The Questlove Show - Questlove Supreme: James "JT" Taylor

Episode Date: December 25, 2024

James "JT" Taylor joins Questlove and Suga Steve to revisit his upbringing and two decades with Kool & The Gang. JT details arriving with the legendary Funk-Jazz band to help them reach new plateaus with hit songs including "Celebration," "Ladies Night," "Joanna," and more. This conversation also touches on JT's solo career at MCA Records, his ventures in film, and his recent Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction. This one is smooth and soulful—just like JT Taylor's incredible voice.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed human. 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,

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 Clifford 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 Clifford Show on the IHeard 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. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I bowed. 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 podcasts. I got you, everyone, I'm Ago Vodam. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. 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. 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 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 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins, but the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice in so much, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing.

Greg, a lesbian, 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. Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio. We've been waiting. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode, a special episode of Qufts Love Supreme. We've been waiting for this. We've been waiting for this. You know what, Steve, I'm actually more excited

for the 12-year-old version of you right now. Yes, I am super excited to talk to this man and thank him for everybody who's ever had a bar mitzvah before. This is going to be amazing. Yes, definitely. This is my Christmas gift to you, man. This is my Shakakan gift to you. I got you the king of all bar mitzvahs.

Exactly. Well, I never heard that title, but I'll accept that one. Oh, you know, great. I'm talking about it. That's great. All right, I have to treat this like a movie. Okay. Even before I introduce what this show is, I just have to ask our guests who I've not introduced

yet, do you know the true story of how the song Celebration got written? Has Ronald Bell tell you the story of how it inspired him? Not totally, but I have my own version of it when I do the experience. Okay. So maybe I need to hear this. I'm under the impression based on, okay, so I used to, ah, God, ladies and gentlemen, this is Questlove and Questlove Supreme. Of course, I'm here with Sugar Stephen.

And our guest today, I don't even want to waste a long, arduous introduction because you know my introduction is to be 19 minutes. I'm sitting here with the God, the King of All Bar Mitzvah, the God, the most velvet voice. Supreme Jesus Christ like my my Nat King Cole

the voice James J.T. Taylor formerly of cooling the game I think my brother thank you all right so here's the deal and I believe I might have told this on Robert's story as well

but at the time when I invited Ronald brother Bayonne Colise Bayon back when I was teaching at NYU with Harry Weinder We once had Brother Ronald Bell saxophonist primary songwriter of Cooling the Gang. And he told us the story of how he wrote Celebrations.

So basically riding high off the third wave of what the band is about to experience. Of course, if you're fans of the band, you know, they came to it with a lot of jazz soul, more and more in jazz, a lot of tribe called Quest samples came from that. wave. And then in 74, a joke sort of mocking soul macosa winds up being like one of the most pivotal funk songs of the 70s. So they had a 70s wave. And then the dawn of disco, of course, open Sesame on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. That was kind of their third wave. And now they're about to start the hitmaking wave. And of course, fresh off the success of their ladies, night single and the subsequent album of that same name.

They're on tour and they happen to be in the Bay Area and I believe that they arrived in town the day before on a Friday to do some local record stores and signings because now, you know, the heat is back on. The heat's back on. And brother Ronald tells me that the promoter who's bringing you guys to the particular venue playhouse in the Bay House in the Bay Area. Bay Area has another show happening that night and would he like to attend? Would you guys like to attend? And that is when the Prince and Rick James show come to this venue. And what winds up

happening is Prince goes on first and at this moment Prince has the number one song of the country on the Soul charts. Would I want to be a lover? And Ronald says that he really wasn't all that familiar with Prince, like he heard about him, but he really didn't pay the attention. And he definitely wasn't familiar with the song. However, he was highly impressed at how within two seconds, everybody just screamed and lost their minds. It wasn't just like, oh, you know, like everyone. Oh, the circle star, right?

It could have been there. The circle star, yeah. Okay. So he's more impressed with that. So that sort of brings out the antennas in his brain. And it's like, yo, pay attention to the song. So he just pay attention to the song. And Prince finishes his set.

It's like a 20-minute changeover for Rick James. And Ronald asked the promoter, yo, run me backstage real quick to one of them dressing rooms that has a piano in it. And there was a spare room. And Ronald sits at the table. And he starts notating what he thought he just heard Prince do. which is I want to be a lover. He writes those chorus down, and he stares at this course,

and as most songwriters do, another way to get to sort of squeeze juice from used fruit is you figure out different ways to flip a song. Right. Right. Again, people do it all the time. All the time, yep. Fleetwood Mac famously,

on their reel it still says Spinner's idea number two. Their favorite song was I'll be around and thus they made dreams on rumors about I'll be around. So anyway, he's looking at the notes and suddenly he's like, yo,

let me play this backwards. Now backwards is backwards is so he not I got the idea I'm going to watch Rick's names I believe when you guys got finished the tour

it was like three weeks later and he's going to either demo or submit the ideas to you guys but he's like wait I got to make this a complete song only got a groove complete song and at a bridge to it. And he was running, he didn't have any, nothing that was coming to mind. He looks on the table on top of the piano. And there is a cash box magazine.

And he opens up the charts. He goes right to the pop charts and looks for the highest charting black song. So this particular issue, Rock With You by Michael Jackson, was number five. He knew Rock with You well. And when he wrote the bridge for it, it's time to come together. It's the same chords as, girl, close your eyes, let this rhythm get into you. Everyone around. Come on.

Come on. That, to me, was one of the most genius stories I've ever heard of a song being constructed. Well, he was always like that. I call him the fearless leader, you know, because. He would do things like that. And sometimes we would just hear it. We said, what did that come from? And we just, you know, to ourselves.

And sometimes he would, you know, regurgitate why he did it or why it came. But my understanding was that when it was there, you know, because when people, everybody would bring things in all the time, ideas, everything. You know, the lyrics here, a guitar player, a guitar part here. And it was more of a celebration of the resurrection. Like, Ladies' Night came out, big. record and nobody knew it was cool in the gang because they heard me you know but we say well how we're going to follow that up so if you listen to ladies night come on let's all celebrate

it was already preordained so that we were going to do celebration now i don't know if that influenced him but i know when i knew it was going to be celebration i thought back i said you know that spiritual thing starts hitting you and say like we were like foreseeing this yeah Come on celebrate. So now let's sell all celebrate. And then with the group going through that down period from like 75, I think, to 78, something like that. Yes, 79. There was a drought.

And they told me the story that, you know, the record label was going to drop them and all that stuff. And I said, okay, well, what are we going to do? You know, that came later. That question came later. But, yeah. So there was like a, like I said, a resurrection as well. And we had gotten over that first Ladies' Night album. and that was big and so how are we going to do it again?

And people were actually doubting us, you know, it was more like, you know, I want the old, old Cooligan. Yeah, I want to talk about it. I want to talk about that. Wait, I got to start the beginning. So I just wanted to ask if you knew about that story, but that was my, that was my cold open. No, that was the first I've heard of it, that in depth anyway. But I think, again, it doesn't surprise me because, you know, he was like that, man.

he was a special kind of guy from many different angles, many different angles. But, you know, a sweetheart. And I would say he was more, he was a collector. He was a jazz guy. But, you know, anything was possible, you know, if it was there. And I think when he even heard, when he heard me sing, you know, he was just like. There goes that celebration. Okay.

Yeah. Wait, ladies and gentlemen, we had a technical difficulty. We just, just, rewind it. Yeah, but Steve had punch the line of the century. He was like, well, there goes this celebration. We got to write this stuff down. This is the songs, you know. Yeah, it was either that or a, ooh, la, la, oh, no. Oh, no.

All right, so, wait, let me ask you, because we're going to get to all these things. But let me ask you, what was. your very first musical memory? My first musical memory was, I had to be like six, because I remember we had just gotten our first television, about maybe five or six. And I remember being in the kitchen and looking through to the living room. And my grandfather bought the television, and when they turned it on, there was a group there. I still don't, I don't know who they were, but I just know that They were dressed like a five-man group and they were just looking beautiful. And I didn't even go to the television.

I just stood back and watched them. It just kind of mesmered rather like looking like the puppy, you know, with the head, you know. And my sister, I have eight sisters, by the way. Oh, no. That's why I understand women. A house for the women, you know. So I know how to move, you know. But my sister, she entered into a contest on the Cousin Brousie show.

And this is taking it back. And she actually won. And she won that big smiley face thing on Cousie, Cousin Brousie. And she sang this song by, what was it, Linda Jones, but it was called I Know. I know. I know. You don't love me no more. No more. Something like that.

And there was a trumpet solo. and I would like and it was this is all radio wasn't on our television and I was and that radio was always on top of the refrigerator and I would stand there and mimic the trumpet solo that was like my part

and that was like the first thing that drew me into music right there wow so you're one of nine yes 10 actually where do you fall in line I say I was like

I always say that I was looked up to and look down on right the middle. Because my, you know, my sister, you know, we had a lot of fun. You know, it's a house full of women going on. And my brother, he was younger. And I had an older brother who was, you know, my mother's child. But he, you know, we were all one family. And when we got together, it was a party. So are any of your other siblings as gifted?

Is it a musical family? I would say, yeah, because everybody's saying in the church choir. You know, it was almost like mandatory. You know, my mom could sing. And we were born in the rural South, South Carolina. What city? And Lawrence, L-A-U-R-E-N-S. And my mother, I think she realized, you know, I have to get my children out of here

to get some type of opportunity going. You know, this is just my thoughts. You know, we've really talked about that. But when we came to Jersey, we actually went to Brooklyn first when we found our way over to Hackensack. And at the church, they had a New Hope church, my sister, you know, we were on the choir, as I said, but my sister, Frida, she actually did a solo once. Just her, piano. And I remember that being such a, had a great effect that someone could be standing there with just a piano singing. and she didn't dress in a robe.

