes, and you would
have been you would have been a kid singing it too,
because that's that was my question. Oh yeah, yeah, I
would have been the kids singing it. Yeah. We gotta
go in the computer and see if there's some ten

(48:34):
year old records. It would have been more relevant if
I sang it, because cell phones were coming out when
they sing it, and it wasn't no party lines and stuff.
You know, some of the stuff in the song didn't
even exist. Sort of later, all that party line stuff
your your MoMA take. But that's the seventies. When you
pick up the phone and the neighbor down the street
is on the same line you on, that's what that means.

(48:57):
Just so you don't know, we say this ain't no,
I ain't got no already lined the party line is.
In the old days, you didn't get your own phone line.
You shared it with the two or three neighbors. Now. Man,
when I was a kid, I just thought that was
something that means it's going up, he's going out, it's
going up. But that's not what it means. There was
really a party line where you pick up the phone

(49:18):
and you be cussing out your neighbor like, hey man,
you've been on the phone for a long time. I
gotta call my friend, I gotta call you, gotta get
off the phone. And so nobody had their own lines
back in the early late sixties and early seventies when
we grew up. So when you hit party and everybody
knows what I'm talking about, who's older. So there's things
in that song were not a whole thing though. They
ain't no miss the telephone. They ain't no telephone no

(49:38):
more so not the whole song is different, you know.
But I mean they heard now I'm play I'm gonna
play that song for my kids later. Yeah, and there's
a kid on the m c A named Junior Tucker
who released it first. So the new edition heard Junior
Tucker sothing and he sounds almost like the new edition.
They got that kind of frill scareboys. And they heard

(49:59):
that and when they when they met me, they said, look,
we want you to cut it this. I'll give them
credit for They said, don't update it, don't make it
sound like the new stuff. Cut it like you would
have cut it ten years. We sold the record twice,

(50:21):
so yeah, dude, they said, cut it like you would have.
In fact, they wanted to track from another kid that
can we had that. I'll make it better than that,
they said. We don't make it too better, just make
we want that old We need that feel, so we
get that old field. We got our steps and everything
we do to it, and we flew a jet down
to the Bahamas and saw them performing and all that
kind of stuff hung out and so I cut it

(50:42):
just like I would have cut it if I was there.
And the song was the song the nine years old
for it came out, they released it. I'm stuck now.
This is this is this is amazing because the other
thing is that we haven't even gotten gotten to get
to it. So when I was in preschool, there's a

(51:05):
picture of me and I have a shirt on that
says I ain't fraid of know. I have a mouthful
of silver teeth and a T shirt that said I
Ain't afraid of no ghost and the only And that's

(51:27):
the thing, like for black people, right, for black people especially,
Like Yes, Ghostbusters is a great movie. It's about your records.
It is about your song. And I'm sure you've talked
about this song a trillion times over and over, but
while you're here, I just want to say, I'm sure

(51:50):
he wants to say thank you, thank you for that record.
That record was, that record was my childhood with that
record almost didn't happen at all. And why is that?
Because I didn't think that was any kind of music
that I should be cutting. Really yeah, and it wasn't
supposed to be no record that the guy, the guy

(52:13):
that no, this is better than that, the guy who
worked with me on Barry White. When I said I
did the songs and I didn't get the publish was
Barry White was always published by Aaron Schroder Music. And
the guy who was there was Gary Lemil, who's this
this contact person. So we worked together in the very
white days, and then I started dating years later, I

(52:34):
started dating back to this kind of stuff, dating his secretary,
Gary Secord. So that hooked me and Gary back up,
and he thought I was the right guy to write
a song for this film. But it wasn't gonna be
a song, which because they need like a twenty seconds
or something over the library scene, and the guy wanted
to chant Ghostbusters in it. So he let me. They

(52:54):
let me see the film and I went okay. So
I met with the director and the director started telling
about how he wanted to be need to go and
all that kind of like that name what they might be.
You know, it's like a rapper. That ain't what I do.
That's just not and my sons are always that ain't
what they're doing. I tell me you better watch that.
That ain't what you right do it, you know, and

