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ISAAC CARREE - Heat, Slaw, and Salvation · Eating While Broke

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Colleen Witt, and today we have very
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: special guest Isaac Caree in the building.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: With over 30 years in the game, he got his
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: start in North Carolina, came up with John P.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: Key, Key, John P. Key, sister, the New Life.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Community Choir, and helped launch the award-winning group Men of Standard.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: As a solo artist, he's dropped projects like Uncommon Me, Reset,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: and No Risk, No Reward with number one Billboard Gospel
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: debuts and collabs with Kirk Franklin, Monica, Mary, and more.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: He's toured big, earned major honors, still keeps his family
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: faith front and center, and has.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: The Isaac Caree Show.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Podcast. You can listen to it anywhere.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Yes, anywhere.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: On all platforms.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: All platforms.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: So that's a busy life and a big resume.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Hey, I'm trying, you know what I'm saying?
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: And still faithful. After all these years, that's great.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Still grinding. Still grinding. Yeah.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: All right. Before we get into your story.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: What are you going to have me eating today?
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Probably the best meal you've had this week.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: This week?
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: This week. I'm not going to limit it to just today.
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: I want to hear best meal of the season. I
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: want to see the best meal.
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: Let's go for the season then because I'm telling you,
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: I'm manifesting right now.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: 10 out of 10.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I'll say that you are ahead of the game because
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: out of almost 200 episodes, this will be, I looked
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: at the ingredients, this will be the first time I've
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: ever had this dish, which I think in of itself
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: is a huge deal.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Because now you're repping for your people, right?
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. So here it is. It's chili slaw dogs.
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: People have heard of chili dogs, but it's a North
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: Carolina thing. You put the slaw... on the hot dog.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: So it's ketchup, mustard, chili, onions, slaw. Homemade chili. And
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: we get to it.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: It's special. It's unique.
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: People who don't like coleslaw, I know plenty of people
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: who don't like coleslaw.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: They tasted my burger. They was like, I can eat this.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Eatin' my bro.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Now, I'm just curious, though, on your menu, you had KFC.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Why is that?
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: Because the other coleslaw, which I'll get into in my story,
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: I had to get it from the gas station.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay. Yeah.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: But when I discovered KFC had great coleslaw, it's either KFC.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Or Chick-fil-A, but KFC's is better.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: So I was like, for the show, let's just get
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: that KFC.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: I'm glad you kept it cheap.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Cute with the KFC because I would have hated to
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: see you really doing it.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: No, I'm not doing all that. I do all that.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: But go ahead and make this dish. You're going to
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: take us to work.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Well, let me get to work. You know I'm a
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: chef in my other life.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: No, I didn't know that.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Oh, I love to cook.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: I do need you to tell everyone what all the
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: ingredients are to make this dish.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: So, of course, we have our hot dogs. Nathan's is
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: the best.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you were specific about that.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Very specific.
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: Nathan's short hot dogs. Nathan has the long ones. I
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: don't like my hot dog hanging off the bun.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: I don't like that. That's too much. Short, regular hot dogs,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: because back in the day, they didn't make those extended
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: hot dogs.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: Everything was short. So we got the short Nathan's hot dogs.
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: Of course, we already talked about that. We have already
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: chopped yellow onions, of course, ketchup, mustard. These are my seasonings.
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: A little chili powder for my homemade chili I'm going
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: to make. Little tomato paste.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: It's not spaghetti. You'll see.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: Lori's garlic onion sauce. And then you got your ground beef.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: And then we're going to put this concoction together.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: It's going to be amazing. Really? I'm so excited.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: When was the last time you had this?
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: So normally, every summer, I pull out my hot dogs.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: Because cooking out.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: Famous hot dogs? The way you're saying you pull them out.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because what became.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: A broke starving meal for me ended up being a
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: fan favorite as I kept making it. So I normally
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: put my hot dogs on the grill, cook it up,
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: do your chicken and your salmon and all that ribs
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: and stuff. So I normally do the hot dogs. And
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: when I started doing the hot dogs, people just fell
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: in love with it. So it's a meal I bring
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: out at least once a year.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: I'm excited. All right, go ahead, do it. I'm not
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: going to interrupt. Start us off and tell us how
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: you're going to do it.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I like to, I'm a very
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: clean cook. You already know. Can you bless me? Yes.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Thank you. There it is.
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: You're not washing your hands. You already started off wrong. Okay,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: so we got the water boiling for the hot dogs.
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: So I'm going to grab me this knife over here.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: And then we are not taping in our traditional LA studio.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Shout outs to 85 South.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, 85 South. We love you.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: With that being said, we are working with what we got.
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: Yes, sir.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Which I like because it really reminds me of what
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: our mission is.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: Which is eating while broke.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Now listen. When I come to L.A., I got to
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: run this back. I want to do it in L.A.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: Oh, for real?
