The Breakfast Club - The Isley Brothers Talk Legacy, Originality In Music, Aretha Franklin, R. Kelly + More

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

The Isley Brothers Talk Legacy, Originality In Music, Aretha Franklin, R. Kelly + MoreSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We got our guest host, Kim Whitley, joining us today. That's right. Kim said I had to be here for this one. That's right. She was telling the stories behind the scenes before y'all brothers walked in. We have the Isley brothers here. Welcome! Yes. Thank you. How y'all feeling? Thank you. Thank you. We're good. Kim was telling us all types of stories before you guys walked in about shows, performances

and all this other stuff. Yes. Ernie and Ron, let me tell you something. This right here, the unique sound, that's the one thing I want everybody to understand. They have had a unique sound for years, and the decades, like, you know, from early childhood to now, you think about how long your music, you've gone through generations.

I just, you know, I bow down. I bow down. Seven decades in the business. Wow. What, eight? Ever since 1959 was the first hit record, Shout. Shout. Yeah.

About 63 or 64 years. And now, number one record for five weeks, and number one album. No, no, no. The album's been submitting there on 38 weeks. Yeah. How do you keep reinventing yourself?

I mean, because it seems like it's new every time. New feelings. That's from God. You know, we've been blessed. With so many writers and young writers

and new writers and OG writers and, you know, and OG writers, and they all love to work with you guys. Why do you think that is? Because, you know, it's, wow. It's really hard to explain, but we just enjoy every minute of doing what we do, you know. And do you ever get surprised, like, you're looking at the Versus with how many young fans you have and how many new fans that you guys, you know, turned on to you from the Versus and things like that?

He was calling you a cat daddy. Cat daddy. Just walking through the airport, kids five to six years old, and, hey, that's Mr. Biggs, you know. Let me tell you, that last picture you had on Instagram, I don't know, you had the black and white on. I'm telling you now, I'm a friend of Kenny, but you look,

y'all, when I tell you, y'all still have this sex appeal. Do y'all understand that? All right. All right. That is just so good. I ask my question is, what is your favorite? I know you have a lot of songs, but what is your favorite song to sing? What is y'all's favorite song?

Well, you know, every night we have to do certain songs, you know. It's just maybe stuff like. That's not hard. It's your thing. Shout. We have to do that every night you know you go through the any time we see people

at weddings they always doing that song you know it's really a great feeling to watch somebody do your song like that, especially when it's 63 years old, you know. Now, listen, nobody plans out a seven-decade career.

So when y'all first recorded Shout and, you know, Shout came out, what did y'all think y'all careers were going to look like? What was the success to y'all back then? Well, everybody was excited. And when we would go on shows, they would have to stop the show because people would be shouting in the audience and making people sit down in their chair. And so, you know, that felt great.

I mean, it really felt great, you know. We didn't know it was going to last this long. That's right. Because nobody knows that, you know. But from the beginning, let's start from the beginning for people that don't know you. What made you guys want to create this group? What made you start singing? Was it church?

Was it mama was bothering you to sing, boy, sing? Or like what made you say, we're going to start this? My mother and father, my mother was a teacher. You know, she taught, you know, music. I was singing at two years old. I won a war bond at church for, you know, at two years old. So we had a group ever since I was four or five. Was it always the Isley Brothers?

Yes. That was the name of the group from then. That's it. No other name. It's always been that. That's it. And we were, like, skeptical when we came to New York because we said, hey, they're not going to remember our name, you know,

Frankie Nyman and Teenagers and all, you know Frankie Nyman and teenagers and all you know and we were wondering well I hope they remember our name you know when did y'all realize y'all had something here when we were in Cincinnati

we won everything that they put us up you know every amateur everything television shows, everything. We won it all. From that time on, all the way up. Yeah. This was before shop. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. And with your mom being a teacher, did she never not want you to get into this industry called the music industry where you're on the road and all that? They wanted us to be in, you know on you know uh the mill brothers my father wanted us to you know have a group and last as long as the mill brothers then my younger brother ernie and marvin they weren't even you know in the music business then you know and uh they came to new york at new jersey after we he had recorded twisting shout and shout and they like watched us and uh we wanted my father always wanted us to be

self-contained he went so then ernie started playing, and then he went to playing guitar. Then my little brother played bass. Then my brother-in-law was playing keyboards, and we became that self-contained group. Your father said, let's not pay anybody on the outside anymore. Let's keep earning money. Daddy said, keep all the money. Now, was that like, Ernie, was that self-taught, those instruments?

Yes. Wow. It started with drums first yeah at the time jimmy hendrix was living at the house you know and he was playing just gonna throw that name yeah he was there you know like uh march of 63 to like november of 65. why was jimmy hendrix just living at your house? Well, he was our guitar player. And so we watched him. Ernie watched him. We didn't know Ernie was going to wind up playing guitar because he was playing drums at the time. And later on, Ernie started playing the guitar.

