QLS Classic: Siedah Garrett

Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora Ladies and Gentlemen. This is Quest Love Supreme Classic and what can I say? Sayta Garrett is such a legend legendary writer, legendary performer, one of the most exciting episodes and stories that we've had on Quest Love Supreme. I hope you enjoyed as much as we enjoyed doing it. This is Sayta Garrett's QLs classic from May twenty seventeen.

All Right, Supremo Supremo ro Suprema su Supremo roll, Suprema Supremo Ro Suprema.

So Supreme roll. What's love got a theory?

Yeah?

I thought y'all should know. Yeah that Jamli flavored yogurt might be jumpas Supremo Supreme role. My name is Sugar. Yeah, I'm never scared. Yeah even when Yeah, I'm unprepared.

Bro Supreme some some Supreme roll call Supreme sup Supremo.

Role called I'm on pay Bill, Yeah, flew in to see you Yeah, and I will not Yeah say about mirrors.

Supreme s My name is Boss Bill.

Got here in a rush, was back at the hotel Jammy Twosome, Plush Supreme.

Son Supremo, roll cal Subprema So some Supremo roll call.

I'm lie yeah, and I just can't stop smiling, Yeah because I wa Yeah, ain't gonna need to be rhyming ro.

Supremo, Who call.

Son Son Supremo.

Roll call my name saa Yeah, and I'm from Compton. Yeah. When I'm not singing. Yeah, y'all know, I'm bumping Suprema.

So Supremo, roll call Suprema something something Supremo, roll call Suprema something something Supremo.

Roll call Suprema something something Supremo. Roll call, Ladies and Gentlemen.

That was the most confident a guest of this yeah, ever for someone who was very anxious about doing it, came right in and nailed it.

Yeah, Ladies and gentlemen. Was panicking all of when we warned.

Her about I will not be ushered. You.

You You're the winner of the most confident delivery. Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to another episode of Quest Love Supreme, only on Pandora. I'm your host Quest Love, I'm the Punk Guard and I brought Team Supreme today. Uh sports references. Yeah, my power forward is boss, Bill, our fearst leader and sometimes coach. What's up? How you doing? Yeah, plus record, it's kind of dope, Yeah, it is, it is. It's awesome. Yeah. My shooting guard is a sugar Steve, our audio genius

Yeah, they still call me Downtown Stevie Brown. That's I can shoot the three pise. Okay, that is not why they called you. That small forward is paid Bill small the first time ever be called small very much. Yeah, I'll take a small forward.

Bill. You are information and uh life lesson recorder. That's what I do. Yeah, that's what you do. And our center, I'll take that.

I actually was the center in the Boys and Girls club on my basketball team.

On the bench.

Our center is aka Sweet Margaret for.

Her sign age. That's right.

I'll take the organized stress. And you know she she keeps us in line. Our guest today, Uh, she kind of takes forward.

Guest center six.

Man visiting the assistant coach. Yeah yeah, yeah, our guest today, she takes what I'll say, Uh, she'll take the title. She's living that Renaissance life and she takes it to the next level. Uh, for over three decades side the Garrett has done it all name it, singing, h acting, songwriting, arranging, producing, directing, and conceptualizing. She's kind of like my favorite type of artists, which she's basically you know, she's dependable. She shows up

Let's not talk about sports, okay, really a bunch of music people anyway.

I will say that not only not only has she, in my opinion, work with the best, but I actually believe that those that you her gifts and her talent do so because she is actually the best at it at what she does. Taxis you know, being at a duetting the all time what I call barbecue classic don't look any further, two step classics or one of Quincy Jones's most reliable go to lyricists, depending U dare I say it probably Michael Jackson's most important song. I think

That's the one that makes.

Michael Michael Jackson has Man in the Mirror. That's it. I feel like that's one of his most important songs. To her Oscar nominated work for the animated film Rio and for dream Girls, which you want to grab me for correct I did. Absolutely, I'm still on their homework. Absolutely, welcome to saw you to Garrette Love Supreme. Yeah, thank you. You're from Compton, Yeah, what about it? Really?

Yeah?

One hundred nineteenth and Wilmington, honey content straight up Watts.

You know, I have to say that probably the period that where I ran into you the most was during UH your your time with UH with brand new heavies. What are you doing? The smoking grooves?

And you know what, I watched you cletely forgot about.

That, but I watched you every night because the thing you're you're I'm sure you've heard this a lot. You're you're very magnetic personnality.

Darling. I can't hear it enough? When is your cancer? I'm a moon child. I'm a moon child.

Well, yeah, you're very magnetic. And so it was to the point where, like every night I was watching Guys when you were on, even though it was I think he only did like three weeks of that run.

But they smoked and grooveed me out. I was done data.

Yeah, but I really, I really didn't want to overwhelm you with the fandom because even Beckfn like, I'm sure that you just get overwhelmed with people asking you like, man, so tell.

Me what it's like when I can't hear it's enough.

I'm telling you this interview. Yeah, I was about to say this is this is show which all we do is we geek out on this show.

Remember when Michael Jackson that was awesome? Remember when that's all we're gonna do. Remember that song you wrote for Preferred Camel.

Awesome, It's really good.

You guys is stupid.

Only on Pandora. So you were born in and raised in Compton.

I was born at Saint Francis Hospital and Lynn It's California, and spent the happiest part of my childhood on one hundred and nineteenth in Wilmington. Okay, mm hmmm, so raised by my grandmother who's passed.

Now, what was it? What was Compton Lincoln?

Because of course, okay, they had gangs, they had the crips and all that, but the worst that the crips would do to you if they caught you out was steal your jacket. Really, that was it, dude, that they would just steal your leather jacket, that jacket, and that was it.

Now they're shooting people and killing brothers, and I'm you know, I'm glad I'm from there, but I'm glad I'm not in it right now.

I did time in Compton for a little bit. Yeah, what kind of time when my parents were recording the Congress Alley record. My grandmom lived in Compton, but my cousins were all crips, and so to my parents just made you know, me wearing blue. So you, Derby, you were in Compton while your parents were working on a record that would be sampled for a Compton classic. Nice thoughtful, black man, well done. How crazy that was? That was

Well, my mom was in a singing group with her twin sister and her baby sister, and they were trying to pop off when the Supremes were happening, so they called themselves.

The other Three.

So dude, I would watch them rehearse and they would have their matching outfits and they do their makeup and everything and go out and perform in one of these things they called.

A nightclub, And I was like, what is a nightclub? That just sounds so hot? Like I want to go to a night club?

Can we go?

Can we out?

No, you can't go to no nightclub. But it's a night club that just sounds so fun and you guys are dressed up and you're singing, and I want to go to the nightclub?

Right?

Did no? Really?

Oh? Why?

I was so?

I was like eight or nine, and I was just fascinated with the idea of those two words going together.

Night club?

What is that?

I wanted to be a part of that.

I think that's where the seed was planted. But my mother was a blenda. She's not a soloist, she was a blenza. So I think I learned about harmonies and stuff like that. In fact, my first recording game was with H R and B artist DJ Rogers.

Oh yes.

So it was right after the Say You Love Me album. The next album he was.

Recording, Oh that's one of my favorite sor that's your Heart.

So my mother was his interior decorator, and she was hanging wallpaper in his house and she's like, you know, DJ, my daughter can sing. He's like your daughter, my plumber's son, the maid's nephew. Everybody gets no, no, but my mother was very very persistent. He said, all right, bring her by, but if she can't sing, I don't want to hear. I don't wan hear shit else. I don't hear nothing else.

At me like, oh, okay, sing this. So he played something a little more intricate and I sang that and he literally pushed me off the bench.

I fell on the floor and next thing I know, a couple of days later, I'm in the studio sing background with these amazing singers and just blending in the harmonies. They were just so luscious and I was on a high. And I came home and three weeks later I got.

A check.

And I was like, this is some shit I think I could do on a regular basis. And I think that's what started it. It was like, that was my first official recording session.

What album was it?

On? The album after the Say after Say You Love Me? I forgot the name of it.

So that might be love music in life.

There you go.

Yes, that sounds like it. That sounds like it.

Shit, I have e recon Yes, okay.

Playing you'll hear me in the background bag I will do so with the silstles.

So that's when you were a teenager?

Yes, I was but a child at the time.

Yes, So when did you When did you decide? Were you the only one in your family that had musical aspirations? Did you know?

My mom did? But that didn't Evidently that didn't work out too well.

But siblings or my sister wishes she could sing, Oh my god, my sister wishes she could sing so badly, but you can't send you so.

I can tell you already I'm still going to love this interview. Yeah, we're not even a love So when when did you officially? I mean I guess when did you officially start?

Like?

How did the Plus? Was plus your first situation?

Yes?

It was my first signage?

Really how did you? How did you? How did you run into Renee?

And?

I think I met them through my record label? You were signed to I was signed to Quest, which fell into Warner Brothers.

Wait, how you were signed the Quest before you did.

The post problem. No, that was pre that was prequency.

You're right.

I signed R Yes, yes, RC Records and they were staff producers there, Angela. It wasn't a very pleasant experience, so I don't want to elaborate on that anyway. None is an asshole? Can My manager is like freaking out right now, But I really don't care because he was he really is. Okay, we won't He was so mean to me, so freaking I ran into him thirty years later, working with Michael.

Two months ago, I ran into him at the gas station.

I saw him.

Like I didn't see him really, Yeah, he was plumping gas now two months ago, yes, just a couple of months ago.