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: I want to do it in L.A. I'll do another dish.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I had a lot of broke dishes. I like that.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: So take me back to what was going on during
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the coleslaw hot dog days.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Okay, so here's the thing.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: Interesting enough, your show, I'm going to put about five
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: hot dogs in there because I know people.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Are going to want to taste it.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, how many people we got
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: back here?
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: One, two, three. I feel like, yeah, five. She said
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: she don't.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: You're going to taste it, Dom. Dom and Chase are
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: going to taste it. They're going to taste it. They're
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: going to taste it. They're going to taste it.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: I'm good at reviews, so if it's really good, I'm
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: good at telling everybody to join in and try it.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: And if it's not, look, I take constructive criticism very well. Okay. Yeah,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: so here's the story.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: I wasn't broke growing up as a kid. My mother,
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: she was raising three kids, single mom, and she worked
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: her butt off.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: She sang.
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: She was a minister of music, which she handles music
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: for a lot of different churches. So at one time,
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: my mom was working for six churches at one time.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: over the choir at this church, different times. Choir rehearsal, this,
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: so I grew up in church. Literally, I felt like
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: I was born in church. And so she busted her butt.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: So we always had, you know, broke to us in
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: those days literally were like, did we have food on
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: our table?
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Could we eat? Was our lights on?
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: And did we have heat and air? So we always
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: had those things. So I didn't look at that as broke, right?
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: It was, I had my little ritual thing. You get
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: two pair of shoes a year. One for Christmas, one
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: for first.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Day of school. That's all you gonna get.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: That's pretty good.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: That's pretty good.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: First day of school, you wear them out. By the
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: time Christmas break comes, you get a new pair.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: Especially if you got three kids. You guys were doing
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: pretty good.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my mom was getting it. She was getting to it.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: So with that being said, we weren't broke. This meal
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: came about when I decided... To be grown. Dropped out
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: of high school in my 11th grade year. Dropped out
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: of high school my 11th grade year because I wanted
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: to pursue music.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: I can't imagine your mom took that.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: My mom was pissed. My mom was pissed.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: High school?
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: I dropped out of high school my 11th grade year.
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: Now mind you, I played basketball, I played football. I
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: was like into sports the whole nine. I always sang,
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: but I hated singing because I'm old. My birthday is
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: in a few days. I'll be 53.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: I know you're so shocked. I know you are.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: What the heck?
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: I know you are. Look at her. Everybody take that in.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Heck no.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll be 53. And so I'm old. So back
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: in those days, singing in church wasn't cool.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: That's crazy. I'm sorry. You do not look that, yo.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: That's crazy.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: So with that being said, singing in church wasn't cool.
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: It was like, you know, you remember Five Heartbeats, what
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: they used to call the boy, a choir boy?
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: He's always get picked on. So I was a dude
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: that played sports.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: I love the girls.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: So I was like, I was trying to be the
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: cool cat. I was trying to be like everybody else.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: My mama made me sing. You go sing at church
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: because she knew I had something.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: I hated it. And she made me sing. She had
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: her own television show.
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: It used to be a gospel show that came on
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: BET every Sunday called the Bobby.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Jones Gospel Show.
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: My mother had a local version of that show called
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: Gospel Expo. It came on in the triad, Greensboro, Winston-Salem,
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: High Point, North Carolina. Every Sunday, it came on TV.
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: And me and my sisters, either I was on the
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: drums playing or I was singing.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: And I used to cry.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: And my mom used to embarrass me. You better not
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: embarrass me. You better sing these songs. My mom was like,
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: she didn't play.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: Why did you feel like you had to drop out
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: of school?
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: Once I realized that I was good at basketball, but
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: I wasn't great, and I knew I wasn't going to
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: make it to the league, I had to fall back
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: on what I felt like I could do as a career.
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: And it was, I knew I could sing. And there
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: was a man that lived in North Carolina. He lived
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: in Charlotte.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: His name was Jean Piquet, a huge gospel icon.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: And he and my mom were friends because she used
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: to bring him to Greensboro to do concerts before he
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: blew up, way before he blew up. And what happened was,
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: When I got around that age, he really wanted to
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: start a male group. So he called my mom and
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: was like, Nancy, I got a male group idea. I
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: know Isaac was singing when he was younger.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: So she was like, oh yeah, he can sing. He
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: can sing with you.
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: So my mama used to drive me up to Charlotte
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: and we made a deal. It went from this male
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: group to me then singing with John P.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Keith.
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: So the male group never happened. It was really for
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: me to start singing with him. Which is interesting in itself.
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: That's a whole other conversation for another day. But the
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: group never happened. So when I went up there, my
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: mama made a deal. She said, you can travel with
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: John as long as it does not interfere with your schooling.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: So meaning, we used to leave.
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: Every Friday afternoon, Friday night, travel, do concerts Friday night
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: in the city, Saturday, Sunday, come home late Sunday night.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: So my job was to get my butt up on
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: Mondays and be at school.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: But that would be you by yourself traveling?
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: I would have friends that would come, older friends that drove.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: They would get me to Charlotte.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: They would get you, but you would be alone with them?
