Today on The Breakfast Club, Earth, Wind & Fire Talks 'Sing A Song All Night' Tour, Maurice White, Music Legacy, Longevity. Listen For More!
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every day a week ago. Click your ass up the
breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You don't finish for y'all done morning.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Everybody is DJ Envy, just hilarious, Charlamagne to God. We
are the breakfast Club. Lalla Roast is here as well.
We got some special guests in the bill Man.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
We got we say legends sometime and they don't really
be legends, not any time of legendary award winning icon
Man eight number one hits, sold more than one hundred
million albums worldwide, twenty three albums, and those albums went
double platinum and hit the top ten.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
God damn and the soundtrack to a lot of Our
Lives and Our Mama Lives, Man, ladies and gentlemen, Earth
Wind and Fire.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
We're feeling good.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
We're feeling good. We're out touring and having a good time.
Just sold out Madison Square Garden with Lionel night before last,
and just you know, living life, living life and having
a good time. Couldn't imagine that when we started this
in our twenties that we'd be seventy five and still
doing it, you know, on the level.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
What makes you still enjoy it after all this year?
I still love going on tours.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Always say I would have played music for free. Fortunately
I get paid for it, yep. But yeah, it's a
you know, it's a passion and it's wonderful that it
makes a lot of other people happy and bring so
much joy to to so many people, like you say,
our music has become part of the soundtrack of so
many people's lives now, and we wouldn't have been able
(01:31):
to even imagine that, you know, starting out. But we
just wanted to be in the best band in the.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
World, whole world. And Billboard just.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
Yeah, Billboard came out and said that Fires their greatest
band of all time.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
You know, you got a point. It took us a
little longer.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Just catch it up and rest in peace to May's white. Yeah,
I got to say that when you're on stage, now,
do you feel him on stage with y'all?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Every note, every stick, every beat, every because you know,
it's like part of it. You know, it's DNA, it's heart.
So yeah, we can't. You can't play Earth when he
Fire music without Maurice being there.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
And you know you're feeling, you know, on stage, particularly
when you do those great songs, and that's the way
the world, all those wonderful songs that people grew up on.
And so as Philip said, you know, we feel him
every night.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I always heard Brother Maurice talk about music is something spiritual,
like you think people underestimate how intentional he was about
healing people through music, and how intentional y'all are as
a group about healing people through music.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Where you know, as he evolved in his you know,
evolution of spiritual enlightenment, he just really came to understand
what a high art that the music music is and
its ability to transform to heal, to heal, you know,
And so that was what, uh we went about making
(03:09):
sure that our intentions was in the music in that
way that it would make a positive difference in those
who heard it.
Speaker 6 (03:19):
He wanted to and also the chime in he wanted
to render a service to humanity, you know. And uh
and as we're seeing now where people remember where they
were when those songs came on, how they feel about things.
Speaker 7 (03:33):
So uh uh, he was, he was on a high plane.
It's definitely on a mission, on a mission.
Speaker 8 (03:39):
But I think that's why all these years later, people
still really live like generations live with your music very differently.
Y'all can sell out wherever you guys go, because it's
a service to people, and a lot of artists don't
understand that their art can be of service.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, yeah, the music was for a higher purpose. No real,
maybe y'all.
Speaker 7 (03:59):
Can as from me.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I always wondered where could I go to learn more
about Maurice White's philosophy on life. Did he ever get
an opportunity to explain that anywhere?
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Well, you know, you just I mean just listening to
all of the music, and not just the stuff that's
on the main line, but you know, the the other
cuts and stuff, you know. I mean, Maurice was very
open about the fact that he was a student of
life and one that was just allowing, you know, the
(04:34):
power of the creativity to come through him, you know,
And so he stayed very open to you know, that
inspiration at all times and taught us to do the
you know, the same and taught us by by example
really you know.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
And he had quite a library too.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
He was a tremendous reader of books, you know, and
certainly some books that he turned me on to Napoleon Hill,
you know, thinking Master Keeter Rich's Law's success.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
And you know the thing about it is he had
traveled the world before he was in Earth in the Fire,
before he started Earth on the Fire. So we were
learning and so we sort of grew up on the road,
you know, and uh and watching.
Speaker 7 (05:19):
Him do what he did. Uh.
Speaker 6 (05:22):
And of course, you know, pulling from the great Miles Davis,
all those wonderful artists that he pulled from too. So
we were very fortunate to learn from a great teacher.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
What was something that he taught you that had nothing
to do with music but everything to do with life?
Speaker 4 (05:38):
This you know, like you have to keep your hands
and hearts open, right, you know they'll do this you
nothing comes in, nothing goes out right, you know, but
you know you have you know, you have to give
and you have to keep your hands open. So you
you know, and and it's reciprocal. It comes back to you.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
I was gonna ask in nineteen sixty nine when this
band was created, you know this, it was first originally
the Salty Peppers.