I ran into him and uh, he said something about I drove around him because he was parked, and I drove around his car and he shouted something.

Like, hey, lady, you can't even drive, so you didn't even know he.

Knew it.

And then he went in and I was trying to get out of the lot and he just finished pumping his gas and he said, hi, Saita, and I said hi, Renee, and he said, I was trying to say that was me that was saying something smart you. I said, I know, that's why ignored your ass, because it was anyway, no love lost.

See, I was even going for the Renee angle because what I wanted to know was it was also highly unusual, uh for LEA producers to be female, which Angel right, and because when was the album recorded.

Late late early eighties or late seventies.

I think there you go. Okay, So what I'm saying that that was a highly unusual.

Their whole situation was unusual, and they were very very successful at it at the time.

So what was it like under her tutelage?

Like I said, it wasn't all pleasant, darling. Okay, so from the look on my manager's face and the stuff right.

Now, okay, damn, before it goes all.

The way to the heel of my shoe that's been inserted in my mouth.

This is this is this is one. This is one observation. Let me just let you know, let me let you know that we're not in the burning bridges here Quest Supreme only like a little not all, a little bit bridge Madison County.

I will move on.

No.

I hadn't started writing yet, so I was just signed as a you know, a singer in.

This group and they remembers were there.

There was myself and two other guys. I'm sorry, dude, the other three shut up.

Yeah, we were plushed and that record lasted like a summer. But it was fun to make.

Okay, Okay. I was going to say that the your solo turne the I Don't Know where love comes from? There's what the second to last song one side.

To killing you are killing me right now? No, no, no, no, But remember the single from that album, let alone, this third song on plaid two what what?

But here's the thing that let's that's how this works. It's like you have to remember your career. But if you don't they do. Yeah, wait a question about around I know, so I want to I want to play a little bit of it because there's a very interesting uh uh observation.

Give me all right, where is it a mark?

Okay? Well, I was waiting for the ad lib to come. But the reason why I wanted to ask about this song is the fact that I found it very interesting that even though this album came out before Thrilling, you channeled one of Mike's iconic ad libs before he even got to capitalize on it, which told me you must be a deep Michael Jackson fan because his trademark he he really wasn't a thing until it was a thing Thriller came out. I mean he did it once on Walk right now. He kind of did it working day

That, he I want to hear this rip so bad right now?

That was it right exactly?

You know what?

Wow?

And that's the thing. I was like, wait a minute, this came out before my god, I have.

No idea, but you know what, I sound a lot like Angela. She was producing that vocal.

They wanted me to be her, and it was killing me. Every song I had to sing it like she sang it, because she did all the demo.

Yeah.

So, like she said, that doesn't even sound like me, that sounds like Angela.

Well, I mean, I still I was. I have a soft spot in my heart for like really good obscure boogie era music, like between seventy nine and eighty three, like I love it, pre prints post disco like that zone. So yeah, but sweet spot, man, I love the fact that you managed to reference an iconic ad lib before that iconic ad lib even got to the icon raised the heights. But that's that's sort of the Dewey Bey

Truly, Plush got flushed basically from our records.

Not even one show or two shows or.

Really it was I think it was just right off kind of thing, you know whatever.

But did you get the days, my friend, did you get anything out.

Of it or like, I mean, recording experience. Recording experience was really valuable. Yeah, so learned just what not to do for the you know, the next.

So for the next year, for the next year. I've heard many a story from Dennis Edwards and of don't look any further, one of which I heard that his original intended duet partner was I supposed to be Shaka Khan. Wow refute or what happened?

Was?

How? How did this happen?

When I auditioned for Quincy Jones, there were a butt load of songwriters and producers in the room during the auditions.

Quincy at the time was recording.

He's putting together album Okay every Home One.

Yes recording that album, and and songwriters were submitting songs to Quincy for Patty's album.

And I was the demo chick at the time. I was since they saw me at those auditions, I started doing everybody's demos for Quincy.

For Patty, well, rewind where are the auditions because now it's just a little different. I was like, I see your YouTube page, Oh let me let me check them out. But what was the circuit?

It was a cattle call from Music Writer magazine.

A friend of mine and an ex singer friend of mine whose group I was in since I was a kid, was going to the auditions.

But she didn't tell me about it. Her boyfriend had told me, right, So the barfriend called me and said whence he's doing this?

And then I said, okay, okay, where is it? So he gave me the address over at SI R Hollywood and I said, Okay, what time? He said, I don't know, So Baby, I showed up at seven a m. And it was me and two other people and we stood in line until the thing didn't start till noon, but by then the line was around the block.

I was number three, right, So once you were.

Inside, there were two card table and paper clipboards at each for each day, with fifteen fifteen intervals fifteen minute intervals. Who reading is fundamental, isn't it. So you were supposed to go to the table and write down the time and the day you wanted to audition.

And I'm thinking, I'm here now.

I think I'll audition now because I'm not gonna be anymore ready on Tuesday at ten fifteen than I am right now. So I was one of the first few people to audition, and Quincy told me years later that everyone who performed after me had to be as good as me or better than me.

So I went home that day. Baby, the bar was set.

I went home, and over the course of nine months, I would get these letters, Congratulations, you're one of five hunters the quizy. The next letter, you're still in the running, two hundred and fifty, one hundred, seventy five, fifty, twenty five, fifteen, ten, five, four, me and three dudes.

Wait. I wonder what was like for the fifth person to get like seven letters I'm gonna quit my job, Holy Hands that Night Onions Act the one.

This is a little known fact, since you're into all this kind of minutia. Yeah, you know, the little known fact is that.

Lisa Melvoy, Wendy's sister, he told us you wanted the fifth member of the group.

Yeah, because when we first found Plush, I was like, is this the group that Susanna was talking about? So he wanted to put together a he wanted to know.

He wanted uh uh, he wanted a fifth mention or Manhattan Transfer. He just wanted men and women who sang together, or a group.

You know.

He really wanted to take six, but they hadn't been discovered yet.

Who were the other guys?

And one was Kevin Dorsey, one was Darryl Finnassy and the other guy was David Swanson. But the guys that ended up going on the road with me was Darryl Fits, Kevin Dorsey, and a guy named Dorian Holly.

He's on. He used to sing, We used to sing on everybody everything. Yeah, and he had a really amazing rich bass voice.

Daryl, I know from the Michael Jackson with Michael for years.

Right, Yes, let me apologize in advance for his no.

Okay, so fired swinging. So that's what. So this was in eighty one, Okay, I believe this was eighty one or eighty two, because I think Susannah was going to take the gig and then Prince talked her out of doing it, yes and said come with.

Us and Whndy, But Wendy didn't come around until like eighty three, eighty eighty two.

Okay, but I remember her conclusion. The conclusion was that he told her, like.

I always wondered what that was about. They never told us why. She was no longer.

Very ambiguous with it. Yeah, So thanks for that was the name of the group or the project Deco.

We had one. Okay, we were signed and we were offered artist contracts and writers contracts. I was I hadn't written no song poems, okay.

And I wasn't about to be on the other end of the lawsuit with Quincy Jones for not fulfilling my contractual obligations. So I was like, you know what, guys, I'm just gonna sign the artist part and you guys you signed the writers. They were like fine, whatever, So they took our contracts, went to Quincy's house, I mean the Quincy's office, and he did the equivalent of just like shuffling their contracts on the desk and said, well, we're Sayita's contract. They said, oh, she didn't. She didn't

So Quincy pushed their papers back across the desk to them and said, you either all sign or nobody signs. Next thing, I know, saita.

Bitch, what open his door.

When three large black men calling you signed the contract?

So I signed, and then I began the process of learning the craft of writing a song. They began the process of cashing their checks. So I was kept on for seven years. They were dismissed after one year.

So you had no designs whatsoever to.

Be a because here's why. No, no, no, here's why.

Because let's just say, Quincy said, okay, you guys have to write twelve songs a year, twelve songs that I own the publishing too. So they were like, fine, they're musicians. They can whip up a song, you know, just them twelve songs and you're fine.

I okay. If I if they had to whip up twelve, that means fifty percent. That means I gotta whip up twenty four and don't let three people be in the room. I was like, no, no, I don't. I don't need this.

I just want to be an artist, and he wants individual songs, so it's not like you as a collective, Like, okay, so Bill and I have the song we want to submit to you.

Sure if if you're signed to him, then he owns fifty percent of your s and Bill gets to keep his part.

But that's only half a song for you. So you still got living to have most songs deliver crazy. Yes, exactly, exactly exactly.

That's another thinking meme moment is there's an audio equivalent that's.

Crazy things that make you go DN.

Okay, So that's interesting. So how does so once that's in place. How does don't look any further come in to okay? And the thing is, if you're signed to him, are there restrictions for writing for other people or like, does he get first DIBs on all that? Y? Yes, yes, yes, okay the latter.

Once I was waiting those nine months, that's when all those producers, Barry Mann and Cynthia while Dennis Lamberton, Franny Goldie, they were all in the rooms, all in the room, and I started doing I even did Shaka's demo Through the Fire. Let me tell you said the wait a minute, wait since a while.

I'm sorry, somewhere on this earth is your version Through the Fire?