She actually had a red dress on and would leg show it in the church, you know, but it was, it was classy, you know what I mean? And I remember sitting on the side just watching it and just saying, just letting it all come in, you know. And but everybody, you know, it's pretty much as far as the professional side, they didn't go into that. But that, that church part was something that was a big influence on all of us. where's your household's attitude to secular music at the time? Like, were you loud to listen to Motown or music of the day?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. My mother, you know, I think, you know, listen, my father passed away when I was nine. Okay, he was like only in his 40s, okay? So here's my mother with all these kids, you know, and her rules were law. You know, you came home from school,

you did this, you did that. and got up in the morning, he did this, he did that. And her thing was to make sure that we were rounded up, that she knew where we were and what we were pretty much doing. So she had a transistor radio on the refrigerator again, which no one could touch. And usually it was either some gospel going on on there, and sometimes she would flip to like some blues or something like that.

But my uncle, who used to come by, and he would drop off jazz. albums. First, he would bring jazz albums for me to listen to. And he would leave him there. And I mean, he went from, you know, Sil Austin. And then also, sometimes in the mix, he would have like a Mom's Mabley album. So as long as, you know, we were in the house doing our thing, she was pretty much happy. So, you know, it's like we're playing all the Motown. She's in the live in the kitchen doing her thing. And we were in here party and dancing. And back then it was the long R.C. RCA, you know, stereo. You know, the best sound in the world, right? Right, okay. You know, you're putting the records on, and then the quarter and all that stuff.

But as long as we were, like, happy, and we were around her, she knew we were, we were having a good time. She let us stretch out, man. It was, and that also helped speed up my love for music and going into different genres as well. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Liver 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. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal.

The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice in so much, correct? I doctored the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern.

Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Gregalespian and Michael Marantini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Amaricopa County

as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until justice has served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped Podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everyone?

I'm Ago Wodom. 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 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 IHeartRadio 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 IHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. I'll say that you're... I'm not even going to say former employers. Your former group's story's been getting out in the first three years. and they kind of taking advantage of social media

to tell these like two-minute Instagram animated vignettes of what their life was like as teenagers before they formed a band. And the kind of war stories that Kool was talking about and George, you know, that were you growing up in that part of Jersey? Because like to hear Kool tell it, like I'm like, Yo, I'm shocked you're still alive.

Like the amount of the gang stories he told me and, you know, every day fighting for like a quarter bread, like literally to get a quarter to get a loaf of bread to eat that day. Yeah. Was that like, what was Jersey like? What were your memories of Jersey? My memories are fond. I had fond memories because we didn't have that vibe.

You know, we had our boyhood, you know, park scraps. Everybody, you know, fighting and stuff like that. but it was more like very sparse. You know, in our area, everybody knew everybody. We didn't have a real racial problem, you know, with the white students that went to school with us. And when we played, we had, it was within like about a two to four block area. So you knew everybody.

And when it was some fight, we never had like gangs fighting to get territory and somebody stealing your money. If somebody stole your money, you know, there was a fight going on. But it didn't happen too often because we had this place called Second Street Park. And it was like our babysitter, our parents' babysitter. You know, they knew where you were. And we weren't allowed to like just wander off downtown or go to this place. You know, you had to ask and you had to go home to ask to be somewhere.

So again, we didn't have that type of friction. No, nothing close to Jersey City. Do you remember the first time that you saw a concert or a performance? Like who were your North Stars as far as like, wow, that's what I want to do? You're a rare breed of a singer that came out during the time you came out. Because you were kind of like, even to me, you were like an older brother figure. You weren't my pops. Like that Teddy Pendergrass, turn them up.

You know, like, that to me sounded like my pops and my uncles, whereas, like, you were kind of like my cooler, older brother, like, too old for us to, like, live in a bunk bed, you know. But, like, I like that. Barcity jacket level. So the thing is, is that I know, you know, by the time the Jackson 5 come out, you're like 18. So I don't know if it's hitting you the same way that it's hitting like my seven-year-old sister, like where the Jackson vibe was everyone's North Star. So for you like, because you have a Johnny Matthew's voice, I've asked like, were you more akin to like the styles of Frankie Lyman and the teenagers? Yeah, that's good that you brought that up. Well, the thing is with my, I remember, you know, like I said, seeing seeing in the church quiet and everything, but I always had a band.

also and I would like wherever there was music happening in town I found myself there whether it was older guys or you know guys my age and when I had my first group of the way we were like I would call the Electro 5 you know like the Jackson 5 you know before that you know when they were really like young you know he had Apple Jack hats and the nice shiny suits and everything and we were called it Electro 5 you know and and and And so that spread everything up. But there was a band in town called the Filet of Soul and like the best of soul. And I know it sounds a little fishy, but, you know. He got to Steve. I got to Steve. I had to get back at Steve. At least throw one at him, you know.

But these guys were so good, of course, I'm telling you, they played Sly, as closest things to Sly as Sly himself. And we used to actually follow them. around and the thing that was odd was that the Catholic churches, the diocese would allow us to have parties and they would have this like little drop-offs that they would go to Lodi to Hackingsack over to this town and they had a following and I used to follow them and years later I end up being the lead singer of that same group so Sly became the one that I loved the most and not just because it was him, but it's the

eclectic part of their band, having clarinets, trumpets, women, you know, a drummer, you know, and all these different parts. And I had a B3 organ, so that was everything I pretty much grew up with. And he was like, and still is to this day, like

my guy, you know. Wow. Okay. Yeah. This was up. What was the first album you ever purchased? I knew you're going to dig with that one. That's a, See, the albums were in the house I never bought because we didn't have money. So it was things usually like a Shirley

Caesar album or something like that. But I never bought gospel albums. My mother, that was like kind of her role. But if I think back to it, it had to be something with Motown or James Brown. Probably a James Brown record. Got it. Okay.

Where are you some living now just out of curiosity? in North Jersey. Okay. Yeah. Still home. Besides church, were there any other functions that you were singing at high schools or? I was singing anywhere. Any style in the park.

For nothing, you know, you wouldn't get paid. But I never, I don't have to see. I didn't say to myself, this is what I want to do. I was in the midst of it from the moment I heard music if you understand what I mean. It's like I didn't have a time with okay, this is what I'm going to do for life.

It was just a part of me. You know, and it's like a lot of things are like that for me. You know, I don't have to really put on airs to be something or to accept someone doing something. It's like when I see you and your band, it's like that's supposed to happen.

And whatever you're doing, I'm just going to immerse myself in it and not be so judgmental. Even if I don't particularly like everything, it's just I think that the life of music is like my life blood. And that's why I don't want to have a specific moment. But when you say a Jesus moment,

it's like I remember like my mother used to, we got too old to get that whip. and, you know, she would, like, make us sit on the steps or something like that. And one day, you know, I don't know what I did, but she had, she sat me on the back steps on the, on the, and our back porch. And I was just sitting there. And I was always like a very, like outside the Bible thing, you know, like, things didn't make sense to me.

There's why is this happening? I'm like, you know. But I meant that metaphorically. I didn't mean that. Yeah, yeah, I know what you meant, but I'm, you know, I'm, I'm trying to get to something. So one day I'm sitting there and I actually felt like I saw the tree growing. And this is when I was very, very young.

So I've always had that feeling. So there wasn't a moment of that Jesus moment of music. I'm going to do this in my life. It was just a part of the maturation was all of it. So when it did happen, I was already in the midst of it and never overwhelmed me at that time. if you understand what I mean. Yeah, yeah. I got it.

So I'll ask you, what was your knowledge of the moment they became cool in the gang? I know they were various other groups, but were you wearing them from their first self-titled record? Oh, yeah. So what was your opinion of, like, what did you think? Were they just like, oh, they from Jersey or? No, no, I'd launch money. Like, no, I thought they were awesome. Because we used to, you know, carry the boomboxes of then.

And a friend of my, Curtis, he would always have his boombox. And we would listen to Kooling the gang stuff walking to school. And sometime I go to his house and I remember, I forget what Albert was. I think it was the ice block. Cooling the gang, it was like a block of ice. The message. Yeah. The message, yeah.

Yeah. And so I got into what they were talking about because we were growing up in civil rights. So those things they were talking about in a musical way, well, that's pretty clever how they got the message across, you know, not even as blatant as like a girl Scott did, you know, but it was something that I could relate to musically as well as instrumentally

and something you could dance to at the same time. So that was always a magnet. And if you look at all the groups back then, from James Brown to, you know, I'm black and I'm proud, anything that anybody was doing, Marvin, it was a social consciousness while we were growing up. up that implemented music that showed instrumentation and all these great guys playing this

stuff. And then, like I said, with my uncle dropping jazz music off, I realized that they were telling the same story growing up. So it was reaching and pulling me in all of these different directions. But I thought that cool name was great. And ironically, when I mentioned the Flaia Soul, we actually opened up for them once at Newark College, I think it's Kane College in Newark. And I tried to get backstage to meet them. This was years before I became a member. And some security guy wouldn't let me come back to meet them.

But I wanted to talk to them about, you know, what they were doing because I liked it very much, you know. Oh, okay. That's such a cool story. Yeah. It's all one, man. It's all related in some way, you know. That's really interesting that you were a fan and tried to meet them.

end up in the band. Right. Yeah. And end up in the band's crazy. How did you specifically get their attention? What's the story process that leads to you guys meeting to audition for the band? There was a part owner of House of Music and Studios in West Orange. And I did a session with Jeff Dixon.

