Latest / Mathis Family Talks / Val Young on Rick James, Motown and What We Owe Our Hometowns | Ep. 9

Transcript

Val Young on Rick James, Motown and What We Owe Our Hometowns | Ep. 9 · Mathis Family Talks

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Come from the city Weed scare'm motown.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 0:04
  Speaker 3: The core question this whole episode is when you leave
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: your hometown to become successful.
• 0:09
  Speaker 4: What do you owe it?
• 0:10
  Speaker 5: If anything, I owe Detroit everything. Detroit made me.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: That her and her friends used to Suckarate James told
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: not me.
• 0:20
  Speaker 6: All right, asked my friend Harry Greg Matthews. I am
• 0:33
  Speaker 6: Linda Matthis Welcome.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: To mathis family Talks.
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: What's up, y'all? How's everybody doing?
• 0:46
  Speaker 6: You're good?
• 0:47
  Speaker 7: This is all in the house exactly to talk about Detroit.
• 0:52
  Speaker 7: This is Detroit special episode. And uh, we have a
• 0:58
  Speaker 7: Detroit legend.
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: In the house. You do yes, let me give a
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: hype up. Oh no, not you.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: You are you are remote in Detroit. We got someone in.
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: The house house now today and.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: Let me let me give her a little introduction for
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: y'all who don't know. You know, she came up in
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: the Pefunk World saying with the Gap Band, stepped in
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: the motown with Rick James, and has performed with the
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: current Mary Jane Girls lineup. Today she is bringing the
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: full Lady V energy to our couch. Make some noise
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: for Detroit's one and only Lady val Yum you're right.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: You're right.
• 1:44
  Speaker 8: You know you have her.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: She's the real legend of this style. She is the legend.
• 1:50
  Speaker 6: You know, my home Detroit, let me say it.
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm here because and I'm surprised Vow is not here.
• 1:58
  Speaker 5: I felt it was this respectful to do a show
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: on Detroit. It's from La so as you know, I
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: flew in here specifically to be respectful for my.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Guess.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: But I just.
• 2:18
  Speaker 6: I just left Detroit.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I played Aretha Franklin amphitheater was Charlie Wilson, Evelyn Champagne
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: King and us and Mary Jane Girl.
• 2:27
  Speaker 6: So I just left home and I spent time. But
• 2:30
  Speaker 6: it ain't no thing. I can always come back.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: You all might not know, you know.
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: Foul and Val Linden myself, we all running the same.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Circles that down to earth circles in La Down.
• 2:44
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I was telling us about how she still cook
• 2:47
  Speaker 8: her pigs.
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: Pete in the circle is talking about Detroit, Detroit.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: And they always talk about Detroit, and we defend Detroit
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: because that's our home.
• 2:59
  Speaker 6: We're not gonna let you talk about Detroit.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: We live here, we make money here, we have a
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: wonderful time, and we do whatever but we'll never forget
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: where we come from.
• 3:09
  Speaker 6: And a lot of good stuff came out of Detroit.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: We all know that.
• 3:12
  Speaker 6: Oh and you know and still coming out of right.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: You know absolutely, and you know some backstory this episode.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: You know, the core question this whole episode is when
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: you leave your hometown to become successful, what do you
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: owe it?
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: If anything?
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, I can say for me when I left Detroit.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I left Detroit to come to Hollywood, to come to
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: LA to make it in the business. And I was
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: determined to say, I'm gonna leave home and I'm gonna
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: go make it, and I'm gonna go back home. I
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: always go back home to support, of course when family
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: is there, and I love going home. And I think
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: we owe Detroit to go back of the things we
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: do and help and help people that need to be helped.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Matter of fact, one time, Greg, do you remember I
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: talked to you. I said, I want to do something
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: like the Special Awards in Detroit.
• 4:06
  Speaker 6: I want to give it back. Let's get it done.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: So I have a question, let's start off with back
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: in the roots. You know, what did Detroit give you? You know, like,
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: what did it give you the character that you are?
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: The identity, work, ethic, the pride. How did that? You
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: know that that that you took with you when.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Gospel started in church and gospel, and I always watched
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Aretha Franklin from RITHA was gospel. She was R and
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: B she was so she was everything. And also I
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: remember the Motortown Review going to the Fox Theater when
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: I grew up, and I always watched. I was always
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: the type of child that stayed with her record player
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: instead of going outside. I was always singing, went to church,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Sunday school and church, and so I was a And
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: then I just said I'm up and leaving. And my
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: parents and my grandmother and grandfather say, you do what
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: you gotta do. We support you. And I came out
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: of here. It wasn't easy. It was rough and tough
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: at times, but I was determined. I said, I'm from Detroit,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I'm no scary one. I'm gonna get it, and I'm
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: from the d.
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 5:26
  Speaker 6: But being from Detroit, I love it because it gives
• 5:29
  Speaker 6: me balance. Being out here in Los Angeles, I love
• 5:32
  Speaker 6: what it does, but I'd like to go back home
• 5:35
  Speaker 6: for balance.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Family ghetto, because I like that I know how to
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: be bougie I know how to be what we do,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: but I like flipping that half backwards and wearing my
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: speak of tennis shoes and just being regular us, eating
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: like I said, greens, corn bread, Fago going home and
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Burner's ginger rell better made potato chips.
• 6:00
  Speaker 8: So what's the one thing about you that is unmistakably Detroit?
• 6:04
  Speaker 6: Getting ready to throw down attitude?
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: So funny.
• 6:10
  Speaker 8: Emir asked me that same question before we started filming.
• 6:14
  Speaker 8: He said, what's the one thing about what's the one
• 6:16
  Speaker 8: Detroit thing about you of all else?
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: And I said, I know how to fight.
• 6:24
  Speaker 8: There, But then you brought it out of me.
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: That stair that y'all buying into the stairs. One violent city.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: That's exactly what I think from the city we scare,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: we're moretown.
