Nicci Gilbert Interview

Grammy- nominated singer Nicci Gilbert talks Brownstone, R&B Divas, Michael Jackson and
 the P-Valley lawsuit.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to the Mother Nos Show.I am Mother Nos and I am super
excited. This is my third episodeof my podcast, and I am inviting
my friends to coming chat talk aboutwhat they got going on, and let's
go down memory lane. So todaymy special guest is Grammy Award winning singer,

(00:21):
songwriter, and producer Okay. Sheis mainly known for being the lead
vocalist of R and B girl groupWho We Love Brownstone, who rose to
fame in the mid nineteen nineties,best known for their nineteen ninety five hit
single if You Love Me Say It, Oh Yes Honey, which was nominated

(00:41):
for a Best R and B PerformanceGrammy Award. Let's welcome to the Mother
Nos Show. Nikki Gilbird, yougot it? What's up? Nikki?
Hello? Mother? How are you? I'm happy, I'm ecstatic. I'm
finally gonna ut popping it Philly.He was challenge so much rain in Philadelphia,

(01:03):
the rain, Rain Rain. Cango to Spain, Nikki. I
know that's right, go to Spain. Just take us with you. How
are you page? First class?Eva? Right? That's baby. Listen
that Angie? Actually, how areyou? My friend? Sometimes I'll be
in the back, depending on what'sgoing on with Listen, I've been in

(01:26):
the roads part section too, Honey, I've been in seat number thirty eight
right by the engine. I getit, baby, Listen, how are
you, my friend? I amwell, I am well. It's been
it's hard to believe. In acouple of months, I'm be hitting that
fifty four. Get out of that. Yeah, I'll be fifty four.
I will be fifty four in July. Yep, what's the secret. But

(01:48):
I had to give me some JannyJackson poetic justice braids just to remind myself
of the old days. Let's talkabout the old days, and let's take
it back, take us back tohow you who got your start in the
music business? Nikki Gilbert. Oh, you know what's really funny. He's
speaking of Philly. My mother inlove is coming to hang out with us
for a minute. And I wasgetting the guest room ready for her,

(02:08):
and I was talking to my grandsonand he had just randomly asked me how
I met Michael Jackson. And he'shelping me clean up and make up the
bed, and I'm telling him thestory and he's so captivated by it.
This was literally last night. Solong story short, I won't make it
as long as I did with mygrandson because I gave him all the details.
But I, you know, itwas one of those things where I

(02:30):
was I had a lot of Ilike self confidence. I guess just if
I'm gonna be totally honest with you. And I didn't really think I had
all of the packaging to be asolo artist. But I was like,
listen, if we put if Ijust put together a group and everybody can
sing their face off and we justreally go hard on these harmonies and write

(02:51):
really great songs, we might getsomewhere. So I put an ad in
the paper called to Drama Logue andthen that's that thing back in the day
in LA and it may still bearound. I don't know. But it
was like a free paper, rightbecause that's all I could afford was free
ninety nine, and we put anad in Drama Logue. I booked a
space DeBie Rental studios, and Ihad auditions, and that is where I

(03:13):
met Maxi and Mimi And actually therewere five of us. Berry Gordy's niece,
I'm not Berry Gordy. Berry White'sniece was a part of the group,
and a beautiful talented singer out ofNew York. Selena Morrel was a
part of the group. So weactually brown so was five. Yeah,
for about two days. We wasfive and then you know, I'm a
workhorse, so I'm like rehearsal,rehears So they're like, okay, well,

(03:36):
you know, we didn't know itwould take all this, but Maxie
and Nimi of course stuck it out. I wrote a bunch of songs back
in the day. That's when youhad to really rehearse and practice and put
together your demos. Please please,please please listen to my demo. And
we actually went and this the storyof meeting Michael Jackson's team is crazy.