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: It was a choir. It was a group of us.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: It was a group of us.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: It was a choir, like a 25-piece choir, right? And
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: so I was one of the guys that sang in
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: the choir. Got a little name. So I started traveling,
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: started getting good. Now, mind you, I'm from North Carolina.
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: Greensboro is a very small.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: City in North Carolina.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: I was just out there, by the way.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. So I started literally traveling, getting a little name.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: People hear me sing. Girls screaming my name. Oh, it
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: was a big deal. This was 1990.
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: So I'm like, yo. So I never get coming home
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: one day. My mother, my denomination growing up was Church
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: of God in Christ. And my mother was big time
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: in that organization. So every year, once a year. they
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: would have a conference in Memphis.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: It's not open.
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: They had a conference in Memphis. It was a holy convocation.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: My mother will go every year. So we come that week.
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: My mother told me, you're not singing with John no
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: more because you don't want to give him go to school.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: That was ideal. You're not going no more. I was like, OK, cool.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: She said because you didn't want to get up and
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: go to school?
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Because I broke the deal. The deal was as long
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: as you get up and go to school on Mondays.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Why did you?
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Because I was tired. We was getting home at 1, 2,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: 3 o'clock in the morning. I had to be up
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: at school. I had to be at school.
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: At 7 because I had tutorial because I was an athlete.
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: So we had to do tutorial for athletes before class
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: and all this kind of stuff.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: And I just got, mama, I want to go. I
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: want to get up. Oh, you don't want to sing then? Yes,
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: I do. Then you go get your butt up and
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: go to school.
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: So I start making excuses, start missing, start being tardy,
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: start being late.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: So she pulled the plug. You're not traveling no more.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: You're not doing that. You revisit that when you graduate.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: I'm like, okay. So she went to Memphis. When she
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: went to Memphis, I moved to Charlotte. I just left.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: I know you gave your mom.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: I went to Charlotte. I literally left. Never came back.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Didn't call home. Now, mind you, this was before social media.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: This was before self.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: Never came back ever?
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Meaning.
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: No, I never... I'll tell you about that, too. I
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: didn't go back, but here's the thing. I didn't even
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: call to tell her what I was doing, of course. So,
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: unbeknownst to me, I'm gone. I ain't talked to my
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: mom for two months. I ain't checking in. I was
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: scared because I knew if I heard her voice, she
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: was going to make me come home and I was
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: going to go.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: I knew it. And I was like, this is what
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: I want to do. This is my life. I want
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: to do this.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: She wasn't blowing you up or nothing?
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: It wasn't on cell phones back then. Unbeknownst to me,
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: John had called her and told her, I got your son.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: He's good. I'll take care of Nancy. So she was like, okay,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: but she still was pissed. Of course. Yeah. So.
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: Mind you, during this time, John's career, boom, it blows up.
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: So we're on television shows now. We're on front cover magazines.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: We go to L.A. to do the Arsenio Hall show.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: We're everywhere. So now what was a bad idea was like, oh,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: maybe this is working out for him.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: Okay. He was saying that?
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe, you know, she pulled up. She stopped being
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: as mad.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: And she kind of just, okay, Lee, he could be
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: doing worse. He could be out here doing something else.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: He's Lee's. Singing for the Lord.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: She kind of like made that happen. All this meat
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: is doing so well. I'm so proud of myself. And
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: so what happened was when I got with John is
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: when I got broke. So I was traveling the country
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: all over the world and we're making no money.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: How are you not making money, though?
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Because I wasn't getting paid. Now, mind you, I'm 17
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: years old.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: It went from, I'm just excited to travel the world
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: and see things I've never seen. I didn't have a
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: concept of, this is a job, this is money, I'm
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: about to get it.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: But wouldn't he... What?
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: You said it.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: Wouldn't he... He didn't... Did your mom know he wasn't
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: paying you?
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: No, because, again, even though my mom was kind of cool,
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: I kind of left my... I kind of left my family,
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: my friends, and people outside of that.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: It was like we had built our own little universe. Okay.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: And at the time, I didn't think it was a
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: big deal. I'm thinking like, okay, cool. I don't have
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: a lot of needs.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: Was it because you were living with him?
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: I started off living with him. Then he got us
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: our own apartment. So it was eight Negroes living in
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: a two-bedroom apartment.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: We was broke. I was so poor, I couldn't pay attention.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: It was bad. It was bad.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: So at this point, you're starting to realize money matters?
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: Money matters. I stayed with him for four years. I
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: stayed with him from 1990 to 1994 when I decided
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: to leave.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: So to bring in the hot dogs, we were so broke.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: We had no money. We couldn't eat. We would only
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: eat when they would bring us food.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: That's what I was about to ask.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: So are you at their mercy in the sense of, hey,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: can I get $ 20?
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: Can I buy?
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: And then we had to check in. Y'all, what you
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: need that for? Yeah, it was that. It was that.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: So I could not eat.