Wait, what? Jeff Dixon, yes. Really? And I got a call that Stefan said, listen man, this guy doing a he's doing trying to put

this group together and his name was Jeff Dixon. He wants you to come down. I told him about you. And we went to the session and I did a, it was a section of the song that I did. And when I finished my part,

you know, I went out and when it was done, he said, come back in and he said, listen to what happens to the song when your part comes. And he played it through. and he said you hear that

that's it right there he said I gotta get you with somebody you know and I was like I was just doing what he instructed me to do so when I got the call to come to audition I don't know if it was

Stefan whether it was Jeff Diction that told cool them about me but I know when when I got there Irene Conrad I mentioned he said yeah well cool them they're down here and I

went in and I met Calise. And the thing for me, I really wanted to meet D.T. And Spike for some reason. I don't know. Because D.T. was always like the cooler dress guy. And he played a great horn. And Spike played the trumpet.

And I'd seem like that. Yeah, Spike McKin. He had this just jazzy thing about him that was cool. And he had the Widows Peak kind of cut. He was just like an attractive kind of aura that they had, you know. So you really knew these cats? Yeah, I knew them from just the music. In my mind, I was like, especially now, I mean, you know, I'm Gen X.

And there's some Gen Z's and Gen Alphas after Z's Alphas. Right. That pretty much like started with millennials, but also with Gen Z and with Gen X Alpha, where it's just like a kind of blatant, purposeful indifference or, you know, It's weird. Like, I wouldn't think, I thought, oh, he's probably a new guy in a group and don't even know who Mickens is or who. Right. Right. Like, oh, some old guys want me to sing in their group and that.

No, I never thought that. And, you know, because back then, like the albums, they had the liner notes. They told you who guys were. So you would sit there. You didn't have a cell phone or anything. So you would go through the album and you're listening to it and you're finding out, oh, this guy played that. Oh, I didn't know, and I didn't even know DT played the flute. Okay.

And then I thought, oh, I said, I was him playing that. Oh, okay. So when I met him, I was like, yo, man, that part you played on this, you know, stuff like that. So I was telling them little things that I appreciated and, you know, funky George and listening to that foot, man. I said, wow, that's, you know. So I was like in heaven, so to speak, you know. All that I said about your velvet voice and you. Being a modern Nat King Cole, I asked them in my class, like,

what was that process like of finally striking gold? Because, you know, he told a story about everybody's disco dancing album, like, flopped, and they were in a store and doing an autograph session and nobody was there. And one girl was like, who they're supposed to be? Oh, cool, gang. Ew. Like, it was like, ah, man, we got to get a singer. We got to get a singer.

It was like desperation. but he says that he knew within the first three seconds you were the singer because you sounded a light knacking cold and I thought like that might have struck me odd because I would almost think like okay during that time period 79 you got to compete with all these gruff all these high singers and the

I mean either they're kind of over the top I'm not saying primitive exotic but you know unless you come super animated Oh You're like Superfoot is animated Bootsie in Parliament They're animated Or you're coming like

You know I mean the Mendego Or something if I somebody Yeah like or spiritual You came Very classy But you came classy But you came classy

In a way that wasn't like Like I don't know If Johnny Mathis would be like Just walking down the hood You know what I mean? But you almost have to like a you had some street confidence about you but you also came off like you you might have

done two years in ROTC training or in college I actually did as much as I love the jacksons and they were my heroes I'd never looked at them once and thought like you might be some college educated brothers you know the commodores talk all the time about going to It's a Skiy Institute. But, you know, but they still, oh. So for me, you were like the first look into what we might perceive De La Soule to be or like. Yeah, yeah. So for you, though, what was the audition process like?

I didn't go in there like super nervous. And I think, again, as I said to you, the process was the whole thing. including the music process from being young all the way through. So this feeling that I've had, this spiritual feeling I've had was like, okay, I'm here. So this is what we're going to do. And he said, let me hear you sing something. I said, well, what do you want me to sing? He said, anything, just make something up.

And he started playing these changes. And I sang, you know, in my baritone voice, you know. And he said, can you sing high? and I said, yeah, and I did some falsetto stuff, you know. And that's pretty much all I remember doing for him. Did you know what you were walking into? No. So no one officially said, cool and the gang is looking for a lead singer.

No one said that? The only thing I knew was that they were looking for some background, for me to sing background on a record. Okay. And again, you know, that's what I do. So, okay. where's the song's that? And I'm thinking, I'm like that.

What's the song? What are we going to do? And thinking it's going to be more in the vein of what they did before, you know, background, you know, Hollywood, you know, jungle, boogie, all that stuff, you know. And when I met with, I think it was Gabe Vigorito, the Light Records, he said, you know, that era has passed. And when I met Diadado, I was, I don't think I was in the meeting, but he asked, Gabe, he said, well, who's going to sing this?

And he said, him, this, JT. And he said, I want you to put the music around him, his voice. And I'm saying, okay, okay. And, you know, so I'm green at this time. You got to understand as far as studio work. I've never worked in the studio in any capacity, like what's going to come. Was Diodato part of it? your audition?

Like, was he one of the people who was... No, no, he wasn't in there at all. I met him a little later. But he was already involved with them at that point? At that point, I was so... Everything was great. You know, I was like, I knew I was schooling gang. I'm in a studio.

A house of music. They like me. And when we started working, we instantly, I wouldn't say instantly, but we started working on music. And we would go to, I think, on 30th, West 30th Street at Daly Planet, just playing songs there, you know. So when Diadado got involved, this whole thing was trying to mesh what they brought in, what everybody was writing. And at the time, I wasn't bringing anything in as far as like songwriting, anything like that.

I was more like just feeding off of what's coming at me. Let me be here. Let me listen to this guy. Let me be over here. And it was all interesting. Nothing was boring. But the thing that was funny, though, was that they had three girls, three women, I would say, singing background. And a couple of other things.

Yeah, something sweet. And there was a couple of other guys in there. And I remember them looking at me sideways, you know. And I'm up here saying, okay, I might have to get my street vibe on, you know, because what's going on? Like, what are these people looking at me like this for? So I'm thinking, do I have to make a phone call, you know, get some of my guys that come because this is all me thinking. This is not them.

And because I'm saying, why are these daggers being thrown at me when I'm here to help? You know, I didn't ask to be here. I was encouraged and invited to be here. And I thought that they were good. And I said, well, we just keep them to myself. This is all internal, you know, while music is going on and people are walking around. and I don't know any of these people. I don't even know cooling them, really.

So I'm trying to vibe and make sure I'm safe at the same time. And, you know, I wasn't a person who hung out in the city. So that whole thing, you know, was new too. So, you know, there's a lot coming at me. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clipper 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 else. 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. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed

revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice in so-ins, correct? I doctored the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern.

Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Grega lesbian, Michael Marantini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges.

This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 2, 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. 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. Everyone, I'm Ego Wodom. My next guest, you know from Stepbrothers, Anchorman, Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo-woo, who, who, who, who. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with him 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 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 Galko, 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. What were you doing to survive before you joined the band? And how long was it until you felt secure enough that you were making your living as a member of Cool and the gang? I went to HBCU as well, Norfolk State, Virginia. I did two years there. And it just wasn't my time to be in college.

I was all about music, and I didn't study music there. And I just had a difficult time, so I dropped out because music was my passion, you know. But when I came home, you know, I was pretty much bumming around. I was playing a lot of different bands and working odd jobs, got me an apartment and had a raggedy car, that type of thing. And, you know, all of this happened. And then I get the phone call from cooling them. But I think at 79, when we did the ladies in that album, and we started going to Paradise Garage and all these different places for promotions and clubs in the city. You went inside Paradise Garage? Yes, yes. We did it. What was that way? I knew I was going to raise

the eyebrows. But we actually had the record company did a promotion there. because, you know, it was the greatest sound system in the city. Right. You know, with the, what those. The speakers. The speakers, right, cranked up. You wouldn't even be able to hear when you left there. But we did a thing when they dropped Ladies Night at Paradise Garage, you know, which was appropriate.

And I remember when we went up and the DJ called us, they said, Cooling the gang is the record, you know. And he said, Cool is here. JT's here. Oh, Larry Levin. Yeah. You know, hey, oh, you know. And they dropped this. Oh, dude, I aspire to be his level of DJing.

Like, that's the hero. Yeah, he was awesome, man. And he dropped it. Mm-mm. That, that, that, and they hit the floor. And everybody just looked at each other. They were just like, okay. And the record company, I think that they knew that they had it right there.

Because, again, nobody expected it to sound like that, you know. They were looking for all these horns and everything. And they were like, well, who's the, who's the, who's the, voice. Where that voice come from? And, you know, some people were like, nah, man, that can't be cooler than them, you know, and sometimes I got, I got a little flack back to that because I, well, I want to hear the old stuff, the way of the style. And they were telling me, say, listen, man, we weren't eating on that stuff anymore. Right. So, yeah, it was, it was awesome. Did I ask you a question? Yes. Because at the ladies night out, that's when I realized I could,

I start making a living and, you know, buy some new clothes. I figured as much. This is probably one of the rarest chances I get to ask this question. So I'm going to try to ask very carefully. Okay. Okay. So what could a working class musician make in 1979? I mean, I'm basically asking what is a living in 79.