And when I wrote the song, It's Your Thing, Ernie picked up his bass and started playing the bass. I said, you know, we were at the session in New York, and Ernie, I said, hey, you need to play bass on this song, you know. And he played bass on It's Your Thing, sure thing. From that time on. Now family could be a good thing and it could be a bad thing, right? Because sometimes too much of your brother is just too much. How much

fighting did y'all get into? That's exactly what I was about to ask. And who won? We didn't have no fights. No fights. Were you a little? They respected you. We were close. My father taught us,

you better, you know, at the time, when I was young, we all had to stay together. When my older brother wanted to go out to a party, they had to take me and my other brother. He had a girlfriend. We were waiting on the outside

of the house. I want you all to always stay together yeah how are things now because i know you one of your brothers uh was suing you over the idly brother trademark that's not really a problem you know uh it's it's hard for me to discuss it now, but it's not a problem whatsoever. Did you have the problem early on with owning your own masters and stuff like that? Did y'all own that? Or if not, did y'all get it back? Yes, we owned some of it.

Some of it. We had a start at a record company in 1969, T-Neck Records. That's your thing. And all the way up until this point now, I have another company, which is R.I. Top Ten, and it owns everything. How do y'all only own some of it? Don't the masters go back to you after a certain point? Well, it's all according to what you sign, you know.

And at some time, when we started off, we'd sign certain things in there. And we had certain clause in our contract that after 10 years, we would get it all would come back. Y'all should have been in debt eight times already, right? Hell yeah. I did seven decades in the music business. Oh, man.

That's good to have you. What's going on with Ed Sharon and this Marvin Gaye situation? Have you all, I don't know have you. What's going on with Ed Sheeran and this Marvin Gaye situation? Have you all, I don't know if you know what's going on, but Ed Sheeran is being sued by Marvin Gaye's family over sampling. Have you all ever heard something and you were like, wait a minute. That's us. Right, right. That sounds like us.

Have you all ever been like, wait a minute. Well, the rappers always had respect for our work. And so I love it when you call me Big Pop. That's between the sheets. Today was a good day. Ice Cube, that was Footsteps in the Dark. There's a very strong association. We have more samples than anybody

over a thousand samples do you have to clear everything you listen to it yes we have to clear so when you heard biggie right the first time you heard biggie right yeah i'm sure puff called y'all and i heard the stuff that biggie was talking about what was your first mind frame because i'm sure it was was it puff that called you? We flipped out. Yeah. We flipped out. The first time I heard it, I knew he had a hit.

You know, because it was done in such a signature way for him. You know, I'll see you some ladies tonight because you'll be having my baby. I started laughing when I heard it. Yeah,

the whole thing. But I knew it was a hit. The whole thing. I knew it was a hit though. knew it was a hit, though. He didn't reach out, though? He didn't reach out beforehand? Oh, yeah. Yeah, he did. We were at the studio together talking about doing, you know,

he wanted to do other records with us. Oh, you were in the studio with Big? Yes. And Puffy. Puffy did a couple of records with us. You know, one of them was called Float On, I think. Float On, yeah.

The number one song here in New York. We had the record In Between the Sheets, Jay-Z, everybody. Then you became a villain. Yeah, Kendrick Lamar. He became Mr. Big. Real quick, when's the last time y'all didn't get a check? When was the last day y'all didn't get a check?

I don't know. I can't answer that one. That song y'all sing, even during the pandemic, y'all came out with friends and family. I said, what in the world? I'm trying to tell everybody I'm your cousin. Then you turned to villain. Mr. Biggs.

Now, break that down. For a long time, that's what everybody looked at you as, Mr. Biggs. How was that? Was that yours? It was Kel's? R. Kelly wrote the song, Keeping on the Down Low. And he said, I wrote this song, and I see you doing it.

My mother wanted you to do it. I met R. Kelly on Sunset. He's driving the car, and he rolled the window down. Hey, stop, stop. I was was walking coming out of the studio and he said hey man we gotta talk we gotta talk i want you to i want you on my record i want you and so i listened at the record did you know who he was at the time huh did you know who he was at the time yeah Yeah. He had out a couple of songs. I think he body called him or something.

And so his mother was a big fan of ours. And so she had told him all our songs. And so we got together to do that download. And he said, I see you being Mr. you being mr bigs

i want you we're gonna come in we're gonna do this video we want i want to hear your foot when you come in the studio that's how the video was hey r kelly was is really a genius man with doing music with his whole mind and thoughts and we went on we did other songs Contagious I had number one albums with him and sold millions of records. Our first album that we did with Contagious,

it's albums over three million, which was the first for DreamWorkworks at the time. And after that, he did an album with me that came in the charts number one. I think one of the albums that had Contagious in it was number two. And the other one was number one and on and on and on. Any fear at the time? Because you were shout and you were between the sheets

and now you were the villain. Man, Mr. Biggs, you know what I mean, with the cane, with the sword on it, you know what I mean? Well, you know, my brother gave me the cane. My brother took a picture with the cane. I don't know. On the Fleece List 3 album, Rudolph. Yeah, Rudolph.

