Classical Roots to Reggae Royalty: The Story of the Uptown Rebel | Ft. Stephen "Cat" Coore O.D.

This week, we are talking di tings with multi-award winning, nine-time Grammy nominated guitarist, cellist, and co-founder of the legendary band, Third World, Stephen "Cat" Coore O.D.

Cat Coore was raised in a musically rich environment, and shares how his mother (a classically trained musician), American and British bands, and the vibrant sounds of the Jamaican sound system; shaped his musical journey.

In this episode he shares anecdotes about his childhood in Jamaica; where music was an integral part of his upbringing. From playing the Cello for Princess Anne at the age of nine to forming his first band, the Alley Cats, to being a member of Inner Circle to becoming a Reggae Ambassador with Third World, Cat Coore's story is one of passion and perseverance.

Uncle Cat has played an integral role in creating some of Third World's timeless hits like "96 Degrees in the Shade" and "Now That We Found Love," & has received global recognition for his incredible guitar skills. For example, in 2023, Rolling Stone Magazine named him one of the greatest guitarists of ALL TIME, positioned at #91. 

This episode is a tribute to Cat Coore's legacy, highlighting his contributions to music and culture. It's a celebration of his life, brilliance, resilience, and the power of Reggae music; that will leave you with a deeper appreciation for the artistry and intellect that define his journey.


So grab your tea, coffee, or a glass of wine, and let's talk di tings! 
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
No, this is a story of the uptone rebel, and
I why you hear me? Clearly, there are artists who
make music, and then there are artists who live it,
breathe it, and somehow through every note remind us what
beauty sounds like when it's anchored in purpose. This week

(00:25):
we are talking to things with one of those artists,
Stephen Kat Corp, Award winning guitarist, cellist and co founder
of the legendary band Third World. Born in Kingston, Jamaica,
Uncle Kat's roots run as deep as his melodies. His father,

(00:47):
the Honorable David Hilton Corp, was a man of intellect
and nation building, a distinguished scholar who served as Deputy
Prime Minister of Jamaica. His mother, Ritocor, carried artistry in
her soul. She was trained in music and broadcasting at

(01:09):
McGill University and the Royal College of Music in London,
and became one of Jamaica's most respected music educators. At
just four years old, Uncle Kat responded instinctively to music,
not with words, but with movement. He shares on this

(01:29):
episode that his mother recalls him moving when music played
and being still when it stopped, recognizing something profound she
placed the cello in his hands, and the rest is
well symphonic history. Uncle Kat's relationship with music blossomed. He

(01:50):
performed on stages across Jamaica, playing the Swan for Princess
Anne at King's House and earning a silver medal at
the Gym Mega Festival by the age of ten. Yet,
even as a classically trained prodigy, his ears and his
heart were tuned to something else, the rising sound of

(02:14):
Jamaica's sound system. By age twelve, he was captivated by
ska and pop rock and roll, and by thirteen he
was the lead guitarist for Inner Circle. At seventeen, Uncle
Kat joined forces with his friend Ibo Cooper, and together
they helped to form a band that would carry Jamaican

(02:37):
music to the world which we know today as Third World.
For the past five decades, Uncle Cat has been the
heartbeat of that sound, fusing classical elegance with roots energy,
cello with consciousness, and rebellion with refinement. Uncle Kat's artistry

(02:59):
has taken him across continents and onto some of the
world's grandest stages, with nine Grammy nominations, the United Nations
Medal of Peace, and several other international and national honors,
including the Order of Distinction in two thousand and five.
Uncle Kat's legacy is etched in both Jamaican and global

(03:23):
music history. Did you know that? In twenty twenty three,
the Rolling Stone magazine named Uncle Kat one of the
two hundred and fifty greatest guitarists of all time of
all time, not just in reggae, recognizing not only his