Speaker 7 (06:03):
Oh yeah, the Salty Oh yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Did you ever think that it would come this far
to the lives that you change the love you put
in people's hearts?
Speaker 7 (06:12):
Did you?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Was that always the goal and the key.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
When you're first getting into this thing. You don't know
where it's going to go. You just hope that the
outcome is a very positive outcome. But coming into a band,
you don't know what's going to happen, you know, and
you don't know what kind of success, if any, that
you will have.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
You just have to believe in what you're doing time.
Speaker 7 (06:32):
Yeah, right, yeah, right absolutely.
Speaker 6 (06:34):
I think the first time we ever heard one of
our tunes, I think it was Mighty Mighty, and we
were in the car and we jumped out the car
because you know, when you hear your work and you
hear it and then you hear it back at you,
you know, it's just uh, it's very powerful and it's
uh uh And those songs live on today, man.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Now, from Salty Peppers to Earth went in Fire. How
did that name change happen?
Speaker 7 (06:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
From seasonings the elements?
Speaker 9 (06:58):
Yeah, yeah, well you know uh uh Reese's uh he
made Earth on the fire from his astrological chart because
he had no water, no water in the charter and
it's chartered was earth air and fired him.
Speaker 6 (07:15):
But he changed the air to wind and uh, and
it was Salty Peppers would have been a little corny
by now, but the Earth on the fire was definitely
all the elements that we every day, the moon, the sky,
you know, and and he wrote songs to head to
(07:38):
the sky, things like that, and so yeah, so it went,
It went a long way, and we didn't even know,
you know, we didn't know.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Can you tell me about the night of September twenty first?
Like why why why September twenty first?
Speaker 4 (07:52):
You're gonna hear You're gonna hear a whole bunch of
stuff about that one.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Somebody said, well was it?
Speaker 4 (07:57):
It was Cabron's do they as long as I've known reason,
he never said anything, you know, but at anyway, he
you know, he said it sounded.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Good, It sounded good, it was working, you know. Yeah,
body say.
Speaker 7 (08:15):
Do you remember and it was a filler?
Speaker 6 (08:18):
Uh? What it was a filler in the middle of
the greatest hits record that it was used to. It
was not really on an album album and uh, and
it's been a hit.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Five times. That's crazy as a filling.
Speaker 9 (08:33):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (08:34):
If matter of fact, I was checking your show out,
uh when uh Taylor Swift did her version of it,
and you went off, You said, how couldn't you, you know,
change the lyrics and change the sound of it.
Speaker 7 (08:46):
You know that, and man, people went nuts. You know
you if you go.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
Ahead, Dean, I was gonna say, if you come into
our show and you here September, you're late.
Speaker 7 (08:59):
Oh yeah, because.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
It's the last song we do, right, and it's globally
recognized as the UN's International Day of Piece.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I don't know if that.
Speaker 7 (09:09):
Was what came first.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
I didn't even know that. Yeah, didn't know that. Yeah,
it's recognized that.
Speaker 7 (09:15):
Look that up, Lauren.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
I'm pretty sure that.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
I'm pretty sure it's looked at the UN's International Day
of Piece. So I was wondering that was just some
type of correlation. But I don't know what came first.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
People just picked the song. You hear it, you know,
because they relate to it in a lot of different
kind of ways. And now you know, we got kids
five years old that know the songs and don't know
who we are.
Speaker 8 (09:37):
That's what I mean by generationally like it's serving people
because like you play that out like a family cookout,
family gathering, whatever. Like the kids know it because they're
growing up on it. It's being passed down through generations,
which is also insane too, because it's music. It's not tangible,
but it is I guess, like, you know, what.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Do you think it is about your music that just
refuses the age?
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Or were first true confession about September because we used
to listen to all the music once we got finished
doing you know, our projects and stuff, and so we're
listening to the project that September was on. We got
to September, we played it, I was like.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I don't know or you didn't know that first?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Just yeah, I don't know, guys, I don't know. I
was wrong. Yes, did you ask like what that was
a body?
Speaker 7 (10:31):
Yet?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Now you know? I sang it. It was me and
Reese doing.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
All the voices, so so, but but I didn't ask that.
But I just didn't. I didn't think. I thought it
was so simple because all the other songs had so
many you know, changes and all that kind of stuff,
you know, and so it was. It was great then
and it's great now.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And I didn't know it classic.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
We're doing music now, right, Do you ever look back?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Right?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Songs used to be seven minutes long, right long? Right,
nine minutes long, and you caught every piece of it.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Now songs are two minutes long, that's right.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Could you do a song da age and two minutes long. Yeah,
of course, you.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Know, you just have to cut out all the extras,
you know, because yeah, y'all, y'all don't listen to stuff
for long.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Nowadays. It's like give it to me, dude and get
over it.