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: Let me say, let me say what I think, Amir,
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: and that is I owe Detroit everything. Detroit made me
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: and prepared my entire career. And I'm so grateful to
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: the people because one Chicago didn't me. Los Angeles didn't
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: vote for me. They probably wouldn't have voted for ex Hulum.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: With a record.
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: They may not have voted for somebody of my lack
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: of less credentials than the Ivy League types to be
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: a judge, but they took a chance on me. They said, yeah,
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: we knew he's because the media brought it out, as
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: you all know, brought my background out. But the voter said, yeah,
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: we know that about him, and that's what we like
• 7:31
  Speaker 5: about him. And they voted me in and beat and
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: beat a judge who was there for twenty years. I
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: beat him by ten thousand votes because that judge was
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: a hang judge, giving everybody all the time they could
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: take a maximum sentence, and so I was a second
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: chance judge and I wanted to run and I everybody
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: said I couldn't beat him, but the people of Detroit
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: stuck behind me. That's toward the end of my career
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: in Detroit, everybody believed in me, even though many of
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: them knew I had no real background. I had no parents,
• 8:12
  Speaker 5: I had no direct connection to the political scene when
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: I came out of college. So they gave me a chance,
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: and they prepared me and allowed me to build a
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: career there with the support of everybody. And as I said,
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: that election which capped it off. So I owe everything
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: to Detroit. And that's why when Linda and I decided
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: that we start the Matthews Community Center. That was one
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: of the most fulfilling parts of my life is to
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: be able to give back to our city in that way.
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: And so that's why you see me here every few weeks.
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: Val I come every day. They'll tell you every since
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: we moved, I'm here every few weeks. And I'm really
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: a resident of Detroit. If you really want to there,
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: that's right. And so yeah, that's how I feel. Mire,
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: I love it. I love it beautiful.
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: What about you, mom? You know you you gotta get.
• 9:07
  Speaker 6: From a different perspective for me.
• 9:09
  Speaker 9: And I mentioned this before on our past podcast about
• 9:13
  Speaker 9: how the fact is just I spent my early elementary
• 9:18
  Speaker 9: years in the city of Detroit, going to school there
• 9:21
  Speaker 9: at the public schools, and that was the most important
• 9:24
  Speaker 9: time for me in my life, only because I think
• 9:27
  Speaker 9: it formulated my thoughts in my thinking about us as
• 9:32
  Speaker 9: us being African Americans.
• 9:34
  Speaker 6: All I saw around.
• 9:35
  Speaker 9: Me was black people. We first moved into our neighborhood.
• 9:39
  Speaker 9: We we were seven mile out of drive area. You know,
• 9:42
  Speaker 9: there were white people that lived there, but they gradually
• 9:45
  Speaker 9: started to move out place by, you know, black neighborhood.
• 9:49
  Speaker 9: But around me, I had all the Motown families around me.
• 9:53
  Speaker 9: They were in that seven mile out of Drive area.
• 9:56
  Speaker 9: Barry Gordy's families lived around me, and so all I
• 9:59
  Speaker 9: knew was that I grew up around black excellence, around
• 10:03
  Speaker 9: black people, and I had so much pride, you know,
• 10:06
  Speaker 9: when it came to you know, everything every place I
• 10:08
  Speaker 9: looked as far as I can remember, you know, coll
• 10:10
  Speaker 9: when young took office, that's probably just growing.
• 10:14
  Speaker 6: Up one of the first mayors I remember.
• 10:19
  Speaker 9: So everything I knew was that black people were prosperous,
• 10:25
  Speaker 9: that black people had a lot of culture, and that's
• 10:28
  Speaker 9: what I grew up with and that's what sticks with
• 10:30
  Speaker 9: me to this day.
• 10:32
  Speaker 6: That's it.
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's interesting that you saw black excellence all the
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: way through. And the reason some suggest that I'm so
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: committed to Silver Rice is because of the trauma I
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: faced with white people in Detroit.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: When we moved into the projects Hermi.
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: Gardens, it was eight white and we were victims of racism.
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: In fact, we start having race riots. Val you probably
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: remember at Cody High School when it was just turning black.
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: There was a lot of white and black friction. And
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: then I, at age seven, can recall vividly seeing the
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: tanks rolling up the street during.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: The racing lion.
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: And then I remember sitting in front of the television
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: as a boy. I can remember that so vividly, just
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: looking and the news. You can see the city burning
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: down and to take her.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Going through it and armyment.
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: So that is what set my perspective about the dynamics
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: between white folks and black people in Detroit. As you
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: just heard, Linda's reality was totally different from mine, and
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: so she might have that a different perspective and I
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: have a different one in the sense that my reality
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: where I came from being thrown up against the car
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: by the police every week for doing nothing, race riots,
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: being attacked, motorcycle gang chasing me two miles down on
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: their motorcycles, throwing chains at me, etcetera, etcetera. So those
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: are the things that shape my perspective early on in life.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: You know, you wasn't a wrong for a couple of those.
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: You probably in the wrong most of them, but the
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: dynamics were the same racial life.
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: Dad, I know you've spoken about.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: You know, when we moved to the suburbs first into
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: la you felt kind of like a guilt. You know,
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: you left Detroit behind our most and for seeking a
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: better opportunity, entertainment, career, family. So Bella, I want to
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: ask you, and we can elaborate how you feel too
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: day later, but did you ever feel when you left
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: Detroit that you were abandoning your city or was it
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: fully just like I have to do what's best for
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: me in my career, because that's something people struggle with.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I felt as though I did at first. I was because,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: you know, being out of here, coming out of here
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: by myself before I brought my daughter and my grandchildren
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: and my family here, it was like I missed that
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: family vibe. I missed that atmosphere because you're not getting
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: the same love out here that you're getting back.
• 13:29
  Speaker 6: There talk about you know, So I missed that.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: And then the time being here, I wasn't My mom
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: wasn't here, my dad, my grandmother, none of.
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: My you know, immediate was here.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: So I was out here trying to make it and
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: do things myself. But you know, I was a strong
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: one to roll with the puncher. I'm a leader, not
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: a follower.
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: Didn't give you a stronger desire to It.