(03:44):
technical brilliance, but his ability to make the guitar speak,
to carry reggae's rhythm, rock's energy, and classical grace all
at once. Stephen Catcore is in every sense, the embodiment
of harmony, the classically trained up to rebel. These strings

(04:09):
have told the story of a nation Upton. If you're
listening to the podcast on Apple Podcast, please remember to
rate and leave a comment below. Also, don't forget to
follow us on Instagram at Let's Talk the Tings. Now,
grab your tea, coffee, or a glass of wine and

(04:30):
Let's Talk the Tings. Hello everyone, Welcome back to Let's
Talk the Things, where we discuss personal growth, travel, music
and wellness while encouraging you to live fearlessly and fabulously.
I'm your host, Ash and this week we are talking

(04:52):
to tings with cellist, lead guitarist and one of the
founding members of the legendary nine time Grammy nom native
band Third World, Stephen kat Core. Hi, uncle Catt. How
are you?

Speaker 2 (05:06):
How are you doing?

Speaker 1 (05:07):
I well? Thank you? Thanks so much for coming to
talk the things with me today.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
No, man, that's great, but nice to be with you.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Thank you so much so, Uncle Kat. You've given the world,
along with your bandmates, decades of timeless music from ninety
six Degrees in the Shade to Know That We Found
Love and so many other hits, and your artistry has
defined an error. Really However, to me, your humility has
defined your legacy. But before you were the legendary artist

(05:40):
that the world knows today, you were a young boy
who grew up surrounded by music with your family in Jamaica,
and your father was a musician. Correct, Mommy, Your mom
was a musician. Sorry about that. You grew up in
an environment with a lot of music, is what I'm
trying to get at. Do you remember growing up in
that environ Do you remember the first moment when you

(06:02):
realize that music wasn't just something you heard but a
part of who you were?

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Well, I think that my mother describes it kind of
differently because she when she was alive, what she said
was that she would put the music on and I
would keep walking around in a circle, and when and
when the music stopped, I stopped walking, and she said,

(06:29):
there's something about this child and music. So I think
that discovery was not so much mine, it was more
hers at the time. But as time went on, you know,
and I had this really great thing happening for me
whereby you know, my mother used to you know in

(06:52):
those days, was a Grandma phone that call it, you know,
oh yeah, right, and she would put the records on, yeah,
and I would, you know, I would just kind of,
you know, be listening to that to them. So I
think my recollection of really enjoying that those moments with

(07:16):
my mummy probably i've been around when I was four,
maybe four or five years old. I think that I
really would have just kind of, you know, I mean,
just been really transfixed by music, and and I think

(07:39):
it just kind of it it kick started me to
you know, to really love music. And then you know,
as time went on, first a while, well, my mom
was classically, was very classical in her whole thing, because
you know, she studied with whether Andrewaid was daddy and

(08:02):
she went to the Royal College of Music and she
was very, very classically oriented. But at the same time
she used to play Mighty Sparrow. She used to play
a lot of music and stuff. And then and then
we had the experience where we lived of having the
song system across the road from where we were, across

(08:26):
the gully from where we were, and that's when I
started to experience the scatellites and yeah, and that kind
of music and stuff, and that really took me, you know,
to a different place. And I well, I mean we're

(08:48):
talking nine years old, ten years old now, at nine
years old, and I had already played at King's House
for Princess Anne, so so yeah, So I mean, you know,
hearing the scar and the rock Steady and stuff really
threw me a curveball. And I I'm not saying I

(09:12):
moved away from Pascal music, because I still love it.
I still played all the time and stuff, but I mean,
you know, I got so in love with Jamaican music.
And the fascination for me was that it was ours,
you know, because there was the Rolling Stones, there were
the Beatles, there was a lot of stuff happening worldwide,

(09:37):
and we didn't have a we didn't have a lot
of television at the time. But you know, as time
went on, you know, I started to say, like Beatles
come on TV with electric guitar and thing. And I
was just absolutely fascinated. And I remember seeing one of