And he gave it to me for my birthday and I started carrying the cane want to know. On the Fleece List 3 album, Rudolph. Yeah, Rudolph. And he gave it to me for my birthday, and I saw Karen DeCain, you know. I didn't know what that's been about. You know, about DeCain would wind up being in a video talking about, you're going to hit me with DeCain, you know, that type of thing. But, hey, man, it's been wonderful. Wonderful. And let me say, we watch you guys. I mean, I know everything that you do.

Everything that you do. And we watch you. Thank you. And I think what you're doing is so great, man. And never stop doing it. Thank you. Amen. Thank you. I feel like you've been the so great, man. And never stop doing it. Thank you. Amen. Thank you.

I feel like you've been the villain before, though. I'm sure, you know, some man has approached you about being with a woman. They're all them brothers, though. They ain't no children. Yeah, they're a lot of brothers. I don't know about that. What does tour life look for y'all, you know, after all of these years? It ain't like it was 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years ago.

What would a tour life look for y'all now? You know, we wouldn't know what to do if we wasn't doing the tour. We wouldn't sing and then seeing the response from the people, you know. Just watching the response and getting to see what they like and what song. You want me to sing Hello, It's Me? You want me to sing hello it's me you want me to sing uh contagious do you want me to sing uh smooth sailing uh you know and i do that every night you know and uh i i don't know what i would be doing if i didn't do that i always wonder how different does the world look the brothers like y'all because y'all literally were out before

you know civil rights before the civil rights era you know like what was life like back then torn in the 50s and 60s we were always just just one wanting to be the number one thing and that that is no lie we wanted to be the number one thing in england, when we went to England and with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and Elton John and them people, the Beatles were imitating us.

And Paul McCartney would tell you, say, hey, if it don't be for the Isaac brothers, we'd still be here in Liverpool, you know. Did you ever run into discrimination or'm sorry, discrimination or anything? I'm just wondering, like I said, what it was like then, because you all, it's something different.

You're together, you're a family, but you're going all over the world. Did you ever experience anything like that? A couple of times. We went to a club one time, and, you know know when we got ready to go in the guy say hey man hold it i thought you guys were white you know he said and he paid us right then so you know you know you don't have to come you know it's a lot of different type of people here and we we laughed about it because we got paid. We didn't have to go home.

Basically, he was telling you, don't go in this club. No, no. We don't know what's in there. Crooker plans and all that. Do y'all remember how much the world changed after the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, I would have thought it would be way different now, you know,

when Luther King was doing his thing, man. You know, it started changing, started changing, started changing, you know, and we were hoping for, you know, the change. But, you know, hey, it didn't start going back. A little pushing, a little, you know. I think the people are more intelligent now. You know?

Really? The young people. The young people. It's going to take that, you know. And the blessing from God, you know, I don't know what's going to happen. No one knows what's going to happen. Hey, I'm going to do all I can, all I can. Did y'all get involved in any way back then?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We did everything they asked us to do, And we wanted to do more, you know. But at the time, you had people like Sammy Davis and James Brown, everybody, Aretha Franklin, you know, all those people, you know. And we were in the crowd doing our thing, you know. Who was your biggest competition back then, if there was any? Black, meaning black competition.

James Brown. James Brown James Brown and Sam Cooke you know Jackie Wilson you know and we would do when we were on the show

with them they couldn't go on man when we did that song Shout we shut it down you know what I'm saying when y'all wrote music was y'all trying to be like

no we need to make a record that they know that they can't follow was that the way I'm saying when y'all wrote music was y'all trying to be like no we need to make a record that they know that they can't follow was that the way your mind frame when y'all were that's what we were looking for

and we didn't and we and we hit that when we hit It's Your Thing and from that point on it was it went

hey straight to the top well just by that that was kind of like the Bobby Brown, my prerogative. Yeah. It was like a dream to me. And that was a dream that I had. I said, when I woke up, I started humming the song.

I said, no, it's not going to get away. And I went down to my mother's house. And Ernie was there. And he picked up his bass you know i said i got this song me and my brother i said and i sung it for him and they said hey and we put it on tape it went in the studio and uh i did it one time in the studio sang at one time while the band was playing and and then they said well it's time to do do our part i say hey i already did it so it came to you in a dream it wasn't like a phrase y'all was saying and nothing like that came to me in the dream and uh you know at the time people were saying saying, it's your thing, do your thing.

