The Questlove Show - Eric Benét

Episode Date: August 10, 2026

Questlove sits down with R&B icon Eric Benét for a deeply human, wildly musical conversation tracing the singer’s journey from Milwaukee family harmonies to gold plaques and Grammy nominations. Benét opens up about early sonic imprints like Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick, and “Wichita Lineman,” his Alabama and Mobile roots, and how discovering Questlove’s own lineage story reshaped the way he thinks about ancestry, Haiti, and spirituality. The two dig into Prince vs. Michael Jackson, a legendary James Brown clip, and what it really meant to grow up in Milwaukee during the Jeffrey Dahmer years. Benét breaks down his path from band life to major labels, the making and shelving of Better and Better, how David Foster and Dean Parks helped shape Hurricane, and why songs like “Spend My Life With You” and “Sometimes I Cry” never get old on stage. Along the way, the longtime friends talk vocal maintenance, the emotional cost of fame, the rise of Neo-Soul, and what Benét would tell his 16-year-old self. Benét's latest single, "Who's Gonna Save Us," is newly available now.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier, and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less so I don't have to do so much. I'm Yamanika, and I'm out.

Listen to You're the Problem with Yamanika on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. The Questlove show is a production of I Heart Radio. Are we rolling? Yeah. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Questlove show. Questlove. I will say that in my opinion, our guest today doesn't just make records. He makes a mood.

He makes a mood. He, in my opinion, is probably the last, one of the last purveyors of what we call grown folk soul. You know, I know titles are horrible, but I'll get to the... Hey, that's how we categorize things. There you go. But I will say that his work is forever. And I promise you. The thing is, is if one of your compositions, like when I say your work is forever, I statistically mean that like maybe in the last 20 years, 40% of any nuptials given, I promise you that our guest today that is compositions live in that. Well, here's the other thing. Like, because of the cold state of hip-hop and the whole emotionalist armor that we

have on us. I'll say that our guest also has a canon that is rich and deep for heartbreak songs when you need it. Whenever I'm asked to make Valentine's Day playlist, there's two lists I have to make. I have to make the regular love stuff. But my most popular playlist are the heartbreak playlist, of which a lot of your compositions live in that. A singer, singer, a songwriter, songwriter.

I will say, of course, proud father, loving husband. And I believe I am catching our guests in what promises to hopefully be his greatest phase, which is my favorite of his, which is the zero fucks given phase of his life. So let's have it. Welcome to the show, Eric Benet. My brother. Yes, sir. First of all, that introduction coming.

from you because, look, we go back. I remember, thank you for that. There were so many, like, nuggets way back then where it was like, okay, Amir is going to be the one to win an Oscar for filmmaking. Amir is going to be the one who is just going to be the owner of knowledge. The burden of music historian. Like, I remember there is a very, very famous, now it's viral. Now everybody's seen it.

But the first time I saw it, we were up in the studio. Like, we go back. We go back to Jazzy, fat nassies, Rich Nichols, all that, right? And this was... 2000. It was before...

Or 90... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe it was 99. Yeah. I don't even know... I guess it was YouTube, I guess. But was YouTube big back then? Not yet.

YouTube was a 2006 thing. I remember Amir going, no, y'all got to see this. Come here. Come see this. You know what I'm talking about. I was YouTube. Yes.

So my... Before YouTube was a thing, my primary job, even when people ask me about like the voodoo period. Right. My primary job was to walk around with two giant Kipling duffel bags. Okay, this explains so fucking much right now, which I didn't know. Oh, go ahead, go ahead. Yeah, but I mean, basically, I went to Japan, the first time the roots went to Japan in 96.

Yeah. Or a translating. And Japanese people are just voracious. for like any information. Yes, which also means that American culture is very disposable. Exactly. You could be on here and then like,

oh, yesterday's news. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the point is that, yeah, when I first went to Japan, my translator was like, you have an afro like Don Cornelius. I was like, ha ha, what do you know about Don Cornelius?

They're like, we love Soul Train. I was like, you know what Soul Train is? Right. And she says, I have all the episodes at my house. And I never left that woman's house. Literally, I'm a, And we had the top, like, four seasons, best, no. 100%.

I'm sleeping in this woman's, like, her version of the projects, her and her mother in a small matchbox. Yeah. And she had about 40 episodes of Soul Trade. Yeah. And two VCRs. 100%. So I recorded every episode and I came back to America, like Manna from Heaven.

And my job between 97, really 2003 was just to anywhere I went. It was a man. bring the tapes. That explained, because I couldn't understand, like, it's probably difficult for this generation to understand because readily video information wasn't that so available. So we're in the studio and you're bringing out tapes and shit, and I'm like, where's this nigga kidding all this stuff? And then the second thing is, like, you got to see this, you got to see this.

And he's like, you've got to see the time that James Brown was performing. and he spots Michael in the audience. That is the first time I and everybody in the room, now you can see it's probably got a gazillion and 50 views now on YouTube. And you are not only were we watching the video, but you are curating the whole thing. When I tell you, every storyteller has the little boy that cried wolf story that no one believes.

Yeah. And the amount of times, and I, you know when you realize you have a kick me sign on your back? Yes. Like, and you see people looking at each other. Right. You're like, okay, obviously I'm not. Something's happening here. Yeah, something's going on.

I'm not in on. And I promise you, between 96 and 98. So Prince first told me this story, you know, it was a point where, like, it was like a new diplomatic happy prince. Like, we're not used to this person. Why is he being so nice to us? And I asked him, like, it was me, DeAngelo and him. We were at Tramps.

If you remember Tramps, nightclub. We just did a jam session. And he was speaking complete sentences. Like, not the grasshopper. Like, you know, like, the martial arts. Right. He was being for the better part of a regular dude hanging out.

It was the most regularly he was. And at the end of the night, I was like, I said, pardon me for asking, but I think I asked him, why are you so nice to us? Right? Which he could have felt some way about it, like as opposed to, I said, man, thanks for taking the time out to really talk to us. And it was a real human conversation. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was. Not him trying to, you know, preach about Jehovah or whatever, like his prince one-on-one thing. Right. And I said, what brought this turnaround that you're like so open? First of all, kudos to you. for just like asking that question. I was shocked because I didn't know that he knew complete sentences

or jokes. I didn't know what his teeth look like. Like he laughed and everything. I was like, oh, Princess, weird teeth. Like, well, because he's never smiled before. You know what I mean? Like, you've never seen Prince like, you know. No. And so he tells this story.

He's like, you know, long ago. Wait, wait, set me up. Was this before you seen the video? I never, this is the first time I'm hearing of. Wow. Okay. And what year was this? This is 96.

Okay. Right after emancipation just came out. Dig it. And you never seen it before. Right. So he's at Out in Long Island. What's the outdoor space? It's now the Tommy Hill figure.

Yeah, Jones Beach. Okay. He just shows Jones Beach. And of course, he does his whole, we're coming to a club and, you know, have a club with 12 people in it, with a full club. And do a whole. Right. And an entire concert.

Yeah. So he's like, all right, get your instruments. We're going to play. We play. And he tells the story. once have how, like, you know, James Brown was his hero. I can't wait to hear his version from his side of the story. Dude, right.

Because it's three different things, eight different things going on in this clip. So he says, you know, James Brown was such a hero of mine. And Michael Jackson one night went out to humiliate and embarrass me in front of him. And he feels like that was the intention from jump. So here's the deal, though. If you read L.A. Reeds memoir, I believe the opening chapter starts with the moment that Michael Jackson flies him and Babyface to a Neverland Ranch to talk about production on what will eventually be dangerous. And the first thing Michael does is, wait, you got to see this. Like, as a right of passage, when you come to his crib, you got to see the video.

He shows you the tape. I've at least talked to five people that says that that's Michael's opening shit. Like, yo, you got to see what I, what happened to Prince one night. And he does the thing. So it wasn't. It was. Everyone's take is that, you know, he's competitive. Yeah.

He's let it be known. And so, but the way that Prince played it out was just like, you know, he called me to the stage and da-da-da-da-da. And next to you know, Michael's trying to humiliate me. And I just walked away so disheveled. And I was like, I'll never do that to basically like when I meet my subjects, I won't do that to him. And I was like, wow, that's really nervous. That's really big of him.

So then three years later, when I'm in Japan, so once I got the Soul Train Jones on, then I was like, we're going to find more in my history? And then they- They were like, oh, you want more? Yeah. So they took me to like this alleyway where literally it's just like switching concert or Ray Parker Jr. and radio or Larry, like, Graham Central Station opening forward, blah, blah, blah. Because you were the guy and like, how to fuck? Where did you get this? So they collected. And so I came back to America with all these tapes. And when I seen the tape,

I was like, oh, he left that part out of it. And he left that part out of it. And he left that part, the awkwardness of it all. And no one believed me for those three years when I told the story. They're like, yeah, right. Michael Jackson, Prince and James Brown on State. together, whatever. And I promise you, the way I held it onto that tape and just showed everybody. I felt like I was a temporary honorary member of the roots when you showed that to me. Because as you were showing it, you were doing a brilliant commentary. Because here's the thing. Yeah, Prince said, yo, there was a time. He humiliated me. But every mistake, Michael couldn't have told Prince to do the mistake. Like, we're having a conversation about something.

If you haven't seen it. Oh, they've seen it. We've talked about this many times on the show. Okay. They know. Yeah, I mean, just all of his instincts were wrong. Every instinct that he did was it's like, Michael didn't set you up for that. Like, you did that.

But, I mean, you know, I'd also believe that. Michael was playing 8D chess. Well, yeah. It's like, you know, if you're the new guy that's apparently on my level, then prove it. All right, let me knock it down. Yeah, right. Yeah. All right.

So I want to ask you, what is the first musical memory that you had in life? Wow. Give it to Amir to ask a question I have never been asked before. I'm asking a lot you never been asked before. But as soon as you asked the question, an immediate, not only image, but visual, came into my mind of a couple songs. Okay. I must have been four or five years old and driving in the Buick estate wagon

down to Mobile, Alabama to see my parents' family and all my cousins down south in Mobile and hearing songs like, I am a lineman for the county. Wichita lineman? Yes. Wichita lineman. What was it with black people

and their love for Wichita Laman? I don't know, but I remember. Remember that song? I remember, by the time she gets to Phoenix, I'll be rising. Like all those songs like that. And then I remember being in Alabama in my Uncle Orlando's house

and my Uncle Orlando had a dope, like, barber business in Atlanta. So his house was like 1971, like, swanky, like late mid-century, like dope. Okay. In Alabama. And he was playing all, Burt Baccarac Dian Warwick shit.

And I just remember something about that kind of songwriting, I felt made like this imprint on me. It's like Valley of the Dolls theme, all of the Burt Baccarac, message to Michael, all those arrangements. Yeah, that's probably one of my earliest. My dad ran that Dionne Warwick A-Trek in the ground as well, all those things. Man.

So I was pleasantly surprised. to find out that you were born in Mobile. How long did you live there? I wasn't born in Mobile. My parents were born in Mobile. So we would go. I was born and raised in Milwaukee. And so we would go every summer.

Like we would pile up in that Buick in a station wagon. Child seats. What child seats? I was like, I remember being three or four years old. Remember the death trap in the back of the Buick? There was like a little seat. Yeah, the little in the back where I could see this. That's where I was sitting.

And I'm thinking back on that, it's like, y'all niggas was trying to kill me. Right. Based on today's standards. Right. So, Mobile. Okay, do you know if your family is at all connected to Africa Town, which is in Mobile? My family would be very disappointed in me saying, I don't know. You wouldn't know?