(10:02):
my friends at the time, I didn't really know him,
but I saw him working at the road electric guitar.
I was coming from music lessons and I'm walking the
road and as.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
A wait, have electric guitar? He said, no, God, believe that.
And he was working with the guitar without the kids.
You know, he's just working with both.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, And so I started to realize, hey, this thing
is not as perfect as you think. And one thing
led to the next, and you know, eventually, you know,
the guy, the boys in my neighborhood, all of my
friends where they wanted to you know, they wanted to
play music because it was a big fascination and love

(10:52):
at the time. And and so we started a little
band in the neighborhood, the Alley Cats. That's all I
got the name cat.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Oh, I'm going to ask you that, okay.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
Right, And so you know, we started from there and
you know, things one thing to the next thing. But
I have to admit that for all of us at
the time mm hmm, even from Bob and my uncle

(11:26):
Uncle By I called him Uncle Bab and now his
kids called me Uncle Cat and yeah, and for me
at the time, the influences that we had from foreign
music was really important, I think, you know, because we didn't. Yes,

(11:46):
we had the radio station that played the you know,
the they played some of the music from America and
so on, and then we got some of the Jamaica
and stuff too, you know, Lord Laro, you know in
the early days, I would say maybe, like, well, definitely

(12:09):
the scatellites. I mean, that's a big, big part of
our history, you know. And and then of course Bob.
Bob was very young then, but he came out with
Cima Drown and that whole that that stuff came out
and it really influenced those kids. I was twelve or

(12:32):
thirteen at the time, and that was like a big,
big influence to me. And I just kind of run
into this whole Jamaican love for Jamaican and where Jamaican
music was going. But I have to admit, yeah, I
did not really know I would end up here.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
I did not really where did you think that you
would end up?

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Well, I don't know, but I belief, I belief in
the music, belief in the love with the music was there.
But I think most of us, our kids were in
all of greatness of a Mergi musician, the Rolling Stone,
some England, the Beetle's, you know, James Brown, that kind

(13:16):
of stuff. We were in all of that. And I
don't think we as Jamaica never felt we never get there,
but we had this desire and this love for what
we were doing. And you know, and I absolutely have
to say that between Chris Blackwell and that whole business

(13:38):
with really small and you know, my Why Lollipop, I
think it was a big landing point for us. Jimmy Cliffs,
Jimmy Cliff's Wonderful World, there's one that a poor Israelites.
These were major launching points for us as youngsters who

(13:59):
were coming up. So you know, by the time, by
the time Bubble started to really pivot into a completely
different level, we were, you know, totally saying, hey, we
can do this too, you know, yeah, yeah, And we
had tremendous influences from Santana and from Sland family stone.

(14:24):
You know, I mentioned James Brown already, and we just
kind of we as kids. I mean, I had a
whole generation around me who really I mean, I have
to admit a lot of them went on different roads,
but I stayed on my road and that's where I
am now. So you know, wow, that's the best way

(14:47):
I can put that section of things.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
You know, that's amazing. And I wonder if we could
go back a little bit. So how you said that
your mom basically saw how music made you feel or
you know, literally made you move or not move. I
know that your son plays music as well. Did you
see that with him? Also?

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Not really, you know, but to be honest to you,
my two sons play music, but Shire, who plays for Damien,
I never really I never really pressed him to do music,
but I did send I did send all of them

(15:31):
to music lessons. Okay, okay, no, I sent them to
music lessons, and I'm well, quite frankly, they didn't like it.
But that's that's the generation that they grew up in,
you know. Yes, so yeah, yeah, it was about getting
the boss's haircut and and I'm being I'm playing football

(15:56):
and all of that, which I totally understand, you know, yeah,
just at the time, and I think they were just
kind of saying, why that's Dad's thing and we're not
going to be able to come up to that because
at the time we were really traveler. I was really peaking,
and I you know, I took them, I took shot
in Japan and all that, and I know he really