I wanted it so bad she she claimed she couldn't find the couldn't find the demo wink wink anyway, so she uh, when I was singing the demo, she did not know. Shaka Khan is the reason I sing okay. Shaka Khan was my vocal idol. I loved her riffs, I loved her tone. I love the fact that Miles Davis sounds told her her voice sounds like a horn, because it does. She's just She's just so sharp and crisp and I love Shaka. So I was doing this demo and they said, well, we're writing a song for

That is shack. I said, trust me, I've been singing Shaka Khan songs since I can remember. That is Shaka through the Fire. And I did that ship Shaka loved it. She did every lick that I did on the demo, and I was like, praise the Lord.

I have I have know you you were.

Then I was the demonstration singer Dolly.

I demonstrated how the song should be sung.

God.

So so then it goes back to Dennis Edwards and Chaka Khan. Right, yes, so I'm getting getting hot in here.

Okay, what you're talking about, don't be blocking nobodys.

I didn't looking over there, girl, So congratulations.

I did this demo for for Freddy Goldie and Dennis Lambert and it was the song Don't Look any Further. So that was supposed to be a day, but they couldn't get the two in the room at the same time. I don't know what was happening, and Shaka was on tour, Dennis was down somewhere. Anyway, I did the demo, and I did the demo the whole song. Dennis Edwards came in a few weeks later and put his vocal on.

Some chick named Saya Garrett Great, leave her on it.

So I go back to the studio thinking, I'm gonna I'm gonna do my real vocal now, right, gets you a real fang? Dennis LeVert said, oh, no, no, no, no, We're keeping the vocal you did. So the vocal you hear bitches, it's my demo vocal. So the next time somebody tell you, oh, it's just a demo, smack them in the box for me, Just smack them right in the damn mouth that I can.

Curse on this.

Let it be known that Eric's will in his eyes in the corner. Eric's having the best time that anybody's having.

No you gotta see.

So that's how it happened. It's it's amazing because it's amazing to me because the very first time I saw you was on Soul Train.

I'm sorry, go ahead, yes, I'll take all.

Yeah, it was on Soul Train. And you know, even in the show introduction when you know, sim McCoy is like, you know and guest stars you see Dinnis Edwards. I was like, Wow, who's that woman that's standing with Dennis Edwards in the digital box intro? And I watched it and it was like you, that was your set. Dennis wasn't even I'm I'm I'm a Soul Train of file as well, so I'm not trying to freak you guys out, but that was such that was a star making turn.

I'm gonna smack you, so listen, listen.

I love it for the right reasons.

Okay, check this out.

I'm in love.

That video was shot in the basement of Motown Records. I think it costs eleven dollars and fifty seven cents including the.

Electricity that customer. Yeah, and Dennis was not in his best form.

Though.

In fact, Dennis was like he was so amped up. The video director between shoots, she would come over. At one point she came over with a piece of paper and she said, let me, can you put your gum in?

And Dennis was like, Ain't got no gum, Ain't got no gum. I go my mama, mama. He was just chewing the ship out of his own tongue.

Now look at it.

Yes, and then I didn't know it at the time, but you know when I turned around with my back to Dennis with the capitol K now, you never be able to look at that video on the same look.

I'm sorry, g that dress, that blue, the.

Blue with loose way child blu. Wait. But listen, when I turned around, I didn't know that he was humping me behind me. I had no idea when that happened. That move and when I saw it, I said, that nasty best.

You, but you made the most of them, Like, how how long did you have to promote the song with?

It was a It was a hot summer on the East Coast. It was not pleasant.

We did clubs and Dennis had Okay, you know he had groupies, and you know Usher has groupies, but these were.

Not like mama. Okay, So Dennis's groupies correlated with his age.

I get it. So we had some a little one.

So I'll tell you one experience. We were at this club called Silver Something in Jersey, right, silver Shadow. So it was one big dressing room. You there, I told him, So, I guess he's been in that club. You know, Garrett Eric used to do an R for Epic Okay, okay, VPR you remember Clive Davis.

Yeah, I didn't even know it. Ok just a little nugget for your thank you for this is the honor of my life, right should ringtone? I know? Okay?

So thens it was almost time to do the show, and he had all these people and they were smoking and drinking and going in the bathroom to smoke.

What I'm saying.

So yeah, So I said, excuse me, I you know, I'd like to get dressed now. One of his groupie said, oh, you ain't got nothing. He ain't never saying before.

Never ever.

I said, he hasn't seen this one before, so can I just change my clothes? So he left went to the bathroom. But it was those kind of things.

I'm trying to do a show and he and his other buddies and their chicks and his chick all in the room and it's like one little dressing room. I'm like, can you please? Anyway?

Years later he sent me he called me and apologized because I guess that's.

An that's a thing you have to do when you go.

Through the steps.

Yeah, whatever, it.

Is one of the steps. Yes, not HR a little further past HR. That's A and N A not HR wrung acronym.

Okay, Yeah, he was making amends and I accepted his apology, but I said, you were so mean to me.

He's not I know. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but.

Yeah, are you only there for one song? And that there's smart I can take. Really, Yes, I would have incorporate you in this show.

And like, but Dennis wasn't trying to be in no show with anybody else. He was just trying to do Dennis. Yeah, and we were just promoting the single at the time.

So can I just ask the dumb question here?

Yes, I think this is the platform.

Even the dumb ones got to be smart.

Let me see how I say this.

I'm at de jump.

Just please.

With your job of juice.

Wait, it's the name I asked for any and Dennis, it's They just looked up names of African cities.

We thought it was.

It might be, it might be, it might be.

I'm not sure, but it's just that they like the sound of certain cities and they just strung them together.

But here's how it goes.

Yes, dao y.

Owned by now jambay m Bayo ca no no Cairo.

Jamba the jumbe by you now jambem.

By your no Cairo still no Cairo? Wrong?

The jambey by shot.

Jam you all right?

What was the other one?

Dale Nambu I o.

I in the wrong room. Some wandered into both.

He got that sugar hit in the right room.

Thank you for finally settling that.

So welcome because it was a problem.

It was a problem like I'm a day they put them in there that.

I got my juice up in there my city, Cairo.

So can you explain to us and the listeners, but mostly to me, what is what is it like pounding the pavement on the background singer uh circuit, which I'm sure that was your next step. I mean you've done countless of Yeah.

That was an education though, man, that was the real.

Learning experience for me, because, like I said, I started doing demos for l A songwriters and producers, so I got to I got to experience completely different styles from every you know, pop producer that was on the charts and was writing songs for whatever Quincy's next artist was.

So it was it was a true training ground for me as a as a singer.

And singing uh lead is a completely different animal than blending with other people to make a cohesive background sound to the way you have to You can't you can't stand, you can't step out, and you can't be too silent.

You have to blend.

You have to create a sound, a harmonious sound with the other people that you're singing with. And that's what I loved so much about singing background on other people's records that in the fact that I got to work with producers that I never would ever work with because I'm not that that big artist that they're writing for, But I'm the chick that shows the artists how to sing the song. It's just such an amazing, powerful feeling.

Well, yes, I don't know. Maybe they just become the final the final product. So I guess you worked with who did True Blue? Steve, Stephen Bray and Patrick Lennon, Right, Yes, so.

Oh, I have a great story for you. Yes, this is this is about Madonna, and she she fucking loves the story.

So we're making music on the True Blue album and Steve says to me, we need some background singers.

I'm like, okay, I'll call you know, I'll call somebody. So I called. I'm trying to think of what kind of blend for this song. So I called my friend, uh.

Uh, Eddie Layman, who was like the jingle singer, the person, perfect pitch.

She was on every every movie score. She was the singer. So I called Edie because I'd sung with her before, and I said, they need one more person. And before I thought too much more about it, Madonna was right there. I said, you want to sing on this record because I can hire you to sing. Donna yet, yes, this Madonna. No, it's Madonna.

Madonna.

I know she was status.

She was Madonna.

This was like second album, yird al.

So she said, yeah, so we're singing, right, and Madonna would uh uh.

She We would joke and laughing, and every time she would make a joke, she would just like tap that ass. She would make a joke and just tap me on that. So after two or three times the ass tapping, I said, bits, you touched my.

She said, oh, saying I'm just.

But that was it.

She didn't.

But you know what, three or four years later, maybe ten years later, I'm in this restaurant on Lasi mantohisa, I'm in the private dining area because that's how I.

Ma.

I'm by myself. I don't give a shit. I don't care you find myself.

I don't care what people think about me sitting along and in the I don't give a shit. So it was me and then an walks Madonna and her.

Husband, so trying which one.

Yeah, okay, okay, the husband has been I got the director.

Yeah, yeah, mister Ritchie. So I said to her. She goes, hey, sayta, how are you. I'm like, I'm great, Hi missus Richie and her husband just being because.

Who calls her that?

You know what I'm saying, Hi missus Richie. So she said, so, Sayda, what have you been doing? What are you doing lately? And I said I had heard that one of her background singers was was not working out too well.

So when she said, so, what are you up to? I said, I'm waiting for Donna to fuck up so I can take her place.

Where it was.

Yeah, that demon. Anyway, that's another that I'm not getting.

My husband.

Okay, I don't.

Get so many bodies have been discussing right now.

So anyway, all right, anyway.

So we have to go dig more holes.

What I was gonna say, anyway, we got the shovel in the car.

Okay, Jesus, keep going. I don't even know what I was saying in my head. Wait, you're Dona. Donna walked past and you smacked on the ass. That's really wanted the wrong.

Ass, you said, I heard Donna. Fuck Yeah, she laughed.

So three years later I get a call.

