The Questlove Show - James Alexander of The Bar-Kays Part 2

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

James Alexander returns to The Questlove Show for a revealing deep dive into the rebirth and evolution of The Bar-Kays after tragedy, sharing how he rebuilt the group with vocalist Larry Dodson and crafted a louder, more aggressive funk-rock sound that pushed them into a new era. He reflects on becoming a go-to rhythm section for Stax Records and beyond, playing on classics for Rufus Thomas, The Staple Singers, and others, and revisits the making and lasting impact of “Holy Ghost,” their showstopping performance at Wattstax, the wild realities of 1970s touring and stagecraft, and the band’s constant reinvention through the 1980s. The Bar-Kays remain active today, and Alexander’s spirited storytelling makes clear why their legacy endures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media.

Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clivert Show on the I-Heart Radio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode.

Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to. to uncover a disturbing pattern.

Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Gillespie and Michael Mancini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the Iheart radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, They take matters into their own hands. I vowed. I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends.

Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The Questlove show is a production of IHeart Radio. Yo, yo, what's up, y'all? Welcome back to Part 2. of the Questlove show. I'm Questlove in case you're lost. And right now we're talking to the legendary James Alexander of the legendary barcades. And James flew in from Memphis,

specifically to sit down with us at IHeart Studios. And if you haven't started with part one, make sure you do in that episode. We cover all the early days of Memphis, the birth of Soulfinger, and playing behind Otis Redding, and surviving. one of the most tragic moments in music history. There's a lot of music history here, so let's get started. This is James Alexander of the Barcais, celebrating Black History Month, American History Month. Make sure you honor this living legend of black music

by listening to Part 2, and make sure you like and subscribe us also. All right? Thank you. For starters, when did you even start with the idea of, okay, let's rebuild a new band? Like, how long did you take off before you just like, okay, let's get to it? Okay, this happened in December, 1967, by April of 68, had already reformed a new band. How did you find these guys? I tried to find a guy like each and every guy that was already, that was in the group before,

found a white guy that played the organ. you know, the same, make the band up with the same line up, you know, the same instrumentation. A trumpet into the tenor or in a rhythm section. So, of course, there's one

main jarring difference between this band and the previous band, which is, I feel, one of the most unsung frontmen and all of soul music. Really, music

period. First of all, how did you nab Larry Dotson away from the Timprees? A group that themselves were established, and I believe, stacks. No, they weren't established then. They were trying to come into their own. Okay. What happened was they were playing at a nightclub. And so by this point, you know what I'm saying, you know, came with the idea. I said, you know, it's time for us to do something a little different rather than being a totally, you know, instrumental group. So I went to this club one night.

somebody had told me about this group called the Tim Preeze and I wouldn't heard them and to be quite honest with us, they're all right, they're all right. Okay. But this guy, Larry, I said, hey man, I just came to check y'all out

because, you know, we're thinking about getting a vocalist in our group. He said, I'm down. I said, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold up, dude, you're moving a little too fast. I said first because I've been, you probably didn't know this part. See, the Tim Priest was his group.

Yeah. So I said, man, you know, we can meet, you know, a day or two later and talk about this thing. No, you can talk to me now. I said, dude, you know, I'm trying to be respectful. I'm trying to talk to you on your gig. I'm trying to let you finish your gig. And I talk to you tomorrow the next day or something like that.

And I just had to say, I'm not talking to you now. Did that were you that in an instant he was just ready to leave what it's established? Because that could happen to you too. He could be in the barquez and then. I'm here. I mean, I would, man, you have to understand. We 18 and 19 years. I wouldn't think about nothing like that, man.

Okay. You know, I think about all of that now. Got you. Back then, I wouldn't think about nothing. But, you know, so, you know, we finally talked and we ended up getting them in the group. I think this is around 71 somewhere. I can't remember the year. But anyway, I was working with a guy that ended up being my producer and manager.

And we had started rehearsing with him. This is Alan Jones? Alan Jones, yeah. Okay. I have a lot of Alan Jones questions. Yeah. Jimmy Jammin and I have Alan Jones questions. Go ahead.

I told Alan Jones and said, man, you know, I don't know if this guy's going to make it. Because I know he probably would hate me for saying this, but he really wasn't shit. He wasn't that good. The Larry Dotson? He was not that good. Okay. No, he wasn't that good. Sounds like someone I know.

Had to learn the ropes. Yeah, they had to learn the ropes. I wouldn't say, you know. But I wouldn't talk to Alan. I said, man, I don't know if this guy is going to make it or not. Because, mind you, because Alan, before the plane, Chris, you know, he had just got out of the arm. I mean, he's a base player, by the way, too.

Right. And he was trying to get in. You know, trying to get in stacks, tried to get in something, trying to get in the bar cage, trying to get in somebody's pants. I don't know. We tried to just get in.

Okay. But he tried to get involved with the original barcageys. We said, you know, we don't, you know, you know, because I'm going to tell you, after we got out first hit, I mean, I ain't going to laugh to you. We had the fucking big head.

Right. Because, you know, hey, we came, we were squares from nowhere. We came up, and after we went to all that incident, now we don't go from that. We got a record out. We got tailor-made suits, and we got, you know,

five or six, seven hundred dollars in our pocket. So we thought we were good. Couldn't tell you nothing. Couldn't tell you nothing. Can't tell you nothing. But anyway, we came up in an era where you, you rehearse, you rehearse, you rehearse, you rehearsed, and you rehearsed some more.