(16:18):
loved what was going on and everything with us. But
I don't think but when he got top of fifteen sixteen,
seventeen years old, he told me that why he's phone
his passion, No, he want to play music. And I
was even saying to myself, why it's very accommolated any thing.
But no, he got he did his thing, and he

(16:41):
went to Berkeley School of Music. I couldn't believe it. Yeah, amazing,
he got himself into Berkeley School of Music. It wasn't me,
Oh wow, he did all of that. He did all
of that himself.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
That is amazing. Growing up around you know, my dad
and you. I just love music for that reason, especially
that era of music, because I was always around it.
But as you explain it, I could see the opposite.
You know, you feel like maybe you can't reach that level.
So maybe his younger self was just like, oh, you know,
maybe that's not my thing. But maybe as he got

(17:17):
older he saw like the hard work you put in
and wanted to kind of create his own path, which
he has done. So that's amazing, right, and.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
It's a love for it, you know, it's a love
and fashion for it. So yeah, I think I think
along the way that he probably didn't wasn't so much
in love with the music lessons, and you know, and
and he was with with one of my music teachers,

(17:46):
miss missus John's and you know, and she had them
and these thing scales, and he wants to do this
and that, and I think it kind of you know
it the man was the already in too, you know,
demon was doing me in class with him, music class
with him. Okay, yeah, I think that just kind of

(18:06):
you know.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
I just wanted to go out there. They didn't want
to do right.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
And then the first the first turnound for them was
Shaba and DJ business and that that kind of spurned
the whole thing. And then all of a sudden, no,
you know, no, I'm hearing you know, the my little
music room, I'm hearing bass and stuff coming from there,

(18:30):
and I'm saying, who's in the room, you know what's
going on? And it was them and their playing and
farming their own you know, their own structures, their own thinking,
their own stuff. And yeah that's the truth.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
That Wow, that's amazing. And your other son, what does
he does? He play bass or guitar as well?

Speaker 2 (18:55):
He played guitar. He played for Chronics, for Chronics. Okay, yeah,
paper Crodics for many for six years of payper Crodics.
But okay, silent for a while, and the kind of
party company got you. You know, the music, the music
is still seriously in his blood. So I mean, I'm
just hoping that it gets back back into it. That's

(19:18):
the desire, that desire.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah, yeah, nice, nice, Yeah, it's amazing. I was not
expecting that answer. But I love it though. I love
it because it's an honest thing. You know, it's hard.
I was even talking to Uncle Tommy about that. It's
hard when your parents have already achieved something because people
will compare you or you know, you could even have

(19:40):
an expectation of yourself. But it says a lot when
persons like Naomi or Shia can create like their own
lane and their own sound, but not lose sight of
the fact that you guys created a path for them
to follow, you know.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah, and I did not. And then the nice part
of that, of the conversation that we're having is that
if you look at Uncle Tommy, if you look at him,
you would see that she is ahead of a personality
on top of the fact that he was once a

(20:14):
singer in a group called the Jamaicans.

Speaker 4 (20:17):
But but he but she is ahead of a personality,
and Naomi has fathered that to the maximum.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
Italian Italian's whole thing is about singing, you know, and
she moved from what she did into a Christian thing
and she's in him to being you know, she's a
pastor and our that and no respect to them. But Naomi,
now you know, she's she's like a cricket coming theater,

(20:49):
you know, I mean to me exactly, Yeah, to me,
it just proves you know that you're really, you know,
the essence of what your parents give you when you
come back to because she you know, yes, she's a
great singer and everything, but at the same time, she's

(21:12):
a wonderful personality. Yes, you know, when she's on TV,
she's out on the top draw. She doesn't miss out.
She doesn't you know, she doesn't make mistakes, she has
great talk, confluent, you know, she's she's on top of
her game, you know. So I really think that that's
a very important point in terms of who we are