And I'm only asking this because, okay, like, hip-hop. has distorted the expectations of what one should expect from this industry. Because, you know, such a hustler culture and you see everyone just like their money away. And the thing is, is that my manager kind of told us from the gate, look, I'm not doing this. You guys aren't going to ball out of control. Like, you're going to be able to slide your mom. some very significant petty cash monthly,

you'll be able to have a half-deas and crib. And if I do my job right, you know, you guys will at least be able to make, at least what a surgeon would make. At the time, I did agree with that and I subscribe to it. Now,

I'm in a mind state where I want to be a daredevil and dream my highest dream. Of course, back then, I was really small. with it. But that said, you know, I think that's what at least for the 20 years of doing the Roots, you know, before the Tonight Show, that that enabled me to not have distorted expectations and stay focused. You know, like a lot of people, after the third or fourth time,

like it took us four albums to really get to a satisfactory place. But I think a lot of people would start to give up or start sabotaging their self for, and I'm asking this because there really wasn't the standard of hip-hop baller lifestyles expected for not at all

black singers. So what could you expect to make a living on as a lead singer of an established band with, albeit with a new lease on life that they didn't have before, like in the 80s?

our situation, we didn't have that type of manager that you had. We were not given any direction as far as what you're going to make per se. My expectations were simple math. How many records did we sell? Okay, we got six of us. The record label gets this. Okay. So where's that?

What's left over? and that wasn't happening. Now, I couldn't rock the boat at that point because I didn't really have the cachet, the input, the seniority. Insigniority to do that. So they were rationing out weekly income. So you were getting paid like a rookie?

Like a rookie, right. But enough to live better than I was living. Just about a little bit more above that. And we were actually working so much that it should have been maybe five to ten times more than that. You know, because we were killing it. And we were like working every day, like, seeing like we never stopped. So the money really wasn't adding up with the hits and how much we were touring. And my family started asking that question.

Like, okay, well, get your apartment. You got a decent car now. And when I wanted to slide my mother that money you were talking about, I didn't have as much as I thought to do that. Because at the time, you don't really need a whole lot. You know, you just kind of still in the midst of the musical part, you know. Right. And you just expect the money to be there.

You got to round people around you. I'm with cooling them. They've been around here since the 60s. you know, all this is going to come around. And it was fine. You know, when I started asking questions, that's when I started finding out, you know, all of the side deals,

all the things that were not there. And, you know, you just kind of find your way through, speak when you can speak. And some of the people that we were working with, you know, I was told, you know, well, you can't talk to these people like that. I said, well, if I'm being a man, no one's going to stop me from talking and speaking up for myself. I'm not trying to be a bad guy, a street guy, nothing.

I'm just going to say that this shit ain't right, you know, and this should be a little bit more balanced right here. You know, so that was always my position. Were the people that were running Delight records, the same people by the time you got in the 79 position, your tenure in 1979, because Ronald told me that he was very careful with his words, but he's basically insinuating

to me that the whole jungle boogie story was kind of at the insistence of some some friends of ours. I would say that, yes. I heard that story. That kind of hitman level. Okay.

So same, same people. Wow. I see. And you understand. understand what I'm saying. I totally understand what you're saying. I'm so glad for once it's not my people who are screwing up. It was you. It was you.

Have you read Morris Levy's Hitman? No, not yet. No, no, I haven't. No, that's the book that exposes the, you know, that's what built Jersey. The whole game. Jersey, Sylvie Robinson, all of them people. So I'm sorry. Let me interject here.

So what about the publishing side of things, though? Was that also sort of shady? Because you were writing some of these big hits? Yeah, because when I came into the group, and again, when I started peeping some of this stuff, it was more like they had told me they had a deal that was already set when I came in. So I kind of had to buy into what was already established.

Right. I wasn't a separate entity. I was now a part of the entity. And with that, that means that I had to adopt some of the things that they had already had in order. And that really wasn't anything I could do about it. I do have a question about the repertoire when you first get in the group. You know, as I said, the top of the show, there's like almost five to six levels of the band's history that one could gravitate towards if you're into a lot of early rap samples then you know the first three years

are you bag for kind of like the first real true steps into funk territory not soul or funk there's there's an era of like you know 74 to 79 and then there's the disco period 77 whatever and then here comes the hits 79 and so on when you guys are putting your shows together Is there any attention being paid to for the kind of pre-wilded and peaceful catalog songs or songs like NT or Raw Hamburger or like a lot of these or cool is back? Are they still a part of the show, like the instrumental part of the group? Not really. Or once you came in, then it was just singer-focused. Not totally, but, you know,

everybody was like, listen, man, they want to hear the new songs. And I said, yeah, but we have the best of both worlds here, guys. And I used to preach. I said, man, we have to play open sesame tonight. And it depends on where we were playing. Oh, wait a minute. They wouldn't do that?

No. We did it. I consider that a hit. I'm talking about, like, obscure stuff. Yeah, once in a while. And I said that we would, because, you know, we always had great segues into songs, you know. I picked up a lot of that from working with Kalees.

And I said, we can just sneak that in right here. We can sneak in T right here. Or, you know, Buku Bucks or something like that. Okay. Anyway. Bonscar, no, no. Nasty little funky track, man. And then, of course, OpenSessity and Summer Madness, I'm sorry.

Yeah, Summer Madness, they didn't have a problem with that. And Hollywood swinging, we would play that. But as far as involving. all that other stuff that I was grew up on walking to school with. Over time, it just was moved out. And each album that we did, because we had like almost a decade run of just top 10 or top five hits that those are the song that they said people wanted to play.

And the audience became more global. And the global audience didn't know all of those songs that you and I like, you know, the NTs and all that. They do celebration and all this. Listen, I remember when we did Joanna, you know, this is one of the most hurtful things that ever happened to me. Sol train? No, no. We did.

I was going to. It was going to ask Don, with the way that Don, ah. Okay, go, go ahead. Yeah, and we were doing Joanna, and we had this black station and, you know, we were rolling everything. and the ANR guy was trying to get the record played. I don't think it was down with buttered enough down there in Philly. In Philly, okay. It was something like a big station like that.

But anyway, they said that it wasn't black enough. I'm going to tell you, I remember going back to my room and walking, just pacing in my room back and forth. I don't know how long I did it. And almost like water coming on my eyes, right? and I'm saying I'm thinking about Frankie Lyman and all these guys that paved the way to do all these things from, you know, jazz to Leontyne Price and all these.

I'm thinking about all of them that were, you know, couldn't even dress in the dressing room had to come in the back door. All this is in my head. We were going through civil rights and, you know, we're trying to find our way through. And I'm doing this song, this melodic song that is a part of me.

and if it's part of me and me in the group, then it's a part of black America, you know? So how could somebody black tell me that it's not black enough? I said, what is black enough mean? So that was the first time I was hit with that. And I remember calling my mother, and I said, mom, I said,

I said they said I wasn't, my singing ain't black enough, you know? And she said something, she told me she eased my mind. She said, that's a good thing. that means that you're different. They try to tell you that you suppose it sound like something they want you to sound like, but you don't sound like that.

So that makes you unique. How are you feeling? And it sobered me up because it reminded me that you groaned in to this rainbow of styles from the little transistor radio, the filet of soul and then hearing all my heroes like the Motown and the and the Philly International sounds and all this and stacks records and all these different great people and you're amongst those people now so you don't have to try to be anybody but who you are and that is a black man who can do rock funk jazz love the love the classics Leonthine Price

Love Stravinsky You know what I mean You can It doesn't matter It's not a color thing With music So she cooled my little ass down Real quick

It said you know Know who you are You're telling And people have already Giving you The christen you You know That they accept what you are

So don't you start Thinking that you have to be Somebody else Just because the radio station Said This song ain't black enough maybe not for what they want to play. But globally, the world has already said, we love this.

You also got the last lap, bro. I mean... Yeah, yeah, it was... But it was a traumatic time, Rob. You know what I mean. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying.

Yep, that's me. Clever Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. 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. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice in so much, correct? I doctored the test ones.

It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg, a lesbian, and Michael Nanchini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young.

This is Love Trap. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, who.

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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, 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 Galko, 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 Slicer Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This is the dumbest question I'm ever going to ask in my professional career. But this is the only chance I get to ask it. When you shot that Schlitzmalt Liquor Bull commercial.

Go ahead. Come on, come on. There was never a real bull on the premises, right? Oh, hell no. Okay. I would have been gone before he broke through that way. That was a pretty good pre-editing, right? Pre-A-I.

To this day, when I go down a rabbit hole on YouTube, I literally watch all 45 minutes of every Slitzmalt League of Bull commercial of every soul great. running and I always wanted to know. They used to edited it. I mean, I hope I didn't ruin it for everybody. But,

but yeah, we used to just, you know, just look and, you know, run. I got it. But that was,

I was a high commercial for a long time. It was. Yeah, it was, man. Like, yeah, it was a big deal

because you never saw, like, your favorites on that level. My dad, especially liked it because sometimes they would juxtapose, like,

you know, I think you guys did a version, and then was the platters as well. Yeah, we did when, with the four tops. Or the four tops, yeah, like... Yeah, yeah.

My dad comes from, you know, the 50s era, so for him, it was, like, important to see the groups he, like, represented. Absolutely, yeah. So, when I first got my record deal, like, I would say that my first splurge, like, okay, I've made it. It's not much. It was too much of a build-up, but, you know, for me, sneakers and my record collection,

And that was it. Yeah, it was all I wanted to do in life. For you, what was your first, like, extravagant? I want cheese on my wopper, like. That type of thing. Let me see. I think I got my first Mercedes. Ah, okay.

Because before, as I said, I had my own apartment, you know, barely paying the bill, you know, at a raggedy car. So, you know, the beach showed a little, little prestige, man, you know. let me get a decent car because if you call that I have I'm going to tell you this for the car I had it had been hit from the side oh on the passenger side right so whenever I went to pick somebody up I would drive and prop on the driver's side make sure you're getting yeah I'm going to tell you something yeah we had some pride you know we had a group a group purchase, we got a land cruiser that we all shared.

