Speaker Well, I think I had the same image of Mr. Jones as most musicians who, you know, honor and respect his work and have not met him. I just thought he was just so cool. You know, he was, you know, in with the jazz guys and hip hop guys and doing television scores and movie scores, you know, long before someone like him was, quote unquote, allowed to kind of do that thing. He was just in there doing it.

Speaker You know, he’s just he’s the dude man, you know.

Speaker Tell me about when you first met him. Right.

Speaker I’ve met Quincy Jones at an open call, a cattle call for singers in Los Angeles.

Speaker And I think he was looking for a new Manhattan transfer or take six. They hadn’t been discovered yet, but he wanted a four or five person vocal group like Fifth Dimension, more like. And what he found was three guys and myself. And we became this group called Decco. And we had one ill fated album from Sydney, put his directorial debut, a film called Fast Forward. And it did anyway from that and from that piece. Decco did most of the soundtrack. And from that soundtrack, a dance record. I sang the lead on it. What was a dance record. And it became a number one dance record.

Speaker And from that, I just started singing demos because at the audition there were a lot of songwriters there. And I started singing demos for everyone, including Quincy, who was doing Patti Austin’s album at the time. And all the singers in town were having me do all these demos for Patti and Quincy would get these tapes, you know, who’s that? And that’s when I signed it. That’s right. You know them. So after a period of like nine or 10 months, they told me that they auditioned eight hundred people. And over nine months I would get these letters that said we’re down to 500. It’s 250 years till it, you know, from that to like 14 to five to finally four. After almost nine or 10 months. And in the meantime, I sang a song that was meant to be a duet between Chaka Khan and this ex temptation named Dennis Edwards, and they couldn’t get him in the studio at the same time. So they finally got Denis’s part on on tape and his record was due to come out, but they couldn’t find Chaka. So they just left the girl who did the demo on the record. And that record don’t look any further.

Speaker The vocal that you hear is my demo vocal, just as it is. And that was a number one black record. So these things just started happening. And in the year that Decca was signed to Quest, the other guys just sort of they they weren’t as active as I were. So after a year, I was resigned and they were let go.

Speaker What year was those demos? Had you written a song?

Speaker No, they were there were major songwriters like Barry Mann and Cynthia Y. I sang the do the demo for Chaka Khan through the fire.

Speaker I just met a lot of different songwriters and I started singing everybody’s demos.

Speaker And who was that? The girl of the hour was Patti LaBelle, because Patti was being produced by Quincy and everyone was submitting songs and I was doing all the demos because they’d seen me at this audition. It was just cool.

Speaker What’s it like for you?

Speaker It’s sort of like he wasn’t there for the initial audition. I was there was an orientation over two weeks. They saw 800 people in Tom Beyler organized that to hold what could have been a fiasco. But after he got he narrowed it down to, you know, maybe less than 100 or less than 50. He would show Quincy these tapes. And from those, that’s when Quincy got involved. But I didn’t meet him for a long time.

Speaker And then what was your first impression? Quincy put you on the spot and sort of say, you know, put up or shut up or does he produces. What what’s it like when you’re trying out new material?

Speaker Well, when you when you’re when you’re with Mr. Jones and he’s I say Mr. Jones, because I don’t want to go.

Speaker When you’re with cue, you know, anyway, when you’re hanging out with him, you really you. You know, he’s seen it all, you know, from. Come on. Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald. Easy. He’s done it. So you want to do the best that you can do because, you know, you’ve got some proving to do, you know? So you just want to give your best. And he’s very open and he’s really relaxed. He’s just doing whatever baby, you know, whatever you want to do this, you know. So you want to give your best.

Speaker You want to do the most that you can do to to to make what he’s doing better. You want to give of yourself. And he solicits that and gets it right now.

Speaker At this time, you’re also writing songs, right? There was just one.

Speaker I hadn’t written squat.

Speaker How is it that song you wrote?

Speaker Naughty cat. Damn, it’s even better.

Speaker How is the song you wrote ended up on other epic and other.

Speaker Well, you remember those those other guys I was telling you about? There are three guys and Decco. And it was Kevin Dorsey, Darrell Finnessey and David Swanson. And Kevin and Darrell still kind of tour with Michael and, you know, James Taylor and Rod Stewart. And they they from that, they they continue to tour with other artists.