(21:37):
and what we do. I just I'm very, very very
happy to see all of those things we're talking about them.
I'm thrilled to see them, you know, and many more.
And there are many more we can talk about, like
Steve who McGregor for instance, pretty.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
Soon literally the genius. Yes, absolutely, well, I think that's amazing,
and I think it's also amazing that all of you are,
you know, by God's grace, able to see all of
your children, you know, just in their element or doing

(22:19):
whatever it is that they do and kind of coming
in circle with each other. And it's so funny to me,
because I was telling my dad the other day, I
have a distinct memory of seeing you guys at Miami
Airport traveling, and I just always used to think, oh,
these are just my dad's friends. Like I didn't have
any idea, you know, like the magnitude of what you

(22:39):
guys achieved, because you know, you have such talent, you know,
in a humility way, not in a way where it's
like this larger than life, and you guys never acted
in such a way, you know.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
So well, you know, I thank you for that. And
I must say that I totally earlier on this was
something that we were, you know, we weren't blessed to be.
You know, Journey Are you know, are some white rock
band that certainly made it and got a million a

(23:14):
fun job, right, None of us, none of us reggae
people were ever blessed with that, you know. I mean,
you know, as I said, unto Chris is one of
the boys who really he's the top boy in terms
of like putting us on the road. Blackman's feeling was

(23:37):
that reggae music was very music, was very much close
to rock music, right, you know, he told he told Bobby,
he said, Bob, don't look at this this was ketch
afy album. He said, don't look at this thing as
being a reggae album. Look at it as being a
rock album. And you know that that's our vision was

(24:04):
brilliant because that's what it ended up being. Because quite frankly,
I mean, before reggae music blew up and took up,
it was always loved by the quote un quote white community,
the young the youngsters that were going to college in California,

(24:27):
they launched US, you know, like San Francisco, Los Angeles,
San Diego, they launched US, launched reggae. And then you know,
as things went on and we have a big desk
for on the East Coast, so the East Coast started

(24:49):
to get into it. Now, so New York and Third World.
Actually it's responsible for a lot of that because all
of a sudden, now that we found love. Yes, it's
a massive hit in New York, So it helped to
propel that whole thing that was happening there, you know. Yeah,

(25:11):
so yeah, well it's one of those things that you know,
you have to think about all the various elements that
really get you to a point where you can where
you can talk like this, where you can where Jamaican
music has reached, you know, And I'm extremely proud to

(25:35):
have been a part of everything that is what it
is right now, from Sean pal to whoever. You know.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
Absolutely absolutely, And it's interesting that you say that because
I find that Third World music has always had a
distinct sound. I find that it merges reggae, soul, jazz,
and of course, you know, classical influences. So how intentional
was that fusion? Was it like experimentation or was it

(26:06):
just the natural language of who you guys were as musicians.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Absolutely the latter natural got you. It was a natural
expression of who we who we were when we were young.
And you know, I mean, as I said, I was
blessed to have been, you know, given the you know,

(26:32):
the blessing of studying classical music. And you know, so
that for me really was very helpful because when I
when I crossed over from that onto the reggae side
of things, I carried that knowledge with me, you know.

(26:56):
So yeah, so because in those days when I was
studying music as a youngster, you know, you had to
do all this stuff. You had to you had to
know your skills, you had to know your exercises, you
had to know what you were doing and stuff. I mean,
I was more playing the cello at the time, but

(27:19):
once I decided that I wanted to play the guitar,
and I you know, I got a guitar, that acoustic guitar.
My mom bought my acoustic guitar and she said, well,
all right, you want to do this, and let me
see what you can do and what I had learned
by playing the cello, I took that to the guitar

(27:42):
and it made my guitar life so much more easy
because I understood, I understood the strings, I understood the tunings,
I understood the sounds. I understood so much more because
I had been studying music Trama was six seven eight,