Yeah. Only recently found out my connection to Mobile. What is that? And they'll be the first to tell you anybody in Mobile. would be the first to tell you Mardi Gras in Louisiana. We started Mardi Gras, right? And that's true.

That's true. So I happen to know that like at least 80% of the black population. So I did Skivikaze's Finding a Root Show. Wow. You know, he finds an incredible. Yeah, the celebrity version of 23 of me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And me and Wanda Sykes, I believe, are the only two black people in that show in which they were able to trace our ship, our route, where we came from and the family name. Whoa. And like where in West Africa? Like where? All right.

So the deal is that from what I heard, Benin and Nigeria were in a civil war. And by the time Thomas, I forget the person who owns the ship. And this is the thing. This town is literally comprised of. the person who owned the ship, his entire family, like, to this day runs, like, all the factories, like the lineage. Africa Town and Mobile was the family that owned the slave ship. Right. And their offspring.

They were rich as hell back then. Five, five generations down still there. Wow. But also, the, I think now there's still maybe 20 plus captive families that are there. So, like, nothing's changed. So the story goes that. They went to Nigeria and, you know, usually you negotiate with the king's son, the prince. What a property do you have for me?

Well, we have some prisoners from Benin. Yeah. Here they go. And so technically my great, great, great grandfather was literally the last. When I mean, he was chosen because he could play them drums. No. Oh. Stop.

Stop. No, no, no. The story goes that because the ship was small and they were trying to get more bang for their buck, more money. They were like, just gather the kids, gather anyone under the age of 13 small, like, let's try and pack them together. But of course, the horror of it all, they're crying, and he's like, well, I can't control all these kids. Oh, my God. Send 50 of the kids back and bring some one. women to watch these crying kids. But then the women start crying. He's like, well, give me,

give me the biggest guy you got. And my great, great was, I believe he was six, four or six, five. And was chosen, literally chosen, like, watched him. And he was literally the last. But even then, like, he was literally the last captive. Like, slavery had been over for 20 years, but, you know, The South is like, well, who's going to stop me? So they were still like trying to sneak, air quote, cargo in. And literally when they got to Mobile, they got caught. And having illegal cargo was the equivalent of like having cocaine on you. Not like a moral thing.

Like you shouldn't terrorize these people, more like taxes and property. So they got caught. And then he snitched on the people like, well, they told me to get it. Well, he said he'd get it. So all this place. out in like the newspaper in the court cases. At the time. Right. And so my great, great, great was like, okay, so can we go back home?

And they were like, all right. You're stuck here. And he's like, well, can we have his land? And he's like, well, you can't have it, but you can pay for it. And so what he does is it just so happens that there's, I learned that Benin had it going through successfully, I would have been what you would call a Haitian. So most Haitians came from Benin. So he basically went to the entire community of freed slaves.

Now, some of them had situations where, like, okay, in my will, I'll give you some money and a mule or, or, so he collected, I believe, like, $500 from each freed person said, hey, there's over 5,000, 5,000 acres, I think. he's like, look, what we'll do is we'll recreate home here. So, you know, the stories like Gichi and that. So basically they recreated Africa in this 5,000. That is incredible. Yeah, so I'm just finding this out.

Ain't that crazy? Like, with just... Like nine years ago. A little bit of research in your origin story, any of our origin stories, like the horrific nature of the story is like... But also my life changed. because, you know, as I've revealed on the show, like, literally, I told him, like, I didn't know who or what I was.

Like, we don't know who or what we was. Like, we can't say, like, oh, we're Italian or we're German. So once I found that out, then that literally cracked my head open. And did what? I mean, well, number one, the woman I was dating at the time was like, so you know what this means, right? And I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, you would have been Haitian.

Yeah. And the propaganda that we've had against Haitians in this country, like that voodoo, you know, they do evil. Like everything that we've heard about Haitians, I had to reverse it and start doing the research. And then I realized like, oh, Haitians basically have introduced like things that I've credited other people for. Like I don't know about meditation or. Asians for meditation? Dude. See, look, you're about to educate me, bro.

Everything that we would credit. like granola hippie people when they go do ayahuasca journeys or- That's Haitians. Yes. And literally, and even with the story of the Haitian revolt when they revolved against the French, I was on the impression of like, okay, we'll wait till their sleep and then we'll attack them.

That's what, yeah. No, they were chained up by the neck and by the hands. They won their freedom by, according to like, maybe there was like six survivors in this thing. They were trying to describe what they saw. and the only word they can get out was like, I mean, they were using a derogatory term like,

black magic voodoon. Like they were playing to their. And so literally they were chanting and meditating to the moon. And literally the entire French army died. Like that was the mystery. Like how do they die? So when word gets back to the states, this is when we can't worship no other gods,

but we had to file the Christian law. They used that for the subject. That makes perfect. Clans are burning up churches and everything. So there was always a fear of like our magic or. Don't let them. Yeah. No more drums.

Like there was a specific period at the beginning of Jim Crow and the reconstruction, which those things were demon-eyed. Yeah. And so which fully made me tap into, when I found that out, that was the green light. that brought me to the Earthwind and Fire documentary because, you know, when I was younger, when we used to look at my album covers,

like I was raising a harsh Christian household. Maurice was so metaphysical and everything. But some Christians didn't like that. Like, what does that sign mean? What does this mean? I know. I hate that. And mind you, this is just the great, great, great grandfather on my mother's side.

Like, everyone else was just a number. I don't know their names. I don't know where they came from or whatever. But just finding out one quarter. of my lineage. That's beautiful, man. Found out who I am. Because I wish, I'm rather envious

because I am ignorant of so much of my origin and, you know, other than you taking 23 and me and you're being like, oh, DNA says I'm from this here, here. But I want to know the story. I want to know, like...

We got to get you to Skip Gates, man. Yo, Skip, what up, man? See my Alex Haley, bro. Experience with Cameron Wickham. Live at the rhymin. With flights and two nights in Nashville. To see Cameron Whitcomb at the legendary Ryman Auditorium. Plus a thousand dollar spending cash.

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We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia, AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast. Each week, we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process. How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea?

We're ready to talk about it. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life, guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Chryssel, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song, a melody. I thought he was going to write. I thought you were all going to write a song for you.

I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. Ayo, rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on.

We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller. The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anywhere too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves Boba. Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own.

That's great. I call him Terro Reed. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. Oh, gotcha. I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobiesky. Yeah.

I don't think she was an American Pie, but I still like that. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Yeah. Then Mary Steenbergin. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried. I'm worried.

Why are you talking so down? to me that you think I don't understand your little play game. I just really I'm trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week the news gets worse. The world gets crazier and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible you're the problem. If you come over here to play games I'm a check you. Okay? If you do some

In the news that don't sound good, I'm gonna play you. Join Yomeneika Saunders as she breaks down the week's most problematic stories on her new podcast. You're the problem with Yamanika. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? New episodes weekly every Wednesday is part of my new network, the Dear Chelsea Network. If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less, so I don't have to do so much. So join Yomeneke each episode as she answers one question.

Who's the problem? I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to you're the problem with Yamanika on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. So I have to ask you a question about Milwaukee. Yeah. I mean, it's not a cosmopolitan.

No, it ain't no cosmopolitan. But it's not a country either, and it's not the South. And it's not, it's the Midwest. Is it not? Like, what are your memories of Milwaukee? Is there a culture there? Is there?

So my youth youth and teen years, any musical influence was within my family. Okay. Yeah. Like Milwaukee is probably not known, and it wasn't known to me back then, like you said, is any kind of a, you know, musical mecca. But I've always believed that there's something about people who are musically inclined. And if they live in the Midwest, there is like, You're at the halfway point of what's happening on the West Coast,

what's happening on the East Coast, and what's happening in the South. And each one of those musical influences are so distinctly different. But then it has a way of meshing in the Midwest, which didn't really, I want to say, manifests itself as a Milwaukee identity of music, but for the people like me and my cousin George and like my family,

people who were just connoisseurs of music, our tastes was like we had no allegiance to this side or this side or that side. So we were just like an amalgamation. And then I think that's why you get like Hitsville in Detroit. That's where you get the Ohio players. That's where you get Jimmy Hendrix. That's where you get Prince. That's where you get Stevie Wonder. It's all that Midwest energy that's like, how far is it from Chicago? Like what's the- An hour. Chicago Jazz. You know, that is an hour and 15 minutes. You drive north and you're in Milwaukee from Chicago, our in 20 minutes. So what I'm really dying to ask you is? Yeah. What's a cringle? Do you know what a cringle? What is a cringle? Yeah. A cringle, I was just kidding. But you know what a cringle is? He's laughing over there. What's the cringle?

So, Crescent Jake, you know what a cringle is? Okay. Cringle is, nobody knows what a cringle is, but it's basically a really good dessert. It's like a strudal and it's in the shape of a big as reef and it's just it's like that's what you guys are known for cringles yeah beer and cringle and yeah beer cringle and getting drunk and passing out in the street and summer fest summer fest is a huge i've done summer fest yeah i know you've done summer fest because all the big artists do summer fest Milwaukee does that still happen summer fest absolutely yeah and you know Milwaukee is it's a great place on a great lake but it's um it was a dope place to be from but you were going to ask a question what is Okay, so what I always wanted to know, and you're like the first Milwaukee resident I can ask this to.

And actually, the first black Milwaukee resident I can ask this. How do I, ooh. You know what's happening. You know what I'm going to ask you. There's so many directions you can go, but why am I thinking Jeffrey Dahmer? That's exactly what I'm going to ask you. Okay, so look, you. Oh, I got stories.

You came up in Milwaukee during the Dahmer years. Yes. And that's a case that, like, gutted the black community. Yes. And kind of showed how little the city was protecting us. Yes. So when you heard him, was he caught already? Or was it always a, or was there a buildup?

Like, wait, 10 people were missing. I have so much to say about Jeffrey Dahmer. Hit me. So the whole Jeffrey Dahmer thing was like a dissertation on so much that is wrong. A, with Milwaukee. I shouldn't, no, no, no, no, no, Milwaukee, I love you. So much that is wrong with the criminal investigation system at the time as it relates to race, as it relates to certain people get a pass, no matter what the evidence looks like,

all right, go home, sleep it off. You know, there were times, there were people who would escape or were smelling things from the apartment or the decomposition about it and we're like, yo, y'all need to check this out. It's just a weirdo, you know, don't worry about that guy. So my cousin, my cousin, what's up, Ralph? My cousin was telling me one time he was at some spot and as soon as Jeffrey Dahmer got caught,

my cousin was like, that's that nigga that tried to, he bought me a drink and was like, yo, yo, let's hang out. Right. And I'm like, dude, if you weren't the, my cousin was the kind of dude who when we were 10 years old, he already knew about the birds and the bees and he already knew like a lot of elements. Yeah, advance of how life works and this is the way the system works. I was like, dude, if you weren't who you are, you might have been like, yeah, I have a drink, bro, what's up? But he was like, nah, I'm catching vibes from your crazy ass. And so that came out.

There was another kid that I went to school with who I didn't really know, but just knew him just kind of like at the school, who was one of the victims. My father was a detective for the city of Milwaukee. He was not assigned to the Dahmer case, but his partner was assigned to the Dahmer case. So he would tell us, Arthur Jones would tell us we went into the apartment. and he was like the things that I saw when I opened up the freezer and I opened up the refrigerator, he was like, I'm not. And it was things like I never really heard about, or maybe you did or people who know the Jeffrey Dahmer Law.