Three years maybe a year and a half but it was a lengthy maybe almost almost two years, maybe three. So I get this call and uh, I ended up going on the road with her for a summer, the Reinvention Tour. We rehearsed for a month and we were out for three months, and it was the longest year and a half of my life.

How Yeah, when when you are a when you're a natural born magnet and your own planet.

Yeah, that's a good description.

No, when you are your own how do you know when to fall back and just blending when you're so obviously like you shined.

Well here, I have to give Madonna kudos because she knows that no matter who else is on stage, it's all about Madonna.

So if you understand that, then you can roll with her. It's not a problem.

But you have to resign to that. Like sign for the gig.

I knew what I was doing when I signed up for the gig. I knew who the star of the planet was. And it wasn't say to get it right, I wasn't filling up stadiums.

They can't to see her right, right, So there's no never any temptations.

Well, she would bring me.

She brought me out to do a solo.

I mean the other Donna had been on the road with her for seventeen years.

I've been never got a solo, So I knew there was something about me that she understood and she respected. But Donna, if you if you don't cower, if you don't back down, then she respects that.

Mmm. She truly does.

And she knows she's not the best dancer. No, she's not the best singer. Will be the first to tell you that. But that bitch is the hardest worker I've ever met in my life.

True, she works her arts off. You're right, You're right.

And if she was saying for twenty fucking ye, that's what she'd say. I'm the cherry picker to all her fans that she hovered above them. Its for being my fans for twenty fucking It's awesome.

Wow. What are the rules to to surviving in that that kind of world?

That circuit you know who the star is and it's usually not the background.

Well no, no, no, no, I don't even mean for conscious I'm talking about like, when you're called for work, is it do producers look for? Like, Okay, who sings the flatts without the most vibrato? Who shows up a half hour early.

Who a good producer will consider all of those things because they already know what kind of sound they're looking for, and they'll just hire the singers that they think can create that sound for them.

Is it easy for you to track everything yourself or to do it with like who are your who are the contemporaries, who are the go to people in background work? In the first half of the eighties, it had to be like, you.

Know, Lisa Fisher, all those New York Audrew Wheeler, Sendy Mizelle.

La singers were not even.

Featured in this twenty Steps.

Yeah, and then there was background singers that didn't really have a background anyway. That's something else I can't oh Tatha, all these all these amazing singers, and Tauatha might have even.

Been on that DJ Rodgers thing of mine, yeah, my first gig.

But anyway, you get to know who you know, the ones that are dependable, the ones who get the job done, the ones that do it quickly, and the ones that also Producers are looking for people to come up with ideas that they didn't think of, you know, different harmony parts, different counter melody parts that you could come.

Up with on the spot.

So do they send you the track pronto learn.

And if you make changes you get a check for that.

No, No, that's part of why they hired you. They knew you could make the product better without, you.

Know, being a writer. I work for higher So you know what I this this morning when I was recapping everything, I freaking forgot about Do you want it right now?

Oh?

Wow, it's just one of those things that escaped me.

Check this out.

Yes, nerder Rama, Yes, ringtone song.

Was produced by Jellybeans.

Okay, he was one of the three producers that I had after one of my ill fated albums that is on the Shelf and Warner Brothers that will be never never ever be heard or seen from in life.

But he would wait, wait, Marie Wind.

It was after the fact. I my first album on Quest had three producers jelly Bean, Glenn Ballard and and Cliff Magnus and Robbie Neville and it.

Never came out eighty five five. Remember so this before life there was an album.

Yes, yes, there were two albums.

There were a lot of changes that went from Quest, transition to Warner Brothers and Divorced, and it was a lot of it was a lot of shit going on.

So, yeah, do we have anybody. I'm gonna find one.

You're gonna find one.

Oh, we do that. We're gonna we're gonna're gonna try and find that record. Both of them.

They were never released. They're on but we're gonna find Oh, I'm scared of you guys, anyway.

To do that? Yeah, we lost, don't be scared.

So this, this single do you Want It Right Now? Was in the Sydney Pontier directorial debut Fast Forward, and the song is in the movie in the guitar solo. So you never even heard me say a word on the film, But that song was released to the dance clubs and it was number one dance record.

It was inescapable. Yeah argument, I thought it was Shannon in the beginning, but it was No. I know no, I mean I was what thirteen at the time, but they always played it on Power ninety nine and Philly.

This is the fast forward the movie, the dance the song before the movie right fast.

You've seen that movie.

What I seen all the dancing movies.

That movie was like twenty minutes.

We had the Blonde and then the Rich I remember, and then the Black guy and the white guy and their friends team together.

This is this is a key moment. I wish was here that on top of us on what you're experiencing now, what you feel it's never happened. You know some ship that's okay. Have you seen Body Rock? Yeah? Must be, must be your spike. Lee Glasses said, all right, we're falling to a rabbit right here.

So it's dark in there.

On it is. So even on the strength of having that single, no one at Warners was like, Okay, let's let's get that out. Let's get the product out.

There was a lot of upheaval and the Warner family and the Quest family, and it was I just sort of fell through the cracks. I'm an artist, but as a songwriter, you know, it behooved Quest to you know, plug me into different projects, which is how I came to meet Michael.

What what keeps you? What keeps you sing?

That keeps me saying it was married?

What keeps you saying? The little he's the loudest one in the room, but you didn't hear one boy.

So he's glad he went from twenty Okay, so shut up.

But what I want to know, Damn they just gave each other high five. That's amazing relationship. He's like, I'll go get the shovel. What so, But I'm just saying, man too, you know, to start when you did, and then to have the Plus project almost be a contender, and then you might get some heat on the dennist at Wards problem. It's almost a contender and kind of some close. No Cigars not my year. It's not my year.

Wait?

Is this where Benny enters the picture? God? Sorry, all right, I'm sorry, Eric, he was already no, no, no, let me just I'm trying to explain that this show is is not This is probably the deepest we've ever gotten into yeah, because I know, But seriously, I'm more curious about the creative process and getting from point A to point Z, not just like give me this insation his stories, like you know what Sirt was that and I were

Man, you just I don't know.

You just don't.

I just haven't stopped. You can't stop. You just got to keep focused.

I on the prize, just keep your keep focused on your goals, no matter. And then all that other stuff is just extraneous stuff that's happening while you're focused on your goal.

So what okay for that point? What in your eyes? And you know everyone has a plan and quote God laughs at you. Whatever that thing is that that's that's saying. What were your aspirations during that period?

I was gonna be Madonna and then I was gonna be Beyonce. I was gonna be it, but that part of my career just never kind of took off. But as a songwriter, because the focus wasn't on me as an artist, I think I had to concentrate on what was happening, and as a songwriter, I was doing a

It just wasn't meant for me. Like I was on the Bad Tour, the single had just come out.

Warner Brothers like, you gotta you gotta stay here and we gotta make your record.

You gotta, you know, while this is hot, you gotta do this, and the Men of the Mirror is coming out. You got to make your own record.

So I rehearsed with the Bad Tour for like a week, right, And after a week I told Michael, I said, dude, I gotta, I gotta do my own sit.

I mean, Warner Brothers is saying so sorry. I I left entered Sheryl Crow and the rest herstory bitches her history.

I see the executives ever come to you like you know in that artist type of way. Well, if you change this, and if you change.

That, because I always thought it was dope, you were ahead of your time.

You know how I feel about here, blig They I was, you know, they looked at me and they saw an R and B singer, and which is which I wasn't. I'm a pop singer, but I'm not Madonna, so they were the look didn't match the road I was trying to go down. So after a while, you gotta go with the flow, baby, You gotta however it's flowing.

You gotta make that work.

But you can't. You you have to understand that usually the conclusion that you just told me, that's always reached in hindsight. Now, I mean, the key reason why I even have this show as a platform is for what you just said, because I got about six or seven people in my lives. My lives. I have six or seven people in my life who their narrative is constantly going down dead in the streets and just like, nope, nope, you read that.

Book about the Cheese and the Rats and the New Cheese. I forgot the name of it, but but who moved my cheese? Okay?

That book is about these two little rats who every day they would get out of their little house and get dressed for work, and they go then the maize and they find the cheese.

And then they go home and.

Get undressed, go to sleep. Next day to get up, get dressed, go down the maize and find the cheese. One day there was no cheese, but one little rat just kept getting up, getting dressed, going down the road, find them looking for the other rat started looking for some new cheese.

So as an artist, I was looking for the new cheese.

That's the best cheese story I've ever heard of. This, it was I just want to know I've been in that new chiese situation. Yeah, because again I personally and I hate I know I'm regressing the older mirror where I start taking all the interviews and making the interview about me and instead of the artist.

But I got it.

This This is a rare This is rare tell us about the cheese, tell us about the cheese. But I'm just saying that ever Blue was a Swiss. As an artist in the beginning, when you're first starting, you have these lofty goals of what you want your life to be. Yes, I didn't ask to you know it wasn't a dream.

But oh you I'm taking my ball and I'm going home. I'll take the ball and roof it so nobody can have it. But I'm also smart enough to listen if three, like fifty million Elevis fans can't be wrong. So if four people are telling me I think you need to fuck you're fucking up. I need you to breathe, calm down different way.

You need to Yeah, who, I'm not saying that you're I'm just saying that I had that.

But how did you.

Because the narrative of anyone else I talked to this is where the downside of the period happened. But you just went with a punch and like, okay, well it wasn't meant for me to what what?

I had no other options like what were There was no other alternative you either. It was not about I was not about to just go down like that. I I was just not going out like that.

I had.

