Mavis Staples

Mavis Staples is pure love and light. She grew up as part of the Staples Singers, a family whose powerful messages of peace rang loud and clear through times of civil unrest. Now, she has solidified worldwide respect and adoration as a solo artist. In this episode, Mavis treats us to many stories, from growing up in a big musical family, to staying strong through trying times, and how she spreads love through her music. She and Norah pay homage to Pops Staples with a rendition of “Friendship”, take on a gospel classic, and even get into the Christmas spirit! Recorded on 1/27/2022

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Norah Jones and today I'm playing along with
Mayvis Staples.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Just play in.

Speaker 3 (00:06):
Alone with you, just playing alone with you.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Hi, Welcome to the show. I'm Nora, and with me
as always is Sarah Oda.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hello. Hello.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Today's show is so fun to record and pretty emotional.
I don't know how you felt about it, Oda, but
for me, it was it was very very special.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
I feel like Mayvi's Staples is a force, but like
a very sweet, tender, loving, huggable force.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, I know, Like, Yeah, She's just an amazing human.
She is full of love and we love her.

Speaker 4 (00:59):
You cannot be in a bad mood when she's in
the room.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
No, And we talk about that a little in this episode,
about her energy and where it comes from. Mayva Staples,
of course, was part of the Staple Singers.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
Mavis and her family were iconic throughout the Civil Rights movement.
Her father was friends with doctor Martin Luther King Junior,
and they performed at rallies and protests before his speeches.
They inspired people when people needed it the most.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
We enjoyed talking to Mavis about her family and the
dynamic of the Staple Singers, Pops and of course now
She's also a solo artist in her own right. She's
influenced so many people. Everybody loves her.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
And aside from the incredible music that she makes, all
the stories that come along with the history she's had
and the people she's encountered along the way. I mean,
I could just listen to her talk all day long.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
We talk about all this and we sing several songs together,
some that I didn't even know we were going to
sing in this episode, So that was really fun. She
just goes with it at all times, and that's what's
so fun about being around Mavis.

Speaker 5 (02:11):
I met her for the first.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Time in twenty ten when we were both honoring Paul
McCartney at the Kennedy Center Honors and.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
She saw me.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
We talk about this too, but she saw me and
she took my hand and she said, oh, hey, should
you be my daughter? Yeah, she just hugged me, and
I was just, you know, pure love ever since then.
So I was so honored that Mavis could join me
and we could play songs together and reconnect.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
It's been a long time since I'd seen her.

Speaker 4 (02:40):
Yeah, And we recorded this episode at Jeff Tweety's studio
in Chicago. Called the loft and start off by talking
about a song that he wrote for her called You
Are Not Alone.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
I hope you enjoy.

Speaker 6 (03:01):
So that's the Mavors corner.

Speaker 5 (03:02):
I didn't know that when I was here.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
You don't have a corner. I don't.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
They gotta get I've been all over the nooks.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Even Yeah, well I tell you I got my first
Grammy from here. Really yeah, yeah, You're Not Alone.

Speaker 6 (03:20):
I was from the Staple things just Mayvis.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Uh huh.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, that was my first grand That's one of the
most beautiful songs I've ever heard.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
It is beautiful and and you and I got down
on it to in the apollo. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
I was hoping we could start with it actually, just
to warm us up.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, okay, problem, Yeah, I know the words to that.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Did whenever he brought it to you, were you moved
by the lyrics?

Speaker 2 (03:43):
I was just and see what he did. He was
writing it right here in the studio, and I was
standing over him. And he got through that first verse
and chill bumps came up, you know, and all of
a sudden he stopped. I'm waiting for him to go
into the second verse, and he stopped, and I said,
what you doing. He says, I need more time, more time,

(04:06):
he said. I said, oh, tweety, and he said, I'm
gonna have it for you tomorrow. I gotta take it home.
I'm gonna have for you tomorrow.

Speaker 6 (04:13):
I said, okay, tweet.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
But he gave me the part of the melody and
I laid with that the night that I before tonight,
I was at home, and when I came in the
next days, he laid it on me. And I tell
you it just it just hit me. And because at

(04:36):
that time, you know, I was feeling alone. Really yeah.
I had lost my sister, my oldest sister, and and
uh my other sister was sick, you know.

Speaker 6 (04:48):
So the song hit me. You know, it was for me.
It was for me.

Speaker 5 (04:53):
It feels made for you.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, it was made for me. And I love it.
We sing it every show. We don't go off the
stage without singing You're not alone.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
I've heard you sing this many many times. Yeah, I
love it, the audience around the house singing really well
if you feel alone.

Speaker 6 (05:13):
No, I don't alone. I just love the song.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
I'm doing.

Speaker 6 (05:17):
Okay, now see, I got.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
You, babe, I love you.

Speaker 6 (05:23):
I love you two little girl.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, let's try it.

Speaker 5 (05:27):
Okay, you want to try it?

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah? Yeah, I love.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
The thing I love about this song is how there's
harmony the whole way through. Yes, and it has that
not alone feeling it does.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
It's so beautiful and.

Speaker 6 (05:38):
Just and and and it makes.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
You feel it's so much better, makes you feel like
you're just telling the truth. You're not alone. I know
you're not alone. And I tell you people people love it.
People as soon as we hit it, they go, bang,
it's the best hit it. You're not alone. I'm with you,

(06:22):
A lonely to what's that song?

Speaker 7 (06:38):
The Candy Sun.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Got you?

Speaker 8 (06:53):
A broken into the heart, a broken.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Home, I slayed at and aphraise Open up? This is
a raise I want to.

Speaker 7 (07:11):
Get through you. You're not loan, You're not alone.

Speaker 6 (07:28):
Hither renight.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
I'm stand in your place.

Speaker 9 (07:40):
Hither read.

Speaker 7 (07:48):
Whatever, reface.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Taste the same?

Speaker 8 (07:56):
Oh yeah, A broken dream, a broken heart, ice lay
and afraid?

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Open up? This is ray?

Speaker 7 (08:20):
How will to get it through you?

Speaker 2 (08:25):
You're not lone? An open hand, an open heart, there's

(09:21):
no need to be afraid over up this raid.

Speaker 8 (09:29):
I wonna get it bent to you.

Speaker 10 (09:34):
You're not alone, No, no, I won't to get it
through to you. You're not alone.

Speaker 8 (09:52):
No, no, I'm gonna get it through to you.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Not alone. Help me. Oh my gosh, she help me.

Speaker 5 (10:14):
That was pretty.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Thanks. Oh that's a beautiful you are. So you played
all that. Oh there was notes and that and that,
that dream and that beautiful, so beautiful tweety, A broken dream,
a broken heart.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
It hurts, tears, it hurts over. I just love it
so much, and I loved Jeff.

Speaker 6 (10:41):
I was so glad you saying that with me and
the Apollo.

Speaker 5 (10:44):
That was really fun.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
And at first they couldn't find the piano.

Speaker 5 (10:48):
Oh well I played it on a world it'zir right.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, yeah, I prayed, I said, hen't want to get hurt,
and here they go.

Speaker 5 (10:55):
You prayed for a piano from me. I'm honored.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yes, indeed, that was really fun. That was your birthday.
It was that's crazy. Check that out. Wow, you helped
me celebrate my birthday. That was the second time, because
I was with you in Newport on one of your
birthdays at the folk festival.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yes, yes, that must have been. That must have been
my seven year.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Probably, I think I don't know. I can't remember.

Speaker 6 (11:26):
I stopped trying to remember.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
I don't remember how old I am. Sometimes I get it.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, but but but who cares?

Speaker 5 (11:36):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
I don't feel like any different.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
I feel like we're buds and where this could be
the same age, you know what I mean. Like it
doesn't my god doesn't feel it doesn't feel very different.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
It doesn't feel very different.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Though you've gotten more experienced than me.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
I mean, you know, yes, and I you know, I'm
I'm I'm I'm the old girl. I'm just I'm just
I'm the golden girl. But I'm hanging with young.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Blood you are, and people love you, young, people love you.

Speaker 6 (12:07):
That makes me feel sick.

Speaker 7 (12:09):
You know.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
You walk into the room and you make me feel young.
I don't know, you just bring the sunshine with you.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah, it really makes me feel good that the young adults.
I have one friend who works at Columbia College over here,
and she teaches, you know, she teaches music, and she
tells her students stories and she lets me she says, maybes,
these kids love you. These kids, No, you don't know,

(12:37):
Hermit Terry Hermett.

Speaker 11 (12:38):
No.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, but she tells me all the time, and it
makes me feel so good.

Speaker 5 (12:45):
They do though, they love you so much. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Well see they see that. I'm a kid too, you are,
I can admit.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
I agree.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, I've never grown up. In my heart, I'm still
a little kid, you know. And I just I just
I love to play, I love to sing. I just
love people. So I love babies. Yeah, Oh, man, are
you take everybody's baby?

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Are you good with them?