(03:57):
Maxie and I were walking down Melrosewhen it was you know Melrose, right,
and this guy walked up to her. Shep and he was like,
oh, you're beautiful. I'm asinger. I'm a pop singer, you
know, white guy, and hewas like, I would love for you
to be the lead girl in myvideo. So Maxie was like, well,
I'm a singer, and I'm like, girl, please, you better
go on and get that Naomi Campbellexposure. So we went. He was
shooting the video in the desert Thesong was called Crashing I'll Never Forget.

(04:21):
So on the way back they hadtwo fifteen passenger vans. One of the
vans broke down, so the guywhose parents were funding the video was like
driving one of the vans and Iwas in the van with him while the
talent, which was Maxie at thetime, and Shep were in the van
ahead of us. Tire blew out. They said, we said, you
know, just going ahead get theshot because of the daylight. I'll stay

(04:42):
behind with him in network A littlebit long story short, we sat on
the side of the road for acouple hours. Nobody came, so then
we walked. We were in strandedin the middle of nowhere, basically walked
to this place. This guy endedup leaving me because he got into an
El Camino. It sounds like I'mmaking it up, but it's as real
as real can be. To aEl Camino with two, you know,
older white men. I was like, I'm not driving two and a half

(05:04):
hours back to LA with people Idon't know. So he left me.
I'm crying, stranded, call meme. She picks me up. The
next day, one of the guySheep calls and says I'm sorry, my
friend left you. That was outof order. We want to do an
introduction to a friend of mine who'sin publishing. I'm going to take you
to lunch to make it up toyou. We're really sorry. We go
to lunch, We go to themeeting with the guy. We meet with

(05:26):
Barry Kolsky, he says, andnow we're looking for On the way out
the door, two women I willnever forget, Marla and Linda. We're
like, what was that? Youguys were singing upstairs and you know,
me and my Detroit some songs Iwrote, some songs we arranged, blah
blah blah blah. So they're like, can you sing it for us again?
So we sang them for us.They asked us to come back.
They said, we want to takeyou to introduce you to a friend of

(05:47):
ours named Jerry Greenberg. Took usand introduced us to Jerry, and the
rest is in JJ history in thebook the first album, It's so good
from the bottom up, nothing buthit, snicky from the gate. If
you love me, all my fabs, Grapevine. I could go on and

(06:11):
on, and I'm going to continueand listen half of you and Don't Cry
for Me, especially don't Cry forMe. That song means everything to me.
You girls not that out the park. Do you remember recording these songs?
I do. And it's funny becauseDon't Cry for Me was also one

(06:32):
of Tupac's favorite songs. He toldme he listened to it over and over
again for inspiration. So yeah,I remember. I remember. It was
after my grandfather actually passed away,just really inspired to write from the perspective
of loss and baby. When Itell you, we was putting the backgrounds

(06:55):
together and I was just like,why are we singing? Why are we
being the Clark sisters in this threeof us and we're not from Detroit with
Maddie Moss Clark. So that wasa really proud moment. Yeah. I
remember working our butts off. Wewent to New York the record label actually,
when they discovered that we were kindof self contained and you know,

(07:17):
love to write, they sent usto New York and we just went crazy.
Everybody went crazy when we heard thealbum. Like I said, hid
after hit after hit, and thenyou got the stamp of approval from the
icon, the King of pop,Michael Jackson. How does that make you

(07:40):
feel Nikki Gilbert, that's the krimde la krem for Michael Jackson to sign
you to his label MJJ via Columbia. Yes, MJJ epic, well,
Epic Colombia's it's all the same umbrellaincredible. I asked, You'll have to

(08:00):
remind myself sometimes, you know,because you tend to be like, Okay,
I gotta do the next thing,and I gotta do that, and
I'm like, well, wait aminute, Michael Jackson like literally chose us.
So here we are, you knowwhat I'm saying, Like, that's
sort of the top of the mountain, for lack of a better word,
in terms of another artist being chosenby the artists. So it's just a
blessing. I think about it allthe time, and I think how blessed