Because of the repetitiveness, you know, I tell guys this all the time. You know, I have some guys, we call them gig daddies. And a gig daddy is, well, in this case, you know, I hate when a guy come to rehearsal and when he get to the rehearsal and he comes to your rehearsal on his way somewhere else, man, I'm coming here, but I need to leave. I got to be somewhere.

Right. If you can't come and stay to my rehearsal as old, don't come. Got you. Right. So, but anyway, we rehearsing and rehearsed, and Larry kept getting better. He got so good until one incident, we were playing the L.A. sports arena.

And this is prior to the essential of Rick James. Man, you know, there weren't those cell phones. But Rick James had a big, I don't even know, it was a Nikon or a Canon camera with a lot of lens on it. So I've been knowing so as Rick James was in the audience, taking pictures of Larry Duss's every move. Because by this time, you know, Alan was, I was going to say gay,

but I think I use the better word, eccentric. Yes, okay. That's a better word to fit him. I mean, there's a spectrum of masculinity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Special, yeah. Right. Anyway, I tell people all the time, I say,

Rick James is a Larry Dodson on steroids. I mean, because this whole persona... I've always felt that Larry Dodson crawled so that Prince could run. Larry Dodson just had a presence. And the thing is, is that I know that before the 80s, there was kind of the spectrum that you could lie in between was, like, your softness was your falsetto. Right.

Smoky. Ron eyes. soft voice, soft voice. Or you're a growling preacher, Teddy Pendergrass or Marvin Jr. of the Dells. Like your dad yelling at you? Yeah, it is a word? Yes, exactly. But I always felt that Larry Dotson had, if Hendricks sang, I felt like that would be Larry

Dotson. But even then, like, okay, I'm going to give you an example. Let's take a don't stop dancing to the music. That's a very unusual song. Number one, I've never heard crash symbols and ride symbols use that much. Usually the hi-hat, which is supposed to be the metronome, is always silent, bleeds off the snare mic. We had two drummers on there. Okay, that explains.

I was about to say it sounds like a herd of the elephants. And- Larry Dunstan wouldn't know that, by the way. But even what I'm trying to do is figure out how you guys went from your guys. gut bucket, Memphis, discipline sound, and the second that you start releasing, like, your records, like anything before cold-blooded, there was an aggressive rock feel to it.

Now, most people I interview from the time period, it's, okay, Slide was an influence, Hendrix was an influence. But you guys, like, it's one thing when your guitarist is loud, i.e. Ernie Isley. Like, Isley Brothers' Soul. but Ernie's loud. Right. Funkadelic's funky,

but you guys as a unit were more aggressive, more louder than anything. And I was trying to figure out what it was. At first I thought, okay, was it the fact

the engineer didn't know better, didn't use compression, like everything's loud. I never heard drums that loud. It sounds like I heard of elephants. Like, what was just the modus operandi in terms of how we should sound?

Were you trying to break out of the... We were trying to break out of the pack. We tried to break out of the pack and I don't know what pack that was because God rest it so me and Maurice White have had just this countless hours of conversations

about I miss that guy so much because it was kind of like we had a lot of one band leader to the other conversations your directions are very similar both from Memphis both had original bands

both lost the original bands and both had to rebuild the band basically go into the, right, define the 70s. Are you, age-wise, were you slightly older than the cats that you hired? Did you guys? Yes. No, we were still all around the same age.

Okay, okay. Morris was like 10 years older than the rest of Earth went and fires, so. Yeah, and now, you know, the guys I have now, of course, younger. Yes. And I'm kind of like the OG. In fact, I got to tell you this little funny story. I said, because I got two or three bass players in mind,

I'm going to get this big king's chair. I'm going to sit up on a throne with a robe and a crown and with a magic wand to say, and just leave the band. That's some bull, but I mean, but you know, I was thinking about it anyway. As old people say, as long as the blood is running warm in my veins.

And I don't get off the riders of my fingers or something like that. I'm still trying to do it. What was the first session that, the new version of the barcaze did outside of the barcaze. Like, because of course, Isaac is also in the sidelines. Like you talk about the hot butter sold sessions and... Like I said, you know, Don Davis came around. Right.

You know, Al Bell started using us sometimes. We played on some, like, I can't even think of the song right now, but we played on some B-sides of staple singers. Got you. But most of the staple singers. of stuff we're done in most of shows. Let's see, we played on some Eddie Floyd records. But the person that used us a lot in the studio initially as a rhythm section was Rufus Thomas.

So is that you guys on do the funky chicken? That's our rhythm section. Ah. And the two, the two. The breakdown? No, the Funky Pung. The breakdown, believe it or not, the breakdown was the Isaac A's movement. That was his rhythm sex.

Okay. The funky chicken and push and pull. And then I can't even remember the lineup on the Memphis train. You know, train number one is gone. Yes. Train number two is bingo. Yeah. I played bass on that, but I can't remember who else was on that session.

Okay. You know, by this time, you know, I had started getting high. So I was trying to say you're young and it's the psychedelic 60. Yeah, yeah. So how are you guys adjusting to that? part of rock star life. To be quite honest with you, we were a hot mess. I remember back during the time we were working on Black Rock

was also during the time when it was drafting people. And I got a letter from the draft board, so I had to go down to the draft board. So I put on one of my outfits that I wear on stage, and I smoked a half a joint of angel dust. And I went down to the- To scare them? No, I, you know,

When the physician came in to, you know, do the examination, I said, what are you doing to me? And I had this cape on, and I had like a Zoro head on, you know, the mask. And they fell for that? Like, okay. No, after they called on the, they said, you know, call the police. And when they did that, I ran up out of there. And all I can remember is I ran around the corner and went into a phone booth.

