Latest / Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond / Merry Clayton Finds Redemption

Transcript

Merry Clayton Finds Redemption · Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Pushkin. Mary Clayton is a legendary backup singer and one
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: of the few who managed to consistently steal the spotlight
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Sven Man, You bet Up, keep you all Hair, don't
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: forget what are You good? Book Ship. Mary grew up
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: singing in her father's Baptist church in New Orleans before
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: becoming a part of Ray Charles backing group, the Raylettes
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty six. From there, her powerhouse vocals appeared
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: on a number of classic songs from artists like Leonard Skynard,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Neil Young, and Carol King. Mary's journey from a renowned
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: backup singer to a solo artist was documented in the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Oscar winning documentary Twenty Feet from Stardom. In twenty thirteen,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: almost exactly one year after the film was released, Mary
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: was involved in a near fatal car accident in Los Angeles.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: That accident resulted in her losing both of her legs.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: After years of intensive physical therapy, Mary was back in
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: the studio working with her longtime producer Lou Adler on
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: brand new material. Her new album, Beautiful Scars is a
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: testament to her enduring faith, featuring songs by famed songwriter
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Diane Warren and also cold plays Chris Martin. On today's episode,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Mary Clayton talks to Bruce Headlam about the lasting impression
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: hearing Mahalia Jackson and Arita Franklin singing Church left on
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: her as a little girl. She also recalls how the
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Rolling Stones convinced her to get out of bed in
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: the middle of the night and sing on their nineteen
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: sixty nine classic Gimme Shelter, and how Chris Martin was
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the first person to get married back in the studio
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: after her tragic car accident. This is broken record. Liner
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: notes for the digital age. I'm justin Richmond. Here's Bruce
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Hadlam and Mary Cleaner. So this new album, it's it's
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: got some great old songs. It's got a lot of gospel.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: When did the idea for the album come to you? Well,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: it actually, in the beginning didn't come to me. It
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: came to my uncle Lou. I was when I was
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: in the hospital after my accident. I would speak to
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: lu like every day, you know, maybe two or three
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: times a day. And because I was in the hospital
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: for almost five months, I would speak to Lou and
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: he kept saying to me, said Mary, when you get
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: out of there, you need to be singing. I said, yeah, sure,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: suresh sure. You know, he would keep he would keep
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: revisiting the same thing, and of course I said, well, yeah,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: well I'll think about all of this. So when I
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: finally got out of the hospital, he said to me, well,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: what do you think you think you want to you
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: want to record again? I said, well, I really don't know.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: I've got to get through what I'm going through before
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: I even think about recording again. He said, but you
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: gotta be okay, don't don't you know, don't worry. The
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: main thing he said, I want you to do is
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: get well, and want you get well, we're revisited again.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: So about eight months into my recovery, I got a
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: call from from my then manager and he says, you know,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I got a great call from well from Chris Martin.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Let's say Chris Martin. What do they call it? Boy?
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: He said, well, they wanted to call to see how
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: you were doing, and how's Mary and how she fielding,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: how's the recovery going and whatever. He said, well, well,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: we're gonna be in Talented about two weeks and we
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: would love it if married we can get married to
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: come by the studio. So I spoke to my manager
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: and I said, you know what, that would be a
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: great time for me to get out and just kind
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: of hang in the studio and hang with the guys,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: you know. So I went to the studio and we
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: just kind of out and talked and listen to them.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: This is when they were recording Kalidoscope. But now in
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: the meantime, Lewis called me said, I hear that you're
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: visiting Chris Martin. I said, yeah, I'm here with the
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: guys at the Old A and M studios. So of course,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: after the Kaleidoscope sessions, he kept saying to me, Mary,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: you need to be recording. So we called my great
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: producer f and Terry Young, and Terry said, you know what,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I've got three great songs. I'm coming over. I said, okay,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: And he came over with Old What a Friend? That
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: was the first song, and then he came back with
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: God's Love. Then he came back again with another song,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: and we just went over the songs and Lou heard
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: it and we loved it. So he says, you know what,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna make a call and we're gonna get going
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: to studio. Where would you like to do this? I said, well,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I'd love to do it at I'd like to go
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: home and do it, which is a in recording studio
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: to me, which is the Hanson studio, And we would
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Henson and it was on That's amazing. Now had you
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: known cold Play before you sang on that album? I
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: knew Chris, I didn't know the rest of the guys.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: So what was it like, first time after your accident
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: to be in there singing? What did it feel like? Well,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: it felt like any other recording session really, or any
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: of it, you know, just hanging out with some friends
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and they wanted my presence and my spirit to be there.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: So as I as we were kind of hanging out,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Chris says, you know what, let's go out to the piano.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: So here he comes, you know, he's wheeling me out
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: to the piano. And we got to the piano. He said, Mary,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: can you sing this little part? So what little part?