Speaker 8 (11:21):
Y'all was talking and through it.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah, you know, like that's some of the best parts
of the songs.
Speaker 6 (11:26):
Yeah, where you could do long sack solos, guitar solos,
sun Goddess you know, got it's like thirteen minutes long exactly.
Speaker 7 (11:36):
I mean, some of these records need to be show
because they're terrible. So I don't have a problem with that.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Now today's music industry, like and people saying they reward
speed right, Earth Wind and Fire, y'all built timeless records?
Can timeless music still exists and it's like streaming era,
you know.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I always think that because music was so important in
our era, because there wasn't all the other intentibles. Now
you got nineteen hundred things to do on your phone
and you know, like it's it's you know, there's so much,
so many other things vying for your attention. I don't
I don't think music is ever going to be you
(12:13):
know that have that kind of space you know anymore,
but you know, you never know.
Speaker 7 (12:20):
What the backup what Philip was saying, There's been other
things that.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
Have occupied the space of music, you know, you know, sports, politics,
you know, it's been in the same space, you know,
and and they've used and they use music, so they
take up the space of using listening to our songs,
you know, for their commercials. And because our songs in
commercial commercials every day you hear it.
Speaker 7 (12:45):
You can hear it in the story, you're gonna hear
it on television.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
So you know, it's taken a lot of other things
have taken the space of music.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
You know.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Do you like when sometimes I know that the song's
go political, right, so political people have used the songs
for their campaign. Does that bother you? Do you cut
it or do you just say, hey, let the checks
come in.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Well, no, certain certain people use our stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
You know, it's like we're like, forget that, you know
that ain't that ain't us Yeah, but you you really
have no until you check them. There's there's really no
you know, recall to to you know, people using your music, do.
Speaker 8 (13:29):
The seas and desist when you send them after that, like,
I know that happened with Trump. Does that actually like
make them like does that change? Does like when you
send the sas and desists, Like do people actually pay
attention and care about that or do they?
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Yeah? Most times, Yeah, because it becomes a legal issues,
you get that Ceason assists, you should probably to shut
it down.
Speaker 7 (13:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Now, after all the you know, decades on the road,
what's one of the craziest stories you've seen on the road.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
The craziest for me was back when we were touring
and we would uh rent out a floor. Yeah, and
we got back to the hotel and our drummer, Freddy
Maurice and Verdeine's brother. There in front of his room
was a buck naked lady.
Speaker 7 (14:18):
And that was me.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
I came, man, wait a minute, hold it.
Speaker 5 (14:25):
I came up, got my room, was right by the elevator,
got off and there was a lady chanting buck naked
in front of my door, ring a kill number. I
was like, okay, I'll be right back. I backed back
on the elevator, went down and got security said do
something with this, you know, and people could go to
the front desk and tell them different things.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
And they'd give you your key.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
I was in in uh San Francisco one time and
came came home from the show and went to open
my door, and the and the and the double lock
was on there.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So I want to say, I look at my kids.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
You know, look this is like so all right, go down,
asked them to unlock the door.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
They said, well, you must have locked it some kind
of way. I go in.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
This lady's in the bathtub, got candles and stuff.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
She even told the people that she's my wife.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, that's some crazy.
Speaker 7 (15:24):
Just now we understand the special.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Dabody right now.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
I was, you know, watching the documentary on HBO, When
did y'all finally get the business right? Because you know,
y'all y'all had some financial struggles, and I was I
was shocked to see that y'all would end tours in debt. Like,
when did y'all finally get that right?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yesterday?
Speaker 7 (15:50):
Just did got it together right? We're back in the
back the money up.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
No, but you know, you know the true Truthfully, no
one could have predicted when we are putting together this
band that okay, we're gonna sell out five nights at Whimley.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
We're gonna sell five nights at the.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Forum, you know, and you know all these different things,
and when you don't you haven't been used to having
that kind of money and stuff. You don't know that
this stuff is gonna run out and stuff. So like
all of the things that we're trying to do that
Morris was trying to do with the production and all
that kind of stuff, and I bet you, I bet
(16:34):
you management probably took him to the bank too, you know,
because you know, basically, you just move in and you
don't think the money's gonna dry up and all that
kind of stuff. You don't have no history, so you
got to get burnt pretty bad before you actually start
to you know, have some physical, i mean, some financial
(16:55):
sense about.
Speaker 6 (16:55):
Yourself and in our And when all that was happening,
that was before the age of corporate sponsorship, you know,
before later on that's when all the other acts got
corporate sponsorship, you know, from car companies, different things, and
there was nothing. You were just paying as you go along.