Speaker But when we were in, Decco, those guys are musicians, accomplished musicians. They play and they write songs. I had never written anything other than a poem. And I play cassettes. OK. I don’t play piano or any other instrument instrument other than my voice. And so our song is one hundred percent of something. And when you get a publishing deal, the publishers only count what they own 100 percent of.

Speaker And if I mean not being a musician, I can only write I couldn’t write more than half a song. And don’t let there be three people in the room. Then I then it would be a third. So if they had to come up with 10 songs a year, that meant I had to come up with 20 because I could only do 50 percent at the most. So I was like, no, I’ve never written a song before. I don’t know that I can do that. I don’t want to have to do X amount of songs a year. No.

Speaker So they went to Quincy Jones and said, Quincy, you know, we want a publishing deal, but CIDA doesn’t want. And Quincy said, that’s fine. But you either all get a publishing deal or you none of you get a publishing deal.

Speaker So with three very large black beans, they signed this contract. Is that can. So I did. And it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I wrote songs, they cash checks.

Speaker But being now, which of those tell me about which of those songs ended up, you know, Michael Jackson when he.

Speaker I had to start with again when I was working with these other guys.

Speaker I was against my will force into a publishing contract with Mr. Jones because of these other guys. And Decco and Quincy was just finishing the Michael Jackson album, and he had a meeting with his the L.A. writers. I think they’re only about like eight of us at the time. And they were all having this meeting at his house in Bel Air. And I was late. So I rang the doorbell and he opens the door and they let me in and I go into the living room and forth. All these songwriters are sitting up at and all of a sudden they go.

Speaker And Mr. Jones said, well, for those of us who have just arrived, you know, I’ll reiterate.

Speaker I’m going. Okay.

Speaker So I just took some notes and he said, what we want is on to round out this album.

Speaker We need shake, shake, shake, shake your booty. That’s what we need for this, right. Shake your booty. Just a real groove oriented record. Dig, you know, hip, funky. That’s all we need.

Speaker So I took these little notes and I went I called my friend Glen Ballard, who was writing songs, but we hadn’t really broken out yet. He I think he’d done Wilson Phillips or was about to do them. He hadn’t really sort of gotten his his hooks in in his in his niche yet. And so we wrote the song. I was doing demos for Glenn. And we just started writing a couple songs to them. But it wasn’t anything serious. I went to his house and I said, What, Quincy, want to shake your booty? That’s what he said. Well, plus, just we’ll just write rules to see what happens. So Glen starts playing these chords. What is now the chorus to Man in the Mirror? And I just was I have a lyric book and I was just flipping through my titles and I just came up with this title because a year and a half, maybe two years ago, I’d been at a friend’s house and we were writing and his phone rang and he stopped playing.

Speaker And he picks up the phone and he says, Yeah, what man? Oh, the man in the mirror. So that phrase just kind of stuck with me. And I wrote Man in the Mirror. So a year and a half later, I’m flipping through my book and I see that phrase to these chords that Glenn was playing. And I sang the verse and the chorus. I couldn’t write it fast enough. I couldn’t get it. I was like, OK, ok, ok, OK. And we knew at the end of that day that we had something really special and it was like Tuesday or Wednesday. We demo the song on Friday. Friday night I had the song in my hand and I knew that Quest wasn’t gonna be open until Monday. I called Quincy and he says, Yeah, well, I know said you can’t come now. I’m in the middle of a meeting. I got 12 suit of your manucci. Well, ok, ok.

Speaker Just OK, come on, drop it off. I said, man, all I want you to do just just let me drop this off and you’d all just get back to me as soon as you can if all I ask.

Speaker OK. He, I went to his house, open the door and twelve suits sitting up gone. So I thought, OK, let’s just get back. He says, all right. Said he closed the door. Two hours later he calls me up. I said, this is the best song I’ve heard in ten years, baby. And then I’m going on the phone and they says, but you know.

Speaker And I’m like, but, you know, Michael has yet to accept any outside songs. And, you know, we’ve been in the studio for three years now. And he said, but don’t worry, if Michael doesn’t do it on this record, I’ll just have James do it on my record and I’m going.

