Smokey Robinson

music lovers take him for granted. This week, on February nineteenth, twenty twenty five, he'll be turning eighty five years old, and because he's been around as long as he has, performing year round, still putting out albums, I think maybe we're prone to forget just how monumental he is to music. With that in mind, and with Smokey preparing to head out for another run on the road, including a three night engagement at the Venetian in Las Vegas, we sat

down for a conversation about his life and legacy. Hopefully it'll be the first many conversations we have on broken record with the great Smokey Robinson. This is broken record liner notes to the digital age. I'm Justin Mitchell. Here's my conversation with Smokey Robinson. To see the video version of this episode, visit YouTube dot com slash Broken Record podcast. So happy to hear you have a Cadillac, because it's like, whenever I go to Detroit, Man, that's the most beautiful thing.

I go to Detroit and you're like, yeah, I'm here because everyone's got you know, it's Cadillac. It's uh.

seen thousands of people come through show business. Man, I've been doing this forever and they get hit record or something like that, and they think, oh gosh, the world cannot possibly do without me. Now they know me, So I'm in You know, that's a bad mistake, man. You know, I tell them all the time. If you think he can sing, let me take you to my church on Sunday and let you hear your sister Ada Maybell. You

know what I'm saying. So it's just, you know, you have to you have to recognize the source and and and and what allows me to do this. And I you know, I just thank God has blessed me to do it. And so that's how I feel about it.

I mean, except for her and Diana, you know. And so so I grew up with these people, and uh, the the the We had a lot of talented people around there, you know. But I believe that in every big city, in every town, every little village anywhere in the world, radio wise, with the amount of people that they're that might be that same amount of people ratio wise.

We had Barry Gordy, you know what I mean. We had a young man who had a dream, who about eight hundred dollars from his family to start what became Motown internationally, you know what I mean. So that's a special man, you know. And he was our teacher, he was our groomer, you know. And when I met him, he was just a songwriter and a record producer in Detroit. He was a young man and I met him quite by chance. I tell everybody it was a god day.

Because the miracles and I we weren't called the miracles at that time. We would call the matadors. But one of our members when we graduated from high school, had had his parents to sign for him to go to the Army because he wanted to go down because we weren't doing anything as a group. So his sister was in a sister group to our group in Detroit. And so when we went for the art one of the members of our group, a guy named Ron White, had

a cousin who told us that Jackie Wilson's managers. Now, as a kid growing up, man Jackie Wilson was my number one singing idol okay, and he was from Detroit, and he was just a man. He was just you know. And so we had an audition with his managers and we go to audition for them, and rather than singing songs that were currently popular by other artists, we sang five songs that I had written. I've been writing songs

since I was in elementary school or trying anyway. And so there was a young man sitting over in the corner, and see, I'm sixteen, and he looked like he was no more than nineteen or twenty, you know, And I'm thinking that he's waiting to audition after we finish. However, he's listening to us very carefully, you know, and he's just sitting in the corner listening. And so when we got through singing these songs, Jackie Wilson's A and R man who had been there listening to us, said, well, man,

he said, you guys like the Platters. You know, the Platters were the number one group in the world at the time, and they had Zola the girls in the group, and Tony sang high. He said, you got the same format you singing Hi and the girls in the group. He said, we don't need another Platters man, and you guys are not going to overtake the Platters, So I'm sorry,

we can't use you. So we're dejected and we go out and we you know, the young man who was sitting over in the corner comes out behind est. He says, hey, man, wait a minute. So I said yeah. He said, where'd you get some songs from that you sing? So I'm wondering, why is he asking me that, you know, I said, I wrote them. He said you wrote all those songs. I said yeah. He said, well, I liked a couple of your songs. Man, something to myself. I'm being polite.