Speaker 2 (13:14):
I'm good with yeah. Oh. We get on a plane
and and and and I always take this little bottle
of bubbles with me, just in case. And some baby
is going to cry on that plane, and I wait
on it. When I hear baby cry, I get my
bubbles out, find the baby, and I started blowing bubbles

(13:36):
and the baby looks at the bubbles. Mama, be so
happy that I came along. Yeah, what, I'm Bubbles.

Speaker 5 (13:46):
Yeah that's your nickname, right, that's my nickname?

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (13:49):
Who gave you that nickname? Really?

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Since you were a little girl, since you were little?

Speaker 2 (13:53):
No, not. It wasn't until I was about I wasn't
thirty yet, I was in my twenties. And I asked,
I said, Mama, why you call me bubbles? She said,
maybe it's because you're so bubbly. You're just always so happy, you.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
Know, you just came out that way.

Speaker 6 (14:12):
I came that way.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
I was going to ask that where that comes from.
But I think people who have that just are like that.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
I'm just happy, go lucky all the time.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
You know.

Speaker 5 (14:22):
Well, that's a great way to be.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
It really is. And I'm grateful because but every now
and then I'll let something get on my nerve.

Speaker 6 (14:30):
But it's got to be strong.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, you know, because most of the time I overlook
it whatever. You know, if it was supposed to get
on my nerve, I can overlook it and stay happy.
You know.

Speaker 5 (14:44):
I'll take some of that. Please, Can I.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Have some of that? She's free of charge.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
I'm pretty happy in general. But I'm not a bubbly person,
you know what I mean. Like I don't bring the
sunshine into every room, but I don't get too sad.
Usually I'm pretty even.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah I have You don't realize it, but you do
bring the sunshine.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Well that's kind of you. But I mean, and when
I'm talking about you bring in the sunshine, you're on
a hole.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Well I even come in noisy a noisy crew. Yeah,
you know. But yeah, and and and Princess, to tell me,
he said, Davis, you're talking to loud.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
Really save.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
What a thing to say, he would be. I was
grateful though, because all Solverflec told me then really, but
I've always told you know, there were five of us
children in the house. Yeah, and if you want to
be heard, you gotta let your voice be heard. I
was just I come from a noisy crew, just like.

Speaker 5 (15:42):
I say, all the family noisy. That's what it's about, right.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
Right, And I'm I'm just grateful. I know how she
talk softer and save my.

Speaker 5 (15:55):
I think at this point you're good.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Did they say that out of concern for your Oh okay, yeah,
I mean I get that. But if it hadn't been
a problem yet, right then, right.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
I'm not talking about all my life.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
Yeah, I don't think it's gonna be a problem.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
But I guess they were just used to being around
people who talked under their voice. Yes, and now I
was surprised his voice, so Mayavis Prince.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
He had a low speaking voice, right, Yeah. I met
him once, but he did he and he was very
soft spoken.

Speaker 5 (16:31):
He was he was and he observed a lot right.

Speaker 6 (16:35):
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
I took him to said Prince, and it's just gonna
have to make you my son.

Speaker 6 (16:45):
Al right, Bavis, I'll be your son.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
And I loved hear him talk because his voice was
just raw. Yeah, you know, but when he sing you know,
it was a heavy voice when he singing to but
to talk. I saw him do an interview with Arsenio
Hall one time, and man, his voice.

Speaker 6 (17:07):
Or Senior was shocked. He was shocked too.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
But some people, uh talk in a different voice than
they sing.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
My kids told me that when they hear my voice singing,
they think I sound different when I'm just home.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
You know, you're telling them.

Speaker 5 (17:26):
What to do, that's what they tell me.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
Oh yeah, they tell you. Yes, your voy your singing
voice is very mellow and sweet and soft and and
and you you could make a person hurt themselves because
you're just you. Just calm you down, you said. When
I first heard what's the name?

Speaker 5 (17:52):
Oh don't know why, don't know why.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Yeah, when I first don't know, don't know why, I
was around the house doing something and that came on
the radio and I stopped whatever I was doing.

Speaker 6 (18:03):
I had to stop and listen.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
And then the next time I said, damn, it's a
beautiful song. Next time I heard it, I saw you.
You were on television and I was walking around the
house again. The TV was on and you came on
and I said, it's a song I saw you. I said,
oh my goodness, started singing it and it's just been

(18:26):
one of my favorites all time. Thank you. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
My friend Jesse Harris wrote that song. Really, he was
in my band and he wrote the song.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
I thought you wrote it.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
Sometimes people think I wrote it, but hey, I wrote
a few songs on that album, but I didn't really
get deep into songwriting until a little bit later.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Is that right? Yeah? Well, you sing it like you
wrote it.

Speaker 5 (18:49):
I think you have to, don't you.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
You have to feel like you own the song to
really deliver it, even if you didn't come up with it, right.
And that's what you do with the Jeff Twitty song. Yes,
and that's what you do with everything. I mean, really
do what you have to do.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
You really do.

Speaker 6 (19:04):
You've got to come from your heart.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
It's got to come from your heart if you you
want to deliver it and you want people to get
it and feel it and react from it.

Speaker 6 (19:17):
The way you have.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
That's what's the way you gotta do. You know.

Speaker 6 (19:21):
Pop's always told me.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
We were in in New York, one time about I
was about thirteen years old, and these kids sang before us,
and they were just jumping all across the stage and
singing loud. So when it was time for us to sing,
I did that. Yeah, and my father snatched me off
the stage. He said, what is wrong with you? Maybe? Wow,
he said, what are you doing? I said, I'm just

(19:45):
singing that. He said, maybe, let me tell you something.
You don't you your music don't need a gimmick. You
don't need a gimmick. You know, you sing from your heart.
Sing What comes from the heart reaches the heart. And
that's the way I've never forgotten it, never, you know.

(20:05):
And and he said, you don't be you don't have to crown.
You don't need to get me. I I was drawing
the kids. They were jumping across the stage. Yeah, singing loud,
and uh he says, the uh you singing sacred music.
You don't need any gimmick, sing from your heart. If
you sing from your heart, you'll reach the people.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
I agree with that. I also, I think his voice
also had that mellow, easy going. Yeah. He wasn't trying
to sing over anybody, but you had to lean in
to hear it right, and then it hit.

Speaker 6 (20:40):
You right right, and you're the same way.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
You know, you laid back.

Speaker 5 (20:45):
I don't know, I don't know why, but you are.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
I'm just so proud to know you, a little lady.

Speaker 5 (20:52):
I'm proud to know you.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
I met you at the Kennedy Center for the first time,
and you took my hands and you saw I was nervous.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
I remember, you knew I was nervous. I knew, Yeah,
you can tell. I could tell.

Speaker 5 (21:07):
So you took me and you held me.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Did said I gotta protect this little girl.

Speaker 5 (21:14):
I was like, what am I doing here?

Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah? I came on down there and got you and
just stand right by me and we held hands all
through that finale.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yes, that was so fun. It was so special meeting
you there.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
Oh man, that was a good time. Yeah, that was
a good time. Anytime I see your name, I flare up.
You know that could go either way. And I was
seeing you. I was seeing you so much, like you
told me. Yes, that was Christmas. But Christmas needed you,
I was, it really needed you.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
You know what I needed Christmas last year, and that's
why I made a Christmas album because I needed I
needed a little joyful something to right Field.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Good. Well, I'm glad you made that album because they
were a feature in You all week, all day, every hour.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Under again, it's a Christmas exhaustion.

Speaker 6 (22:13):
Oh, it was beautiful.

Speaker 8 (22:14):
You know.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
We recorded the song from Your Christmas the Staples Singers
Christmas album. We did the twenty fifth day of December.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
Did you.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
I'll send it to you. It wasn't it wasn't on
the album, but it was a bonus track. Oh, because
I didn't feel like we made it. It was so
your version is so good. It was hard to beat it.

Speaker 5 (22:33):
But it's great.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
It's still a great version, and it's a great you know,
I loved your I listen to your Christmas album a.

Speaker 5 (22:38):
Lot, really recording.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah really, Oh and that was so many years ago.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah, wow, but it's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
It's a beautiful album. And and Pops he wrote the
song there was a Star he did.

Speaker 6 (22:51):
Yeah, he wrote that and uh, oh my god.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
You know, for a long time, you couldn't find it.
We couldn't find it.

Speaker 5 (23:01):
Oh, they had to reissue it.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah. And and the Blind Boys they did some songs
from that album.

Speaker 6 (23:07):
But I gotta hear twenty fifty.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
That was my favorite. It was maybewhere my table to
May Julie last all good September, October, Nomber. It was
at last mone of the year.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
Oh yeah, twenty fifth day of December.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Did I leave it?

Speaker 1 (23:28):
I mean I kept saying when we were recording it,
I kept saying the twenty second, twenty first day of December,
just because they rolled off my.

Speaker 5 (23:34):
Tongue run and my drummer Brian. But he goes Nora.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
I think that's when, Larry. You gotta get right.

