The Avila Brothers

R and B Money.

We are.

Thanks take Vloti. We are the authority on all things R and B ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tank. This mm hmm. This is the R and B Money Podcast.

The authority on all things R and B all all inclusive.

R and B is worldwide.

Mm hmmm.

Uh that's why they stay. They basically gotta lookt their name.

Man, that says today is Usher Janet see Billy Race.

It's not a kid almost blind tall, make some noise.

I need that audio clip after. By the way, your Spanish is better than ours.

Bro. Listen, bro, thank you man, Thank you man.

We we do this in passing, but you know, to actually, you know, get into space and sit down man and have these cool conversations.

This man, this is laid out off.

Man.

I feel like I'm at the crib.

Man.

I have to dress it up like I was kind of rich too, was.

Coming what I'm saying, Yeah, Man, thank you man. We can't thank you enough man for giving us your time.

Man. It's beautiful and.

You we have so much ground to cover man with you guys, it's been thirty plus years.

Of success. Ship exactly.

Tomato can man.

What like where do we start, Valentine, like, what where do we go? Man?

I think we I think we go to I think we probably start with popstart where it starts. I mean, man like, y'all gotta y'all gotta give us, give us, give us the lay of the lamb. Man about how this thing works and how you know, two Latin brothers get into this R and B thing, and and just you know, the journey and the challenges of you know what I mean, because it's not like y'all were making Spanish music or Latin music, or y'all was making R and B music.

That was what was in the house.

Yeah, start there, we'll talk about the house. Give me the house. You know.

Pops was the interest thing with pas Man is you know, he was a musician, played keys, and.

You know he was he.

Was a mediocre player, but he was the guy that had the equipment, He had the gigs, he had the relationships. So he knew that he can put himself and dress himself up around great musicians because they all needed the gig, right.

So he was that dude.

He was like, I'm gonna be in the band. Y'all would be great, but I'm gonna have the relationships. I'm gonna have the gigs, I'm gonna have the work, and that's what it was. And so we were always around musicians in the crib, and you know, it was black music twenty four to seven in our crib. There wasn't anything else. It was earth Wind and Fire, Chaka Khan, it was Donnie, it was every.

All of that.

So that's what that's what we inherited. You know that that became a part of our DNA. And you know as kids, you know, they would rehearse it in the garage, and our rooms are right next to the garage, and so like, you know, we're trying to go to Bedford sleep man, we can't sleep there.

And there jamming.

So Pos would have us go in the garage and just naturally he go sit by the keyboard player and I go sit.

By the drummer. And that was like.

Kind of how it got going. For every night, Yeah, every night them rehearsal. My dad would sneak us into their clubs at the gig and he'd make us, he'd make us get up there and play on their break.

Get your ass you'll play, you know, So you know, he just he had a vision.

Man, he saw something that he wanted to instill in us and just push at all costs, you know. And he was crazy and he was crazy as hell, and you know he had a man. He had an extreme tough life. I mean we talk about this, you know, from time to time, like the deck of cards he was dealt. He did the best he could. It's like he had the right intentions but just did it the wrong way. But I'm forty five now and I could look back and say, you know what, Pops, however you

Without music in our lives, of course, you know.

So there's a call, there's a there's something to be said about that type of iron fist that that exists at that time, in that era, because now you see, you see like a lack of it, and we nurture in punks, now, you know what I'm saying. So there's something to be said about that dynamic man. And that's I think his heart upbringing is what allowed us to weather the many storms.

That we were going to get ready to compass through our journey.

It takes crazy, you gotta be crazy.

It takes crazy to make it in this thing.

It really does, man, because there is there's no truly, there's no real formal anything, and we're grabbing things out of the air that we hope that someone else likes.

Yes, you know, well, you know we talk about like you can't just wake up and say I'm a doctor at all.

You have to have a degree.

Yes, for some reason in our craft, you could just wake up like I'm a producer.

I got this laptop, my.

Record labels up.

You know, I didn't make the NFL.

It's like we talked like, you know, no, you're not a producer, you know, a reducer, like learn your craft and the thing is in the game, you know, the last thing you did get you to the you know yours, yours only as good as your last Yeah, yeah, so but how to you even get there?

But I think to looking at you know, my dad's appetite for having this vision that he had with his kids, you know, and pushing especially Bob, pushing Bob to where you know, Bob's twelve years old and you know, get signed to RCA. You know, it's just that was through my pops, just the way he was chiseling that rock.

There was no over Pops.

We just want to go outside and hang with with the fellas, play some street football. No no, no, no, no, that's it. Don't mean done here. You get in there and and you practice, and you work and you work and you work, and so you know that that's that mentality is what has really throughout the years kept us locked in and kept our eye on the prize, you know, because I just you know, where were kids at?

Man, It's like, where were you?

We don't real to like location, yeah, real to California.

So it's like because I'm just like listening to the parallel between y'all.

This guy like Bobby was Rome, this one was Spanish.

Yeah, same mentality, but had that drive and that hunger in that obsession.

Yeah, it's like that, you know, it just drove greatness. And it's like my dad had such an appetite to be that guy. It's like I'm gonna, I'm gonna make them do it, and I'm gonna I'm gonna live through them. And that's you know, that's that generation's mentality, like at.