That's all you can do the shows, you know, and.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
They're a point where you were really making less than
the roadie.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah yeah for a long time. Yeah yeah, wow.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
But we didn't know though, you know, like because we
were we we were just happy to be in the
you know, when we come from we come from you know,
you know, families that don't have no money and all
that kind of stuff. So you know, when when when
your needs are met and stuff, you're like just es
(17:42):
basically at.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
You know, twenty one years old. You know, you don't
know that you know, okay, the roadies making three times as.
Speaker 6 (17:51):
Much as you and you don't know it's you don't
know it's a business until later, you know, and then
you find out, you know, it's not about the money.
Speaker 7 (17:57):
It's about the money.
Speaker 8 (17:59):
To find out what's the process been like making all
of that right? Now? What's the process or what was
the process like trying to make all of that right?
Speaker 7 (18:06):
Like all of the money, getting getting.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Get good representation, you know, and people you know, teaching you,
you know, bringing you up to speed, you know, you know,
so that you know, it took some years unfortunately for us.
You know, we have we've been uh heading up the
band uh forty years now, you know, and the to
(18:34):
Reese's what.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
Twenty yeah about twenty yeah, yeah, yeah, we've no I
was gonna say, we've been at this longer with our
just the three of us than we were with with him.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
Got you Yeah, and Reese didn't even do now you
know you do buses on the road. Reese didn't even
get into the bus era.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
We didn't We didn't even take driving station. And we
had plane.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yeah, we want to R and B groups to start
flying and stuff.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
How did y'all avoid not making I guess the financial
situation personal with with Maury?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
You know, no, it got personal. Definitely got personal.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
But but you know, the the transition or the evolution
of forgiving and uh understanding, you know, was something that
you know was a process.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
I was going to say, it.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Got personal and that's why some people never returned. That's
how personal with God. They didn't want anything to do
with it moving forward and.
Speaker 7 (19:40):
You learn how to forgive and keep it moving.
Speaker 6 (19:43):
And as Ralph had mentioned, we've been doing it longer
without Reach than we were with Race.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (19:49):
You know, when when there are things shifting, gives a bit.
When are things out there like you guys were the
first African American actors sell out Madison Square Garden. Right
during that time when you were doing it, did it
feel like how did it feel? Because now people look
back at that and they're like, oh wow, like that's
such a big thing. But it probably didn't feel so
glamorous when you guys were doing it.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
No, they felt glamorous. Square Garden has always been glamorous
to any artist, you know, it's iconic. I was just
telling some people that the other day when we were there,
you know, to look around and to you know, relish
the time there because it's very it's a very sacred place.
Speaker 6 (20:32):
I don't think any other band from our era it's
playing madiscauat Garden. We're doing it twice. We did it
back in the day, we're doing it now. And the
thing about it now, it's a multicultural audience. You know,
it's all ages, all races of people, and they're enjoying
(20:53):
the same thing. And for the two hours that were
out there together. They feel better when they leave them
when they came, you know, because they don't know what
to expect, you know.
Speaker 7 (21:04):
But the thing about it, they're.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
Very happy, and playing in New York Man is really
I mean, when they love you, they love you. You know,
they don't take no prisoners. But when they love you,
they love you. And they gave us a lot of love.
The other night lineup.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
You know, these brothers got to go.
Speaker 7 (21:17):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
You got a memoile though, right right, Yes, it came
out in May eighth.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
It's called Rhythm and Fire.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Life and Harmony with Earth went in fire.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
And after being in the group for fifty five years,
I decided it was time to write a book, and
so I did, and it's doing very well.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
You know, when people are celebrating the earth win, it fires.
You know, legacy, right, fifty years from now to be
like a hundred years, right, what do you what do
you hope they're saying about your legacy?
Speaker 4 (21:52):
You know, here's a band that did music and they're
there their intention and was greater than themselves, you know
it was it was it wasn't so much about them
as much as it was about renting a service to
the humanity.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
And I hope lives on.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
I was going to say, I hope they realized we
made a tremendous contribution to the artistic and cultural fabric
of the globe.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
And fifty years from now when we come back again
on the Breakfast Show, exactly, but wait, bake it up
to you guys, because we're in rarefied atmosphere being with you, guys.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
It's an honor to be here.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
You guys are the culture and you know like you're
you guys are so sharp. Guys and ladies, your whole,
your whole operation, and so you know, thank you for
inviting us, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Legends, Thank the Earth tomorrow. Want to come back some gifts?
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Oh yes, all right, all right, I don't want to
say this. Everybody stop. That fit all of them, you
you well, it's earth Winding Fire. It's the Breakfast Club.
Good morning, every day a week.
Speaker 7 (23:19):
Click your glass up, the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Finished for y'all.