(08:24):
and fortunate we were to be thefirst group signed and the most successful to
MJJ. Name five of your favoritebrother not so successful. I'm sorry,
that's wrong. I should have saidthat the first group sign because success is
relative. Well, let's talk aboutthat. What does success mean to you,
Nicki Gilbert before we get to yourfive favorite Brownstone songs? Success to

(08:48):
me means being on the on thecusp of fifty four, happily married.
Being able to look back at mycareer and say, while I might not
have made all the right decisions orperfect decisions, I made decisions that felt
like I was coming from the rightplace at the time, which, you
know, twenty three years old,young person, all you can do is

(09:11):
kind of use what you got inthat young mind of yours. So just
just probably being able to look backand say, I worked my butt off
and I came from the right placewith everybody I encountered, even if it
wasn't always the right thing, oryou know, I thought I was doing
something right and turns out I couldhave done something better, the intention at

(09:33):
the moment was always good. Sothat for me is success, just knowing
that you did your best and youwere thinking about good things and positive things
and good intentions in the process,even if it wasn't always the right choice.
Amen In your five favorite Brownstone songs, let's go, Oh my god,
five favorite Brownstone songs. Okay,I'm a shock some of y'all because

(09:54):
some of y'all my favorites is albumcuts. First of all, I absolutely
love All I Do, which wason the second an album. Tricky wrote
that of course if you love me, of course half of you. I
can't pick all of them. Aremy face change I'm sure you said,
well it changes daily, but ifyou love me, hands down, that's

(10:16):
the record that the world discovered uson, and it has to be at
the top of the list. ButI really did all I do and I
like some of them cuts on thesecond album. To nik, that's second
album was tight. You hear meStill Climbing, you know what I'm saying.

(10:37):
I'm like, we had a RodneyJerkers joint on it. It was
just, yeah, it was agood record. It's hard to pick five.
I don't want to get in trouble. What do you think was the
reason Still Climbing didn't do as wellas the debut album because y'all came out
store with five miles to empty.I think there's something called the sophomore jitters,
you know, And I think thatevery artist goes through this face of,

(11:01):
you know, trying to compete withthe first record. You know.
I think there was a freshness aboutthe first record, and it was just
then energy of like, oh mygod, this is our first album.
We got to do this. Onthe second record, it was more like,
Okay, how do we become somethingelse? How do we go to
the next level? Right? Sothat was the album where I lost a

(11:22):
bunch of weight, you know.That was the album where we focused more
on dancing and routines and you knowall that stuff. So I think there
were a lot of other variables inplace that made it less about the music
and more about like the look,the vibe, the hot producers, the
next level, right, And Ithink we put a lot into that,

(11:43):
and maybe that was it, likeyou know, falling into that freshman sophomore
jitters thing. Such an amazing projectonce again in the game a love,
foolish pride, yeah, luck andif you play your cards right, y'all?

(12:03):
Did baby come on now, let'sclap it up? Baby that if
you play your cards right? Letme just say everything was saying her face
off on that their record, andshe didn't even initially want to do it.
I'm like, girl, if youdon't do this song, yeah fire,
can I tell you? Quina Cospawas the best addition to the group.

(12:26):
I enjoyed Keina. I loved everything. I think everybody who's been in
the group has added something really incredible. But the other thing is that Keina
was from Detroit, so you know, we went to college together, we
stay together in school, so itwas kind of like that Detroit thing.
And miss brown is good too.What's her name? I forgotten name?
Tarsha teacher is no longer in thegroup, but teacher's also from Detroit.