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: And I'll never forget was when this hot dog thing
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: kind of, like, it was like a bittersweet moment. It
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: was like bitter because we were so broke and we
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: would start going through our old clothes. And one of
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: the guys found a $ 20 bill and we went up
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: to a Circle K. Circle K is what's equivalent to
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: our QT gas stations. It's a gas station that also
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: sell food in there. We walked up to a Circle
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: K that was in this neighborhood that we lived in.
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: And they had hot dogs for 99 cents. So everybody
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: was able to get two, three hot dogs. Hot dogs smack.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: It was ketchup, chili, mustard, onion, slaw. It was the
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: North Carolina way. And I fell in love with the
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: hot dogs. And every time I would eat those hot dogs,
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: that was the only thing we could afford.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: So it went from that moment to when we.
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: Travel, we would always meet at South Park Mall, which
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: is a huge mall in Charlotte, North Carolina. Across the
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: street from the mall was a Circle K. That Circle
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: K is still there. They built up their whole area now.
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: It's completely different, but that Circle K is still there.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: I was in Charlotte last year sometime, and I saw
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: that Circle K, and I just had a moment.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: I was like, yo.
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: And we used to walk across the street, get hot dogs,
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: come back before we left to take our trips and everything.
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: And it just always let me know, bro, like, only
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: reason I still eat these to this day is because
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: they're so good. There are other things that I had
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: to eat that I vow when I get money I'll
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: never eat there again.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: I'm just curious.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: At what point do you ring home and tell your mom?
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: I don't.
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: I'm a private person, so I didn't want to make
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: him look away. I didn't want to make people look away.
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: So I kind of took it on the chin and
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: I just use it as a learning experience to handle
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: your business.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: So, you know, again, I was 17. But you were.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: Also very young.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Very young.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: Looking back.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. Looking back. Oh, hell yeah. It was jacked up.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: I was taught.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: It's in that you're put in a checkmate situation, right?
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: But I was taught to like this. I was raised
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: in the industry. This is you paying your dues. Which
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: is when I got older, I.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: Felt like that's the stupidest thing that anybody could ever say.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: I have children.
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: If I have a child, I don't want my son
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: to go through what I went through to make you
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: feel like what you have is worth having. I want
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: to tell you everything I went through so you can
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: jump over the things I had to go through.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: You can go around the things. That's what we do.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: You have a daughter. You don't want your daughter to
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: go through what you went through.
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: You want to give her all the steps, all the
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: tools so that she can hurdle over the things that
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: you had to go through to make her life easier.
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: And so that concept of this is you paying your
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: dues was always dumb to me. But growing up, that
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: was my mindset. So I took it like I'm paying
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: my dues. This is what I have to go through
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: to get.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: This stuff done. And that's what I did.
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: And.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: It sucked, but hey, it is what it is.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: Was your faith challenged in any way?
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. I was angry with God. I was angry with everybody.
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: But ultimately, I had to be angry with myself because
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: I felt like that was something that I felt like
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: I should have handled my business. But then I had
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: to give myself grace because I was a kid.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm a little conflicted because you grew up in
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: the church, so I could be wrong.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: But when you think of Christians....
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: When you think about Christianity, we do tend to think
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: of Christians like, hey, you know the Bible, you know
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: the word, you know what's morally right and all of that.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: And then this is almost a predatory type situation. So
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: I definitely would have been, I think my faith would
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: have definitely been changed. and I would have definitely looked
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: at Christianity a little differently.
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I just think my life started spiraling out of control.
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: I started trusting God less and started trusting myself. I'm
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: never going to let anybody do this to me again.
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: I'm never going to put myself in a position where...
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: So that's why, even to this day, I've been able
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: to tame it and make it work for me. But
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: it was a time where I didn't play about my money.
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: I didn't play about none of that stuff, all because
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: of what I went through. And it's like, I had
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: to learn as I got older. Yes, we want to
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: make money, but in life, sometimes... You can't chase money.
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: You have to chase relationships. And relationships are way more valuable.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: At the same time, you don't want nobody to take
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: advantage of you.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: Okay. So after this, you leave the group.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Yes. Four years in, I left the group. I decided
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: enough was enough.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: Was it a messy leave or was it like.
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: It became messy because people... I was a valuable part
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: of that movement. Me and another guy.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: We were a valuable part of that movement. So... It
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: was kind of messy, but it wasn't beef.
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: I kind of like, now that I think about it,
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: I think I had a thing about running away because
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: I left there too and didn't tell them.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: I just left.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: That was your thing.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: That was your exit. Maybe you didn't like confrontation.
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I've grown into being, I face confrontation
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: head on now.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: Oh, head on now. Because I think I was like that.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: But I left. It was over. I never went back.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: Years, there was some bad blood on my end because
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: I just didn't, I just wasn't rocking with.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: That, right? Not too much, not too much.
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: And what happened was, then I got older. Hey, You
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: know how people say when you go through things in
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: life or the way your parents may have raised you,
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: they did the best they could with what they knew.