Speaker 7 (23:22):
Done
Every day a week ago. Click your ass up the
breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You don't finish for y'all done morning.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Everybody is DJ Envy, just hilarious, Charlamagne to God. We
are the breakfast Club. Lalla Roast is here as well.
We got some special guests in the bill Man.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
We got we say legends sometime and they don't really
be legends, not any time of legendary award winning icon
Man eight number one hits, sold more than one hundred
million albums worldwide, twenty three albums, and those albums went
double platinum and hit the top ten.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
God damn and the soundtrack to a lot of Our
Lives and Our Mama Lives, Man, ladies and gentlemen, Earth
Wind and Fire.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
We're feeling good.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
We're feeling good. We're out touring and having a good time.
Just sold out Madison Square Garden with Lionel night before last,
and just you know, living life, living life and having
a good time. Couldn't imagine that when we started this
in our twenties that we'd be seventy five and still
doing it, you know, on the level.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
What makes you still enjoy it after all this year?
I still love going on tours.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Always say I would have played music for free. Fortunately
I get paid for it, yep. But yeah, it's a
you know, it's a passion and it's wonderful that it
makes a lot of other people happy and bring so
much joy to to so many people, like you say,
our music has become part of the soundtrack of so
many people's lives now, and we wouldn't have been able
(01:31):
to even imagine that, you know, starting out. But we
just wanted to be in the best band in the.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
World, whole world. And Billboard just.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
Yeah, Billboard came out and said that Fires their greatest
band of all time.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
You know, you got a point. It took us a
little longer.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Just catch it up and rest in peace to May's white. Yeah,
I got to say that when you're on stage, now,
do you feel him on stage with y'all?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Every note, every stick, every beat, every because you know,
it's like part of it. You know, it's DNA, it's heart.
So yeah, we can't. You can't play Earth when he
Fire music without Maurice being there.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
And you know you're feeling, you know, on stage, particularly
when you do those great songs, and that's the way
the world, all those wonderful songs that people grew up on.
And so as Philip said, you know, we feel him
every night.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I always heard Brother Maurice talk about music is something spiritual,
like you think people underestimate how intentional he was about
healing people through music, and how intentional y'all are as
a group about healing people through music.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Where you know, as he evolved in his you know,
evolution of spiritual enlightenment, he just really came to understand
what a high art that the music music is and
its ability to transform to heal, to heal, you know,
And so that was what, uh we went about making
(03:09):
sure that our intentions was in the music in that
way that it would make a positive difference in those
who heard it.
Speaker 6 (03:19):
He wanted to and also the chime in he wanted
to render a service to humanity, you know. And uh
and as we're seeing now where people remember where they
were when those songs came on, how they feel about things.
Speaker 7 (03:33):
So uh uh, he was, he was on a high plane.
It's definitely on a mission, on a mission.
Speaker 8 (03:39):
But I think that's why all these years later, people
still really live like generations live with your music very differently.
Y'all can sell out wherever you guys go, because it's
a service to people, and a lot of artists don't
understand that their art can be of service.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, yeah, the music was for a higher purpose. No real,
maybe y'all.
Speaker 7 (03:59):
Can as from me.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I always wondered where could I go to learn more
about Maurice White's philosophy on life. Did he ever get
an opportunity to explain that anywhere?
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Well, you know, you just I mean just listening to
all of the music, and not just the stuff that's
on the main line, but you know, the the other
cuts and stuff, you know. I mean, Maurice was very
open about the fact that he was a student of
life and one that was just allowing, you know, the
(04:34):
power of the creativity to come through him, you know,
And so he stayed very open to you know, that
inspiration at all times and taught us to do the
you know, the same and taught us by by example
really you know.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
And he had quite a library too.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
He was a tremendous reader of books, you know, and
certainly some books that he turned me on to Napoleon Hill,
you know, thinking Master Keeter Rich's Law's success.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
And you know the thing about it is he had
traveled the world before he was in Earth in the Fire,
before he started Earth on the Fire. So we were
learning and so we sort of grew up on the road,
you know, and uh and watching.
Speaker 7 (05:19):
Him do what he did. Uh.
Speaker 6 (05:22):
And of course, you know, pulling from the great Miles Davis,
all those wonderful artists that he pulled from too. So
we were very fortunate to learn from a great teacher.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
What was something that he taught you that had nothing
to do with music but everything to do with life?
Speaker 4 (05:38):
This you know, like you have to keep your hands
and hearts open, right, you know they'll do this you
nothing comes in, nothing goes out right, you know, but
you know you have you know, you have to give
and you have to keep your hands open. So you
you know, and and it's reciprocal. It comes back to you.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
I was gonna ask in nineteen sixty nine when this
band was created, you know this, it was first originally
the Salty Peppers.