Speaker Okay. Okay. James Ingram. Michael. OK. So the next time I heard from Quincy, they were in the studio recording Man in the Mirror. And then Quincy said, see it? Michael wants to extend that bridge. And he was hold on a minute. And I hear his hand and said Michael said he wants you to just freeze and just hold on a minute. And then he said, sit, hold on. Hold on. And he he hands the phone to Michael. And Michael goes. Sayeeda and I’m going inside, I’m going, oh, my God.

Speaker But on the phone, I’m like, Yes, you know. Oh, just so deadpan. Cool as a cucumber. Yes.

Speaker Well, I really like this song and I really want to. And he starts telling me what he wants me to say in the next few bars. We have to extend the bridge just a little more. So that it fills the space they wanted to fill musically. So I get all this on the phone and I’m and I’m I’m like. My heart is like. And he’s like, okay, okay. But on the phone, I’m like, yes, fine, I can do that. And what else is it that you’d like to say? Yes. And you know, it just really, really cool, because I wanted at that day, I wrote eight different options for him. So the two days later when they went back to it, he could pick from eight different choices because I wanted to be a Glen Ballard say to gear it’s doing rather than, you know. Michael good. You know. Yeah. So he picked one of the verses and it extended the bridge. And the next time we were in the studio was with the choir and Andre Crouch. And it was just magnificent. And I felt I was like all the choir was like, you wrote this song. Wow. You you wrote this song. But my whole life changed my whole even all this stuff was going on. And it was a very, very heady time. I realized that I was no longer the singer. When I got a call from Cynthia a while of Barry Mann and Cynthia, while one of the most amazing songwriters and she said to me, I just want to congratulate you on that song you wrote for Michael Jackson. I wish I’d written that song from that day. I stopped calling myself a singer. I began calling myself a songwriter, because if someone like Cynthia Wiles says to me, God, I wish I’d written that. And she is the one of my idols as a songwriter, then I think I can now refer to myself as a singer songwriter, kind of like that has a ring to it.

Speaker Great story. Thank you. How are we doing? You right. Unbelievable. What about when that album comes out? I mean, does that. Help us understand how that changes. Not really. I mean, you mentioned it, never one black record. You’d see his interview set at some point.

Speaker Michael Jackson’s album, Stop Being Black. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker Because there are certain artists whom may be black people but will never be black artists. And that holds true in the music industry and the film industry and professional athletics. There there is a certain point when you grow beyond the perimeters and the barriers. That you placed in. If you look a certain way, well, then you have to do R&D and if you look like this, well, then you do rock and roll. I think there are certain artists who really kind of smudge and blur those lines. Prince is one of those. Michael Jackson is one of those. Whitney Houston is one of those. They’re no longer just black artists. They are artists for the world. You know that cross all, Marcus. I think the beauty of living in Europe, because I was I was a part of this British band at one point called the Brand New Heavies, and I lived in London for two years. And one thing I noticed about Europe is you can turn on the radio and listen to one station and hear Elton John. You know, the Fuji’s outcast sting back to back, you know, and it’s and you’re not it’s not so compartmentalised and and programmed where you listen to this station. You will only hear these particular artists who only do this kind of music. And that’s one of the great things I love about living in Europe. You you. I was privy to so much more music that I wouldn’t normally listen to in America because I’d have to keep switching stations all the time. So I forgot what questions you asked me. But I hope I answered it for you.

Speaker I’m like, Oh, Michael changed my life.

Speaker Nathi to Pain in the Butt usually stems from the song and tie.

Speaker Quincy used to this idea. OK, somehow helped him because this whole thing is about breaking down.