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: So you kind of, okay, that's what they knew. Maybe
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: it was done to him when he was coming in
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: the industry. Maybe that was his way of whatever. And
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: I've never openly talked about this because my whole thing
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: was I never talked about it because I never wanted
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: to make him or his brand or his cachet or
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: how people still see him today because he's an iconic,
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: amazing person.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: Gospel singer and.
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: I never wanted to shine any negative light on him
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: but i've been carrying this for over 20 plus 30
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: years is.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: This your first time this first time i've ever said
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: this out loud oh i.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Feel special but i will say though i have seen
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: some her pretty horrendous things very similar what you're saying
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: and there are people that are very well known that
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: do this to date I've seen it with my own eyes.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: And I remember there was a period even in my
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: life where I was in the industry and I.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: Walked just seeing it.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Just seeing grown men being homeless and being in closets.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: It's a real thing.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, this can't be my life. I have
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: to leave now before that's me.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: It's a real thing.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: It's a real thing.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: So I'm glad I'm thankful that you're sharing it. No,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of courage, too.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: The last couple of years of my life, I've really
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: grown into this. I don't care how people view or
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: see me as much as I once did. I felt
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: like all my career, I've always cared about what people thought,
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: what people saw. And I was hiding all this. And
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: if you know me, my personality is always, I'm the
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: life of the party. I'm always having fun. I'm always
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: the loudest one in the room. And sometimes people tend
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: to feel like, oh, everything is good with him because
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: he's always joking. He's always laughing.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: But I've been carrying this for years. Now, here's the thing.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: I'm not bitter.
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: I let it go, which is why I can freely
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: talk about it now.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: And there's no bad blood. I hope they know. I hope.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: They don't get upset because I told my story. Yeah,
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: it is what it is.
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: But it's not even it's more about me learning what
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: to and what not to do and make sure that
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: when I work with people, I don't even like to
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: say people work for me.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: I like to build relationships where people work with me
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: because I can't do what I do without them. They
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: can't do what they do without me on this particular venture.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: So I try to make sure that I don't make
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: those same mistakes that that people made with dealing with me.
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: And so I honor them differently and I handle it differently.
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: So sometimes in life you learn what to do because
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: you learn good principles. And sometimes you learn what not
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: to ever do. And I learned what not to do
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: when it comes to honoring people who work with you,
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: taking care of them, making sure that you look out
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: for them and you have their best interests at heart.
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: That's always been a thing for me. So I like
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: to look at it like I grew from it. And
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: so I'm not bitter.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: You grew from it. From you leaving in the middle
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: of the night, I'm going to say it like that.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: Where do you go? To your mama's house?
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Actually, ironically, I had a rich friend in those days.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: Her name was Rhonda. I got her last name. Rich friend.
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: Her and her family had a lot of money. And
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: they just grew a liking to me and one of
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: the other guys that was in the group with me.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: We kind of lived together. And they was like, yo,
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: we're going to fly you out to L.A. Because they
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: kind of knew what we were going through. They flew
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: us out to L.A.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: For a week or two. We're going to take care
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: of y'all. She owned some subways. She had money. Had
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: a bad.
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: Manchin and Baldwin Hills and Baldwin Hills was popping. And
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: we stayed there for a couple of weeks and kind
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: of got on our feet. And then I think I
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: ended up moving back to Greensboro. But by then I
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: was able to get my own spot. I started doing
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: stage plays. I started working with Michael Matthews. He was
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: like the Tyler Perry before Tyler Perry. And I started
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: doing stage plays. So I was able to make really
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: good money traveling the world doing plays back then.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: And then.
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: That was from 94 to 96. In 96, me and
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: the other.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Guy that left John, we started our own male group.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: So it's ironic. I went to him to start a group.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: The group never happened.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: You end up doing it.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: And then we end up doing our own group.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: And that became Men of Standard. And from that, my
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: career just kind of built relationships, made a good name
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: for myself and started busting my tail.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: And we made it happen.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: And it's cool because now that you went through the
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: painful era, I'm sure by the time you did your deal,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: it was a decent deal, right?
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Not so much.
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: Because at that time, I was smart enough to not
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: to try to do the deal myself. But you put
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: your hands, you put your career in the hands of attorneys.
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: So if you don't have a good attorney, then you
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: don't know what you sign it.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: You don't know.
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: And again, mind you, I'm early 21 now. So I'm
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: still not as business savvy as I should be. But
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: I think, oh, we got an attorney. They're going to
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: tell us that we.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Signed a bad deal with another label that sucked. But
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: we endured it.
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: And as I got older and older, I just start
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: making sure I handle my business, start putting people around me,
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: start double checking, asking questions, knowing what to do with
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: that point. But yeah, this hot dog thing was birthed
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: from a rough, broke, broken. I was broke and broken.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: I love that you chose this dish because it really
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: tells your whole story. What do you start doing when
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: you're making money? What's the first thing you started doing?
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Were you managing your money well or were you splurging
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: a little bit?
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: I was splurging. I was splurging a little bit.
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: I got married and what happened was I had children.