Whoever needed the land cruisers, I wasn't driving then. But Tarique would often dent that land cruiser and get to the point where he will pick you know, his lady friends up. Only on the right side of the street so that she could never see.

Right, exactly. That was me. That was a scratch. That was a story. That's exactly what I did. I see. That's funny. When you guys are on tour do you have to do Don Voices atlips on Jungle Boogie?

I did, yeah. I tried. What was your first show like? With the group? Your very first school and the gang show. I think this is before we actually started working on Ladies' Night. I did a show with them.

Oh, you were singing with them even before? Yeah, right before we started. Yeah, I only did one show. Okay. right after my audition. And I think I did an Earth Winner Fires song on their show. I sang a ballot. I'm trying to remember which one it was.

Be you have a wonderful a song for you? Yes, I don't know. Maybe from the head to the sky album or something. Oh, you went deep. Okay. Yeah, something like that, you know, because he asked me, because he just wanted to show the people that, you know,

just see how I, you know, respond to the crowd. Yeah, you know. and it was very small but yeah i'm you're the lead singer how do you know things like eye contact and communicating with the audience and you know make the whole room feel like you know the things that you will probably have to lodge a hundred shows under your belt to truly know like the back of your hand are you just being thrown in the river like singer swim see what's up like but see again as i said i i wasn't threatened by that not not about

being on the front of stage because I was always that guy. Like if I had a band and the band was called, you know, street dancer or or flay or soul, I was always JT. You know, and we were 13.

So that wasn't your first show ever. Like you... No, no. Like when I was 13, we did the Apollo. What was that like? That was scary. I think we were like 13. We were trying to, you know,

make this something we were going to do. You know, it was like our little band. And in fact, we did the intruders, Cowboys, the Girls. We did the rehearsal. And I never forget at the Apollo. I didn't think it was going to be this raggedy downstairs, right, where all the guests were. And there was the stairs that led us, you know, to go up to the stage.

And there was this huge rat trap under the staircase. And I'm saying, what the hell? And we're all sitting there. And I'm saying, okay. So you just blank it out of your mind. So that night, our biggest thing was to make sure that Sandman didn't hook us offstage. That was our goal. If we could do that, we got it.

And we actually came in third place. And this guy, this older guy that's saying Nat King Cole, by the way, on the piano, he won that night. But we didn't get pulled off. We were in the line, you know. Well, first, I'm thinking hand clapped, you know, third, you know. he said, okay, you guys come off and then he won. So we were just relieved that we didn't get pulled off by Sandban. Which member of Cool and the gang was the most diplomatic in welcoming you into the fold?

Because you're also a rookie, kind of coming to an established house where, you know, like even there was a point where Alan Iverson had to carry the bags of Sixers that he was better than, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't do any of that. Which member was the most diplomatic in welcoming you into the fold? I would say it was Kalees and Kool.

Because cool at the time, in fact, when we first started going to the House of Music, he actually came up from Jersey City and picked me up from my home. And he drove me down and back home. So cool was more like that guy.

And, you know, we started hanging out as well. But he and I was saying, Calise. I went, like, to meet his mom, like, Kulis's mom and stuff like that, you know. And I just think they realized I was like, you know, I was a down guy. Like, you know, like you could, you know,

I wasn't like a rough rider, you know, but I wasn't, wasn't no punk either. You know, I was just like, and musically, you know, I could talk to them. And I actually learned so much from just sitting around listening. Because my mother said, just keep your ears open. You don't have to talk all the time, you know. Are you significantly younger than them or?

No, just a few years, like three. I think George was three years. I think who was three. So it wasn't too far, but a lot of people thought I was a lot younger than them. I thought you were the baby brother. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Which member would you have the most complex with?

Well, in the beginning, you know, none. I was hanging out with everybody. But I don't even know where it turned, but for some reason, DT started, we started rubbing a little bit, you know. And I didn't understand what happened because I was, I remember him and Pinawa bringing their daughter, Michelle, to my room to meet me. Actors, Michelle. Actors, yeah, the late, yeah. Family matters. And so, you know, it was all, all good.

man, we hanging out, party together. And somewhere along the line, you know, we just started friction. And I just didn't understand it because we were constantly, you know, banging out songs, you know. We were in the studio all the time. And if we weren't in the studio, we were on the road. And most of those albums, we were actually touring and would come home off the road and go right to the studio. And we, I think for almost a decade, we never had a vacation.

you know so i don't understand with the success what happened i tend to believe that more the focus became on me than the group and and i used to tell them i said listen man who's in the studio with you who's on the stage with you these people are going to say whatever they you know they want and in any band they usually gravitate to the lead singer no matter you know if you had the stone people know McJackard or Genesis, they know, you know, Phil, you know. So it's not put you down or anything like that. It's just the way things are. Because I was never into that mindset or was JT just here.

I said, man, listen, if it wasn't for this guy being in the room, this wouldn't have happened. And I never forget that. Were you singing lead vocals on every song, on every album as soon as you started on Ladies' Inn? Yeah. But then on, it was all, yeah. And in the shows. And it shows, yes, we were. And we didn't have, like, background singers either.

So we had, like, horn players singing background. And that was sometimes, you know, a bit more stressful for me because I would have to, you know, I'm emceeing, singing, highs and lows, singing background, dancing, and entertaining. And it started wearing me out a little bit, you know, later on. For me, this is a rare chance to, find out like what my life would have been like, you know, had I been born maybe 20 years earlier, like if me and my best friend in high school still say we started a group in 79 instead of 93,

then this is about as close as I'm going to get to, hmm, I wonder what happened if the roots came out like 15 years earlier. So was it a strict environment when you entered the group? Like was there rules adhere to? Nothing was said. The only thing when we, my first, first show I did was when we stopped to get something to eat, and they were trying to convince me not to eat pork because they were mostly. Only cool and Kalee's, most of the people thought the whole band was, but it was only the two of them. And that asked, you know, I didn't mind that. Give up bacon there.

Okay, it's food. So, but as far as, like, musically, their vibe, like through osmosis, so to speak, it permeated. you, you know, and my respect for what they did musically, I respected that greatly. So I didn't really want to, you know, upset the cart. You know what I mean? I was kind of, like, fit in. And I think maybe Calais felt that I had that type of spirit to like them because after a while, it was almost like we had so much

in common. Like they moved, their parents, moved them from Youngstown, Ohio, you know, for a better life. Jersey and my mother moved us from South Carolina for a better life in Jersey. So there was things that we didn't even have to discuss that was just part of our DNA, you know, that made it easy. When you're tracking your vocals, what's the particular environment that you're used to? Like, is it like a whole crowd of them there watching or is it just like, do you prefer to be alone and just with Calais or just someone, one person or or a mirror? In the beginning, I was so green that I had the, I wasn't accustomed to singing with headphones.

Somebody would just say, listen, just put one behind your ear. And that was kind of weird too, you know, because I'm listening to the room and everything. So I had to really make adjustments. And it caused me to sing fragments, like part of phrase, things like that, you know. You sing ladies tonight, you know, girl, y'all got one. you know, then we had to go back. Go, you know, do it over again instead of singing through. And but I found out that the more that I studied the song and I knew it lyrically,

then I could ingest the point of the song. And that made it a lot freer for me. But I didn't really care if who was in the studio, because I didn't really see them anyway. I would mostly see Dio and like Jim Bonifon and maybe somebody who was in the corner. but the concentration was just trying to do the best performance. I really wasn't worried about the people. Got it. I'm one of those music kids that never gravitates toward the single.

And that's because, you know, in Philly, before kind of the 1997 bill was signed in which, like, radio conglomerates could pre-program all their own music. You know, black radio pretty much let their DJs be the, tastemaker and you know yeah but DJs had names you know right so that said cats like uh Doug Henderson dr Perry Johnson like all the Philly cats spent in the DAS you know it's weird they played Jones versus Jones yeah yeah I know more than like Jones versus Jones was was that even a single oh I recently found out maybe like four or five years ago that Steve isn't she lovely

was never a single what that wasn't a single never a single what but Barry had a genius plan he basically wanted to guarantee

a number one debut so it was sort of like choose what you want to play off the album and just play it most people gravitated towards isn't she lovely but then weird enough like almost

nine months later, they'll officially release I Wish. Yeah, yeah. Like a single, but it's like July of 77. That was a great thing about DJs, though, because, you know, before even, what was that, the late night Von Harper and all of them. Right. Frankie Krocker and them, they would play singles off albums,

and that also helped us spread out. So like you, I would find songs to say, oh, man, they did this need to be a single, you know? Right. And so that was, that was the DJs had that power, man. That was a beautiful thing. When something special first came out, they weren't playing, take my heart,

even though I know that was the first single. Right. They was Philly owned Stepping Out. Stepping Out should have been the first single. We weren't mad to get down on it. That's sufficed. But, you know, back when DJs would get promos of the albums three months ahead of time,

Yeah. Why do you think that's so? Why step in that? Was that because of the party, the stepping parties they had? I meant, you know, I'm going to add all the keys to it. You're singing in a smooth falsetto. As a DJ, I was like, well, you know, okay, so the group that did this all the time was, and I kind of ridiculed them for this, but this is also how I live at the Tonight Show. You play any barquee song for me now, and I'll tell you the 45. of what they were originally playing. It was like, all right. I'm the color of it, right? Right, yeah.

Let's just ruby skew and mix this up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, shine is, is earthwind fires on your face or. Right, right, right. Shaking rums to the funks. You know what I mean? Like, very deliberate. But in my mind, I was like, I was like, I was like,

I bet you stepping out started as a quasi, don't stop until you get enough groove. I don't know. But. It's possible. Answer this for me. What is the division? of labor when you guys are recording in the studio.