Speaker 5 (23:41):
It's the twenty fifth.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
Day in December, not the twenty first day, the firthday.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yeah, don't get that one right, No, Yeah, and props
brought that Pomps. Tell me when was Jesus Bourne? Last
mone of the year. Wasn't Jesus born? Last month of
the year.

Speaker 7 (24:06):
When was born?

Speaker 6 (24:10):
Last money you got?

Speaker 2 (24:13):
January?

Speaker 9 (24:14):
February, March, April, and May.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
June, July, all good, scepteller October North Then boy, it
was twenty fifth del d seven. Boy was the last
money year born by the Virgin Mary. Last money he
was born by the Virgin Mary.

Speaker 7 (24:43):
The last money.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Born by the Virgin Mary. Last mony we got January?

Speaker 7 (24:55):
Uh huh February.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
Yeah, mich April, he Une July. All good, No, it
was the twenty fifth damn d Samber.

Speaker 7 (25:11):
It was the last model.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
I love it.

Speaker 5 (25:19):
Yeah it was fun.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
Oh my goodness. Yeah, well we're having Christmas today.

Speaker 5 (25:24):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
I love the end of that song, last Mother the.

Speaker 5 (25:29):
So how low can you go? How low can you go?

Speaker 2 (25:33):
I can't go down? Oh my god, I didn't go down.

Speaker 6 (25:37):
Whoa, how low can you go?

Speaker 2 (25:40):
I can go down very low?

Speaker 5 (25:43):
That is amazing. But did you we like that when
you were younger?

Speaker 2 (25:47):
You know, my voice was so heavy always, and I
get taken from my mother and my grandmother.

Speaker 6 (25:53):
They had strong voices.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
But I would yeah, when I was a kid, it
was my voice is higher now when I get my
tonsils move? Oh really, it got tired. Yeah that's so weird.

Speaker 6 (26:03):
Oh yeah, I used to really be. I would fight.
Kids would tell me you sound like a boy.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
Wow. And when we started traveling, if I called down
for breakfast, the lady would say yes, mister Staples, yes sir.
And I heard it so much the lesson. I said,
I'm a lady and they said, oh, I'm sorry. You know,
but yeah, it's always been. Uh, I've always had a

(26:31):
heavy voice. And and I used to sing bass our
first record, you know, I sing well the will the willow.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
That's insane. And how old were you?

Speaker 2 (26:42):
I was a kid. I was like like nine years old.

Speaker 5 (26:46):
That's when uncloudy day came.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Oh no, and cloudy day came when I was thirteen, okay,
twelve to thirteen. But but they wanted to record us
when I was a kid, and Pops wouldn't allow it.
The president of VJ Records, Vivian Carter, she called Daddy.
She said, she said, stay, those kids, y'all need to
be on record. And Pop said, well, Vivian, I don't

(27:10):
know nothing about those records, you know.

Speaker 6 (27:12):
He was all of us were green. We didn't you know.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
And he said, I'm not gonna let my children get
on those records.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
He was afraid because you were too young, right. He
didn't know.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
What business of it.

Speaker 5 (27:24):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
And and my sister Yvonne, she would go. She wouldn't
got books. She got this big red book, this business
of music. She learned.

Speaker 6 (27:33):
She helped them a lot.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
Really, Oh yeah, she got that book and help you
guys figure out that's incredible.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
Yeah, she sure did. She stayed right with him, you know,
booking and and she taught him a lot. But also
people like the Soulists and and uh sister Maya Jackson,
they were already recording and they would tell Daddy different things,
you know, they would tell him, you know, what to do,

(28:00):
how to do, and watch out for this. So when
I was about twelve, Pops called Vivian and told him.
He said, okay, Vivian, we will make that recognized that
my children.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
And after he'd read the.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Book, yeah.

Speaker 5 (28:15):
Yeah, he felt good and caught.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
Oh yeah yeah, because Pops, Pops didn't know. You know,
we didn't we were just singing. He used to sing
with an all male group, six guys, and these guys
wouldn't come to rehearsal, so Poss would be frustrated. He'd
come home mad. You know. He came home that third

(28:36):
time and he went in the closet, pulled out a
little guitar that he had.

Speaker 6 (28:43):
We didn't even know he had a guitar.

Speaker 5 (28:44):
He couldn't play it.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
He could play it. He couldn't have all the strings,
but he could make it sound good. And he told
my aunt Kate, he said, I'm gonna sing with my children.
He called all of us into the living room. Sit
us down on the floor in the circle and began
giving us voices that he and his sisters and brothers
used to sing when they were in Mississippi.

Speaker 5 (29:06):
That's incredible.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
People thought we were old people when we would go places,
and they just knew we were old. They heard us,
and because because we had a little radio fifteen minute
radio show Sunday morning, and we would singing, and they
thought we were old people because Pops, we were singing
those old voices like his sisters and brothers.

Speaker 6 (29:26):
We would walk in little.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Stairsteps and they said, that's the stable.

Speaker 5 (29:31):
Singing its own already.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah, yeah, but that's yeah. He would give us those voices,
and that's how we started singing.

Speaker 6 (29:42):
My aunt Katie lived with.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Us, okay, and she came through one night. She says, Chu,
y'all sound pretty good and want y'all sing in my church? Son?

Speaker 1 (29:52):
Had you already been singing in church your whole lives?

Speaker 2 (29:54):
No, yeah, we've been singing. We hadn't do as the family,
we hadn't been singing in church. We didn't start we
started doing programs at churches. But but my sister and
brother were in the young people's choir.

Speaker 6 (30:09):
I was too young to go.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
Okay, yeah, so you didn't really sing much until he started.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
Doing it, until he started us singing, what's your order?

Speaker 1 (30:17):
There's five of you kids. I'm the baby, you're the baby. Yeah, okay, bubbles,
I get it now.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah, I'm the baby. Oh no, Cynthia, I was the
baby for twelve years.

Speaker 6 (30:28):
Oh wow. And my baby sister came along, and you know,
I didn't like, how.

Speaker 5 (30:32):
Did that go?

Speaker 2 (30:35):
I didn't like that I would be putting diapers on
that baby and I stick up. Mama said maybe you
were sticking that. I said, no, ma'am, mama. But Cynthia
and I became the best of friends.

Speaker 6 (30:48):
We became the I called her blessed, and she called
me Raba.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
She couldn't say my name rabel and and uh oh,
but she was, yes, she she was.

Speaker 6 (31:02):
I told Papa, I said, we got to put Cynthia.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
She would sing songs with us when we were in
Chicago at the different churches, you know. But yes, Cynthia
and see Mama and Daddy, they were just My mother
was heavy set, so I never knew she was pregnant.
You know, she just happened. I didn't know where this.

Speaker 6 (31:21):
Baby came from.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
And they told me, uh to pacify me. Uh, because
when my mother came home, she didn't bring the baby.
She had to leave the baby there, and and and
and Mama said, you go with with with Roebuck, get
to pick up the baby.

Speaker 6 (31:41):
I said, what baby?

Speaker 2 (31:42):
What baby? Oh, my gosh. And uh and they started
telling me that we had this baby. And so they
let me name her. They did that, Oh yeah, Cynthia.

Speaker 5 (31:52):
Marie thinking that.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
I named her. Oh boy, And see, because what happened.
My father, he would he would he wouldn't, he wouldn't
pass me up. He goes straight to that baby of
bed or wherever she was. And and blowing. He used
to blow in my stomach, make me laugh, tore me
up in the air when he'd come from work. And

(32:20):
all that stopped. Oh yeah, yeah, And and so somebody
should have been around to talk to him, let him
know he was supposed to keep doing that.

Speaker 5 (32:28):
That's interesting.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
I grew up an only child, so it's like just
I can't even imagine what it was like being in
a family, Like.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
Oh wow, yeah, it was good being in him. We
we we uh, we.

Speaker 6 (32:43):
Would have we would disagree.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
We didn't have any we fuss sometime, but Mama would
tell us, don't do that. You had to love your sister,
and and that's your sister. And you all make up
apologizing me up. But you know, Yvonne and Cleatye, they
would do most of the argience.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
Oh yeah, because they were the close older.

Speaker 5 (33:06):
That makes sense.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Yeah, whenever you guys were traveling, when how old were
you when you started really traveling around and like touring.
I guess, but.

Speaker 6 (33:17):
Oh, yes, we were touring.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
We were How old were you in that start? I was,
I was like about thirteen. Wow, Uncloudy Day was a hit.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
It was a hit, and you were thirteen years.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Old, Uncloudy Day. This woman called Papa, says Staples, this
record is selling like an R and B. And it
turned out that it was the first gospel record to
sell a million. That's insane. It was. Yeah, it was
the first gospel and and and uh, but but we
would we would be we would go to down South,

(33:53):
we would go to Milwaukee, Gary, all around Chicago and
sing and and people would bet the disc jockey when
we want to New Orleans, Memphis. The dis jockey would
get on the radio and say, this is a little
Mavid Staple. This little girl is singing this. People would
bet that I was not a little girl.