Speaker That’s true. That’s true. The song Man in the Mirror and and Quincy’s Urgence and insistence to Michael that he give this song a try. That this would be of a sterling jewel in the crown of his album project. And through his urgence, I think Michael started to believe him and realize that it was a good song, even though he didn’t write it. And when that song was recorded, yes, it was great. And when I first heard it on the radio, I had to pull over. I was on the freeway. I had to pull over because my heart was beating so fast and I was crying. I had goose bumps. It was the weirdest feeling ever. I’ve never felt like that since. And I’m just hyperventilating on, you know, just pulled off the freeway and hearing my song and seeing my skin raised. It was just awesome. But I was never touched as so much as when I was on tour with him. And one of the production assistants or something, we were in this we were in, but I guess it was Scotland or somewhere and this huge soccer field. And I was out in the middle of the field and the band was doing soundcheck on the stage. And I wanted to hear how the band sounded from the field. So I’m in the middle of field and one of these production assistants comes up to me and says, Seida, just excuse me for one more. I have a question to ask you. Somebody told me. Well, no, she said, do you know Bill W.. I said, Oh, no. Who’s Bill W.. You don’t know Bill? No. Who? Well, he’s the founder of a.. And I thought somebody told me you wrote Man in the Mirror and the lyrics from that. I just knew you knew Bill W.. And I said now, well, what made you think she said? Well, the concept of looking at yourself and not blaming others. And she said that’s the whole what the whole 12 step program was built on. And then she started telling me how she was at a point in her life when she didn’t know she wanted to live for very much longer. And she started playing that song and really listening to the words. And she’s telling me this and she starts crying. And pretty soon we’re both on the field crying and hugging each other. And that’s when I knew that the song was more than just, you know, my car and the house I’m living in. You know, it it transcended all those things.

Speaker And down rolling now, right? Yeah. So you mentioned come back to me, right?

Speaker Yes, because if it weren’t for Quincy Jones, that song never would have been gotten. It never would have gotten to Michael because he had he’d been just start with you wrote a song.

Speaker And how did you get on the broadest sense? Just very quickly.

Speaker I wrote this song. And Quincy played it for Michael. And Michael wanted to meet the girl who sang the demo because he wanted to sing a song like The Girls Sing the Demo. And that would be me. And that’s how I met Mr. Jackson. But the other guys in the group, Decco, they had performed some voice overs for Michael’s victory tour. So they came back to me with, you know, with pictures of Michael like, you know, look, look, we were with Michael the other day.

Speaker Look, you know, so I was like, that’s OK. I’m gonna meet him, but it won’t be Quincy going, Michael. This is Barbara, Becky’s side, George, Albert and Ralph. They won’t be like that. I wanted it to be what I wanted. I told Quincy, I want him to want to meet me. And he was like, OK, you know, like, whatever. OK. All right. Yeah. But it ended up happening that way. And I reminded him a year after we’d recorded the song that I’d said that to him. He said, That’s right. And that’s exactly what happened, isn’t it? I said, that’s right.

Speaker What do you think Quincy did? Probably else could. I guess the producer.

Speaker I don’t think he was. I don’t think Quincy was afraid to tell Michael. No, no, that’s not. No, I don’t do that. No, we can’t. No, we shouldn’t. I don’t think very many people in his immediate surroundings. Have the. I don’t know. Gumption, gall, fortitude, whatever to say anything like that to Michael. I think most of the people that were dealing with him at that time were like, yes, yes. Yes, sir. Mr. Jackson. Yes, absolutely. Yes, you’re right. Yes. But Quincy, I don’t know. I guess he’s known Michael for so long that it wasn’t he didn’t feel like he had to sort of, you know, lightly step around certain issues because they were, you know, they were brothers. He could talk to him like, you know, like he knew him because he did, you know, before he was be Michael Jackson.

Speaker But the other thing that. Many people are so curious, just do you think there’s in many ways you could be a surrogate father figure, someone?

Speaker Yes. Michael, Michael.

Speaker Just checking my phone.

Speaker I think Michael had a couple of older gentleman in his life that he would place in the position of mentor and or father figure. And yes, I do believe Quincy was one of those people in his life at that time.

Speaker Now jumping from Michael Jackson to last summer for trying to work with the French orchestra to give us the rights to use a piece of that. Yes, maybe even my part in it as well.

Speaker Yes. Hello. OK. What? What happened last summer?

Speaker What were you doing there? What was the purpose? Quincy gives you a call.

Speaker Don’t you know what I did last summer? He calls and says, Hey, last Fourth of July I got a call from Mr. Jones, whom I hadn’t heard from in a while, actually. And he asked me if I was busy on the Fourth of July. And typically, you know, it’s all about maybe a flag and a barbecue somewhere, you know, at a park. But he mentioned that he was going to France to celebrate what would have been the one 100th birthday of Duke Ellington. And he was going to be with the French National Orchestra. And Phil Collins was gonna be there. Toots Tillmann already. Salvador Michel, low ground. Milt Milt Grayson, amazing jazz singer with the most amazing, rich, deep baritone voice.