Like, are you all together trying to jam something out? Or is it like, here's your part, here's your part, here's your part. Here's your part. And then you write the song later. It was all of that. Sometimes we would be playing together. But most of the time after ladies' night, people were bringing bits and pieces.

Like when we did Joanna, Charles came in. It was just an alpastrope guitar. Tink, think, think, kink, kink, kink. And he wanted to dedicate it to his mother. And we were sitting there, I said, okay, dear mom, that's what he called it. We say, well, what else, man? And it wasn't really much going on. And I think George was the one that said, let's just take a name, Joanna.

Nobody, it wasn't a Joanna we knew. He just grabbed a name. And it sang really well. And we never changed it, for example. Who directed that video? I don't know Who was that We shot that acting up in

North Bergen On the first part And then over in Linhurst New Jersey At the diner I forget who Actually got shot that though That's a lot of fun

In retrospect How burdensome Was celebration Because this wasn't Like at the rate Where you Released this song Do you realize

that this song is not just a hit song like that this song is never, ever, ever going to die, ever, ever, ever, ever going to die. It's funny you say that because I don't know if you had a long talk for police, but I don't think police liked the guitar riff. Really? There was a part that he didn't like too much because we came off the road and it was,

there was a part that was there, and I think it was a guitar riff, and he was really pissed off about that. We used to take the cassettes home to study, and this is the truth. I played it for my mother. That's what you think about that? She said, you're going to sing that for the rest of your life.

Really? Q, I'm telling you, bro, she was always like that. She was intuitive with certain things, you know? She said, you're going to sing that for the rest of your life, and here we are. That was enough for me. But we didn't know as a group, though.

That song is still in my DJ playlist, but now it has a new meaning because I play the Spanish version. Yeah, yeah. And when people, like, you know, when people are playing the hook, like I'll EQ it as such that they think they're in the regular version. And then when I put the Spanish version on, there's always a moment where they stop and they look at me.

And it's like they got processed for four seconds, Right, right. And then, like, they're really, like, it almost energizes the more that you guys would have been so considerate. I mean, Motown used to do that all the time, but whatever gets burdensome to... Yeah, that was a big thing to do. But we were really huge in South America. And that was the label's idea. They said, listen, man, you got a huge following in South America.

Let's try the Spanish version. And Diadado actually wrote out the lyrics for me. How did you guys hook up with Diadado? I don't know how he came into play, except that I think he was working at House of Music was a John Trope, if I'm not mistaken. And gave him and them talk to him about, you know, producing cool and the gang. That was before I came. So I don't really know that entire story. What was Diodata, from your perspective, bringing to the production, to the making of the music or the arrangements or anything like to happen?

Well, the most I had heard, you know, he was this unbelievable arranger. I didn't know much about him. And so I just started looking them up, you know, and I think he had, did he have 2001 Space Odyssey? Yeah, he did. Yeah, that time. But beyond, but more so than that, I just heard that his collection of and respect that he had as an arranger was pretty, pretty widespread. Everybody that spoke of him spoke very highly of him. So when he would talk to us about music, it wasn't so much telling us this is that.

We're going to put this major chord here, just minor. It wasn't that. It would just he would do it. And he would always do it with a smile with his little cigarette in his mouth, you know, his piece. And, you know, an unassuming guy. But when he brought the orchestra in to do the stringing work, that's when I, opened my mind again and saw him. They greeted him as doctor.

And I said, yes. And it actually flipped me back to when I was in high school, or what was it, maybe grade school, when my music teacher took us to see how the West was won in New York, the movie. But it was a screenplay. I mean, the movie was on screen, but there was a real orchestra.

And that was my first time seeing an orchestra. So when I saw Dio do that. I had become accustomed to first be quiet and listen and understand how parts work together. I was always curious what he was bringing to that, the recipe. Yeah, it was, again, I'm all ears, man, and just to bring it all in. And I think the key thing was just his arrangements. Yeah. Was he playing any of the keyboards?

Yeah, sometimes he did, yeah. But he also brought in a couple of people, this guy named Adam. on Too Hot. If you listen to Too Hot real close, there's a fender rose in the back besides the whole chords that are playing. And it's making these certain movements that each time I have a band, a keyboardist try to play it. They usually miss that because the movements have all these overtones going, you know, where those roads had that beautiful reverb on them, you know. So, but yeah, Dio, he was, he's a master man.

He's a treasure. And I think if he hadn't met him or the groove hadn't met him, we wouldn't have all these hits. 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 what you need to be. Listen to The Clifford show on the IHeard 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. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd

found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test, twice in so much. I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for.

Sunlight's the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Gregalespian and Michael Marantini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces,

consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped Podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 Ego Vodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers 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. 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 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 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, for wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. I would probably say that something special is that's sentimental to me because, you know, I got that for Christmas.

It was Christmas. Oh, you did you? Christmas of 81 was a special Christmas. 81, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of your canon, which album do you feel is your best performance and of your song catalog? How are you going to steal my question like this, Mr. Questlove? Take it away, Steve. Well, no, no, because actually, they're coming from you because it's coming from you because it's

kind of like, you know, it's kind of, you're not supposed to ask this question, really, you know, like, because they're all in your babies. Yeah, what's your favorite kid? You like? Yeah, exactly. I'll say the album-wise, it would be emergency. Okay. Oh, wow.

Emergency album, but I think. That was also the biggest sell it, correct? Yeah, it's double, yeah. Biggest sell. But I still say, you know, too hot has something that's romantic that because when I listen to it, you know, I can listen, how, I remember

how again I was still learning things and I could hear vocal things that I say hmm wouldn't do that now you know or things that being more mature and able to

do more with my voice now things I would have tried something a little different but I think too hot as a song but emergency as the album wait I don't know if I got the answer did celebration become burdensome at all?

Like, did it get too big for you? Did you feel like it was ridiculed too much? Was it too successful? No, not for me. Like, this song took you places that, I don't think your other contemporaries, like they weren't your contemporaries. It wasn't like BT Express or mass production or,

hell, even Earth Wouldn't Fire kind of stalled at the gate of the early 80s. And you guys were able to go places that they weren't able. to go. It was electric, man. Because again, you know, you know, you write songs. And when you finish, you just feel good about it. You don't know what's going to happen with it. You know, you just put

your heart and soul into it. And that's basically what we did. And there was the pieces. We had a mechanic over here. One guy twisted a knob there. This guy turned that one. This did that. And we put it together. And the label said, I think we got something. But you know, if the machine

isn't there, a lot of that may have been a celebration level, you know, don't make it. We had everything, everything was lined up for us, you know. And with me becoming more of a face and a sound that was becoming familiar, they kind of went with that, you know, and even the Yahoo's and all that stuff. And, you know, I always tell that joke, you know, you very rarely hear like a black group say Yahoo, you know, that's usually left out for the country groups, you know what I mean? Right, right.

Again, you know, you got the low voice. It's a solo brace. You know, so. Something for everybody to sing. Yeah, yeah. And you just sing along. And we talk about the Bob Mitzvah, you're talking about, you know, the worst thing is when you hear him playing the wrong inversion.

I'm sure you've been privy to every version of celebration known a man. I'm telling you, man. And the worst is when they try to get me to come up and sing, nah, nah, I had too many drinks already. So, you know. Oh, Korni Gang, Stan, our host, tell you. Oh, yeah, exactly. Get J-Ten. Come down.

Okay, so if you don't want to answer, you don't have to answer. Go to it, man. What were the hedonistic 80s like? Girls, girls, girls. Some drugs. All right. But we didn't really, really get into that. It was just, again, the success became big within a year to two-year period that it

consumed us in a way that we did. I don't think that the group knew how to be, how to receive it in that way, you know. So for you to come in at 79, and you're pretty much coming into a situation, one, you know, that brings success. And you're kind of the reason for that success. Yeah. But I always wanted to know for the band members that were there. before 1969,

before the label deals and all that stuff, for Spike for DT, for Cool, for Kaleas, for George, what is success for them like? I mean, you guys are the only Americans,

besides Jody Watley, at do they know it's Christmas? Right, right. But you guys are at a crazy level of neuriety. So how are they adjusting to this? If you can speak for them.

I really can't, but all I know is that we all shared and everything equally. It wasn't like at a certain point you know, we were at one time flying coach, you know what I mean? You fly in first class. You know, when the tension started happening,

I started having my own car. Stuff like that happened. But when we hit the stage, it was about, let's go take this, let's put the flag down, you know. And all of this stuff really helped me segue into my solo career. Right. It was a really proven ground, but I can't really speak to how they received it, whether they were overjoyed, because they never said to me, you know, don't forget this is the group, you know, or don't think you're too big and stuff like that. That came from outside, you know.

And when it was time for me to make my exit, it had reached a height where that type of tension had gotten too much. And I didn't think that they had my back anymore. And we did a show at, I don't forget, at New Year's down Atlantic City. And I had the flu. And I was really, really sick. And of course, back then I was about 150, you know what I mean, soaking wet. And we had been touring and it was the end of the year. And, you know, New Year's is always big money night.