All costs if it don't have it for me, and nothing else matters, you know, And that was the thing I think too with him because my pops he you know, he didn't get to have a childhood, you know, so here we are trying to trying to help him understand how how much we would just want to be kids too sometimes.

And he was like no.

Closet, you know. He was relentless.

Yeah, I mean, and you know, nothing was shaken his direction of what he had in mind for his kids.

You know. Yeah.

And I think to one essential component to us was my dad's like best friend and he came from Andre Crouching the Disciples. His name was James Felix, and he too was Mexican and he was from our area.

Man, the illness Mexican was so you'll ever.

Hear crazy.

His voice and he was he was.

A bass player for damn there, Donnie, Like wow, like that heart, that vibrato, all of that that just that gear and so like they were listening to Steely Dan, total total bunch of fusion Weather Report. So we were growing up to like this is another day, well done, we expect you. So all of that music naturally just came to us in our spirit. So anything we touched

So I was like running sub twelve hundred.

We got we got videos.

We got videos of Bobby when he was like five and he's literally playing like chick corea. You know that that's how, that's how, that's how intense it was in our household with just being around great musicians. You know, it's like that's what we got to absorb. You know, when you're little man, you absorb things like this.

For some strange.

Reason really because you don't have nothing else.

Yeah, you know what I'm saying.

It's like it's like you're you're you're an open hard drive at that time, and you're just information is coming in and you're I mean, Bob was like a you know, he was a genius. You know, he was doing beta testing videos and then you know, I mean, god is deal.

You know, how do you get there?

Right?

Like I get you know, from the family band, your father being in the industry, and you guys being around all these musicians, But how do you get to the point where it's like, Okay, we've identified that we're going after a deal for Bobby.

Because that's that's literally what happens, you know.

Yeah, I mean my dad partnered up with the guy that he knew through my uncle, and this dude was like synonymous with like right and we wear short shorts. So my dad did a whole thing, like you know, and he was like, Oh, we're gonna we're gonna get him in a better studio.

We're gonna do X, Y and Z.

So at the time, he knew Jerome Gasper who was running A and M Records, and Jerome was didn't know if he was going to be there or not, but he said, look, I'll give you guys a time in Studio A and you guys know at A and M.

Come up with the demo.

So we did, and he ended up leaving and they brought in John McClain, so A and M was not an option. So I had this demo and it got in the hands of Skip Miller RCA Records, who ran Department Department, and then Zach Voss who ran Motown. So man, I'm like, first of all, I didn't even know what I was doing singing in the studio, but I you know, we and the I E we had a lot of talent, so a lot of the guys that played for like

I went to school.

My best friend asked me to walk home with him with this girl, which I never do. So we we were I'm walking with him and this dude who broke out of prison I found out later, goes and jams my boy up, hits me with a pistol, and he broke out of prison to see this girl.

Who was this girl?

He was a he was a young boy, like y'all yeah, and I'm like he was just on different type of time on the whole to so.

I'm thinking he's got a gun.

I'm never gonna make it with my dad and my mom to this, like to get introduced to RCA Records. I'll never forget it. I don't know how I got away. I don't even remember running. I just it was such a daze to me. And that night we end up driving to the Hilton to go meet all the executives and I'll see Kumo D. And I was like, Wow, that's wild Wall West, Kimo D.

That's how you like me?

Now, that's Teddy Riley And I was like a massive Teddy fan. So I was like it just became fun from that day on. Then we went to New York. It just was like it didn't feel like anything other than just I'm in music. I'm doing what I love and they're making it. They're making it work for me. And it was crazy.

That was that was like.

That was the real, Like, Okay, here comes this journey.

You know, wheel was up and yeah it started there.

Started there, and then you know, landed a tour with New Kids on the Block.

So you got records, Yeah, yeah, you got singles out, Yeah, singles out.

You're cooking.

I was cooking.

It was cooking with some gas and you're going on the road with New Kids on the Block.

The biggest group at the time. You know, I'm over here working out with the dance routines I got.

I'm working with all the cats in the streets, like, let's get this show right, because that's the beautiful show my dad see that. But that was the pedigree of our dad. He was like, you got to know how to talk in interviews and when you get on that stage, you got to light them up.

So all of that was just being dumped into us.

So you know, we had, you know, public enemy in the streets at the time, We had special and all the ship that was really popping and it was like, okay, how do we infuse this?

We got to put a show together.

We werehearsing in the backyard, like saying, you know all that classic just bringing it together and refining it.

Man.

So by the time we got on the New Kids block of the stage a New Kids tour.

We was whipping asked.

I got a question though, because I know what I got from your record deal. What did you get as far as like you personally?

Yeah, yeah, that was a big body.

You said it right.

Well, when I when I was eighteen I had a CD account.

No, no, no, let's go back to no Oka.

But it was.

Only nine thousand. So what I got was keep doing what you're doing, right.

But that's that's a good question.

That's a good question though, So let's let's talk about let's let's lift up the hood on that, all right. So there, you know, when you got a parent who's also managing, there's also a fine line between that as a parent and a manager. And nobody see, nobody teaches the game of how you're supposed to construct that cooglar. So yeah, so you just think, well, we're family, Okay, you're growing up. I'm taking care of you. It all just comes in and I'm gonna go get this new beamer.