I'm saying, well, thank you very much man, you know, but I'm ready to go because you know so, so he said, I like to cover your song, you know. And I'm thinking to myself, maybe he wants to use my songs audition with it, you know. So he said, Now, when I buy records, and I still do that today, Man, when I buy records, I want to know who composed the music, who wrote the song. If it's just an instrumental, who composed this music? I want to know that because

I like checking up on writers, you know. So now I got all of Jackie Wilson's records, you know, and so he said, yeah, he said, I'm Barry Gordy. What you are Barry Gordy who writes all those sits for Jackie Wilson and all that, Yeah, and some songs edit, James, You're that Barry Gordy And he said yeah. I said, I got all your music, man. He said, well it's good. You got good taste, he said, but I like to couple your songs. He said, you got any more songs?

He shouldn't have said that, because I had a loosely notebook, man, with about one hundred songs that I've been writing to elementary school, you know. So he takes me in this little room and he says, sing some of your songs from me. I like the sound of your voice. I said, okay. So I sang about twenty songs a rare that day, man, And I loved him because he never once said, okay, man, I'm tired, I heard enough, or I got the gold, I got a poet. He never said that. He just listened,

and every song he critiqued it. Because I've always been able to rhyme stuff. I've always been able to. I used to write poems as a child, and I've always been able to rhyme stuff. But my songs at that time, man, I only had two songs. The two did like that made sense, you know what I mean. They were all rhymed up, really good, but they didn't make sense, you know, because the first verse had nothing to do with the second verse. You know. First verse is, oh, my love,

I love you so much. It's so glad to have you here in my arms and holding you like this, and we should never part and all that, and it's all rhymed up, you know. Second verse is, oh baby, where are you? I haven't seen you in ten years and I need you back bad. But it's all rhymed up. But he got nothing to do with the bird first, you know. So after a while he pointed that out to me. He said, hey man, he said, let me

tell you something. He said, the song has got to be like a short book or a short movie or short story where the beginning, in the middle and the ending tie in together and they you know, they go together, you know. He say, your song is just rambling, he said, But I want you to listen to radio and see what's happening, you know, and see how songs are. You know, he said, because you can rhyme really good, he said, but I want you to just see how songs go, you know. And he said, so do you guys have

a manager? So I said no, we want to manage. He said, well, I'm gonna manage you. And boy, that was just so I went out and we go out and I tell the group and everybody's all happy, he's gonna manage this and all that. So I go on and I started listening to the radio, like he said, to find out how songs go. The the continuity and now they tie in together and all that. So I could learn how to write like that. He started to mentor me on my songwriter and everything, and so there

was no more At the time. I wrote a song called got a Job in answer to a group called the Silhouettes. They had a song called get a Job, which was the number one record in the world at that time, you know. So they're on Dick Clark one day and they're getting a gold record from Dick Clark for get a Job. And I see them. I'm looking at it, and I'm thinking to myself, get a Job.

I'm gonna write got a Job. So I wrote the song got a Job, Man, and I went down to Barry's office where he was and interrupted him in a meeting, all that I got it, man, I got it, because he said, when you get it, come to me. So I said, I got it. I got it. So I sang it to him and he loved it, you know.

So he recorded us, and he put us on in records out of New York, you know, because there was no Motown, so we weren't in label out of New York, and Got a Job turned out to be like a hit for us, man, because there were three charts at the time, four actually, but the three that were the main charts were what they call the pop charts. Were all the white artists are on that chart, you know. And then they had the Rhythm and Blue chart, you know, we're all the black artists were. And then they had

the classical chart, you know. So anyway, got a Job goes to number five on the Rhythm of Blues chart, so we know, okay, this is a hit man, it's gotta be. So we had got a Job and another song which was the other side of got a Job, which is a song we had sung at that audition in a song called My Mama and told me that

was on the flip side of got a Job. And then we had another forty five with in Rerecords out of New York and a song called I Cry, a song called I Need some Money, not the one by Barret Strong art Strong was money That's what I want. But anyway, so we had those four sides with them.

Now we know got a Job. So he consists in the top five that those four sides with them, and come time to pay the royalties, which very still has this, but come time to pay the royalties, this guy sent us a check for foresights for the writing royalties, the producers royalties, the for the UH, the publishing royalties, and the group royalties. He sent us a check for those four sizes for three dollars and nineteen cents for you know.