(12:48):
Yes, teachers. That's the thingabout Brownstone that a lot of people,
you know, like, oh yougot this, maybe got One of the
pros and cons of being in agroup where everybody can sing their face off
is at some point eventually people wantto step out and be solo. Now,
I've never really had the soul.I've done the solo thing, and
I kind of did a half heartedat tenth at the solo thing because I've

(13:11):
just always been into the group thingand not at this point. It's not
even about being self conscious. It'sjust I love harmony. I love sharing
the stage with people. I enjoyhearing other people perform. But when you
got women who really know how tosing their faces off, at some point
people want to go and be solo. And that's what Quina wanted, and
that's what Tisha wanted. And whoam I to be? Like, oh,

(13:31):
nah, girl, you got toalways be on Brownstone in Brownstone,
you know. And then that's theother thing, Like the fans are very,
very very particular about who's in agroup. So when Keina came into
the group, she got a lotof flak from people, I know,
because they're just you know, shegot a lot of flat not from just
I was very supportive, contrary topopular belief, but a lot of other

(13:52):
people gave her a lot of flack. And she kind of leaned into me
to like help her navigate it,and I'm just like, I'm just kind
of in this too. I can'tfigure it out, you know what I
mean. So I think that happenswhen you have really talented people who ultimately
decide, well, let me seewhat this looks like as a solo artist.
And she did an amazing solo record, so ill top singers. Yes,

(14:16):
I think she's one of the topperformers in this business. Is it
anything you regret career wised, somethingthat you would have done differently when you
look back anything. You know.What's really interesting is that there used to
be a point where I would answerthat question and I would be like,
yeah, I could have done this, I could have done that again,
getting to this place of like,you know, being a fifty something year

(14:41):
fifty about to be fifty four yearold person still here, still healthy,
still able to go out and perform, you know, still lucky enough that
people still want to hear our music. No, because I saw a movie
years ago called The Butterfly Fect andit changed my perspective on wanting to change
things about your life or wanting tochange things about your career. Right,

(15:03):
it sounds kind of, you know, like girl please, but one changing,
one element, right change. Icould say, oh, you know,
the one thing that I would sayis that I wish Maxi was still
here. But you don't know whatGod has and I still feel that way.
I'm human, I still feel likemax I wish to God that Maxie
was still here. I know there'snothing I can do to change that.
There's nothing I could do to preventthat, but that would be the one

(15:24):
regret that I have that my sister'snot here. Right, I could say,
oh, I wish this person stayedin a group, or oh I
wish we did this song, orI wish we did this this way,
But that one thing that you changed, that one single thing that you change
could change the entire trajectory of yourcareer. Right, So I can't say
that I wish that I had donethings differently, because again, I feel

(15:46):
like every step of the way,I was doing what I thought was right
at the time. And a lotof times artists and creatives people forget we
was kids. We was twenty literally, twenty three, twenty four, twenty
five years old, right, soat twenty three, twenty four, twenty
sorry, we did the album thatwas twenty two, twenty three, twenty

(16:07):
four to twenty five. What doyou really know, especially about the business,
that you can actually say, well, I'm gonna do this this way
because this is the best choice,this is the right thing to do.
You just have to kind of gowith your values and how you were raised,
and you know the little bit thatyou do know and kind of roll
with it. Because most of usare the first people in our family to
be famous. Who else had todeal with Michael Jackson? Who else had

(16:30):
to deal with Sony? Who elsetoured the world? I was in London.
I will say this, I wishthat I understood when we were on
our European tour instead of me walkingaround because I'm in Europe for months at
a time, and you know,like we're working too hard, We got
too many interviews and stuff like that. I definitely wish that I had more
of an appreciation for being a girlfrom the hood in Detroit being able to

(16:51):
see the world. But I wasmissing family. When you go to London
because you ain't coming back, they'dbe like, Okay, you got an
interview at five am, you gotan interview at six am. You gotta
interview. So naturally, the youngtwenty three, twenty four year old in
me is like, this is toomuch. So I wish that I had
known how to appreciate that better.But outside of that, I just thank
God. God is good, isn'the He's amazing. He's the reason why