Speaker 7 (06:03):
Oh yeah, the Salty Oh yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Did you ever think that it would come this far
to the lives that you change the love you put
in people's hearts?
Speaker 7 (06:12):
Did you?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Was that always the goal and the key.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
When you're first getting into this thing. You don't know
where it's going to go. You just hope that the
outcome is a very positive outcome. But coming into a band,
you don't know what's going to happen, you know, and
you don't know what kind of success, if any, that
you will have.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
You just have to believe in what you're doing time.
Speaker 7 (06:32):
Yeah, right, yeah, right absolutely.
Speaker 6 (06:34):
I think the first time we ever heard one of
our tunes, I think it was Mighty Mighty, and we
were in the car and we jumped out the car
because you know, when you hear your work and you
hear it and then you hear it back at you,
you know, it's just uh, it's very powerful and it's
uh uh And those songs live on today, man.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Now, from Salty Peppers to Earth went in Fire. How
did that name change happen?
Speaker 7 (06:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
From seasonings the elements?
Speaker 9 (06:58):
Yeah, yeah, well you know uh uh Reese's uh he
made Earth on the fire from his astrological chart because
he had no water, no water in the charter and
it's chartered was earth air and fired him.
Speaker 6 (07:15):
But he changed the air to wind and uh, and
it was Salty Peppers would have been a little corny
by now, but the Earth on the fire was definitely
all the elements that we every day, the moon, the sky,
you know, and and he wrote songs to head to
(07:38):
the sky, things like that, and so yeah, so it went,
It went a long way, and we didn't even know,
you know, we didn't know.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Can you tell me about the night of September twenty first?
Like why why why September twenty first?
Speaker 4 (07:52):
You're gonna hear You're gonna hear a whole bunch of
stuff about that one.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Somebody said, well was it?
Speaker 4 (07:57):
It was Cabron's do they as long as I've known reason,
he never said anything, you know, but at anyway, he
you know, he said it sounded.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Good, It sounded good, it was working, you know. Yeah,
body say.
Speaker 7 (08:15):
Do you remember and it was a filler?
Speaker 6 (08:18):
Uh? What it was a filler in the middle of
the greatest hits record that it was used to. It
was not really on an album album and uh, and
it's been a hit.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Five times. That's crazy as a filling.
Speaker 9 (08:33):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (08:34):
If matter of fact, I was checking your show out,
uh when uh Taylor Swift did her version of it,
and you went off, You said, how couldn't you, you know,
change the lyrics and change the sound of it.
Speaker 7 (08:46):
You know that, and man, people went nuts. You know
you if you go.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
Ahead, Dean, I was gonna say, if you come into
our show and you here September, you're late.
Speaker 7 (08:59):
Oh yeah, because.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
It's the last song we do, right, and it's globally
recognized as the UN's International Day of Piece.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I don't know if that.
Speaker 7 (09:09):
Was what came first.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
I didn't even know that. Yeah, didn't know that. Yeah,
it's recognized that.
Speaker 7 (09:15):
Look that up, Lauren.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
I'm pretty sure that.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
I'm pretty sure it's looked at the UN's International Day
of Piece. So I was wondering that was just some
type of correlation. But I don't know what came first.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
People just picked the song. You hear it, you know,
because they relate to it in a lot of different
kind of ways. And now you know, we got kids
five years old that know the songs and don't know
who we are.
Speaker 8 (09:37):
That's what I mean by generationally like it's serving people
because like you play that out like a family cookout,
family gathering, whatever. Like the kids know it because they're
growing up on it. It's being passed down through generations,
which is also insane too, because it's music. It's not tangible,
but it is I guess, like, you know, what.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Do you think it is about your music that just
refuses the age?
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Or were first true confession about September because we used
to listen to all the music once we got finished
doing you know, our projects and stuff, and so we're
listening to the project that September was on. We got
to September, we played it, I was like.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I don't know or you didn't know that first?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Just yeah, I don't know, guys, I don't know. I
was wrong. Yes, did you ask like what that was
a body?
Speaker 7 (10:31):
Yet?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Now you know? I sang it. It was me and
Reese doing.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
All the voices, so so, but but I didn't ask that.
But I just didn't. I didn't think. I thought it
was so simple because all the other songs had so
many you know, changes and all that kind of stuff,
you know, and so it was. It was great then
and it's great now.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And I didn't know it classic.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
We're doing music now, right, Do you ever look back?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Right?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Songs used to be seven minutes long, right long? Right,
nine minutes long, and you caught every piece of it.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Now songs are two minutes long, that's right.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Could you do a song da age and two minutes long. Yeah,
of course, you.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Know, you just have to cut out all the extras,
you know, because yeah, y'all, y'all don't listen to stuff
for long.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Nowadays. It's like give it to me, dude and get
over it.