Speaker 5 (34:14):
Yeah, because you had that deep.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
I'm saying, well will will oh? Yeah, Lord, they tell
me now, and I got home. I got a home,
and can you know, I'm a little girl, a little
skinny girl.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
And you're short now, so you were probably.

Speaker 6 (34:32):
I was even shorter.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
I was even shorter. But but but uh yeah, they
would bet. And what we would do, we would fool
the people. We would sing uncody day down in harmony. Whoa.
They tell me all of that and then get to
the end of it and I come in with, well
will will oh. So what happened was my brother at

(34:57):
that people would be sitting on it. They all of
these people that bet that I am not a little girl,
And all of a sudden, purvise move my brother like
he's gonna say, and you'd hear the people.

Speaker 6 (35:10):
I told you that wasn't no little girl. I told
you that one and I'm easing.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
Then I eased it too the mic and they look
up and it's really a little girls. Oh.

Speaker 6 (35:23):
We had so much fun with it.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
But that's so fun to travel with your family. Did
it ever get sticky?

Speaker 7 (35:30):
Nah?

Speaker 1 (35:30):
No, you always anything, even throughout you got all of it.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
All of it. The only only thing Evonne Clete would
argue about saying was was.

Speaker 6 (35:41):
What to wear.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
One of them wanted to wear this, and one of
them wanted to wear that. And see, because you know
my brother he left the group in nineteen sixty nine.
It hurt me so bad, really, because Purvis and I
we had this clap. Nobody could do that clap the
way we wore. And and he just got grown a man,

(36:04):
you know me, and they they get tired of doing
what their father tell them to do. You know.

Speaker 6 (36:10):
He wanted to be his own man. Because Pop's asking.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Pop said, perr, you sure you don't want to just
take a leave of absent, No, daddy, nope, I quit done.
And just as he quit, I'll take you there here
and and his friends would would mess with him. He
go into one of their bars or whatever, and they
put a quarter in the juke box and play I'll.

Speaker 6 (36:34):
Take you There. I said, y'all shouldn't do that.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Yeah, but he did, all right. He he he managed
the emotions for a while.

Speaker 5 (36:44):
Oh wow, So he got into the business.

Speaker 6 (36:45):
Yeah, Oh, he was still in the business.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
He was still in the other side of it, right right,
they were They were gospel singers at first, and they
were our little friends, the hutcheson sunbeams, and they wanted
to sing R and B. And that's when Purvis took
them down the stacks, got him a choreographer. They had

(37:08):
some hits.

Speaker 5 (37:09):
Yeah, yeah, but that's amazing.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
I mean, it's amazing to me how close you guys
stayed and that there was let you know, there could
have been a lot of drama there.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, but but but but my mother
wouldn't allow it.

Speaker 6 (37:25):
Mama and Daddy, you know, they just taught us.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
They they taught um.

Speaker 6 (37:29):
We grew up loving one another.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
That's so special though, and it's really feels unique.

Speaker 5 (37:36):
And I don't know, you know, an only child, but
I do have a.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
Half sister who's two years younger than me, but we
both grew up separately, so we didn't know each other
till we were a little older. Oh wow, but yeah,
only child. That sounds like a party to me.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
Yeah, oh my god.

Speaker 6 (37:55):
Yeah, because some are you spoiled?

Speaker 2 (37:59):
Of course you are. I don't know.

Speaker 5 (38:02):
If you ask my mother, she would tell you a
different answer.

Speaker 6 (38:05):
Well, you know, I met your mom.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Yeah, you did.

Speaker 6 (38:07):
Yeah, she's very tall anytime.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, Oh man, she is tall.

Speaker 5 (38:14):
She's tall.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Yeah, and I'm short.

Speaker 5 (38:16):
She's five ten.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
I'm five to one. H.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
So I didn't really. I might have been spoiled, but
I never messed with her like I was a good kid,
because I didn't want her to get mad.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
She was soah. Yeah, she was tough.

Speaker 6 (38:30):
And by her being so tall, you su I've been
I messed with her.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Yeah, but all you had to do was leap up.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
Oh yeah, I don't think that would have flown with her.

Speaker 6 (38:40):
You did the right thing.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
Listen to mom. Mom knows best. I try, Yeah, you try,
you try.

Speaker 5 (38:50):
Oh my god, Oh man, I was wondering.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Do you remember the first song you sang with Pops
when he was teaching you.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
Oh yeah, The very first song my father taught us
was what the Circle be on? Ah? Yeah, I love
that the Circle be on? Bro and all that was
his faith and and on our records we recorded it
about four or five times. But on the records, Pops
is singing, and I love to hear Pop sing because

(39:20):
he was so smooth.

Speaker 6 (39:22):
You know, he was a singer like you.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
He was. He was laid back, look slid Stone came
to Pops one day and said, hey, Pop, give me
the bag, and Pop say what you're talking about?

Speaker 6 (39:37):
He said, come on, give me the bag.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
I know you got it.

Speaker 5 (39:42):
Because he was so laid back.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
Yeah, they thought and purpose my brother had to tell
daddy what.

Speaker 6 (39:53):
I was talking about.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
And Pop he says, like, you come, I'm gonna choke
you boy. You know, don't do that mass Yeah. Wow.

Speaker 5 (40:03):
It was so funny.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
Yeah, because they would all talk about how laid back
Pop sing, you know, and his voice is just flowed. Yeah.
But when he he taught us circle be unbroken and
and and we have sang it. We sang it with
Johnny Cash on his television show. It was the Staples

(40:26):
family and the Carter family. That was years ago.

Speaker 5 (40:29):
That must have been fun.

Speaker 6 (40:31):
It was fun.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (40:32):
It was for one of one of his specials, you know.

Speaker 5 (40:36):
Those TV special Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
I love yeah. But but and I sing it all
that's on my on my list on our shows and
Pops man, uh, because we look at us as a family,
that's our circle, and he put us in a circle

(41:00):
when he started giving us the voices to sing.

Speaker 5 (41:02):
It was I can just picture it. You're sitting down.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
Yeah, yeah, I mentum, I'm gonna sing some of it
for you.

Speaker 6 (41:11):
You sing it too. You know, I don't know what key.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
I sing in now you know that I was thinking,
g I was standing too low?

Speaker 5 (41:23):
Huh is that too low?

Speaker 6 (41:24):
No, that's good.

Speaker 7 (41:26):
What you say? Key?

Speaker 2 (41:27):
That is? That's g okay, that's a shame.

Speaker 6 (41:30):
I don't know what ky I sing at.

Speaker 5 (41:32):
No, it's not. It probably has changed over the years.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
I probably have.

Speaker 4 (41:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
I sing in some different keys though on our shows.
But it's all right. I don't need to know what
yeh I say.

Speaker 5 (41:43):
I can do it in any key. You just tell me.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
Oh, no, you were I think that was good. I
was standing that where you.

Speaker 7 (41:51):
Were, Yeah, and.

Speaker 10 (42:00):
On a cold and cloud every day.

Speaker 6 (42:06):
When I saw the.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
Hers come rolling or to carrying my mother the away, well,
it's a circle be grow can.

Speaker 12 (42:27):
By and by lord by and bye.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
He's a bed.

Speaker 11 (42:38):
Home away in the sky lord in the scout.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
What I told the under take, please drive slow cause
it's lady that you're haul and oh I.

Speaker 7 (43:12):
To see her go. Will the circle be u broke.

Speaker 9 (43:24):
By and by lord by bye, there's a bed.

Speaker 8 (43:35):
Home away in the sky Lord the sky.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
I will fallow.

Speaker 10 (43:50):
Close behind her.

Speaker 8 (43:53):
Try to hold up and be brave, but I could not.

Speaker 9 (44:04):
Ull my sil role.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
Wind laid her in the gray.

Speaker 7 (44:15):
Will the circle.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
Beyon broken?

Speaker 9 (44:22):
Bye and bye, bye and bye. There's a bed Huer lay.

Speaker 7 (44:37):
In the sky.

Speaker 13 (44:38):
Lord in the sky, in the sky, love him the
sky in the sky, Lord in the sky.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
Yeah, you sound just like Cleedie. Oh really? Oh yeah,
I heard Cleedie in your voice. Girl, don't start me crying.
I tell you my sister Kleedie. She had the best
best soprano voice.

Speaker 5 (45:22):
Really, so you were low and she was high.

Speaker 7 (45:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (45:27):
Yeah, so you come from it.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
So I credit her for the Staples singer sound. Really
oh yeah, oh wow. She would shoot and look. Aretha
would be recording and she tell her sister Carolyn, now, Carolyn,
I want to sound like Cleother.