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: So I started understanding that my splurging was not more
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: important than taking care of my bills. I don't know
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: how to take care of my bills. I'm a tithe payer.
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: So I took my 10% out, give God his money.
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: Then I'll give an offering because that's what I was
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: raised to believe. That's what I stand on to this day, right?
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: After that, my bills got to get paid.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: And then if I have a little something extra, it
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: wasn't saving, it was spending. It was shopping and clothes
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: and whatever, stuff like that. And we're going to start
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: you off with one.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: Because I want to.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: You're confident when you say you're going to start me
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: off with one.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: I don't like that hot dog. That's a little broken.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Let me take that one. I like my hot dogs
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: to stay together. And so I started, you know, doing that.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: And you know how, you know that saying, like, when
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: you get older, things I, if I knew then what
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: I know now, oh my God, what would I be?
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: What would my life be? All the decisions.
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: God is always faithful. He's always been faithful. He's always
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: made a way for me. He's always provided for me.
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: I've never gone without. And I've been able to build
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: and do something special with my life and got people
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: who believe in me now. So now I'm three solo
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: albums in and a brand new podcast in.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: It's just, I feel good where my life is going.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: And you never had to, throughout this whole career, you
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: never had to actually take a day job or any
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: of that?
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: No, to God be the glory.
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: I've worked at churches before, like doing praise and worship,
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: singing and stuff like that. But clocking in nine to five,
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: I've been doing this for over.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: 30 years, singing.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: That's a blessing in and of itself.
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: And church music, gospel music, which is a very small niche.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: It's like a niche music. It's very carved out. People
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: love it. People know it, but it's not like R &
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: B or hip hop or rap. Church.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: Did you ever want to step outside of it?
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: By the time I wanted to, I felt like I
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: was too old. I felt like I missed that window
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: of opportunity. I think there's a small window that you.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Have if you want to get out there and get
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: into that R & B and that mainstream.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: Is that truth or do you think that was self-limited?
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: It was probably self-limited. But I'd have no regrets.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: What was the window?
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: I think it was an age thing. I think I
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: built a lot of relationships.
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: I was super cool with a lot like some of
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: my best friends did mainstream R & B.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: SWB and Guy and Tank and whomever. I knew everybody.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: They knew me from singing. Oh, I don't like this
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: hot dog bun. I can't do it.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: Replace it.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: I gotta do it. And I just felt and then
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: I kind of felt like It's just not what God
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: want me to do. So I just kind of say, hey,
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: rock up.
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: With what God want me to do versus what I
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: feel like I need to do. And that's just the
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: path I took. And I have no, I promise, I
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: have no regrets.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: I have no regrets.
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: The biggest regrets I have in my career are.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: Regrets that I kind of placed on myself.
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: The limits I placed on myself are listening to people,
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: allowing them to control.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: What I do, how I do it. You got to
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: do it this way. You can't do this. You can't
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: do this.
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: And it took years and years and years for me
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: to get past that. And now that I am, I
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: feel so much freer now. So I took the chains
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: and the restrictions off of my life that I feel like,
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: and I don't want to blame anybody. I feel like
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: I allow people to put me in those things because
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: that's what I felt like I had to do.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: And now I'm just living a free life.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: How long did it take for you to get there?
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: So if I've been doing music for 30 years, I
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: want to say about 20. I started waking up 25 in.
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: So around the pandemic, I started loosening up like, I
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: don't like this no more. I don't like the way
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: I feel. I don't like that everybody got something to
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: say about what I do, whether it be good, bad,
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: or indifferent. I don't like that everybody, and now we're
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: in the social media world, so everybody got something to
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: say about your life, your choices, what you don't do.
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: Kind of wake, I start waking up and I had
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: to process it. And then I think it's a process
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: of accepting.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: You've been like this. Don't try to act like, cause
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: I'm a person. Oh, I don't, that don't bother me.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: It always bothers me. I don't care what nobody say.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: You care. Yeah. And I had to get people in
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: my life.
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: So it's like accepting where you were, then getting people
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: in your life to tell you.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: No, you care. No, I don't. Yes, you do. I
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: can tell you care. Cause if you didn't care, you wouldn't.
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: And so then I started looking, then I started just
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: kind of like, peeling back the layers and exposing myself. No,
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: you care way too much about people who don't care
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: about you.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: I like and I hate that it took you 25 years,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: but I think I like the fact that you just
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: admitted that it took that long. I think the assumption
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: that's a young man's, like maybe you hit 30 and
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: the sky opens up.
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: No, because even when I recognize it, it took so
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: much for me to have the boldness to say, I'm
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: going to do it. My decisions are my decisions. My
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: choices are my choices. If I mess up, I'm going
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: to fall on the sword. Ain't nobody perfect but God. Yeah.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: I feel like you're really good in the accountability department.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: You got to be.
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: Because I think it sucks to have a problem, now
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: we start building. Yeah, I had to be accountable. It's
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: like you can't act like it's not.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: There when it is.
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: And I really credit my circle of friends. I had
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: to get some bad people out in my life. I
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: had to get some great people in my life.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: That didn't need me.