I wanted to just find a new way to make my name, to get my music out there. And if it wasn't through me, then I'll just write it for somebody else to do.

All right, Yeah, I'm gonna bookmark this part of the interview and make sure that ninety five billion people listen to you. You saying that because I that's yes. Can we title this new case so fund check this out For those of.

You who are who are living southern California. For the last sixteen years, from two thousand to January twenty sixteen, I was the voice of Toyota for Southern California.

Jingle new Cheese, Cheese Baby.

Now it's your Toyota dealer. You can get a great deal on our twenty sixteen Toyota.

Let's go places. Let's go places, viness. Listen where my career goes. Yes, yeah, new cheese.

Now who I didn't wake up going, oh my god, I want to I want to be that announcer girl.

It happened. I was singing the jingle we make It Easy, Oh so easy.

I'm in that.

You done many, many for many name something that I don't know or I might know, or uh.

Well, I've done likes of PEPSI likes of Coca Cola commercials, Jack in the box, McDonald's just ooz and ohs all over the place, and and the dang you real rich No, no.

Wrong, I'm on that too, and.

I'm just let me And that's another thing. This is gonna be that episode.

Okay, that's fine.

Just because you work a lot doesn't mean that you're bringing in the dough.

I know, like the trash man at work a lot.

But when you are doing like plumber, I consider myself mister nineteen jobs.

You don't know what a lot of dough is anymore. You're in a bubble. But to the director of the system, okay, I'm.

Just saying it means that you're consistently working. You're a working class nigga.

Anyway, I miss something.

In it still j thoms they're.

Good, but the jingles amazing.

Yeah.

So yeah, that was another way for me to still sing and be musical, but not be an artist, and not be signed to a label and not be you know what else I hated about being signed to a label. They have their own agenda and it doesn't matter what kind of artists you want to be, or what artists you think you can be, or who you think you are.

So after that, nobody wanted.

To Nobody wanted to fuck with seven because he didn't have those high notes anymore. But Tevin took his uh gift and his talent and he went to Broadway, so he found some new cheese.

Wow. Not to mention your your your your your your acting game is is oh god, quite awesome. My first yeah right now, oh my god. You know, like when you get your first VCR. You gotta record everything when you were a kid.

Yeah, Steve's like again some stuff my dad recorded that I happened to find out. Yeah, pretty much. Recording everything.

Changed my life.

We got a v c R. I recorded everything that was on television. It just happened. Her episode of the Facts of Life was the one that that I did well.

I did Amen. I did an episode of Amen. I remember the episode.

Yeah, you wanted to be U singer? I want to be No, Yeah she was, uh, I guess missus Garrett's girls. I wanted to enter Sing with the Elder Barge contest. Oh yeah, and I think George Clooney's character and whoever the kid was.

Worked with George before.

When they had their own bakery and whatnot.

So they organized them to enter this contest and then.

Tots Group one. It's the show.

She lost the whole two of hearts things. Remember that one.

Lost?

Wait anyway, Stacy.

Let me let me tell you. I was on an ill fated pilot called.

The Valentine's On that that pilot episode was Tevin Campbell, Ali, Cindy Harron, Saya Garrett. They were like and and everybody was like nobody then and after that they went on to do what they went on to do. But Jeff Franklin was the producer of that and he produced Family Ties Full House.

Right, so they did.

They rebooted the show. And one of the actresses on the show, whose name is Jody's that one Sweden. She is in a rock band, her little band, and I wrote the song that her band sings. So this is like thirty years later that producer who hired me as a as an actress, and I was on the pilot as the sister of Cindy and Tevin, and we were in.

This vocal group. Anyway, the pilot went nowhere, but he and I remained friends, and like thirty years after the fact, I got married at his house.

In Beverly Hills and then he's said, well, we got this show, you want to write this, So I'm right. So those relationships that are forged early on in your career, if you know how to nurture them, they're just valuable. People remember how a professional you were, how important you were to the project they were working on, how you added your ideas.

And they remember you for other things. But had I been an.

Asshole on that set, Wait a minute, I'd have.

Probably gotten married at the town Hall and Compton. Thank you very much.

Wait a minute, you just did you bring Tevin to Quincy?

I did.

I was one of the first few people.

Quincy heard about Tevin from me and from Benny Bedina around the same time, because I was I was in the show with him, and I knew he could sing.

Tevin had such a thick accent that I remember talking to him about some mark he had on his arm, or some really scar on his arm.

I said, how'd you get that? He said, oh me, And we was running and I was running with some silzls. I said, you were running with what? Some sizzles? I said, child, where.

Are you from?

A waxahatchie Texas.

Wed.

They pronounced scissors like silzls.

Watch, wax a hatchie, that on ju that's that's a watch wax.

A hatchet and the genre baio. There will be a test later.

He loves to ask him.

By the time he did Frest Prince, that's interesting because I was thinking about the Tatiana reunion on the Fresh Prince Yeah TV.

It was deep South. Okay, so you brought him to Quincy?

Okay?

Because around the same time that Benny did.

Like, because I often might have Sunday brunch in a certain New York establishment and I and I'll still see Bobby Humphrey occasionally, and She'll be like, I'll just covered Darren and Gimble because her name was her like logo or something was on the first two albums or something like that.

Right, right, sorry, Bobby.

The way that I've always heard Quincy Jones describe the creative process in sourcing material for Michael is that I'm always hearing numbers like, yeah, we sat and listened to three hundred songs. We sat listened to five hundred songs. So I mean, again, today's a whole new different standard. So am I to believe that the standard for then was that you would go to a certain publishing house and just have cassettes and all these songs submitted to you, and you just sit there and listen.

And well, no, Quincy would put the word out to songwriters that he respected, yeah, and the new could deliver, so and then they would start submitting songs, and I would I wouldn't doubt that they've.

Heard up to three hundred, five hundred songs.

Because Quincy informed me after I delivered the cassette to man in the mirror that he and Michael had been in the studio for like two and a half years and Michael had yet to record a song he didn't write.

So Quincy was like, I don't know, ye, I don't know.

But then he said, don't worry sid if we don't record it with Michael on his album, The Bad Album, I'll recorded with James Ingram on my album.

And I'm thinking Michael Jackson James ing had to let it go.

But as it turned out, Michael loved the song, and in fact, the first thing he said to me.

Was I love this song. The second thing he said to me was I love your voice.

Wow.

It was just I was on Cloud fifty eleven.

Because this is one of two songs that weren't written by him.

On the album, right. The other one was She's Out of My Life Tom Baylor, No, no, no, Well just good Friends was oh yeah, yeah, I'm the wrong album song.

Right right? Okay, so you were hinting to place the song, but Quincy was sort of saying.

Like you knows what Quincy called the meeting with his songwriters, his West Coast writers. I think there were like six or seven of us, and I was late for the meeting, so I tried to sneak in, and everybody's sitting around in his living room and he's talking in the middle of a sentence, and I'm trying to just stay in the back of the room and just sort of slink on the side and find.

Some place to sit out as if. Yeah, and he's tracking me with his eyes.

As I walk across the back of the room and he says as I was saying before, I was so rudely.

Interrupted, you know, just following me, and I'm like going, oh shit.

So, you know, sat in the corner and I took copious notes. Then I went to my friend Glenn Balad and I said, Quincy's looking for a song for Michael. And he said, well, what kind of song does he want? And I was like, I don't know.

So he gets up to go to the keyboard to turn it on to get some sounds.

Cut to two years prior to this day, I'm in a writing session with famous jazz pianist John Beasley. Right, So John and I are writing, and John also introduced me to Sergio Mendez, which is another story. So John and I are writing and the phone rings, and I thought we were doing some pretty good work. So I was waiting for the machine to pick up, and instead of him letting his machine pick up the phone, he picks up the phone and begins.

This very banal conversation.

Ah, nothing, I'm just saying, I'm not and I'm flipping through my lyric book saying to myself, No, he didn't just say he wasn't doing nothing.

No, no he didn't. You know, I'm just like, I'm seething, right, And then I hear him say the man, what man, Oh, the man in the mirror.

So I wrote down Man in the Mirror. Two years later, I'm at Glenn's house. He gets up to turn on the keyboard and he's starts.

Playing doom Doom, Doom, Doom, Doom, doom doom, just to get a sound on the keyboard.

And I'm flipping through my lyric book again, and the phrase man in the Mirror literally leapt off the page and I could not.

Write the lyric. Fast en up, I'll tell Glenn. Wait, I'm just scribbling frantically, right.

So in like ten twelve minutes we had the first verse and the first chorus to Man in the mirror. That was Wednesday night. He said, you go home, finish the lyric. I'll finish the track and on Friday we'll demo the song. So I demoed this song Friday and we finished Friday night, too late to turn it into Quest Records. So I called Quincy and I said, cute, Glenn, and I have written a great song. He said, great, Sid, just turn it into the publishing office and I'll hear it on Monday or Tuesday.

And I said, Quincy, no week. I really just want you to he said, sit. I said, just let me. Let me hang it over. He said, Sid, I'm in a meeting. I have like twelve people sitting in my dining room. I know I can't. Quincy has six daughters, so he knew he was not going to win this argument, so he just said, okay, shit and bring it.

So I brought this cassette to Quincy's house, knocked on the door, and the housekeeper opens the door and calls for Quincy. He opens the dining room doors. Sure enough, twelve fucking suits looking up at me, going looking at their watches like, what the fuck is she? This is the look on all what the this must be really important because we're doing some shit and she's our meeting. So Quincy goes to the door. I give him this

He said, don't worry. I said, just just he said, don't worry shit, close the door, right.