Speaker And he said, Would you like to come and sing? You know, sing a few songs with us. I said, sure.

Speaker So the next thing I knew, I you know, I was in Paris with 110 piece French National Orchestra. All these superstars and singing 10 of the 20 songs that were in the show that night, including, you know, Home and others from The Wiz and other songs that Quincy had a part of that he produced on Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. And I’m singing all these standards. And it was just the most amazing thing. We were in this beautiful vintage theater, like a real opera house on the Shamsie Liza. It was just fantastic. We had the best time and I have lots of photographs from that time. I mean, there was a point where I’m saying home. And at the end of the note, you know how.

Speaker You know, and then the audience rose up and the applause and then Quincy reached over and gave me a hug and we were both crying and I was like. I love you, too.

Speaker You know, it’s just it was so amazing. That’s why I want that tape. I have to see that. I didn’t get to. Of course. I was performing. I didn’t get to see it. But it was it was just an awesome experience. He, you know, hanging out. I told Quincy at one point, I have experienced my life with you in it and I’ve experienced my life with you on the periphery. I said I like it much better when I’m in the loop. It’s it’s much more fun. A lot more interesting stuff happens to me when I’m in the loop. He said, well, you’re always in the loop. You just chose to be on the, you know, on the periphery. And when he said that, I guess I figured he was absolutely right on second thought. But I know that he has the kind of energy where, you know, there’s nothing else you’d rather be doing. So you’re there. You’re in the now with him in the moment at all times, because that’s about that’s what’s happening. That’s the best thing that’s gonna happen to you that day.

Speaker So you better be there for three friends for one second. I just wanna go back and talk about the song. Oh, yeah. Paris.

Speaker Yes, that’s why we’re saying it. Yes.

Speaker What Paris means to Quincy. Why? Why?

Speaker So I asked him why we were singing this song, because it did seem to sort of fit with the program with all the, you know, the Ella songs and the Duke arrangements and the Sarah songs. And I said, why are we doing, you know, home? And he explained to me that he had, in his words, a raggedy ass group of musicians that he was trying to do a tour throughout Europe. And they got their promoter left them stranded. And he knew he didn’t have enough money to get back home. And he knew that he didn’t have enough money to go for very much longer in Paris. And he found a wealth of support in in Paris itself. And Parisians who have an awesome respect for jazz musicians that they never get in their home land of America, but they are respected like royalty everywhere else in the world. And Quincy found that Paris openly and warmly embraced him when he didn’t know where he was going to be next. He didn’t know where his next meal was coming from. And he had like 16 or 17 horn players that were dependent on him to know that. So he was dependent upon the kindness and the goodness of the people that he met in Paris and supporters who were looking to support an artisan like him. So that’s why he will always that’s why he is the that the pen that that John Legend all now, that pen that that is kind of like. Paris saying, we. We love you and we wish you were Parisian, we wish you were French. But since you’re not, you will be an honorary Frenchman. And that really, really touched him because he knew they saved his life. Parisians saved his life. And he’s been loyal to them ever since. That’s why Duke Ellington adopted Paris as his second home. And he was you know, he banished himself from America because they banished him. So he found a new home in Paris. And that’s why it was so warm and welcoming and receptive. And that’s all a musician really wants, is to have his art received and accepted. And Paris was that for him? So for him, Paris is home.

Speaker One of it. One other thing, which was something we mentioned once before, but I think it’s worth going back. There’s something about, you know, here touring the south of Lionel Hampton and other groups.

Speaker You know, they couldn’t eat in certain restaurants. It was a failed yoke of racial inequality. Paris, as you pointed out, they embraced jazz in a totally. Help me. Help me help our viewer understand why Paris would appeal to Quincy like Jimmy Baldwin. You know, other great writers and other artists.

Speaker Yes. Europe in general and Paris especially.

Speaker Just hasn’t a really.