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: Because when people need you, they never tell you the truth.
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: When somebody needs you and it's connected to a check,
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: it's connected to influence, and it's connected to, I can't
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: say this because they're not really going to tell you
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: what you want to hear. They're not going to tell
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: you the truth about yourself.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: What I've been learning as of recent is people that
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: need you tell you the truth when it's convenient for them.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you've experienced that, but I'm just
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: now realizing this in the last six months.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: The truth is only, when someone needs you, the truth
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: is only convenient for them. at their time, which to
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: me isn't the truth.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: I don't even have that no more. I think I
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: used to have that in my life.
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: I got rid of anything that was poisonous, that was self-serving,
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: that was controlling, that was manipulative.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: I got it out my life. And it wasn't easy.
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: They did some things where I was like, my cutoff
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: game is strong. Oh, when I cut you off, that'd
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: take me a long time to get there. But when
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: I get there, I can go back to the day
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: before I ever met you.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: That's hilarious.
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: I feel like it'd take me forever to get there.
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: I can go back to the day.
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: So just put you guys knowing. Put the hot dogs on.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: You put ketchup, mustard.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: Chili. Chili. Uh-oh.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: With no beans. And now he's out. adding coleslaw to
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: the top.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: Yes. I just want to do this just because I...
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: You like onions?
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: Cooked onions mainly. Oh, yeah. What are you about to do?
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: We're about to take it up. You got to trust me.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: I'm going to trust you.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: It's just going to be a little. I'm not going
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: to hit you with a lot. There it is. Boom.
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: Okay, cool. Just a little bit.
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: Boom.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: I'm going to do the same thing.
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: Are you doing that for crunch or flavor factor?
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: Both.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: Hold on. We're not done. Because the coleslaw is a show.
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: Okay, here we go. Now you got to, when you
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: place it, you got to pack her. I'm speaking in tongues.
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: What advice?
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: You heard that before? Yes.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: When people speak in tongues, have you spoken in tongues? Yeah.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: For real?
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah. In real life?
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: That was real. There's no specific place you have to
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: do that at.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: If it's in you, it's going to come out. I
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: meant that thing. It's my conviction.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: I thought when people speak in tongues, it's like a
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: whole spiritual takeover.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Everything I do is spiritual. Watch this.
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: Lord, we thank you for this food that we're about
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: to receive. Let it be nourishing for our bodies. Bless
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: the hands that prepared it.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: These hands, in Jesus' name, amen. That's spiritual. That was spiritual.
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: That was.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: Okay. Now, I've got to watch you first.
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: No, let's do it. All right, fine. I don't care.
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: I'm dying to try this. All right, here we go.
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: Big bite. Can you have one of these?
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: Smack attack. I'm going to join you because I didn't get.
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: Enough of the hot dog.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: But my goodness, close off should go on every hot dog.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: Was that you talking in tongues again?
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: 10 out of 10.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: Oh! Let's go! Let's go!
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: I am very impressed.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: It's the flavor profiles. It's like you get a little
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: bit of everything.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: And I'm not even mad at the extra onions. That
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: was a very good. I would do that again. I
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: would switch mine out with turkey meat.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: I'm with that.
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: You're cool with that?
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: I'm with that. Just to leave everything else.
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: That is amazing.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: What a combination. I'm never going to look at KFC
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Coastal the same.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: So let me tell you something.
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: You need to work for KFC.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: Let me tell you something.
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: All them hot dogs with relish. And that's cool. But
• 32:08
  Speaker 4: this is North Carolinian hot dogs.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: Tell you.
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: You ever heard of this fast food restaurant called Cookout?
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: It's a fast food restaurant called Cookout. It was originated
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: in North Carolina. They make slaw dogs.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Smack attack.
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: And you did do the chili pretty good. I was
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: concerned because there was a lot of salt. That's all you.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: The sugar is what curves the saltiness.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: But honestly, the coleslaw, I think if you were terrible
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: at chili.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: The coleslaw.
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: The coleslaw.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: It takes it up.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if you're the worst chili person ever.
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: You guys going to try it?
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: Yes. Yes.
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: Come on.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: Who don't want to try the hot dog? It's a
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: 10 out of 10.
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: Y'all just got to take a bite.
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: Are they shaking their head back there?
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: Anybody?
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: Anybody? You guys are going to try it. My God!
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: Let me wash my hand one more time.
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: Hilarious.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: Let me make it for you, dog. I got to
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: make it with care.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: What advice would you give to someone? What advice would
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: you give to someone trying to follow in your footsteps.
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: As like pursuing music? Even in today's age where the
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: industry has changed?
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: Run.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Here's my thing.
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: Many are called, few are chosen. So people feel like, oh,
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: I've been called to do this, and oh, God called
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: me for this. But if you haven't been chosen, meaning
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: set apart, this is what I've created for you to do.
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: If you're doing it for any other reason than the
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: call and being chosen, in today's society, it's almost virtually impossible.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: See, back in the day- It's a God thing.