So I guess that was the start that broke to camel's back for Barry because he started, he was really upse three dollar ninety cent. So he borrowed eight hundred dollars from his family and started Motown Man. And I think that was the straw that broke the camel's back that started him that wanted him to start his own record. Where I thank George Goldener for that, cause he's got all in records. So because that made Berry start Motown Man,

and UH liked, the rest is history. But I tell everybody was a godday because he didn't have to be there that day we went to audition man. He did not have to be there that day, or we didn't have to go on a day when he he was there just to turn in some new songs to Jackie Wilson. In fact, he had lonely tear drops with him that day, you know, t t to to turne into Jackie Wilson.

So he was just there for that purpose. But he didn't have to be there the day that we came, and we didn't have to go the day that he was gonna be there. Attorney knows himself. So I tell everybody was God date because it just started a new life for me, you know, yeah, yeah, meeting him like that by chance like that, and then for him to you know, take an interest in me and take an interest in our group, and then to start Moti home and you.

I mean, I'll never forget go with my wife about maybe five years maybe twenty nineteen to go see you at the Greek It was a little maybe was a year earlier, and I'll never forget you finished ooh baby baby. And I've i never seen an ovation that long or that people and I saw Barry Gordy was like, right over this way, I'm looking at Barry Gordon, I'm looking at you and I'm tripping out. I'm like, that's Barry Gordy, that's Smokey Robinson. You finished your baby, Baby, and it

was like a five minute standing over you. It's incredible. I mean to this day, still an incredible voice. But the writing talent that you had, you know, and then to be a producer too, you know, you had so much Like what what was it about music for you that made you want to have all of those pieces?

I hope that, you know, when I record it on myself or someone else, it's going to be a hit. But it might not be. But if it's a song, it's got a chance to live on for ten more years and somebody can pick it up and say, hey, I like this song and record it and it could be hit if it's a song. So I always go in with the idea that I'm going to write a song first. That's my first goal. Let me write a song before I ben going to the studio, and I'll get in the studio man, and change it, you know,

and change something. Because actually that's how I was raised. Barry, Like I said, bar Goodie is a wonderful teacher. Man. He taught us so well. We just had his ninety fifth birthday party, not to know, and all the artists who and all the writers and producers who are still alive were there and we got up and we talked about him, and they all said the same thing. He's a great teacher. He taught us, he groomed us, he you know, he did all those things for us and everything.

You know, it's a great thing to have a guy like him who has that interest in young people. But we had the opportunity to do our works and to go into the studio and record and and and to uh play off of each other. We were. He very created a sign that he had in the benning in the lobby of HISSEO says, competition breeds success. So he wanted us to compete with it that we were fierce competitors man against each other, because we had we had a policy in Motown whereas all the writers and all

the producers had access to all of the artists. It wasn't like you know, say, for instance, I got to hit record on the Temptations and automatically I was gonna get that next Temptation record because I had It wasn't like that, man. Everybody had access to all the artists, and if they liked your song, you were free to record it on them. And we had money morning meetings where only the producers and writers were allowed in. Nobody

else from the company was allowed in those meetings. And we sat there and we critiqued each other's music to try to make it better. Even though we were competing against each other, we were there trying. Man. I'll use this as an example. My biggest competition as a producer foreign artists was the Temptations against Norman Woodfield and barred strong. Norman Whitfield could be in the studio recording a song on the Temptation, and we hung out at Hitsfield.

how you doing now? We hung out every day almost We went to each other's homes. We had picnics, we had outings, We went to the movies together the guys. Nowadays or in the last few years, it had turned

to golf. But back in those days we bowld everybody bold and well, all the guys we bowled every But we did everything together, man, And it was just a wonderful, wonderful place to be, and especially being a kid growing up in Detroit and not thinking that any of this was ever going to be possible, you know, And to see all these people come along and be mentored by Barry Gordy into and to have but more time to become what it has become internationally is still unbelievable to me.