And I think I called, I called my girlfriend or something. something like that. I said, me, this phone booth around here. Come pick me up. And I got picked up. Now, man, I'm a hound angel. Got you. And also, I had, um, this guy told me to, man, get you some aluminum foil and take, you know, maybe, I don't know, seven, eight little small pieces take it and drink it and swallow it. So when they do an examination on you, they look in your stomach, they see this aluminum foil and there's something's wrong with this guy. How long was it until they They were like, nope, he's not fit for fighting. They didn't even call back no more.

They didn't he call me no more. Verdeen White told me a story that he starred himself until he was 96 pounds. They were trying to draft him into the Army. And he took three weeks to starve himself to like 96 pounds. And they were like, he's not going to live. It didn't take that much. Yeah, I have a little richer story, too. You probably don't want to hear.

Give me all the stories. When I was 14 now, the man, you just. Learned out to play bass a little bit. So Little Richard is in Nashville at a club called the New Era Club. At this time, Jimmy Hendrix is playing guitar. Billy Cox is playing bass.

So they quit. And moved to London. So Little Richard got this residency gig at this club in Nashville. So he finds out about this little young bass player down in Memphis. And he says, we want to try him out.

So now I go and ask my dad, I said, Dad, I got an opportunity to play with Lou Richard, would you please drive me to Nashville? And guess what my dad? My dad said, hell no. I said, Dad, why?

I said, this is a golden opportunity. And he said, no. I said, why, Dad? He said, because he'll sissing. Not gay, not eccentric or nothing like that. You know, older people just... Yeah, I know what.

Then I said, Dad, please. So I finally convinced him. So my dad had a 44 magnum. Have you ever seen one of those? I have uncles. Yes, I have uncles. I do. Bone barrel.

I loaded it up. Put it under the front seat of his car and drove me to Nashville to this club. So Nashville is about... Now it's about about a three-hour drive from Nashville to Memphis, Memphis to Nashville is about three-hour drive.

Back then, it took about four and a half hours because it was not expressway all the way. Got you. So he drove me to the club and walked me to the door, and he said, I'm going to be out in the car sleep. But he said, it's just like this.

He said, that's just to say anything out of the way to you. You come out here and get me, and I killed this son of a bitch. And he was serious. I know he was. I'm here at the table. tell you that the time that I played with Little Richard,

little Richard never said anything out of the way to me. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music.

The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.

There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of The Girlfriends, Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist.

I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care, so they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the Girlfriends. Trust me, babe.

on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Ego Wadam. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like,

and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place. they come look for up-and-coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot.

He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat, just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be... Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East-West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make. to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode.

Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. You just brought up Isaac Heaz, and I forgot about something. How did the idea of Son of Chef start? Son of Chef came from,

to be quite honest with you, we were trying to find ourselves. Okay. And we had recorded Chef with Isaac Hayes. And Alan Jones was kind of like a visionary. We would have these long conversations about stuff. In fact, most of the songs that you hear on the Barcais, they came out of hours sitting up in a restaurant.

You may not stay in the restaurant that low. You sit in a restaurant, and there was a restaurant, And the waitress really wish your ass would leave so somebody else can occupy the space. Oh, I'm a kid of that. Can I help you? You want something else? Yeah, can bring me another cup of coffee?

Right, right, right. You ain't ordered nothing. You just get the Coke. Right. But we sat in restaurants for hours and hours. That was your office. Just talk back, yeah, talking back and forth. That's how a lot of ideas and songs came up.

I always wanted to know the inside joke with Jimmy Jam and I. is the method of the Barcais kind of song canon and how songs sound like other songs. But here's a deal. So I've been on a late night show 17 years now. Wow. You know, the thing is, is that I'm also in hip hop. So I don't necessarily see it with the same scope

that someone outside of hip hop would see it. Because again, it's like, you could listen to fighting fire with fire. I clearly hear the adlips of the OJ's when the world's at peace live version from live of London. Or whatever. Even with signs sound like on your face or, you know, or shake your rum to the front, whatever.

I do this practice a lot, which is I'll put a song on for 10 seconds, right? Turn it up. Then I'll stop it. And then I'll let like a minute go by. And then I'll be like, all right, let's start to play something. So even without like something, the band would catch on what I would do, but I purposely would play a song loud away.

So the influences in their head and then they start to mold it into another song. What is the process for which you guys are conducting songwriting sessions for this level of barque's that? I'll tell you really what we did. Because we were a band and, you know, in the clubs, we were pretty much like a lot of bands, a cover band. So we always made it a practice or whatever the hot songs were, we would learn them. And then sometimes to start our writing sessions, we might play two or three hot songs, right? And then maybe this happens with a lot of bands, but we were the type band, if you play us, you could play on your face, whatever the song may be over and over again, and eventually we would end up playing away from it,

if that makes any sense to you. But see, that's... I mean, flipping it, but the flipping that you're talking about and the flipping that I'm talking about is two different things. My flipping is because of the... And I don't mean this, I don't negatively or anything. But when we play stuff so repetitive over and over and over again, it starts sounding, it takes on the life of us, if that makes sense.

Got you. In other words, I could be playing the same bass line that Verdin plays, and it's going to sound different from the way Verdeen plays because I'm different from Verdeen, which that's a whole other story because we have a, you know, so bass story. I got you. What year did you sign the Mercury? in 1976.