Speaker 5 (45:45):
Oh wow, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Yeah. And and Carolyn was saying, Carolyn told me about it.
She said, maas I told her, I can't sound like Cleover.
She was mad about it. Would be mad, Oh yeah,
but it's a different. Pops would clear like a minor.
She would go like, I know what I'm talking about.

(46:10):
I know. And in some places, and but her voice
if you on all of our old stuff where Kleadia
is singing, her voice stands out, and and and her
her soprano, and Pops his guitar.

Speaker 6 (46:28):
That's the state of singers.

Speaker 5 (46:30):
I love his guitar so much.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
And he cool taught himself.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
Well, that's what's good about it. It's just feeling. It's simple,
but it's it's got the thing.

Speaker 6 (46:44):
That's what it's got, the sound feeling.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Right.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
When did he how did he get that electric sound?
Do you know how that came about?

Speaker 12 (46:51):
Pop?

Speaker 6 (46:51):
I remember when he got that trimolo.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
Because that wasn't typical then, no gospel music.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
No and and and and some just some preachers didn't
want Pops play his guitar in their church. And Popps
had to let him know, Look, you read your Bible
string instruments, saying the Bible, you know the heart. The
pope would name them all. I guess, uh, what's that

(47:17):
other one? I can't call the name of it. But but,
but and and and we just wouldn't go to the
church if they wouldn't let Pops play his guitar. But
he learned from a blues man, Charlie Patton. Okay, see
he Pop Pops was on this farm. Patrick practice farm
in Mississippi, and this man was hollering with a lot

(47:41):
of the blues singers were on this this farm, and
and and uh, Popps would tell us how this man,
Charlie Patton would be playing and and look, we didn't
know for years. While we were singing gospel, our father
was playing the blues on his guitar.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
Yeah, that's what it is. It's the marriage of those
two things. And that made it so unique.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
Right right right, But he he he, he went to
the guitar store one day and he came back with
this trimlo. He said, y'all listen, listen to this, and
he was drum and Elvis Presley told me one time,
the first time, yeah, the only time I ever saw him.

Speaker 6 (48:26):
And the first time I ever.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
Saw we were in Memphis and I was standing on
the side. It was a starlight review outside and I
was standing over in the wing, and all of a
sudden he come in with one of his partners. They
got these leather jackets on, like they've been riding motorcycles,
and and and we had sang and and uh he

(48:47):
told me, he said, I like the way your father
played that guitar. I said, well, thank you. He said, yeah,
he plays a nervous guitar. A nervous guitar.

Speaker 6 (48:59):
He called it a nervous guitar.

Speaker 5 (49:01):
What does that mean?

Speaker 1 (49:01):
Because of the t.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
That was a good expression. I said, well, I've never
heard that before. A nervous guitar. Yeah, that's what I'll
never forget. And that was my meeting with Elvis Presley.
I didn't know one of the guys, David Ruffin, who
sings later sang with the Temptation. He was singing with
a gospel. He told me, he said, maybe you know

(49:26):
who that guy what you was talking to? I said no.
He said blue Sways shoes. I said, I.

Speaker 5 (49:32):
Said him, that's him.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
That's the way he would let me know because of
blue sweight shoes. Wow. But yeah, Pops played a nervous guitar.

Speaker 5 (49:41):
Did he laugh at that description?

Speaker 2 (49:43):
Oh? Did he laugh? Did he laugh? He told me, maybe,
why didn't you call me over to let me meet?
I said, Dad, I didn't really know who he was.
I was just a David told me who he was. Yeah,
that was beautiful. That's a good expression of him though,
of his guitar, nurse guitar, because it does.

Speaker 5 (50:05):
That's just the funniest thing I heard.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
Yeah, but but yeah, Daddy, that's that's when he learned
how to play his guitar. And he was always playing
it in the house, you know, after he'd let us
know we had a guitar because we didn't know until
those guys wouldn't come to rehearsal, and he decided he
probably probably wouldn't be any Staples singers if they.

Speaker 5 (50:29):
Had they had come to rehearsal.

Speaker 6 (50:30):
Yeah, so I thank them.

Speaker 5 (50:32):
Wow for being not not there.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
Not not serious about this. They were the trumpet to
and they had a good group too. Pops would sing
lead and uh and poss had a voice. He would
he he he never went into his false settle on
the Staple singer. Oh yeah, he would go and he
would tell me what how they do it up in

(50:58):
hiven To and then you go pee theaybye to like
a river.

Speaker 6 (51:05):
They say, oh, possibly bad.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (51:08):
And I recorded a song with Tweety that's what all
they're doing in Heaven. I'm not singing it.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
Like pop though, That's okay.

Speaker 5 (51:16):
You sing like you.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
I sing like me. Yeah, I sing like me. I'm
so grateful to be talking to you, little lady. You
are you are so different from anybody else out here.

Speaker 5 (51:33):
Really.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Yeah, nobody sounds like you. Nobody get me up, break
But that's what show.

Speaker 5 (51:41):
But that's what you want, right to be, to be different.

Speaker 6 (51:44):
Yeah, right, and but but I'm just honored.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
You know, I never thought I would meet you when
I first heard you on the radio.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
Don't know why.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
I said, listen to who is she?

Speaker 5 (52:01):
Who is she? I'm still figuring it out.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
Yes, well, no, well you you are a giant. You
a tiny little lady.

Speaker 6 (52:10):
You are a giant.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
I tell you, I love it. And when I came
to your show in the Red Rocks.

Speaker 5 (52:18):
Yeah, we did a show together.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
Yes, yes, that was fun.

Speaker 6 (52:22):
I started it off.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
I warmed them up for you.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
You killed it, and I was nervous to go on out.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
I was, of course ill those people, all those people
that came out for you, and and and I noticed.

Speaker 6 (52:37):
You were doing some songs that I hadn't heard.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
Yeah, and every time you would hit one of those songs,
the crowd would roar.

Speaker 5 (52:43):
That's so funny, that's what.

Speaker 1 (52:45):
Well, that's one of my favorite audiences at Red Rocks,
and they're always very loving. You play there many times, right.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Yes, yeah, we have, we have oh, with different people.
Yours was the best.

Speaker 5 (53:00):
We had fun. We have fun.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
We had recorded a song together that Pete Ran wrote.
I don't know if you remember it, but I was
wondering if you feel like trying it.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
Oh, it'll come to me as you go, because that's
been a while. What happened?

Speaker 6 (53:27):
Anyway?

Speaker 2 (53:28):
We were supposed to go on tour with that song.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
We were gonna go on tour and then the pandemic hit. Yeah,
we were gonna do a bunch of shows together.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
Yes, I remember. I was so happy. Me too.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
Oh man, we will again because it again. Yeah, really,
we will just do it again. We do it again
and set it up.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
You set it up. There's a place.

Speaker 7 (54:18):
Five from here going to make it.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
My homeis swear.

Speaker 6 (54:29):
I've been along.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
Where I gain.

Speaker 14 (54:38):
Where I'm going, I'll be gone. I'll be gone.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Where my hon.

Speaker 6 (55:02):
Getting so tired.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
That I candy tail time.

Speaker 7 (55:12):
Don't you lie?

Speaker 9 (55:17):
When I get where I'm going, I'll be gone.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
I'll be gone.

Speaker 9 (55:39):
When Sha I could tell you that the sun was gonna.

Speaker 12 (55:44):
Shine, I got a feeling that I stiff won't change
my mind.

Speaker 7 (55:58):
Running out of the time. There's a place.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
On the mountain.

Speaker 7 (56:19):
You can take my bones.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
But I go home.

Speaker 6 (56:30):
When I get.

Speaker 9 (56:35):
To where I'm going, I'll be gone.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
I'll be gone.

Speaker 7 (56:52):
I got to tell you that it's all going to
be just find.

Speaker 9 (57:01):
But I don't want to waste anymore of your time.

Speaker 7 (57:10):
You didn't waste mind.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
Oh now you talk about a beautiful song.

Speaker 5 (58:08):
It's a beautiful song.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
He wrote this a long time ago. Really, yeah, I
mean maybe eight years nine years ago.

Speaker 6 (58:16):
And yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
At one point he mentioned, gosh, would be cool to
hear maybeus sing this song.

Speaker 5 (58:20):
I was like, you're right, but yeah, you.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
Know, I'm I'm a little shy sometimes I have a
hard time reaching out and asking to do things.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
But don't be that way with me.

Speaker 1 (58:30):
Oh I know.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
Okay, now you know you can't come to me anything
but anything.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
But it came full circle, but not for like five
more years. And then and then I got unshy and
I asked you to sing it.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, I was so that that blew
my mind. I said, oh, wow, it's a great one.
That's what I wish I could play up yet anything And.

Speaker 5 (58:55):
You never picked anything up.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
I picked up the guitar. Yeah, I told perhaps I
wanted to play that guitar, and he tried to teach me,
but he didn't. He wasn't taught either. So and and
then there was a time when Pops was still frisky.

Speaker 6 (59:09):
I was young.

Speaker 5 (59:11):
What does that mean?