That expression was out. But it came to me in a dream. What about Between the Sheets? How was that song? Between the Sheets, there's a commercial you used to watch. You can still see it on your computer, Chanel No. 5. A woman was at the far end of the pool, and the guy was at the opposite end, and he dove into the water, and he came up through her leg,

and they said she had a fantasy, and I always liked that commercial. And I had my guitar with me with the uh sound down and i thought what would the music be like and i started playing the chords to between the sheets oh genius genius and then we got into the studio marvin and chris and uh he says hey man okay you got any lyrics i got the, you got any lyrics? I got the music. You got any lyrics? I said, yeah. Hey, girl, ain't no mystery, at least as far as I can see. I want to keep you here, laying next to me, sharing our love. And I was stuck.

Chris picked up a legal patent and said, sharing our love between the sheets. I said, there you go. And Marvin polished off the verse of the song lyrically. Wow. What was the young lady that gave you that inspiration besides that? Oh, no. No, see, no. No, you see. Oh, man, what was her name?

No, you see, like, that's, you know, I refer to that person as my muse. Okay. You know, so that could be anyone. That's right. It could be one of my guitars, for example. I think of all my guitars as female. So, you know, that could be anyone.

And, of course, in that kind of explanation, he's just into the person that he's with and there's intimacy there because you can't see what's going on it's between the sheets is missing from R&B music now like that's one of the reasons that you know people like puff said R&B is dead you know know, Ernie started writing songs about 1973. Songs like Harvest for the World, At Your Best, You're Love.

Wow. The song that we did with Beyonce. Yeah, Make Me Say It Again. Make Me Say It Again. Fight the Power. Just on and on and on and on, you know. And that was a great thing for us because we could do our thing,

release our records that we wanted to release, you know. I could sing anything that I wanted to sing, you know. I decided those songs like like hello those songs like uh summer breeze from listening and adam yeah the song uh love the one you with yep you know and those turn out to be big songs for us but. But we could do anything that we wanted to do at the time. And my other brother, he was writing songs like... Grew With You. Grew With You, you know.

Have you ever written a song for someone else and then said, I want to get that back. Should have kept that song. Well, one time, you know, I think we were thinking about the money. And I said, hey, Aretha Franklin should do with your thing. And so we were trying to get $15,000 for it at the time, you know. And Aretha Franklin was late at the studio, and she didn't come in. Damn, man.

Aretha Franklin, she took the record. Oh, no. Oh, you wanted her to hear it. Yeah, she was one of my girlfriends at the time. Wait, what? Aretha Franklin? Wait, what? Yeah.

That's what I'm talking about. Y'all ain't listening. Y'all ain't listening. He didn't say that was his girlfriend. He said that was one of his girlfriends at the time. Well, at the time. Because she was mad at you and she didn't show up. She was late in getting to the studio.

And she didn't do the song. How do you fix that argument later on? Because, you know. I know you cursed her. Or did she curse you out for giving away her record for taking her record? She did it later on. She did record it, I think, later on.

She did? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. Produced by Luther Vandross. Yeah. And what happened? It never came out?

It was on an album. It came out. Sounded real good, too. Clyde Davis wanted us to produce it, and we didn't, you know, we were doing something else. And so she was in the studio with Luther at the time, so Luther did it on her. How many girlfriends did you have back then? Yeah, I got so many.

I don't know, man. I just really, first of all. I was so young man and you know hey you lived a life it wasn't like the girlfriends that you guys have now you know

it was just like hey we were talking about music talking about doing music and she was yeah you know I think y'all weren't between the sheets is what you think

you know I was I have on my telephone from that time to now Aretha Franklin we talked maybe two and three times a week.

Wow. Okay. Even when she died. You know, we were the best of friends. My wife suggested that she used Jennifer Hudson in her movie. And I said, well, I thought you were going to do Holly Berry. She said, Jennifer would be the person for a movie. Jennifer came to see her that day, and she sang a song to her.

She said, you know what that song is? And Jennifer said, that's one of the Icy Brothers songs. It was the last song she sang. That's how tight we were. You understand. I'm Cindy. I'm such a fan. He talking like this regular but it is for him. Right. It's just so

amazing. It's your life. And being a fan and like we were talking about, we were talking about Gerald LaVert, you know, it's just our lives and you're just like, yeah, we talk every day. What, I look at this and I look at the span of how long you've been, what, if you could just, is there a story of the craziest thing someone did on stage to get your attention or in the audience, because that probably be something I did, chase the tour bus or something like that. But was there ever

anything, did anybody throw anything on stage, jump on stage? I was on the stage singing Lucille. And I fell on my knees and had my eyes closed and a lady threw a dress over me

and she never want no underwear. What'd it smell like? Oh. Never mind. Don't go there. All right now. I was going to ask, you know,

when you coming up, you and Michael Jackson or James Brown never got into a competition type of thing? No. Because they were both competitors. That's your young boy, though. It's not James. Oh, yeah. We were real tight with James Brown, you know.