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: Gave me a stronger desire to be determined. To make it.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: It was gonna break me or make it, you know,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, I'm not gonna give up because there's
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: no such word to me as can't. I'm gonna make
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: it and I'm gonna get it. I'm from Detroit and
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: I can do it anywhere I go.
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: That was my thing, man, Yeah, that's the thing.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: If your success kind of depends on leaving, then you
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: want to make sure that you're staying loyal back home
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: by actually making it worth it.
• 14:22
  Speaker 6: Exactly.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: If I'm leaving, I'm gonna make it worth it because
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: I work and not and not. You know, I owe
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: it to my city.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: But never forget where you come from.
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: How I feel about that, And it's no guilt at
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: all because by the time we left, we had a
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: ten thousand square foot community center serve a thousands. As
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: I said, I go back, uh nearly every month for
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: weeks at a time, sometime me and Bama, and so
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: to that extent, I don't feel I left Detroit.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: What I am guilty about.
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: What I am guilty about I feel guilty about is
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: that I'm not able to work in the community in
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: LA like I would like you feel guilty about.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: That because I don't know the folks. You can't just
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: come up in the hoods and try to oh I'm
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: here to him. Yeah right, you'll get shook down.
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: What I just know, you can't walk up into nobody's
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: city and they don't know you talking about you want
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: to be a part of their community.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: That ain't how that go?
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: How shook would it make you that if none of us,
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: as children and stuff ever wanted to visit back, we're.
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: Like, nah, we ain't Detroit, you know e La. How
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: would that make you feel?
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: Because I know you guys did a big had a
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: big role in us always going back to visit and
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: making sure that that was our identity. So how would
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: how would that feel?
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: If you know? We just.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: I don't think that.
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: I don't think identity is dependent upon where you live, because, uh,
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: you all could be in l A and become black
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: nationalists political activists, Uh, and the same for Detroit.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: So I don't think the location determines that.
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: But in terms of leaving and me feeling how I
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: would feel about say the grandchildren, uh not wanting to
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: associate with Detroit, Well, no, that wouldn't bother me one
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: bit because they're Uh, how do you call them Los
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: Angelin Eos. They born ain't growing up there, So no,
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: I wouldn't expect that. What I would make me happy
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: to have them come to Detroit and be part of
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: the culture of Detroit.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: And they've been doing that, I mean annoying it.
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: And the grandchildren are enjoying coming here to Detroit.
• 17:01
  Speaker 6: They love it.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: If I had kids, I would want them to realize
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: that their identity stems from Detroit only because this absolutely
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: as a you know, African Americans, we don't have our
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: countries where we say, like, you know, our answers are
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: from Ghana.
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: We don't know those things.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: So for me, my ancestral heritage goes back to Detroit,
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: and so I want my future bloodline and stuff to
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: always look back as like we're from Detroit, Like my
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: heritage comes from Detroit, and I want them to embrace that.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: And I think that, you know, even when I first
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: moved out here, just being honest, I used to sometimes
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: be like, oh, I'm from Michigan, you know, trying to
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: because everyone used to talk so bad about Detroit. But
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: then once you get older and you realize that I
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: am Detroit.
• 17:46
  Speaker 9: Absolutely, and the funny thing about it you know, it's
• 17:48
  Speaker 9: just culture. That's something we do, is African Americans. You know, yes,
• 17:52
  Speaker 9: we say we're from Detroit. We look at our parents,
• 17:55
  Speaker 9: my parents, you know, and our grandparents, and where did
• 17:58
  Speaker 9: they take us back?
• 17:59
  Speaker 6: Every summer?
• 18:00
  Speaker 9: If you were true black American, you went back down south.
• 18:06
  Speaker 9: So you know, we do feel proud about where we're from.
• 18:08
  Speaker 9: You know, I paid my parents took me back down south.
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: I went to.
• 18:12
  Speaker 9: Alabama, I went to white Hall, to my father was from.
• 18:17
  Speaker 9: So that is a sense of pride, most definitely. And
• 18:20
  Speaker 9: one thing to mention also, after we left Detroit and
• 18:25
  Speaker 9: moved to la we had our house in Detroit. Our
• 18:28
  Speaker 9: found me home in Detroit for a good ten years
• 18:30
  Speaker 9: after we left.
• 18:31
  Speaker 6: So we were back there every holiday.
• 18:33
  Speaker 9: So yes, as Greg mentioned, we most Stephanie took you
• 18:36
  Speaker 9: all back all the time.
• 18:38
  Speaker 8: And it's so funny because when you were on our podcast,
• 18:41
  Speaker 8: Mom and you mentioned that our grandparents, you know, the
• 18:44
  Speaker 8: granddad was from white Hall, Alabama, that clip went viral.
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: Hall is such a small town.
• 18:51
  Speaker 8: Everybody was like, oh, my people from white Hall, my people,
• 18:54
  Speaker 8: and it was just common after them, and it's just
• 18:56
  Speaker 8: it's fascinating how many people migrated from this part of
• 19:00
  Speaker 8: the country.
• 19:00
  Speaker 6: All that's hilarious he told me for years.
• 19:04
  Speaker 9: I mean growing up he told me he's from Birmingham
• 19:06
  Speaker 9: and Dad, until I got older and figured out that.
• 19:10
  Speaker 6: No, you're not from Birmingham, You're from Whitehall.
• 19:13
  Speaker 9: It's outsidell ben Wallace, Detroit end.
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: Really So speaking of music, man.
• 19:22
  Speaker 8: You mentioned this earlier, growing up around all the Motown
• 19:25
  Speaker 8: families in Detroit, and I just, I mean, with your
• 19:29
  Speaker 8: legendary musical history, Dad, your music, you think you.
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: Are a R and B singer.
• 19:36
  Speaker 8: Around I don't want to hear just a little bit
• 19:38
  Speaker 8: about how motown like that may have shaped you. But
• 19:41
  Speaker 8: before you came to l A. Did you work with
• 19:43
  Speaker 8: those people when you came out here? What was that
• 19:45
  Speaker 8: like in Detroit? The music scene around that time.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: I come up listening to Motown music, of course, but
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: then I always dream I said, if I could just
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: get on Motown, if I could just get on.