Speaker 2 (59:13):
I mean he wasn't ready to didn't patient.

Speaker 5 (59:17):
I think I took it the wrong way.

Speaker 6 (59:18):
No, I didn't mean going out on mama.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Yeah, you know that's that's frisky. But no, he just
wasn't patient enough. So he gave me about he got
me a little training guitar, and he gave me about
three lessons and he was done. He said, maybe I'll
tell you what, baby. You go down to Lion Heally

(59:42):
And I'm eleven years old. I don't know how to
go downtown to Line.

Speaker 6 (59:45):
Healey to.

Speaker 5 (59:48):
Get lessons.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
Yeah, okay, yeah, to get lessons from them. And I
told him, I said, Daddy, I want to pick it
like you and sister Rose Tark. I don't want to,
you know, But but if I had learned learned, if
I had learned how to strum, I think that would
have made it easier for him to teach me.

Speaker 6 (01:00:06):
You know, to pick.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Picking is hard harder.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
Yeah, I know I know that's but but but I
would have been happy strumming.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
You know, I wanted to ask you about when you
guys met doctor Martin Luther King and you kind of
switched from singing gospel to singing these freedom songs protest songs.
I read something about Pops meeting him and saying he
wants to sing his words. That is the most beautiful

(01:00:37):
thing I've heard.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
That was something.

Speaker 6 (01:00:40):
Yeah, Pops, he it just happened.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
We were in Montgomery, Alabama on Sunday morning. We didn't
have to work until that night, and Pops called my
sisters and I to his room and he told us,
he said, listen, y'all, this man Martin is here, Martin
Luther the King, and he has a church here. He said,
I've been listening to him on the radio. Doctor King

(01:01:05):
had a radio show and Pops has been listening to him,
and he said, I'd like to go to his eleven
o'clock service. Do you all want to go? We said, yeah, Daddy,
we want to go. We all got in the car,
went down the Deckster Avenue Baptist Church and.

Speaker 6 (01:01:24):
We were ushered in and seated.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
Someone let doctor King know that we were in the service,
and he acknowledged us. He said we've got to have
Popper Staples and his daughter's here this morning. Hope you
enjoyed the service. Well, we enjoyed the service. And that
at as the service is over, the worshipers, Doctor King
stands at the door to shake the worshiper's hands as

(01:01:49):
they filed out, and Pops walked past shook his hand. Now,
my sisters and I did first we shoot, we shoot
doctor King. Oh, that was a fear. I shook his
hand and Pops we had to wait on him. He
stood there and talked to him for a while. He
finally came on. We get back to the hotel. He

(01:02:09):
called us to his room again and he said, listen, y'all,
I like this man's message. I really like his message,
and I think that if he can preach it, we
can sing it. Wow. And we started writing freedom songs,
March up Freedom Highway? Why am I treated so bad?

Speaker 6 (01:02:31):
We we we we.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
We switched over because we didn't feel that it was
anything wrong. We felt like this was close to gospel. Yeah,
you know, we singing the truth, you know, we we
we want to we want we joined the movement and
and uh we would sing, we would sing.

Speaker 6 (01:02:51):
Before Doctor King would speak.

Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
We'd go to the meetings and Doctor King would tell Pop,
stay you, I sing my song the night right, Papa saying, oh, yeah, Doctor,
we're gonna sing your song.

Speaker 6 (01:03:04):
Why am I treated so bad?

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
Yeah? That was his favorite, and and and and people
ask me what did He never talked to us girls.
He never sit down, and he would just he would
just say something, how you girls doing this morning? Y'all
doing all right? Yes, sir Doctor King? Wow. But but
he wouldn't sit in the hold and Pops would talk.

(01:03:27):
People ask me, what did he talk to you about?
What he didn't talk to me, you know. But what
what I did remember mostly Doctor King was his laughter.
He had this laughter when he laughed, because most of
the time I would see him, he either looked sad
or serious, you know. And and when i'd hear him laugh,

(01:03:50):
that would make my heart happy, because I said, Doctor King,
it's happy. And that would be most of the time
when we'd be going to the meeting and the men
would be in a huddle down in the talking lot,
and all of a sudden, you hear Doctor King laughing.

Speaker 6 (01:04:05):
That made me feel so good.

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
But no, he never held a conversation with my sisters.
And I he was just asking that. He said the
same way. Everything are you girls doing this morning? Wow?

Speaker 5 (01:04:17):
How much older was he?

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
You were young? Still? I was young? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:04:21):
How young were you then? I mean, I'm just I.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
Was well in the sixties sixty This was like about
sixty three, nineteen sixty three, So I was born in
thirty nine.

Speaker 6 (01:04:35):
I'm not good at math.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
You were in your you were in your early twenties,
you know.

Speaker 6 (01:04:44):
Yeah, I was in my early twenties.

Speaker 2 (01:04:45):
Yeah, and uh, but but that was when we joined
the movement and we became the soundtrack you did. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:04:55):
Congressman John Lewis would tell oh, he was my friend.

Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
Now he was my And I went to his office
when I did a Freedom album with Ray Koto, and
I asked him if he would write my liner notes,
and he said, Baby, you know you and your family
y'all kept us motivated, kept us inspired to keep on
watching your songs. I said, yes, sir doctor, because after

(01:05:21):
surprised he remembered me. Yeah, I said you. I hadn't
seen him in the years, and uh, I was surprised.
He gave me a meeting and his office. Of course
he did remember me, Baby, your family and and so
he I hate I missed his birthday, invited me to
his last birthday.

Speaker 6 (01:05:42):
Party and I couldn't go.

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
We will working, you know. But but he was my
friend to the end. Yeah, Congressman John Lewis.

Speaker 1 (01:05:54):
That's beautiful, Uncle John, Uncle John. When you guys were
writing songs, was everybody was collectively just sort of pitching in?
Did Pops always yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
Was he?

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
Did he ever work on songwriting like on his own
all the time?

Speaker 6 (01:06:10):
Or yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
He did. Pops was always jotting something down, you know,
And and we would help him. We would put some
words in on this on but but that's Daddy's and
we don't want any credit for okay, right, we give
them to Daddy, all of us. Interesting, Yeah, we we
we dropped drop words and he goes March of Freedom's Highway.

(01:06:32):
Made up my mind and I won't turn around, made
up mine. And there's this one thing I can't understand,
my friend, that I'm proud of that because that was me.
Why some folk think freedom was not designed for all men?
There are so many people living their life perplexed, wondering

(01:06:54):
in their minds, what's going to happen next? Spy, We're
going to March. That was the very first one we
wrote for the movement, and boy we moved on and
and uh we were saying that. We sing, Oh why
am I treating so bad? Pops wrote that because of

(01:07:16):
the there were nine children in Little Rock, Arkansas, trying
to integrate Central High School.

Speaker 6 (01:07:24):
They would meet people.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
These kids would walk up there every day their books
in their arms, proud, and people would throw stones at them,
spit at them, call them names, but they never turned
their head. They just kept walking.

Speaker 6 (01:07:40):
Oh and these they were my age, they were you know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
So we would all be on the floor, Pops in
his recliner, and we're watching the news.

Speaker 6 (01:07:50):
It got so bad and it lasted so long.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
The mayor of Arkansas, of Little Rock, the governor of Arkansas,
and the President of the United States said, let those
children go to school. And WHOA I wanted to we
all wanted to see this on the news. That particular day,
the kids were walking. They get right up to the
bus and a policeman put his billy club across the door,

(01:08:19):
and Pop said right there, and he said, now, why
is he doing that? Why are they treating him so bad?
And he wrote that song from that experience. I tell
you we have had a baby's sister I have. I
have seen a lot. I have seen a lot, and
and it just makes me more prayerful and more willing

(01:08:46):
to sing my songs, you know, because I don't have
to sing love. I don't have to be like everybody else.
I've seen protest songs I sing to to help us.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
Move it forward, move it forward right, moving it forward right.

Speaker 5 (01:09:04):
And we're still going.

Speaker 6 (01:09:05):
We're still going.

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
Yeah. And and and I owe it to Pops. I
owe it to my father.

Speaker 6 (01:09:11):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:09:12):
We went to South Africa and these people wanted us
to sing, want the black people to be in the
balcony Johannesburg. And Pops told him. He said, no, I'm
gonna allow my children to sing like he said, Doctor
King just got that straightened out in the States. Yeah,
and we're not gonna sing like that. They said, now

(01:09:32):
you can send us home, do what you got to do.
We're not singing like So they moved our show to
the soccer field and sowaito, Wow, it's a wait, it's
all it's all black. Uh. You know, this is where
the people live in little match boxes. And it was

(01:09:53):
the very first time that blacks and white sit together,
no kind of I mean that that soccer field was back, yeah,
and and black and white were sitting right next to
each other. And but they had these I've never seen
a German shepherd dog so big. The bit the police

(01:10:15):
was walking around with them, you know, I guess for
just in case something went wrong.