It's and possibly and got himself a beamer, like let's be.

Free because I had a record. But check this out.

And then the parents rebuttal is, But.

We went on vacations.

We you know, we we did nice things.

It's like okay, but yeah, like I should be building up some kind of reservoir tank over here with just some brand in there.

So when I get to eighteen, I could go get.

It anything like, because I love gear.

Right, So if anything he gave me, he provided one of the studio so we got a console. You know, I was able to just be in the lab now. So he facilitated all that. So my thing was like, I don't pay no bills or not on my on my diab, I don't even know what they are. I got clothes, I got food, and now I'm the studios working and I'm working like NonStop, like Dan day out.

Girl, you're not in school anymore at this point. No, I'm from both of you homeschool now, both school.

And my pops was crazy, man, I mean he was.

It was toxic in the house.

And you know it's crazy crazy as crazy as crazy as he was. I mean, my pops snock dudes out. My dad is only five six.

Bro, I can see that, I understand.

But yeah, but when we were little, he was like he was a giant.

Yeah, listen, energy any anything under five sabbing type, right, It's not a type of survival in their minds. Absolutely like you get a little you get start getting over five. Now you start chilling a little bit, like okay, because because.

Of your science matters under five nine.

No, no, no, no, niggas.

Alone, they've already calculated their disadvantage long ago.

So they're going they walk around.

What I'm sick of this.

I wish he would.

They're going for to kill early. You.

You ain't gonna say no to me, dangerous.

You can't tea size, right, so the size is like yeah, yeah, here and that's his that was his wife, and he figured out the way how to create his concoction and pour all of that into us.

You know. So you.

New kids on the block.

Cheeks everywhere, guys cheeks everywhere, all of them, they all love all different.

Man, I see my baby and my my teddies light in the n PC and the s we twelve. I was so I was so there, like I didn't see anything else. So so here and here's I didn't. I couldn't say, bro, man.

To have he had first, he had had to have it.

I was talking to prostitutes on Broadway in New York like, and they would laugh at.

I was like, but yeah, he said, come here, what you need but you know, one of the gyms that my dad would always throw at us was, if you're ever going to be distracted, it's going to be through a woman.

Oh for sure, stay focused.

So the Empires built.

Yeah, so you know in a sense that that really kept us from going astray and wild'ing out.

You know, we just heads down, man, you know.

In the studio instead, you know, except when you was talking.

To the Yeah, you know, you know what I mean.

You know the game we signed so many titties on tour kids, how.

Many how many cities did you'll do that?

We went?

We ran through the states, every city and then the United States.

It was different.

It was different, like, you know, record reps would have me performing in nightclubs, nightclubs, and I'm like, now, I think about it because you know, my son is thirteen. H you they are trying to get some ass and comes up playing a keyboard that in here. Oh that's cute, and that's how they built. Oh he's brewing in Philly, but he's brewing in Houston's. And they go go to the record stores. You know, they're buying everything, like there's some sales there.

I never forget being in the hood.

And Nike drops off boxes for us, and we had like we're the only ones that had like the Nike sweatsuits, and we had Jay's, we had the ones and two's. As a kid, bro, you're saying, you know, yeah, they delivered us to like, you know, you.

Start experiencing the New York Nelson Man as you say that, Like New York Cus was one of my favorite Drakes Man case is like crates of that stuff.

Oh BK is coming out again.

Wow, yeah, finish.

It's like, hey, we made it right, we made.

So what were the what were the challenges though? It's being young.

Latin urban department.

Yeah, I think for Bobby at that time, it was always a challenge of how do we market this kid?

Right, who's Mexican, who's doing black music? What is he? Where does he go? Where do we put him in? What's familiar?

So you know, it was it was that was always a challenge, you know, just not knowing where to place that type of talent because.

Even though you know, like you said, you know, y'all rooted in R and B, but they put you out with new kids on the block, so they're already trying to figure it out. Yeah, It's not like we figured out a way to throw him, you know, get get him on a new addition tour.

Right exactly. Yeah.

Yeah, they were trying to figure out that that high rid because they always knew like the Latin space was going to be huge, that it was untapped in r c A, which I just found out.

I forgot they had a noodle.

I was about to say, you're just gonn dismonudo.

You know, don't be acting like didn't exist, right, I know, they laid some groundwork, they laid even.

Them like they hadn't broken into America.

But here, And that was a challenge because because they had laid the groundwork, it was like, well is he.

Comparable that do we fit them in a little bit in a.

Boxing You gotta look at Bob's first album cover in the back, He's literally ten keyboards around there.

I mean he was playing everything that like how do you how do we story.

You were talented.

Turkeys?

Like, oh man, we always have we have a romance. I love that, dude, you know, but yeah, that like those cats, So my grease came from a different space. So anytime it got pop or corny, I mean, it was like that ain't me. I'm listening to the Bomb Squad, Keith In Hey shot Lead and Premiere and Pete Q Harris, I'm listening to like yeah like that. So when I used to and mind you, RCA had their subsidiary or

And how old are you at this point?

I'm fourteen? Yeah, okay and fourteen years old. And so Terry is asking Brian about what when's it gonna be done? Then he hears it, He's like who's at And Brian's like, oh, this young kid, you know, mastered this other album back with RCA, but he's putting out something independent and he said he doesn't have a deal. He was like, no, well let me find out. So hey, guys, uh is this independent or is there a record company? Because I don't see a record company on them on the call sheet.