Michael Jackson wanted to do, they wanted us to produce him when he left Motown. But I think he was produced by Galvin Huff. We wanted to keep our sound. And that's why we discussed certain records that we were doing ourselves. It's kind of hard to come up with those records, you know, we got to do nine of them in the album, you know what I'm saying, and we, at the time, I didn't want Ernie playing Summer Breeze on Michael Jackson, because he was like, big, you know, at the same, you know, like that would take something away from us.

And that was never a problem, the fact that, you know, everybody wanted you to produce and play for them and everybody wanted you to sing on their project. That never created a riff? Well, that was a discussion that we would have and we would say, I don't think we should do that at this time, you know. And, you know, I don't think we should do that at this time you know and uh you know I don't know or anybody played a couple of things on different people you know I don't know but uh

wasn't too much of that was there any songs that y'all did that y'all didn't believe in but it ended up being a hit when I when I came down came down to the house for them to do the song Love the One You With, they said, Hey, man, we're going to do this song. And that's what we're going to do. And it was a smash for us. Did you ever say, I told you so? Why you didn't like it?

No. Well, to be honest, I think at that time, I was growing into whatever musician or songwriter I was eventually going to be. It just had not manifested. So Love the One You With As A Song is a great song. And obviously the way we did it, it's like an Isley Brothers song, you know.

So, you know, a lot of times, you know, with whatever you're going to do in the future, you can't see, but you'll have a feeling so that uh when we got ready to uh uh do three plus three it was like oh we're gonna record that in california and i'm like california yeah and uh we're gonna do the song That Lady. I said, That Lady, that's a Cha-Cha Bossa Nova. He said, no, we're going to change the tempo. We're going to change the lyric. We're going to change the melody.

And you are going to play lead guitar on it. And I was like, okay. You know, you don't know until you do it. Was it a major effort? Because, you know, you listen to all your music and nothing sounds the same was that something that you made sure that you focused on and make sure that nothing was ever similar you know the shout didn't sound like between the sheets which didn't sound like they're like like it was totally different you know i remember when cbs first heard that lady, they said,

well, it doesn't sound like it's your thing. It doesn't have trumpets or saxophones on it, but we like it. And you got elements of R&B, dance, funk, but you also got a lead guitar sound on there. That's unusual. How should we promote it? And we were like, just let it go everywhere. That was the time that we were trying to have mostly, like,

the groups that came out of England, Beatles and everybody, it was self-contained. We wanted this self-contained sound, and that's what who's that lady was about that was the time that clyde davis signed us uh t-neck records over there at uh cbs you know he was the one that listened to it and he had a serious ear you know he he. He knew what a hit was. He did say, y'all should sing, it should be another verse.

We went back in the studio and Ernie wrote another verse because he needed three verses. At that time, yeah. Which was no problem, you know. And when we came back, they suddenly fired Clyde Davis for some bar misfits or something he gave and this and that.

And we said, hey, we just signed it. Don't worry about that. Your record will be out soon. And while we were going through the arguing about Clyde Davis, the record went number one. What year was this? 73. 73.

You know, I always wonder, like, you know, y'all got on in the 50s, but, you know, that was a time of, you know, racial unrest. How come the labels weren't racist? I mean, I'm sure they were, but they had no problem signing black acts. I wonder why. Why? You know, I don't know. I don't know the answer for that.

They discriminate everywhere else. Yeah, you know, it was always Nat King Cole who built Capitol Records, you know. Ray Charles. Ray Charles, Atlantic Records, you know Ray Charles Ray Charles Atlantic records you know they you know they know they would sell records you know, Little Richard, you know. And then came Johnny Mathis, you know. Oh, wow.

Yeah. There was a time that you and, of course, the Isaac Brothers and Earth, Wind & Fire. I mean, y'all were at the top of the top, these two groups. Did you all become friends? Did you know each other at that time? And I just wanted to hear a little bit about that relationship. Oh, man, my brother was crazy about them.

And, you know, right now, Philabilly is like my brother-in-law or something. What would you say to him? He was married to my oldest sister. He was married to your oldest sister. And, you know, I thought they was like so creative. My brother was friends with... Verdean. Marvin and Verdean.

Yeah. Being both bass players. All the time. When they had the record... That's the way of the world. That's the way of the world. We would have had our record out at the same time, our biggest album,

which was the Heat It song. Heat It song would fight the power. But my brother was arguing with me, Brother Rudolph, because he said, it's another song we should have an album. No, we would have six songs, three slow songs in the album on one side and three on the fast side, Fight the Power. We were arguing back and forth. And that argument went on so long, and we didn't release our records at the same time.