Speaker 6 (01:10:20):
But it was peaceful.

Speaker 2 (01:10:21):
But see, during that time, they wouldn't let us go
downtown by ourselves.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
That been hard to go at all.

Speaker 7 (01:10:29):
It was.

Speaker 2 (01:10:30):
They wouldn't allow it. The kids would tell me me,
if we will call you, we will come see you.
If they call my my my calls would go to
the white girl's room. She would be there and she
would she would take her and she wouldn't let the
kids talk to me. They wouldn't let them in the hotel.

(01:10:52):
That It was very educational, very beautiful experience and intense, intense, intense.

Speaker 1 (01:11:02):
Yes, you've been on tour though since the pandemic a lot.
You've got to tour in these little pockets. And I'm

(01:11:23):
really excited to hear that. I haven't at all yet.
I just haven't, not since the the COVID started. Oh okay,
but you know, I'm excited that you're out there doing it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
Oh yeah, I'm going everywhere you're going.

Speaker 6 (01:11:39):
And we're booked now through November.

Speaker 5 (01:11:42):
You're doing a tour with Bonnie ray the Center.

Speaker 2 (01:11:45):
I hear, I always do it. That's amazing. That'll be
my third tour.

Speaker 5 (01:11:48):
You've known her a.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
Long time, right, Oh, yes, she's great.

Speaker 5 (01:11:52):
You know that's going to be a show.

Speaker 2 (01:11:54):
I tell you.

Speaker 6 (01:11:54):
Oh, it's always good show.

Speaker 2 (01:11:56):
Yeah. But I used to be telling us a Bonnie
my father love her so much.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
You're jealous.

Speaker 2 (01:12:02):
Yeah, And I told us. I said, look, I didn't
know if I should get some red hair, or if
I should learn how to play the geitar, or if
I should get real tiny. Because Pops loved and she loved,
she came to see. She came to the hospital Seapop
when he was sick. Wow, and Bonnie took me so bad.

(01:12:23):
Pops went upstairs. He wasn't feeling good, and he went
upstairs to lie down.

Speaker 6 (01:12:29):
She followed him.

Speaker 2 (01:12:30):
She sit on the bed and she said, now nobody
can tell me I haven't been in pop stable bed.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
That's Bonnie. Yeah, that's Bonnie. No.

Speaker 2 (01:12:41):
It was funny, Yeah, it's funny, but it was so good.
Made poss feel so much better. He gave her a guitar.
He had to get there, and all of us were there.
We sang, that's beautiful. It was, isn't it something? How
music keeps you going? Yes, it really keeps.

Speaker 1 (01:12:58):
Yes, it keeps you young, keeps you young, and it's healing,
and it brings joy.

Speaker 2 (01:13:04):
And right, and we can't do without music.

Speaker 5 (01:13:07):
I know, no way I get that feeling from you.

Speaker 2 (01:13:11):
Yeah, you know, yeah, I pass it on. But well,
I tell you.

Speaker 6 (01:13:19):
Yours brought me so much. I wish pop could hear.

Speaker 1 (01:13:23):
Oh, I wish I could play watch him play guitar
in the person.

Speaker 2 (01:13:27):
You know what he would do. He would tell me
that's the way. Oh no, that's the way. You know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:36):
Who else you know who else gave me that feeling
always was Levon Helm.

Speaker 2 (01:13:40):
Is that right?

Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
Yeah, he gave me that feeling where he just it
was just all music and it kept him.

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
Going and just you know, oh man.

Speaker 1 (01:13:50):
And I remember the first time I saw you on TV,
was watching The Weight on the Last Walls and I thought,
my goodness, she is beautiful.

Speaker 5 (01:14:03):
And she's smoking all.

Speaker 1 (01:14:06):
I couldn't believe it. Oh my god. I was just
like and you looked six feet tall and yeah, you
look so tall.

Speaker 2 (01:14:15):
Yes, look so tall. Yes, oh yeah you do. We
had on those lone black gown. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:14:20):
It was beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:14:21):
Oh man, I mean I'd heard your singing my whole life,
but it was the first time I.

Speaker 5 (01:14:25):
Zero it in and visually.

Speaker 2 (01:14:27):
Yeah, yeah, that was nice.

Speaker 1 (01:14:29):
I know you had our long friendship with Levon.

Speaker 6 (01:14:32):
Oh lord Levon.

Speaker 2 (01:14:34):
I have an album coming out with Levonne. Wow, and
and and uh. We did it at his barn and
he was right next to me and with them drums.
But but I tell you about that when we when
we were doing les Walt, Levon was smoking and Pops
went back to We had a break. Levon, Pops go back.

(01:14:56):
They were tight buddies. V and Pops. Leave On, Man,
you spoken two cigarettes. He had a cigarette and Levon said, all.

Speaker 6 (01:15:08):
You gotta try this one.

Speaker 5 (01:15:10):
I don't think they were the same.

Speaker 2 (01:15:11):
Yeah, they were not the same. Papa say, leave on, man,
I don't think that messed. But that that Daddy laughed
about that forever.

Speaker 6 (01:15:21):
He laughed about that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:23):
But yeah, Levon, that was the best time because we
stayed there about a week. We you know, we would
go back to the barn every day from.

Speaker 1 (01:15:32):
The hotel and making the record. Yeah, so when did
you make it? About ten years ago?

Speaker 6 (01:15:38):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:15:38):
Yeah, yes, because I was gonna say, look, are you
all gonna release this record? Am I going to be?
Didn't gone? Or what? But yeah, they it's coming I
think in May, Okay.

Speaker 5 (01:15:50):
Yeah, yeah, I can't wait to hear it.

Speaker 2 (01:15:53):
It's been a long time and I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
You know that he's gone especially, Yeah, it'll be so
special right.

Speaker 7 (01:16:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:16:00):
And Amy Amy helped, you know. I told her to
tell her about it. I said, Amy, I didn't need
to release the record. Yeah, you know we'd end up
in age and we might leave here me No, So
you say he got it going good? But yeah, that
was that was a proud time.

Speaker 1 (01:16:20):
Did you do what the songs? Did you do with Levan?
Did you do all old songs? Did you do that
that Nina Simone version? What? That's a Billy Taylor song,
isn't it. I wish I knew how it would feel
to be free?

Speaker 2 (01:16:33):
That's a Billy Taylor song.

Speaker 1 (01:16:34):
That's what my my my phone said when I googled it,
because I mean the Nina version is, but I think
it's that Billy Taylor wrote it, really, and I it's
so funny.

Speaker 5 (01:16:45):
I saw him play.

Speaker 1 (01:16:46):
Yeah, and when I was in high school, I didn't
realize that. Yeah, but yeah, that's a great song. Did
you record that with Levon? Yeah? I wish I knew.
And and we recorded Trouble in Mind.

Speaker 2 (01:16:59):
Oh that was in min Yeah, and and uh, whoa,
I love somethin Nina.

Speaker 1 (01:17:06):
Did you know her? Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:17:07):
Yes, well, yes, yes, And she was someone I met
whose voice was heavier than mine. Yes, and the boy
she was I saw her first saw her in the
village gate and she had on her own white she
was playing that piano and and and all the people

(01:17:27):
down she stopped and stood up. Do you people have
cotton in your ears? Whoa?

Speaker 6 (01:17:35):
She told them off because.

Speaker 2 (01:17:36):
They were talking, you have cotton in your ears? And
I said, whoa, go home with sister.

Speaker 6 (01:17:45):
But yeah, we got to know.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
We got to be very good friends. That's great.

Speaker 6 (01:17:49):
We were We were.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
In the Bahamas though, last time I saw her we
were in the Bahamas. And uh, then she moved to
New Guinea, where Miriam mckibo was okay, and and uh
she passed away over there. But the baby's sister we
were in New Guinea. Don't you know these little guys

(01:18:11):
they were in the auditorium where we were singing. They
wanted to have a coup against the president of somebody.
Oh God. And we got to the show and we're
standing at the door, Pops and my sister and I
and this man is saying that's all we could understand

(01:18:32):
was you know, and and he was telling them. So
they still came in with the guns and they stood
on the side of the stage in the wings where
we were, and as I was singing, I would look
over there a little bit and it would be just dancing.

Speaker 5 (01:18:53):
That is crazy.

Speaker 6 (01:18:55):
Yeah, y'all, I'm scared us to death.

Speaker 1 (01:18:56):
You have gone to some wild times play You've had it, yes.

Speaker 2 (01:19:02):
Yeah, yeah, So we made it through that one that
I do have one more question, if you feel comfortable
talking about it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:19:10):
I was curious about songwriting and the story you told
me yesterday.

Speaker 5 (01:19:16):
Yeah, that broke my heart.

Speaker 2 (01:19:19):
You know, it's been so long ago that I'm surprised.

Speaker 6 (01:19:23):
I even brought it up.