We still celebrate the Motown family because we were family. We weren't just a record company. We were family, man, and we had the Motown family. So, like I said, we were at his ninety fifth birthday party, man, and everybody got up and said basically the same things, how he was our mentor and our teacher, and he's still going strong. To man, he's ninety five, but he's only about sixty.

all did that for each other. I you know, when I look back, and it's kind of like unbelievable that we had that kind of relationship with each other and and all of us had it, and we, like I said, we were just a family. And that's rare.

out to be the Four Tops. And you knew if the Four Aims were coming the best you were going to get his second place, you know what I'm saying, because they were you know, so you knew that if they're coming, just shoot for second place the first place sided the question. But we had those battles like that, man, And so I had known Otis and Melbourne from that from before they came over. And when they came to

audition for us, man, everybody loved them. And then we signed them and they had to think of a name for themselves and they came up with the name of the Temptations, but very and I used to battle over who was gonna get the first record out on them. And I actually had the first record out on them, a song called I Want to Love I Can See, and I beat him out on that, you know. But you know, he did a lot of good records on them.

And at first when they came over, they had like three lead singers and everybody used Paul Williams, who who was the basically lead singer for them, you know. But Eddie Kendricks was in that group.

they were. And Melverne was way down on the bottom and Eddie was way up on the top and everybody was in between them, and they were just their harmony was I used to I used to call them five deacons because they had that gospel sound to me. You know, I call them five deacons. You know, this as our friendly thing. So I wanted to write something for them

where that harmony was displayed. Okay, so the miracle's not on the road and on the way back one day, you know, we there were three of us who drove, and so after we got about two hundred miles off from Detroit, it was my turn to drive again. So everybody else was asleep, and I'm driving the car and I'm thinking, what can I write for the Temptations that's

gonna display that harmony? And you know, it's like I said, I'm not a songwriter who needs to go to the mountains or to the desert for two months and isolated myself so that I can write and it just happens for me, man, and just have something. I'm in the car and I started to hum something that I thought would beat them singing. Got a smile so right, and I could hear them singing that, and so I started to write the way you do the things you do

in the car wow and got back man. And I told Barry, I said, man, I got a hit for the Temptations. I got it. He said, you got it, you got He said it is too late. I said, what you mean, I'm too late? He said, I already record a hit on them, and it's coming out next week. It's all pressed up. Everything is coming out next week. So I said, man, I say, you making a mistake. I said, I got a real hit for him. Me said, master real here too, Man, I say, so, we just

to have contests. Man. We would go out and stop cars in front of Hitzel, say hey, hey, you want to heed some new motile music that you never heard. Yeah, they come in. We give them a pencil, beats of paper and play five songs on right down to wats you like the best, or get the people from around the office and right down the world you like the best? You know? So I told him, I said, Man, I said, I'm telling you I got a real smash it for them.

He said, mine is a real smash hit. Man. I said, well, I tell you what, Man, give me two days to record my record. He said, okay, Man, if you think you that I'm gonna give you two days, man, he said, but I'm telling you you can't beat my record. Man. I said, okay, cool, So two days. I had two days to record the Way You Do Things You Do? And I did, and uh so we had this contest. We invited some people from off the streets. We invited some people from around in the officers, lectaires and people

like that, and uh we played these two records. They played his record first and everybody was jamming. Man, they oh, this is a great record. But it was a kind of slow move, but it was a great record. I think it was uh dream come true or something. I forgot the name of it. But anyway, I'm so I'm sitting there and I'm worried now because we got this one hundred dollars beat me and him, you know. And uh so then they put on the way you do the Things you do and it starts don dum to

don don to dunk. Everybody jumps up, starts dancing, and his record got one vote, never was his, you know. So I teach him about that all the time. He had one vote and never was his. So but that was what started the temptations to Roland, and I used Eddie Kendrick's voice to sing the basic lead for that song. So everybody at the company, all the writers and producers, they jumped on the Temptations bandwagon and they started using Eddie to sing everything. You know, Eddie was singing, Girl,