But anyway, the record was so successful and our record was the biggest we ever had. And with all these records that you've written and produced and sang, I mean, you keep talking about records and I'm like, God damn, that's a lot of records. Commercials and all that other stuff.

Was there ever a time where things got tight at all in the industry? Like where, because you speak to so many artists and sometimes they'd be like, yeah, it was kind of tight during this time. We didn't have a hit or we had to sell this

or sell that. Was that ever a situation? No. You're always torn. Well, when Marvin Gate came up with Sexual Healing,

we came up with In Between the Sheets. When Teddy Pendergrass did Turn off the lights which we took him on tour with us all and I and close the door we came up with don't say goodnight and we would call on the phone hey so and so and so we'd laugh and talk about that y'all was making diss records to each other y'all never had no financial situation at all?

No, no. I love that. So it was all friendly competition between all the legends? Yeah. Oh, no, no. Okay, keep going. You're not going to just throw that out. There was people that y'all actually had real beef with?

Let me think. I'm sure the beef is dead now, so. Right, right, right. You know, no entertainer. No entertainer. But the one beef I did wind up having was with Michael Bolton. Love is a wonderful thing. Did one of our songs, you know,

and went to court, went to court for so many years. And we, you know, we won that case. And it's in the book again, it's because it's the biggest money case that, you know. That he had to pay. He just went out and sung one of your songs? Yeah. Love is a wonderful thing.

But he wasn't trying to be crazy. And I wanted him to, you know, hey, man, settle this. He didn't want to settle. Hey, we went to court, and he had 100 lawyers. And we won the case. Damn colonizer. He's just going to come in. That's what it is.

That's what that is. Yeah. Dang. And then he finally said, did he ever come back and be like, look, I apologize or I should have gave you credit or? No. Damn it, man. Never apologized for anything. No.

Oh, he sued his lawyers. Then he sued his lawyers after for losing. I think that case was for $8 million, you know. Jesus. Did he ever pay all the money you got on your money? Yeah, that's why they didn't have any problems. Yeah, that's one of the reasons. Ernie, do you think R&B is dead?

I meant to ask you that earlier. No. Okay. No, no, no. Not as long as there's all of that music, you know, waiting to be discovered or rediscovered. And of course, we have a lot of divine grace still being here, and with our track record and the way that we pursue the music ourselves,

no, it's anything but dead. It's more alive now than ever. So no, it's anything but dead. It's more alive now than ever. So, no. No. Now, do people call you or do you call, like, Beyonce? Do people call you or you call them? Like, how does that magic come together constantly? Well, I called her.

I called her. I called her. You know, we were talking about doing the song early in her career. But I called her mother, you know, we were talking about doing the song early in her career. But I called her mother, you know, and when her mother called her and she said, yes, you know. She's a beautiful woman, man. Let me say it again. Beyoncé, when it comes to with us, I think she just, it came out the same time her album came out and mostly a person would say wait you're gonna y'all got to wait you know we wanted to do videos and all that but uh we

understood that uh she didn't do a video for her record you know she had other plans and but that's that that's the biggest record for her right now, R&B right now. Oh, yes. It's still number one in California. Oh, I hear it all the time. I love it. I wonder what inspires y'all now,

because when you speak about how y'all were inspired by Marvin and Teddy Pendergrass, who do y'all look around to now and get inspired by? Well, it's some of the rappers, too, wow I look at well it's some of the rappers too you know that we're doing records with now the rapper that

Takeoff and Quavo did a record with us and we were talking about what we was gonna do and what and when he and when he his death came about man it's just you know see I did a record with him on his project I know only it's on our yeah and we did a record with 2 Chainz then we did a record with the Rick Ross then we did a record with Rick Ross then we did with Snoop Dogg

you know so we look at that that's the way the business is sort of going so we kind of want to keep our you know thing going with that too at the same time you know I'm going to do something with Elton John know I'm going to do something with Elton John

and I'm going to do something with Mariah and I'm going to do something with I already Kendrick Lamar I did a couple of songs with him one

a Grammy I you know. I Love Myself. How do y'all have to? I Love Myself. I love that record, too. Yeah. What's up on that record? Like, it was like, Who's That Lady, you know.

Has anybody told you to go back in the studio and redo the record? Like, didn't like your vocals or something like that? Like which? Like whatever. Like, they might not like the verse. Like, do it again. Like the vocals or something like that? Like which? Like whatever. They might not like the verse. Like do it again. Like the producer or somebody. Or let's say your wife also sings,

like, baby, kind of flat today. Go back in there, do whatever. Has that happened with you at all? Not really. Nah. He wished somebody would. He's like, I wish somebody would. No, when you listen to It's Your Thing,

that vocal is the first take so he did that he did that live just one time you know so it ain't like go and do it again

you know most of my songs are one take even Twist and Shout even Shout was one take just gonna show off huh

yeah listen, shout, even shout what's one take. Just gonna show off, huh? Yeah. You know, I didn't even notice that back there then, you know. Wow, you know. In between the sheets of one take. One take. That is amazing.