So I was for him on the spot.

I wanted to, but he was like, no, look like, look at this. No, I got these people. So you know, I was glad that he let me bring it. So he called me two hours later. I was that house at my house, cooking dinner and he picked up the I picked up the phone and he said, Sid.

This is the best song that I've heard in ten years.

I'm like, yes, and I'm living and best song in ten years And I know, he said, but I didn't want to hear whatever shit came after you. I just want to live in best song in ten years. And then he said, but you know, Michael, we've been in the studio two and a half years. Michael wasn't Michael. He hasn't recorded anything.

Don't worry, Goods and Donalds, Michael Jackson, James Inger, don't worry.

So I had to let that go.

I got a call three days later and Quincy says, and I quote Sid, we in the studio recording your old piece of song.

And I'm like yeah. Then he said, but and you know how Charlie Brown's teacher talking. You know, you don't want you don't want to hear ship so everything after but I was, we're recording your song. Let me just be in that for a moment. They said, Uh, Michael wants you.

The only thing is the chorus that Michael wants four more lines in the chorus and he really want you.

And he says hold on, and I hear. And Quincy gets back on the phone and says, and he really wants you to bring home the message that and he says things hold on and then I hear.

Right, So Quincy Jones, he puts Michael Jackson on the motherfucking.

Phone right now. I don't know about y'all, but when I was coming up right now, Michael was my husband, was my husband. Mother cousins had teeto with Michael was my husband. So in my mind, I'm a on the phone with my husband right.

So I did not want to be Oh.

My god, my god, let me sit. He said a pass. I'm so glad.

I wanted to be the antithesis of that fan anti fan, so I went.

I went straight telephone operator.

And I said, how can I help you? I swear to God and like I said, the first thing he said to me was I love this song. Second thing and I love your voice.

I'm like.

So two or three days later, quenty calls and says, we need you to come down the studio because the demo the key is too high for Michael singh, so we need to re sing the demo.

Great.

I didn't know in the.

Studio with Quincy Jones, Bruce Swedeen and Michael Jackson.

So I walk in and he's like, Hi, yeah, you know, we're talking and whatever, but I I didn't know why he was filming.

So Quincy said, going and go in the booth and sing the song. So I get up to go in the booth and Michael gets up with this. It was eighties so it was a huge video camera, right, and he's following me, and in Spike Lee's Bad twenty five Reunion you can see Michael in a reflection in the mirror in the studio videotaping me getting ready to sing the demo in the new key.

So I'm looking at the man in.

The mirror and recording the man in the mirror as he's you know. It was just insane, insane. So I'm singing this, getting ready to sing the song. I said, why are you?

What are you over my shoulder? I'm like, what are you? What are you doing? He says, I want to film you singing this song. I said why, Yeah, he said, because I want to sing it like you. Wait a minute, Wait a minute, I said, wait. I said, great, Mike, Oh, my friends are gonna believe me when I tell him he wants to sing it like me. So it was just just such a weird, weird day. But it was one of the the I can't stop smiling talking about it.

To concentrate with that much pressure because Quincy's there, Michael, I got a gazillion Bruce Been questions, Like.

I just saw Bruce last week. We went to Florida to visit. He's in Orlando, Florida, and.

Oh snap, I could have got you an interview.

Dude. I will let me know if you go back.

He would love it. He would absolutely love it. They got a horse, rabbits, They got cats.

They got chickens.

Oh be Sweeteen has the best chickens I've ever met, because they delivered.

No no, no, I tasted.

They have amazing eggs and the yolks are so rich.

They're orange. They're the color of your shirt. Instead of yellow, pale ass yellow eggs, these yolks are orange and they are delicious. It's because their chickens just eat grass on the on the farm chicken and free range eggs. They're fabulous.

We went from Michael Jackson to free range so fast? Have you done this so much that you can effortlessly just sing in front of someone when Michael Jackson's freaking watching you.

Okay, here's the thing. And somebody asked me this the other day. What's it like to, you know, to record with Quincy Jones. Let me just tell you.

When you're in the room room with someone like that, someone of that magnitude, someone who's at the top of their game in their game, you want to do the best that you can do to impress them.

So you're you're in it to do your best.

You're gonna you're gonna bring your best game to this table because this is the table that your game needs to be played at. So you're gonna be the best that you. You're gonna be bring your best self, and they're gonna draw even more of that out of you because that's their gift.

Wow.

Did you take any drugs or anything that day or anything?

I think, fuck me up. You think I was bouncing off the walls, but nothing. I can't. I couldn't know. It was.

Oh, I have a great story for I've told this story a couple of times, but it just shows how truly human he was. The first time I met him, he you know, I just sang the demo and then we had some downtime and we were chatting and and I looked down. He had on his black Fedora, white T shirt Forrest, green corduroy shirt, black pants, one gray sock, and one green sock or some shit, right, I said, dude,

I said, obviously, So we laughed. Whatever.

So the next time I saw him, a few days later to record, we did the duet in Spanish and French and in English.

So I was with him for a week recording right. So the next time I saw him, he said sid and he called me over, like come here, and he pulled pulled his pants up a little higher.

He said, look at my socks now he was still wearing this time. It was a red shirt and the white T shirt and the black people. I said, your socks are sky blue.

Okay, they match.

Each other, but they don't match nothing else you got on. So he just he just he just called me crazy and he and he said, your name sounds like you you you just you just the country. So I'm gonna just call you miss Gaary. So he called me Miss Gary. There's no joke, that's that's just the story.

You did the bad tour only for a few weeks.

Or we rehearsed for They rehearsed for like a month and the week.

Of that, yeah, okay, I was like, wait a minute, I saw you sing that just in touring with him. How how tedious are rehearsals? How tedious are no?

Once we rehearsed, it wasn't like Madonna where you would you would rehearse and sound check wink wink every show because we would always have to rehearse whatever didn't go well on the show.

Oh honey, she would have notede for almost everyone. My cords, my guitar, strap, my boot, you know, everything thing everything. So but with Michael, we rehearsed for three months and that was it. I didn't see him except for two hours on the show every night. He didn't rehearse every new city. We know, no, because he knew, you know, so time.

For band prayer, He's there and then hit the stage.

That's it.

Wow.

So was it?

I mean, was it a fun experience.

Or was it just like, oh my god, it was the most fun I've ever had in my life because we didn't it wasn't like a bus tour.

And the part that was the bus tour. I wasn't having no bus. No I flew, I couldn't they. I did one twelve hour bus us ride and afterwards I.

Was like, oh, well, no, that's not fun. Hell to the now.

In fact, we.

Would do a show and me and Greg, me and Greg were flying the other you know, we would do a show.

They would shower whatever they're gonna do, get in their pajamas, get on the bus, drive to the next city. Me and Greg would go back to our hotels, hit it with our beds, get up the next day, pack our shit, fly in meet them before their bus arrived from the day before, and they're getting off the bus Dragon and Greg and I are like, we're going to lunch, so you got the sound check.

You know.

So touring like that was amazing. And when there weren't.

Buses, we would just fly everywhere because we had our own plane and Michael was on his own plane, you know. And there was nothing like making fun of the stewardesses when they have to do the white lines and we would all unbuckle and buckle our seat belts when they would do that. And when she would do this like the airplanes are coming in the hangar, we'd all do our hands like the airplanes would going.

It was just so much fun. But listen, traveling with Michael Jackson. Being on tour with Michael was like being one of Jesus's disciples. Baby.

We used to hate it when we were in the same hotel as Michael because usually the hotel would coordinate with your position on the tour. A hotels were for Michael, his guests, his friends. B hotels was for the band and the singers. C hotels was for the crew, right, So there were times when there was no A and B, it was only A and C. So those are the

So it was never he liked that kind of energy. We just wanted some wrist. We wanted to get some So we were happy when we were.

In a different hotel than Michael was in because his fans are like fanatics, they are truly fanatic.

In fact, we were in Spain and I will never forget this.

We had a day off in Spain and Spain leather shoes, handbags, hello, So we were going shopping. So we changed the money at the desk, so we got our little Spanish money and we're going out of the hotel. Now they cordoned off the fans because it was like a sea of fans in front of this hotel. So but for the guests, they needed to rope off a path so the guests can come. So we're counting the money and putting money in my person was trying to figure out where we're gonna go have lunch.

And we walked down through this sea of people, this opening like Moses, and from behind me, I hear, hey, that's sight to Garrett baby. I look behind me and people were like, come.

Me and my friend took off running down the street in Spain and we're running, running and looking at him and they're coming.

Afterwards, I said, oh my god, what are they gonna do when they fucking kiss us? It was just insane and we were running and running and then somebody must have said, hey, we're three blocks from the hotel. We better what if Michael comes out? So they then turned around. But that was the most harrowing time, and that's when I realized, this is Michael every day. It's insane. Well, they're gonna pull my hair and just have a remnant.

Did y'all sing I just can't stop loving you together? Did y'all record that together? Or was it so you you were in his face?

Yes? I told you two.

Mike stands one here, one here, and and the lyrics said, I just can't stop loving you, Michael sayidam that it was in that moment that I realized, oh my god, I'm singing a duet with the fucking king of pop.

Unbelievable.

And I, in answer to your question, all I wanted to do was just delivered my best to impress him and Quincy, look what I can do.