Why did you choose Mercury? We didn't choose Mercury. Mercury chose us. Now, what happened is the whole recording situation was way different than what it ended up being. Stacks

records closed in 1975. There's one question I wanted to ask about that. Because, I mean, you mentioned the hippodrome and you mentioned Al Bell. How did Al Bell wind up being the default leader of stack like what was his role in stacks if stacks was already being operated by someone else like how to al bell uh Jim Stewart moved uh al bell uh to

uh to Memphis from Washington D.C. Al Bell was a DJ in Washington DC. Okay. And, uh, he had one artist. I mean, he had aspirations of being in the record business even back to then. Okay. He had one artist that I know of. You may have had another one. He had another artist, but I can't think of his name. But he had Eddie Floyd.

Eddie Floyd moved to Memphis with Al Bell. Okay. But he had another artist, I can't think of the artist's name, but he had a song called The Good Thing Man. Oh, Frank Lucid. Was that his name Frank Lucas? Yeah. Okay, there you go.

So Frank Lucas was the Good Thing, man. Yeah, the Good Thing, man. So Al Bell, when he moved to Memphis, Jim Stewart know he needed because he was dealing with predominantly black music. He needed somebody black to go in.

To communicate and smooth things out. So the weird part about the whole thing is when Al Bell moved to Memphis, I don't know what his salary was, but they only had one telephone. So Jim Stewart would be on the phone and Al would need to make some phone calls. So he had to wait to Jim Stewart

get out of the phone. could use the phone. Got you. Going back and forth. One phone line operation. Yeah. Right. Got you.

But Al Bell was just a unique guy. I mean, a lot of people don't know. I mean, when you get people like Barry Gordy, when, when Barry Gordy moved to California. Mm-hmm. And Barry Gordy didn't know his way around. He called Al Bell to come and help him navigate, you know, how to operate the record company. So speaking of California, there's a very important question I forgot to ask you. Probably two of the films that I'm associated with are inspired by a movie that you're in.

I'm talking about Dave Chappelle's Black Party and, of course, Summer of Soul. Can you walk me through the process of what the Watstacks concert was? for you, was that just a regular concert and no big deal, Lord? No, when they told us that we were going to be involved with it, you know, even back then, we were trying to figure out a way to upstage. As you know, Isaac Hayes was the undisputed headliner

of that particular show. Gotcha. So we went to California, and we went down where they have all the costumes and all that stuff like that. Now, I'll tell you what we wanted to do in the Los Angeles Coliseum. We wanted to rent some horses and chariots

and ride into the Los Angeles Coliseum right up to the stage and then jump off the horses and carriage and run up on the stage. Because, you know, we had an all-white. Yeah. Some of us had capes on. And so the Los Angeles Coliseum,

we're not going to let you miss our turf, you know, miss our grass and stuff up. And then plus, Isaac is, is believed it or not found out about it and he said, hell no, to the no, no, no. Did he ever say?

He was the headliner. Yeah, he had to say. Now, mind you, it makes no different whether we were, the one that backed him on all his eight Isaac A's albums and all of that. That didn't make any difference. I mean, because now he's a superstar,

Isaac Hayes. Which meant to him, you know, we had a big falling out on one of his sessions. He did. Oh, yeah. What session? I can't even remember the session,

but what it all amounted to was, Isaac always liked to record at night, right? Mm-hmm. And to be quite honest with you, I'm a freaking sleepy head. Okay. You know, night is the time to go to bed. But he always liked to start the session

around seven o'clock at night, right? Mm-hmm. So this one night, I mean, we had the session, you know, tuned up. We get around waiting on, waiting on the maestro. to appear, eight o'clock comes by,

still no Isaac. Nine o'clock, still no Isaac. 10 o'clock, still no Isaac. 11 o'clock. So I get something, I tell the people, I say, look, y'all, the hell with this, I'm out of here.

I left, and they said, man, where are you going? I said, Ben Elf, Isaac, and I left. And that particular day, these guys had another studio called Lynn Lou Recording Studio, And invited me old to their studio. They wanted me to play bass on a record by Tony Joe White. I don't know if you ever heard of him before.

Never heard of him. You may have heard of the record. Okay. What's the record? Polk Salad Annie. Polk Salad Annie? Polk Salad Annie. Never heard of this.

I got to look it up. Tony Joe White recorded it first. Okay. But Elvis Presti did a remake of it. Got you. Okay. So we recorded that song. It was the number one pop record.

Okay. So I recorded that record with, Tony Joe White. So he had another song that he wanted to record. But the rhythm section was, they said, man, I got this, I got one more song that I need to record, but we don't have the money to,

I don't have the money to pay y'all on it. So, you know, it's like a football thing. You know, the rhythm section, we hold. Man, what are we going to do? And somebody said, well, man, you know what? We already hear. So, so, so, F it. Let's go and record the song.

And you know what the song was? Hit me. Rainy Night in Georgia. Really? Yeah, what happened? Tony Joe White wrote Rainy Night in Georgia. We did the demo. And then gave it to Brooklyn.

Atlantic Records liked the demo so well. They took Tony Joe White's voice off and put Brooke Benton's voice on and put the strings on it. But we recorded. And that's you guys. Yeah. I mean, that's me with, I mean,

I was the only black guy on that. It was the white rhythm section that recorded on Tony Joe White's. They just wanted me to play bass, but I never was available. So because Isaac A.A. He didn't show up. I just took that opportunity to just say to hell with it. I went over to that session. Did he eventually show up?

I don't know. I didn't ever go back that day. And that was the last time? No, he still used me for a while later, but he was working on getting somebody else to replace my ass. Gotcha. At that point, I didn't really care. It didn't make any difference. You know, I didn't care.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way,

this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrate. One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment,

and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford.

and a TikTok podcast network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, Oh my God, this is the same man.