(28:02):
coming right up, so I had, you know, I had
that behind me. So when when I you know, when
I started out with the other cats, I was thirteen
the other night otherwise in a gooper, older than me,
but I was saying more, you know, more accomplished than

(28:26):
them because my mom had got me into music from
I was seven eight, you know, so I had I
had a lot more experience and a lot more physically.
It's riskally experience, you know, because some of them didn't
have the opportunity to go to music school like I did,

(28:49):
right right, right, So you know it's it's kind of
that's kind of important. So you know, I mean my
advice would be like, if you have a chance to
go to a music school direct to have music lessons
and stuff, and you really want to do music, you
need to do that because that's gonna. That's going to

(29:12):
really help you to position yourself. And once you start
understand you, First of all, you have to have some
kind of talent. You have to be able to count,
and you have to be able to hear, you know,
some stuff like that. But once that's there, then trust me,

(29:32):
the most important thing you need is guidance and people
to show you. You know, watch no, don't rush yourself,
do this, do that, do the other you know.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
And I think that's I'm kind of with Shy on
this because I think that was always the hardest part
for me. Like I loved playing the piano, and I
would I would have lessons with uncle Leslie Leslie Butler,
and I just I was like him and that I
wanted to play like Stevie Wonder imediately. So I think
that's important for you to say that if you want
to learn something, you do have to get that knowledge

(30:07):
and have that baseline. You can't just you know, wake
up and start playing. You have to get that education.
I think that's really important.

Speaker 5 (30:16):
Well, you have good ambition, imagine that immediately.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
That's what I wanted to sound nice.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
That's the best I ever saw.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
So as Reggae continues, to evolve globally, What do you
hope the next generation understands about the roots, about where
the music comes from and what it truly stands for.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Well, it's kind of a difficult question because a lot
of the client generation they don't really you know, they
come up and they am and they're just going to
kind of like this new thing where they make beats
and they do you know, stuff like that and blah

(31:12):
blah blah and stuff. So for me, I am not
quite sure. But for those who want to continue the
reggae side of things, I'm not talking dancer un necessarily, know,
but however, I have heard some dancer stuff that's absolutely incredible.

(31:34):
And yeah, and I've been listening to some Soca and
they're they're on their game. Trust me. Their musical ability
is amazing, their hands amazing, They're they're singing is amazing.
You know. Some of the stuff is repetitive and another that,

(31:57):
but that doesn't matter to me. I mean, I just
think that the Trinitians, for me, I've always been really
really good at music, and I really have to give
them respect, you know. But for for us, I just

(32:17):
I just hope that well, I don't think we have
one problem because the kids nowadays, they can go from
one drop to dancehound in a second. Other than can
do everything. They can do everything. You know, they're very bright,
they're very right at what they do. So I think

(32:39):
it's more it's more a situational It's not some more
what it's that so much about what Kat thinks. It's
more about what devolops. You know.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
Okay, Yeah, that makes sense. And it's funny because you
brought up Stephen McGregor, and I think you can tell
he kind of has that foundation, like musical foundation, because
even the.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
Things that.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
It's just so I mean, I'm like speechless, like also
of this world. It's not the basic you know, drum
machine kind of thing. Like he really listens to sound
and I think he's such a good example of bridging
the two reggae and dance hall but kind of making
it have that roots element.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
Yeah, well look at Steven and Damien. Yeah, come on,
yeah to draw come on to that mix anything they mixed,
anything they produce, anything from a ballad to the rise dance.
I thing that's so true. Yeah, they have so much knowledge.

(33:43):
It's really because it's spent so much time to you know,
you know what I'm saying. They're always They're always in
the studio. Yes, they spent so much time on it.
You know what I mean. We're gonna high work gets
ready to pay up. You know, there's nothing like it?

Speaker 1 (34:05):
All right, tok okat. So for our final segment, before
I do my thank you, I'm going to ask you
a few rapid fire questions and I would like for
you to answer with the first thing that comes to mind. Okay,
all right, all right? What is the first song you
ever learned to play on the guitar or the cello?