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: I wasn't supposed to sing? He's, oh, you can sing
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: this little part. So he says, go on the booth.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Let's let's go on the booth and put that on.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: But that's how that started. Then I put one part
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: on a background part of then I put another background
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: part on. Then they called me two other times to
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: do the same thing again, and we just kind of
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: kick didn't had a great time and did a little recording.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: But I didn't have a problem going in the studio.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: That was like drinking water. What songs had you done
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: in that studio? Well? I did the Mary Clayton album there,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: and that very studio, which I didn't even know where
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: I was going. I had no idea that the studio
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: that the session with Coldplay was even going to be
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: at Hinson A and m I just you know, they
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: were driving and they wouldn't tell me anything. So when
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I got there and they took me into the studio,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: I said, oh my god, this is my studio. You
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: know this is where I did this Mary? What did
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: you do here? I said? Did the Mary Clayton help here?
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: And we also did Tapestry here. The Mary Clayton album
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: was your second album, right, Was Gimme Shelter your first? Yes?
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: So that had that incredible version of Southern Man on it. Yes,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: do you remember recording that? Of course? I remember every
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: session I ever did. I want to hear about that
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: one because it's such a great song. The way you
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: do it it was fabulous. Well, thank you. Lou. Had
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: just at that song to my husband, who also worked
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: for Lou at on the A and M lot, and
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: we got home on it even and he said, you
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: know what, we need to listen to this song. Lou asked,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: you know, to check it out to see if you'd
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: like it and if you want to record it. So
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I listened to it, and I listened to it again.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: I listen to it a couple of times. I said,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: you know what, if we just bump this up a
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: little bit, I think this would be a great song.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: The message was incredible at that time. So then I
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: had my great friend Billy Preston played on that. I
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: had I think Joe Sample, I had a couple of
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the Crusaders, I had David T. Walker, I had all
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the great musicians on it. So we got through it
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: and did the way we wanted to do it. Then
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: we loved it. Had you known Billy Preston from Ray
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Charles then when you sang with him, Well, this is
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: another story. Billy and I were childhood friends. We knew
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: each other from nine years old. Are you kidding? No,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Billy went to a church called Victory Baptist Church, he
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: and his mom and family, and I went to a
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: church on the other side of the town called Mariah
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Baptist Church. So these two black churches would always visit
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: each other. They would like hold revivals where a minister
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: would come in and preach for a whole week, you know,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: and hold these great new Bibles, and they have these
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: great choirs to sing. And I went to Billy's church
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: and saw this little guy nine years old playing this
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Hammond organ, and I said, well, who is that? And
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: my mom said, that's Billy. That's Robbie, Robbie's Robbie's son, Billy,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: little little Billy. So they got us together and we
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: became great friends as kids. And whatever Billy would do,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I would do. Wherever Billy would play, I would play,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: so we kind of mimicked each other. And where every
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: record company he would go to, I would go to.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Whatever he would do, he would always recommend me to
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: do vocals. So that's how our whole situation worked until
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: you know, he left this earth. Did you sing with
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: him in church? Where? When? Oh God, yes, yes, absolutely.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: When we were kids, we always sung. Billy would play
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: and I would sing. And did you sing solo in
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: your church? Of course I was the baby. I was
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: the baby girl from God. I've had to be four,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: maybe four or five years old. And your dad was
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: the pastor, Yes he was now. But New Orleans had
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: such great secular music as well as church music. Yes,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: when you got older, did you go out and start
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: seeing like New Orleans greats or did your dad not
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: like that? What happened in my situation was at my
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: dad's church. It was every maybe two weeks, there would
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: be great singers that were in town doing gospel in
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: New Orleans, and they would all come to my dad's
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: church to sing. You know. My dad's great friend was
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Mahalia Jackson, and Mahelia loved I just loved. They were
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: really great. They kind of came up together. And she
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: would always when she was in talent, you'd always come
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: and I some kind of way would find where she
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: was and go and sit us nestled myself right up
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: under her. She would be on one side, and Lynda
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: the Hopkins. She would always sit with Lynda Hopkins. Lynda
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Hopkins was my dad's friend also. She was a great singer.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: So when Mahelia was there. Whatever she was saying, I
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: would mimic her the next Sunday and different sundays. Sam
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Cook may walk in, and you know, he may be
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: in town, and he would come and sing your dad's
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: church and with the Solstres. He was the solstress at
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: that time. So all the gospel, all the great gospel singers,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: and Rita's dad, remember Franklin would come and he would,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: you know, have a word or whatever, and Aretha would sing,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: you know, so everybody kind of knew each other, you know.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: And I was like, I was about like seven or
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: eight years old. Did you ever sing with Aretha or
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: with Mahalia? Well I didn't sing with Mahalia, but I
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: did sing with Aretha. If anyone knows me more than
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: thirty years, my family doesn't know me as Mary Clayton.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: All my family and close close friends call me baby
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: sister to my sister named me that. Before I was born.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: My mom asked her what does she want for Christmas?
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: And she said, I want a baby sister. So Christmas
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Day I came. So all my life I've always been
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: known to my family, close inner circle friends as baby sister.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: So Aretha would call me and say, let me speak
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: to Big Daddy. I said, she speak to Big Daddy.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: But that's what they would call my husband, Let me
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: speak to Big and Curtis would get on the phone
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: and he'd work out whatever they wanted to work out.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: And my husband would come to me and say, the
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: queen wants you to come to New York. I said,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: the quick, come to New York. Yeah, she's doing Avery
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Fisher Hall, or she's doing whatever, and she wants you
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: to come. She wants to see you, and she wants
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: you to come and sing with her. So they would
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: pack me up and send me to New York or
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: where Wheretha was. And I was singing with her group.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: You know, I was saying, whoever, whatever she wanted me
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: to do, I was there for her and this one
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: all for years. I have to ask you, do you
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: remember Sam cooking the Soulsters singing? Absolutely? Do you remember
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: what they sang? I think it was Jesus gave me
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: water and it was not from the whale. Jesus gave
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: me water. Jesus gave me water. Jesus gave me water.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: I want to let us play this way. Yeah, yeah,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I remember that. Wow, What I don't understand is how
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: you went from your singing in your dad's church. You
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: were in New Orleans and then you moved to LA.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: I think it was pretty young you moved to LA.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I moved to LA when I was eight, almost nine
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: years old. Oh, I see, when did you start singing
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: on records? Then? When did you start doing backup and
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing? Well? I started doing back up
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: at fourteen. I would think. I was in junior high school,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: getting ready to go to high school. And I went
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: to a session with someone I don't remember who, and
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: they heard me sing it said, you know what, you
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: need to join the group. Why don't you come and
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: just sing with us? So they picked me up. I
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: went to the session and I sung just so happened.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: This particular session was for Bobby Darren. Was that the
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: song who Can I count On? No? No, no, no,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: no no. It wasn't that particular song. This is where
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: he heard me sing and asked me, who are you?
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: What is your name? He said, you're singing really loud,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: and I would back up and we start again, and
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: I would start singing loud again, you know, and I'd
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: back up some more, and then they he said, well,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: who is who is that voice? So he finally brought
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: me in the booth, brought me behind the board and
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: said sing your part. So i'd sing my part. He says, wow,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: you sure can't sing. And we had another session. He said,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: you know what, I would certainly like to speak to
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: your parents because I like to record you. You know.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: You got with my mom and they talked about what
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: was necessary. And what was necessary was that I take
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: a nap. They would pick me up from school. I'd
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: take a nap and they had to correct my homework
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: and then I could go downstairs and cat Capitol Records
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: and sing with Chordy Rogers in the big band. Was
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: that scary for you? Well, no, when you know, when
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: you when you come up singing in the church, I
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: came up with singing with some great singers. So I
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: wasn't intimidated at all. I never happened and intimidated to
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: sing with anybody at any time, anywhere and with anybody.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: It really didn't bother me at all. And I remember
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: that session because it was sort of late in the evening,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: almost like about six six thirty seven in Eden, and
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: I kept saying, what are they going to do my song?
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: What are we going to do our song? So mister Darren,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: he would tell me. He says, well, so the next
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: song is going to be our song. So they put
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: me in a booth. My section was on one side
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: and he was in front of me on the other
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: side in the microphone. So I would start singing and
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: he told me what he wanted me to sing, and
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: I just sung it, and he was like, where does
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: that come from? It was funny to me, where do
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: you how We'll talk to you how to sing like that?
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: You know? I said, I don't know. I just sing
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: like that in church all the time. He says, well,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: you should be singing all the time. So when when
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: we did the listing back, I was able to hear
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: myself and say to me. I said to myself, oh
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: my god, that really sounds good. Did you want to
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: be a singer at that point? Was it just something
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: you did? No, I didn't particularly want to be a singer.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to sing, you know. I didn't know
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: that it really meant being a singer. I just loved singing.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: And what was Bobby Darren like? Was he was he
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: a nice guy in the studio? Was he helpful? He
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: was wonderful. He was just a joy, what a joy,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: A very kind, very loving man. I mean, he was
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: very It was a big session. This was a huge session.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: And this was with short You are just big band,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: you know. So to hear that, to hear that orchestra,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: and well you heard the song, you heard the orchestration, yes,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: it was it was just it was killer. I said,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, I get the scene with all of this.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: And I would always say, wow, that sounds like Ray
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Charles is bad because he was like the only guy
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: that we would get a chance to really see maybe
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: once a year, was Ray Charles. Growing up, you'd only
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: see Ray Charles was the only guy you would see. Yeah,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: why was that? Well, my father was a minister. You
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: couldn't be hanging out and lollygagging somewhere you had no
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: business being at that age, at four eighteen fifteen years old.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: That was not gonna happen, not my house. Did he
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: make an exception for Ray Charles? Absolutely, m Do you
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: remember the first time you saw him, Yes, Billy and
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: I here here we go again, Billy and I. Billy
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: and I and my sister went to see him. And
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: my dad allowed that, and my and my music professor
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Eddie Kendricks. So we go and see Ray and Billy
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: and I find our way at the really front of
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: the stage. They were standing you could stand and watch
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: the show. And we were standing at the front of
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: the stage and I was talking to Building. He was
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: talking to me, and he looked at me and he said,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: we can do this. I said, I could sing like
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: those girls. He said, I can play like those guys.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: And we looked at each other and said, you know,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: one day we may just get a chance to sing
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: with Ray Charles. I said, boy, that show would be great.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: And you know, about five or six years later, you know,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: he heard Billy and just lost his mind when he
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: heard Billy loved the Billy. Ray absolutely adored Billy. So
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Billy called me one day and said, hey, what are
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: you doing. I said, I'm folding towels. He says, you
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: need to get up here. Did you get up here?
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: And saying for Ray? I said, Ray, who Ray Charles,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: but all something cute and come up here to the
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: RPM building. Well, of course I did what he said,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: and I went to the RPM building, had my sister
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: to take me to the RPM building and sung for
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Ray and left with a contract. He wanted to go
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: out on tour with him. So he spoke to my mom,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: you know, my mom and dad, and they said, you know,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: we have to see about that. And then we my
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: mother found out that Billy was going, and his mother
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: found out that I was, you know, thinking about going,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: and the parents talked and you know, they figured out,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: you know, it's be a good gray experience for them.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: We have to have somebody to look out for them.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: So the lookout person for us was Curtis Amy, who
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: was the musical director. He's a pretty good lookout guy. Yeah,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: he was. You know, I met him. We fell deeply
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: and love with each other and married in nineteen seventy
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: and was married for thirty two years. So when did
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: you start touring with Ray Charles? Then? What year was
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: that in nineteen sixty six? What was he like as
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: a bandleader, Ray Charles? Oh boy, he was a taskmaster.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: You had to be on your game. If you were
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: not on your game, you could not be on tour
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: with him. He was a wonderful man and a great teacher.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Everything I learned. I knew how to sing harmony, but
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: I mean I really knew how to sing harmony when
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: when you know, when I parted and left to Ray Charles,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: he had that very close close because he had four singers,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: four girls. That's hard harmony to sing if you're not
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: you don't have a good ear, you know. But he
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: taught us. We would rehearse for us every day because
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: he wanted a certain sound and you had to sing it,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: and you know, you had to sing it the way
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: he taught you to sing it. So did he did
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: he do a lot of the arranging himself or he
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: did he have arrangements for you know, he had arrangements
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: for us. He knew what he wanted his girls to
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: sound like, right, he knew exactly. He already had his
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: big arrangements. But he know what he knew with his book,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: he wanted his vocals to sound like you know. So
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: that's why that's why he meticulously took time. I mean,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: we were rehearsed every day. We get into a city
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: and he'd ran out the ballroom and we'd sit in
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: this big ballroom with this big baby grand and we'd
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: sit around the piano and he'd work out parts with
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: us every day. It didn't matter if you knew it
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: and knew the part or not you were you. You
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: had to sing it again because he had to know
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: that you knew it. Wow. Yeah, can you remember what
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: were the hard songs to sing with him? Of his heads?
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: For me, it was Together Again. If you saw twenty
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: feet from starting I talked about that song. I mean
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: I could not hear the second part. I just could
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: not hear it. Bobby Wolmack was in the band at
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: that time, and Bobby everybody had everybody was trying to
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: help me with these notes. He said, Baby, I'm gonna
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: play this part. I'm gonna play a first note. And
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: when you hear that note on my guitar, you that's
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: the part you come in on. My husband, Curtis said, okay,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna play this particular note on the saxophone. Everybody
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: was trying to help me. I could not hear the note.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: So we were in Carnegie Hall, and do you know
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: when when it came time to sing that song, I
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: got ready to sing. The song was Together Again and
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: my part was twogether rocking the Great Skies An that
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: was the second part. I could not hear it and
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: I did not sing the correct note. And do you
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: know that he took his finger and banged out my part.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: He took his finger and banged out my part where
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: I tell you one thing. No one had to tell
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: me about that part again. I could sing that part
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: in my sleep because I wasn't gonna be made to
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: look like a fool. Did you sing on recordings with
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: him as well? Yeah? I did Let's Go Get Stone
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: with him, which was his very first hit, and I
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: also worked on Oh God, eleanor Rigby for the movie
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: In the Heat of the Night, and Oh God. I
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: worked on several things for him. Did you decide to
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: leave to do more backup in your own work? Then, Well,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: I wanted a career for myself. My husband and I
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: had discussed it. I was engaged Curtis by then, and
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: we had discussed it, and I discussed with my mom,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: and you know, I just felt like I could, I
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: could be a great artist by myself. Did ra Charles
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: understand that, Well, No, he didn't want us to leave.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: He didn't want me to leave at all, and he
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: sure didn't want his conductor to leave. Yeah, because like
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: we were, we were his fame. He loved me and Billy,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: and he loved he loved Curtis. So he said he
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: did not do that did not make him feel too
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: good at all. Later, later years we talked about it.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: He would always says, Sistemia, you just left me. Oh
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: my god, he's still horning on Systemia. You just left me,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: because that's what he would call me. It was to Mary,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: you just you just left me. I so well, you know,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I wanted a career. I couldn't have a career out
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: on the road with you. We'll be back with more
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: from Mary Clayton after a break. We're back with Mary
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Clayton and Bruce Headlam. So when did you meet Lou
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Adler and all of this? Okay, So I met Lou.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Lou was doing an album called Dylan's Gospel all Bob
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Dylan songs, but he wanted to do them in a
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: gospel flare. So he wanted to call all the great
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: singers in the LA to do these particular sessions, which
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: consisted of the honeycomb. He wanted all the great background singers.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: So you know, he put out the call and Gene
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Page called me the great arranger. He says, Mary, you know,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: I'm doing this record with the producer Lou Adler, and
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: I have a couple of songs but may be great
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: for you. Come to my office and let's kind of
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: go over them. If you feel like you liked them,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: we'd like you to sing them on this record. So
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: I went to Jeans and I loved the songs, you know,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: and they were right they were right up my alley
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: because they were you know, they had a gospel flare
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: to them and I could sing that in my sleep.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: So the section was in about two weeks. Went to
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: the studio and everybody had a different lead on different songs.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: So I met Lou at the studio and then we
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: did I think the first song was Quinn the Eskimo
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: and times are changing, well by times in the change
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: were changing. Lou pulled me in the hallway said, you
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: know what, I'd like to talk to you after all
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: this is over. So we met with Lou at his office,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: my husband and I, and he offered me a deal. Wow,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: and I was I was really ready for a deal,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and he gave me a great deal and we decided
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: to sign the Lou. That was in nineteen sixty nine.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Now you you had a lot of friends who were
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: who were background singers. Yeah, was it really competitive? Among
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: you to get jobs. Was it a tough business to
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: be in? I didn't think it was tough. It wasn't
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: tough for me. I just always thought that if it
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: was for you to have or for you to be on,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: you'd be on it, you know. I mean, if it wasn't,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: then you wouldn't. I mean there were so many different singers,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: so we all just loved each other. We really really
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: cared for each other. So whatever somebody could help each other.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Somebody would call me and said, well, you know what,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: they're doing a session from Motown and they need a
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: top or they need a second soprano. You sing everything, Mary,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: so can't you just come to the studio for sure?
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: And I'd go and there would be other singers. It
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: would be Clydie King, to be Vanetta Fields, maybe Shirley Matthews.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Maybe if you treat somewhere in the holloway, but there
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: would be Gloria Jones. These ladies were all great singers
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: and writers. So I did there. I didn't. I didn't
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: detect any competitiveness in that. We were all just grateful
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: to be doing this wonderful work. And then before you
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: did your first album, you did the Guinea Shelter session, Yes,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: which is very famous. They called you in the middle
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: of the night. Yes. Now do you still understand why
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: when you were called in the middle of the night
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: you were very pregnant. Yeah, you delivered just such an
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: incredible performance. Well, I think every time I go to
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: a record date or do anything, I bring everybody that
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: has ever been good to me, everybody that has said
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: anything nice to me, everybody that has prayed for me
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: are really been for me, meaning all of my ancestors.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: I bring all my ancestors with me wherever I go
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: and whatever I do, especially when I'm singing or doing
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: my craft. And I brought all of them with me
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: that night because they had to help me, because that
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: was a long It wasn't a long night, but it
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: was a very strange feeling that night in the in
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: the air, you know, it was a beautiful feeling. It
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: was a little strange, you know, getting up almost eleven
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: o'clock at night to go into a session and Jack
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Niche calling that late. Jack has never called me that
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: late to come to the studio. So as you know,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: of course, you probably heard my husband. I'm talking to Jack,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: and my husband takes the phone and say, hey, man,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: what's going on as well? We'd love this group to
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: call the rolling And before he could get stones out,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: my husband grabs the phone. He said, what's going on?
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: He says, well, they would love to have a lady
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: sing on this part, and Curtis Jack when he Jack talked,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: he would always talk like Curtis. I think it would
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: be something great for Mary later on down the line.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: I think he was always really great and always in
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: my corner. Jack Nichi. So he says, well, baby, I
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: really think that you should maybe, he said, you know
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: how you are, it won't take you long to do this.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: So opened the front door and the car is sitting
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: down at the end of the stair wheel down there
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: waiting for me, and the drivers standing on the kind
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: of leading on the car. So I go to the
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: studio and Nick and Keith had been out in the back,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: so they're coming through the back door. They were out
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: doing whatever that they did, and they said are you marry?
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: I said yes. It says, well, we want you to
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: do this part, and of course that's the old children
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: just a shot away, just a shot away. So I
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: did that, and then it got to the part of
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: rape murder. Well, first of all, old children just a
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: shot away was very very high. It was very very high.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: So I sung it, and of course I had everything
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: and everybody around me that I brought with me, and
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: they helped me to get through it. But when they
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: got to rape murder, I was like, rape murder. I
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: turned to Keith and I said, honey, I'm here by myself.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: I know you don't want me to sing nobody no
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: rape murder. They said yeah, they said, well tell me
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: what does this mean regarding the song. So when they
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: gave me the gist of the song, I said, okay.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: So we started to sing rape murder, and boy, it
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: even got higher when I started singing rape murder, and
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, being pregnant like that. I don't know if
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: I really should have been singing that high, but something
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: just took me over, you know, just took over my
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: whole being almost And at that time, it was a
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: lot of racism going on. It was the war in Vietnam,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: it was Doctor King and you know, the Black movement
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: going on. It was just a lot of it was
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: just very weird out there in the street police from
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: the brutality, and I think I kind of took that
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: spirit on that night, and I was like, I was
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: just crying out to the heavens to please give me shelter,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: to give a shelter from all the stuff that's going
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: on here, because it touched me very deeply. So by
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: the time I got finished with that, it was like
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: I left myself and then I came back to myself.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: And by the time I came back to myself, they said, well,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: they were hooting and hollering in the booth, just hollering
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: and screaming in the booth, and I'm looking at them
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: and I said, okay, do you want me to do
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: one to say, oh, just one more? Can you do
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: one more? Can you keep the crack? Oh? Can you
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: keep the crack that's in your voice? And it was
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: so late my voice crack. That's why my voice cracked, right,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: you know in that song in my voice crack And
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: it apparently that was that was good, And they said,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: can you give us one more? Please keep the crack,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: don't don't, don't get rid of the crack. I said, well,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: I tried, but that's just what my voice did at
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: that time of night. So I did it again, and
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: before they could come out, I was waving goodbye and
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: I was on my way home, and that was about
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: the I did about three tapes of that and I
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: was done. Were you surprised when it became a big hit? Yeah,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: it was a humenous hit. Yes, I was. What was
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: it like when you did it for your album, because
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: it's very different. Oh, I was having fun. I as
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: I said, I bought everybody with me, you know, and
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: I have all my great musicians in there with me,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: and I had some of my family there and we
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: just had a great time. It was just a great
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: time because it was my first album, Perie, my first record,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: and as Mary Clayton, and it was wonderful. I just
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: had really a great time with a great groove. When
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: we sheltered on the guitar, it was just wonderful. You
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: do a version of Bridge over Troubled Water, yes, which
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: you know people know the original and they knew Aretha
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Franklin's version, but this version is it's very different. Yes,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: it's really wonderful. Can you talk a bit about that.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: When we did that song, you know, that was just
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: how I was feeling. I was feeling like a bridge
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: over troubled Water. You know, you have to have a
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: certain feeling to sing those type of songs, and was
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: still a lot of trim all going on in the world,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: and I felt like we were definitely a bridge that
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: was over some troubled water, you know. And I just
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: bought all of the spirit stuff into the session with
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: me that day, and everybody just seemed to love it.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: But it was just my spirit, That's what that was.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Was dwelling in my spirit that day. I think that
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: we had just we had just done the Moderate Pop
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: Festival and I had the whole Love Unlimited band with
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: me at that festival that day, so I tried to
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: recreate that when I went into the studio and it
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: just turned out so great. We were very happy with that.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: And then you did your next album with Southern Man
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: and Steamroller, and yeah, you did a Carol king Son
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: you had sung on Tapestry, Is that right? Yeah? I
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: didn't do it with Carol on Tapestry called Way Over yonda. Oh.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize that was you. Yeah, that's me. And
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: did you do other background on that album as well? Yeah?
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: I did all the wocal background on Tapestry myself and
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: Julia Waters did Oh incredible, what was Carol King like
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: to work with. Like my sister, we're very cold. We're
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: very very close. We've always been closed. We're still close.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: She was a joy. She she loved my husband and
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: he did brother to brother with her and he worked
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: on tapestry also with her. You know. But we were
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: like family. You know, we're the same record labeled and
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: we would all we would always do everything together. You know.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: We had kids, you know, and we would never we
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: never talk about anything but the children. We didn't talk
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: about music at all. You know, sometimes we talk about me,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: but our main conversation was always about the kids. You know.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: The kids were always on the lot there at A
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: and M and kind of hanging out. She said, oh,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: come and get Kevin. Mary Clayton's son is an office
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: cause it having Carol's kids would be there. So we
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: were like a big family. And she was like, I
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: came one night. I was taking a girlfriend out to
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: dinner and I didn't have the credit card, so I
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: stopped by to get the credit card from my husband,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: and Carol was waving me in, did come come here?
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Come here? And said what's going on? She says, come,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: I want you to sing the slu part. And it
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: was way over Yonder. So I sung that part and
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: I went on out to dinner with my girlfriend. Is
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: that funny? But we want to do the listening back.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: She said, this is what you did. Listen to yourself?