Could you punch him back then? Or did you have to do the whole thing over? No, I just did it one time. You could, but you're just rolling. Everybody had to be right. The band had to be right. You had to be right. Nobody could mess up.

Well, the band, they already had recorded. They laid the track down already. So now, you know, I went out there and hit it. What happened to the other members of the group? Does it ever sadden y'all that y'all look, it's just y'all two now? Well, my older brother passed and my younger brother passed. My brother Rudolph, he decided to go into his ministry. So basically, you know, it's just me and Ernie now, you know.

We've been doing this for about, what, how many years? Quite a few. Yeah. Thank you. You know, more than, say, 1973 to now, that would be 50. Wow. But, you know, like, if I'm on it, I was a bass player on It's Your Thing

when I was 16. So that would be 50 68 to now it's 55 years. He had 16. My son doing something. This is ridiculous.

Do y'all ever feel peerless? Because you know, so many of your peers have transitioned? You know, I think about my brothers, and I think about, you know, it's not a day that goes by without me thinking about my older brother because he was just incredible, you know and I think you know I think about him being in heaven

and watching watching sending up prayers sending down prayers for us watching over you brothers yeah amen what about artists other artists that y'all might have been close with that transition?

Yeah. I think about people like Sam Cooke. You know, Marvin Gaye's a very good friend of ours. Jackie Wilson was very, very close to us. James Brown was. He is crazy about us. You know? You know? James Brown, whoa, he's crazy about us, you know.

You know, I go back with people like Burt Bacharach. I did an album with him. I think it was one of my best albums. You know, he's singing his songs. He just passed. Michael Jackson, we were crazy about him you know and I could go on and on you know people like Jimi Hendrix

and all you just oh my god I gotta get better friends and Aretha Franklin was my best friend and Aretha is there anyone that you haven't worked with Tell my story. And Aretha Franklin was my best friend. And Aretha. Is there anyone that you haven't worked with? Is there somebody you inspire?

Is there anyone else out there that you think about? I mean, you've hit everybody from every generation. I would have liked to do something with Whitney Houston. And I had a chance to do that. Yeah, we did. And I did one song for her album and we'd sang and she flew us on a back from somewhere from Atlanta Georgia something. The song she did One of Those Days yeah yeah which was a sample of Between the Sheets yeah Ronald was with her. I would have liked to seriously did something with her she's a great singer. Why didn't that happen?

Just in half time. You know, it was people that we talked about doing songs together. You know, but, you know, we didn't look at it like we're looking at it now. And you look at it later and say, I should have have done and you know I love talking to the elders like y'all cuz it just makes me realize there's so much more life you're right you're right so much but I wonder do you think more now about living or do you think like you know do you question mortality do you know man I want to live forever. I believe it. I believe you will. Yeah, I want to live forever. When you started making all that money, right,

do you remember your first time they put you on a private jet and how it felt or the first big expensive thing that you bought? What was it? Well, I remember our first gig that we made like $500 between the brothers, just the three brothers. And, man, I had that, you know. We went to one of those wonderful kind of stores

that they sell clothes with somebody else. Thrift shop. Thrift shop. Thrift shop, yep. Yeah, I went in there and bought me a suit. We all bought different suits, and we thought that was... $500. $500.

Wow. That one's suits was $10. $20. Yeah. You bought 10 of them. Yeah. That is great. That was what you remember.

Look at that. That was a great feeling. I wanted to know, when the Versus thing happened, how did that come about? Who called you and said, this Versus thing is going on, and what made you say, you know what, this is going to be a great idea? Well, my friend Greg Black, he called me and... Greg Walker. Greg Walker.

Greg Walker. He called me and he talked on the phone for just hours and hours saying, y'all should do this. And he called Switz, and I talked to swiss you know and we talked over and over and over i don't know if we want to do this you know and then uh we had this record that you know friends and family and so i said well maybe we should do this you know and uh we did with earth and earth went in fire you know we you know they call them and they they said yes and we said yes and then said well it's gonna be then steve Then Steve Harvey called. I got to be the host there. Then.

Steve loves y'all. Yeah. I mean, we're just real, real, real good friends. And it was good because families got to watch it. My young kids, my parents, me. So it was good. Is it true y'all got your own liquor coming out? Oh, yeah.

I know it's brown. I know it's brown. I got, it's going to be actually. Oh, that's right there. There you go, right there. Yeah, I had it in my purse. You had it in your purse? I didn't just tell you to run some grass.