Maybe it came out, but my father's partner was like, we opened up the refrigerator. And there were slices of human flesh like hamburger patties with wax paper, like neatly organized. like this that and the other. Like I can eat this today, like a patty. And I'll go, there's other things I can say, but I won't. But it was just like, oh my God. And yeah, that Dahmer thing, in defense of Milwaukee, I'd like to say this because a lot of people,

Jeffrey Dahmer is not from Milwaukee. The motherfucker got caught in Milwaukee. Where was he from? I think he's, like from Ohio or some shit. Yo, that's interesting that you wanted to go to the Dahmer. Isn't it weird how this show just turned into the club shake? I know, right? Oh, my God.

Arthur Jones would be like, I don't know if I should tell you all this. And me, I was like, at this time, what was I? When all this shit went down was I was like, even when he was caught, did you feel safe at all? Well, like we went there in 95 for the first time. And I remember it was laundry day. Like this back when, you know, like your new artist or whatever, you... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every other week when you make a laundry run.

And I remember, one, you guys have an amazing laundromat that, like, it was... Someone had the idea to like, hey, let's have an arcade. It was like part 7-11, part laundry. Yeah. Like college students obviously hung out there. Yeah, Milwaukee, we take pride in our, you know, home-ac abilities. Yeah. And so, yeah, and just watching the people, and I was like, this town is not over the tragedy that it just went through.

Well, I think after it happened, of course, there's going to be like this visceral, like, oh, my God. The stigma that's going to be on this city is going to last for a long time. But I don't think a true Milwaukeean at that point felt unsafe because he was such an anomaly. Like, that's not Milwaukee. You got weird motherfuckers in Milwaukee, but that's a whole other level of satanic, like, far outside the reaches of my imagination, like crimes against humanity. That's not Milwaukee. Got you. Yeah.

All right. Now, subject change. What were you like in school? Well, I brought my patties, my meat patties to school. You do, I'm never. It'll be two hours. And I'm still thinking about how anal retentive he was in terms of packing. Like, oh, Jesus.

In school, what kind of student were you? I would say I was an average to good student. I was very nerdy. I like things like science fiction. What was your best subject? Like, what was your best? Creative writing and art. Okay.

Yeah. You know, it's like I've always had, like, an ability for, like, creatively. Anything I tried to do, I've always just had, like, this natural ability for it, whether it was singing, whether it was writing songs, whether it was painting. I won this art award for painting or whether it was like writing a story. So I was that kid. You know, I just grew up like reading like Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury and Rod Serling was a beast with them stories, man. Rod Serling short stories and yeah.

And it was like the music thing was a little interesting for me because I thought like I grew up in this family. I don't know if you're like, I don't know what your whole family thing was. I was going to say, what was the domestic situation? Yeah, so in my family, everybody sings. Everybody plays an instrument, sings, and it was just like... How many members in the family? So I'm the baby, and I have three full sisters. I have a half-sister and my brother.

And I just grew up in this family where... Six of you? Well, it was five of us growing up. Okay. You know. So it's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot. Okay.

But it was a situation. where we would just break out into harmony all the time. And so from a very young age, I automatically had an ear for if I heard my sisters and my brother singing the alto and the tenor and the thing, I got really good at, okay, I'll find my note. And then my older sister, if I made a mistake,

she'd be like, you want to come up to this on that part of the song. So I was, like, trained that way. So you just break out in a song? Oh, yeah, all the time. All the time. we still do. And so.

Were you church singing family? Came up very church every Sunday, Sunday school. And then so I'm the baby in this environment. You're going to love this where like, okay, so my dad had this extensive classical music collection. And I used to love W.C. I used to love Chikovsky, Strauss. So my little young ass would just be lost in this.

And then my sisters would have the full gamut of R&B. be like one sister would be deep into the funkadelic the other sister would be the luther van dros and then the other sister would be more like the reberta flak donnie hathaway and the jackson five and james brown and then my brother was like the jazz fusion cat so it'd be like the mahevish new orchestra so you inherit all that trickle down david sanchez and tone okay and returned to forever and stanley clark and a billy cobham and so i'm just this baby growing up and all of this stuff Okay. And so what is the first album that you purchased with your own money? Okay, honest answer.

Yeah, and trust me. Everyone wants to give the romantic, oh, yeah. The first album I brought was Sketches of Spain. Right, no. What was it for real? A Bill Cosby comedy album. And then... Which one? The one where he talked about trying to flush his brother Russell down the toilet. Do you know that one? It's a Russell, my brother whom I slept with. Yes. Yes. Yes. And then it might have been Bill Cosby or funky favorites, funky favorites, which was just an album of stupid songs of like, he did that mash.

He did the moms. So like novelty. Novelty stupid, silly songs. And I think I was probably eight years old when I, with my own money, I either bought, don't remember which one was first, Bill Cosby or funky favorites. Okay. What else was on funky favorites?

Jaleigh Brown. Do, do, da, do it, Charlie Brown. And Purple People Leader. It was a one, nine, one, bold, white, purple people. Right. So I was a goofy, goofy nerd. Okay. You were human, yes.

Yes, yes. Who was the figurehead not related to you, like teacher or somebody that, like, actually saw you for who you were that was like a hero to you growing up? I mean, a bit clicheish, but dad. Okay. You know, because my dad, my dad was this culture dude who loved, you know classical music and art and all but he was you know i because of mobile man who had to make you know make ends meet for his family got a job as a cop you know he had to just say not allow a lot

of his dreams to come to fruition i think for you know so hopefully his kids and the lineage are his dream right yeah so i i've always looked up to my dad for that because he was the constant and the on my ass, not the most emotional present, as most of us, that's how we grew up, but held us up to a certain standard. And then I would have to say

two music teachers from my past that saw something in me and were just on me, like on me in a way like, okay, here's a record you need to listen to. I just want you to listen to the production on this. And here's a, it was Mr. Simile

at Milwaukee Tech, I think it's called Bradley Tech now. Okay. And Ms. Carol Haywood, who is the choir director, you know. Because I remember, I remember being a kid, like being five or six years old, not really realizing that I have musical talent until I'm sitting next to kids, try to sing a song. And I'm like, what the fuck? Like, can you not hear that?

Right, right, right. You know, you know, camp town ladies on that song, dudea. Camp town ladies sing that song, doda, doda. Like no inflection, no. I'm like, what, how come y'all niggas don't, like, what's going on? And so I think it was a realization that, especially when I thought about the fact of how my family, we just broke down harmonies like that.

I was like, oh, maybe we're a little different than everybody else. All we needed was a Joe Jackson, anyway. Oh, no. No. You might gain some, but also pay for it too. Yeah, right, right. So what was, I was going to say, what was your first job ever? But have you ever been fired from a job?

I never been fired from my job. But what's a notable job you had, like, pre- pre-eriananus? Yeah. I worked at McDonald's when I was 16, downtown Milwaukee. It was too hectic for me. So I was like, I need something easier. So I went to Taco Bell.

He started off as Calvin and then he quit. Yeah. Wait, why was Taco Bell easier? First of all, it was the location. It was like downtown Milwaukee, McDonald's. It was just too much madness back there. It's like fries and burgers and all you got to press the... And then Taco Bell, I remember I worked at the Taco Bell on Fondelac, like way out from downtown.

And it was just, you know, easier living. not living, but slower pace. Okay. So you could, hi, welcome to Taco Bill. Would you like to try our new taco salad? A little bit more relaxed. Okay, okay.

You know. In your childhood bedroom. Yes. What is the main poster that adorns your wall? Dude, you got some questions. Well, we never, you know what it is? You ask them,

that's why the Oscar winning documentary director be asking these questions. Dude, I mean, there's, I can love it. There's this whole slew of media that don't treat artists like human beings. And I think this kind of thing where I want to know the human side of you. So immediately when you, I love when you ask these questions because immediately before I even answer, there's a visual that pops in my head. And there are three posters that were in my room.

One was like a black light poster of this fantasy woman with big titties and just like. The velvet black post of Afro. Yeah. I had a cousin that had the astrological one and I was not allowed to have that. I wasn't into the astrological. I was into the big titty's and the curve. And then I had a Commodore's poster.

From the album? Where they were pointing at the sky. You know the one? Wait, I'm gonna, so I've become really good phone friends with Chuck D. Oh, really? And I didn't realize. how like immaculent or how much of an artist he was, a visual artist.

He was and he sent me some artwork when he was 14 or 15. Really? Of him, the inside poster of the 1977 album where, wherever, Thomas O'Claher's point at the sky. Yeah, I think that was it. You know, it's even weirder that, okay, when I was a kid, I would go through phases in which, I can't believe I'm telling the story. I would go through phases whenever someone took a photo of me

you would know what my favorite album cover was. Right. Because you would do the point. But here's the thing, though. I decided that Mylan Williams, the keyboard player, had the best pose where it's like, he's like on one layer. Yes, yes, that one.

But I did it at a family reunion, North Carolina, and I fell over into the street and a car was coming. Oh, shit. And, you know, like, when black families are so disheveled and afraid, where you get in trouble, even for that, like, why would you do this? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I remember getting that from my dad.

But, yeah, there was a period where... You did the post. That wasn't... I went through the phrases. I was Chris Jasper of the Isley Brothers once always... I mean, why are you always looking at 2 o'clock up there? Marlon Jackson would have, like, right leg behind his left. on the Get It Together album.

Like, I would go through phases where I would only do the pose of my favorite album of that moment. And, yeah, that Commodore is... Love that. What's weird is I almost wore the sweater. It's Laundry Day in my crib, so I was like, I'll put a new shirt on, but I almost wore that poster. Oh, man, I loved that.

What was the third one? Wow, every black household in the 70s had that Commodore poster. But I was weird because there was another... This is an iconic poster, too, now. there was a poster of a baby who had a whole bowl of spaghetti dumped on his head with spaghetti sauce. I've seen that. Yeah. For whatever reason.

How they wind up in your career? It made me, it was fucking hilarious. It was like a baby with this stupid looking at face. And he's got like spaghetti dripping. And I think the quote was like, I forgot what the quote was. Yeah, like B-Face movie. Maybe it was a Murphy's Law. Or something.

I don't know, whatever it is. But it was fucking hilarious. I remember that poster. With Cameron Wickcombe. Live at the Rhyman. Lights and two nights in Nashville. To see Cameron Wickcom at the legendary Rhyman Auditorium. Plus a thousand dollar spending cash.

Just listen to Pure Country for 10 minutes a day on the free IHart Radio app and you're in to win. Cameron Wickham. Stream the new single, Kingdom of Fear. Now. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. You know us, or rather you know them. Tony and Candice, Nina and Lance, Spike, and yes, the chicken.

We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia, AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast. Each week, we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process. How did any of this get made?

Why do we think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysall, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it here.

You fully improvised, not just words, but a song, a melody. Well, I thought he was going to write. I thought you were all going to write. write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. Ayo rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport.

And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show's famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stee. The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anywhere, too, right?

What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves Mouthing. Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own. That's great. I call him Terro Reed.

It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobieski. I don't think she was an American pie but I still like that. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time.

Then Mary Steenbergin. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried. Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play game? I just really. I get it.

I'm trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nick Tuturo. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, the longest yard, or Spike Lee's Black Klansman. But I'm also from Queens, which means I know pizza. And on my new podcast, delivering happiness with Nick Totoro,

I deliver pizza from Prince Street Pizza to a new guest. Are you delivering pizza now? Then we sit down for a real conversation. I've shared a slice with everyone from Seth Rollins. What are you doing my belt? To Alex Rodriguez. Just to let you people know, we're talking to one of the goats here. To Bill Burr.

I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind is I, And now we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Tituro. It's called Happiness. Delivering Happiness. Mariano Rivera. Oh, my God. And many, many more. Open your free High Heart Radio app.

Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Titoro. And listen now. What was the first concert you ever attended? George Duke and Stanley Clark. Yeah. Where? It was in Milwaukee, the Public Arts Center. The PAC.

It's a public arts? In Milwaukee. Yeah. So this is like the sweet baby period. Yeah. Heaven's scent. Oh my God. Yeah.

It's weird that two, two of the most progressive, intricate musicians. Oh my God. It became. Made such a straight. Straight. But the beauty about that project and that song in particular about music is

if you have the most simplest melody and you're like a you or one of those real musical musical musicians, you can still have fun. There was so much, you had the sitar going, they had the harmonies going, so you can. So made an impression on you. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Think partly because, you know, like I told you about the kind of music, like I just kind of grew up listening to, I love the fact that Stanley Clark and George Duke come together and make something that, could touch top 40 radio when their musical well was so deep. And we're gonna make this simple melody like George Duke was brilliant at, when I sing about to sound, it's sound like,

it's sound like, do, do, dun, and the enemies of my life. Yeah. So it's like he could take that simple, simple melody. It's like songwriting one-on-one. Yeah, you can have your fun, can have the harmonies and the strings into this and then doing it that.

But you got to grab them with that simple, simple lullaby melody that anybody can sing. Well, some of the best songwriters are people that have the ability to have mental level of musical intelligence, but also have the smarts to know that sometimes you have to cut a stake. I want to ask you. Yes. So how to fuck do you explain something like Steely Dan, where in the first eight bars, of the song.

There's like, what? Are we the same person? Twelve different substitutions. And then you modulated, brought it back down. You don't know what the fuck Donald Fagan is talking about in the lyrics. But somehow it's number one pops.

How the fuck did they do that? I'm going to tell you something. All right. So I just had Thundercat on the show. Used to be my bass player. Yo, he's played for everyone secretly on the low. I love that dude.

That sounds about right. Yeah. He was talking about, like, a Steely Dan song, and I just happened to do the, I'm sorry, Donald, I did the Yock Rock doc. I hate, yeah. I mean, I hate the term, but I get it. Well, I love, I mean, I love it. It's not the same Neo Soul.

Right. Anyway, anyway, don't get started on that. But I realized that I really have not made much space for Steely Dan in my life, probably since the reason why, you know, You know, people are like, oh, you're so knowledgeable with music and everything. Don't get it twisted. If I was allowed to have control of the family stereo and the family car, I'd be playing what I want to listen to. Which would have been?

I mean, you know, I was a kid of the moment. I wanted to hear Bootsila wind me up and whatever. Yeah, but my dad was like my father was the, just like your family, he was the, he listened to the yacht rock of his day. He liked Mathis, he like stri-sand, he liked singers because he was a crooner. My dad sounded like Nat King Cole. Really? My mom, however, if she were born when I was born, she would have been ahead. Like, she dug in the crates in, oh, this is a funky look at it.

I'm cover. I'm gonna get this, and it's like bitches brew or whatever. And then my sister who's slightly older in order to fit in with her girlfriends in school, she's bringing home the rock stuff. She's bringing home Bowie and all that stuff. And so, I mean, there was a little bit. a period in which I know dad played like

Gaucho and Asia sister right but he really didn't he controlled the stereo and he really like he would go through maybe he went through it twice

maybe it was just too intricate for him and he couldn't find something to sing along to he likes stuff he could sing along to yeah Steely Dan was not that right so I just I've realized that you know like I love Steely Dan But so right now I just started my phase of,

I'm on Can't Buy a Thrill Now, where I'm like listening to a Steely Dan record for at least two hours a day. Have you gotten into the first Donald Fagan solo album? Dude, Nightfly is, now that's the thing. That's one of my top five favorite albums. IGY. Oh my God.

IGY is probably. Yeah. Maxine, IGY, Greenflower Street. Yeah. New Frontier. Oh, the new frontier. Yeah, bro. So, yeah, like, I will say if I could compile five songs that, like, no matter how depressing.

And I, all right, I tested this during the night after election results. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. Where- I stopped drinking, but I was going to start again that night. Dude. So I said, I want to see how powerful this is. and I played IGY.

Oh, that's a great barometer. And I was like, wow, I still feel good right now. Yeah. But the song's only three minutes and 40 seconds. Yeah. I was back to ground zero. But yeah, I got to give more time. That's so funny, that particular song,

talking about an idealized utopian society. It's like, get me out of here. I like that. No, it's like, it's the next to Herb Alperts. Like, if someone were to ask me, gun on my head, like, and all that. Well, my favorite Herb Albert's song,

there's a song called Root 101, which it's the happiest. No, no, that's the dating game. Oh, oh, okay. Route 101 is like, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. So one night I met, yeah.

When, this is the, maybe the second time I'm at Dill, script. Oh, man. And Batten comes downstairs and says, yo, I want to do something to this. And he hands Dilla the record and he puts Route 101 on.

And they're playing it and it's a happy song. And I'm looking at them like, are y'all trolling me? Because I was in the mind state of, oh, if it's hip-hop. If it's hip-hop. There'll be some gritty raw breakbeat shit. But you, I would think you would have been, Because the real dopest hip-hop niggas were like deep in that.

This is what Dilla taught me. See, I grew up in a household with 3,000 records. And even to this day, I have 200,000 records. Or maybe I've bruised through 7% of that. Like, how much music are we going to consume in our lifetime? I can also ask politicians, how much money are you going to spend in your lifetime? How much is enough? Definitely not a trillion.

Right. And so the whole thing is that once I realize, oh, these guys are serious. And I looked at Dilla like, we're going to make some shit out of this. And he was like, oh, hell yeah. I never got to hear what he made of it. But there's been a million times where, like,

I will get a Johnny Mathis record and be like, all right, take this Rick James record and this Johnny Mathis record. Show me what you got. And he would, the thing I learned from, of the most is no song goes listen to or no stone unturned. Yeah.

And so, but I will say like Route 101 is my favorite song and in second place is IGY. Is something about a shuffle? Black people need a shuffle song. Like I think the last good shuffle song we've really truly had. I mean, okay, there's the whole world by Alcatch. No, but I'm just saying like the way you make me feel was probably the last. We need a shuffle song.

Give me another one of your favorite shovels. I mean, doing it to death by James Brown. Going to have a fucking, oh. But in order for us to brace shuffle, we have to reaclimate ourselves again with jazz. It's needed. Where music is now, I don't know. I don't know if it can make it back to that because it's so diluted down to let's just take this little part. and repeat it and repeat it.

Let's do no bridges, no changes, no modulations. Yeah, so, right. But, you know, in order for that to happen, we have to work on our emotional state. The music reflects how we feel. See? Yo, ladies and gentlemen, that's why he's not a mere. Questlove.

Thank you, man. All right, when you were 15, what is it that you wanted to be when you were an adult? When you're a kid, what did you think your calling was in life? I thought I was going to be a fashion designer. What? Yeah.

I thought I was going to be a fashion designer because clothes made me. Music made me happy and clothes made me happy. And putting the right outfits together made me happy. But because of my family, I knew that we were special. But at the same time, it was just such a, it was like a fish. like, okay, it's water. Big deal. I can swim in water.

Was the specialness, the fact that you guys were just together? I probably felt that it was special because I was with them. And then we all harmonized together. Okay. And so I don't think I really, really considered, I think my passion for music deepened when I realized right around that age that if I sang, girls treated me a certain way. Okay.

But I still didn't think of it as a career until like my dad was just like, I remember telling my dad like right at high school. I was like, dad, I want to go to his fashion institute. And my dad being who he was and he had aspirations of his children being doctors and lawyers and getting their PhDs and stuff. Yeah, safety. He's like, come on, man. My dad was like, a black man going into fashion. He was looking at it very from his. Lenses of going through 1940s, 50s, 60s.

Trust me. I know. Yeah. And so I listened to dad and then I went to college for a couple years, not really knowing why. Mm-hmm. And feeling like I was wasted. What did you major? Absolutely nothing. Wasting money.

Where did you go to college? University of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Okay. And I dropped out because after a year and a half to two years, I was like, I don't know what I'm doing here. I can't latch on to anything that I see is my future. And when I dropped out of college, my cousin George let me know that there was a band in Milwaukee that needed a lead singer. And he was already playing guitar. And my sister Lisa sang.

And she was just kind of doing her thing in life at that time too. And so my sister and I joined this band that was already kind of a corporation unto itself doing like gigs and weddings and bars. Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, just traveling around doing stuff. And so that started the whole, like, I'm 19 years old. So you're in college, and at no point before then, like, so you just, coincidentally just happened to carry this voice around. Yeah. And it was just like a, like almost a footnote.

Like, and I sent you a little, like. My cousin specifically called me because when I was 14 and 15, I would go over to his. He was like eight years older than me. And he had his own place and he saw musical ability and me at 14, 15 years old. That you didn't see you in yourself? I thought it was fun. He was like, yo, come help me write this song. So we started writing songs.

It's like, oh, this is cool. So I went all through college, like not making the connection. Like, fuck this school shit. I'm going to do this. But loving music and writing songs and creating all this stuff with him and my sister until I joined this band. Okay. And then we were in this band.

And the band also owned a recording studio. And you got to, we're talking about, we're talking about 1990, right? Oh, that was rare. That's very rare. So it's like, they own a recording studio? Yeah, when you go in, there's two clocks on the wall. One for the East Coast and the West Coast. Wow.

So it was like, it was very, we were easily impressed back there. Right. Right. So, so, um, they start letting us use the, recording studio when we weren't doing the shitty club gigs or whatever we were doing in the band and we ultimately put together a demo, my sister and I, and then we started shilling in the demo around, and then I got my first deal at EMI Capital with my sister and I signed to EMI Capital with the three of us writing the songs. And the person in this is B'nai? This is Bonae.

Okay. And the young lady in the waiting room in there, Alison Ball, gave me that deal. And so we'll flash forward to now where I can. I got a little scurilla to start a little record label. Allison is running the label, JBR. Wow. Okay, so that's how that starts. She also gave me my solo deal at Warner Brothers. Allison did.

So you've stuck with it the whole time. Yeah, we just been like best friends ever since. That's beautiful. Yeah. That's hard to find that level of loyalty. Everyone in the industry says that. It's like it's rare to meet. Someone that sticks with you.

It doesn't rid you once you don't serve them a purpose. Especially a record executive. Yeah, because it's all about self-preservation, saving their job. Exactly. So we believe. I mean, she believes in you. Yeah. That's amazing.

What do you say is the first thing, do you remember the first creative project that you made? Yeah. I remember the first, the first song that I wrote. Well, there's the first song I wrote and then there's the first song that I recorded. Okay. So the first song I wrote was a song called The Phone when I was like 12 or 13 years old. The first song that I recorded was a song called Gina. And this was like right around that time when I was just writing songs with my cousin.

And it actually won an award. Wisconsin had some kind of like songwriters competition. And Gina won an award, you know. And then, and even then I was like, I didn't like cut the safety net and just jump into the music industry. I was like, this is fun. I guess I'm supposed to go to college and just figure out what vocation I should have. Well, singing-wise, who are the three singers that are your... Great question.

Your North Star. My North Star. Top of the list is Ella Fitzgerald. Okay. And then it would probably... It's a cross between Donnie Hathaway and Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin somewhere in there. Okay. Who is the singer?

All right. is talking about like how like Rochelle Farrell has really never truly like got her flowers. Yeah, because she's fucking incredible. Right. Who do you see as a singer that you grew up listening to that really just never? There's a couple of them. All right. Who?