That's man, that's so much pressure though, because it's like I felt, it was.

Like, this is where I get to show them what I have. No, there was no crackage.

You were just completely confident.

Yeah, because I've been dying.

So they hear it in a song you do, I just can't stop loving and you're like, oh oh that moment. I just wondered when Michael Jackson was thinking.

He loved it.

He loved it, he loved it. We had so much fun, man. And there was one time in Japan, I think it was New Year's Eve or something. I came out on stage and this was before people were doing colors in their hair. I came out on stage with a little hot magenta pink bob and then when Michael turned and said each time he started laughing so.

Hard he couldn't even sing. He was laughing so hard. It was so funny. It was so funny. My hair was usually like this, and I want to switch it up just to see what fucking happened.

And he could not stop laughing. He said, that was really funny. That was really funny.

Wow, that's thank you for sharing that. Thank you all right back on the block. Actually have a Michael. Were there any other songs that you guys recorded together that didn't come out or no?

The only other thing we did was keep the Faith right off, Keep the Faith? Yeah.

Wait a minute, Okay, now we can get to the bottom of Got the Hots versus? Oh yeah, okay, So on your solo record.

My ill fated solo we have it, all right, So we have it. We had to.

You did baby got a bed with Rod Temperton?

Yes?

Can you? Yeah? He's what is Rod Temperton? Like I know one of my one of my regrets was just not I mean, besides the Twitter relationship, I really didn't get a you know, a chance to stick the brain And yeah he was.

Rod Temperton was the most amazing songwriter that I've ever met. Rod Temperton has a work ethic that was like none other. Rod Temperton hated the press, he hated the interviews. He would never agree to do any he didn't want. He just wanted to be the guy who wrote the great songs and was behind the behind the scenes kind of guy.

I'm like, what's wrong? He said of a toothache. Was that s all right? Can we can we do it one more time? I'm like, Rod, you should call a dentist.

He said, all right, he said it's all right, So he said, go ahead and sing song one more time. While I was singing the song, Rod had sent one of the engineers into the toolbox.

No wait for it, No rod took a pair of flyers.

He gripped that tooth, yanked it out of his mouth, took a swig of his cigarette, a drink of his coffee, and said one more take please.

Gangster Wow, wow, gangster wow.

He was like that, that's the kind of hell man.

You said there and watched that I was, and then he's like.

And then he's like, you gotta be bleeding profusely washing it all down with the coffee and cigarette coffee.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's cool.

Sounds like the white guy thing.

I gotta be a white that's something. Yeah, but you could never pull that.

I wouldn't have the You could never pull coffee coffee.

You were for thirty years. You don't know that his dad's a dentist. I'm like, I've known you for all my life and I didn't know your dad was a Gis that explains your teeth?

Well? Gifts?

What are the.

Checks? I love it? Okay, wait, yeah for it? Yeah I got so. We didn't get the answer. It's a baby got a bed. Yeah, I was going to say.

So.

The thing is is that we have a version who got the Hots that's on kind of a Michael box set that has him credit as the sole writer of it.

Michael, Right, Okay, so when we.

Heard baby Got in Bed, I realized that that's basically Got the Hots, which explains to me that so that Rod Timperton did the music correct.

Probably I'm trying.

To figure out how. So how did you get the track before?

I don't know what track you're talking about, Got the Hots?

I'm not okay, it was a thriller out take? Play it? Do you never heard the original reference that Got the Hots?

No?

This is incredible. Okay, so this is uh, Got the Hots an outtake? So you got to the bottom of nothing, right, But now we're all going to walk away in lighten and I get to hear it Got the Hots for a minute.

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I have heard this before. Okay, that's Rod Tipperton.

To his core.

Does he demo everything himself?

Yeah? I sang a lot of his demos.

Can you play the other one? Okay? Has he played?

Have you heard Groove of Midnight? Michael's version of Groove of Midnight? Yeah, that was one of the songs that didn't make the album.

Wait, I love it when you freak out the nerds night.

We're in the wam the sweetest?

Do you do you own this.

Somewhere?

Are we going to be best friend?

You gotta be my friend now of course, shake my hand again.

Absolutely, Larry again.

You know I'm gonna start calling you lady. That's fine, I'll be Larry. Let's compare it to babies, yes, Nerd, all right, so this baby's got it also with take rude off from production right.

Yes, I used to love to sing Chariot, I.

Think study it's get to say that the bull and crazy my body is a fuck the law.

When come down to the mole, take them and you know, preble to let up the bread.

Robot, spose all your backgrounds and when you're doing that, are you making?

Are you Is that just like off the top of your head? Oh no, no, no, no no no.

Rod had all the chords, all the notes written out, and he played me what notes to say, yes.

Yes, I always. I concluded that maybe praps Mike didn't see it to completion because it didn't allow him to as an entertainer exactly because he was confined. It was a brilliant song, though, And that's the thing, like, especially with the work that Right has done, especially when like Johnny Wilder is in the lead doing the heat heat wave stuff and oh yeah, all those harm you know. There's there's one song in on Central Heating where at the very end it's called put the word out out.

That was I was just in awe to be in the room because you never knew who was gonna show up. I mean that album was Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah von.

Barry White of Miles Davis, Algirou, who's the cheeks, che Dizzey, the last Pitch, all these people that was their last project, right, So I have a story. Barry White was doing the Secret Garden, right, So Quincy and Barry are talking in a little area between the recording booth and the vocal booth. There was like a little hallway at Westlake Gifts.

So they're and they're talking, and I'm going from either from the booth into the studio or from the studio into the booth, but I had to pass them. And they're talking, and Barry's dog talking, and I'm standing there waiting.

To say something to Quincy. And while Barry is speaking, my ribs are vibrating, and I said, excuse me, mister White, I'm gonna have.

To lead, because right now you are inside me. Yeah, it was just so intense. He his voice was so rich and so deep. My rib cage was vibrating from the tone in his voice. Baby, they nothing like having Berry White inside. I'm telling you.

I'm telling you now, but it is something like that overwhelming or by this point, you're just like eight. I was loving it every day.

Oh hey, no, No, you knew it was special. You knew that that was some shit that didn't happen every day. You knew that these people only came because it was Quincy. I mean, Ray Charles, you know, Dizzy Gillespie, come on. So it was just it was a rich history lesson every day the musical history that Quincy surrounds himself with and has inside of him.

I mean since he was fourteen years old. That's and almost every decade he's been relevant ever since. Six decades of relevance in the music business. Who does that? You know? It's just I just wanted to be a sponge.

I just wanted to soak up all the goodness, all the richness, all the musicality, all the experience, all the talent that I could possibly soak up while I was in their presence.

What did they say you you are?

Your collective intelligence is is a some of the seven people you surround yourself with or something like that.

That's well in a room like that, But.

That was that was to me as the only new person at the time of.

She was on cut Joint, Joint Joint.

Right back of the block, and Rod wrote the song for her and I sang the demo.

Voices was my baby angela Field in my head.

Want to do it.

First? Yeah.

Misha had a great relationship with Rod. He loved going back to London and recording stuff with her. She's awesome.

I sang her demos too.

For when Rod would write in La, I'd sing the demos and then he'd go to Europe and playing for Misha.

Rod never let out his music.

If he was going to have a meeting with an an R person for to play music for their artists, he would go there, play the music and take his ship right back with him, because if.

You didn't like it, then you're not gonna like it in twenty minutes, so you're not gonna like it.

He never left any of his music with anybody. No, and he didn't do the demos until he got the job. Then he would demo, do you like this song?

This song?

Or we were like that?

Really, because right had that thriller money, he didn't give a ship, he really didn't. He did it because he loved the music. He didn't need the money. In fact that you know, he didn't care about that. Rod Timber didn't didn't even drive a car. He didn't own a vehicle. In fact, his wife had to come on, Roddie, I need a car, you know to you know. But Rod had a relationship with the Yellow Cab service Way before Uber.

You know.

Wow, he was a trip.

And Quincy doesn't drive either.

Wowow, Quincy Jones, I wouldn't drive.

Quincy never learned to drive.

You're not Quincy Johnes know how to drive.

Quincy Jones? Do you so often?

Do you really him?

I spend every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner with Quincy Jones. And I talked to him throughout the year, depending on who dies, what's happening, because he said, all my friends are dead. It's very worry about him.

So yeah, yeah.

And he said to me, like when Ray Charles passed and then Rod Temperton passed and I was talking to him about funerals.

He said, oh shit, I can't. I can't go to another funeral. Said if I went to every funeral with the people that I know, I'd be at a funeral every week.

Wow.

He said, I'm done with funerals.

Wow. I gotta respect that respect until you die, until I won't know that. So you, uh, you wrote the lyrics for tomorrow correct? Yes, for.

Better you better Me?

Babe?

Oh you said it was your favorite?

It was?

Do you know they will show our hopes and yes, you never cry any of these songs. Man in the mirror. Tomorrow you never.

Tomorrow actually makes me kind of yeah, like that's tomorrow will be okay. I'll tell you what.

It reminds me when I was a kid and tomorrow is so far away and now tomorrow's here and I'm like, damn, this is tomorrow.

But it's never far away.

It's not.

I can always be sure of Yeah, get it all to be strong, get it on, get on to be strong.

Yeah, I mean I'm pep. Actually, I I'm gonna make a confession. Actually didn't know that that song was originally an instrumental. Yeah, because the lyrics just fit it so perfectly.

Thank you.