Machines on, those machines on.

And man, next thing you know, I'm in Minneapolis. Three weeks later New Journey and that that was where you know, perspective was burnt.

Wait over the phone, bro It starts with you fourteen years old.

Start starts with me at fourteen side of me as an artist.

Wow.

So then they signed me as an artist. I was all my Ryman shit. So Bobby was doing the production. I was on my rhyming shit, and Bob gave my demo to Jam and Jam has this term they call it drive off the Road music.

So he heard my stuff called and was like, Yo, this is drive off the road music.

Terry get get his brother to get his brother to Yeah.

Yeah.

So now I'm out there and it's you know, new journey man, whole new and how old are you with this time?

I'm he's twelve going on thirteen because I turned fifteen.

It's crazy, so this.

Is a young fellow.

But you know this, this was a crazy thing.

So you know, I fly out there to go start working on my solo record, and you know, you get the tours, Like Sounds of Blackness is rehearsing in the back, make conditions, coming in and out, just kind of checking on things. Steve Hodge, who make all of Jimmy and Terry stuff, just agreed to move out to Minneapolis to just mix in house. So I'm like, it's the fact that this is everybody that that I love, and you know, Johnny Gills on his way up, and I'm like, wow, okay.

I had no fear.

But it was like, you know, you think you're ready sometimes you know, like oh I got it, I got it, and a lot of times you aren't. And I think just the pressure that my pops always put on me, I just didn't have no fear. And it's like cool, it was part time. You gotta you gotta show up, fold or focus, and.

It was a different creative machine at fly Time. It was there was no looping or anything.

I mean, you came in there. They said the way we make records, you play from top to bottom.

You play from time, you play from top to bottom, and you play from top to bottom. And Terry had this, he had this thing where it's like no song should sound the same way it ends.

So his his thing was always dynamics.

Yeah, you know, and a lot of people don't realize, like when you listen to the Jam and Lewis records, when you hear those.

Turnarounds on the drums and stuff, that's.

All Jam doing it live. You know all that stuff. Man, it's like top to body.

That was at school.

Do your passive keys, to do your passive base, top to bomb, you do your turnaround drum fields.

Yeah, it was all talked about it. And the thing that they loved was I was self contained. So they were like stick Bobby and the studio see and I cooked and everything I would cook. It was like Okay, Terry come in, he'd write, and you know, I was getting coached vocally from you know, the guy and Terry.

Would spend like two hours on one line. That's how yeah he was.

He was relentless, you know, you do like a master's and a slave real and you had twenty four tracks to just do all these vocals and keep four and comp So after that it was like it was like, hey, we got a remix for more money soundtrack, you want to do it? I was like yeah, cool, And it was just we were and out on top of work in the record. So when I started doing that, I was like, tee, my brother, we got some crazy joints on him. So I gave it to jam and you

So is your dad with you?

With me?

And you know it?

Terry for me was incredible because I started living with Terry and he saw the friction. And Terry knew Crazy and he knew Karate, like he knew how that ship worked. And he was like, Pops, man, go cool. I would go see a movie. I got this all right, and what are you gonna tell?

Terry?

And you know, and you know that was the thing, right, he became the buffer. But he also understood my dad's component and he respected it.

Like and Terry would always say, like, you know, all always respected Dad because I get.

It, you know.

But you know, and I think when I got signed my joint end up coming out before Bobs and you know, now I'm running at the Gavin convention all that stuff. When that was around in the bay. You know, we put out the record. Next thing I know, Pete Rock's doing a remix.

So it was like and.

Crack, yeah it was.

And I think that's what made the relationship, you know, incredible with Terry because you know, I say this for anybody like I want you to know my truth.

My shit was nasty. You know.

My first picture was I had a cast on with Janet Jackson and jam and Lewis. My dad was crazy, right, So when I'm in the studio and I can't really write like I want to write that birth big gym.

Right mm, because I couldn't get in.

I couldn't do everything I wanted to do until my hand held because of Pops. So that birth big Jim as a songwriter producer, which ultimately went to I get so lonely that a lot of Adams opened my heart. So that opened up a door for him in the camp. So that's how crazy it was. And having Terry in our lives was like, that's how you know important it was.

Because I was already part of the writing and producing team.

No, I was just I was.

So you know, and then my joint started taking off and then out of nowhere, man, it came crumbling down because of my pops. You know, my apostles yelling at people at perspective and they just saw it, as you know, it was just a hindrance to to moving things forward.

And he's working on his album there and so.

It's one of my guys always tells my brother problem always tells me said, sometimes the juice is not worth the squeeze.

Man.

Oh that's a good one.

And honestly, man, that's a great way to put it, because that's exactly how it felt to me when it just came to a halt. I just said, okay, let me go on and let me let me take my ass to high school.

Let me be around some folks.

Let me you still that young?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I went to I went to ten.

Great.

It's when I went back to.

School in Minneapolis.

Back here in Cally came back. Yeah, yeah, to stop.

I was cool, man, And even at that time, I started to look at things with a different, different perspective. When it came to music in our family, I said, okay, we're paying the cost now to love this thing called music, because it's taking a toll on the family.