As much as people love Bobby Caldwell, I mean, I just, I just, there's something about his tone, the way he perfectly landed the vibrato at exactly the right place. And the fact that he played all the instruments, Bobby Caldwell is one of those. Another one is probably Gino Vanelli. Yes. Because, like, he's got those deep jazz fusion roots and him and his brother Ross

right and all that deep, crazy shit. But still, just like Stanley Clark and George Duke, they could be like, all right, let's zero in on a hit. Right. But then the well is so deep. Yeah, they come to mind. I love that. Like my sister used to always listen to first album,

Powerful People. Powerful people. With Jojo and all that stuff on there. Yeah. Mama Coco. Yeah. Yes. I'm Ruby Carr, the host of the podcast, Encore.

Check out our brand new episodes featuring music from the show that everyone is reheating as we speak. Heated rivalry. Join me as I go behind the songs that brought Shane and Elia together. I'll tell you the stories of Fice, My Moon, My Man. parades I'll believe in anything and tattoos all the things she said and how they all became a part of this global phenomenon. Stream encore on IHeart Radio, crave, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here.

You know us or rather you know them. Tony and Candace, Nina and Lance, Spike and yes, the chicken. We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia AEO rewatch. our brand new podcast. Each week, we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process.

How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysler, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann and many more. Kyle is going for it here.

You fully improvised, not just words, but a song, a melody. I thought he was going to write. I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. Ayo rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements.

We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stillard. The definition of what is a movie

has kind of changed anywhere too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves over. Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own.

That's great. I call him tarot read. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. Oh, gotcha. I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobieski. Yeah.

I don't think she was an American Pie, but I still like that. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Yeah. Then Mary Steenbergin. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried. I'm worried.

Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play, play game? I just really. I get it. trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nick Tuturo. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, the longest yard, or Spike Lee's Black Klansman. But I'm also from Queens, which means I know pizza.

And on my new podcast, delivering happiness with Nick Totoro, I deliver pizza from Prince Street pizza to a new guest. Are you delivering pizza now? Then we sit down for a real conversation. I've shared a slice with everyone from Seth Rollins. What are you doing my belt? To Alex Rodriguez. Just to let you people know, we're talking to one of the goats here.

To Bill Burr. I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind as I am. And now we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Tuturo. It's called Happiness, Delivering Happiness. Mariano Rivera. Oh, my God. And many, many more. Open your free High Heart Radio app.

Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Tutro. And listen now. All right. So what is the road that leads to? Because I always feel as though, like your first album is basically like the totality of your life from birth to the moment. Yeah. And then can you do it again? Oh, wait.

Well, I mean, you know, for you, the sophomore thing was the blessing. Yeah, the blessing. Yeah. That was the blessing. But, all right. So true to myself, like the road that leads to true to myself, just tell me about the experience of getting a deal. Like, were you given agency to create what you wanted? Or was it like you're learning as you're going along?

I think it was a combination of it was a almost like a council of the three of us, my sister, myself and my cousin, along with the record label. And of course, as an individual, I'm going to have my own ideas about how and what songs should be done and how they should be produced. Oh, there's the trio album, the B'nai album. Yeah, yeah. I did not have that agency on that record. So that by the time true to myself happened,

that was my first solo album. But explain to me, how did the Bonaise situation implode? It didn't really implode as much as it was like my sister, very pragmatic, practical person who she had a pretty good job in Milwaukee at the time. And my cousin, it was always his dream and my dream to be these producers, these songwriters. And my sister said, all right, I'll come along.

Let's see what happens. And we did the B'nai album. And, you know, a story as old as time. It wasn't properly promoted or marketed, or maybe we didn't have the right hit on the record. What year was this? This is 92. Was Gary at EMI at this time?

Gary! Wait, wait, wait, wait, why is that name familiar? Well, Gary. Why is a Gary EMI? I only know Gary because he was very familiar. He was D's guy for Brown Sugar. He was at EMI around 92. He was probably in the hallways.

You know, I was primarily just dealing with Ron Fair and Allison. You dealt with Ron Fair? Absolutely. Ron Fair has- What was that like? You gotta qualify that question. I don't know if I'm even allowed to answer why I asked you in that sort of way. No, Ron, you know.

See, I dealt with Interscope Ron Fair. I did. And they're very specific on our way or the highway, and I chose the highway. Well, that's probably, so Ron Fair had to give Allison the okay because Ron Fair was Allison's boss to sign us. And so, you know, Ron Fair. Shout out, Ron. This is not slander.

I just like two years ago, I never really had a relationship with Ron Fair back then. Allison had the relationship with Ron Fair. And, you know, so in that respect, Ron's always been cool with me. we just had dinner a couple years ago. Okay. But for those watching, Ron, um, kind of doing like interscove's glory years,

like if you look at the black eyed peas, Maya's stuff. Yeah. Uh, who else? Aguilera. Christina Aguilera. Those are Ron Fair glory years. No doubt.

Like any, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like Romfair, I would say, is probably kind of right behind the zone where, that we hold in the space for, like Clive Davis. Exactly. Having the ears.

My, you know, my rebellious 20, 30-year-old self, you know, was just in another place where, and I think, I believe Will I am, Will, I got to get you on the show to. When Will talks about the third album with the P's, they gave me the scenario, which is basically Interscope and those guys was like, look, we have what it takes to make you guys winners. Or you could just be the roots. And it was like...

And they kind of made it... I didn't take it as an insult. Because the thing is that, you know... They're basically saying, you can kind of choose not to reach white people. Well, it's... Like, if you were to ask me now... Okay, so...

I mean, it's been no secret that... With the roots and the Fuji's out at the same time, whatever... Yeah. We're touring with them at a point in which, like, they started out. out as our opening act and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, Jesus, like, what's happening? Like, you know. And if you were asked me in retrospect, like, okay, if you can go back again and do it all over again and let's say we put you in that same scenario where your second

album will sell 16 million units, but also this is what will come with it. And those three We have a very specific story of what's happened to them in the last 25 years. Yeah. And while it's happening, am I sitting in a bathtub having a panic attack? Because I have a covered rolling story. My electricity's all. And we're never going to make it. Like, I've had many of those nights.

Oh, so have I. But now, man, like, we've survived. The idea of a quiet war. Yes, yes. And it's one that's not tangible enough for us to actually prove that it was a war because people just see his as like, oh, the roots in there every now. Like, yeah, you guys singing. Yeah.

But, you know, there's a lot you got to go through. The journey along the way is, will kill some motherfuckers. It's taxing. It has. And it has. No, it's killed every motherfucker. Yeah, because it is, there's so much in what you just said. But I just feel like it's so, first of all, what we do.

it's so toxic to the human psyche and just our journey to get the individual adulation. And you got to be a really strong emotional person to keep yourself in check. Like, even at, like, I've never been like a really big star, but being plucked from Milwaukee and then just having an unhealthy amount of attention on you for crazy,

shit. I've seen you eight times in my life and each time, like the drug of, woo, woo! Like, I, and I was there for key moments in your life. Yeah. I was there in the front row of the NWACP Awards when that moment had, like, and I know that's a drug feeling. Yeah, it is. That's such a high. And what people don't know is an hour after the show's done, I've discovered DJing after the show as a way to let myself down. Yeah, that was wise. To avoid drinking or to avoid any other. That was wise.

You know. That was wise. People will never understand that part of the journey. You see the snapshot of fame and success. And it's like, I want that. But that's only the snapshot, dude. And I know it sounds so like, oh, poor you guys. I know it comes off like that.

This is why I make movies. Like, because if you, the DNA of all the movies is, again, to show you the human side of, because, you know, I wanted to know why was Slicestone sabotaging. You get everything you ever wanted. Like, just show up. Yeah. And, you know, I was one of those people that would judge, you know, unfairly DeAngelo, Lauren, whatever. It's difficult not to unfairly judge them. But I get it now. Yeah. And I totally understand that once you just, you. jump in this pool, it's no explaining how to, one is, it's no, it's no explaining the slow horror of it all. Woo! And, and.

And it's kind of why I have the space just to meet other people like, I know you know how that feels. Yeah. So like when the first wave of what we call Neo-Soul came through, for you, how much pressure did it feel because, I mean, you're coming out the gate with the DeAngelo's, with the Ervas, with the Tony Riches, with the Tony Riches, that's right, yeah. Dude, like, just literally at the time did it feel like, oh, this is a dawning of a new day, like where- That's exactly what it felt like, because I thought it was my idea.

You know, you know what I was. Yeah, I thought I was doing something. I was like, nah, I want to go back to the Donnie Hathaway. I want to go back to the keyboards. and I love the way, you know, Bobby Caldwell with all these live inches. I thought, I thought, oh, I got a great idea. That's why I call the album True to Myself. Right.

Like, I'm going to do it like me. And then it was like, apparently there was 12 other motherfuckers thinking the same thing, more than that. Even starting that record, one, how did it feel dusting yourself off from the rubble of the Bonaid project before? And then doing it by yourself without your sister, without your cousin. Oh, my God. Like, is there a whole, like, the family dynamic and the guilt or the people-pleasing aspect?

There's definitely some family guilt of, hey, y'all, I got to go do this. But the beautiful thing about having such an incredible family like I have is like, all right, then little brother, we support you. And that, how fucking. How did you make that happen? I didn't. That was my mom. and dad just raising us like that. And it was, I don't, I don't know.

So it's like, no one ever gets over the guilt of, I got to do it for myself. Yeah. Yeah. No one ever gets it. I have an incredible family and I never not give it up to my family whenever I'm thinking about my road to being here. But that part of it, it was liberating. It was like, I remember, because Allison will tell you, because Allison saw so much in me

from the Benet thing and she was like okay this is what we're going to do I'm going to bring you out to L.A this was after we got dropped for the EMI thing I'm going to bring you out to L.A. I know all these producers

all these producers and they're getting all these placements and you're going to be out here for a month and you're in court with this guy this guy this guy this guy and then I did that I went out there and I recorded all these songs that sounded like what was happening

and... Wait, did you write spiritual thing or femininity or... I'll tell you about that. Yes. Okay. So I'm like, I work with all these producers, and this was like 94, three. Yeah.

And I remember we listened to all of the stuff and nothing was hitting either one of us. And she was just like, you know what? I just spoke to all the producers that you just work with. And they were like, yeah, the nigger can really sing. That's not the problem. He's just not, his voice ain't really fitting on this stuff. And so that's when I was like, how about this? Let me just go back to Milwaukee

and let me just get with my people. It's Kat DeMonte, who is this brilliant keyboard player in Milwaukee and my cousin George. Okay. I'm like, let me just write a bunch of shit that feels good to me. And that's where true to myself. Who were you working with previously before you went back

to the woodshed to do it yourself? Are you allowed to say? I am allowed to say, but if I'm being quite honest with you, I don't remember. Never mind. Yeah. It was like, it was talented guys. Allison was like, this guy's gotten placements here, this guy.

So I would record these songs. Got you. Okay. After that didn't work, I just went back to Milwaukee, wrote true to myself. All those songs got with this cat. Oshund Ladee. Do you know Oshun Ladee? He's a DJ producer now.

But anyway, he used to be called Christian Warren back in the day. Okay. I recorded Femininity with him. Mm-hmm. And then I remember Allison had just gotten her job at Warner Brothers. And I remember, all right, well, check this out. See what you like about this. She called me.

It's like, nigger, this is what we need. This shit is hot, nigga. And she let the people in the building at Warner Brothers hear it. And there was a buzz. And that's how I got the Warner Brothers deal. Was this still Medina led Warner Brothers or who was like the head? I never knew what the structure was. No.