Speaker 1 (01:19:25):
I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:19:27):
Somebody said something about songwriting and it did this man.
You know, I had been my three songs and he
was at Stax Records. He wanted all of my publishing. Yeah,
and I'm telling him on the phone, telling him, no,

(01:19:48):
I'm singing twelve songs on the album. You know, you
take all that publicsh but mine. My father's always taught
me I should get one hundred percent of my writers
and publishers. And that's and he talked to me like,
all right, miss Stables, all right, I understand, yes, all right,
we'll do as you like.

Speaker 6 (01:20:10):
And I'm thinking I've won.

Speaker 2 (01:20:12):
Yeah, the record come out and and it's it's on
a different label or something, and uh, it's me singing.
And then they have songwriter unknown and I say, a
song you wrote, yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:20:31):
The song that I wrote.

Speaker 2 (01:20:32):
Wow, And I said, well, you know it was so
long ago, you know, no need of me trying to
fix this now.

Speaker 6 (01:20:42):
But that broke my heart.

Speaker 5 (01:20:43):
And you didn't write after that.

Speaker 6 (01:20:45):
I didn't write any more songs.

Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
But that's the that's the sad part. But but you
still make all songs your own. Yeah yeah, yeah, but
that's just you know that stuff happened so much.

Speaker 2 (01:20:56):
Yeah back then, that's crazy. You know, it's a share aim.
The way people are treated. You know, it's not just me,
you know, I'm sure.

Speaker 6 (01:21:07):
Uh, the record business has.

Speaker 1 (01:21:11):
Been tricky, tricky tricky, tricky, but it was much trickier
back then.

Speaker 2 (01:21:17):
Yeah, yeah, way back that was and and and and
I was doing stuff. You know, I was afraid because
I was these were these were secular songs, and and
and you do something secular against the gospel stuff. I
was lucky. I don't know how it happened. I recorded
A house is not a home. I recorded a six

(01:21:39):
and and the church people didn't say nothing about it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:42):
Yeah, because you you got in trouble for that.

Speaker 2 (01:21:44):
I could have got could but they didn't. You know
what they messed with I'll take you there. They wanted
to put us out of church. Wow, they say, the.

Speaker 6 (01:21:53):
Stables singers and singing the devil's music.

Speaker 2 (01:21:56):
Wow, the devil music. I said, you all, you gotta
listen to lyrics. They heard this beat. Yeah, and then
the people would jump up and dance. And I'll take
you there, you know, because but up until I'll take
you there, we just sing with my father's guitar. We
didn't have no rhythm section. We just sing with dad

(01:22:17):
his guitar. And and but when this rhythm section came on,
I'll take you there, singing. We're telling you I know
a place ain't nobody crying. Ain't nobody worried.

Speaker 1 (01:22:31):
That's a gospel song.

Speaker 2 (01:22:34):
Take you to Hell?

Speaker 5 (01:22:35):
Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:22:38):
And and lo and behold. After all the interviews we
did talking to these people, they invited us back to church.
We go back to church. The first song requested in
the pool bit I'll take you there. You know well,
I said, you know, you just don't know what to
do to please people.

Speaker 5 (01:22:58):
It's true.

Speaker 1 (01:22:58):
That's why you got to just be your truth, sing
your truth right and spread some loved put out love. Yes,
put it out there, and that's what you do.

Speaker 2 (01:23:09):
I'm gonna do it.

Speaker 6 (01:23:10):
I'm going to keep on doing it.

Speaker 1 (01:23:11):
You are my favorite fall of love.

Speaker 6 (01:23:14):
You, my little sweetheart. I love you so much.

Speaker 5 (01:23:19):
Do you have one more song in you?

Speaker 11 (01:23:21):
Or?

Speaker 1 (01:23:21):
Can I play? Can I play you a song and
you chime in if you want? Yeah, and we'll end it.

Speaker 5 (01:23:26):
We can.

Speaker 2 (01:23:26):
Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (01:23:27):
I the the album. Pops made the album uh that
song friendship.

Speaker 2 (01:23:36):
Oh yes?

Speaker 1 (01:23:37):
And then Jeff and the crew they kind of fixed
it up right and and recorded all recorded like you
weren't happy with it and it never got that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:23:49):
And tweety did all that for Pop's album. That was
that's his last work, and I wanted it. I wanted
to put it out there, but I wanted to put
it out properly and night, and so he.

Speaker 1 (01:24:02):
Re recorded all the stuff that you weren't happy with, right, Yes,
he took the tracks of Pops and you guys singing.

Speaker 2 (01:24:11):
And I was so pleased. I come up in here
to listen and tears just flowed. Yeah. You know, my
sister Vaughn and I we came to check it out.
Thank you, jeh. It's a beautiful recording. And it's a
great song. That's a pop song. Yeah, yeah, it's a
good song.

Speaker 5 (01:24:30):
It's a really good song.

Speaker 15 (01:24:56):
Say watch my longtime friend, something's bothering You tell.

Speaker 2 (01:25:05):
Me what the problem is. I see what I can do.

Speaker 3 (01:25:14):
There's the times we disagree, we agree more than we don't.

Speaker 1 (01:25:23):
We won't always see I do lie, but we will.

Speaker 7 (01:25:28):
More than we won't.

Speaker 11 (01:25:30):
Because we got our friendship, the kind of last of
life time.

Speaker 16 (01:25:39):
Through all the timeships.

Speaker 2 (01:25:42):
You know, your friend.

Speaker 11 (01:25:44):
Of mine, We got our friendship, the kind of last
life time, through all those hardships.

Speaker 2 (01:26:00):
You know you're a friend of mine. You want to
sing what, oh barn talk to me? Oh parl of mine?
If you feel you can't go home, don't you sweat.

(01:26:21):
It ain't over yet.

Speaker 6 (01:26:24):
This bond with sharing a strong.

Speaker 2 (01:26:29):
I've been aware you are right now.

Speaker 6 (01:26:33):
You saw me through it all.

Speaker 2 (01:26:37):
I lean on you. Now you can lean on me.
I bet I won't lady your fall because we got
friendship kind of lasts a life time through all the hartship.

(01:26:57):
You know you're a friend of mine.

Speaker 11 (01:27:03):
Because we got fair ship, the kind of lasts life time.

Speaker 16 (01:27:12):
Through all those hardships, you know you're a friend of mine.

Speaker 15 (01:27:21):
If you're on the street, I'll take your hat. You're hungry,
I'll give you food. If it's money you need, I
got some saved.

Speaker 2 (01:27:34):
If you're sick, I visit you.

Speaker 5 (01:27:39):
I've been with you.

Speaker 2 (01:27:41):
All right now, you saw me through it all. I'll
lean on you now you can lean on me.

Speaker 16 (01:27:53):
I won't let you fall because we got friendship, the
kind of last life time.

Speaker 2 (01:28:05):
Through all those hard ships, you know you a friend
of mine.

Speaker 7 (01:28:14):
We got friendship kind of last life time.

Speaker 2 (01:28:23):
Through all those harships. You know you're a friend of mine.

Speaker 7 (01:28:32):
Through all the hardships.

Speaker 2 (01:28:35):
You know you're a friend of mine. Through all the
hard ships. You know you're a friend of mine. I
had a fight to keep from crying.

Speaker 7 (01:28:56):
Girl.

Speaker 5 (01:28:57):
I love that song and I love you. Thanks for
thanks for talking with me.

Speaker 2 (01:29:01):
I'm so happy. I'm so happy you invited me. I've
never done one of these. What do you called it?

Speaker 6 (01:29:08):
A podcast?

Speaker 2 (01:29:09):
Podcast?

Speaker 1 (01:29:10):
Well, I'm honored that you joined me. Thank you, Mayabs.
You are loved by all who know you.

Speaker 2 (01:29:16):
Ask for everything always, Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:29:23):
Just playing alone, Thanks for listening to the show.

Speaker 5 (01:29:33):
That was Maybas Staple.

Speaker 1 (01:29:35):
It's incredible.

Speaker 5 (01:29:36):
Yeah, that was a fun way.

Speaker 4 (01:29:37):
I just want her to call me and tell me
everything's going to be okay.

Speaker 2 (01:29:41):
I believe her.

Speaker 5 (01:29:42):
We should just call her.

Speaker 1 (01:29:44):
Hey, can you tell me everything can be okay?

Speaker 5 (01:29:49):
And she probably needs to hear it too. Sometimes it's true.

Speaker 2 (01:29:52):
Yeah, it's true. She is not alone.

Speaker 5 (01:29:55):
In fact, let's let's wrap this up so we can
go tell her.

Speaker 4 (01:29:58):
How m.

Speaker 5 (01:30:00):
Thanks for listening to the show.

Speaker 2 (01:30:01):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:30:05):
Our show was recorded by Mark Greenberg at The Loft
in Chicago, mixed by Jamie Landry and additional engineering by
Greg Tobler. Produced by Me and Sarah Oda Sarah Oda
and Wa photography by Shervin Linez.

Speaker 5 (01:30:21):
Artwork by Eliza Fry. See you Later,