And I had no appetite for it.

Man.

I went back to school, Bob stayed a mini and Bob was faced with an ultimatum. Hey, Bob, it's either you're gonna stay here on perspective, or you go wrong with your pops.

That's how That's how much it was.

It was crazy.

I mean when Norman Winters, who likes synonymous as a publicist for Off the Wall, and Elton John You were in it too, it was like, you know, they had to fly me out by myself and so I'll never forget it. I was in the car with Terry and into the studio and he was like, hey, Bob, I know this is tough and I know it's crazy, but I can't deal with Pops right now, and you're going to have to figure out what you want to do.

I made the decision.

I was like at this time, six sixteen going on seventeen, and I was like, and like Terry said, you got to live there, boy, you gotta live there, so you gotta you have to be happy too, in whatever way that means to you.

So I was like, well, I'm off for perspective.

Then came home. Came home.

Yeah, so done and back to square one. Fellas that I just got.

That climate, back to scoring, back up again, back to square one.

Man, Yeah, it was crazy.

Man.

Do you go back to school, you go do the same thing too.

He stayed, He stayed on. It was independent studies. He graduated, but stayed back in the.

Garage, cooking, cooking.

Man, I'm at high school, and you know, I'm getting ready to finish high school.

Man, I go get me a job. I work at best Buy.

Yeah, yeah, TV get a couple of a couple of what was it.

I wasn't everybody?

Yeah? Yeah, we sold the hell at warranties. You know, you know.

So so, And that's you know, that's the thing, because we're.

Talking all walks of life, what we've experienced. You know, it was, you know, the road the road of like poke your chest out.

That's only been alive for us for like fifteen years, but the journey's been thirty years.

Right, So, and I think to just the being in the game, because we even didn't talk about like while I was cooking for him, I was, uh cooking for he started with me, Skilo. I wish it was a little bit tallerant I produced him like back when I was forty managed him, but that manage him. There was a girl Dominique. So I was like the guy like I was like Teddy Boyd. I was like cooking for everybody. So I had this, like all of this in me, and I'm going from deal to deal. It's like you

So we put a record out.

I did a remake of al Greens Let's Say Together, and we put it out independently, and we got a lot of love. Baker boys at the time were hot and power went those sins and those were our guys. So they got that record to number one. So I'm back in the Chi lit circuit or the burrito circuit. I'm like primetime now sometimes probably just I'm opening up for the same guys, you know, the Tony's and everybody you know.

And at one point, man, it was like.

I can't, I can't do this, Like I'm not loving it, but I still love it that I got to be alone. And we had somebody in the family that was like, man, you got to get out of here. You got to get out out of your house. You gotta there. There's God got something for you different, And man, God put

Come to the office.

And it just because I had nothing at that point, I was I had nine thousand dollars and I'm eighteen, and I left the house with no bitter heart. But just the one thing that I loved the most more than myself was music. So I gotta keep going for it, not to be popular, just to have a career and do what I love to do. So I had the mindset of like, well, go get the information. And Norman Winter's showed me a whole nother life of marketing, show me a whole another life of branding, and I was like,

Yah.

Where does it go from there?

Yeah?

Yeah, everybody goes, oh, I got to hit. No you don't.

They're going to tell you what you what you really have, you know. So I went on that journey and it was tough. Man, it was alone.

And then I finally left the crib.

Yeah, he left the crib.

I'm like, all right, bro, let's let's go, you know.

Let's start it up again. So then at that point it became I'm not going to be an artist. I'm gonna be that guy that Terry Lewis told me in that truck.

So let me ask you a question.

As you're deciding to leave the house in both situations, is that a conversation with your father?

Like, no, they're actually through fallouts like we were. Actually I remember it Claire's day. The day he left, we literally got done.

We were doing.

Grand Night at Disneyland. We were the band for Grand nighte Wow.

With this group.

With the group we started DW three, DW three we started.

So I'm literally leaving high school, like my dad's school, go do the gig, get home at like five am, go back to school the next day, Like that's the grind it was. And so I think it was on our last gig at Disneyland, we were in the car with my pops. Pops driving us home and Bobby was like, I'm done, I'm leaving, and man, that was the longest ride home.

It's not too far from at you could get there back home with like thirty minutes.

And it was like time stopped.

Man, how could you betray me that at all? This I put years? I mean, it was that classic oh shit, the lid just blew.

Out, right, So did you do this to me? After all week?

And that was the start of his exit and mine came shortly after. I would come home and I just hear my dad cursing my brother, like your brother's never And one day I just couldn't take it. And one I was like, man, how long are you going to talk about your son that way?

Like get over it, man, move on.

And I couldn't take it no more. And I had my blowout with him and I was like, bro, come pick me up.

I'm out.

Wow, And you know, just I couldn't take it anymore, man, you know, it was it became poison.

It became my dad was bitter.

My dad was, you know, telling people that you know, oh yeah, he left me with nothing, and you know, just the classic story, you know, and I'll never forget being on the phone with my pops at some point after that and him telling me, you know, yeah, whatever whatever you brought, whatever you and your brother.

Think you're gonna do, you're gonna fail without me. Just watch, just watch. And so you know, that became, you know, feel you know.