Like after Medina left. I don't know. So I tried to stay out of the whole executive thing and just be in the studio and deal with Allison. Okay. If Allison was in there, Allison coming here. Who is at the head of,

Tom Wally, right? No, that was much later. That was much later. Allison knows. Yeah. Tom Wally was much later. So once the songs start hitting, what is the feeling?

Yeah, spiritual thing. Yeah, like what is the feeling of this? Vindication, maybe. I made it or? No, I never felt like I made it. Even now, do you sort of feel like every day is a... Yeah, I still don't feel like I made it. I still feel like...

We will forever be climbing the... Yeah, I will forever... And I think that's the thing. Like, you're a true musician artist. So you're more about reaching an unreachable perfection of something that can never be perfected. And so I always feel like, oh, man. Well, you just said how much is enough?

like 10 minutes ago. And that is kind of the book I'm reading right now is trying to teach me like really to settle into not being insatiable. Yeah. Or it's never perfect enough. The fulfillment never completely happening. Yeah. Okay.

When you got your deal, and I always asked this, what was the first extravagant thing you did for yourself when you got to the other side or made it or got your vance or shit got a condo okay so that was just more like I need a place to live

yeah I never really well mine was just sneakers sneakers oh dude I went out when I got my vance I purchased 10 pair like you got to understand like when you I lived in a one pair of sneaker a year household

Yeah. And you got school sneakers of what you couldn't wear at home. Right. So it's like your play clothes and your school. So you just went sneaker crazy. Dude, when I got my vance, I went and got every color code of Puma's ever. Wow, that's dope. And then I forgot.

My dad was like, I didn't tell my dad about the roots until the second album. What? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You already know the drill. Like, again, same story. Yeah. My dad wanted me go to Juilliard. Yeah, I'm going to Juilliard.

Yeah, I'm going to my insurance job to pay for college. I did my audition. Yeah. And it just so happens. On the train ride home, Tariq was with me. I auditioned at the new school in the Juilliard, got on train ride home. And it was somehow a great coupon commercial or the end of what I call a dumb and dumber. Finest woman walks up and says, excuse me.

Are you the drummer in the Spike Lee Levi's commercial? Now, yes, having going to school with boys to men. This is hilarious. Having going to school with boys to men, I was in the Motown Philly video. But my dumb ass, I wasn't thinking quick enough because she was paralyzing and was beautiful.

I was like, no, that's not me. And she's like, oh, okay. And she sauntered her off. And Tariq's like, and then the next day, we're watching Soul Train. And the Spike Lee commercial comes on. and we had the Eureka like, yo, that girl thought this was us. So why don't we get a bucket and go on South Street and see what's up?

So we know the anniversary of what you know is the roots. 34 years ago last Saturday, I took a white chitlin bucket from his grandmoms career, some drumsticks. We freestyled for, you know, four hours. Why did I never know this story? If we don't make $150 in change, we're never doing it again. It was just that one time, remember we played on the street corner. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But 150 bucks, 75 each? Back in the day? That was date night money. Back in the day? Right. So we're like- I was making $75 a week in that band I was telling you about. Dude, we thought we was rich.

Yeah. So then it's like, let's do it next week. Let's do it next week. Then it was like, well, let's bring out the real drums. Hey, can I join your band? Can I join your band? And. Oh, my God.

I love when things happen organically and for real. Yeah. Out of necessity. So that's kind of how it happened. So. But my dad, I did not tell my dad about any of it. Because you was looking at like, you hang with that hoodlum, Tarreek. And you need to be out of Hurtling.

What's up, Tariq, you hoodlum? No, I mean, look, I have the parents that will be like, hmm, you better motelown 25 them dishes. Right. Oh, hell, my parents too. Yeah, my mom and dad too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Literally, like, yeah, you better don't believe a hype that homework. You know what I mean?

Like, that's what they would do. So, I mean, eventually my cousin's out at me. And my dad's like, what's this? And we're on the front page of, like, the Philadelphia Inquirer, like, Roots sophomore album, everything. I was like... Similar story. Like, my dad didn't know that I was writing all these songs. Right.

Until I was playing. It was Gina that won that contest I was talking about. And, uh, hey, that's you? You wrote that? And he did that, like, the biggest version of the compliment that my dad could ever do was, hmm, huh. Hey, that's pretty good. And then that, yeah, that was it.

You got me had to get added. No, you got me started getting play on MTV in the afternoon. Wow. And then finally, your bar was. He let up, my fourth album. Then he was like, God damn. Well, black. Black parents are just about the safety of it all.

Absolutely. And it's all coming on it. Respectability, politics. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm Ruby Carr, the host of the podcast, Encore. Check out our brand new episodes featuring music from the show that everyone is reheating as we speak. Heated rivalry. Join me as I go behind the songs that brought Shane and Elia together.

I'll tell you the stories of Fice, My Moon, My Man, Wolf Parades, I'll Believe in Anything, and tattoos all the things she said. and how they all became a part of this global phenomenon. Stream encore on IHeart Radio, crave, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. You know us, or rather, you know them.

Tony and Candice, Nina and Lance, Spike, and yes, the chicken. We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast. Each week, we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters,

revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process. How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysall, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song, a melody. I thought he was going to write.

I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. Ayo, rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. Every episode, we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers.

The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller. The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anywhere, too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves it.

Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own. That's great. I call him tarot read. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. Oh, gotcha.

I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobieski. Yeah, I don't think she was an American Pie, but I still like that. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Yeah. Then Mary Steenbergin. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried.

I'm worried. Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play, play game? I just really. I get it. I'm trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood. handbook on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nick Totoro.

You probably know me from NYPD Blue, the longest yard, or Spike Lease Black Klansman. But I'm also from Queens, which means I know pizza. And on my new podcast, delivering happiness with Nick Totoro, I deliver pizza from Prince Street pizza to a new guest. Are you delivering pizza now? Then we sit down for a real conversation. I've shared a slice with everyone from Seth Rollins. What are you doing, my belt?

To Alex Rodriguez. Just to let you people know. We're talking to one of the goats here. To Bill Burr. I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind as I am. And now we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Tuturo.

It's called Happiness. Delivering Happiness. Mariano Rivera. Oh my God. And many, many more. Open your free high-heart radio app. Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Tutro. And listen now.

Who was the figure that you met early in your career that, like, had you shook to your career? core because I know that you're meeting your idols and all these things and like how just intimidating was that first round first round was crazy and the first I love your questions because every time you ask one a person or an image pops in my head it was Natalie Cole it was Natalie Cole it was Natalie Cole I have such a great Natalie Cole story what was yours I want to hear your Natalie Cole story but so my my sister and I were were doing the this was before we got the Bonae album and we were just in that and we were working on our original songs,

and my cousin George submitted us for this, that, and the other, and we did the Jack the rapper convention back in the day, which eventually got us on this show called Big Break. I remember Big Break. You were on that? I won Big Break for the... Okay, so every Big Break for those not watching, it's kind of like Star Search.

Yeah. So my sister, every episode would have a winner. Oh, you got that. this many votes. Today's winner is B'na. And then at the end of the season, they would have all the winners

come back and compete for who is the seasonal winner. Right. And the seasonal winner was our Kelly and public announcement. I wasn't ready for this. They wanted two?

Yes. Wait, what year was this? Shit, man. This must have been like 91 or some shit. It's like that. And so, I never knew this. Or 90, I don't know. Yeah.

And then, and Natalie Cole was the host. And I never met a big celebrity before. She was the host. She was the host. I just remember, you know, when you're plucked from obscurity in Milwaukee, you have an idea of what an iconic legendary celebrity is going to be or going to be like. And she was the antithesis. She was the opposite.

She was just so, oh, my God, you guys are so. she wanted to sit and have a conversation and she was just so real and raw and that shook me. I was like, but do you know that you're Natalie Cole? I'm thinking to myself, you're Natalie Cole and she's just like, oh, your sister, you and your sister just so adorable and I love you and the way you harmonize. So yeah, that was incredible. But what is your story? All right. Okay.

So I have, you said that and you just reminded me that I met Natalie Cole twice. So technically the first time I met her was probably the most dream scenario of all time. Speaking of like Jack the rapper, there's, you know, there's Philadelphia legend Deanna Williams who would throw these conventions. You know, conventions were like a thing of the 90s, whatever. We didn't have no N&It's. Right. So we had the I Am convention in Philadelphia.

And I would intern, I've interned there like for least like two or three years in a row. and the last time I did the I.M. convention, they were going to give, like, Stevie Wonder, the Diamond Award of Excellence or something like that. Yeah. And Stevie Wonder has a routine that I've learned, like, throughout the years where after he gives a performance, he'll have a meet and greet in his dressing room

or maybe in his hotel suite upstairs. Not to... And there's always a piano. Keep going, but Stevie Wonder, one of the most beautiful, like, incredible people that know. Anyway, go ahead. Yeah. So it's like clockwork.

Literally, after he's done giving a performance, it does what he do. He'll either, there's always a grand piano inside of his hotel room or backstage. And, you know, where it's getting out, okay, Stevie Wonder is going to have a meet and green

in his room. So we were allowed, the roots were allowed to come in there. And by the time I get there, like Stevie, the best part of a Stevie Wonder show is, this part, which is he's at the piano. And of course, every piano is just surrounded by at least 20 women.

And it'll be random things like, oh, there's Valerie Simpson. Incredible thing. Oh, there's Kathy Sledge. There's, you know. And he's literally going through his albums. Like, I got in right when, like, I think he started doing people. And then, then. Oh, Visions.

He was doing visions. You know, so I'm watching this for a half hour. And then, you know, take a seat. And then I decided to get some air. By this point, he's like on songs in the Key of Life. Like, he's literally going through his discography. And they're singing everything. I love it.

And I sit out there and then suddenly like Andre Fisher and Natalie Cole come and sit down next to us. Now, you know, I am one of the biggest Rufus fans of all time. Andre Fisher was the drummer in Rufus. Oh, absolutely. He's also the nephew of one of my idols, Claire Fisher. Claire Fisher, who I had the pleasure of before he passed. Work with Claire Fisher?

I had the pleasure. On a song, absolutely. A Claire Fisher string arrangement. But anyway, I'm sorry, go ahead. Okay, so the beginning of DeAngelo's Really Love is the last thing that Claire Fisher put together before he died. Because he's doing all those string arrangements on those Rufus album, little boy blue and all those beautiful. Oh my God.

So I had a skillion questions for Andre Fisher, and he's telling me about when Rufus first formed. And it took me an hour to be like, yo, like Natalie Cole and Andre Fisher don't know me from a can of paint, but they're like. Blew your way, didn't it? And by this point, he's on side four of like songs in the Key of Life. Like, I'm missing if it's magic and as, like, you know, back,

You hear, oh, way. You're making this shit up. No. Like, he's, we're on the balcony. Talking to Andre Fisher, Natalie Cole with Stevie Wonder. However, my, my fun Natalie Cole story is night one of the voodoo tour. I learned what the term 86 means. Like, I thought I was in this industry between, you know, this is, voodoo comes out in January.

So we're at the, we're doing a week at the house of. blues. Right. Just as warm-up shows before we start the tour. Do you love those House of Blues gigs? There's nothing like, and I feel guilty for it because, you know, people when they talk about L.A., they're like, ah, man, I hate L.A.A. L.A.

He's not real. And I'm leaving here and da-da-da-da-da-da. Yeah, but whenever we go to L.A., it's just like, oh, man, what's going to happen tonight? And so we did a week at the House of Blues. And every night, like I thought I was in this industry. but to be there for a two-month-old voodoo album of which now it's in everyone's system.