why you want to make Me blue? All your everybody was using Eddie then, you know, because so I said, Okay, that's cool with me because David and Paula in that group. So I'm gonna write something sweet for David brotherend to sing because David had a voice she had that he was like him him. I used to tell him in Teddy Pendergrad, y'all scared of chicks into loving you because well that voice like that. But they were really singing

and they could really sing, you know. So I knew that David was there, and I said, I'm gonna write something sweet for him to sing to the girls. And so I wrote My Girl for David to sing to the girls. I had no idea that My Girl was gonna do well. It has done. Man. My Girl for me as a songwriter has become like my international anthem

or something. We go. We're preparing an overseas jump now for June, but we go to places in Europe and all places where a lot of places they don't even speak English, man, And sixty percent of the people in that audience don't even speak English. Okay, but we play my Girl in our live concerts, and as soon as they hear boom boom boom, boom, boom boom, they know what's gonna happen. They sing it verbatim. They don't even

speak English and they sing it verbatim. So now I knew My Girl was a good song, I thought, But I had no idea there was gonna be what it is, you know. And so anyway I recorded My Girl with David and anybody the band ways David, but but that, but that's what That's how Barry and I started off competing for the Temptations, you know, and I beat it.

up a background vocal for them. I'm teaching the lead whatever I want to lead to learn and all, and They're over in the corner making a background as I'm showing the lead what he's doing, you know, And there are parts of my girl. Man, they're just as popular as a leader. Hey, hey, hey, and all this stuff like that. They So Temptation made up all that stuff, you know, talking about micro they made up all that.

I started to write for everyone. But he allowed me to produce the records. Eventually, thanked god, Stevie started producing it and Marvin started producing their own stuff, thank god. But you know, I was the first artist that was allowed to do that.

all that. But eventually Harvey came over to Motown, Man and he he married one of Barry's sisters, Gwynn, and he came over to Motown and he had you know, he had hired a new singer for the moon Glows because one of his guys had retired, and he hired Marvin Gay. Marmon Gay was from Washington, d C. So Harvey met him in d C. So he hired him to take the place of the guy who had left. And so we were having a Christmas party. We had them every year at Christmas, and all the artists came,

everybody was there. You made sure you weren't on the road at that time so you can come to the Christmas party because they were great. And so Harvey bought Marvin to the Christmas party and there's a we had him in the Hissfield building and down in the studio. People were all over the building, but down there everybody was hanging out, mostly down in the studio where the piano and the instruments and all that stuff like that. Had set up. So Marvin goes over to the piano

and he sits down and the party's going on. He starts to sing the Christmas song chest Nuts Roasty, and everybody starts listening to him and starts going over and surrounding the piano and he's playing and singing. He he could really sing, so uh we we we signed him up and he wanted to sing songs like that. His first song that we released on him was mister Sandman, Mister Samman, bring Me a Dream, because he wanted to sing that kind of stuff. Didn't do anything. Uh eventually, uh.

of stuff. So he and Marvin wrote this song called Stubborn cint of Fellow and recorded it. And that was when Marvin started to be Marvin Gaye and the rest.

a so and so happened. I said, okay, man, cool, you know, but I knew that when he got there and I showed him my song. I used to tell him all the time. He marvenized my songs because he do stuff vocally that I hadn't even thought of while I was writing it. You know, he just come in and just kill you know, marvinized my story. I didn't care if he was late, you know, but he could sing anything, man, one of the greatest voices of our time.

Like I said, everybody knew each other. Man, her and Marvin together, well, Marvin had his with all the girls at Motown, basically Kim Weston, Diana Ross, you know, Tam Dbrell, Valerie Simpson.

And I buried so many of them men, and it just it's a shake up, you know, Yeah, it's a shake up. Like I said, you know, I want to read the past. Man. You know, she was my longest friend. All the kids in our neighborhood, everybody was dead except for Diana. So now Diana, it's my longest friend.