Speaker Supportive feeling and a supportive structure. That American jazz musicians were not accustomed to in the country that they were born in and they were not. They weren’t loved. There was no love here for them. When Paris was wowing at their feet and offering them, you know, please just play for us. We’ll feed you Will. We’ll house you. We’ll make sure that you get paid. Just stay and play for us. Whereas America is like getting to Baghdad.

Speaker But you know, you can eat in this restaurant. I serve a note. You know, that kind of stuff was that that was the kind of reception they were getting here. And why would they stay here when they’re when they’re being treated like royalty in another part of the world? It makes you just want to go, OK? I don’t want to be here. I’m a go where I’m a king. So that’s that’s what they did.

Speaker And I think most of the musicians of their time found that they found a haven, a safe haven, and a place where they could truly express themselves creatively, where they were not allowed to do so in their own country. The Americans just weren’t having it. They we were more interested in their culture than what they had to offer us musically or creatively or stylistically, whereas Paris was hungry for it. Yeah. So what else you got? Well, you know, show us. You know, Josephine Baker is another good example is, you know, it’s just really.

Speaker Yeah.

Speaker But coming back here, thinking of quinsy again. There’s a sort of sense of. He was a pioneer. I’m wondering if you feel whether it’s, you know, here in Hollywood scored films for well, let’s first speak more specifically about, you know, back on the block and breaking down musical categories, which is like.

Speaker Right. Right out. You know, you got the call once again back. Just talk me through briefly. What was Quincy’s idea for Back on the Block?

Speaker And why did he want you at the time when Quincy was creating what was to be the Back on the Block album? He knew that that he was like the bridge between.

Speaker Bebop and hip hop.

Speaker And that record to sort of threw everybody in the mix and just stirred it all up. And and that rich soup. Was it was an eclectic mix of hip hop beats and rap artist and strong choruses and melody and jazz licks and and, you know, Dizzy Gillespie and Sarah Vaughan and Big Daddy Kane and Coolmore D. I mean, you’re like, whoa. I mean, just just. And then me with my, you know, my pop self. You know, it just that whole fusion was just so new and so different and so unusual and so like Quincy, you know, and everything that he’s done. I mean, I don’t know any other black man who scored films and TV themes that are still being played today. And then that’s has that has still garnered as much respect in this time in 2001 as he did back in the 30s. You know, when he was, you know, bumming a ride on the bus and hiding, when they when they came into towns where they knew they weren’t supposed to be. I mean, he has done it. He’s done a complete. He’s got the he’s got the full spectrum of what music business, what it was like then as a black man and what it’s like now as a musician and a producer and again. And a creator. So I just think he has a full picture. He has a very broad scope and he has a very broad knowledge of the history. Of music, a lot of a lot of the history that these young hip hop artists knew nothing about. And then you throw them in the studio with Clark Terry and they start you know, Clark starts telling Big Daddy stories about what it was like when he was coming up. Yeah, I used to wear suits like that. I used to be like you, you know. And it was just so it was just very, very heavy, heady time, just a heady time and so much to learn and and so much new things going on, so many new elements thrown into the mix to make it a completely different thing. It was no longer hip hop and be bop. It was all. And there was no name for what it was. It was just an eclectic mix of it all, because Quincy was the link to all those different genres. And I think that was the beauty of back on the block is to just sort of tied it all together, made it, made it all cohesive into one project.

Speaker What was the song?

Speaker Oh, I co-wrote like eight. I co-wrote and or sang eight of the twelve or thirteen songs on the record. One of my favorite songs on that record, though, was a song that I did with Glen Ballard when I was just singing his demos. It was song called Places You Find Love. And this is a funny story. I sang the demo, sang the hell out of it. OK. If I must say so myself. So Quincy decided he didn’t want another song with me singing on the record. So he said, I think I’ll put Chacko on the record. But he didn’t tell me. I found out later. So Chaka came in the studio and I happened to call down there. He called me or something and he told me that she was singing the duet. The next time I saw Quincy, he said, Chaka told me I was Flanner, your vocal, and Chaka listen to your vocal. And then she said.

Speaker So what you want me to do, and then Quincy said, well, I want you to sing.

Speaker This the second verse, she said she’s already signed. What? What do you want me to do? And then when I talk to Quincy, I was like, why do you need her for. I’ve already sung it. What do you you know.