(17:15):
we can connect and do these interviews, have these type of conversations. You
know, man, you talked aboutcharmagine Maxi Maxwell, who passed away in
twenty fifteen, Rest in peace.What an amazing talent, beautiful soul.
Can you share one of your fondestmoments of Maxi something that you never shared
before, Nikki Hm, Okay,I might have shared this, like a

(17:42):
long, long, long, longyears and years ago. So what people
don't know maybe and maybe people doknow. Maxie and I were very very
close. She was my sister.We hardly had any arguments. We hardly
had any I mean naturally it'd belike I don't want to wear that?
Where that? Where that? Idon't want to you know that kind of
stuff, right, because Maxie wasso laid back and so on the cut.

(18:03):
Maxie didn't like choreography. Maxie wasjust but she was also South American
Guyanese, so she had that switchwhere if you hit it the wrong way,
baby boom, you know what I'msaying. And West Indians got there,
you know, to watch out,pull up right. But the one
fine memory I have is MAXI hadgone over to South America. Maxie's mom

(18:26):
passed away before she became a partof the group, and her grandmother,
you know, she had to goback home. And she's from Kakwani,
which is like Burbees River, likefar far away, so she had to
like get on this plane and thendrive for hours whatever. And I remember
we got on the phone and wejust cried because we missed each other so

(18:48):
much. And it was like literallylike she was like, what are you
doing, Oh my god, Imissed you so much. I was like,
I mess you too, and weliterally were on the phone just in
tears like big grown kids, likeyou know, know, And it was
just the moment that I realized howclose we were and how important we were
to each other. And she's like, I know I'm here for my grandmother.

(19:08):
Now you got me about to beall choked up. I'm sorry,
I know I'm here for my grandmother, but oh my god, I just
didn't realize how much I love youand how much I miss you. And
I was like, I know,me too. And I went through like
we both went through a phase oflike cause she was gone for maybe two
weeks or something, it was justa really tough moment because we were roommates,

(19:30):
we were groupmates, you know whatI mean. So yeah, it
was really And then when she cameback, this is so crazy, and
this is so corny. Now hindsight, maybe it's not so corny, but
she had always been talking about thisdog, us getting a dog, and
I was just like, Maxie,we can't get a dog. We have
to work. We can't get adog. We can barely pay our rent.

(19:51):
Now we're not getting paid like that, And then the record company put
us on a stipend, and Iused my sticking money to get her dog
named Pudgy. So when she cameback, she had a little Pekinese oh
man, and Pudgie lasted for aboutwell, let me get the ASPCA people.

(20:11):
But you know we what we gavehim to my sister. We gave
Pudgy to my sister. But shejust wanted a dog. I want a
dog. I'm gonna dog. I'mlike, nextie, we don't need a
dog. We can't barely what areyou talking? And then my sister moved
there with us, and she wasmoving out and she took Pudgie with her.
A lot can be said about you, Nikki Gilbert. What's the biggest

(20:33):
misconception you think people have about you? Ooh, A lot can be said?
What's the biggest misconception? The biggestmisconception is, you know, I
just I've gotten to that place oflike it's weird because I'm just like,
who cares? Mmmm? The biggestmisconcept I don't. I don't even know

(20:56):
that there's a misconcept. I guessthe biggest miscn exception is what happened on
R and B DVAS right, Iguess the biggest misconception because that kind of
set the tone for everything else.The biggest misconception is that I was this
person who wanted that. I wasthis person who brought all my friends together
literally, you know, put thisshow together, invited everybody to be a

(21:18):
part of it, and then allof a sudden wanted it to all fall
apart, Like I wanted to justgo in and be like, no,
you can't go on tour, Noyou can't do this, No you can't
do that, which is really crazyto me because all of them and we've
since had conversations and we're all goodnow. MONI even and I had a
really good necessary time I watched it. It was so good. It ministered
to my no for realm it ministeredto my soul. And Nikki, I