Speaker 2 (34:26):
On the cello? So the first real thing was the Swan?
Oh answer? I think my first of a real guitar
achievement was Black Magic Woman Santana.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
Oh nice, very nice? Okay. What is a reggae album
that's not Third World album that changed your life?

Speaker 2 (34:53):
As its Probablution by Stevepods?

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Ah nice? What is one Jamaican dish that reminds you
of home?

Speaker 2 (35:03):
Oh? There's so many.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
I was about to say one might be hard.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
Well, there's so many, but.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
It's okay. With White Rice or Rice and.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Peace White Rice.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
I'm just just checking, just have to check that's the
right answer, what is a city that feels like a second.

Speaker 5 (35:31):
Home to you?

Speaker 1 (35:33):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (35:34):
New York, New York.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
Nice? If you could collaborate with any artist past or present,
who would it be?

Speaker 2 (35:42):
Uh? Steve do Wanda again again?

Speaker 1 (35:48):
I was about to say, you guys already collaborated with him, right.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
But yeah, but I don't think. I don't think I've
ever been able to beat that, So let me go
with him.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Okay, nice? Nice, and last but not least, when you
look back at your journey, what do you hope that
music says about the man behind it?

Speaker 2 (36:09):
Well, music speaks for itself, you know, so I don't
think I can speak for music. Music speaks for itself.
So it's tub be funny for me to give you
an answer that really would make sense at this time.
I mean, I'm I'm just hoping that the journey and

(36:32):
the music speaks for itself. And you know, that's really
more important than even than even the conversation we're having.
Music is way more important than you are. I be guys,
it's going to live much longer than me and longer
than you talk. So that's true.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
That's just well, let me ask you this. Then you
started playing music from such an early age, and as
you said earlier, you could have never imagined you'd be
where you are today. So what would you tell that
little boy, little Stephen, after you've experienced so much and
have accomplished so much, what would you say to him

(37:13):
in this era of your life?

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Everybody asked me, everybody's interview asked the same question, And really,
I don't know. I don't have a heerent answer, because
what I'm going to say, the best I can say is,
if you want to do music, work hard. If you
want to play football, work hard. If you want to

(37:37):
run on a track like Shelley and work hard, that's
basically it. I mean to be dedicated, dedicate, dedication and
hard work brings success in any field.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
A very true, very.

Speaker 5 (37:55):
True, Very love that.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
Okay, perfect, Okay, So for this segment, it's kind of
my thing. I just like to do a little thank you,
so uncle kat you are to me, in every sense,
an uptone rebel, a man who carries rebellion in your
spirit and purpose in every note that you play. Hearing
your story today, you've proven that rebellion is not always loud,

(38:21):
as some persons might think. Sometimes it's a quiet defiance
of doing things differently, of fusing reggae with bach, or
playing cello on a reggae stage, or insisting that artistry
and intellect belong in the same breath. And I think
you've reminded us that Jamaica's brilliance has always been its

(38:43):
ability to stretch, to blend, to expand the boundaries of
what the world expects expects from us as Jamaican's and
the world knows you as a founding member of Third
World and a legend. However, after listening to your story,
it's clear to me that your true legacy lies in
how you've carried culture with both discipline and tenderness. I

(39:08):
think you've built bridges between genres, between generations, between Kingston
and the concert hall, if you will, and you've done
so beautifully. So from all of us who have listened,
learned and lived through your music, thank you. Thank you
for being both a master and a messenger, and thank

(39:29):
you for coming to talk the things with me and
for showing us that rebellion can be graceful and elegance
can still carry fire. So yeah, thank you for coming
to speak with me. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
Thank you so much for having me we had a
great conversation, so.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Yes, definitely, thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
Uncle Katucky, and I wish you all the best. Thanks
for having me