And I was sick, but I refused not to perform. And I went out there and sound voices half gone. And I do and cherish. And I close my eyes. And when I tried to open them, all I saw was red. No, not an object. Just a wall of red. Like just red.

and I froze and I opened my eyes again and it came open but then it went red again and I got scared to death man and I was able to walk backstage and I pull I think pool I pull cool off of

somebody I said listen play jungle boy Hollywood swing or something let me go back here and get myself together and when I couldn't I had to come back out and I left the stage that particular night

I'm back there and all my family was at the audience, you know, they ran backstage people, even fans were coming back saying, you know, what's wrong and what happened? They knew something was wrong because I've never been like this. And I'm sitting in my room and none of the guys came over to see how I was doing except one guy, Curtis, and he told him, he said, God, didn't you see this guy sick? You know, he can't do it. And that part hurt me more because I felt that their interest was more worrying about making the money. a guy who've been here since the day label was going to drop you guys in the 70s and we got together and it was never I never claimed it was just me you know never had that attitude but to get to this

point and you don't even come back to checked on the guy I said that's it and I and I left that's how you left the group yeah that night I called my family and I said I got it I can't do this anymore. So it was obvious, back to your question, that they must have felt something along the way more than what I felt of them, because I'd never looked at them any other way except what we did. But that was a rough time, because I was really, really sick, but I'd never let on. And, you know, I've had that many times over the years. I was not well, and I still did shows, you know, because I knew I had more responsibility than just myself. You know, they had families, you know, themselves.

We had records to break and, you know, sacrifice, man. You know, you can do this. And many times I'd just go back to my room and, you know, taking myrr and ginseng and, you know, all these different things. And, you know, Clifford Adams, you know, he was into all of that. And he would be me golden seal and I'm not, you know, trying to get right. So, but I never. let all. Hey man, I can't sing the night. You know, sometimes like when we was

trying to sing a stepping out was difficult because it was a falsetto. Right. And, you know, sometimes that click wouldn't happen and it would take like a few songs to get there, so we'd have to like take that out of the set, but most of the time, you know, you can walk your way through it, you know, but that was it, man.

But again, it, what I got into, you know, my solo solo deal and, you know, my first I met with Gerald Busby And Gerald Gerald said Listen man I don't think you need to be at Motown

You need to go talk to Clive And And I remember sitting with Clive And Clive played for me Who I don't believe that that's what friends are for In his office You know with Luther And Stevie and Whitney

And at the time I thought maybe he felt that Maybe I should be one that was singing That could do that And make a long story short, MCA offered me more money. So I ended up signing with MCA over there. Or the Master of the Game album, correct? Master of the Game. I was the first, yeah, master the game.

And, you know, working with Louis Silas over there, the ANR. I hear a lot about him, but his name always comes up when it's like new edition related stories or whatever. But what was it like being on your own and only having yourself to end? answer to? It was a little frightening. I must say it was a little frightening because, you know, I was so used to from, you know, being a young teenager, always with the band. Like I said, Electro 5, you know, the street dance of these bands, Filet, Sole, you know, cool in the gang. It was always like a group of collection, you know. And when I got out there, I realized that I didn't know

as much as I needed to know about how to really structure. songs like complete you know what i mean i could do parts and things like that but and lyrics but i didn't claim to be a pianist like a skill musician and nothing like this but i could anything i hear i can write i've always had that you know and um when when i got with mca i realized that they wanted me to do something like i had done before with cooling them and i was already beyond that you know i wanted it to be more of an eclectic artist and bring in the styles that I loved, you know, from rock and all these different things. And so I hooked up with this guy named Dennis McCowski. Okay.

He introduced me to James Ingram, Tata Vega, Rose Stone, Phil Perry, James, you know, Jeff Piccaro, Polino de Costa. And I was like, okay, this is this, I love this, this collection right here. And that's when I started working on Mass of the Game. And plus publishers were sending me songs to choose from, you know. And that kind of helped me a lot. But Lul, he was there the whole time trying to help me get a hit record. You know, because, again, I got paid well, and the record company would just kind of let me do what I wanted to do. And, you know, the first single, I still think they picked the wrong song.

they picked other songs Sister Rosa and I did a video with Michael Peters who did thriller with Michael and all that stuff and we did the whole video and everything like this but they didn't jump on the record

because I still think they should have chosen Romancia or some other songs Yeah you know And so that kind of A little bit of taste there And you know people were expecting Ah JT the song

You know It ain't no ladies night you know when are you going to do that? And I was doing my interviews, I tell everybody, I said, well, I did that. And my mind isn't there now. And that's when I think Bobby Brown hit, a new addition.

Right. And Bobby was blowing the doors out, you know, right there. And they said, well, won't you give me something like that? And I was like, I said, didn't you talk to Bobby? It's like, well, man, we tried to be like what you did. Right, exactly. So how are you guys telling me? something like that.

So it started that's when the mill started turning. And we knew we had to, you know, kind of go back at it, you know. And even with James Ingram and all these guys on, they still didn't, you know, promote it the right way. Was it hard adjusting in an environment more conducive to like new jack swing than today the kind of musicianship that, you know, you were used to? Like, was it, what does it mean to be faced with a pivot? You know, instead of a band, you might have to have two dancers with you. I was fine. I did that.

I did. In fact, I actually, I know, well, I know that this. Teddy, yeah, had Teddy. Teddy actually did a song, you know, eight days for me. So I had those dancers. But it was, again, it wasn't, it was music, man. It wasn't, this is not rocket science here. You know, it's like, What do you feel? You know, I'm still that same way today. You know, like I write every day. And it's always something that, you know, I'm sure when I finish with you, you know, I'm going to write something about this experience.

So, wow. I said, let's go at it. Okay. Hey, in the history of you being a professional singer, has anyone ever yelled fire and rain to you for, the audience. You did steal my question. I was honestly wondering about that today.

Look at his victory pose. That's great. No, I used to sort of study the publishing stuff in credits and like sort of books. And I was always wondering if the publishing ever got crossed between you guys, you know, on anything. Not the money.

At that time, he was making big money. We weren't. But I used when I first went solo, the publishers got things mixed up. In fact, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he came over to my room, and I'm in the dressing room, and he came over to meet me.

He said, I always wanted to meet you. I said, really? No. That was the first time y'all met? That's the first time we met. I wish I could have been there for that. Yeah, man. And he came over, and we hugged each other,

and we shared, share some, you know, conversation. and I told him that story. I said, I was getting these like kind of country songs, man. And, you know, my manager said, wait a minute, I think this was supposed to be for the other James Taylor. So we had a laugh. And I said, I want to do something with you. And he said, let's do that.

You know, so that might happen in the near future. Just my voices. I approve of that. Do you know Marvin ever heard your nod to him or take my heart if you want it? I don't know, man. But I would tell you, because, you know, I'm a big Marvin fan as well. But we were doing the, that's when I was still with Cool. We did the rain, I think the rainbow room or the rainbow theater in London.

And we went on stage because I don't know what song we were singing. And I looked to my left over in the corner and Marvin is standing in the way. Man, I almost like, it was rock. He was living there at the time. Yeah, he was living there, right. So, of course, I had to bring him on. and just walking on stage, the place would berserk.

And, you know, he walked off. And we were taking a picture to the other, he's looking over at me like this, you know, looking down on me. He said, J.T., you know I can slam dunk you, you know that, right? I said, brother, I can play ball too. Let's do this. We never got to play.

But he was amazing, man. I would have loved to just take the ball to him a little bit. He was a tall. He was kind of a tall guy. I see, I see. It would have been tough. But yeah, but, no, I don't know if he ever did. It's one of my favorite adelebs of yours, man.

Like Marvin. I love that song. I was actually talking to George, because George wrote the song. And it was like, who, who, foo, foo. I said, like Marvin. Like Marvin, huh? Right. Yeah, yeah.

Exactly, exactly. You know, there was a time period in which videos were not necessary, but could be an option to help you sell a little more if you were trying to get your stuff played on, like, Top of the Pops, or, you know, if you couldn't get to Europe in time, what was the video process like? Because even that video for misled, which I'll never understand, like, are you just showing up and like, okay, is a chase scene with an Indiana Jones and a bunch of white ghost dancing around me, like.

Yeah, right. Well, you know, of course, I've always been into film, you know, and like even right now, you know, the future project that I'm working on now. I'll tell you about that in a minute. But because I was in the film early in my life, I was able to, when videos came along, I could process everything that's happened

because most of our songs was like a storyboard. You know, and you mentioned misled. It was about, you know, it was basically Colise's life story, part of his life story and my input. And it was the metaphor of the white dancer was like, she was like, the cocaine that people were taking, you know, misleading, looking beautiful and everything,

and taking you down that rabbit hole, you know, and my nephew, who played the young kid. The young kid. Yeah, that was my nephew, yeah. You know, and so to bring that part in, that was theatrical and the special effects. So, and then the one thing that happened on that video was that, we said, how are we going to get the band in? And I wrote most of that concept. And I said, well, you guys are going to be, you know, incognito as well. And it's a dream state.

So that's why, you know, that happened. And when we came at the end and they were like, JT, we got to go, man, we got a gig to do. They were in the dream and that's when they turned around. So Michael definitely influenced that as far as the video. Because remember, MTV wasn't playing us. And Michael turned that around. So that's when the whole video. old thing for black artists started kicking in. And we knew that Michael had raised the bar. So we had

to raise the bar because if you remember on most of the charts, if we knew Michael was coming, we had to get our position first. You know, because as soon as he came, you know, we're going to knock you out of number one. But being there in the top five or top 10, that means in the stores, your music was right there alongside his. And it would help your sales. All of that, The video world actually helped me with the project I'm doing now and what my future is going to be. Got it. At the time when you guys get invited to do Band-Aid,

do you have any inkling of the clue what you guys walked into? No, because we were on tour. Y'all just had a night off in London? No. We were actually just, I don't know if we, I think we did have a night on, but the thing that bothered me was that they had, mentioned, I think on the news or something that, you know,

with all of these big stars there, and when we got there, there was no cameras. And I remember telling DT, I said, you know, it was the press, man, I'll be A and our people telling about the press. And we walked in. No one said, you know, okay, JT, you're going to be doing this and this is going to be doing that. We kind of just walked in the studio and everybody was just sitting around the room.

and Phil Collins and Geldorf and they were behind the board and they just kind of waved and you know and later on I thought somebody mentioned that they wanted me to do the part that

what tonight thank God is them and I didn't ask me because I would have never done that part. You're talking about Bono's line? Yeah, Bono's line. Thank God it's you it's them instead of you I said I would have never

saying that anyway because that's just a little too much for me you know I wouldn't thank God as you you know that's not my vibe you know what I mean but yeah it was awesome man but we still didn't know how it was going to come out I just enjoyed

you know meeting you know sting and fill but it was intense it was like no time to really hang out and talk about it and when they put us all on the stands together it was just like okay, this is what we're going to sing. We learned the song, and we went through the process.