(21:42):
hope you have the rest of theladies on your network so y'all can have
these conversations that's needed in order toheal. Yeah, it was so healing
for us. But that was abig thing because you know, I got
this because I'm a very expressive,vocal, right but everybody who knows me

(22:02):
knows that I love very hard.I will give you the shirt off my
back. I give to a fault, and I started to feel like I'm
always looking out for folks and itjust seems like folks get what they need
and then it's kind of like deuces, you know what I mean. So
I struggled with that a lot becauseeverybody knew that my intentions have never been

(22:22):
to be the B word. Right, I'm wanna cuss on your network.
I cuss in real life, butwe're gonna you know, It's just that
I'm just this mean, you knowwhat, and I'm out here just trying
to control everything and everybody. Idon't care what you do in your everyday
life. I don't, you know. I don't want to do anything but
help people move forward and be thebest version of themselves. That is genuinely
who I am. That is genuinelyhow I get. You know. It

(22:44):
makes me feel good to see myfriends succeed. It makes me feel good
to see my friends, you know, making things happen. And that image
that the production company and the Wizards, certain producers, it really was.
And people say, oh, butyou gave them that. But when you
look back, and you go backand you look at all the episodes of
R and B Divas, you neversaw me like coming up aggressive and like

(23:08):
ready to go off on somebody.I think the thing that irritated people was
that I was very normal Desmond andthat I would get up and leave in
a heartbeat, that you know,I have a Detroit way of speaking.
Kenyans from Detroit. A lot ofpeople from Detroit have a borderline condescending tone.
It's just the Detroit thing that I'velearned that I have to work on.

(23:29):
But it isn't the intention to becondescending. It's just a sarcastic kind
of It's like Philly people in NewYork to speak people, you know what
I mean, Like Italians are knownto be loud and you know what I'm
saying. And Detroit people are knownto be able to cuts good, roll
their eyes good. I don't havea poker face, which is difficult in
this industry. And I think thoseare the things that people confuse me keeping

(23:53):
it real and being straightforward with mebeing mean and nasty. And I'm not
a mean, nasty person at all. In fact, I wish I had
been meaner and nastier, were notnastier, but more direct and less bs
More often I'm figuring out that metrying not to do that ended up being

(24:14):
more of an issue than me justdoing that. Do you understand what I'm
saying. I understand exactly what you'resaying. And I loved everything about the
show. It started out as apositive show that reflects black women in a
great light. And then somewhere whenleft unfortunately, I want to ask you,
were there people saying because season onewas sweet and safe, were there

(24:36):
people in the background saying, ladies, if y'all don't pick it up for
season two, if y'all don't giveus drama, this show was over.
Because season two, that's what itseems like things went left. A lot
of craziness entered. Honestly, nowthat I'm hearing things like Angie was the
first person who told me that,yes they did that they in fact what

(24:57):
happened was you know, and maybeI was a little overzealous, you know
what I'm saying, Like I couldhave been. What I appreciated about my
sister Faith is is she definitely knowshow to move in silence better, you
know what I'm saying. I behindthe scenes was very direct with the producers.
I didn't feel like I should bedirect with the cast members because I'm

(25:18):
like, okay, I brought themon board. These are my friends.
I was direct with them, butI didn't want to be like, hey,
y'all, they're manipulating us and X, Y and Z, because,
like I said, I don't feellike anybody would have received that, because
everybody's like, oh, we're onthe TV show. Were on the side
of buses. The world knows us, girl, bump, what you're talking
about. These white people are theones we need to listen to, right
and they were very skilled at makinggreat television. It wasn't about, you

(25:44):
know, the friendships and the sisterhood. I mean, we started off so
good and then it turned into likeI said, when I realized in writing
that they didn't want me and Selenato be friends, and I tried to
have a conversation. We tried tohave a conversation offline. Leading wrote me
the most beautiful letter after season one. That's what's up. I still have
it. After season one, shewrote me an incredible letter and I felt