A group of women discover they've all dated the same thing. prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed.

I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Wodom.

My next guest, you know from Stepbrothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up-and-coming talent.

He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. and he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat.

Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Sliced podcast, it's all about the NFL draft, and we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits

teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar, this is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. to the Sports Slice podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. All right. So you were told no chariots, no theatrics, if you will. Again, is there any nervousness whatsoever if you're playing an event? Like, if I'm playing that event, I'm worried about if everyone knows who we are,

if everyone knows the songs or... We were kind of... No, we didn't think about all that, but I have to tell you, they're playing watchtacks at the beginning. I was beyond butterflies. I was scared of shit. What were you nervous about?

I mean, I ain't never played in front of that many people before. I mean, it was 100,000 people there. What was the feeling like seeing the final product on the screen, the movie? I mean, I thought. it was one of the most clever things that had ever happened. And which, incidentally, Concord Records, their headquarters was in Beverly Hills.

Got you. FYI, Concord has moved their headquarters from Beverly Hills to Nashville. Yeah, with fantasy records, yeah. Right. One of my label people, Colin, went there. So in the lobby of Concord Records in Nashville, like the lobby may be biggest room,

And the whole wall is the picture of the barquees in what stacks. So my attorney's in Nashville, too. Okay. So he's cooking up something to use that to our advantage. Oh, got you. Because y'all must think something of us, even though it's of old enough to put our picture up there. Let's do something. Or something.

Let's see what happens. Yeah. Okay, so I have a question about the last Stacks album. Now, usually what labels will do, there's two ways to go about it. One, of course, is if an artist dies, they'll release a posthumous record. Like whatever was left over in the vaults, we'll cook something together, we'll sweeten it, new album by, da-da-da-da-da-da-odus writing. You know what I mean? They'll cook a posthumous record. Right. But then on the other side of that coin, there is what I call cat.

record. Right. So Motown was notorious for this because, look, I'm a young Jackson 5 fan. Mm-hmm. We all know the story that in 1975 they left the label. Right. Of course, Michael Jackson becomes God six, seven years later. Um, but on, on the route to that, Motown is still releasing what I call cash in records. Mm-hmm. What they're contractually, uh, allowed to do whatever's in the vaults. Right. Just keep releasing. Now, you know, again, I made a nice thing. 10 years old. So I'm thinking, oh, the Jackson's

must be recording for Epic and Motown at the same time. My dad explains, no. Motown's just trying to cash in. Now, Michael's more popular now. Like, let's cash in. So I always saw the Money Talks album as, you know, it's nothing new.

When Ohio players went to Mercury, Westbound was still releasing Ohio players' records. when Funkadelic went to Warner Brothers. Westbound is still releasing Funkadelic records that they're contractually obligated. But the difference in 1978, and I believe this is either when enjoy or shine comes out, is Money Talks gets released at the same time,

and which in my opinion contains my all-time favorite song, which I consider your best song, which is Holy Ghost. you guys do something different that no other band does with their cash-in record, which is you went out and actually promoted it as if normally, again, it's like, they're trying to cash in on us. Warner Brothers did it to Earth went and fire. They blew up. Warner Brothers re-released in that, you know, catalog.

If Money Talks was essentially a whatever's left in the vaults compilation, long after you guys went to Mercury. First of all, how do Mercury feel about you guys doing this? And why wasn't Holy Ghost just on a Mercury record? First of all, Holy Ghost was not on a Mercury record because it was still owned by Fantasy. Gotcha. And, you know, if you know anything about record covers back of those days,

they wasn't having it. They kind of like disowned it. So Stacks gave all their vault to fantasy once it dissolved? No, they didn't give it. I mean, fantasy inherited the catalog. Got you. Okay. And bought it or whatever, whatever happened.

So you were told this is coming up? I mean, we didn't know about it until after they said, man, have you heard this? They just did a couple of two or three overdows on it. Yeah. But what I'm asking is, did they present it to you or was it like? No, they just put it out. All right, let's fix it up a little bit and then you put it out. No, they was already fixed and they told us about it.

So you're telling me that Holy Ghosts, when did you all record that? It came out in 78, but what year did y'all really record that? Probably 73 or 74 somewhere. We recorded them before stacks closed. And y'all were just like, eh, whatever. Yeah. What the hell? No, seriously.

I mean, see, you have to understand that because we were just in the studio all the time, we didn't really know. I mean, still at that point, we didn't know what we was doing. We was just doing something, man. We just get in the studio and do something. I mean, skipping around, you know, I talked to Marcus Miller all the time.

And he told me that, man, he said, me and Luther used to sit up and listen to Isaac Hayes' records. He said, the idea of Luther doing a cover song on every album came from Isaac Hayes. Every time I see him, I mean, we sit out and talk for hours and hours, man. In fact, we've done a couple of bass clinics together that was officiated by Kirk Wellum. A guy asked him, which it really made me feel kind of good.

We had a bass player's workshop, and we had about 40 bass players there. The music stores donated some practice amps. We told the bass players they could bring their acts with them. Got you. And this one guy, you know, young dude, he's playing a six-string bass. I said, dude's playing a six-string, but I'm still trying to learn how to play four strings. And he planned. But anyway, he asked Marcus Millie.

He said, man, who were some of the people that you used to listen to when you was growing up? And he said, man, you know what? One of them was right here in the building. He said, James Alexander. Man, I almost fell out the chair. Have you heard yourself play on Holy Ghost? I don't pay no attention to that stuff. When my parents would go on the road, I would stay at my grandmother's house.