Speaker 8 (11:21):
Y'all was talking and through it.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah, you know, like that's some of the best parts
of the songs.
Speaker 6 (11:26):
Yeah, where you could do long sack solos, guitar solos,
sun Goddess you know, got it's like thirteen minutes long exactly.
Speaker 7 (11:36):
I mean, some of these records need to be show
because they're terrible. So I don't have a problem with that.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Now today's music industry, like and people saying they reward
speed right, Earth Wind and Fire, y'all built timeless records?
Can timeless music still exists and it's like streaming era,
you know.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I always think that because music was so important in
our era, because there wasn't all the other intentibles. Now
you got nineteen hundred things to do on your phone
and you know, like it's it's you know, there's so much,
so many other things vying for your attention. I don't
I don't think music is ever going to be you
(12:13):
know that have that kind of space you know anymore,
but you know, you never know.
Speaker 7 (12:20):
What the backup what Philip was saying, There's been other
things that.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
Have occupied the space of music, you know, you know, sports, politics,
you know, it's been in the same space, you know,
and and they've used and they use music, so they
take up the space of using listening to our songs,
you know, for their commercials. And because our songs in
commercial commercials every day you hear it.
Speaker 7 (12:45):
You can hear it in the story, you're gonna hear
it on television.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
So you know, it's taken a lot of other things
have taken the space of music.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
You know.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Do you like when sometimes I know that the song's
go political, right, so political people have used the songs
for their campaign. Does that bother you? Do you cut
it or do you just say, hey, let the checks
come in.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Well, no, certain certain people use our stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
You know, it's like we're like, forget that, you know
that ain't that ain't us Yeah, but you you really
have no until you check them. There's there's really no
you know, recall to to you know, people using your music, do.
Speaker 8 (13:29):
The seas and desist when you send them after that, like,
I know that happened with Trump. Does that actually like
make them like does that change? Does like when you
send the sas and desists, Like do people actually pay
attention and care about that or do they?
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Yeah? Most times, Yeah, because it becomes a legal issues,
you get that Ceason assists, you should probably to shut
it down.
Speaker 7 (13:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Now, after all the you know, decades on the road,
what's one of the craziest stories you've seen on the road.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
The craziest for me was back when we were touring
and we would uh rent out a floor. Yeah, and
we got back to the hotel and our drummer, Freddy
Maurice and Verdeine's brother. There in front of his room
was a buck naked lady.
Speaker 7 (14:18):
And that was me.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
I came, man, wait a minute, hold it.
Speaker 5 (14:25):
I came up, got my room, was right by the elevator,
got off and there was a lady chanting buck naked
in front of my door, ring a kill number. I
was like, okay, I'll be right back. I backed back
on the elevator, went down and got security said do
something with this, you know, and people could go to
the front desk and tell them different things.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
And they'd give you your key.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
I was in in uh San Francisco one time and
came came home from the show and went to open
my door, and the and the and the double lock
was on there.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So I want to say, I look at my kids.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
You know, look this is like so all right, go down,
asked them to unlock the door.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
They said, well, you must have locked it some kind
of way. I go in.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
This lady's in the bathtub, got candles and stuff.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
She even told the people that she's my wife.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, that's some crazy.
Speaker 7 (15:24):
Just now we understand the special.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Dabody right now.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
I was, you know, watching the documentary on HBO, When
did y'all finally get the business right? Because you know,
y'all y'all had some financial struggles, and I was I
was shocked to see that y'all would end tours in debt. Like,
when did y'all finally get that right?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yesterday?
Speaker 7 (15:50):
Just did got it together right? We're back in the
back the money up.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
No, but you know, you know the true Truthfully, no
one could have predicted when we are putting together this
band that okay, we're gonna sell out five nights at Whimley.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
We're gonna sell five nights at the.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Forum, you know, and you know all these different things,
and when you don't you haven't been used to having
that kind of money and stuff. You don't know that
this stuff is gonna run out and stuff. So like
all of the things that we're trying to do that
Morris was trying to do with the production and all
that kind of stuff, and I bet you, I bet
(16:34):
you management probably took him to the bank too, you know,
because you know, basically, you just move in and you
don't think the money's gonna dry up and all that
kind of stuff. You don't have no history, so you
got to get burnt pretty bad before you actually start
to you know, have some physical, i mean, some financial
(16:55):
sense about.
Speaker 6 (16:55):
Yourself and in our And when all that was happening,
that was before the age of corporate sponsorship, you know,
before later on that's when all the other acts got
corporate sponsorship, you know, from car companies, different things, and
there was nothing. You were just paying as you go along.