(26:07):
so great about it. And thenseason two rolled around and you can't you
can't hide the manipulation. You can'thide somebody saying hey, so this is
what we need you to do,or this is what we need you to
say. And yes, there werepeople in everybody's ears not in mind because
they knew I wasn't here for it. They knew I wanted it to be
not necessarily Kumbaya, but a positiveshow that showed real, authentic drama and

(26:29):
not drama that was created, youknow, for the sake of ratings.
Right, they didn't have any rightsto the R and D Divas tour,
so and they asked us about it, and they asked us to include them
on it, and Faith and Iwere like, no, this is the
ancillary property that we were singers beforewe became a part of this, so
we're going to keep this to ourselves. So then it became, oh,

(26:51):
well, since we're not a partof the tour, it doesn't matter if
it happens or not. And thatI'm just you know, assuming allegedly thinking
I'm not saying someone actually said this, But it felt like it was like,
let's just make it about how wecan stop the tour from happening,
because we know we got two differentgroups of people putting together a tour,
and you see the same thing whenyou look at some of these other shows

(27:12):
out here that I won't name whereit's about a tour, and the drama
is more about it not happening thanit is actually happening. So sad because
all of you women are talented andyou deserve all the bags that's on the
table. It should definitely be anR and B Divas tour, and now
that I got the trademark for Rand B Divas, if we can recover,

(27:36):
which is part of the reason whenwe started having these conversations, I
would love for there to be anR and B Divas live tour. We've
been talking to some promoters that arevery interested and I would love and not
just the R and BDVs that wereon the show, but I just feel
like it's an important time for Rand B music and I think it would
be amazing. So it's not toolate. It's never too late. Can
you give us an update on thisPea Valley lawsuit? And are you the

(28:00):
reason why we can't watch Pea Valleyand billions of dollars? And let them
tell it. They are not worriedabout Nikki gilber Daniels, So there should
be no reason why you shouldn't beable to watch Pea Valley because there is
nothing that says that the show can'tbe on TV from a judicial perspective,

(28:22):
and let me clear the air,because I know it's a lot of people
child and that is the misconception withR and B Divas. I created the
show, I cast the show.I was not paid for almost two years,
and it was a franchise on soI had no choice but to go
to court. And before I wentto court about R and B Divas,

(28:42):
I waited almost a year before Idid that, going back and forth,
basically begging and pleading back and forthlike please, I don't want to do
this. I don't want to dothis, and I was forced into it.
And it's very similar with Pea Valley. I didn't just come out the
back like, oh, that's myshow, let me sue them. We
sent nice letters, We sent warmand fuzzy like hey, listen this,

(29:03):
we see this show. And itjust so happens that NICKI met with the
CEO of Lionsgate and she left allof her materials and all of her stuff.
Here's the side by side comparison.Can we quietly resolve this? Can
we just nip this in a bus? So y'all can go do what y'all
want to do and need to do, because I didn't want to, especially
coming off for the Kelly Price thing, which lest we forget that, which

(29:26):
is another thing for people to belike she always but Kelly Priced, Kelly
Price. By the way, todayit's her birthday. Happy birthday, k
b oh, it is happy birthday, Kelly, Happy birthday. That's still
my sol right now, Happy birthday. Yes. But yeah, So I
had to do that because again metrying to settle it privately just didn't work

(29:48):
right. So we did that forthe better part of a year, and
then when they were just kind oflike on some oh well child, then
we filled you know, we fileda complaint. And even in that process,
we worked really hard to try tofigure out how we could resolve this
because I knew that there were peoplelike yourself and my husband who watched the
show everybody loves listening, that mySadie she fine, and she could brandy