And what's crazy because we haven't we haven't said yet, but we're so close with our mom.

Our mom is like our rock to everything. And so because of the TERMO with my pops, I remember not.

Even coming around for at least a year or two because of my dad, and so for us to not see our mom like was crazy, you know, And I mean it was the air was stick for I want to say at least four to five years where we just couldn't we couldn't do it, you know, I couldn't do it, couldn't be around him, didn't want to see him, didn't want to hear from him. And you know it's like, well, you know, we can't use that as an excuse.

We got to get out here.

And and get it in the trench.

Yeah, don't get it in it. And you know, I graduate.

Once I graduated, I was doing these side gigs with an engineer. We had met during some of my sessions and his name was D Style, and D Style was working with a with a you know, a new artist at the time who was Macy Gray, and.

He would bring me in.

He would bring me in to do drums, you know, so I bring I have my little this kid that I still have had it since I was five year old, five years old, but it had a spirit on it, right.

It was all beat up, raggedy. I used to take it apart.

I used to try to get to sound like James Brown's drummer, and it just had a spirit. So D loved the way it sounded, and he loved that I played hip hop grooves. So he'd bring me in and I start doing these sessions for Macy, and one thing led to another.

She was like, you need to come out on the road with me.

And I was like, shit, I'm broke, let's go. You know, we had just got our apartments. I was like, bro, are.

Y'all still in the i Ea of the Yak We're still.

Yeah, because we the premise of being in the ie was I'm never going to lose myself in LA. This is too crazy, right, and and you know, Prince thought the same way about about Minneapolis. Why live in Minneapolis? And he would say, to keep all the band people away, you know. And that was the concept, to just protect.

Who you are.

It's home front, you know, you know, on all front. So we did everything in the IE. We built studios out there. Our partner our new partners were would come.

From the I E.

I graduated from.

You know, I think it was like, let's protect us here and then we'll go out to the world.

So y'all y'all doing all this from from from the Internet empire, all of it, And yeah, are you at this point just completely focusing on writing and producing?

We're focusing on We're focusing on it all.

Yeah, how can we get where can we get a check?

Where can we get a check? Partnerships, opportunities, music songs probably Okay.

So Is had went out with Mason Gray at that time. I had I was still on my you know, I had We had met Ice Teeth through a friend of ours, and so I ended up doing records for like, you know, for him, Spice One, the Loonies.

Yeah, you know, you had the alcoholics.

J Ross point, what are y'all charging a track man? Whatever?

We can get you know what, twenty five hundred five thousand we made it.

But you say almost like maybe you'll give it.

To Yeah, yeah, how much you want exactly?

Yes, exactly, And you know we hear the deals like, oh man, we got we got two hundred for this. I'd be like, damn, like really right because now you know, I'm understanding bills are always on time, and now they're like and now there is bills. So it gets a gig and it's like, hey, bro go do your thing.

This is the first time we're about to be apart apart like that.

So you're eighteen about to play drums around the.

World because global world.

Yea.

And for me it was like my first tour as a drummer.

Yeah, you know, having a tech, you know, because she had all the white folks, so she was she was different. It was you had a guy come up to you, sir, sir, how do.

You want your basic on your tech.

For you?

We'll get you.

I'll let you know when it's all together. The yeah.

And here's what's crazy.

It was crazy about that.

For some strange reason, prior to that opportunity, I had just got cases for all my I had a red Yamaha kid. So I had just got cases, and so my thing was like, okay, you know, if I get some.

Drum work, studio work, like that's bread for us.

You know, we just you know, we're pre smelling things, right, So you know I got that opportunity and that really being around the road, you know, I had, I had an NPC three thousand with me, and so I started this regiment. Every city I went to, I'd go to the local record store and I'd bring back vine back.

Then, yeah, you ain't got a chance.

What one?

Top five?

Your top five?

Yes, top five?

Your top five? Oh the singer.

Boun this be so.

Brown that yow be love bron Then this my brother.

Shop joke, go your.

Yeah, yeah, who's in your top?

Your time?

Okay, you got sexy?

Then ye.

Give it up.

Yeah that's easy for us, man. So let's see, are you guys gonna breaking and because.

We're like minded, man, you know we okay, you read the same thing.

Here we go, Here we go.

I'm gonna say five off top five.

Marve singers said you kick it off, Marvin kicking it off Marvin and Stevie.

Has Jesus Christ aggressive.

I gotta go with Donnie Hathaway m hmm and Felippe win.

Yo.

Now you gotta split one now Yeah, what's the sign means.

Bobby Carwell, ah.

Amazing.

What a voice, what a voice?

How long timeless.

And just how he moved with the chorus. Oh man, you know, what you Won't Do for Love was written for Earth with a Fire and they turned it down.

Immediately, right.

And what you're hearing is.

The actual that's the demo.

It's the demo.

He just gave me chills singing what you Won't Do for Love?

Wow, m h We don't hear them all. That's the one thing we got to talk about at some point. We don't hear them all. Okay, Top five R and B.

Songs Send one your love? Mhm, send one your love when doves cry?

Mm hmm.

He shoot, yeah, he can't load. Yeah, the cheek codes in his glasses.

Yeah yeah, y'all was first in text.

What's going across his RB song?