And I lived next door to a DJ. And we had thin walls in southwest Philadelphia. So whenever he's practicing, I could hear it clearly in my bedroom. And he would extend that drum break for hours practicing on Holy Ghost. I mean, and for you know. And for you, that's just a shrug. Like, is that song even in the repertoire? Oh, yo, it's a must-play.

Okay, I'm glad you please acknowledge that. It's a must-play song in the repertoire. In fact, I was somewhere in Jimmy Jam was there, and he said, man, and then I had this whole hour and a half conversation with him about that song. Because he said, man, when I was a DJ, and, you know, he went through that whole spill and all of that. So, and then we was talking back and forth because flight time. we played Minneapolis one time and they opened for us.

This was back when... The time opened up for the bar case? No, a flight time. Oh, flight time opened up for... Okay, the bar case. This was when Alexander O'Neill was the lead singer. Got you. Okay.

And I was in the dressing room. I was always intrigued by Terry Lewis and, in fact, three of my... I mean, believe it or not, I mean, Larry Graham, you know, like him, but three of my favorite bass players It's Terry Lewis, Robert Wilson, and cool. There you go.

Okay. They don't do much for what they do. They don't have to do much. It's so tasty. So, I mean, Robert Wilson, man, I mean, God rest, it's something special. I want to know what the touring circuit was like in the 70s. All right, you told me the cameo story. at this time when like P-Funk is using Afro-Futurist motifs and spaceships and characters and freaky aliens and stuff like that

and Earthwind and Fire is using magic tricks and all those things. What are you guys thinking on the sidelines? Like how are you figuring out what your plan of attack is? I mean, besides an occasional appearance on either rock concert or soul training, or something like that, I've not seen a good representation of like your live show in the mid-70s. And when I look at the back cover of Too Hot to Stop

and you see the smoke and all the sudden the girl laying on the floor and all that stuff, I always wanted to know what your live show was like in the 70s. You know, we would have paro and, you know, they didn't, you know, back in those days, they didn't have fog machines. So I'll tell you, we got the idea of using smoke and all that stuff like that.

We got that idea from, believe it or not, Eichentina Turner. Okay. Because, let me tell you something. Even though Eich and Tina Turner back in those days, they didn't have the repertoire for, you know, recorded music. They were an act that you didn't want to go on behind. Really?

They were an act that you didn't want to go behind, and Lord knows in the D.C. area, you did not want to go on behind Chuck Brown. Is it cheating if Chuck Brown gets added to the lineup? Is it fair? Because he owns the DMV, he owns D.C. So for you, though, like, are you guys fully aware that, oh, man, like, they're coming on.

Like, we got to... Okay, you said D.C. What is the best city for the bar case as far as shows are concerned? Probably, D.C. Chocolate City. What's the hardest city to penetrate? What's the hardest city to penetrate? What's the hardest? I would say New York.

We're too cool for, did I say we? I mean, New Yorker. I mean, it's cold. But our strongest overall is the West Coast, even to this day. We have a huge Latino following. Yes. In fact, in the course of a year, we'll probably go to the West Coast, somewhere on the West Coast, be it L.A., Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego, somewhere on the West Coast, seven or eight times a year. Somewhere. Got you.

Because they just, I mean, hey. So the one thing that I noticed about this band that most bands don't do is evolve and pivot. Now, I've seen every iteration of this band. I've seen the barcades as a new jack swing trio in the 90s. I've seen the adjustment to the 80s, I thought was, you know, like in Philly, sex-O-Matic got played every hour on Black Radio in Philly. Because the thing is, if you get a winning formula, sometimes that's your comfort zone, you want to stick with it. and then sometimes you've got to let go and wipe the slate clean and do something else. So, you know, when you guys are leaving the era in which, you know, the idea of 14 member bands and all these things, like the 80s are coming, technologies come in a place, like, can you talk about like the making of like the contagious record?

And like, in that early 80s period, when you guys are adjusting to drum machines, to synthesizers and to all those things, like how easy or hard is it to adjust not doing what was killing two years ago at the LA form? I mean, for me, it was not that hard because my thing has always been about let's try to do whatever works.

I mean, you know, I learned a lot coming up in the beginning being around jazz musicians. Got you. A pure jazz musician, the stuff that we ended up doing, I mean, you know, you had these diehard jazz musicians saying, man, I wouldn't do that, I don't give a damn, how much money you make, you know, you know those musicians like that. I'm gonna jazz, I'm gonna do jazz until I die.

Right. Well, with me, bullshit, I'm gonna do something big, so I can, you know, make some, money. So anyway, so it wasn't all that hard to adjust. It's just, because you have to understand that, for instance, are you familiar with Audit Recording Studios? No, it's in Memphis, Tennessee. Okay, not familiar. It's owned by John Frye. It's probably, yeah, it's the, well, Audit Recorder Studio probably is the most technical, well, now. Technically, advanced studio in town. In fact, now, I stand to be corrected,

but I think it rates number two in the world behind Abbey Road. Got you. We hold the record for being at all the recording studio the most. In other words, it would be nothing for us to go in the studio and blockbook the studio for three months or four months. So all the records would be recorded there? All the records after Stacks closed,

all the records after that was recorded at audits. Now, prior to the stacks closing, we talked Jim Stewart and Al Bell into letting us go for a period and record in L.A. at the record plant, a little bit in L.A., but mostly in San Francisco,

in, you know, Sausalito. Yeah, okay. Because with Sausalito, when you booked the studio in Sausalito, you get the house and the boat. Brigham's talked about this. I know Prince recorded his first two records in the Sausalito record plan.