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: That was my dream.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: So after I met Rick James, I met Rick James
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: at the Mid South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee. I kept
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: hearing about this guy you and I Mary Jane. So
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: I'm determined what my fast self. I said, I'm going
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: to see who Rick James. The security at first wouldn't
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: let me see him. I said, I'm here to see
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Rick James. I was shop by on a black hat,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: had on a cat suit, ready to see Rick James.
• 20:33
  Speaker 6: And they wouldn't let me.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: They was like, no, you're not gonna and I stood
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: right there. I didn't go anywhere. Rick stuck his head
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: out the door. And when he stuck his head out
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: the door, I said you. I said, I'm here to
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: see you. He said, why aren't you in here? I said,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: your security won't let me near you. He told security.
• 20:52
  Speaker 6: Let her in here. I went in there, and when
• 20:56
  Speaker 6: I got with Rick, we were friends. I was to him.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: I played him my material that I was singing because
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: I was singing some of everyone, and he said, you're
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: gonna sing with me. One day when he called me,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: he said pack your stuff because I was singing with
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: the Gap band too. I came out here and I
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: got a job with Charlie, Robin and.
• 21:18
  Speaker 6: Ronnie the Gap band.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: That's me on Oops up Side your Head, Party Train
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Yearning Outstanding, all the Gap Band hits, that's me singing
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: background I was singing with and then Rick called me.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: He said, pack your stuff. He said, I'm gonna change
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: my girls. He said, I want you to sing with me.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: He said, I'm gonna shop you, and he took. He
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: took my record and he took. At first, I was
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: gonna sign y'all to Ariostatic, Okay, but Motown at first
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: writes a refusal. Rick had to bring three groups and
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: he had Stone City Band, Married Jane Girls, and then
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I did my solo vow Young because he wanted me
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: as the black Maryland mone rope. Brick kept saying, you
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: mind me of Maryland, which I said, hey, they don't
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: have a Black Maryland so here, and so he took
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: me and Motown brought me back. Motown wanted me, signed me.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Everybody was at Motown at one time, and I give
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: it up to the Gordys, Iris, Gordie and all of them.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Was still a shout out to Iris because she's still
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: wanted the only original, this lovable and everything. I was Gordy.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: But when I signed a Motown, I was happy. I
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: was bragging. I said, I'm a little girl grew up.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Now I'm with Motown.
• 22:41
  Speaker 6: You know, because one thing about me, I could always.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Sing from church, Greek Club, auditorium on the block.
• 22:50
  Speaker 6: If you were somebody.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: In Detroit, you were just doing it everywhere. You didn't
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: have no shame in your game. And I was always
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: singing everywhere I go. Everybody used to say, that little girl,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: she's gonna be something.
• 23:04
  Speaker 6: She know me something. And my dad told me.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: I got stuck in the elevator once and they said,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: they said, who was that little baby right there, just
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: whistling all the time.
• 23:16
  Speaker 6: My dad said, Oh, that's my child. She gonna be
• 23:18
  Speaker 6: something one And right to this day, y'all, do you
• 23:23
  Speaker 6: know I whistled. I do all day. I'll get up
• 23:29
  Speaker 6: and I just whistle, you know. And so yeah, I
• 23:33
  Speaker 6: love that knowing the knowledge of coming up.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: I go home to Motown, Hitsville on the boulevard, I
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: go and go through there.
• 23:41
  Speaker 6: I love that I came from Motown.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: And so like back in your career and stuff, you know,
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: when you first started, you were behind the scenes a lot.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: You know, you did worked in groovesy the back, vocals
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: and stuff. When did you stop waiting to be chosen
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: and decided that you belong in front or did you
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: always feel it and you waited your time? Because some
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: people are impatient and they feel like they deserve it,
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: deserve it, and they try and rush it.
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: What was your process? How did that? How did that work?
• 24:12
  Speaker 6: Well?
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: I knew you have to crawl for you all like
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: a baby, so I have to learn, and I got
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: background gigs.
• 24:20
  Speaker 6: Of course.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: I sung with Bobby Womack too. I've worked with cheryld
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: of BT. I've worked with Christopher Williams. I've worked with
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Eddie Murphy. I've worked with Jamaine Jackson. I've worked with
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: you know. And I always called I manifest and when
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: something I want to go after us said, I want
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: to work.
• 24:38
  Speaker 6: With you and a home and mouth. Don't get fair.
• 24:41
  Speaker 6: I'm gonna pick up the telephone and call you. If
• 24:43
  Speaker 6: you don't call me, you got the bird. Oh you know,
• 24:45
  Speaker 6: I'm gonna create something.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: You know, and you know because you gotta go after
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: it absolutely.
• 24:52
  Speaker 6: You know.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: And when I came out here too, when I moved
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: to LA I knew. When I started working with Snoop
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Dogg and them too, that's me on all the Tupaca, Dazz,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Corrupt Doc. I've worked with Ice Cue, Mac Ten, I
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: work with Doctor.
• 25:09
  Speaker 6: Drake, you know all of them.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, you know, I knew it was other
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: females that was there was the vocalist already, but I
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: didn't care. I said, I'm going in there making it
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: happen for me.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: Who taught you the most in the studio in terms
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: of just like where you were, like wow, tips that
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: you took for life in the studio, and then also
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: who is that person outside that taught you the way
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: to grow your career that didn't involve being in the studio,
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: just like the connections and talking and Rick on both sides.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Rick, like I said, he would interviews that we'd done,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: we would. He would make you sit down and watch
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: you an interview and know that if you made mistakes.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Of course, if you look and you can tell when
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: you made mistakes and what to say.
• 25:55
  Speaker 6: Rick taught you. He was a type.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Took you out to wrestler, taught you how to eat,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: to order entre appetizer. He took you to the best restaurants.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: We stayed in the best hotels. He gave you five
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: star everything for the Helicopters lyrics, he just Rick did it.