That's all you can do the shows, you know, and.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
They're a point where you were really making less than
the roadie.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah yeah for a long time. Yeah yeah, wow.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
But we didn't know though, you know, like because we
were we we were just happy to be in the
you know, when we come from we come from you know,
you know, families that don't have no money and all
that kind of stuff. So you know, when when when
your needs are met and stuff, you're like just es
(17:42):
basically at.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
You know, twenty one years old. You know, you don't
know that you know, okay, the roadies making three times as.
Speaker 6 (17:51):
Much as you and you don't know it's you don't
know it's a business until later, you know, and then
you find out, you know, it's not about the money.
Speaker 7 (17:57):
It's about the money.
Speaker 8 (17:59):
To find out what's the process been like making all
of that right? Now? What's the process or what was
the process like trying to make all of that right?
Speaker 7 (18:06):
Like all of the money, getting getting.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Get good representation, you know, and people you know, teaching you,
you know, bringing you up to speed, you know, you know,
so that you know, it took some years unfortunately for us.
You know, we have we've been uh heading up the
band uh forty years now, you know, and the to
(18:34):
Reese's what.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
Twenty yeah about twenty yeah, yeah, yeah, we've no I
was gonna say, we've been at this longer with our
just the three of us than we were with with him.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
Got you Yeah, and Reese didn't even do now you
know you do buses on the road. Reese didn't even
get into the bus era.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
We didn't We didn't even take driving station. And we
had plane.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yeah, we want to R and B groups to start
flying and stuff.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
How did y'all avoid not making I guess the financial
situation personal with with Maury?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
You know, no, it got personal. Definitely got personal.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
But but you know, the the transition or the evolution
of forgiving and uh understanding, you know, was something that
you know was a process.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
I was going to say, it.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Got personal and that's why some people never returned. That's
how personal with God. They didn't want anything to do
with it moving forward and.
Speaker 7 (19:40):
You learn how to forgive and keep it moving.
Speaker 6 (19:43):
And as Ralph had mentioned, we've been doing it longer
without Reach than we were with Race.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (19:49):
You know, when when there are things shifting, gives a bit.
When are things out there like you guys were the
first African American actors sell out Madison Square Garden. Right
during that time when you were doing it, did it
feel like how did it feel? Because now people look
back at that and they're like, oh wow, like that's
such a big thing. But it probably didn't feel so
glamorous when you guys were doing it.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
No, they felt glamorous. Square Garden has always been glamorous
to any artist, you know, it's iconic. I was just
telling some people that the other day when we were there,
you know, to look around and to you know, relish
the time there because it's very it's a very sacred place.
Speaker 6 (20:32):
I don't think any other band from our era it's
playing madiscauat Garden. We're doing it twice. We did it
back in the day, we're doing it now. And the
thing about it now, it's a multicultural audience. You know,
it's all ages, all races of people, and they're enjoying
(20:53):
the same thing. And for the two hours that were
out there together. They feel better when they leave them
when they came, you know, because they don't know what
to expect, you know.
Speaker 7 (21:04):
But the thing about it, they're.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
Very happy, and playing in New York Man is really
I mean, when they love you, they love you. You know,
they don't take no prisoners. But when they love you,
they love you. And they gave us a lot of love.
The other night lineup.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
You know, these brothers got to go.
Speaker 7 (21:17):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
You got a memoile though, right right, Yes, it came
out in May eighth.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
It's called Rhythm and Fire.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Life and Harmony with Earth went in fire.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
And after being in the group for fifty five years,
I decided it was time to write a book, and
so I did, and it's doing very well.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
You know, when people are celebrating the earth win, it fires.
You know, legacy, right, fifty years from now to be
like a hundred years, right, what do you what do
you hope they're saying about your legacy?
Speaker 4 (21:52):
You know, here's a band that did music and they're
there their intention and was greater than themselves, you know
it was it was it wasn't so much about them
as much as it was about renting a service to
the humanity.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
And I hope lives on.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
I was going to say, I hope they realized we
made a tremendous contribution to the artistic and cultural fabric
of the globe.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
And fifty years from now when we come back again
on the Breakfast Show, exactly, but wait, bake it up
to you guys, because we're in rarefied atmosphere being with you, guys.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
It's an honor to be here.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
You guys are the culture and you know like you're
you guys are so sharp. Guys and ladies, your whole,
your whole operation, and so you know, thank you for
inviting us, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Legends, Thank the Earth tomorrow. Want to come back some gifts?
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Oh yes, all right, all right, I don't want to
say this. Everybody stop. That fit all of them, you
you well, it's earth Winding Fire. It's the Breakfast Club.
Good morning, every day a week.
Speaker 7 (23:19):
Click your glass up, the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Finished for y'all.
Speaker 7 (23:22):
Done
The Breakfast Club News
Hosts And Creators
Charlamagne Tha God
DJ Envy
Jess Hilarious
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