So I gotta you know for all we know?

Mm hmm.

Donny Hathaway, I love.

That patience on that record.

Yeah, just to be subtle on it. And I'd say the second song.

Mm hmmm.

Got answer my pants and I needed dance. James Brown, he wanted he was a James Brown. I'll take the fifth one. Hm, what's going on?

Ain't no argument here, classic song.

And here's what's when when you get into our cars. That's exactly what we listened to. Yeah, day in and day out.

Yeah yeah, knee deep deep James Taylor, you.

Gotta stay connected to that. You have it in your.

Yeah.

I would run another day to Mint Condition, Mint Factory. Oh man, I just I just had to have it. I had to get it in my body, just for a second when I hear so fine, you know what what is wrong?

I flew to Vegas last week, Right last week, I got a Ricky for my condition. Uh taged me on a post and I forgot to tell y'all this. But when it wasn't on for me, the fellas who really took care of me and were going to make me part of their production company and the artists, it was make condition. And the love that we have for each other and that relationship is it's like at the Crazy Bond. And they gave me the strength to keep going. And those brothers right there, not only are they so bad,

Those study material for me. Kerry Lewis Man so fon material.

Yes, all right, here we go making your perfect R and B singer, the one you're going to sign and sell one hundred million records with. Okay, called this the R and B voltron h. We want to know who you're going to get the vocal from for that artist, the performing style for that artist, the styling for that artist, and the heart of that artist, the passion. Who are you grabbing the vocal from for your artists. You can collaborate, you can talk about it.

You need to.

I would get I would get I would get a cop I would say Bobby. I would say Elder Barge. I would get Elder Barge for just the passion and the nuance, the vocal starting the vocal, just the vocal, oh vocal.

See I have and I have to think relevancy to write how that vocal fits in relevancy too, because that's part of our pedigree, his cloth, the DNA of where we're from, but also making sure that we're in the right frequency.

You can tell some people that got hit records, they start thinking of.

Formulas on the radio.

Formulas, Uh, vocally, Marvin Gaye, I rock with you on that.

Mm hmmm mm hmmm.

Gotta perform like Michael though.

Performance styles, So you canna give Marvin's voice and then perform style that would be unreal.

Yeah, and then what's the next You got to be able to play answer the styling.

Oh, the styling of the artists.

Look like we're gonna drip.

Like that's gonna sound a little crazy.

But you put that combination with with like a Rick James.

Yeah, yeah, I like that's.

What you all night.

Might show up in a leather We're in the game home last night.

Yeah, you wouldn't even talk to me.

We're crafting the superstar. So, yeah, a super superstar.

People don't give Rick his flowers. Man was a powerhouse. He was.

Oh Man, the monster musician, musician, the dread the lady.

And he could write a song and he's gonna write and produce it.

And he was disrespect and yeah, he was disruptive on.

Habitual line step Okay, all right. The passion of the artist, the heart of the artists. You kind of alluded to it before, but I don't know if you want to change that.

It's got to be Prince m Yeah, all or nothing.

I was just telling stories about that kind of off camera, about how competitive, how much he had.

Fear, fierce, fierce he was.

He was music at all costs.

It's all the costs, man.

I have stuff in that and the vault that I got from him, like music that you won't you never hear. O. God, how he did the walk, like just with Morris playing the drums and him playing the bass trying to figure out that BA like he was it. Yeah, and he did everything with the time.

It was all him.

It was him and him and Morris play. Wasn't Jimmy, Monty, none of them. It's all Prince.

She's crazy.

Yeah, man, man, y'all hey listen man, levels y'all, y'all sick, y'all are sick.

Bro.

We're not done though, y Yeah, we're gonna split these up to two stores stores.

Yeah yeah, yeah.

Yeah yeah, twinkle fingers, I ain't saying no name.

Very important segment of the show talking about it.

Yeah all right, Well, and we're gonna we're gonna split it up a Bobby version and an Easy version because both of y'all have had long journeys and travels in this.

Thing that we call music. And uh, the name of the topic and the segment in the game is I ain't saying no names. So your story funny, are fucked up?

Are funny and fucked up.

Mine's funny and fucked up perfect.

So we're gonna go first with easys.

I ain't saying no names.

You didn't hear from me.

I didn't say nothing.

Here's the key to my story. Campbell suits, good food. You ready?

Yeah, man, we're in the studio working with an artists doing a couple of records. Hey man, my friend just came through. Man, it's a cool if he comes up.

Oh yeah, yeah, bring him up. We're vibing, we're chilling.

We got all the we got all the gear in the in the room, so we kind of have it set up like we can jam at any given moment. Me, Bob, Terry, be Jim, No, no, no, they're cool, they're cool. Okay, they're cool, they're they're safe, safe, all right, cool man, We're five minutes, all good.

Bring him up, comes on up. We're like, oh what's up?

Man?

Are hey man?

You know, we're just sitting here vibing. Man, all right, cool man, Hey, hey, Bob, play something.

He is.

A man.

Come in here and sing something. Man, come sing.

My stomach hurts. Your stomach hurts, but you can sing. Man, Come on, man, come vibe with us. I don't feel good tummy.

For real. Man, Bob, get up while you under there laughing, Get up, man. They over Bobby and Terry Lewis over there are just busting a ball and we're like, yo, you ain't gonna jump in here and just sing.