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: I love that, you know.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: And he took the band and his singers. You wore
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: the best, you know. At Christmas time, you get bonuses
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: when you're not on tour, you pick.
• 26:25
  Speaker 6: Up a check every week. Wow. You know he was
• 26:28
  Speaker 6: that type of giving.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: People didn't know that about you know, Rick, he stood
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: his ground though he was a perfectionist. What he wanted
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: you to do, he expected you to do that, you know.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: But he was the best, absolutely, And I would say
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: from my knowledge of music industry and everything, that's rare
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: because sometimes mostly people when you work with them, they're
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: trying to use you, trying to benefit themselves, especially being
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: a woman, making your publishers blackmail in Mount Roe, especially like.
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: Your face exactly.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: This comes with owe me back, And it's beautiful that
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: you know, you hear the great things about Rick James,
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: but it's great to hear from someone who actually lived
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: through it.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: And my manto is a sing for female singer in
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: this industry.
• 27:17
  Speaker 6: I did who I wanted to do, now who wanted
• 27:19
  Speaker 6: to do me?
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: And see it makes a difference, you know, it's you know,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: that's why I still have respect and all. It's you know,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: you can still do anything, but be a lady. It
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: ain't what you do, it's how you do it, you know.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: And I just make sure I always keep that focus
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: where you can have respect because you know, you can
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: easily get it lost, you know, because things happen.
• 27:44
  Speaker 8: But I'm like, oh no, And were you aware during
• 27:47
  Speaker 8: that time that's you're on the route to become a
• 27:48
  Speaker 8: Detroit legend, you know what.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Be honest with you, I was yes and no, because
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: I was like, you know, what you put into it,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: what you get out of it.
• 27:57
  Speaker 6: That's in anything you do.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: And you I'm determined to make you look at me
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: like when I perform, now, I control my audience, you know.
• 28:07
  Speaker 6: Don't nobody want to sit there and just be you know,
• 28:10
  Speaker 6: they want to feel you.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: And you got to get into your audience and your
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: audience get.
• 28:15
  Speaker 6: Into you, you know. And I love what I do.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't trade I wouldn't trade this business for nothing.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: And let me say that, Emir you asking.
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: What the Motown figures meant to us, and particularly once
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: we moved out there, the most fulfilling part of my
• 28:35
  Speaker 5: career in terms of meeting people, What has made me
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: feel so happy about That's the most fulfilling thing about
• 28:45
  Speaker 5: la is time I came out there. The Motown artists
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: all embraced me, started with Barry Gordy and Smoky Roberts.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: See they started, they immediately embraced me, brought Stevie Wonder.
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: All of those guys are friends of all us now
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: and it's the Motown crew and now they were all
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: my idols growing up.
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: Did you ever try and sing for him?
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Oh, Greg, don't be ashamed to sing around anymore. Look
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: and he'll come and sing right in front of us.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what, Greg Matthews, he will come.
• 29:24
  Speaker 6: The judge will come listen. You know.
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: You know what's so funny too.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: He probably was around them trying to just you know,
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: trying to say but he was probably hoping that they'd
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: be like, you should do a record. You know, he was,
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: you know he was. Did you see him on the
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: masked Singer, Belle? Did you see him on the masking?
• 29:45
  Speaker 6: Yes? I was, Oh, Lord have and he has some shame.
• 29:49
  Speaker 6: He'll walk up in front of you.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter because a lot of time we'll be
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: having a cookout and joint playing spades and that. Oh
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: he'll grab the mic and he start singing with no
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: shame in this game.
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: And you know, I want to switch this over to
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: a little fun side.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: Like you said that, you know you were Rick James
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: was one of your closest friends, and you all had
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: a lot of fun together. And upstairs we're talking about
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: just like how life you learned you have to have fun,
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: you do, you got to enjoy life. And so tell
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: me about how you all kind of have fun and
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: just relax.
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: How was that life like?
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: He can't tell you that.
• 30:30
  Speaker 6: Yes, I you know what.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: I just like cooking out, singing, playing cards, just being together,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: playing music, just having a good time, you know, because
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: we already go through a lot of other things that
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: we go through a part of life, especially right about now,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: well whoever, whatever, But you know, it's.
• 30:51
  Speaker 6: Just about having a good time.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: And that's what Rick was about too, even though some
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: things on Emmy, he may get up and curse you down,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: and I curse you back right, okay.
• 31:02
  Speaker 6: Curse me in, I curse you.
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: You're making me think of that Dave Chappelle's kin. He
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: jumped on the couch.
• 31:07
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and for real, Rick would do that. He was
• 31:11
  Speaker 6: he was real fished up, and he'd be.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Like, oh you rich ass, okay, you know Rick, dad
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: that he would have.
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: You hollering, what's the here. She said that her and
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: her friends to suck James Toles.
• 31:25
  Speaker 6: Not me all, He asked my friend. That was America Oversation, Harry.
• 31:37
  Speaker 6: She's got to confuse my friend. He asked her. She's
• 31:41
  Speaker 6: sitting over there.
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: He asked her.
• 31:43
  Speaker 6: She set She said, she cursed him. She said, hell,
• 31:47
  Speaker 6: I'm not who does that.
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: There's a market for that.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: That's a thing.
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: Nasty people, Oh my goodness. Different the fetish, Yeah, we believe.
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: But I was a boat.
• 32:02
  Speaker 8: So one last story, I was on a celebrity blog
• 32:05
  Speaker 8: site called celebrity feet dot com and I've taken a
• 32:09
  Speaker 8: picture on a boat. They zoomed in on my feet
• 32:12
  Speaker 8: and they're still up there if you google there. I'm
• 32:14
  Speaker 8: on some celebrity feet on my feet talking about how
• 32:18
  Speaker 8: good my feet look. And people go to this site
• 32:20
  Speaker 8: to look at all.
• 32:20
  Speaker 6: Celes some people feet you do not want to look
• 32:23
  Speaker 6: at and see.
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: Would you say people on the internet freaking off on
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: your feet?