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: You have to know who you are, whose you are,
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: and how is your life lining up, not perfection. Understanding assignment,
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: what have I been created to do in life? When
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: you discover what you've been created to do, and you
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: can do it at a high level, then you pursue
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: that and you got to go balls to the walls.
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: You got to go all in, right? And I think
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: everybody has a gift and a talent in something. Sometimes
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: we covet what other people have. It looks glamorous over there.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: It looks good. They got the cars, they got this.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: I want to do that.
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: But have you been called to do that? We know
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: the glory, but we don't know what people's story is.
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: We don't know what people had to go through to
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: get what they have. And a lot of times we
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: want those things, but we do not pursue the hard
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: work that it takes to get it.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: And it takes time.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: So I say run for this simple reason, not because
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: it's impossible, It's just a day in the time where streaming.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: Has taken the money out of music.
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: Unless you a Drake, Chris Brown, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, an anomaly,
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: you're not making no money on radio anymore. Cause radio
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: has been replaced with streaming. So it's almost, I wanna
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: reach over to you. It's almost like one of those
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: things where you have.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: To, 1500 streams equal 99 cents.
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: You remember back in the day, you used to go
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: to Walmart, Target, get an album, get 9.99? If you
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: had a good deal, Say you had a good deal
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: where you get a percentage of that. So let's just
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: say you're an independent artist. You may do a 80-20 deal.
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: You got 80%, the label got 20. Or if it's
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: 80-20 the other way, you get some.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: Of that $ 9. 99.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: 1,500 spins now equals $ 9. 99.
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: That means you have to listen to one of my
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: songs 1,500 times for me to make $ 10.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: Are you serious? Absolutely. So if you're not streaming billions
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: of streams on a song, you're not making no money.
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: You're not making no money.
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: And radio was the biggest thing, which is why now
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: you're seeing everybody's on tour. Gospel's on tour. Because they're
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: making straight money now. Back in the day, it wasn't
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: as many tours because people put out a big song.
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: It's on the radio.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: You're making millions of dollars on radio. Oh, my God. Television, radio.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: But now MTV is gone. BET, all the videos, that's gone.
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: So you have no platform. So now you take that
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: concept and then you bring it into gospel.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: We have no outlets.
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: We used to have celebration of gospel, that's gone. Sunday best,
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: that's gone. Bobby Jones gospel, that's gone. Everything we had
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: is gone. So now all you have is you, your
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: talent and your relationships. And now churches that used to
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: be the go-to are now, yeah, I don't need to
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: bring in an artist to pay them a bunch of
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: money because I can just get my praise team to sing.
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: So now artists who used to work at churches are
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: not working as much because they have praise teams that
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: can sing your songs and sing them better in some cases.
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: Wow. So now you're tapping into it.
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: So if you're not really chosen and called and knowing, hey,
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: I'm called to do this.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to do it.
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: I would say get a day job and do this
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: on the side. Don't make this your bread and butter.
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: Okay. And lastly, before you leave this kitchen.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Yes. With my 10 out of 10 hot dog.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: With your 10 out of 10 hot dog. Can you
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: just fill us in what we can expect on The.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: Isaac Carey Show?
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: Okay, so we just launched season two of The Isaac
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: Carey Show on all platforms.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: And we are really just, we're elated. We have great guests.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: Some of the guests we have, man, we had. Who's
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: our first guest, guys? Kim Burrell.
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: Great conversation with Kim Burrell. We just had a young
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: lady named Tiffany Montgomery. Had David and Tamela Mann this week.
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: We got Todd Tribbett coming up. We have so many
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: guests coming up on the podcast. Just great conversations. One
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: thing I learned about a lot of people, especially us,
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: there's not a lot of platforms that we can go
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: and tell our stories.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: You may know my music. You know my song. You
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: may see me on the basketball court.
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: But if I sat down with Chris Paul, would you
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: really know the backstory of his life? Or do you
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: just know him for all the teams he played for
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: and all the accomplishments and accolades he got? So I
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: wanted to create a platform where people can get a
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: chance to know who the artists are, know who the
• 37:42
  Speaker 4: people are, know who... whomever he is, and just have
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: a good conversation. It's fun, it's laughter, it's whatever you
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: want it to be. And we're super excited about it. Listen, man,
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: be blessed.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: Be blessed. Best hot dog you ever had in your life.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: Let's try it. Ooh.
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: It's good, right?
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, got good crunch, too. That's an onion.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: I like the balance of the flavors. Thank you guys
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: for tuning in to another episode of Eating While Broke.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: Please check out the Isaac Curry Show wherever, on whatever platforms, Apple, Spotify.
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: YouTube.
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: YouTube.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: iHeart.
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: iHeart.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: Everywhere.
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: Clips on socials.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: And anything else are we missing where they could keep
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: up with everything Isaac?
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: My Instagram is Ike Nice, so the show has an
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: Instagram page as well, the Isaac Curry Show.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: You can find us.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: You can find us. Peace out, y'all.
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: Woo!