(53:14):
nothing defines that for me better and Ghostbusters. I mean,
if you listen to my whole catalog and music and
you were familiar with it, you say, what, he's never
gonna write that. I mean, that has nothing to do
with that. Ain't his groove. That ain't where he comes from.
He's funking that. Just think that. And so you know,
the director told me what he wanted, and then they
threw the what I'll call a nice curveball. It's it's

(53:36):
only gonna be twenty seconds. He has write us a
minute of music, and you've got three days, and if
we don't like it, you keep the fifth. We're gonna
get a fifty grand, you know. Now that's in nineteen
eighty three or eighty four. That's a lot of money.
Fifty grand give me that, but three about this fifty grand?
Then that's like four grand. Now you know, you're gonna

(53:58):
get some music for me in three days. Gonna get something,
But I don't care what it's gonna get something. So
I listened to what the director said, and I came
up with a piece of music. I didn't think it
was bad. I didn't think it was nothing right at
home about. But I don't think it was bad, you know.
And uh, the voices all that, I ain't for you
to go to you So that was supposed to be
the background voices and all that stuff. The director said,

(54:18):
I like the way you're saying it. I said, yeah,
but what am I saying that? There's nothing on it.
I'm just saying I ain't for you to go. I'm
gonna get some girls this thing that. He was like, no,
I don't want a girls singing that. I like the
way you're saying it, you know. And then he was
like he had already said at the meeting, the music
is not that important, but the movies coming out in
a few weeks, we're in a hurry. Just give us
twenty seconds of music and things. I only cut. I
only cut like a minute of it. I mean there's

(54:40):
there's really I cut one verse in one chorus. That's it.
And so they heard that, and then he directed liked
it a little bits, and so my lawyer drew up
a big contract looked like the book, and he said, man,
did you read what I wrote over the weekend. I said,
I don't read more than one page, just things like
twenty pages. What are you talking about long? And he says,
if anything happens other than them using it in the

(55:02):
twenty seconds, it's gonna be good. That's what he says.
It's gonna be good. But the first thing that happened
is the director called Bank says, man, uh, can you
make it longer? He says, maybe we should make a record.
I'm like record, They can't make no record to me
singing about the team and to it go something. I'm
the guy in the ladies. Man, what are you talking about?
I mean, what are you talking about? Yeah, I'm the man?

(55:23):
What are you doing? I don't do that feeling that.
I'm not feeling that, you know. So we're tossing this
around and Clive Davis didn't really like it in the beginning,
and so we're tossing all this stuff around, and so
finally I come up with idea. I said, well, you know,
you got Dan Accord them guys, And I said, maybe
if you get the Saturday Night Live guys in the video,
we can curve it, make it go somewhere else. And

(55:45):
he took that and put everybody. He put everybody in
the video, you know, and I was like, man, this
is this is crazy. You know. Then all of a
sudden he says, you know, we should make it a record,
you know record. I really got nervous, give me like
longer and yeah, that's standing there. You know. So when
I was done, and we were really nervous, right, the

(56:05):
record company was nervous. I was nervous, And I'm playing
this song back. Who doesn't sound like anything I've ever
done before, I mean nothing. I'm like playing the song
day like, Man, I don't know if they're gonna think
I'm gonna sell out or you know, you know. And
when most people heard it from the beginning, they were like,
they ain't know Ray Pocket Jr. They ain't what that
ain't what we used to hear it. You know, that
ain't it. And that song came out and just went

(56:29):
I mean, I'll never forget. It's the only record I
had in my life. Would a head of promotion called
me five days after the record came out and he says,
I'm done with your record. I've closed it out. It's
on every station five days, five days. Something strange. He
had all the P one stations, He had all the stations,

(56:51):
anything that was available, anything it was available, everything, anything
that was available to play it on was done in
five days. He says, I'm done with your record. He said,
we'll just my guys will just monitor. He said, but
it's closed out, and I went, what does that mean?
He says, there are no more places to play your music?
And he just went like through the roof and the