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: You know people look at your feet that you can
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: say a certain person name and their feet come on.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: But you know what's so embarrassing when you got ugly
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: ass feet? Look if your feet is like, go get
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: a pedicure, go do something about them.
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: Toes, subscratching people's clothes up. How did how did Rick
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: James feet look?
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Rick at them fat feet? Your boss.
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: But that's Detroit though. Detroit people are making they make
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: sure they fly. Nails done, yeah, you know, get.
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: Your nails done.
• 33:09
  Speaker 6: Men don't dress with their shoes called Detroit fly yeah.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Detroit and women and men are going to dress colorfall.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: You know it's gonna match you look shy.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: You gotta distinct, We gotta distinct look.
• 33:26
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 33:28
  Speaker 5: And it's because we fly, we dress flying colorful. That's
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: why song my pink pink pink gators, my Detroit playing.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: Like Detroit to deep that colorfulness all over.
• 33:42
  Speaker 8: The So let me go back to something you said, dad,
• 33:45
  Speaker 8: which is that when you came out here, one of
• 33:46
  Speaker 8: the most helpful things for you was that you got
• 33:49
  Speaker 8: grabbed into this motown crew and you had I guess
• 33:53
  Speaker 8: essentially mentors that helped you, you know, through this industry.
• 33:58
  Speaker 8: Do you all feel and I'll baigation to pass that
• 34:01
  Speaker 8: on to other people who are coming from here from Detroit.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: Have you done that?
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: What does that look like?
• 34:05
  Speaker 8: That mentorship that support that community for people in Detroit
• 34:09
  Speaker 8: who are out here trying to make it or even
• 34:11
  Speaker 8: around the country elsewhere.
• 34:13
  Speaker 6: Well, I say study first, learn.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: It's not an easy business that you just get in
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: and think it's gonna happen overnight. Like there's a difference
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: when you see the voice today, when you see all
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: the singing shows, you audition.
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: And you get on their American idol. We didn't have
• 34:32
  Speaker 6: it like that.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: You sample today and you put a CDA record out boom.
• 34:39
  Speaker 6: We had to sing it down, we had to put
• 34:41
  Speaker 6: into work. We were groomed.
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: You watch yourself, your interview, and what you messed up on,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: you correct that. You know a lot of today, And
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: I tell them study, make sure you know, you learn
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: because a lot of things I didn't know.
• 34:57
  Speaker 6: And no one's gonna.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Tell you how you get paid, how you get your
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: money when his other entities, your record is being taken here,
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: taken here, they ain't gonna tell you how you get
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: your money. But I don't mind schooling anyone telling him
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: because it's not hurting me.
• 35:12
  Speaker 6: You know, someone I.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Had to learn, you know, And always I'm willing to
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: help anyone any knowledge you want to know in certain things,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm willing to help.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 35:24
  Speaker 5: Well, let me say that one of the best examples
• 35:27
  Speaker 5: I can give of helping Detroit and the same time
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: mentoring someone in the industry. Is the young man Emir
• 35:35
  Speaker 5: Tracy who came to our community center, Matthew's Community Center
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: in Detroit homeless, one of the places stay. All he
• 35:44
  Speaker 5: had was a camera around his neck.
• 35:46
  Speaker 6: Wow.
• 35:47
  Speaker 5: And he said, that's what he loved, taking pictures and
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: video and things video and now all around the city
• 35:53
  Speaker 5: just shooting video.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: He loved it. That was his passion.
• 35:57
  Speaker 5: And so seeing that, you know, he's a young man,
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: wasn't no criminal, wanted to do the right thing. It's
• 36:02
  Speaker 5: just his uh circumstances at home, he was put out
• 36:06
  Speaker 5: by his mother's boyfriend who was abusive to all that
• 36:09
  Speaker 5: type of scenario. So you know what I did, seeing
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: that he had that passion, I called Warner Brothers. I said,
• 36:16
  Speaker 5: I'd like for you all to get this young man
• 36:19
  Speaker 5: the internship in Los Angeles on my show, but I
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: taped in Chicago or one of the one of the
• 36:26
  Speaker 5: other shows. They gave him that internship, painting dadd even
• 36:31
  Speaker 5: a place to stay, and he went on built a
• 36:34
  Speaker 5: career from there and went on and married a rich
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: white woman.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: And we ain't heard from him.
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: Says I was actually aman at the wedding. I was
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: not expecting that I was. I was at the wedding.
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: Ain't you haven't seen since?
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: No, my man Tracy out there doing great the American
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: the American Dream Tracy.
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: You can m in a lot of a lot of
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: a lot of movies on TV.
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: He's crushing it, going back and forth to the city
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: from l A, you know, living out his dream.
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: Proud of the man.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: Absolutely solved my programing. For the most part.
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: I try and bring that Detroit culture, if not Detroit itself,
• 37:16
  Speaker 5: by way of the people.
• 37:18
  Speaker 8: And that partially answers the next thing, amir right about
• 37:20
  Speaker 8: whether or not giving back to your hometown always has
• 37:23
  Speaker 8: to mean a check because you have given back in
• 37:27
  Speaker 8: so many ways. That isn't necessarily writing directly a check.
• 37:30
  Speaker 8: But you're putting people in position to win. You're putting
• 37:33
  Speaker 8: your hometown on the map, and I think that's really
• 37:36
  Speaker 8: really special.
• 37:37
  Speaker 6: What's the funniest craziest moments you had sucking them toes,
• 37:45
  Speaker 6: hug me and loved me, giving them toes.
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: So hard?
• 37:54
  Speaker 6: Women?
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: But guess what is some women balto that? Yes, he said,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: your sons.
• 38:07
  Speaker 6: And he come.
• 38:14
  Speaker 9: The funniest thing that it happened to you Vail and
• 38:17
  Speaker 9: it's crazy entertainment, the craziest.
• 38:20
  Speaker 6: I can tell you two things, j'ah.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: I've walked in friends of mine room once, my friends
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: because I'd be around a lot of guys and they
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: like my brothers. I was tore back and when I
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: said tour back, I walked straight in the room and
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: fell out in the middle of the floor.