Speaker It was like it was it was a big compliment from Chaka Khan, my vocal idol, for her to look at. Quincy Jones, say, what the hell? What the hell? You need me for you. She’s already done it, you know. That was just like. Yeah, shocking. Thinks I’m. No.

Speaker That’s pretty sad. That’s great.

Speaker I think it sucks. Well, you OK, is this your idea? No. Oh, OK. Then it might not suck.

Speaker That’s right. Yeah. Yeah. Idea. Is that how it’s going to work, whether it’s yours. He doesn’t try to make something.

Speaker You know, that’s the beauty of Quincy’s production heat. Quincy is the kind of producer that allows the artist to be more of who they are as opposed to trying to guide them to fit into a certain thing that he certain vision that he might have. He sort of works with the artists to bring out what they do best because that’s all he wants anyway. He only made the call because he knows what you can do. And if you go there and do the best that you can do, everybody’s happy. So he has a way of bringing out the best in whomever he works with without changing who they are at their core artistically.

Speaker Which is a gift.

Speaker Somebody said it’s like a great dress design or tailor or something that they don’t make. You saw.

Speaker Exactly, exactly. You’re doing what you. He finally manages to find a way to you to to make you look your best doing what it is you’re the best at doing. Because he already knows what that is. That’s why he called you for that. That is Quincy’s gift. He knows just who to call to get just what he needs to get. And it’s it’s a bit it’s beautiful just to watch that in action is beautiful.

Speaker What about this idea that, you know, he knows that a talk show host name Oprah in Chicago is right for this movie role or he knows that Will Smith is right for his TV show?

Speaker In the case of Oprah, he told me that he was in Chicago on some court case having to do with Michael and song infringement or something. And he was in the hotel room as get ready, go to court in the morning. And he was you know, he’s upset that he had to waste his time being in court in the first place. So he said he just is waiting for somebody to come and get him. And she turned the TV on without the sound. So he didn’t even know what Oprah sounded like. He just saw her. And having been involved in The Color Purple and we’re having read that book and having had an idea of what he thought that character would be. He saw that character in her without even hearing her speak, without even knowing if she could act.

Speaker He just knew that is are.

Speaker That is our just the what was Joe’s?

Speaker So fear, he said. That is our Sophia. And then he contacted Oprah and she loves him to this day because she he made her dream of being a movie star come true, nominated for an Oscar even. I mean, she was over the moon and still is for him. And he loves her to death, too, because she delivered.

Speaker But he has this talent. I mean, you must have felt that in terms of when he sort of. Pulls you into this orbit to sort of pick.

Speaker People who somehow or whatever the expression is for Will Smith. Thing.

Speaker It’s a gut feeling. And when you’ve been doing this for as long as he has, you kind of know when it comes around that something’s different about this woman or something’s different about that young rapper or something’s a little different. And I like it’s on the edge and I like the trend. I like where that’s going. Let me work with that or let me see what what can be done with that look. He is a trendsetter and he is on the cutting edge of everything that’s going on. Don’t even get him started on that whole Internet thing right now because it’ll be a long conversation. But he’s on the cutting edge of all the new technologies and all the new styles and all the new musical genres. He is there. That’s how he’s managed to be here for that long, for as long as he has. He’s he’s on it. And it’s always changing. And he’s changing right along with it.

Speaker What about his sense of humor?

Speaker Quincy Jones is nasty. He has a nasty sense of humor. And so do I. And that’s why we get along so well. I talked to him this morning and I reminded him that I have a photograph. We were in Japan touring, promoting the Back on the Block album. And I have a photograph of us in the lobby of the hotel. And he had just told me this really dirty joke and I’ll give you a clean version of it. He said, see it? What has two thumbs and when? I don’t know. He said.

Speaker You know, and that, my friends, that the picture right, would go like that and I was going.

Speaker So I told them about that today day and he said, I remember that.

Speaker I remember that. He’s a damn. I forgot that joke. I got it.

Speaker So you told me a couple of more jokes and we were just hysterical. He has an amazing sense of humor with no bounds, no limits. Nothing is too dirty. Nothing is too edgy.

Speaker Which is beautiful, you know, because he’s he’s he’s performed for kings and queens and, you know, and he can still, you know, tell a dirty joke every now and then.