I said, come on auditioning. So I auditioned them and Barry wouldn't let me sign them because they were still in school. They were still in high school. They were about to graduate, but they were still in high school. And he said, man, he said, you know, we already got Stevie. And when Stevie travels, he got to have tutors and on entourage and all the people because he have to do his homework on the road. And so I don't want to sign another person. Like that or

another group. So I had to wait till they graduated from high school to sign them. And they got signed and they became Dying Rolls and the Supremes.

I was making five dollars a week. I was, you know, working at Motown, making five hours a week. You know, I thought I was a man. Man, And I look back on that. That's funny. There's no way that one of my kids had come to me when they were nineteen and said, hey, Dad, I want to get married. And I was said, okay, all right, this is a good idea. Yeah, you know what I mean, man, But heck I did it. But I look back. We were

all kids, man, We were just kids. But it was a great place to be because it was all energy. And like I said, we were kids and we were young, and we all hung out together.

stuff together and stuff. So I knew them. And when they wanted to leave their current record company, I brought them in the Motown Chuck Jackson, you know, Ashraton Simpson, you know, and like I said, Diana Ross and I didn't bring the Temptations, but I knew them before they before they came over to audition. But yeah, yeah, a lot of people, man. And like I said, Ron White who was in the Miracles, brought Stevie also.

anything that gives me the same thing. I can't find. I've tried, man, I tried retirement one time. When very first moved Motown from Detroit to Last Angeles, I came out to Los Angeles kicking and screaming because I didn't think we should leave Detroit. I told Barry, Man, you know, this is our home, it is our roots. We started here, and you know, and we all grew up here, and you know, they even called Detroit Motown. Now you know,

So why are you moving to LA? He said, because LA is the entertainment capital of the world right now, which it was said. We're gonna go out there. We're gonna make some movies, do some TV specials. We're still gonna be a record company. I'm gonna leave a skeleton record thing here in Detroit, but our basic operation is gonna be in LA. But we can do entertainment things.

We're gonna become an entertainment company, ladies things, the Blues and you know, the Temptations, Diarroh specials and stuff like that. So we got into all that stuff, but I came out kicking the streaming man because I did not want to move to Los Angeles from Detroit. Eventually I was. I was glad that I did. But when I moved out to Los Angeles, I retired from the Miracles, and

I I told him before I was gonna retire. My first wife, Claudee, and I have been trying to have a baby, and when my first son was born, finally I wanted to spend time with him man And two years after he was bore, my daughter was born. So I wanted to spend time with my kids. Man and the miracles, and I had done everything that the group could possibly do two or three times. We've been all over the world, you know, and I was tired, man.

So I told them, I said I'm gonna retire. They laughed at me and oh yeah, yeah, okay, cool man, you're gonna retire. That's good man. So then we were having a Christmas party. Man. And this was in nineteen sixty seven. We're having this Christmas party and Stevie comes in and he comes to me. He says, smoke, he said, Man, I I recorded this musical track, man, he said. It's the bomb. He said, but I can't think of a song to go with this. Man. I want you to

listen and see what you can come up with. So I said, okay, man, I give it to me. So he gave it to me. I took it home. I put your tape on and it started off bom bom bomp. Duh dun dun dun dunt.

Now to this day, while I'm talking to you right now, I don't know if Poliacchi was real or just mythical. But I thought about that and I said, I'm gonna write this song about Polyiachi, but I'm gonna make it personal because Palliacchi was the Italian clown that was the star of the circus when he when the circus came to town, people came to see Poliachi, mainly the animals and all this stuff that was secondary to Poliachi. Paiacchi.