No, see, I didn't know that there were lyrics. Well that's the thing. There weren't, right, I get it now, just like, uh, what's his name? The jazz guy that Eddie Eddie Harris who always adds lyrics to you know. So as a soul training a file, I have to say that usually where I come from in soul training ology, depending on what time it comes on, either wrestling's coming on right before that or America's Top ten. Yes, So I was really happy during your duration.

Of that was so much fun, man.

I mean, Casey Kasem called me one day and tell me I was doing a really great job because I would suffer him when he was go on vacation or if he something. I don't remember how that happened, I really don't, but I remember doing the show and they really wanted me to continue, but I it was painful for me because every week I would announce all my friends going up.

The charts, Tevin Madonna, they were all, you know, and I would this week on the you know, and I felt kind of left out. It was like on the outside and it was kind of painful. So I didn't want to do it anymore. And they were like, but you're so good at this. I said, but I don't.

But I actually did say that.

But I'm working on.

Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna cut to the chase just because we'll be here for nine hours. How did you come across Brand New Heavies?

Oh my gosh.

I was assigned to write with each one of the members of the Brand New Heavies for the next album, just as a songwriter. So I would get these tracks and I would demo them and send them to London, or I would go to London and demo the songs after I'd written. It was just me writing with an equal number of songs for an equal for each member of the group.

Right, did they know they were all writing with you?

Yeah?

Okay, I thought it was like no, no, no, no, no no no no, no, no, no no.

It was my job to write with each one of them for their record because the last album, the drummer wrote all the songs. And they were great on the road, you know, buying clothes and living it up on the road, and then they went home to their little apartments while the drummer bought a car and got.

A new flat and you know.

So they were like, hey, we're equal members of the group, right, so we should all get a part of the written, right, We're all.

Going to be written, right, We're all writing.

So I had to write with any equal number of songs for each member of the group song.

I think it was the drummer. Yeah, y.

That you might not be aware, but that Dili remix changed lives. Oh my god, I remember, don't even know it what REMIXX?

Yes, yes, yes, I love you And I see him. I hadn't seen him since for like ten years after the record, and I didn't know if he'd remember whatever. And he said, the am a mix, of course I remember you. The I'm a mixed brand new. It was really good. That was that was an awesome that was that mix was better than the record.

Yeah, the whole record. I don't even know if you're ware it. Like the guy who did the track music what j Dilla is Like, he's are Jay Dilla? Yes, he's He's all right. So J Dilla is a producer from Detroit that Q Tip discovered, who's like, are Guru? No you well he passed away, but I mean of office work, Yeah, but I.

Mean you you.

You hold the honor of like you're on one of his signature tracks, like every the tracks that he's done that really inspired the Neil Soul movement. The way that Danzelo's record sound, the way it does the way that Eric Abadu's records, the way the Roots album sound, the way that Jill Scott's like that whole neo soul movement between ninety six and like two thousand and five. He's

Wow, that's so cool.

Use it? Yeah, yeah, and so I did not know that. Yeah when it came out, that just that changed lives. So talk about your your new all right, this acronym is a nightmare?

Why ghetto?

Give me the acronym?

Greatness, Yes, happens even though there's oppression.

Mmmm, what you're saying you couldn't say ghetto.

I didn't say. I couldn't say ghetto. Like I said, I couldn't remember the acronym. Yes, what is it? Greatness happens even to those.

Greatness happens even though there's oppression.

My dear, how apropos for the times we's living trying to How did it come to be?

Well comment?

I've always been a fan of his energy and the message in his music, in his rap, and I really started to know him as a person when we found out we were on the the same oscar board.

Thank you Darling. We were on the the Academy.

He's an Academy member, and I decided when I decided to add a Verse to this song, I had a little wish list and Common was at the top of the list.

I wasn't.

I didn't.

I didn't really expect to get him on it. But all say is no, and you know nothing, nothing beats so failure but a try. So I just posed it to him and sent him the song. He loved the song, and I kind of got his information while we were on the on this music branch, and he just seems so just kind of cool and just open to it. And when he said yes because he loved the message of the song, I was like great. And then it was about waiting for him to have time to put

He's a He's the man special individual. That comment. I'll say, wait, why am I talking?

You can wear some crochet, chance use a special I'm trying to.

Tell you, sit and Gary, you are everything I ever wanted uh in the interview, and.

You brought a bag of chips.

I hate him on the way before we say go back, can you explain because aren't you involved this T shirt.

That you're wearing, Yeah, the girl's code.

Can you just talk about that?

Ro dude. I was at a graduation for some.

Some some people that are learning code and learning how to impact uh technology through art and music and business, and.

We wanted to this. This movement is to teach black girls that they can code their own computer games and they can program their own uh. They can they can compute.

Themselves, and they don't have to be young white boys to learn how to uh to to code and and create your own video games and and computer programs.

You could. Black girls can do it. And I think the movie Hidden No Hidden Fences. I'm just kidding.

Hidden Figures did a lot to sort of show people that math is good for girls, and you know, black.

Girls can compute some ship. So I'm just here to support that that.

Every black child looks at a video game or looks at something on their program on their computer or an app or something and think I wanted to be able to think, hey, I can improve that, or I can make a nap for this, or I can do that.

You.

I don't think they don't even teach that in school. So no, nobody really hasn't an idea that they can aspire to do something like that. So I'm here to be the liaison and just to be a vessel to promote that message. Black girls can do it, we can code, we can do some ship up in here.

So yes, I got a friend who has two daughters that are like their dream is to be video games and.

Black girls code.

Okay, that's crazy. Yeah, I think I've learned everything. Yeah, boss, Bill, what did you learn to day man?

What didn't I learn? Hold on, let me go through my notes. You keep come back to me, come back to me. Really all right, I'm paid, Bill Man, save as the ship.

This is. This is amazing.

This is to talk about being an artist and all this other stuff is super amazing and awesome. One of the things I learned that I'm going to treasure most is what the hell you guys were saying and don't look any further.

That was going to come in to handy just I've always been a fan of yours, like I think.

Sorry, no, it's okay.

It's okay, don't apologize, don't apologize.

I think I'm not Michael Jackson. But I love your voice. I love your voice, and you write amazing songs. I'm very honored to be in this room with you right now. So thank you for being here, Thanks for having me. This has been relatively painless, relatively.

I don't know.

Into what you say, Shoe, I want to go this shoe.

There's no version of James Ingram singing man in the mirror.

Hell, we can all rest a little easier.

And no, no, I'm a fan of his.

Wicked man. I have a question. You don't have to raise your hand this. Actually, yeah, I did Philip Ingram.

Yeah, he was one of the guys that was at the auditions for Quincy and he started hiring me to do background session.

I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. The carjack your memories. This happens, but he didn't mean to. To Selena and Barnes, you mentioned James Ingram and it just hit me that she did a song with Philip Ingram. And I was a massive switchman, And you know what.

Switch came to my high school and I told Philip word, Yeah, I like went up to meet him, and he was so snotty, and I said, you were a bitch to me. You were just so mean, he said, when so when I was in high school, your group came and you didn't You didn't even I was.

I just read them the riot Act. He said. I'm sorry, I didn't know. You know, he's so sweet. I just adore him, him, Philipping, great singer.

What you got to say?

Shooting got that sugar?

I mean, it's it's clearly. I mean, I guess I'm staying the obvious. But you know, Michael Jackson was your husband, and then you end up doing the duet across the microphone.

Yeah, I mean, it's pretty, it's pretty incredible.

It was a dream. It was a dream I didn't even know I had.

I mean, if somebody had told me that that would have happened, I would have just laughed them out of the room, because, you know, who, how could that happen?

How can that possibly happen?

It happens, you know once in a while.

I guess the moon must have been blue that day.

Sweet sweet Margaret, any last words? Cheese throw off?

Margaret?

Margaret?

Does she know that?

No?

No, yes, Okay, you're gonna leave a sweet Margret today.

Why is it sweet? There's a basketball reference?

Oh oh okay, I learned number one that one of my heroes loves to cuss as much as I do.

I love that profanity.

Also, this.

Power of new Cheese.

I am taking this now. I don't really think I need to read the book at this point, because y'all gave me the whole thing.

You got the gist.

But what you did with your new Cheese is so fucking amazing.

And I hope that you realize one day that even though you did not go necessarily the path that you wanted to, what you have done is so much bigger to so many people and individually, like the words that you bring bring people to so many emotions joy and you know, and sadness and everything else, everything they need to feel.

So anyway, this is what I learned, and I learned Cya to Garrett is the ship was.

Yeah, well today officially personality wise, this is the first time meeting, so yeah, the work was a ship.

I know she was shipped to uh my lesson what about so forgettable? Just guess in case you had scratching when we after we conclude a sermon or an interview. We all have our reflections on what we learned. But yeah, I'll say again that and I'll double down on what Laiah said. For all of you listening, and if I made you or texted you to listen to this episode, yes I'm talking to you. And if I tweeted it more than once, yes I was really talking to you.

So much.

For this episode.

And we will I am Studio Bam.

I just want to say to that, yes, thank you, will I am for Where is White? And they have all the Japanese and actually assault about what are you talking about? The turlet said hello when you walk in anyway or app of Missing Fonte. I'm Ve Bill, Quoss, Bill, Sugar Steve, Sweet Margaret and the Lovely Sight Garrett and loud As Eric, Yeah, Camera, this is Quest Love Supreme. We will see you on the next go round. Thank you. Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic