Latest / The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen / 472 - What Really Happened With The Gucci Scandal? - Lynda Trang Dai

Transcript

472 - What Really Happened With The Gucci Scandal? - Lynda Trang Dai · The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen

0:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the Vietnamese podcast.
0:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Today, I am very honored to finally sit with Linda Zhang Dai.
0:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the podcast.
0:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much.
0:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm very glad to finally get to talk to you.
0:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's been a year.
0:20
[SPEAKER_02]: that we've been going through back and forth, so everything can settle.
0:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think we're gonna start with that because I was gonna start with sort of your early life and how you got into music, but let's get right into the Florida situation.
0:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
0:34
[SPEAKER_00]: We, you know, it's like, I think it's just like, it's a bad luck.
0:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
0:41
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like kind of not a good year for me to happen like at the beginning of the year.
0:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, my mom just passed away and then it was just only a month and everything just...
0:56
[SPEAKER_00]: crazy happened.
0:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
0:58
[SPEAKER_00]: But it wasn't a big deal, honestly.
1:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
1:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
1:02
[SPEAKER_00]: To American people honestly, it's not even a big deal.
1:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Not at all.
1:05
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not even that.
1:06
[SPEAKER_00]: But I know, I just I just think and Vietnam, they're desperate for news.
1:11
[SPEAKER_00]: They're desperate for views.
1:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
1:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And I totally understand that because they make money that way.
1:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's okay.
1:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
1:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
1:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Understandable.
1:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not mad.
1:19
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, when a lot of us in the showbiz, we heard the news,
1:26
[SPEAKER_02]: That wasn't this situation and the reason I say that is because I've been around you and I've seen how Frantic you're pacing is, right?
1:37
[SPEAKER_02]: You're always moving you're always it seems like you know you're always in sort of motion to get to the next place
1:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, that's the reason why the accident happened is because I'm always in a hurry and rushing through things.
1:52
[SPEAKER_00]: But I always try to do 10 million things at a time and caring for people.
1:59
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's what, sometimes I make mistake, because honestly, I didn't do anything to harm anyone.
2:08
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, and I didn't even like.
2:11
[SPEAKER_00]: did it on purpose because I would have switched still $3 million, yeah.
2:17
[SPEAKER_00]: But not $350.
2:17
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
2:19
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, let's put it in context for everybody.
2:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
2:21
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, Gucci, uh, AirPod.
2:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Which I don't even, yeah, which I don't even need.
2:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a AirPod cover that is $1,500.
2:29
[SPEAKER_00]: $1,500.
2:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me clarify from her mess.
2:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
2:34
[SPEAKER_00]: So why would I use $350 or change it to that when I have a $1500 case already orange her mask case, but that's just me like I can't stand still.
2:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So can I just tell the yeah it's a story yeah yeah it's given it's like um
2:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't want to say anything at first until, you know, everything is all understand, you know, understood, understoodable.
3:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
3:06
[SPEAKER_00]: until the case is closed, which I knew is going to be closed because that was just a law, because I'm not from Florida, if I was from Florida, they would just write me a ticket and I just go home.
3:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Just like here in California, if you're not from California, they're going to take you in and make sure that it's you because you're not from the state.
3:29
[SPEAKER_00]: and you're legally living here, you know, in the U.S., but so because I'm not from there, so they had to go through the process.
3:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't want to make a scene at the mall, so I actually prefer to go back to the police station and take care of it, you know?
3:47
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's why, but I had to go through all that.
3:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I had to go with the police and go back and I mean, I didn't really think it's a big deal, because inside
3:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I know I didn't do anything bad, so I don't feel scared or bad or whatever, but it was just crazy.
4:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Same thing always happened.
4:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm always trying to shop and buy presents at the last minute.
4:13
[SPEAKER_00]: So I have a loyal fan, and his name is Amani Dunyam, and everybody knows he's one of my biggest.
4:21
[SPEAKER_00]: biggest fan fan forever fans.
4:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I care about my fans, especially one that always like got you up, you know, been there for me motivated me and supported me through out my career.
4:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And I always want them to know that I care about them, you know, like, so I just, um,
4:50
[SPEAKER_00]: it was a show for Talashron that day and I didn't have time to go buy him a birthday present.
4:58
[SPEAKER_00]: His birthday is on the 4th of January every year and that show that week.
5:04
[SPEAKER_00]: happened to be like right on January 4th that's exactly for the first time.
5:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Usually we celebrate after because I'm never there right on his actual date.
5:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So, and then I didn't have time to to buy him the present.
5:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I was going to take him out to dinner after the, you know, after the show, I was going to take him out for his birthday dinner and celebrate.
5:26
[SPEAKER_00]: But I thought, okay, I want
5:28
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, and then giving them the presents the next day because I was I was staying there a couple days with him in Florida.
5:36
[SPEAKER_00]: So, um, that day when I came into the show and they said, oh, you're not, you know, you're not, uh, your call time is not until six.
5:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
5:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So, uh, I was like, oh, it's only like four.
5:48
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I have some time, maybe I'm gonna go grab a present really quick, like I did the year before.
5:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So, um,
5:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, okay, I'm going to take over, check, I'm, I go over the clothes this small there.
6:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So I go, so I Uber to that mall, she bought him a present.
6:05
[SPEAKER_00]: So the year before I bought him like a bottle of colom from Louis ton and that day, the year before I had time because I was seeing it that day at the whole day.
6:14
[SPEAKER_00]: But then today I was like, um,
6:20
[SPEAKER_00]: thinking, OK, I'm going to grab him another bottle of Kalong, because he loved it, so I went into the mall really quick.
6:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, on the way in through an even market, I stopped and look at some stuff, because I'm such a sharp colleague.
6:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it wasted like 30 minutes already.
6:35
[SPEAKER_00]: But something for my friend.
6:37
[SPEAKER_00]: So I looked at the clock and I was like, oh, my God, I got to hurry.
6:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So I went out to the mall and then I didn't see LV.
6:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And I saw twitchy right in front of me.
6:44
[SPEAKER_00]: me.
6:45
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the first story I saw.
6:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So I thought, okay, you know what?
6:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have time.
6:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I'm just going to go to Gucci.
6:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Just give him a different gift.
6:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Give this year.
6:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you try out Gucci since he had Louis Vuitton last year.
6:58
[SPEAKER_00]: So I went into Louis Vuitton and I mean to a Gucci.
7:02
[SPEAKER_00]: specifically, you just want to get a body of colon for a get and then we're in there and I asked the salesperson, you know, can you find me, you know, the best male colon?
7:15
[SPEAKER_00]: So she was kind of like not very helpful.
7:20
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and afterwards I heard my friend was saying that, um,
7:24
[SPEAKER_00]: She said, oh my god, I'm telling you that, Mom, those people are kind of prejudice of Asian people because they didn't like the fact that Asian people, they always exchange and return.
7:37
[SPEAKER_00]: So they're not, you know, so helpful.
7:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that's why, and I was like, oh, I didn't know that.
7:43
[SPEAKER_00]: But she wasn't very helpful.
7:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So I asked for another,
7:48
[SPEAKER_00]: person to help, which is, I said, you know, whoever's the expert with the colon, so the guy came out and helped me.
7:55
[SPEAKER_00]: So he went to, oh, my got the tooth, like 30 minutes, just to get a bottle of the colon, he went to search for, you know, the colon of it.
8:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And then so why waiting, you know, me, I, I can't sense still.
8:09
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was waiting at the counter.
8:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And there was like, I looked through the dresses a little bit and there was a dress that I really want to buy.
8:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, but I said, oh, no way I'm going to have time to try it on.
8:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe I'll come back another time or another Gucci.
8:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm not waiting at the counter and trying to hurry to pay.
8:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there's, you know, they have, they have the display with all the Nick and X, you know, living in that little Gucci.
8:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, come over here.
8:36
[SPEAKER_00]: earpock cover and it didn't look like the earpock covers.
8:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I asked the salesperson, I said, what is this?
8:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was like, it's an earpock cover.
8:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And I said, oh, interesting.
8:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And I said, is it for a...
8:50
[SPEAKER_00]: you know the big one the airport max or the regular and he was like I don't know and I'm like okay he's a sell man and he doesn't know so I took my other one out trying to fit it to see that fit because he didn't run just didn't just curious yeah out of curiosity why I'm waiting so I put it on and see if it fit
9:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, you know, they brought out the clone and I was so happy and I just gave you the bag, yeah, this is the give me bag and then I was so happy I grabbed it, you know, and then I just left and then.
9:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I had the the the the case in there and I just scrapped everything and just ran because I had to go back and get ready.
9:39
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'll make up and get ready for the show.
9:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm still crazy like I'm always like doing things at the last minute, you know, like trying to hurry and even though I know, but I wanted to give him the gift that night to make him completely happy 100% you know.
9:54
[SPEAKER_02]: So I wanted to ask you, um, because this is a really big situation that happened in your life.
10:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
10:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you find that it?
10:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Are you slowing down as a result?
10:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, do you?
10:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, did it kind of help you into mindfulness, like, Buddhist mindfulness more?
10:12
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, no, I'm not.
10:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not.
10:16
[SPEAKER_00]: a calm person.
10:17
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
10:17
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it did kind of slow you down a little bit.
10:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Slow me down like at that time, you know, when I realized, okay, I mean, if you know what, it's a habit, right, but you don't think did it make you stop for a minute and like be like, okay, let me pull back a little bit and try to like show down.
10:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I did, I did want to realize like think back, like say, how come I'm always in a rush?
10:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
10:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you make this happen, you know?
10:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And all my
10:44
[SPEAKER_00]: see Linda you have to slow down because when you don't you forget things like that and you walk out and it's like we know you so we know you don't do it on purpose but some people you know you're an entertainer and people don't know you and some people
11:00
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, everybody has haters.
11:03
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's a chance for them to think bad of you, even though you're not like that, you know what?
11:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So I hear all these people caring about me and telling me this and I did, you know, the first few months at that time when this thing went crazy, I was like,
11:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, I think I should slow down.
11:23
[SPEAKER_00]: It's good for me.
11:24
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also good for my you know, my health too.
11:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
11:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Instead, I'll always just but where do you think it comes at the high speed?
11:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Where do you think the high speed comes from?
11:35
[SPEAKER_00]: It's me.
11:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, but do you think like when you're a kid when you're a young girl, like, someone always like that?
11:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I would more like that.
11:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Always a little bit.
11:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't sit still for like an hour.
11:47
[SPEAKER_02]: No
11:48
[SPEAKER_00]: five, six is a lot, you know, sometimes two or three, and I'm fine.
11:53
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm the same way.
11:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Cause that's why I'm asking the questions.
11:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause I'm crazy, cause I don't like to sleep a lot because you live a hundred years.
12:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's say you live a hundred years, okay?
12:03
[SPEAKER_00]: You get under years.
12:04
[SPEAKER_00]: You're sleeping 50 years already, and you only get 50 years in your life.
12:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Why sleep so much?
12:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I like to enjoy, I like to see the sun, I like to, you know, be happy, be active.
12:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I know.
12:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just a very active person.
12:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
12:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just built in the same.
12:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody has the own different personality.
12:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's just my personality.
12:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't sit still.
12:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm very, you know, and everybody knows that, especially the close friends.
12:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
12:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And close for you to me, or even people who spend just one day with me.
12:36
[SPEAKER_00]: They, you know, would have told me.
12:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't see it.
12:38
[SPEAKER_02]: I just tell my, yeah, I showed up every time I've seen you.
12:41
[SPEAKER_02]: You're like always moving.
12:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
12:43
[SPEAKER_02]: How old were you when you left Vietnam?
12:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I was only like, you know, seven, eight years old.
12:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, do you remember much of it?
12:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember, excuse me, Vietnam, yeah.
12:55
[SPEAKER_02]: You remember escaping Vietnam?
12:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
12:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, my mom, my parents worked for the U.S. government, like, you know, as office in the office, uh, paperwork in Vietnam.
13:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So we were able to go in the 1975 on the helicopter.
13:14
[SPEAKER_00]: But we missed the helicopter because my mom and her sister got in the fight.
13:19
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, she wanted my mom to take her daughter and lead my sister like switch, you know, they were arguing and so we just missed to miss the aircraft.
13:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So the helicopter.
13:31
[SPEAKER_00]: So we didn't make it in 1975, but then after that 1978 at the end of 1978.
13:39
[SPEAKER_00]: We finally, my parents, my dad, know a lot of people.
13:45
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a very outgoing person.
13:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like him, I'm can't sit still.
13:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm just like him.
13:50
[SPEAKER_00]: He knows a lot of people without a connection.
13:53
[SPEAKER_00]: So we escaped on a boat.
13:57
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a small, 149 people, I mean, it's like packed, like ants, and so we escape from Denan, and luckily that one night, the, some part of island in China took us in before the storm hits, otherwise we all would have died, and then they saved us in the after that, they let us back out,
14:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And the British was, you know, really hung out at the time.
14:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
14:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And at what point in your life were you kind of thinking about music?
14:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I came here, I think the music was inside of me.
14:45
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I was born with me because in Vietnam, when I was in the first grade, that's when I left, I was already singing at the school.
14:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I always wanted to go to school and always joined the event, all the event where I asked them if I could sing.
15:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's funny, I sang these traditional songs.
15:07
[SPEAKER_00]: When first grade I was already singing.
15:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Then after that we left, we left right now.
15:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So the meaning thick was already inside of me, you know?
15:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Did it come from like mom or dad or anywhere?
15:17
[SPEAKER_00]: No, my mom just sang my dad as they danced, though.
15:22
[SPEAKER_00]: They loved dancing.
15:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And none of my brother or sister has the musical name.
15:27
[SPEAKER_00]: The music, Jean either.
15:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Just you.
15:30
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just me.
15:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think I was born with it.
15:34
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I just have the music soul.
15:38
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know.
15:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And then, so when you got here, you're, I don't know, maybe around 10 years old, you're starting to go to elementary school.
15:45
[SPEAKER_02]: What did you end up first?
15:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I came here.
15:59
[SPEAKER_00]: we were in Hong Kong and we loved so fast we were only there for three months because like I set my parents knew the you know it was part of the US military so we had sponsored from Houston so we went from Hong Kong straight to Houston and my dad was like it's so warring here and you know so he said where is the
16:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Second on over the US.
16:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, or is the main Vietnamese town in America, and there's just California.
16:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And there we go.
16:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Two weeks after we landed in Houston, we had no money and nothing.
16:37
[SPEAKER_00]: He only had enough money to buy the Greyhound bus.
16:41
[SPEAKER_00]: for five of us.
16:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a brother and a sister.
16:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And me, which is three in my mom and dad.
16:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have five in the family.
16:47
[SPEAKER_00]: So he had a money to buy a great home bus for us to go from Houston to California.
16:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was San Diego because his brother lived there.
16:56
[SPEAKER_00]: It's cousin brother lived there.
16:59
[SPEAKER_00]: So we stayed at their house at first, you know, to start out with.
17:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And then after that, he found out
17:10
[SPEAKER_02]: and you got to school right away.
17:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well no actually I went to school in San Diego.
17:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like in second grade in San Diego.
17:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And for I think it's just a year or two and he had a lot of connection, like I said, a lot of friends from up here too.
17:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So he got a job right away and he moved all of us up here to Orange County.
17:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And then where did you go to school up here?
17:35
[SPEAKER_00]: So I grew up in Huntington Beach.
17:38
[SPEAKER_00]: So I went to elementary school in Huntington Beach and then I went to junior high in Huntington Beach.
17:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I went to Edison High School.
17:46
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where I graduated from Edison High School.
17:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no exactly.
17:50
[SPEAKER_02]: In Huntington Beach.
17:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's like their main, that's an high school in Huntington Beach.
17:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And now what point did you start to really get into music?
18:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Like right away, when I came to the US, when I was in San Diego, I was already playing the guitar, singing Pet Venetar, you know.
18:10
[SPEAKER_00]: That was like the 80s.
18:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
18:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, singing Pet Venetar.
18:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And then after that, it was like, you know, I love rock and roll.
18:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, John Jen and then after that was Madonna, Michael Jackson, you know.
18:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, the music, I think, was in me already, you know.
18:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
18:29
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we all know you like my generation, we all know you as the Madonna of our culture.
18:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's right.
18:38
[SPEAKER_02]: But is that something that you designed like new thought of and you were like, I want to be like her.
18:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know why?
18:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Because when I first listened to music and the first two,
18:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Queen of music and King of music that I loved most was Madonna, the Queen of Pop, and Michael Jackson was the King of Pop back in the days.
19:01
[SPEAKER_00]: So, and I loved her style.
19:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And then also with the Vietnamese music at the time, it's very traditional.
19:08
[SPEAKER_00]: There wasn't any hip hop.
19:10
[SPEAKER_00]: pop singer that was really out there yet here in the US.
19:15
[SPEAKER_00]: So I thought, oh my god, I want to do the first to break this, you know, for Vietnamese.
19:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
19:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I mean, not boring, but, you know, to, you know, yeah, it's just they didn't have anyone.
19:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
19:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, started it yet.
19:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, this is now I'm going to get into this because this is what I remember so clearly and I've always felt like I
19:39
[SPEAKER_02]: you at the time had broken free completely of the mold of what we, you know, titan canly, all of the traditional singers, all of a sudden we see so much skin coming off of licking that, right?
19:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
19:51
[SPEAKER_00]: See, that's what I went.
19:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Because when I see, like, I think American pop music, they're also confident.
19:58
[SPEAKER_02]: like open.
19:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there's an open and there's no one wearing sexy revealing and dancing a lot.
20:05
[SPEAKER_00]: So I thought, you know, I want to break off and be the first because I was proud to be a Vietnamese American.
20:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be me if you were to be proud of me like to have something new.
20:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
20:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
20:18
[SPEAKER_00]: To make the Vietnamese entertainment different, you know, to be, you know, more different
20:30
[SPEAKER_00]: getting more like breaking the boundaries of the younger generations, so to have somebody started out so that they can be proud of it, and then I am proud of the Vietnamese image.
20:48
[SPEAKER_02]: But did you get the push back at the time, like the grown-ups, your parents, your society at the time in the 80s, and
20:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah.
20:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Did they go to school?
20:57
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no.
20:58
[SPEAKER_00]: My parents, they're very, like, they want me to go to school, you know, you know, how all Vietnamese, very traditional, they don't want me to be a singer.
21:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
21:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would have to hide, like, I started going to church and became a Christian.
21:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So I started singing in the choir.
21:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
21:17
[SPEAKER_00]: At church, actually.
21:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
21:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that strange?
21:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
21:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I thought, okay, it's not strange going church and then being really sexy review.
21:29
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, it's just an art, it's like artists, it's just art, it's not like not because you were sexy clothes mean you're a bad person, you know, and I want to show people that.
21:42
[SPEAKER_02]: So, um, so you were at church and you were singing the choir.
21:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
21:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you're getting better singing.
21:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I'm thinking, oh my god, I need to break out and just be like the first Vietnamese pop singer, you know.
21:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
21:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love Madonna style.
21:59
[SPEAKER_00]: You know.
22:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
22:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So wearing all the sexy clothes.
22:02
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would make my own clothes rip up the clothes and be like Madonna, you know.
22:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So I, um,
22:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I was the first out there that really was able to do with it.
22:17
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not that I was afraid that I was motivated to be, you know, the first show, you know, Americans and all the people around the world that meet me, people are very talented too.
22:39
[SPEAKER_00]: any kind of like even in school, they are smart, you know, in sports, and now in music, I want to show the world that, you know, I'm Vietnamese, and you know, we can sing, we can dance, too.
22:55
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, but, but, but,
22:59
[SPEAKER_02]: any point, I can imagine society giving you so much pressure, Vietnamese society here at that time.
23:06
[SPEAKER_02]: How did you deal with it?
23:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I'm asking that because there's a lot of artists I think that want to break free of their family traditions.
23:15
[SPEAKER_02]: How did you find the voice to kind of really break free from it?
23:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, I just, I was young.
23:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
23:23
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm very,
23:28
[SPEAKER_00]: fearless, not that I don't care about all the people.
23:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course I care.
23:34
[SPEAKER_00]: They're just like I care about my parents, but it's just I was just so excited to show the world, you know, that, you know, I am Vietnamese American and I will follow my dream.
23:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And the music was in me, so I just did everything I can, and I just try my best to show other younger Vietnamese, you know, the younger generation, Vietnamese generation to follow their dreams.
24:09
[SPEAKER_02]: At what point in that early journey did you, like, say, oh my God.
24:15
[SPEAKER_00]: like it's spread now like what I'm doing when I first did it you know the Vietnamese the older Vietnamese people are like oh my god look what she's wearing she's very sexy and revealing oh my god you know they were like kind of shocked like they're they're not accepting it at first you know yeah but um as I move on and I was young I just didn't care I just
24:40
[SPEAKER_00]: want to do what you wanted what I want to do to show the world that I am proud of it in Mesmerican to show my people you know that if I make it and be successful they would be proud of me you know so I just you know still follow my dream I didn't didn't let anyone stop me you know
25:05
[SPEAKER_02]: It's inspiring because I think as the artist community will we think about,
25:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Breaking boundaries, you were the first of that era.
25:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And so now we have like generations of artists that are coming up in America now.
25:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, at first, they were like, even not just Vietnamese, but all the Asians, right?
25:25
[SPEAKER_00]: At the time, when I was no one with really wearing sexy stuff, like Madonna, right?
25:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And then when I started it, they were not used to it.
25:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I can understand, they're not used to it.
25:36
[SPEAKER_00]: So they didn't, they were talking about some people like not accepting it, but it's okay.
25:42
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to be sexy.
25:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Now the stuff's even, you know, Japanese Korean, you have to be sexy like that if you're not you're not going to make it.
25:52
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not going to, you know, if you're not going to make it look it.
25:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I broke the turn.
25:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, now they should be proud.
25:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I beat them these people, beat them these people.
26:05
[SPEAKER_00]: brought this trend into this, you know, music industries.
26:10
[SPEAKER_00]: So that Japanese Koreans are following us.
26:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So we are the head, not them.
26:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm proud.
26:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm proud of meeting you.
26:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
26:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Meet me, yes.
26:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Have you been back to Vietnam?
26:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
26:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
26:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I went back to Vietnam.
26:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I tore Vietnam.
26:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
26:31
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole Vietnam, my tore the whole Vietnam.
26:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm so glad I did that.
26:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
26:36
[SPEAKER_02]: These are questions already know answers too.
26:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just like bringing it up just so our audience who are young people were just like now tuning in.
26:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
26:42
[SPEAKER_02]: But I asked that.
26:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
26:44
[SPEAKER_02]: What when is the first time that you went back to Vietnam?
26:48
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the five, six years ago.
26:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's was the recent.
26:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, no, when I came back to Vietnam because they all knew me through Paris by night, watching Paris by night.
26:59
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, back then, in Vietnam, they loved to watch Paris by night and all the shows from the US.
27:05
[SPEAKER_00]: So the whole country knows me, I saw shock and I was feeling so blessed.
27:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Why did you wait so long to go bad?
27:14
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, I wouldn't, well, I mean, you know, it wasn't easy,
27:19
[SPEAKER_00]: up some political pro from here issues, stuff like that and I think it was just meant to be, you know.
27:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I went back like five, six years ago, and that was after 20 years of my singing.
27:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, you know, but then I was shocked that even little kids from the, they know, like the bummedum, country side.
27:40
[SPEAKER_00]: country side.
27:41
[SPEAKER_00]: No, Naomi, like they all knew me, like every little, like every little young kids even know me.
27:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Did you go out to the country side?
27:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I did.
27:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I went from Gamau,
27:52
[SPEAKER_00]: all the way to Momungai, which is the border of China.
27:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
27:57
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like I tore every single town for cities in one night.
28:05
[SPEAKER_00]: It was amazing.
28:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm so glad that I get to see the Vietnam that way.
28:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody, like all the fans, from young to old.
28:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you regret not going earlier?
28:16
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's just right time.
28:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I just think it's just meant to be.
28:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever it is, it's always meant to me.
28:23
[SPEAKER_00]: It's destined to me.
28:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I only believe in destined and Jesus, you know.
28:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's destined.
28:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And sooner or later, I get to meet them.
28:34
[SPEAKER_00]: It's better late than never, you know?
28:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
28:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so where did you get your faith in Jesus?
28:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that was destined also, and when I came here, my, um, to America, cousin, yeah, America, my cousins came after and they were Christians, so I follow them from an early age.
28:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
28:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, but we all grew up Christian, Catholic, or whatever, but none of us, a lot of us don't continue the faith.
29:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I do.
29:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but I really have faith in Jesus.
29:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, how did you
29:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I was so close to Jesus, like, when I first started, my cousins, they were Christians.
29:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So I followed them to church, and then I feel like, this is something I believe in, you know?
29:25
[SPEAKER_00]: My family is all Buddhist.
29:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I was the first person that break out.
29:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And my parents, it's very cool.
29:35
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't mind.
29:37
[SPEAKER_00]: They said as long as it's a good religion, as long as it's not a bad religion, you know?
29:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I follow both because I like both.
29:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I like the Buddhist religion, I like the Catholic side that I have.
29:49
[SPEAKER_02]: I've fought it my whole life, but now as I get older, I like both and it is so surprising to hear you grew up as a Buddhist and then converted over to Christianity.
29:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, I know I grew, but I wasn't a Buddhist.
30:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
30:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I never said, oh, I'm a Buddhist.
30:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a Buddhist or I never said that I believe in Buddhist.
30:09
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's not that I don't, but it's just, I was too young and my family was Buddhist, but I never committed to anything yet until I would just merge and I committed that I believe.
30:25
[SPEAKER_01]: What were you, what at that?
30:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I was like,
30:30
[SPEAKER_00]: 14, 15.
30:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And so from that point on, you just had blind faith in Jesus and just let him care you all the way through.
30:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he saved me.
30:39
[SPEAKER_00]: He guide my life to now.
30:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's ironic because when I think about how much skin you showed, how I'm feeling, how sexy you are.
30:49
[SPEAKER_00]: See, that's the world that shows the world, that shows the world, that it's never touched the book by the cover.
30:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's my career and that image is just an art, it's an art thing, you know, when you're an artist.
31:07
[SPEAKER_00]: you just have to have, you have to have, you have to be artistic, you know, in a special me, I love artistic, like, I love different.
31:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be something that no one has created or, you know, no one has, um, daughter of.
31:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's why that's how I got my image at first, you know,
31:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so you're 14.
31:36
[SPEAKER_02]: You give yourself up to Jesus and you say, all right, I'm in.
31:40
[SPEAKER_02]: But what are some big monumental times in your life where you saw the hand of God come into your life?
31:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm asking you this because it's still mind-blowing to me that growing up, I'm sure my parents would think of you as somebody who's fallen to the devil.
31:58
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what?
31:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't drink.
31:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't smoke crazy.
32:01
[SPEAKER_00]: You wouldn't believe me when I go on show they're like, Oh, Linda, have a drink and I said, no, I don't drink.
32:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And then now is like, I haven't drink what 30 years.
32:09
[SPEAKER_00]: What makes you think I'm gonna drink now?
32:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't drink everybody knows this.
32:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm the driver.
32:16
[SPEAKER_00]: for people who dream so I don't smoke, I don't do drug, I don't do any of that.
32:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I just love my career because
32:27
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, the music is in me, and I'm, you know, I'm just an artist, but I don't do any of that.
32:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's very hard to believe, because it's hard to live.
32:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And percent, yeah, it's, uh, I know he would tell me 90% of us drink and smoke, but get crazy.
32:41
[SPEAKER_02]: We get, you know, we get totally crazy.
32:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like get crazy.
32:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I only get crazy on stage.
32:46
[SPEAKER_00]: But when I'm off that stage, I want peace.
32:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I love to go.
32:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I love to eat and shop.
32:52
[SPEAKER_00]: That's my true most favorite thing.
32:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love to go to the movies or do anything quiet in my lifestyle.
33:02
[SPEAKER_02]: So how did you meet Tommy?
33:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, destined.
33:07
[SPEAKER_00]: But I was thinking, um, you know, I was singing and, uh,
33:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, oh, you know, I wouldn't talk is there, and she's like the MC, pairs one at MC.
33:21
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a party, Luna knew you're a party one year, and so she invited him, she knew him, and then I came, and so that's where we started to, I guess, have I on each other?
33:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
33:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I didn't know he was a dancer for Asia, and so, um,
33:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And after that, everyone thought that, oh, we would make a great couple.
33:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So all the singers trying to hook us up, you know, and then, um, then I sing here at the Ritz, um, nightclub, and so he end up singing there too.
33:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's how we, that's how we met.
34:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Is he a man of faith?
34:03
[SPEAKER_00]: He, you know, he grew up in a good family.
34:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
34:06
[SPEAKER_00]: They are also, um, Christians, yeah, but he's not as a Christian as I am.
34:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And does that affect your lives together at all?
34:18
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no.
34:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm very open-minded, you know.
34:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe what I believe and I try to do with things and people don't believe it, then that's just... You know, I just am, you know?
34:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
34:34
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that I'm probably very different than you when it comes to our politics, you know?
34:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm not here to debate it or discuss it, but it's always very interesting to me that we sit on very separate sides of the aisle, right?
34:50
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think the one thing that does join us together is my faith in a higher power, you know, it really is.
34:57
[SPEAKER_02]: But do you think about how your public
35:01
[SPEAKER_02]: receives you in that conservative way, you know, with the politics and all of that, do you make it very public?
35:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, no, I don't, I don't want to really make it public, but I do when I have to.
35:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
35:13
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
35:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I do this for, no, I am, I am not into politics at all for the last
35:22
[SPEAKER_00]: 40 years of whatever, but if we just recently, the last few years is when I really see the light, you know, I see, I see what it's right and what is wrong.
35:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I really see it.
35:37
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I'm doing this to protect the younger generations and my son to have a future, because I escaped Vietnam,
35:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to fight to have my freedom because what I see the last four years, it wasn't was taking my freedom away.
35:59
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's why I decide to, I don't care about the politics.
36:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I just care about my freedom and I'm a patron.
36:11
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm fighting for the kids younger generation ever my son to have a future to have their freedom, what I came for.
36:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, it's ironic when I think of you as a teenager for me, it was like, you're the liberal, right?
36:27
[SPEAKER_02]: You were like the one busted through boundaries and you were the one who was like, when I think about it, it's like, I'm not, I'm not neither one, any of that.
36:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a patriot.
36:39
[SPEAKER_02]: When I look back, the contrast is so different, but you were still the same person.
36:44
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what you're saying, right?
36:45
[SPEAKER_02]: You were just always that, the same person, but it's just a creativity that you were showing.
36:52
[SPEAKER_02]: When you were younger.
36:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
36:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, you know, like I said, I'm not into politics, because when you're an entertainer, I don't mean you should be into politics.
37:03
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah.
37:03
[SPEAKER_00]: But like I said,
37:06
[SPEAKER_00]: It's at evil time, Mel, so the last four years I see evil, so I have to step out and really protect my son to have for him to make sure he has a future, because we came here for that and I'm not going back.
37:23
[SPEAKER_00]: So I really only fighting for the younger generations to have a future.
37:28
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to ask you about the changing music industry from Paris by night, right?
37:35
[SPEAKER_02]: At your high point, you're touring and Paris by night had shows that can expose your talents and everything.
37:43
[SPEAKER_02]: But now that the changing sort of environment of entertainment in the US and Vietnamese America is very different because the rising stars in Vietnam
37:56
[SPEAKER_02]: What is that, like, how does that work as an entertainer for you in Vietnamese-American society?
38:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Because it's a shift for your identity as an entertainer or not really.
38:06
[SPEAKER_02]: You just still do what you do.
38:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Mm-hmm.
38:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm very American, I so.
38:10
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
38:11
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just, um, you know, uh, I just think that the singers Vietnamese-American from here are always very valuable.
38:20
[SPEAKER_02]: How come?
38:21
[SPEAKER_02]: How what do you say that?
38:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Because they all have their own specialties.
38:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you can tell without looking at their face, you can tell who is who.
38:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Like say Don Hall, you can tell his voice.
38:34
[SPEAKER_00]: They have a special voice.
38:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Elon has a very special voice.
38:39
[SPEAKER_00]: You can hear, you don't have to see that.
38:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at their image.
38:43
[SPEAKER_00]: When you hear only their voice, you can tell who is who.
38:45
[SPEAKER_00]: But like in the normal, everybody sounds almost the same.
38:48
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, so it isn't like there's some, but there's some singers that you must like out of Vietnam, no, like are you a fan of any of the singers coming out of Vietnam right now I don't have time to watch media really yeah yeah yeah yeah I don't even have time to watch myself sometimes like
39:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, all the time, most of the time, I don't even watch right away, like when I film the pairs of my night back then, I didn't even have time to watch my son to see what happened.
39:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even have time, I hear my fans and my friends talk about it, and then sometimes when I have time, then I sit down, watch it one time to see how the editing is, and make sure I don't look mad, or do I look mad?
39:26
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't really have time to watch.
39:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you, you know, like any of their artists in Asia, and not just Vietnam, in the whole Asia, you just asked me any singer about Asia, I don't know any of them.
39:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I don't even have time to follow the US singers, like I love, like say Justin Bieber, you know, the American singers.
39:50
[SPEAKER_00]: If I have time, I'm gonna watch them to learn.
39:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I will watch them to learn.
39:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see what they're doing, because I learned from them.
39:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And do you learn new music anymore or kind of are you inside of the kind of framework that you already have?
40:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I watch and learn them because I like their style, you know, I like the American style.
40:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's why I watch the European American, but I don't really go back and watch, you know, have time to watch Asians, you know, because I'm from there.
40:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So I get to watch something different.
40:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, then you different.
40:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So I can learn.
40:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
40:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So, um, and, um,
40:36
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, when I have time, I watch the American and the Hollywood, you know.
40:44
[SPEAKER_02]: But are you adding new songs to your routines when you go out to perform?
40:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I do add new songs, but then, you know, my specialty is new way.
40:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:54
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[UNKNOWN]: Right.
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[UNKNOWN]: Right.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
41:04
[UNKNOWN]: Right.
41:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, but I do, you know, want to, I mean, I do plan to have some new, like, um,
41:15
[SPEAKER_00]: songs, right, you know, original songs.
41:19
[SPEAKER_00]: For me, I mean, I had one original song called Crazy Love, but I do want to have some, you know, some new original songs.
41:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, we're doing one that's called Love Me, but it has been out yet.
41:34
[SPEAKER_00]: That's one of my original songs.
41:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're writing it,
41:42
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... he knows my style he knows me and so he just went up but approached me and called me and asked if i want to do that song and i was like yeah of course so we're doing that song right now and you know that would be another original song right because i want to break in that song i can break into the american market you know that's my dream i have a dream to break in and how long have you had that dream for
42:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I've always, of course, who wouldn't, right?
42:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, right.
42:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I've always had, but, you know, I'm so busy that I just think that, you know, it's, it's meant to me.
42:17
[SPEAKER_00]: It's destined if it happened, it's going to happen, you know?
42:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And what kind of music is that new or original?
42:25
[SPEAKER_00]: It's pop, just like all the songs that I sing.
42:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so it's like up dance music.
42:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, because that's like big EDM and all the dance.
42:33
[SPEAKER_02]: EDM.
42:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
42:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Looking back on your career, what were some of the defining moments for you?
42:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, what made big impacts in your life looking back on your career?
42:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't believe that, you know, going back, talking a little bit about the incident in Florida, because of that incident, I think everything happened for a reason.
42:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Because of that incident, it really showed me how much people love me and support me.
43:06
[SPEAKER_00]: For the after that for a few months after that I was in tears sometimes because I see the love that they have they came to my shopies was a lot more crowded They come here and they want to hug me and they sit, you know, we support you.
43:19
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't believe what happened and we just support you, you know, and I cannot leave how much support I got from that amazing, it's just amazing and I just can't believe how blessed I am and you know, I just always
43:36
[SPEAKER_00]: now if you're more thankful and more gratitude.
43:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, from that, I've learned to be even more thankful because how blessed I am.
43:47
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like I was in tears, how much we most supported me.
43:50
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like in the US, I think like I can say like, you know, 90% over 90% of your support, you know?
44:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
44:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And you don't talking about that again because they know is like the next day I came back to the the mom and you know, one to return it, but I know that there's the news saying, making up all these stories, you know, doesn't matter.
44:15
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just what.
44:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I live here and I care for what people think here and my fans here understand and they support me and that's all it matters and I have so touched it's so thankful for that, you know.
44:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I can imagine.
44:33
[SPEAKER_02]: I love the way you handle this adversity.
44:36
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, there's a positive, I mean, I can imagine your fan base, like, increasing as a result of like, what you've gone through, right?
44:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's just amazing.
44:46
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, that's why I'm saying, I believe in God, you know, is like, they, everything that happens, it's always a blessing.
44:54
[SPEAKER_00]: It always end up to be a blessing, you know, any?
44:57
[SPEAKER_02]: But maybe it's your mindset.
44:59
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just the way you look at things that you're so grateful for and you're thankful, everything's thank you, thank you, thank you.
45:05
[SPEAKER_02]: So just get more, you know, it's like an affirmation.
45:09
[SPEAKER_02]: You just keep that going.
45:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think so.
45:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, you know, everything happened for
45:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I can't be more blessed, you know, when when when when when I've been doing this for so many years and my kind of music this is less very long and for me to last this long is just out of this world and then for what happened and I get more support you know, and that's just amazing.
45:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's also because you're just a good person and people are just like, you know, yeah, I think a lot of people knows me deep down inside like they know like I'm a good hearted person like I help a lot of people and always out there trying to help people like I don't you know people who knows me they know I am just
46:07
[SPEAKER_00]: a normal person.
46:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just trying to do good.
46:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And doing what I love, you know.
46:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they, I think it's just a lot of people who know who you are.
46:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
46:17
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what covers it.
46:20
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
46:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I do.
46:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm exactly right.
46:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Because when you're a bad person, they know you're a bad person.
46:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think because so many people know me because I've been around for so long.
46:31
[SPEAKER_00]: 40 years, you know, they, they just know that, oh my god, you know, it's just, how can that be, you know, and it's just, it's for a small little amount.
46:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So it should, and I'm glad that the incident happened because it made me learn a lot and what did, what did you learn the best of it is.
46:51
[SPEAKER_00]: and make me learn who, um, like to see who's good and who's bad and make me see who's like.
47:03
[SPEAKER_00]: was not like who I helped, people who I helped, that wasn't like a real person, that betrayed me.
47:16
[SPEAKER_00]: You find out who really are your own friends and who are not your real friends.
47:22
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the main thing.
47:23
[SPEAKER_00]: That this happened, this incident happened.
47:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, let me see who's my friends
47:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, that's a blessing.
47:35
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's like, so crazy, it's $350 things when I give the homeless people.
47:47
[SPEAKER_00]: thousands of dollars a month.
47:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
47:50
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not worth, you know.
47:52
[SPEAKER_02]: You're right, right, you know, that's very, you know, you know, make sense.
47:55
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm just so happy that, you know, I know I, I keep told spawning your this, you know, because I really want you wouldn't see that when the court finally say, you know, that I case dismiss and that I'm innocent, I'm not guilty.
48:12
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, but thank you for like just making sure that you always make sure that I was welcomed, you know, I don't want to, you know, everything around me, everybody who supported me, I don't want to push them out, you know, I always want to help everyone and make it with you, make it really happy, you know, like your broadcast is without the broadcast, there
48:41
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, who would interview us, too?
48:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And then if there's no van, there wouldn't be a singer.
48:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, right.
48:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know what I mean?
48:47
[SPEAKER_02]: It's all a community.
48:48
[SPEAKER_00]: The back, the people behind us is the important people that you cannot forget.
48:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
48:55
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the productions, first my night, the makeup artists who make us look, yeah.
49:03
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, good, good, and the custom design, all the people behind us is what's important more than us to me.
49:14
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I think.
49:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Was there time in your career that you wanted to quit?
49:20
[SPEAKER_00]: No, never, never.
49:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Not even close.
49:25
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I never wanted to.
49:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Was there
49:33
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm so blessed that I never really had a whole time.
49:38
[SPEAKER_00]: They were at all done and that was just amazing blessing for me.
49:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much to all my fans and forever, um, grateful forever, grateful.
49:55
[SPEAKER_02]: What about Vietnam?
49:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Is there a next chapter that you're going to be there more to perform to sort of, I mean, you're still super young.
50:04
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, would you go back to Vietnam and do more performing there?
50:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I'm not sure if I'm super young, but I want to leave.
50:14
[SPEAKER_02]: You have a lot of energy.
50:15
[SPEAKER_02]: You look, you know, you look young and you.
50:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I do want to have the young energy.
50:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
50:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I do look young is because I think of my music.
50:23
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, my kind of music is not traditional, but it's hip hop.
50:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So you got to look young for hip hop, right?
50:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So I do want to continue that.
50:32
[SPEAKER_00]: But, um,
50:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, honestly, this is my heaven on earth, you know, America, US.
50:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I am so blessed to be here.
50:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is my, uh, heaven on earth.
50:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So I wouldn't want to be here anywhere else.
50:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, you know, but I'm so busy with my shop, you know, Linda sandwich so blessed to have the support for the Linda sandwich also and the franchise and all this thing that I haven't even done because I'm so busy so I've got to complete what I want to do first and.
51:10
[SPEAKER_00]: the next years I want to do more MTV music video, because of that COVID thing, just stop everyone for doing things.
51:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So now I want to continue to do like MTV music video and do something different and have more of Linda Sandwich in the US.
51:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to focus here where I live first.
51:38
[SPEAKER_00]: because this is my one and only heaven on earth.
51:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I am so patriotic like people said you want to find Linda's house, for shop or anything, anything of her and you
51:54
[SPEAKER_02]: You have to live with American flag because I have like American flag all year round not just the holiday So you haven't really just struggle with identity of being Vietnamese from Vietnam or being American or no struggle at all with that identity What do you mean by struggle?
52:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I had this struggle.
52:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I was born in the state, yeah, I was born back east in Pennsylvania.
52:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, oh, you're from?
52:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm from, yeah, I grew up here.
52:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm 50, but I was born in the state.
52:24
[SPEAKER_02]: But I go back to Vietnam a lot.
52:26
[SPEAKER_02]: My brother lives there.
52:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I've been back in four, 25 years.
52:30
[SPEAKER_02]: This last year I went back four or five times.
52:32
[SPEAKER_02]: I would love to live in Vietnam.
52:34
[SPEAKER_02]: But, and I was a U.S. Marine.
52:36
[SPEAKER_02]: I was well.
52:38
[SPEAKER_02]: I served, and I'm a patriot as well.
52:40
[SPEAKER_02]: But.
52:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, I'm on the little more liberal side of the fence, right?
52:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And...
52:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I sometimes wish that I was Vietnamese Vietnamese.
52:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And then sometimes I grew up wanting to be completely white, right?
52:54
[SPEAKER_02]: So these things are a struggle for me, right?
52:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And maybe you came at seven or eight years old and you know, you kind of like live in the Vietnamese community.
53:03
[SPEAKER_02]: So you have a very clear identity of whom I always want to be Vietnamese American.
53:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a proud Vietnamese.
53:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to be white.
53:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to be white.
53:13
[SPEAKER_02]: But you want to be Vietnamese American?
53:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm happy who I am.
53:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
53:17
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm happy.
53:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever got made me to be.
53:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
53:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And that my parents had me and I'm just happy for who I am.
53:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm proud to be a Vietnamese American.
53:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yes.
53:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Everything that comes from you is like gratitude.
53:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
53:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, thank you, thank you.
53:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything that you... Because I'm so thankful.
53:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at it, I can't believe I'm still here today.
53:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Sitting here, we just an amazing life.
53:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And I always want to have people around me to be happy.
53:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
53:50
[SPEAKER_00]: To enjoy life, because life is so short, you know?
53:54
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all I want.
53:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I want everybody to be happy.
53:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I want everybody to enjoy life.
53:58
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I tell people.
54:00
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, all my loved ones and people that are surrounded by me.
54:06
[SPEAKER_01]: It shows up in the, I think it shows up in your shows as well.
54:09
[SPEAKER_01]: It shows up on stage, right?
54:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
54:12
[SPEAKER_00]: it does because I get so much support and just I can't just, you know, not to appreciate it.
54:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
54:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to appreciate it loved.
54:26
[SPEAKER_02]: So what do you, what do you want more in the next few years?
54:29
[SPEAKER_02]: More Linda sandwiches?
54:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
54:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
54:33
[SPEAKER_00]: What is sandwiches?
54:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Learn put out some MTV Salm videos and more original music.
54:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
54:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, what about, you know, ideas of a family or your son and, you know, what kind of hopes and dreams?
54:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, with him, I just let him be what he wanted.
54:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
54:51
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the thing I really, very important to me, because the old Vietnamese parents, they always want their parents, their kids to be doctors and, you know, all this.
55:02
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm not like that.
55:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I want him to be what he wants to be that he's happy because
55:07
[SPEAKER_00]: When you've got to work, if you're happy, one day can be very fast, but when you're not happy, a day can be a joy.
55:14
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's like life is too short.
55:16
[SPEAKER_00]: You got to let people have the freedom, the freedom that they deserve.
55:22
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want him to be happy and we blessed and you know, have a happy life with whatever his choice is.
55:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
55:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for today.
55:34
[SPEAKER_02]: I know you're like running around and, you know, we waited a year.
55:37
[SPEAKER_00]: A year.
55:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my god, I can't believe thank you so much for like wait a year.
55:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't believe you're so patient that you, you just keep calling me and I keep postponing it.
55:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And you've so much patient.
55:51
[SPEAKER_02]: but you're so graceful, you know, you're so graceful about the way you respond it.
55:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And I, you know, I, I received the grace and I understand what I want to make sure that you know, I'm not doing this because I want to push you out.
56:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing this for a reason because I want to make sure that it's clear.
56:07
[SPEAKER_00]: It's clear, you know, it's clear.
56:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So everybody see that it's clear, you know.
56:11
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I can't believe you weighed your patient because I am not that patient.
56:16
[SPEAKER_00]: When I want something, I get it too.
56:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I go and get it.
56:22
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's the same for me though because it's always been a dream to sit with you or sit with Elan or sit with Goku Jing or Kunlee, right?
56:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I've gotten...
56:32
[SPEAKER_02]: the experience of sitting with all of you.
56:35
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, these are people, you are all or people I looked up to as a child.
56:40
[SPEAKER_02]: I saw this and I saw the time that I can sit and do this.
56:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I have to be patient for things.
56:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And to record our history.
56:51
[SPEAKER_02]: I understand.
56:53
[SPEAKER_02]: You're a huge part of our Vietnamese American history.
56:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Huge part of our history.
56:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't believe I'm new, you wouldn't, but somebody say, I'm huge.
56:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, oh, he died.
56:59
[SPEAKER_00]: How can I be so blessed?
57:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so blessed.
57:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't believe I'm so blessed.
57:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much.
57:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what you guys hear me.
57:07
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm so blessed.
57:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for like, maybe you see, you know, everything from me is from my heart.
57:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
57:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
57:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much.
57:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
57:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
57:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much.
57:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
57:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
57:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for listening to the Vietnamese with Kenneth Wynne.
57:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Special thanks to Brittany Tran, to Jane Wynne, Catherine Wynne, Tina Fam, Sydney Jamie, and Crystal Tran.
57:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Please find us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at the Vietnamese podcast.