They loved him. They cheered him. They more and more they cheered him, and then he would go back to his dressing room and he would cry because he didn't have that kind of adulation from a woman, from a personal woman. He would cry about it. You know, So someone right this about Payachi. Some are right. So that's

where Tears of a Clown came from. So Cheers of a Clown comes out on an album in nineteen sixty seven, in nineteen seventy, a girl who worked for Motown in England was in the office and she was playing that album in the office and a guy who ran our office over there was a guy named Peter. So Peter comes by get the story and he says, what's that you're listening to? She said, Peter, we should release this record over here because this is a hit, so we

should release it over here. I don't care what they're doing in the States. We should release this over here. So they put Tears of a Clown out in the UK number one. Motown ain't never had number one record in the UK ever yet until that point, you know, and then it starts to blossom all over Europe. So I had another record ready to come to go in the in the United States here, so I said, I told barrass I got to say. He said, no, no, no, man,

we put out Tears for Clown. So we put out Terms with Cloud here in the States and Chisser Clown to this moment, it's the biggest single record that I've ever been associated with in my life. Really, okay, yeah, Chisser Clown's I mean, you know, it's just so all over the world, just as that was out, and so the guys came to me and say, man, you can't retire now because tis the clown's out and it's the big suit we ever had, so my money's gonna go

up and all that stuff, which it did. So I said, okay, man, I'm gona give you another year. So I did. I gave and I said, but I want you all to start looking for people because I'm retiring and I don't have to. I don't have to help you look for somebody to replace me because I'm not gonna be there and y'all got to live with whoever this is, it's gonna come in, you know. So they look for guys all over the country and they finally found a guy

named Bill Griffin in Baltimore. So for the last few months, about four or five months of my touring with the Miracles, Bill traveled with us to see the show and to learn it and blah blah blah blah blah. So So then I retired and I moved out to Los Angeles. And I moved out to Los Angeles, and when I lived in Detroit, my vice president your office was to induct new talent. And I love that cause I saw talent all over the world and go to New York. I say, okay, you can come wheel auditions you So

I loved doing that, you know. So we moved out to Los Angeles and uh, I get out and Barry says, hey, man, he says, you're my best friend. He says, So I'm gonna change your office function. I said, okay, man, what do you want me to do? He said, uh, I'm gonna make you the financial office. You gonna sign all the payroll checks. All the checks that come into the company are gonna come through you, except for the payment for the records. So that's what you're gonna do. So

I said, okay, man. So I'm ready for that. Man, I'm ready for change. I'm not gonna be on stage. And my thought at that point was to never ever be on stage again in my life. I was never going to record myself again. I might record some other people and do some other songs and some other artists and stuff like that. I wanted to do that, but not for me. I'm gonna be at home with my kids and my wife, and I'm gonna do my vice presidential thing here at the office, and I'm gonna sign

these checks. So when I started to do that, my name is William Robinson Junior. Okay, after my dad and I was signing in the checks, William Robinson Junior, William Robinson Junior. And after I had signed about a thousand checksmen, I said, this is not going to work. So you see my signature. Now, my signature is the room. It's just like that. I had to change it at the banks and everywhere, man, because you know when you're signing

like that. So in the first couple of years, man, I was in vice presidential heaven, and then also my job, he would have me to go to New York and make deals with publishing companies, and do you know I got I was in vice presidential heaven. But then I started to hurt inside. I started to hurt inside. I was missing something, and so it got to the point whereas after about two and a half years, I was miserable. My insights were miserable. But I'm smiling on outside. It's

like tracking my tears and stuff like that. I'm smiling on U because I don't want Barr to think, Okay, I can't handle this. I let him down. I don't want claud it to think. Okay, I don't want to be at home with her the kids. So I'm just miserable. Man, And I am so miserable. Man, I go in. So one day, after about three years, Man Barry came to my office. He say, Man, I want you to do something for me. I said, okay, Man, what you want me to do? He said, uh, sit down for saying,

let's talk. I want you. I need to do something for me. Something. He's gonna tell me some corporate I gotta have a meeting with so ands on stay sets, I got to go to this place and so he said, I need to do something. I said, what do you need me to do? Man? He said, I don't. I can't use profanity on this interview. I can. I can say verbat him, what do you say? Okay verbatim? So he sat down. He said, I want you to get yourself a band and going to the studio make a record.