Right, right. We got some Ronald Isley. Brandy and vodka. Vodka. And some Ronald, Brandy, Brandy and Vodka. And we got Brandy. And Contagious is the name of the brand. That's Brandy. This Vodka right here.

Look at that right here. I see, I see. Ronald, Osley, Liquid, Gold, Contagious. Brandy. 40% alcohol. 750 milliliters. Yeah. Okay.

I think it's supposed to be 80% now 80% It's 80 Anyway He can't read Oh it's 80 It says 40 80 proof

And then go to It's always W Oh Yeah yeah But the name of it is contagious That's the Oh yeah On this brand

How many babies you can make with this I don't know I don't know now we gotta ask i you know i'm looking in the corner over there and i see a guitar just sitting there and people don't bring guitars unless they want to use guitars or two guitars people don't bring two guitars unless they want to use i mean we got millions of people they're the idly brothers we on b BET right no everybody gonna

play a song we got a new song coming out what do we got no you know I carry my guitars with me you know like

the character in Peanuts always has a piano I do like I mean it's a it's you know it's a very secure thing

for me really emotionally to have so I you know I knew we would secure thing for me really emotionally to have so I you know I knew we were coming here so I was like yes I'll bring my guitars I don't know whether

or not I'll play them but you know I just have them have them with me just in case yeah I should have brought a guitar and have y'all sign it

well if you if you got one somewhere you should have put a guitar had to put the guitar up there yeah next time you can leave that one I got plenty more that's it that's like it's Blake he ain't going nowhere that guitar ain't going nowhere We should have put a guitar, had to put the guitar up there. Next time. You can leave that one.

That's like, it's Blake, he ain't going nowhere. That guitar ain't going nowhere. I mean, you got new music coming out. You know, this liquor is like the record business. You know, I have a license to sell this all over the world. And we got this license here in St. Louis, Missouri. And I think it's about two black people that have this, you know. So, man, I'm going to make sure this liquid gold, it should be like Jack Daniels for us over there.

Right. Can you get it everywhere? Where can we get Ronald Isley, vodka, and brandy? Online. Online. You can get them online. It's dropping Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo.

Yeah, it says RonaldIsleyLiquidGold.com. There you go. RonaldIsleyLiquidGold.com. Oh, I'm going to give me a couple bottles. All right. Well, we appreciate you, brothers, for joining us. Yeah. All right, man.

We thank you so much. Thank you all you guys who contributed to this industry and to this world, man. Yeah, and I'd like to be in your next music video. Again, the last one, friends and family, I did a close-up because I shot it myself. So I appreciate the next song. This has been a map. Sorry for me, guys. You all get to interview all kinds of people. I'm not a fan of a lot of people.

I'm really not. And I've been sitting here trembling. I am such a fan. But you know them you know i know yeah i've been his wife came in the door you said why are you changing your number on it you know them okay i do know but let's tell the truth i see them performing and when we were even at the party around so many people that when they they're around them it's hard to sit and have a one-on-one and learn stuff. Now, I am coming to the house. You're right. I do know them.

But I have never had an experience like this, like you said, to break, you know, I'll say break bread or break liquor and really get to, you all are always singing. People don't get to know you. So I thank the Breakfast Club for this.

All right, now. Wow. Thank you, brothers. Y'all are icons lately, man. Absolutely. Thank you. Appreciate y'all so much. That's great, man. Wow. Thank you, brothers. Y'all are icons lately, man. Absolutely. Thank you. Appreciate y'all so much. That's great, man.

Absolutely. Well, it's the Isley Brothers. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning. All right, now. Thank you. Oh, we just got to do one thing for BET, y'all. I will be back with more of the Isley Brothers.

It's the Breakfast Club on BET. Don't move. More Isley Brothers on BET. Well, keep it locked. We got more with the Isley Brothers when we come back. It's the breakfast club on bet don't move more isley brothers on bet we'll keep it locked we got more with the isley brothers when we come back it's the breakfast club on bet what up y'all it's the dj nv charlamagne the guy we are the breakfast club we're kicking it with the isley brothers on bet charlamagne kim cool thank you guys so much hey guys i'm kate max you might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs,

the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. own? I planted the flag. This is mine. I own this. It's surprisingly easy. 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete. Or maybe not. No country willingly gives up their territory. Oh my God. What is that? Bullets.

Listen to Escape from Zakistan. That's Escape from Z-A-Q Estan. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love.

I forgive myself. It's okay. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best. And you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all.

Niminy here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Flash, slam, another one gone.

Bash, bam, another one gone. The crack of the bat and another one gone. The tip of the cap, there's another one gone. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history. Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. Did you know, did you know, I wouldn't give up my seat. Nine months before Rosa, it was called a moment. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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and stories that'll make you wish the lights stayed on. So join me, won't you? Let's dive into the eerie unknown together. Sleep tight, if you can. Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.