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Is the sun shutting? Shut it write down? I said, oh, Carol,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: that's great. She said, Oh, lucays, oh, Mary was wonderful
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: and it turned out really, really great, so we were
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: happy about that. Why were you able to do things
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: so quickly? Did you read music by this point? Of
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: course I did, but I didn't have to. I didn't
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: have to read music to do Way Over Yonder. I
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: mean it was like it was like a church field.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Way Over Yonder was a place where I know that
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: I could find shelter from a hunger and cold, and
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: the sweet taste in good life is so easily found
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: own way over Yonder. That's why I'm bound. It was
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: very It was like going to choir rehearsal. She says,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: Sing to these lyrics and sing them how you feel it.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: So that's what I did. Wow, did you make your
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: dinner reservations? Of course I did. You made it on time,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: and you you sang a hit on the way there.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: I think Lou called the restaurant said they're going to
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: be about maybe twenty twenty five minutes later, and then
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: when we got there, everything was set up in Randy.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Oh nice. So you know so many people know you
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: from twenty feet from stardom. Yeah, and you said something
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: in that film I think about a lot, which, as
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: you said, every time I get ready to do something,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: something would knock me to my knees. Yeah. And you
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: were talking about solo stuff and other things you would do.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: You know, you had this accident. It's very traumatic. You
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: lost your husband years before that. Did your faith in
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: your ability to get up and do this did it
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: ever wane? No, never wavered. My faith has never wavered.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: From a child, I knew what I knew. I knew
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: who I was. I've always known who I was. But
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: more than that, I've always known whose I was. I
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: always knew and I was always taught that I was special,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: that I was a gift, and that I was descendants
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: of royalty. I was a queen and and and I
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: was and I was great. I was always taught that.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: You know, we were always taught that we were wonderful
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: just the way we were, and we were always God's property,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: So never waver. Whatever God does or whatever God allows
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: in my life, you take it. It's how you it's
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: how you deal with it, you know. It's It's like
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: I was speaking to a great lady in my life
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: one day at a huge party and I got her
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: ear and I was complaining about something. I think it
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: was a deal that was about to go down. It
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: was making too long and oh, I don't know if
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: I want to do it. And la la la la.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: I said why why why does it take so long
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: to get stuff done? So she looked at me and
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: stared at me for a long time, and she says, baby,
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: she said, that's called l I f E. She said,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: that's life, she says, but it's about what you do
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: in life. How are you going to handle a situation
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: in life? It's not the situation, it's how you handle
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: it that would help you get through it. And I
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: always remember that that was that lady was my guy, mom, Delarese.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: You know when when I had my accident, she says,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Now she went back to the same thing. She says, Well,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: however you deal with this, it's how you're going to
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: come out of it. She said, Okay, she said, I
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: want you to gather yourself. She said, and how are
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: you gonna deal with this? I said, I'm gonna deal
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: with it with love and with dignity. She said, you
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: know who you are? I said, I know exactly who
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: I am. Mom, And she said, well, you're gonna get
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: through this, and you're gonna get through it in victory.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: So don't waiver on what you've known all your life.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: So no, my faith has never wavered. And I've never asked.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: You know how some people when they go through things,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: they always oh God, why, And I don't think of myself.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: You know what this happened. I talked to spoke to
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: my brother, and you know, I tried to cry the
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: blues to my brother. I said, well, I don't know.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: You know why this particular thing, you know, had to happen.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: He says, Well, there's a purpose in everything, you know,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: he says, So again he says, you know who you are,
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: and again, you know who'se you are because this is
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: what we were taught. So you'll get through it. But
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: it's also it's going to be a challenge, he says,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: But such as life. You know, life is a challenge.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: No one kind of gets out of this without stars.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: We'll be back with Mary Clayton after this quick break.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: We're back with the rest of Bruce Edlam's interview with
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: Mary Clayton. But first, here's some of the title track
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: of her brand new album, Beautiful Scars. I've been on
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: the battle field of life. I've been through it, but
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: I just had to go through that to get to these.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: I've been not doubt, I've been kicked down, but face
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: brought me back and I'm just handing here now. These
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: are beautiful stars and I have on my heart. This
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: is beautiful proof that I've made it this far, every
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: herd I've been through, every cut, every bruise, wearing power
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: like a bag, wearing like a tattoo. These are beautiful stars.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: These are beautiful scars. Your album is named Beautiful Scars
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: for a great song. Was that song written for you
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: by Diane Warren? Yes? It was? Okay? Have you had
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: you known her before? Oh? God, yes, everybody knows Diane Warren.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: But I think there was a movie score that I
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: did that she was involved in. I think that a
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: background says she also, my granddaughter worked with a little
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: group that she was working with from school. And they
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: would go to her studio, and she came to you
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: one day, she said, Grandma. She says, do you know
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: you know Diane Warren, don't you? I said yes, She
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: said where our studio? Does? Said what I said, did
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: she know you were my granddaughter? She said, Now, Grandma,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: I didn't go up to her say anything. She says,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: but she is really wonderful. I says, she's only one
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: of the greatest writers in the entire world. But when
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: we were doing the album, we were sitting in the
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: studio behind the board and Lou and Terry I were
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: just talking, you know we did. We were doing a
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: listen back and we were just talking. So Lou looked
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: at me. He said, you know what he said to think,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: I'll give a call to Diane. And I looked at
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: him and I said, Diane, who Diane warred? He says, yes,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: let's call Diane. And when he called Diane, he told
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: her what he was what he was about to do.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: She says, what in a studio of Mary Clayton. She's
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: doing an album and he says yes. She says, well,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: I'll have something to you in two weeks. And this
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: woman wrote this beautiful scars, And when Terry came in
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: with it, we all just had to leave out of
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: the studio because everybody was just in tears when I
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: heard this song, because it was so much what I
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: had been through. I have definitely been on the battlefield
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: of life and I have been through it. But I
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: had to go through that to get to you where
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: I am today, you know, And those words they were
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: so what I have been through in my life as
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: an artist. But these are still beautiful scars. What was
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: it like for you to sing it the first time? Oh? Man,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: it was. It was a tear jerker. You know. I
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: had to really get myself together. I had to really
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: get because every time I started to sing you, I
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: started to cry. I would cheer up, and you could
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: hear it in my throat. I'm sure you'd probably hear
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: it in a certain part of the song. And when
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: I say everybody's got scars, you know, and that's true.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: Everybody have some type of scar or another. But during
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: the time I was recording it, the first time I
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: recorded it, Luc says, you know what he said, I
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: think you need to go home and really, really, really
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: really horn in on the song and we'll come back
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: into two days. Okay, Mary, I said, okay, Uncle Loo,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: that's cool. So I came home and played it over
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: and over and over and over and over and over
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: and over and over until I got it in my spirit.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: Once I got it in my spirit, I was ready
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: to go. So we got to the studio and the
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: first take they loved it, and then here I go again,
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: and then we did another one for safety, and then
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: we did one more and that was it for beautiful Scars,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: because they wanted to capture the performance of it. Yeah,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: and that's what we did. I want to ask you
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: just about one more song. It's full of great gospel
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: songs by your producer, but you redo a song I
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: think you did on your first album, which is Leon
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: Russell's a song for you. Oh yes, oh Bruce, my my, my, my,
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: my my, you know that song. You know, like couples
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: have songs that they really like and they go back
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: and remember things that they were doing at that time
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: in their lives, and when that song come on, you
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: can just look at each other and say, oh boy,
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: I remember that song. Well, that song applied to my
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: husband and I and that was kirk My and Curtiss
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: song because he would always say, I always feel married
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: that you're singing that song for me. I said, well,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: I am singing that song for you. And when I
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: recorded that song, we just fell in love with it,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: and of course we love Leon. And when I recorded
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: it for this album, see, I didn't know that Lou
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: and Terry were going to pull O curtis Is solo
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: from the Mary Clayton album and put it on this
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: particular record. So one day we're kind of hanging out
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: and he calls me and say, Mary, I'm gonna send
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: a song for you, but I want Kevin to be
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: sitting with you when you listen to it. So Kevin
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: is my sons. I called Kevin. I said, you know,
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: uncle Lou wants you to be here. When I listened
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: to song for you. We had no idea what was
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: going on. So we have these great speakers in the house.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: So he's sitting and we're listening. So Karvin took his
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: finger and he was pointing to the music and I said,
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: why is he pointing? He said, Mom, that's dad, that's dad.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: I said, oh my god, Lou, pull that's solo from
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: that album, and we both just you know, it just
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: brought us to tears. It brought us to tears. It
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: was just it was just so wonderful. That's why this
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: song is so special to me. Well, it's an amazing version.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: Thank you. It's a terrific album. What's next for you?
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: Are you? Are you waiting to see about when you
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: can perform again in public? Absolutely? I think we're getting
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: ready to do a video, a couple of videos, and
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: it's a lot of things brewing, a lot of things
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: coming up there. They tell me we're looking forward to
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: doing great things with this record. I want people to
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: really be blessed by hearing this and be able to
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: really touch somebody or help somebody in some kind of
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: way with this music. You know, it's very important to
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: me that, you know, I was I was telling Louisa, LOUI,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: you know, if I don't get a dime, it doesn't matter.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: I just want people to be touched because this record
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: has healed my soul and my spirit. It's really made
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: me feel like me again. So I just wanted to
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: bless people and people to be to be really touched
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: and delivered from whatever they're going through and to be
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: lifted up in this record. You've already touched one. You're
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: going to touch a lot more. It's just wonderful. Thank you,
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: and I couldn't be more thrilled You're singing again and
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: doing it so so thank you, Thank you so much.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: God bless you guys. Thanks to Mary Clayton for sharing
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: so many wonderful stories with Bruce. Do You're. A playlist
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: of our favorite Mary Clayton songs and classic tracks that
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: feature her on background vocals. Head to Broken Record podcast
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: dot com. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: at YouTube dot com slash Broken Record Podcast, where you
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: can find extended cuts of new and old episodes. You
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: can follow us on Twitter at broken Record. Broken Record
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: is produced with helpful Leo Rose, Jason Gambrell, Martin Gonzalez,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: Eric Sandler, and Jennifer Sanchez, with engineering help from Nick Chafee.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: Our executive producer is Mia la Belle. Broken Record is
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: a production of Pushkin Industries and if you like the show,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: please remember to share, rate and review us on your
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: podcast at Our theme musics by Kenny Beats. I'm justin
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: Richmond Pace