I want you to get the fuck out of here. I said, what did you say to me?

was my best friend peeping me. Man, Wow, he peeped me, he saw.

working on that. When I took it to her and I say, baby, finish this song up, because this is gonna be the title cut for my So she finish up, and I recorded it and recorded a Quiet Storm, and it was my debut back into show business, and it became something that I had no inkling that it was going to become.

Now I'm not thinking that this is going to happen, man, you know, I'm just writing a song to come back into show business. But it has become a radio format. And this year we're celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the debut of A Quiet Storm. Wow, and our tour this year is going to be called the Quiet Storm Tour Beautiful.

You meet Barry Gordy, and then you this whole company gets created around it, this whole ecosystem that lifts up you and Barry and so many other people, and then it's I want to get back into show business, you right, A Quiet Storm, which not only is like an incredible entree back into show business, but creates this whole other radio format, Like you're saying, almost the whole of the genre within R and B music for other people that people realize that, oh I like this vibe, And there's

compilation see these now there quiet storm and you know, it's just so this that sort of knack in your life of these sort of things that are it's it's almost like, you know, similar maybe to like what's going on the way Marvin exists. It's a it's a it's a thing that was probably very personal to him, Yeah, but just resonates out so widely that it's just, you know, it's so that's it. Whatever was happening with you guys at Motown and Detroit. Even Aretha, who wasn't part of Motown but just.

I think I've ever seen a singer do. We were having the Grammys one year, and I forgot what year it was, but Aretha was going to get something there, you know, And so Pavaratti was supposed to come and sing this song in Italian and he was going to be on the Grammys, and he got sick, and the producer came to a Reatha and say, hey, Aretha, Papa Latti is sick. We need somebody to sing this song.

Aretha goes and takes the song and listens to Paparadatti singing in the dressing room and learns it in the dressing room in the dressing room and sings it.

Here's this little dude. Man, he's about this toy. He's ten years old, and that day I dubbed him James Wilson because he was a cross between James Brown and Jackie Wilson at ten years old, I mean, dancing his little ass off, you know, and singing and just a bundle of talent. Always thought his life was so paradoxical because when he was a kid, he was a man, and when he was a man, he was a kid, you know. But he was just dynamic and people said, well,

what do you remember? I remember that. And then Bobby Taylor and I he used to pretty golf together all the time, you know, So we started taking Michael to the golf course with He'd be on the cart wood us. Michael didn't had never even seen a golf club. The first time he went out the Woodson, he's telling us how to play golf. You know. Love that. You know you're in a badge of you Why you hit your ball over there like that you're supposed to hit the ball. But he was a cute little guy. But I love

that memory. But yeah, he was. He changed the face of show business. Michael Jackson changed the look of show business. You know, I look at him, and I look at he was such a bundle of talent. Like I said, Michael watched everybody. We'd be doing those shows, and Michael be standing in the wings and he watched everybody. He idolized the dancing and the stuff of Jackie Wilson and Fred Astaire and James Brown and those people like that,

and he worked his dancing skills like that. You know, Like I said, I could even understand him doing James Brown and Jackie Wilson. But Fred Astaire, the Nicholas Brothers, how do you even know about them? You know what I mean? When Michael did the moonwalk on the on the on the on the Motown twenty fifth anniversaries and people saying to do it, Oh, it's a fantastic mikeel got the moonwalk from the Nicholas Brothers. Was a movie called Stormy Weatherable. You know, they did that in Stormy

Weather back. Lena Horn was the star of that movie. So you know how long ago they were nineteen twenty something they're doing the moonwalk, you know. But yeah, but Michael was just an incredible talent man, And like I said, he'd be dancing with those he'd have fifteen dancers who had been dancing since they were five years old. There was their profession. They're professional dancers and they're dancing alongside of him, and he's out dancing all of them. It's incredible. Oh man, incredible.

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