(57:13):
first thing we knew where it was big super big.
Not only was that, but Clive called me up. He says, Man,
we weren't going to release the record till the movie
comes out, like Overseas, which takes nine months. He says,
we've exported for a half night records in the first
couple of weeks. He says, they don't know what you're
saying over there. He says, why are they buying the record?
They don't know what you're saying. I said, heck if

(57:35):
I know. If I knew that I cut some are
something four and a half, that tagline, yeah, that and
that tagline. What was interesting. What was interested is I'm
like a kid who does his homework late over the
weekend Sunday night. Now you got turned in Monday morning.
I had the music because he told me what he

(57:55):
wanted for the music. But the the part that was
gonna be in genius that I hadn't figured out yet
was the hard part. How do you put go the
word Ghostbusters to a song? It was impossible. It didn't
sing right about how I sang it. No matter what
I did, it sounded terrible. You couldn't sing it. And
that's why that's why nobody else had it. Nobody else
had it either, because he hired Lindsay Buggy, he had

(58:17):
a hold bunch of famous people to do it before me.
I was the first call. They've been working on this
for a whole year, and they spent a fortune, and
he hated every song. But I looked at it, and
I'll never forget what it occurred to me. I knew
right away to me, the Ghostbusters were soldiers, so the
music had to be stiff. It had to be military time,

(58:37):
so I knew it was military sound on then I
saw a commercial on TV about I think it was
rotary and one of these kind of things where they
have the guy's insect guys or whatever. Just great, and
the part of the Ghostbusters movie had the phone number. Brother,
I said, that's it. I gotta go goldmer pound on
these bad boys sound off too, So it's a up

(58:57):
to three fourths on who you're gonna called about? You know,
like a sound off. Even in the back, I go,
I can't hear you louder, you know. So it's a
military song. So when bands playing in the bar and
they try to get cool, it's not a cool song.
It's got to be a military song. It's gotta be stiff,
and it's gotta be corny, and so you give it

(59:19):
that military feel. And then I figured out I can
never say the words ghostbusters and singing. I gotta say
who are you gonna come? And let the crowd delivered ghostbusters. Yeah,
And that's all for us as kids. That's exactly if
you couldn't wait to yea yeah yeah. But all that's
by accident, you know. So then it came out and

(59:39):
so that record, now, that is my style. That defines me. Now,
you know, whether I like it or not don't matter.
That's it, you know. And they all the kids were happy,
and the kids now are still happy. By the way.
You get some kids that are seven years old now
and and you can have a bunch of us rock
stars or whatever, older guys. They'd be looking like me
and Stevie And then you say rape Parker. Did you

(01:00:01):
say that's the guy that did? Who you gonna call?
All that time? They wanted to come hug you, hug
your legs down here, take a picture into you like
can we just watched We just watched the New Ones.
And so the kids hear that song and it's just
something in there. They just go crazy. I mean, it works,
you know, And so that was that was the one.
You know, who would have thought that was the one? Amazing? Yeah,

(01:00:24):
I said that all the time. I never called him,
And what's funny about that calling. I was only here
to get the phone call and do all the rest
of it because I was doing that song, Mr Telephone Man,
because my parents were sick, so I was going I
was staying in Detroit most of the time. I hadn't
been in l A. I hadn't been in my studio,
had been doing stuff. I'm thinking, Yeah, my career is over.
I gotta take care of my mom and dad. And

(01:00:44):
the good thing I saved my money. I'm gonna be okay.
So I came out to l a just to do
the new edition. And while I was doing a new
edition across the Spot Street and Spargo, there was that
black poster with the red they put in the red
circle and like, the heck is that? Then my phone
ring this garrety mail. Can you come down to Warner Brothers?
And how and how old are you at this point?

(01:01:06):
And You're saying to yourself, my career is old. Well, yeah,
because my parents were sick and they're telling me to
cut a new record. I ain't no item for no
new records, ain't cutting no new anything. I'm going to
stay with my mom. And they were like, yeah, go
see your parents for the weekend, come back, come we
in black folks, Wenna do that. I'm gonna stay. I
want to stay with my parents. Yeah, this is this
is it's two or three years. I'm gonna stay, you know.