• 38:38
  Speaker 6: Couldn't get up. All I could do was I hear
• 38:41
  Speaker 6: you talking to me, but I couldn't respond.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: I couldn't move. And then summer things Rick would be.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: Rick would do and laugh. I mean he would come
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: up with some crazy stuff. Be in the bathroom a car,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: you're thinking, you're getting ready to go see something.
• 38:57
  Speaker 6: He's sitting on the toilet. You to come in, wait
• 39:02
  Speaker 6: for you to just see him. He coloring a.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Drawing and everything. Something to do in the bathroom. Do
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: y'all go to someone bathroom?
• 39:11
  Speaker 6: You ever seen that.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: You sit there and you want to color or you
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: want to write a read. You know you never thought
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: about stuff like that. You know you'd be like, Okay, yeah,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: I've done something. Bobby bo Man, God bless. If you
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: ain't giving him a first class ticket, you ain't got
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: his stuff bright.
• 39:33
  Speaker 6: He ain't even coming to the gig.
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: That's funny.
• 39:35
  Speaker 6: He ain't coming showing up.
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: Now you gotta tell your craziest.
• 39:40
  Speaker 6: Now, what's your crazy story?
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: None, like she ain't never seen the pajama party.
• 39:57
  Speaker 6: You had a job and I didn't come. We know
• 40:00
  Speaker 6: we're on Detroit right now. It's the craziest thing. From
• 40:04
  Speaker 6: Linda Matthews.
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: We used to live next to a rock star when
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: we first moved out the bar. Names, no names, okay,
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: just give me the first letter.
• 40:15
  Speaker 9: Just say a guitarist for for somebody really really famous, Okay.
• 40:20
  Speaker 6: And so we did live next door to him. But
• 40:22
  Speaker 6: this is an l a story of Pflely Hill here too.
• 40:26
  Speaker 6: This is crazy. Yes it was.
• 40:28
  Speaker 4: She thought it was a pajama party, but no I.
• 40:30
  Speaker 6: Knew I wanted to don't see what was going on?
• 40:32
  Speaker 6: That was invited to come.
• 40:33
  Speaker 9: Over to the rockster's house for pajama party or pajama party.
• 40:38
  Speaker 9: Of course I wore my little crazy looking for leopard
• 40:41
  Speaker 9: little stuff I got there. I probably was only one
• 40:43
  Speaker 9: in a nice gown. Everybody else was in other stuff.
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: But what does that mean?
• 40:51
  Speaker 6: Like behind was beating like like like other revealing things.
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: But you went to a swinger purty.
• 41:00
  Speaker 6: Like I said, I was over there a total fifteen
• 41:04
  Speaker 6: minutes and it was just like going on. I want
• 41:08
  Speaker 6: just pek what that would I like to peek?
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: I warned her, you want her? Wait, this is a
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: rock star. A rock star is in to his house
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: for a pajama party.
• 41:25
  Speaker 6: You gotta do once in a lifetime things. Sometimes you
• 41:30
  Speaker 6: going on. Went over there a rock star, It was
• 41:36
  Speaker 6: going on.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: I gotta going on and then letting the comes back.
• 41:40
  Speaker 5: All of that.
• 41:44
  Speaker 6: I got side pajama party. Wait, yay, people do what
• 41:53
  Speaker 6: they do. That is the crazy SNA.
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: Move on to you there, what's your crazy Hollywood story?
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: Mama toad. Mama told hers.
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: My one type of story, craziest Hollywood story.
• 42:12
  Speaker 5: All of mine has probably been uh destructive uh uh.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: With you know some some you know, me retaliating out
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: of anger.
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: Again those.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: Crazy I don't think the twenty five years or statual limitations.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: Are, but hey, a couple of them I just got
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: out of.
• 42:47
  Speaker 5: You.
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: Are you are the Hollywood stories that people talk about?
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm the TMC kings.
• 42:55
  Speaker 6: So much money. I don't want to stop. I don't
• 42:58
  Speaker 6: when I'm coming back and we're doing.
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: We're having you back. Absolutely, I want to be back.
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: You're gonna be a co host, and we have other people.
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: You are certified codst.
• 43:07
  Speaker 6: Thank you.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: My nephew is talking. See these are my two nephews.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: But y'all, I'm never saying all of touch with me.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: Y'all better call me all the time.
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: I got the shades on because you're here. I brought
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: some like little Detroit. They're not cardies, but you know,
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: the closest I can find and look and fly today.
• 43:23
  Speaker 6: But look you flying.
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: I appreciate it.
• 43:27
  Speaker 8: So we talked a lot about, you know, leaving Detroit
• 43:30
  Speaker 8: coming out here, how Detroit had shaped you. I guess mom,
• 43:34
  Speaker 8: I'll let you start this one off. I'm curious to
• 43:36
  Speaker 8: hear just from you all, having like, like I said,
• 43:38
  Speaker 8: left your hometown, moved out here. What do you feel
• 43:42
  Speaker 8: like you need, you know, after this whole conversation, to
• 43:44
  Speaker 8: continue to give back, to continue to give back.
• 43:47
  Speaker 9: You know, as Dad has mentioned, you know, we feel
• 43:50
  Speaker 9: that our hearts are in Detroit. You know, I talked
• 43:53
  Speaker 9: about how it really shaped me and how I felt
• 43:57
  Speaker 9: pride and being a black American.
• 44:01
  Speaker 6: I talk about just the fact that my family was there,
• 44:05
  Speaker 6: you know what I mean, my all my cousins.
• 44:07
  Speaker 9: I mean, we had a very large family and that's
• 44:09
  Speaker 9: where we spent our weekends, you know, when I was
• 44:11
  Speaker 9: growing up at my grandmother's house, all my cousins there.
• 44:14
  Speaker 9: So just to be able to go back and continue
• 44:20
  Speaker 9: again the work that we started there with the community center.
• 44:25
  Speaker 6: Look at your big.
• 44:26
  Speaker 9: Sister, what she's doing. She's doing big things in Detroit.
• 44:29
  Speaker 9: She works for the mayor, our mayor there, Mary Sheffield.