(30:12):
I'm sorry, fine, and shecould dance, and I love her acting,
and it's so many other talented peopleon the show. So I hated
to be the person that was apart of this Pea Valley thing, you
know, being in this negative lightfor lack of a better word. But
my alternative was to just allow peopleto take a story that I truly believe

(30:33):
came from the materials that I leftwith the CEO of the company that's presenting
the story, and not fight formy creative intellectual property rights. You know,
you know, mother, this issomething so KITT's Cabaret. While it
wasn't it didn't have a hundred millionbud dollar budget like Pea Valley allegedly had
one hundred million dollars plus budget,right, but the story, which has

(30:56):
thick copyright protection, is the samemiddle and end, And to this day
I welcome an intelligent conversation about howthis can be resolved. I am millions
of dollars in debt. They're threateningto try to sue me for their legal
fees. We're an appeal right now, thank god, which it goes to

(31:17):
three judges. But when you lookat the side by side comparisons, when
you look at the graph and thechart, when you look at the access
that they had to my story,and you look at the fact that my
story was copyrighted almost ten years prior, and you had all of these celebrities
even though it wasn't the best productionof it because it was my first show
and we did not have a hugebudget. The stories are the same,

(31:37):
and a jury deserves, I deservethe right to a trial for a Trier
effect, for a jury to lookat it and say, hey, listen,
we see something here too. Sothat is all I'm looking for,
is the opportunity to have a fairespecially after twenty twenty four oh be this
thing started in twenty twenty to mytwenty twenty four oh be four years.

(32:00):
Well, I wish you nothing butthe best. I really do. Thank
you. What are you? We'reconfident in our appeal. We're very confident
in our appeal, and the appealscourt has been leaning in the direction of
creatives from the stamps pirates of theCaribbean. Same thing happened. Judge of
the district dismissed it, and thenit went to appeals and allegedly they settled
later for three hundred million dollars.I don't know that that's gonna be my

(32:22):
story. And then there was anotherFortnight case, same judge as a matter
of fact. So I'm just hopingI have the same look that some of
those other people who had to appealit have Nikki, what do you want
your musical legacy to be? Iwould like for my musical legacy to be
that we worked hard. We gaveyou guys good music that was well written
and well developed that's gonna be aroundfor generations to come. And that's it.

(32:45):
That we did what we were supposedto do. We used the gifts
that God gave us to give ourpeople great music. When can we expect
new music from Brownstone? Give usan update on Curvado. Hopefully a spring
pop up shop is coming soon,and let all the people know about your
new network, Nikki WIRs Media.Yes, indeed, so Brownstone is coming

(33:09):
up on thirty years January tenth,twenty twenty five, which is a day
before Maxie's birthday. So we're reallyexcited about sharing our thirty year anniversary.
It is going to be a rebootof some of your favorite songs with some
new stuff as well. If youlove Me, the song Everybody Loves turns
thirty years old on October twenty fourth. Wow, all some special coming then,

(33:30):
I know, ain't we all?Yes, we look good. We'll
be thirty we are so we're vintageand the thing that I'm most proud of
is just understanding that in order forus to really have the ability to move
forward and really share our stories authentically, we have to have our own platforms.

(33:51):
So WRS which is Women in Reality, Film and Media Music as well,
is a new streaming platform that isup and running now. You can
go to w r f tv dotcom. We're having a lot of fun
putting together the content. We gota Brownsone docucoming, We've got Diary of
Advo what You've seen, which isamazing, and a bunch of really great

(34:14):
content. We're also going to startdoing showing people some of the behind the
scenes of this touring. We've gota big show coming up with TC in
Atlanta, so people who are subscribedto work TV will get a good behind
the scenes look at all of that. We've got a bunch of great shows
lined up this summer. We're gonnabe partying with everybody. We ready to
see everyone, and you can getall the updates at brownsoneofficial dot com.

(34:37):
Brownstoneoficial dot com and w r rS tv dot com are the two places
you'll always find me.