So you get the house and the boat, so we recorded a lot there. And I'm going to tell you why. You show you how, I don't know what is it called it dumb or what. We looked at the back of the album covers and we said, if Stevie Wonder recorded his shit

at the record plant, and if the eyes of brothers record this stuff, and they use these guys that they were doing all this programming, you know, synthesized programming more. That if we record, and if Slyre records at the record plant,

this is what we need to be recorded. We two should go there. But little did we know that it wasn't the studio, it was the cats in the studio. I mean, you know, we hadn't wrapped our brain around that part of it yet. But, yeah. So art in studios, okay.

It was fun. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined.

And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind. the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream,

this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network. on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes.

And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care.

So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Wodam. My next guest, you know from Stepbrothers, Anchorman, Saturday Night Live. and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo.

Woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day. And I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through,

and I know it's a place that come look for up-and-coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. Mm-hmm. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall

and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft, and we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East-West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make, to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider,

you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. In this situation, and you mentioned about the idea of a democracy, for this period, are you the alpha member of the band that makes the hard decisions? Or is it like, all right, all of us get a say, all eight of us or nine of us get a say. You mean now? No, no, no. Back then?

Back then? Back then, yeah. I mean, it was kind of like the majority rules. I mean, if it was nine people, you had to have five votes. And are these things for like small things like sequence of the album or? Yeah, all of that. All of that. This single should be first or?

I had a little more say of that because I just had the instinct about that, what's song, myself and Alan Jones, but even I gave him a lot of instinct because I have to tell you this far as a story. You heard the song called Attitudes. By the Barcase? Yeah. Is this? Your attitude describes you.

What you want to be, might not be what the people see. It's up to your attitude to describe the real you. But anyway, we got the fight. We got into a fist fight. on that song because the producer was in the studio

he was in the control room and we were out on the floor and the song was like about about two minutes and 20 seconds long he wanted us to keep going right? Got you. And half of us

we got the signals all messed up so half of the people stopped and half the people got the going and so it came into man where'd you stop oh man you fucked us all right? You fucked the song up, man, all that's all of my face. And all of a sudden it turned into a brawl, right in the middle of the session.

You guys together or? The group. So we were all out on the floor. Turn it to a bra. We ended the session that day. We couldn't do nothing else. This is on Flying High on your love album. Yeah.

The album after two, I had to stop. Yeah. Okay, so when a conflict happens, how does it get resolved the next day? We come to studio and we just listen to stuff. I mean, it's almost like nothing happened the day before. I mean, you know, hey, man, we ain't, you know, everybody says, you know, we ain't nobody holding no malice or like that. You come with a hickey on your head or bloody nose or whatever.

I mean, we come back and try to do it again, you know what I mean? Of the albums in that period, like what is your, what is your favorite? And I know you're going to be like, once I make them, then it's behind me. Well, I think it would have to be night cruising. Okay. And because that album, we did something that we don't normally do. Night cruising was one of those albums that we rehearsed on it for about a couple of weeks. We rehearsed every song and demoed it.

So we went to the studio. I mean, I think we record that whole album in a little under two weeks. Hit and Run is on Night Cruising, correct? Yeah, I think so, yeah. Okay. We called that whole album in a less than two weeks. Because, see, here's the thing, we was on tour. And back then, the record company, you know, actually you get penalized.

If your turn-in date is a certain day, I mean, we were so notorious until if we didn't turn the record in on a particular day that we were supposed to turn it in, or we would could find, like... They hold back money. Yeah, they hold back money from our recording fund, say, if we were going to be getting $150,000 for the recording fund. They hold back $10,000 and all that. And so, you know, a couple of times we ended up being upside down.

I mean, we owe more money than we had to finish paying with. As I said earlier, the 80s proved to be kind of a hard time for some bands and some acts to hang on unless they weren't totally crossover. I mean, you know, a lot of the black 70s funk acts, soul acts. adjust it, Pointer Sisters adjusted, Kooling gang adjusted. A lot of people went solo.

In the 70s, Michael went solo, Lionel Richie went solo. Was there any point where Larry felt like I could do this on my own? Or, like, you guys stayed together, though, and that's the thing.

We stayed together over 40 years. What's the key to that? We just had a mutual respect for each other up until, you know, maybe, you know, when he retired several years ago in 2017, and then he decided to come back out as Larry Dawson. What, he wanted to come back out as the ball case featuring Larry Dawson. To me, this is almost like movie worthy, scripted movie worthy. Now, I know with your album history, you're like, us. this song, that doesn't matter. Oh, it was a Tuesday.

We made the Holy Ghost and then forgot about it. How are you now with, as far as like your archives are concerned or your just memories? Like, are you sentimental? Do you collect things? Do you, and how do you plan on telling the story of the bar case? Well, I'm in the process now of finishing my book. And I must add, I know my wife is probably going to get me. about this, procrastinating about it.

But my plan is to have it finished sometimes, I mean, 40 years out. I had hoped that should be finished by now, but I'm a little behind. We have a story to tell. I got a story to tell. I mean, and

Amir, we hadn't even scratched the service. There's a whole Slash story. There's a Don Cornelia story. And, you know, I got a lot of stories. I mean, Slash saved us. Michael Jackson, there's a Jackson 5 story. What do you want us to know

about the barcaze that we don't know? And then I'm going to have you close on the Slash story. Okay. What you should know about the barcaze is that, first of all, number one, the first thing you should know, Amir, I don't know what I'm a bass player posing as a promotion man

or a promotion man posing as a bass player. I don't know what because I did a lot of that. independent promotion work. I never worked for a company. Right. Yeah, for a minute I worked for selecto hits. I'm the one that introduced 3-6 Mafia,

eight ball in MJG. Time out. I totally forgot. Three questions. Talk about how your son, the legendary Jazzy Faye, sort of revived Memphis hip-hop. Jazzi Faye, how he did that is,

well, first of all, number one, He tried to be an artist first. He's an artist. He was on Electra. Okay. In the days, Doug Daniel was at Electorum. Bob Krasn, I was the president. Doug Daniels over promotions.