(01:01:27):
And so yeah, I'm thinking things might be a little
over and and God's getting ready to get me the
biggest blessing of all and two blessings at the same
week or two weeks. First, you come out and cut
the song in the new edition that you didn't like
that you roam and the song and then already Ghostbusters
the next weekend. I'm done. That was only two weeks.

(01:01:51):
I worked all year those two man. Shout out to
those two, shut up because those are amazing. Yeah. So
when I come to l A, I had been here
maybe six months. I meet you. I don't even know
if you remember this. I'm gonna give your down Damon Thomas.

(01:02:15):
At the time, he he doesn't even mention the Ghostbusters thing.
He's like, yeah, you know this, he owns American Studios,
right or Mayory I can studios Ray Yeah h they
started you early with the raise everything he's putting every

(01:02:35):
radio Mayor Ray can't. Yes. So and I was for
me before he even said that anything about Ghostbusters. I'm
eighteen years eighteen years old at the time, I didn't
know of any black men owning studio. And I've been
a kid of music and love music, and I just
never knew of anyone. I've been to your studio and

(01:02:55):
I'm like, wait, he owns he owns the studio? This right,
This is what you're thinking when you're eighteen years old.
And then he's like, oh yeah, and it's way Parker Jr.
I'm like, wait, Parker, wait, goals bust. So when we
had Damon's house and we start talking and I think

(01:03:18):
I maybe I think that. I think I played you
what became Tyrese's record I Like Them Girls, which was
the first Underdog record ever, and I played you the
record and he would like, I like you. I remember this,
I'll never forget you. Were like like, I like you, man,

(01:03:39):
good head on your shoulders. Good look kid, You're gonna
make some money in this game. He's like, I'm gonna
give you some advice. I'm thinking you're about to just
start running on running down. Somebody said you like, get
it a sector me and I was like, I told
David the same thing. I'm thinking that. I'm thinking in

(01:03:59):
my I can't even spell this sect is he talking about?
But if breaking Parker JIU isn't here telling me that,
I need to say, I'm gonna find out what it
was set. And then you told me the story which
is long and we won't go into that, but you
told me a story about how getting INVOSECTI. He saved
you millions of dollars. Yeah, and I did it too late.

(01:04:22):
I should have done it a couple more years earlier.
I would have been involved, man. And that's what you
told me. I can look at him and see he's
gonna get in trouble when it's younger. You can look
at it. That's what I said, good looking guy, I
can see where you hit it. I've been there. I
just don't want to touch the Lord's work. I think

(01:04:45):
if he meant for us to have a voalve to
cut it on and off, he would have provided it.
And I agree with you, but there's also people who
made rubbers man. This is somebody who didn't know what
I'm talking about, never heard of it. I agree with you,
But he also meant for us to do a whole
bunch of other things that would have prevented that too,
that we didn't do. Think we're already cheating in the

(01:05:07):
first place. I think you just gotta be responsible. You
know what I'm saying. Your your hip, your hip game.
You know what I'm saying. You gotta be responsible with
your hips. You gotta get out of it. You gotta
pull that piece out. Sometimes you're getting lost in the sauce.
Man this and man, I know I know how many
kids you got, five got I got to I was

(01:05:29):
in six. But I'm down to hold on, hold on, hold,
on segue, how do you go from six to four DNA?
Thank you God for DNA A lot on your kid

(01:05:50):
is not my kid, not my fun. People don't realize.
Michael Jackson was talking about that early about sometimes what
they try to do to you, the two extra kids
on you. Yeah, yes, and back then you couldn't swab
them out. I mean, you know you had to like
take care of the kids for three years. How much

(01:06:13):
that cost before you could before you Yes, yes, mama's baby,
daddy's maybe three years, three years, three years because that's
the DNA wasn't that developed yet. When first of all,
I'm lucky to have DNA before then you just paid period.
So whoever, whoever they just said, is the daddy, that's what.