For you, what was the best, like, when you think of, like, the good times or whatever, like, places you played or even people you met, or people that you never thought you meet? What's a career highlight for you of something like, like, wow, I can't believe this happened? There's many. Okay. But I think going to Africa for the first time was monumental because I remember when we were at House of Music once in this was doing apartheid. And this agent came to the studio and asked us to play. And that's when everybody was refusing to play Sun City. It was part of our protests.

and I remember looking at this guy almost tearing up that how could he have the nerve to come here and ask us to perform there knowing the atrocities that were going on. Right. And I remember we got a silver record, I think, from South Africa.

And when we got it, I said, I refused to hang this up in my house until Mandela is freed. And I put it in the closet. And when he was freed, I took it out and celebrated that. But I think going to Liberia and then learning about the slave quarters and where our people were brought from the shores and things like that, the Ivory Coast up and down, you know.

And I always felt like I didn't want to take money. out of there. Like, because it wasn't really built up as much like Ghana, right, like it is now. You know, and I just didn't understand,

well, I understood, but I didn't feel good about doing a concert and taking money from a place that we should have just left it there, you know?

But I think Africa was, still to the day, the feeling I get that touches my heart most. A win is a win. A win. win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clivert 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. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings

that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice in someone, correct? I doctored the test ones.

It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern.

Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Gregalespian and Michael Marantini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges.

This isn't over until justice has served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Everyone, I'm Ago Wodom. 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 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 IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 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 Slice of Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. One, congratulations on getting in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Yes, yes, thank you. Were you surprised or were you actively hoping for this?

Well, you know, I tell the story. I said, it's, when I think back to being at 13, You never think about it. You never think about any accolades. At least I did. My whole thing was just a love for music, man. And, you know, when they told us about the rock, of course, I called all my family. And I think they announced it on the American Idol or something like that. And we were all sitting around watching waiting for it to come on when they said,

bam, cool the gang, my phone jumping off the hook. People talking about how can I get there, I want to come. We had a lot of family there. but it was just a combination of all of the years of the sweat being away from my family, having my family there and joined some of it coming into cooling the gang and then leaving the group. And also, you know, I brought everything from Hackensack High School to, you know, the bands I was in to, you know, Jersey City.

anybody that I met along the way were a part of it and that's including you, your group, the Philly Sound, Motown, you know, anything, it was like I was it was like I was bringing all of you with me, you know, and then of course, you know, to find out that you were going to be

with me, I'm like, oh man, this is too good to be true. You know, so, you know, when I walked up and met you, you know, I was like, yo, right in the middle of playing, yo, man, what's up? And I got a good picture I want to sit. And you were not that, too. I was nervous, man. And like, you know.

Well, you were nervous. Come on, man. You were smacking. No, I mean, but just you were the only legendary luminary of like my life sound check track that I haven't met yet. You know what I mean? So. Yeah. Yeah, it was awesome.

And you guys played, man. And the thing about it was that you wouldn't believe this that night. That was a week, that week, I had some dental work done, right? And I had this. I don't know if you ever heard of TMJ, but it's when your jaw locks. So that whole night in the performance, I couldn't open my mouth with this much.

What? So I'm singing, and in rehearsal, I was actually, when I was walking around the stage, was trying to find vowel sound sounds at how I was going to say certain things. And I couldn't hit, like, the high note, Yahoo. If you listen back to the tip, I couldn't do it. Oh, wow.

A whole night. So I was in a little bit of an agony while I was enjoying myself. That's a story nobody can tell, right? I didn't know, man. Nobody knew, you know. We wouldn't have been the wiser. Wow. But the night was awesome, bro, and it's like it's something that I will, you know, treasure forever.

Before that night, had you had any contact with cool? Like, was that the first time you guys spoke since the reunion? No, no. The first time was a few years ago when we were inducted into songwriters' Hall of Favor. Got it. And that was the first time I had seen them in, since the early 90s, I still went in there, like, you know, just proud of what we had accomplished over the years.

And, you know, so they all came to me and we spoke and they were cordial. and in fact, Calice came to me and pulled me to the side and said, man, why don't we get back together and do this again? And I was taken back because there was... I would love that. We did celebration that night,

got our award, and, you know, we went our separate ways. And again, going back to the rock and roll hall, that was the other thing that was kind of bittersweet that, you know, George and Charles, D.T. and Clifford and they weren't there. And it was like, I'm sitting with, their wives and their children, you know, they're talking and things like this. And, you know,

I was just a little empty. There was a space there that was empty, you know, but I hope that they're looking down, they appreciated what Kuhn and I did, along with, you know, you and the roots as well. What are you working on now? Well, you know, the thing right now is I just kind of, you know, I was right before COVID hit, you know, I realized I was doing out, going out, doing all this one-nighters, you know, money was great and everything. But every day you leave, you know, you come back home, you lose three days, three or four days. And when I was working on, I started working on this project with my son, who's a filmmaker and a director. And we weren't getting anywhere.

And so I said, listen, I got to stop this touring. And actually, COVID helped because nobody was really working that much anyway. So like I've always done, I said, well, I want to do something that hasn't been done before or something different and include different genres, social media, film, music, and make a combination of all of those things and involve people like yourself, you know, your group and different artists from different genres around and include like the visual effects of things and, you know, devote all the time to new kind of music and development, you know, and, you know, it's enhanced my knowledge, you know, of directing and writing

in that genre. Without letting everything out of the bag, it's like, you know, when you're trying to do something that hasn't been done, it takes a lot of attention. You know, you have to go through every little piece. It's not just one creative idea. The idea grew, and now we're at a point where we're at, I would say, the script, for example. And all I can say to you is I will promise to lead you on as we've developed this because it's something that hopefully you will be a part of. I'll just ask you straight out, you know. And I think that it's something that is needed today

because when I listen to some of the music that's out here, it seems like things are either plateaued or just have stagnant. A little vibrational. Yeah, you know, so we need a little something. And, you know, and usually over the years, you know, we've had a collective of people doing so many different styles that we could pull from anywhere. You know, now it just seems like there's some things that are just not, you know, when I listen to it, I'm not being fed as much.

So, you know, six years or, you know, six years or. like revising this project, you know, I'm kind of looking at some things that I wrote down, combining like, you know, mediums of music and film. But it's like, how can I explain this? It will be something that will be future, but something with grassroots of the arts. Okay.

Something I think that everyone will be able to relate to. All I got to say is, man, you are, in the highest sense of the term, class sack, man. You just, you know, I'm so glad you got your flowers. I'm so glad you got recognition and that's often hard, especially for a lot of our brothers and sisters who are pioneers, our leaders, and oftentimes their artwork is taken for granted. And they're not given the proper respect to. And you are that person, man. I appreciate that. And, you know, And those artists that you mentioned, you know, deserve to be heard.

They deserve to have that, like, that renaissance, you know. And I really think that this project, you know, going to do that. And listen, before we end this, man, there's so much more to talk about. But I just first want to, you know, congratulate you on the sum of soul. Thank you, brother. Hey, bro, where's that Oscar, man? I'm looking for that gold. Look behind you over there and put that statue up behind you.

This is my office, man. I keep my Oscar at home, but... Yeah, well, this is going to be another one, brother. Thank you, my brother. I mean, it was really so well put together, man. And, like, the way you, when you brought in the people from Harlem, you know, telling their stories, the way you interplayed that with the music.

It was like a story book. It was magical, man. You have a special gift with that. And as I said, you know, with these special that you're doing, I think it's great to hear because it kind of leads into what we're what we're doing now. I want to say some, like sort of an announcement of my own.

I've done the math, J.T. and since you've technically, technically, technically, appeared at the most bar mitzvahs in the history of bar mitzvahs, I am announcing that you have been declared

an honorary Jew and you can consider yourself bar mitzvah. All right. Do I have to learn my, my speech and everything? You are part of the Hebrew persuasion at this point. There you go. Thank you very much. much, brother, for doing this podcast.

And, you know, on behalf of the family and Sugar Steve, this is Questlove, brother James J.T. Taylor, the one and only. Thank you so much. Love you. Thank you, thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you, brother. Thank you so much, J.T. That was amazing. This is Sugar Steve. Thank you for listening to Questlove Supreme. This podcast is hosted by Amir Questlove Thompson, Laia St. Clair,

Sugar Steve Vandelle, and Unpaid Bill Sherman. The executive producers are Amir Questlo Thompson, Sean G, and Brian Calhoun. Produced by Brittany Benjamin, Jake Payne, and Laia St. Clair. Edited by Alex Conroy. Produced for IHeart by Noel Brown. Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio. For more podcasts from IHeart Radio,

visit the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. 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 Fourth. 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 Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled 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 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.

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 IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, I got you? I'm Ago Vodom. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. 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 Podcasts, 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. 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 uncover. cover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Gillespie and Michael Ranchini. 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. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.