• 44:33
  Speaker 9: She's under the Civil Rights Department in Detroit. So with
• 44:35
  Speaker 9: all those connections, it just keeps us most definitely, having
• 44:40
  Speaker 9: you know, our connection to Detroit most definitely, and the
• 44:43
  Speaker 9: fact that we feel very good about the things we
• 44:46
  Speaker 9: do there, and yeah, going back and forth.
• 44:49
  Speaker 6: And just to add to my story is that I
• 44:51
  Speaker 6: take pride in the.
• 44:52
  Speaker 9: Fact that my grandkids their two favorite places to visit
• 44:55
  Speaker 9: was It's Cabo and Detroit, really.
• 45:00
  Speaker 6: And I think that's because of us.
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: We let the moment in there.
• 45:02
  Speaker 9: They have family there, they get to see all their
• 45:04
  Speaker 9: cousins and stuff, so, you know, just building on that.
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: And they love summertime, wintertime, and that's very important. You know,
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: we already talked about this and everything but did you
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: all feel like you gave your children grandchildren? You know,
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: Momy brought it up enough Detroit. You feel like we
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: have enough Detroit in us. We need a little bit more.
• 45:27
  Speaker 6: Detroit in them.
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: Oh yes, I think so.
• 45:30
  Speaker 6: We think you had a good foundation most I think great.
• 45:33
  Speaker 6: Our children have Detroit on them. They know exactly because
• 45:37
  Speaker 6: we talk about it. We be about it.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: It's different if they don't know, but we talk about it.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: And my grandson was born in Detroit, even though I
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: had my other two grandchildren was born here in LA
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: But my oldest grandson, he was born in Detroit and
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: he's studying Detroit.
• 45:55
  Speaker 6: He's TATTED three one three. He never area code Detroit,
• 46:03
  Speaker 6: you know, and the other ones too. We want to
• 46:06
  Speaker 6: go now to to Detroit.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: That's right, what up my baby?
• 46:16
  Speaker 7: Yeah?
• 46:17
  Speaker 6: Yeah, Burners gerrupt.
• 46:24
  Speaker 4: And I think that, you know, even when you.
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: Everybody talking about Detroit like in this episode so much,
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: But I think the bigger picture of it is just
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: like embracing your hometown. You know, people moved to life
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: all over the country from Huntsville, Alabama and all those things,
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: and it's kind of just like not forgetting where you
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: came from, forgive.
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: And you know, just to close this out.
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: When people tell the story of Lady v Val Young
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: here's from now, what do you hope they get right
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: about the woman that Detroit gave the world.
• 46:58
  Speaker 5: To know how she was, to know that.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: Who I am, what I mean, what I say, and
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: how I do, and to know me, it's to be
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: around me and know what I do. Not just guess
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: what I do or determine, but to know what I
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: do because I do it all and I got plenty
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: more to you know, do I'm not stopping.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 47:30
  Speaker 6: I love what I do. I love it. I don't
• 47:33
  Speaker 6: think I could do anything else but cook what behind
• 47:37
  Speaker 6: and sing?
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: What's your favorite Mary Jane girl song?
• 47:42
  Speaker 6: In my house? I like that one?
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: Mine is what Alone?
• 47:51
  Speaker 6: You like that all night long?
• 47:52
  Speaker 4: What was that song about?
• 47:58
  Speaker 6: What would you do all night long?
• 48:00
  Speaker 4: For everyone listening and watching. You have a show coming
• 48:03
  Speaker 4: up in Detroit.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're doing December twelfth. We're doing a tribute to Rick,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: Attribute to Tina featuring us the marriag and Girls, Candy,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: Parah and myself. Candy still lives in Detroit, Farah's in
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: Vegas and I'm here in Los Angeles. So we're gonna
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: do December twelfth in Detroit.
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: We're gonna put it on Count Yea.
• 48:30
  Speaker 4: Because house is a good one too. That's the dancing
• 48:32
  Speaker 4: one right there.
• 48:33
  Speaker 6: You know what, I want you to get on the floor.
• 48:36
  Speaker 4: Okay, you're gonna bring me up on stage.
• 48:38
  Speaker 6: I bring you up.
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: I'm definitely coming. I love it. I love it. Well,
• 48:44
  Speaker 4: thank you so much. It was such a pleasure, my girl.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: Y'all. Yes, hey, y'all, my other family, Let's do this more. Look,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: I should be a regular guy. I should be a
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: regular all the time.
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: You are going to be a regular all the time.
• 49:02
  Speaker 6: I want to be a regular all the time on
• 49:04
  Speaker 6: the show. All right, hey.
• 49:17
  Speaker 5: Bye. Today we talked about how special Detroit was, and
• 49:24
  Speaker 5: we have our and e is and we have our
• 49:26
  Speaker 5: special Detroit guests. Val Young from the Mary Jane Girls,
• 49:30
  Speaker 5: a legendary singer who was discovered by Rick James or
• 49:34
  Speaker 5: started her in a real way with Rick James and
• 49:38
  Speaker 5: the Gap Band, and so we were glad to have her.
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: She's a Detroit booster.
• 49:42
  Speaker 5: Everywhere we go, she talks about Detroit, and she does
• 49:45
  Speaker 5: so because Detroit made her. Detroit made me, Detroit made
• 49:49
  Speaker 5: me the opportunity, and so yes, Detroits maintained that Bond,
• 49:54
  Speaker 5: and I will suggest you do the same in the
• 49:56
  Speaker 5: community that helped made you, that helped make you. Any
• 50:00
  Speaker 5: community you've lived in that has helped lift you up,
• 50:04
  Speaker 5: nurtured you as a child, you owe something took them
• 50:08
  Speaker 5: as well. You just can't run off with the goods.
• 50:11
  Speaker 5: Become rich and famous out in Hollywood and don't think
• 50:14
  Speaker 5: you have to give back. We owe a debt to
• 50:16
  Speaker 5: the people who will help make us who we are.
• 50:19
  Speaker 5: That I'm judge matthis and that's my verdict.