(01:06:34):
That's what. If you took a blood test and you
were close, you would have if you were close, if
you were close close, not nocent either, I'm talking about
just if the real blood type was the same. You
happen to be Black's right, Yeah, you happen to be
the Only way you're gonna escape is if it's a
Chinese kid comes out and you know, and in three years,

(01:06:54):
how much you think you paid, Oh, hundreds of thousands
of dollars. But first of all, you got the initial right,
and you notice you don't, you're not it's not her lawyer,
it's your son's lawyer. So since it's claimed to be
your son, you have to pay for your lawyer, your accountant,

(01:07:14):
his lawyer, his accountant. Of course he's in the cradle
and she's constructing it. She's in charge of it. But
you gotta pay for all four. So you're down a
couple of hundred grand back in the early eighties. But
that's before anything happens. Down a couple of rolls Royces.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, a couple of rolls Royce being
because they weren't that they were cheaper than they were.

(01:07:35):
That's two rolls royces. You're down four rolls royces before
you get how much you gotta pay man four roys.
And then one day you get a phone call that says, no,
you don't get a phone call. You gotta wait a
few years. Then you gotta say everybody's you gotta hire
the lawyers again, because you gotta get her and the

(01:07:56):
kid to go to the house bill and you take
the tests that ain't free either. You gotta get that.
So you gotta go back again. Man, I hope you're
paying attention. Yeah, I'm not getting overseting. The Lord designed
me a certain way. If I didn't get y'all, I
didn't get one. He's now married and he's taking an

(01:08:17):
oath to do right. I'm as long as he does row.
But if you're on a straight narrow that means you
won't be on TMZ and pull out kim piece of hood.
But anything other than that. I told my kids, by
the way, my two younger kids for me getting the reversal,
because you put some up. Oh no, no, no, I

(01:08:40):
just gotta reverse. No, you get a reversal, you can
do you can go right back to it. You don't
putting up for I put I put some up because
I was scared. You know, I'm wanted my immortality thing.
But I didn't use that. I just gotta be versa,
got married right back to where I was. Yeah. So,
so guys, you don't lose, You don't lose all your bullets.

(01:09:04):
It's not over. I'm just talking about putting in suspend
putting in suspended animation for a little one. Save yourself
a hundred million dollars or whatever you're gonna lose and
just take you be responsible, you know. So we got
a part of this show. We got a part of
this show. It's a very important part of this show.

(01:09:25):
This is gonna be good because you didn't. You didn't
gave us so many bars, so many bars that are
attached to people, right and wet. We were able to
speak to names and you know, and speak freely. I
need you to give us we got okay, before before
I tell you that the name of the show, the
name of the name of the portion of the show

(01:09:46):
it's called. I ain't saying no names. So the story
can be either funny or fucked up or both. But
you can't say the name of the person in gonna
be trying to figure out a guilty party. Yeah, he's
a lot of people. They're gonna know the guilty party.
I mean the streets out what the streets. I got

(01:10:11):
a problem with that. So give us get off, give
us a good one, Give us give us one, give
us one. Give us. You mean I got to create
the story. You have to create. But I'm telling your story.
But I can't say the name. Can't say any name.
Oh my gosh, like, which one do we go here? Yeah? Well,

(01:10:33):
I can think of it huge record executive, and she's
not gonna say anything because she will be busted. Hey
White and I didn't do it, but you know, she
used to call me and wanted me to take her

(01:10:55):
here and take her there, And I'm thinking, holy crap,
I didn't know at first. I thought she was sincere
and just wanted me to go somewhere with her. But
I find like the opening of his clothing store, why
we ain't gonna go to movies? What is going in
the wrong direction? And if you know anything about girls,
you can't really you know, guys, hey baby, give me

(01:11:17):
a number. No, okay, smack, you're done. We used to
that and we get to know all the time. But
you don't really tell him no high prep high you know.
You don't really tell unimportant, high end, high level. A

(01:11:38):
woman know that a couple of syllables with you, you know,
But I'm saying you don't really, So you got to
like go you got to think about this, yes, because
if you tell you know, women ain't really they don't
really get into no. By the time they decided you're
the one, You're lucky to get it, and you should
be appreciative and thank your lucky stars. And so you