Yeah. And we're testing these shows out. And there's a point in the show where, you know, I get like a two-minute break while something's happening on the stage. And I'm listening on the walkie-talkie of like one of the... And I keep hearing the term 86, 86. She's getting 86.

She's getting. I get backstage and Tina Farris is like, yeah, man, we had the 86 Natalie Cole. One more again is probably the most night. If you would ask, like, what's the experience that was the hardest of the voodoo tour? It's doing one more again because either fights going to break out or sometimes the woman would get smart and be like, okay, and they would run like football plays. Like, okay, three security guys are on that side and one's over there. So this is what I'll do.

I'll run on stage. It never failed. Really? Two were run on stage and then four security guys would get them. And that's the opening. And then they were open and... Wow. So then it just became a...

How can we keep DeAngelo from bleeding? You know, scratching him. I ain't never had them problems. Dude. But at one... Or even worse, it'll be a fight in the audience. And I don't know what happened. But Natalie Cole was not getting out of...

to wait for nobody. And I heard they were scrapping. And I never knew. Who was actually scrapping? They had the 86 Natalie Cole out of the House of Blues and two other women for either about to get into it or whatever. I never knew what the term 86 meant until the Natalie Cole moment. Wait, okay, I have something hilarious to tell you.

So is Summerfest held in that sort of outdoor amphitheater thing? Yeah, yeah, by the water. Okay. I have a... Another story. Oh, God. I don't know if I should tell this story. Yes, yes, yes.

I told it, okay, I told it in his obituary, but, you know, we're sound checking. This is the one show that we had together. Okay. It was Eric Bonae and DeAngelo in Milwaukee, the summer of 2000. Okay. Now, you know what your situation was back in 2000. Yeah. And it wasn't a rule like, you know,

keep people away, you know, like Prince will have like motherfucker's like, yeah, you can't come on stage and watch shit or whatever. Yeah. And so we're playing and we're sound checking devil's pie. And we're just sound checking. Yeah. So it's basically like, just sound checking.

Like we're not going through the motions or whatever. And we look to the left and I'm in my communication mic. I'm in my communication mic. And I said, Oh, my fucking God, y'all, she's here. And she's watching us. And it's like, make her go away.

And again, it's like we were frozen. But the thing was, I noticed that we started getting more intense. Of course you did. But then D's getting, and I forget that D can hear my communication mic. I said, yo, man, I can't hide. You told this at the obituary?

I told this. Yes, because this is one of the funniest moments in life. Okay, okay. And next thing I know, like, he looks to the left, and I instantly see his body freeze, like, holy shit, she's here. And the next thing I know, like, he's now, like, he's full, hit me two times and shit. And I'm like, dude, wait, what do we? Sound check, nigga. Yeah, I'm like, let's just, we're good.

Like, we tested everything. and we went through like the 14 minutes. Stop. This is what happens. Now we're doing full-fledged doubles pie for nobody. There's nobody in the house. And I'm like, oh, God, like, we're literally like a boulder, like, headed down. And he is in his James Brown bag and he's like doing the splits and all that stuff.

Oh, shit. I was kidding. And he was a time. No, but this is what happens. There's a point in the song, right? When they're all the lie, all the lie, where, you know, we learned this from friends, where he runs on one side of the stage and slides in the home plate. Oh, yeah.

But this is what he didn't know. Uh-oh. It was a wooden floor. Oie, splinters. Oh, worse. There was a nail. Oh. It's Milwaukee, man.

Nothing's put together properly. It was like, there was a nail inside the stage, right? Oh. So he's running. Oh. And when he's sliding. In the home plate? Just.

The nail. Aye. Slices. Like, he has very thin cotton slacks on. You ever watch Charlie Brown where he's at the pitcher's mound? Yes. And he throws the pitch. Yes.

And then next thing you know, he's like butt naked because the – DeAngelo had pants on. And then he did the slide. Ah. And the nail just ripped. a perfect, like literally his pants. But it got his, it got his, him too, right? I mean, he was bleeding, but it was also like, dude, your commander, what the fuck?

And, and. Well, that worked out kind of good. No. Then it was like, all right, stop the song. He ran out of stage and got new pants, but literally. Oh, my God. We've never done a more intense sound check in my life. Oh, I love that.

I'm sorry. I love it. I had to bring that up. I love it. I love it. Okay, so for you, you've, and I mentioned at the top of the show that you've created the wedding song. When something is successful and overtly successful, does it become a burden?

Now, having done the earthwood and fire dock, Phillips shares a story where he has to break people's hearts because they don't know that reasons is a cheating. and not a wedding song. So he talks about the insane amount of times they've been asked to perform reasons at a wedding or whatever. Spend my life with you. At what point did you realize, like,

and were you ever given any wedding request to perform this? So. And do you get tired of singing it? To answer that part of the question. I remember being a kid and seeing some of my favorite artists who were known

for certain songs. And I remember thinking, wow, I bet they get like tired of doing that same. Here they go. They're doing that same damn song. And so I would imagine

that if I were ever to make it, I would just get sick of doing the same song over and over again. I don't have that sensation. I love performing my music. I think it's one of the things that keeps me feeling young. I think every time,

I send a sometimes I cry or spend my life. Well, I was going to say sometimes I want to ask it because the times I've seen you perform, yeah. You have, that's an intense song to go through. And when you do it in concert, it's super intense. Yeah, there's no way to lightly

do that song. So what if you're just not, what mind state do you have to be in order to put yourself through that that rigorous process? That's a great question. So sometimes I cry is one of those songs where we wrote the song and the song was mixed, wasn't mastered yet.

And I'm just driving around listening to the song for a week before we actually master it. And as I'm singing along, when it gets to that modulation, I'm in the car. And I hit like three or four full tones above what it was on the record. I'll call my engineer. And I'm like, man, get your ass to the studio. I think I could do a higher note. And so you wouldn't let it go. I went to the studio and then he punched me in at that modulation.

And I hit that note. And as I'm doing it, I'm thinking, I don't know what the fuck I'm going to do live. Because I don't know if I can do this live every night. So sometimes I cry becomes the number one song. And I'm thinking, God damn, I have to do. I'm trapped. I painted myself in an audio corner. And so the first night I do it,

I nailed the note because when I was in the studio I didn't nail it at first I had to you know as a singer you have to find there's places in your throat where you can sing certain things and I'm like it took me a while

to be like okay if I go to that part I can hit it and so I hit it the first night hit it the second night hit it the third night and then I realized if I do that song

four nights in a row by the fifth night that layer of my falsetto is gone So I just have to be, I think I've successfully fooled people into thinking that I can always hit that note because live, I always do. Because I always make sure that if there's a fourth night, I can't, I'm not singing nothing for three days to get that falsetto to back where it is. So you just got to work with what you got. So what is your care routine for singing? Because, look, haven't been at the Tonight Show.

Yeah. You've seen the best and the worst. Well, I'm going to tell you something. But maybe by the time they get to the Tonight Show, you can't suck. I've seen. Maybe they can't suck. Hey, dog, it's 2026. Anything can happen.

No, no, no. I was saying that I have, all right, so on our wardrobe, I mean, we haven't utilized it a long time. But there was a point where we actually had winter suits, summer suits, and then a small part of our wardrobe that says Aretha. What? So Aretha has this thing where it's like, if I enter the building,

no air conditioning. That's right. That's right. And she has enforcers to make sure like those dudes and Steve Harvey suits that, you know, like 12 buttons. Steve Harvey suits. No, she sensed like those guys are,

they get there. She's been on the show three times. They will get there. at two in the morning and literally sit there in our catacombs, in our basement, to make sure that not one person, and, you know, 30 Rock is an old building in which it's no individual air. Like, can be like, let's turn an all the air off in the hallway and in the studio. The whole floor is affected. When Aretha Branglin comes in, there's a memorable who comes out and says, hey,

Aretha's going to be guests. Everybody got to be in mesh tank tops. Dude, people thought Jimmy was like on Coke, like, Literally the sweat on his face. And it's, no, it's, but part of me was super cynical back then. I was like, is that psychosomatic? Like, is it true that like? I wonder if it is.

But no, but I'm asking a singer, like, what is, are you the vocal rest person while on the road? Is it every three shows, I need a day off? What if the day off falls on a Saturday? And the gig is lucrative. Yeah. So to answer your question, there is a direct correlation with over extending your voice and just tearing away at certain layers of your tone until you just got to heal.

Maybe somebody who's more disciplined in all the things you need to do to be able to do five shows a day for a week straight. I can't do it. And it's not psychosomatic. It's definitely you can hear it if I talk. You can hear it. So, but for me, a big part of it is no sugar. I cut alcohol out. I drink water.

I try to eat foods. My whole perception of food is food is to nurture me. And if it's got added. Eat to live. Yeah. If it's got chemicals, if it's got that, then I can't put it in my body. No sugar during touring season or like if off season, are you allowed to have fun on Thanksgiving? I'm going to, if I hang out with some relatives, you know, and I got that piece.

peach cobbler right there. I'm eating that damn peach cobbler. All right. But then as a result of that, probably for the next four days, I'm not, I definitely won't eat any dessert and there's no candy. Yeah, I will do things that you're not supposed to do. I, even though I say I don't drink anymore, like once a month I might have a glass of wine. Gotcha. But alcohol, nah. Hey, I'm Ruby Carr, the host of the podcast, Encore. Check out our brand new episodes featuring music from the show that everyone is reheating as we speak. Heated rivalry. Join me as I go behind the songs that brought Shane and Elia together. I'll tell you the stories of Fice, My Moon, My Man, Wolf forades, I'll believe in anything,

and tattoos all the things she said, and how they all became a part of this global phenomenon. Stream encore on IHeart Radio, Crave, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. You know us, or rather you know them. Tony and Candice, Nina and Lance, Spike, and yes, The Chicken. We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia, AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast.

Each week, we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process. How did any of this get made? Why do you think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysall, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin,

legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song, a melody. Well, I thought he was going to write. I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. Ayo, rewatch on the IHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or

wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on.

We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller. The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anywhere, too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured. by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves Nova. Oh, that's fantastic.

And you make it on, you make your own. That's great. I call him Terro Reed. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobiesky. Yeah, I don't think she was an American Pie, but I still like that.

Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Yeah. Then Mary Steenbergin. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried. I'm worried. Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play game?

I just really. I get it. I'm trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nick Titoro. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, the longest yard, or Spike Lease Black Klansman. But I'm also from Queens, which means I know pizza. And on my new podcast, delivering happiness.

with Nick Totoro, I deliver pizza from Prince Street pizza to a new guest. Are you delivering pizza now? Then we sit down for a real conversation. I've shared a slice with everyone from Seth Rollins. What are you doing, my belt? To Alex Rodriguez. Just to let you people know, we're talking to one of the goats here.

To Bill Burr. I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind as I am. And now, we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Tutu. It's called happiness. Delivering happiness. Mariano Rivera. And many, many more.

Open your free high-heart radio app. Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Duturo. And listen now. All right, so long ago, like I knew the story of better and better. And I always wanted to ask you this. Yeah. So always consider Hurricane your acoustic soul album because of the presence of the acoustic guitar. Yeah, yeah, Dean Parks.

Woo! That was Dean Parks. That was Dean Parks, bro. Dude, that is. That explains everything. Okay, because on what I didn't know, Dean Parks is on, I think, eight songs, on songs in the Key of Life.

And once I heard the broken down stems of it, I was like, wow, I never knew that this song had acoustic guitar. Yeah, because it's layered so brilliantly. Right. And so instantly I was like, wow, the presence of acoustic guitar on this record, like that replaced the Fender Roads to give that album the personality has.