Man.

It's all We're all vibe and it's freaking.

My tummy hurts.

Hey, man, if you knew who it was, If you knew who it was, remember the key to my story, campbell Soup's good food.

So do you think they were scared to see?

I don't know what it was. I don't know if when something is tummy or he just didn't want to say.

But it was weird and soft. Just and just think how I'm I'm acting it up.

It's weird and so listen to me. Listen, m M. That's enough, yo.

But what what was even crazier was my brothers literally on the floor under the console, dying and Terry's.

Like, he's atom stop, stop, get up, can't I can't mean.

There's a few reasons, you know, I'm not going entertained because he's.

To be We were hype.

We're like, oh this boy could blown come fine with us.

So yeah, we were you know, eight jokes ready right, get out of there.

Okay, Bobby, I ain't saying no name.

Uh yeah.

This one was very eye opening. So we're in the studio to me is and it's Terry and Jimmy, and.

It was.

A very monumental moment because there's a guy who had this record that was amazing, it was killing, And so we found out he was on his way to the studio.

So he comes by.

And Jimmy and Terry take him to the back one of the back studios that we had had a conversation with him.

He had a number one record booming and.

One of our favorites, one of a lot of people's favorites. And Jimmy Terry give him like the h that talk. They sign him, I'll tell you what to do or not to do, and they have that conversation. They come out of the room, he says it's goodbyes, and they said I don't think we're ever going to see him again. And I said, really, no, we've seen a lot come and a lot go.

They ain't gonna hear from.

Him, and we ain't heard from ever since.

What they do to that boy in that room.

Man, they gave him a dose, and we ain't never heard from the real And they were right. So when a wise man tells you, I've seen them come and I've seen them go. And when they say, oh, he's great, no, greatness is always defined over period of time. They gave him the crown too quick, and guys who have been able to do it over and over and over and over again knew it.

Blew my mind. I paid attention even more.

Wow, I gotta know who that is.

We never asked a guest who it is. Don't worry, guys, you have is gonna be.

In my d m.

Who wasn't man who's telling me her?

He was gonna tell me?

I don't leave me alone.

Listen, bro, y'all are man, y'all are history. Man.

You guys, you guys, and you've done it over and over again over and you keep doing it.

Ship. Shout out to your longevity. Shout out to.

Just maintaining yourselves, maintaining your mental health.

Your physical health.

Yeah, absolutely throughout this journey, man, And and thank you for this love, man, And.

On some realty, like, man, what you guys have put together here, just the experience of what it means for guys like us to just come chop it up and share stories, and just the camaraderie of what this is because at the end of the day, man, like we needed this years ago where we could just come break bread and chop it up as human beings.

Man.

And you know a lot of times the game has kept us so separated, you know, and.

There's no governing body.

Yeah, yeah, so, and we've been such fan of yours for a long time. I don't know how we've never even been able to leave with and just create and build together with you.

That's all he cares about that.

And I'm gonna tell you, you know, the reason why you guys mean a lot to us is because you guys are from the same cloth we're from. You know, the expectation of what excellence represents.

That's all we've ever tried to do throughout our journey.

And more importantly, because you know, we're doing something that based on our skin color, we shouldn't really be able to do as well as we do it. But what keeps us going is that the kids that look like us get to now think beyond what those limitations are, you know, and you know, to be embraced by you guys and your culture the way we have is a blessing and even though we've had to earn it and

And most importantly do it the right way, you know.

So to be able to sit in a room with you guys, and for you guys to have always embraced us and welcome it means a lot, man, Yeah, you know, and we and we and because of that, we are sticklers for even our own culture that wants to embrace black music and introduce it or we're hard on them because you have to do it in such a way that's excellence, that represents excellence, you know. So thank you guys, man, you know, for making us feel a part of the family.

Family.

Man.

I used to look at videos we shared the same with the school tours.

Yes, the early back then, back then.

Yeah, and the thing is like that's what I say, Like the the ones who know, like, no, you know what I.

Mean, You just you can't. You can't fake.

It and make it in this thing. You either either have it or you don't. And he's still pretty Look at him, man, he's still.

Still looked the same way you do, bron Like.

That's how you know the game to beat him up. And you know they'll look at me like, damn, Bob, like what do you eat? What are you putting in your face?

Like I have.

A bald beef.

Camera.

Oh yeah, super Bowls, well, you know you got both talks of plastic surgery.

That's what I met. That's what I've got to say. It just came out. It just came.

Every morning.

I just have too much fun at me because I don't take myself that serious and take the art music seriously and didn't let it beat me like it could have. Now I got some battle wounds, but thank god I'm still here, like we will still here right like you know, at the end of the day, I just want him to say good like, well done, good faithful, sert man.

You do what you're supposed to do with what what I gave you.

Listen, my name is. This is the R and B Money Podcast. Yeah on all things. R and B are brothers.

The Grammy Winner, the mono.

The Grammy Winner is the first Latin Grammy winner in an urban space.

Why not? Why not come on about? That's right, that's right, Thank you sir, Thank your R and B Money.

R and B Money is a production of the Black Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and race our show, and you can connect with us on social media at Jay Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode, subscribe to YouTube dot com, forward slash, R and B Money