(01:12:00):
can't just say no, I don't do that, because that
could kill the whole thing too, you know, and this
person could bury you easily. Yeah. And she even said,
I'm I'm I'm the one here forget him. He does
what I you know, I'm here. I turned in yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so I'm sitting here like, whole crap, I'm about
to lose my whole career. I'm seeing how do I

(01:12:23):
not do this? Because I said that there's no happy
ending to this story. I mean, it only ends with
me getting screwed like one way another. Yeah, So I
had to. I had to wheeze on my way out
of there. And I told her my religious beliefs and
how much I really wanted to be with her and
now that, but it was against my religious convictions Muhammad
Ali style. You know, I said, it's nothing wrong with

(01:12:44):
you name. I mean, I'm ready to go. I mean,
oh my gosh, I wish I could. Oh. I mean,
I just you know, so I made her feel very
wanted and fed her ego the way it needs to
be fair. But I did not do the deed, because
once you do the d that's like sign the contract
that you don't you read the contract, you know, a
million pages young. So I didn't do that. But if
that was the dangerous one, I remember thinking, my life's

(01:13:08):
gonna be over. How did that before? How is this
gonna Did you ever in your mind think, well, if
I knock it down, knock it down. If I knock
it down the way I'm just supposed to knock you down,
I'd be dead completely. Didn't. Yeah, that's the other thing too.
This was one of those situations where if I took
it down the right way, then I'd be a percent

(01:13:29):
dead because by time, you know, if it went that way,
then the husband found I me, I just he was
in the whole another group I'd be I'll be out
of here. That just big. We just they put him
in the desert with the rest of the back part. Yea.
He went to dinner with me, shook my head, came
to my house dinner, and he's doing my put him

(01:13:50):
into that Maryland and you don't mess what nobody's wife exactly. Yeah.
Control shot out to religious beliefs. I think, well, I said,
at least it's always to Lord, don't want me to
do this, that's right, I want to do. I want
to do it, I promise you and the Devil want

(01:14:10):
to do in the Devil. I'm not gonna listen with him.
I'm not gonna go with it. Confirmed blowing your backhouse
with the Lord and it ain't fair to you. But
I don't want to be unfair to you. What kind
of person would I be if I treated you like that? Oh?
My god? R and b R and be the game
he had, He had a top ten record called the

(01:14:30):
Other Woman. So I happened right then. Listen to my brother, Sir,
Sir Ray Parker Jr. We Um, I've been I've been
messed up. I've been messed up. I'm a talker, but

(01:14:51):
I have been in class taking notes from this session.
You being able to sit here with you, Um, the
is the best. This is fun. I'm having a good time.
We we we truly honor you and appreciate you on
a level that you probably will never understand, because we

(01:15:12):
are here because of you and this platform, all these
like you see, all of this, it's because of you.
So we thank you wholeheartedly. Forgive your thanks. And can
I give a little message to yourself to y'all, don't
get crazy with this stuff, but get your a little
real estate. We see all that Amazon and Apple all it,

(01:15:34):
so if you gotta buy all of it, just get
you a little bit of all that stuff and just
put us like, get some cryptocurrencies, even though I don't
understand why you cannot buy this with this currency, thinking
about that, Just get a little bit of everything. You
really don't need a lot of it, but just have
a little bit of everything because if one of them
thinks takes off, and one will surely go, if you
have a bunch of it, you that could solve all

(01:15:54):
your problems. Just that. And if you want to get
more sophisticated that that's a whole another conversation. But just
to make sure you have a little bit of everything.
I wish i'd done more of that. Just a little
bit of everything, you know, and when that takes off, man,
you'd be shocked, you know. And that's the money I'm
talking about. Is when you get your first porsh you
don't have to buy the second and third one. Take
that money. But yeah, that is a lesson from sir

(01:16:20):
Ray Parker. Ray Parker, I'm tanking and this has been
the R and B money Lise. It's come on, I
Like it Ship R and Money. R and B Money

(01:16:48):
is the production of the Black Effect podcast Network. For
more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the R Heart
Radio Apple Apple Podcast, or wherever you're listen to your
favorite shows. Don't forget to subscrip, ride to and rate
our show, and you can connect with us on social
media via at R and B Money podcast or at
The Real Tank or at J Valentine