Speaker He’s just wicked. He has a wicked sense of humor, which is lovely when you’re on the road with him because you’re never bored. You know, he’s always got stories about everybody because he knows everybody is always in everybody’s business. He’s always got some great stories to tell. So he’s always a lot of fun.

Speaker What about you mentioned, you know, the thing that with no, we were talking to Jolie about this. We’re interviewing Gerri’s first wife and Peggy and I don’t mean this. I don’t want this in any way to be disrespectful.

Speaker But women are you know, he’s very upfront about it. They are a really important part of his life.

Speaker And what what is it about? Is that a problem? No. But speaking to sort of your experience with what women mean to and how they inspire and what.

Speaker Oh, it gets you. I couldn’t answer that question. I don’t. You’re gonna have to ask Quincy Jones what women mean to him. Well, I’ve never been one of those women, so I couldn’t. I have no idea.

Speaker I know that he has a strong sense of family and his children are around him constantly. All of them and their perspective are their respective mothers and or baby moments. And it’s all you know, it’s all cool because they all want to still be in his life. No matter what the stipulations of that relationship is, they all still want to be there. You know what I mean? Because it’s it’s worth it in the end. Not even not financially speaking. It just. He has a way of feeding you emotionally. And I think the women in his life reciprocate that for him.

Speaker What about. Nardy.

Speaker I mean, what you as you move into the future, we followed working with kids.

Speaker This is just staggering into the eyes.

Speaker I placed it. But if there’s a problem, I should add one that you’re to about.

Speaker I mean, do you have kids? What? Where do you think you’ll reconnect with them again in the future?

Speaker Oh, I never know. You never know when you’re going to. I mean, like before we went to Paris last year, he called me like 10 days before I. You never know. But you’re always willing to drop what you’re doing and hang, you know, cause, you know, it’s gonna be a thrill.

Speaker He’s never let me down in that respect.

Speaker What about working in the studio? Getting back to back on the block? I’ve been told he’s different. Sort of. He says different energy, different the studio.

Speaker Well, it’s the same as anyone who has a personal life, a real life and then a job that he does that he loves. But it’s a different head set. You know, it’s a different mindset when he’s on the job in the studio. He’s working in the studio. And it’s a work friend of mine. He might interject some jokes and have fun while he’s doing it. But it’s not the Quincy Jones that you would hang out with at the dinner table, which he can switch into when it’s dinner time. But when he’s in the studio, that’s a different headset. That’s a different mode. And I think everybody who’s good at what they do like you. I’m sure you’re not this way when you’re hanging out with the wife and kids that you know you’re not. And what did you know? It’s a different it’s a different it’s the same person, but it’s a different vibe.

Speaker Dammit, Regan. No, that’s right.

Speaker The new battery.

Speaker I guess, you know, I’m going to take my coat off at this point.

Speaker Keep it on. Damn it. Just for a moment. Yeah, I know.

Speaker I love that. Can I get a copy of that picture?

Speaker Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do.

Speaker It’s like Victor. You know what? I’ll give it to you when you get out. Yeah, I gotcha. Now. That’s what all the guys tell me. I’m still. I’m not getting any. OK. Just know that you don’t want to put it in my eye. Nardy will have a fit.

Speaker No, I don’t mind as long as it doesn’t block. I like that little reflection of light that you push to nothing. I’m going to swing my head in just a minute, but I will.

Speaker And if you knew better, you know, I remember you did a.

Speaker Very busy. She wanted to sign the. From back on the block or.

Speaker I think we did a couple of videos. There was a video to the places you find love. There was a video called for I don’t go for that.

Speaker There was a video for the second. Franco was shifting sweaters in the middle. I’m not gonna go for.

Speaker I’m just saying, look, you know, what was if we were to hit the Pentagon, if we were to pick a video to check the not from the ratio is, you know, just to cover one of the.

Speaker And it hurts so bad. Why is he doing this? What’s he doing that? Which one should we pick?

Speaker Well, I think the one where he’s mixing it all up would be. Back on the block where all the rappers and I think is although, you know. Oh, be bop is one word. It’s just you and.

Speaker One other guy, singer.

Speaker Yeah. Cigar? No, that was four guys. I was.

Speaker Are you the only woman who could turn heads?