But I wanted to know, was the direction of better and better just what wound up being Hurricane or is that, what was the direction of better and better that told Warner's like, no, this isn't it. It was such, you talk about the, hey, Tom Wally, I'm about to talk about you, bro. So that was one of the frustrating aspects of just being an artist at a big machine like Warner Brothers. Because, you know, I come off the success of a day in the life, which did really spend my life and Georgie Porgy and all that. Yeah.

And I go into the studio and I'm working on a lot of the songs I did, some of them, Philly. Larry Gold. Eric, I got your strings. I got your strings for your pretty baby. Yeah, Larry Gold. So one of the things I remember feeling so good about that better and better album because there were songs on it. Like, I want to be loved, pretty baby, and better and better, Mike City. So I turned in the record and Warner Brothers was just like, no, we don't, we don't like

this record. And I was like, really? So I take it there wasn't a day-to-day person that gives notes or whatever, like, you're at the place now where it's like, here's my record. Yeah, I had a lot of autonomy at that point to just go make your record. So I turn in the record and, you know, there's all that corporate turntable. There's always somebody else moving in and out. And this is when Tom Wally came in. Okay. New blood.

Yeah, new blood. And I remember feeling so good about better and better and turning it in. And they'll be like, no, this really isn't a good record. And I'm like, okay. So, and this is at a time where, you know, y'all got to understand, we didn't have laptops where you could just like go and make an adjustment, make an adjustment or write a song and just throw it out there. You needed a marketing promotion distribution machine. And so I was like, okay, so does that mean two things are going to happen? Can you let me out of my deal so that I can go somewhere else and take this record? No. Okay. So does that mean I, I, get a budget to go record some other songs and add to this record. Maybe I can salvage it and make a complete product that you feel good about releasing. Nope.

So what happens? Wait, is that why it took so damn long? Yeah. Because I was going to say, like, you damn there took, what, six, seven years? Yeah. It wasn't six or seven years, but it was quite a bit of time. Came out in 2005? Hurricane?

Yes. Yeah. So, yeah. And Day and Life came. That was 99. You came out the same years. You're right. You're right. That was. So I was basically stuck. I was stuck. I had better and better. They wouldn't release it. They wouldn't let me out of my deal. And so I had to figure out how do I get myself out of this mess? How do you survive? You don't. But so basically what I did was I just, I don't remember how I came up with this idea. I was probably talking to my cousin, George, probably. But I was like, this is. the situation. Like, they won't let me out of the deal.

They won't release the record. And at the time, I've always been a massive fan of David Foster. Like, where he used to do all the stuff he did with Chicago back in the day. And Earthwin and Fire. And Earthwin and Fire and Shakakan and all that stuff. And David Foster was kind of like a resident producer at Warner Brothers, for lack of a better term.

And I said, I know what I'm going to do. I'm a bumrush David Foster and be like, this is what's going to happen. No, no, I'm not that cocky. I was like, Mr. Foster, you know. Your excellence. I remember it really well. I knew he was going to be at this function, this event.

And I'm like, oh, David Foster's going to be there? I'm showing up. So I ran into him. I was like, David, Mr. Foster, I'm Eric Bona. Oh, bro, I know who you are. And I was like, look, Tom's not going to let me out of my deal, and they won't let me do another record, but maybe, and this was, like you said, this was after years

and me just being stuck, not knowing what to do. And I said, maybe I can come by your place and maybe we can fuck around with some stuff. And David, God bless him. David, you know David? I know, yes. Yeah, he was just like, yeah, bro, shit, come by the house. He calls it the host, the host, Canadian ass.

His house was a big Tony Montana monstrosity on the beach in Malibu. And I just remember pulling up to this thing like, yeah, damn. Yeah. But he still just David. Yeah, come on, man, come to the studio. Humberto Gautica was there. Yeah. Damn.

Yeah. Engineering. And that's where we did. And the first song we wrote together was Hurricane. Yeah. And then we did the last. time. And then, hey, I got some cats that are going to come over and be like the cats for the album, Dean Parks, Vinnie Caluta. That explains. And it's like, I'm like, what? Because I was

going to say that the musicianship on that record, there's some, and I couldn't call it. I was like, something's so different about this without, I see that. So David saved my whole, like, I don't know what, I don't know what I would have done because Warner Brothers, it had been years. they wouldn't let me out of my deal they wouldn't let me fix the album that they did not like. Oh, and so what I ended up doing is like three or four of those songs like Pretty Baby.

Some of those songs that were on better and better, I would just sprinkle them on later albums. One or two of them was on Hurricane, another was on the one that came. So I made sure some of those better and better songs got out. Okay, so as a singer, I would like to think that your entire outfit has to be vulnerability,

the ability to show emotions. However, you know, I believe around 96, 97, kind of hip hop shadow takes over the entirety of black culture. Absolutely. And the armor of emotion sort of sets in, which really doesn't allow for humanists.

It made what I do less cool. Right. Like, oh, softness or that sort of R&B, whatever. How hard is it to navigate such a sensitive, beautiful art form inside of this sort of Roman calcium of toxicity? Yeah. Where you stand out like a sore thumb

for something that. that if this were the 70s, you'd be one of a million people doing it. Yeah. So, like, how hard is it now to navigate where just singing is? I'm not even saying R&B. Yeah. Just singing. Yeah.

In 2026. Man, that is an insightful, dope question. I think... And let me add to it. Yeah. Especially where you are in your mind state right now. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I mean, you were touching shit with the Gerald Leverton,

The song you always had your little message joins, like sprinkled throughout. Yeah. But yeah, we got a join in this one. Yes, of course. I'm always from Philly. But like how do you navigate your art in 2026? Yeah.

In which you now have to represent every singer. You have to be the message person. You have to be the emotive person. You damn near have to represent your whole. lineage. Damn, I'm looking like I'm depressing you now. No.

I don't think you thought about this. I didn't, no, I'm really trying to take in this question because as you're asking the question, I don't think of it that way because if I did, I would fuck my shit up. Well, I see, that's my, my,

living in my brain so long and less in my heart, I always analyze first. Like, I'm, therapies, like, help me to let it go of analyzing shit. Well, it's hard. First of all, God bless you for doing therapy because a lot of people just don't take the emotional health seriously. You know, it's either that or I'll wind up in the obituaries I put on Instagram. No, I don't want to be that person.

I hear you. But like, as the roots, when I'm going on stage, I'm like, yo, like we got to be confunction and the Wu-Tang clan. You feel that. And Prince of the Revolution. It's why people always ask, like, you feel that pressure before you go on stage? What black bands are left like that? That's true. There's...

That's true. I feel like in those two hours, I have to be the breakbeat band. I have to be the disco band. I have to be the hip-hop band. We have to do everything in two hours. Like, I feel like I'm... Yeah. Do not ever stop going to therapy.

Oh, never. I got two things. Yeah, I get... Because the way you phrase that question is like, if I thought about what I do like you just described, I don't think I would have so much anxiety I wouldn't get on the stage.

I feel like I'd plant that seed in you now, now that's all you're going to think about. No, no, no, you didn't because what cured that scene was the very first B'nai album to true to myself. Because the B'nai album was me feeling like I need to be part of this. collective decision on this art.

The True to Myself album cured what you were just asking me because true to myself was, fuck what people want from me as an artist. Even fuck what's happening on the radio. Fuck what the radio state, what the record label feels like they want. Quincy talked about it all the time. There's a goose bump factor in the studio.

That's what I'm going. for whether whether I'm writing it or vocally I'm singing it my my goose bump barometer is going to let me know it's done or it feels good put it out there see what happens so it's like and I feel like my major influences are the greats that we've been talking about through this whole conversation so I feel like creatively somewhere in my subconscious I'm always stacking my shit against that, which I feel like I will never reach. And we talk about never reaching the unreachable, unreachable, but always striving for it.

So I feel like I got the Quincy Jones, I got the Stilly Dan, I got the Donnie Hathaway, I got the Stevie Wonder, I got Ella Fitzgerald. And I know how they make me feel on a visceral, emotional vibration. I'm never going to reach that. But I know that if I'm in the studio and I'm at least, Oh man, feeling a little bit of that giddiness that they give me.

I'm like, hey, I did my best. And if they don't dig it, shit, fuck them. True to yourself. My last question to you. Yeah. If you could freeze time for a day, press a pause button. Woo! I love you.

I love these a mere questions. I didn't even ask the question yet. I know, but I love the way they start. If you can astral travel back to your 16-year-old self, That nerdy motherfucker. Yeah. What would you say, what three things would you say to your 16-year-old self back in 84? Yeah.

Okay. One day you will have sex. It's coming. Oh, let me tell you. But yeah, 84, I was very much, what is the word for the person who's the introvert but shields it with comedy? and goofiness. A human deflector? Yeah, but prefers to be alone.

Oh, that's a human being. Yeah, okay. Well, I was that human being. I would probably tell myself, I was at recently asked a question like this. I would probably tell my 16-year-old self who had this incredible imagination and wanted to see the world

and wanted to do all these things. And at 16, I didn't even know that I wanted to be a singer, even though I was very much a singer and a songwriter at the time, I would probably tell myself you might want to rethink going to college. But see, this is a tricky part of that kind of question. That experience brought you here. Would you go back in time and save baby Hitler?

No. Right. Right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. It's like, ah, shit. Then what lessons would you learn? Yeah.

I would probably try to be. as coded and muted in specifics and just say your dreams will come true and you will affect the dreams coming true of so many people but keep working on the stuff you're good at okay and uh you know now that my parents are gone like just i told them every day anyway but probably not so much my dad because he was so emotionally. Like, work a little harder on trying to pull a connection out of your dad because he's so stoic and, you know, because you're going to really wish you had that one day and just. Well, hopefully now you're doing for your kids what you wish that you had for you.

Every day I'm trying to be better. Yes. That's all we can ask for. That's right. Brother, I've always loved your voice. But especially now in 2026. I really appreciate and love your voice. Oh, boom.

And we need more of that. Boom. Thank you. Man, I appreciate you, man. Thank you. Yeah. Great Eric Vinay on the Quest Love show. And we'll see you next to go around, y'all.

Thank you. The Quest Love show is hosted by me, Amir Quest Love Thompson. The executive producers are Sean G. Brian Calhoun and me. Produced by Brittany Benjamin and Jake Payne. Produced for IHeart by Noel Brown. Edited by Alex Convoy. IHeart video support by Mark Canton.

Logos, graphics, and animation by Nick Aloe. Additional support by Lance Cole. Special thanks to Kathy Braun. Special thanks to Sugar Steve Mandel. Please subscribe, rate for view, and share the Questlove show wherever stream your podcast. Make sure you follow us on socials. That's at QLS. Check out hundreds and hundreds of QLS episodes, including the Questlove Supreme

shows in our podcast archives. Questlove shows a production of I-Heart Radio. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. The Dream of the 90s is alive in podcast form. We're launching Podlandia AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down. sketches, going deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made.

And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guestrars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysall, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Man, and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song. Well, I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia.

A.O. Rewatch on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Summer Blockbusters are back. The Odyssey and Spider-Man. Brand New Day have taken over cinemas, and Raiders of the Lost podcast has all the coverage you need, including our interview with director Destin Daniel Cretton.

What surprised you about Tom Holland? He shows up to every meeting early. He's the first one on set. Aside from learning all of his lines, is also able to memorize everybody's name on set. Download the free IHeart Radio app. Search Raiders of The Lost Podcast and listen now. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport.

And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show's famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller, Danny McBride, Riz Ahmed, and Mary Steenberg. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the IHard. Art Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea.

Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier. And Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less, so I don't have to do so much. I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to You're the Problem with Yamanika on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast,

or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.