Familiar. And then they decided to bring in Ruben Rodriguez. Okay. And his pendulum records. Yep. Okay. And so Ruben fired everybody at Elector and brought in Pendulum records. That was kind of like the black part of Elector.

We almost signed the people. Shout out to Digable Planet to me. Jazzed put out one album, rising to the top, and he said, Daddy, I don't want to be no artist no more. I want to start producing. So he still was in Memphis, right? And I know he didn't want me to tell this story. I went by his apartment one day, right?

Open the door to his apartment, and this big puff of smoke hit me in the face. I got a contact high. There you go. I went ballistic. So he didn't have that many dishes in his in his cabinet. Okay. I went in his, I went in the kitchen.

In every dish in the kitchen, I broke it. I just, I went, I went berserk. That was a man. And then everybody looked at me, like, you know, they thought I'd have, you know, thought I'd have been smoking crack or something. But I mean, I just went off. Got you. And so I told him, I said, you're going to have to make a decision in 24 hours of what you're

to do with your life. So he came back and he said, Dad, I don't know. I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go or nothing like that. I gave him a little more time and he came back to me. He said he's going to move to Atlanta. So he didn't have nothing.

I mean, nothing with what I gave him. Every night that he called me said, Dad, can you, you know, it wasn't no cash out or nothing like that then. So can you put me some on the wire? And I'm saying, I'm thinking maybe, you know, like, hey, a hundred bucks or something like that. then I need 500 bucks I'm short on my rent

I said you know what you need to get a job so that went on for one or two times and then all of a sudden he started happening and I asked around I asked Faced in particular and

ain't no future in your front who's the MC Breed MC Breed yeah because he stayed with MC Breed when he first got to Atlanta okay Fais and I were on a BMI panel in Nashville And you mean Scarface

No, baby face Oh, okay So he kept saying that Somebody was asked the question And he was talking about writer's block Mm-hmm Face having writers block? Come on, man

So he was saying Man, I had the writers block on this song And I found that this kid in Atlanta He said he called itself Jazzy Fassie he said it in the track and he sent it in an amount of hours he sent the track back it was a Tony Braxton song

but I don't know which one it was that he had he kind of like finished it in like a couple of hours and he just thought he was amazing he went on and on and on and all about him so he started you know he just he started doing this thing

I had a problem with it because I was in the studio I was in patchwork one day and J.D. was in there, Sean Garrett, jazz, all of them. You know, they were smoking a little few plus, and they passed around to me, and I wouldn't partake in it. Gotcha. So, you know, I have a tendency for going off.

I got up and I said, you know what? I don't want you damn dope. I said, but y'all ain't going to be shit until y'all bring an old-ass person like me back from the day they make a hit for me. me. And then I left. Okay. I left the studio. And so, I guess jazz felt bad. So about nine years

ago, he called me, said, Dan, I needed to come to the studio. And he wrote a song for us called Grown Folks. You don't need permission to do what grown folks do. You don't have to ask nobody. Because guess what? You're as grown.

There it is. Yo, I always wanted to have this conversation with you, and I thank you. Anytime. Thank you, brother. Now, even though I'm saying goodbye, this is the encore. Give me the Slice Stone story. Slash Stone was, we was opening the show for Slash Stone at the Colbo Arena in Detroit. What year?

This was, he just said, danced to the music out. Oh, Jesus Christ, this 68 era. Okay, good. And he had an endorsement with Fender. Okay. Fender gave in the endorsements. They had all Fender, Fender everything, Fender amps, guitars, everything. We were on our way to Detroit.

We were to open that. So whatever vehicle we were traveling and broke down. So if we got to the venue, we weren't going to have time to set our equipment up because the promoter goes, whatever time we took the setup, he's going to deduct that from our whatever time we spoke perform. Right. So Slice Dad and Slide came out and said, man don't y'all worry about

checking y'all's equipment out man just use some of this shit up on stage and he let us use all his equipment we didn't have to set no equipment up he saved us because otherwise we wouldn't have been there to do our set and so you know we became friends ever since

and I can't tell the Don Cornelia story but when Don Cornelius moved from Chicago to L.A. When he got his you know because soul strength was a lot. local show. I know. He got picked up by Tribune

and then it went national. Don called me and said, man, I know absolutely nobody in L.A. So I was in L.A. So I said, just meet me at the record plan. So on his first night

in L.A. I introduced him to Slice Stone, Bobby Womack, and Billy Preston. And I... And so... So Don Canoia said, man, for debt,

anytime you come to L.A., you can do soul train. So I don't know what it's official or unofficial, but we may hold the record. You guys are third behind the whispers. I can't tell you how I knew this, but I knew this. Yeah. You know too much.

No, no, no. You're good. We probably hold the record for doing soul train, because I bet we had to do soul train at least 10 or 15 times. You guys are the third, the whispers are first OJs are second You guys are third

Right In terms of soul train appearances Yes That is yeah But we became friends In fact next week We need to go on the soul train crews Soul train crews

Yeah Brother Alexander Thank you very much Thank you This is the Questlove show So I gotta say See you on next week The Questlove show is hosted by me

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