Lady Wray

00:00:00
Speaker 1: This episode is also available as video on YouTube. You can visit Nora Jones channel and be sure to subscribe while you're there. Hey, I'm Nora Jones and today I'm playing along with Lady Ray. I'm just playing long Weuy, I'm just playing in lone wey.

00:00:24
Speaker 2: Hi.

00:00:24
Speaker 3: I'm Nora Jones.

00:00:25
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show with me, as always is my co host Sarah Oda.

00:00:30
Speaker 4: Hello, welcome to our show. We have an amazing episode today. We have the soulful singer songwriter with music that spans gospel, R and B hip hop, the incredible Lady Ray. Her latest album, Cover Girl, came out last fall in twenty twenty five. Stay tuned for some music from that.

00:00:49
Speaker 3: This was so fun.

00:00:50
Speaker 1: I'm such a fan of hers and I know her through our mutual producer friend Leon Michaels, and I just love the work they've done together on the last few albums.

00:01:01
Speaker 3: And we had so much fun. Yeah.

00:01:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, In this episode, you're gonna hear about her unique history in this music industry and kind of the different paths.

00:01:10
Speaker 3: She had to navigate to get to where she is today.

00:01:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's been in it for a long time and her story is really interesting.

00:01:16
Speaker 4: Plus beautiful duets, including a new take on one of your songs.

00:01:20
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that was really fun. So stay tuned, Stay tuned, and enjoy the episode with Lady Ray.

00:01:26
Speaker 3: I used to never warm up, but.

00:01:28
Speaker 5: I just kind of started vocal coach. Now, Oh yeah, it's very good.

00:01:33
Speaker 1: Have you been losing your voice a lot?

00:01:35
Speaker 3: Okay?

00:01:36
Speaker 5: And I said, when I write this album, I'm not gonna get carried away.

00:01:40
Speaker 3: And I still got carried away.

00:01:41
Speaker 6: Ah.

00:01:42
Speaker 5: And I told my mom, Mom, I was like, when you perform China to push so hard.

00:01:46
Speaker 3: I was like, Mom, the songs require me to push, and well, you're feeling it. I'm feeling it.

00:01:51
Speaker 5: And I'm like, I tried to write songs that are kind of like low and register and not too but I just I failed again.

00:01:59
Speaker 3: Got all right, what you feel?

00:02:01
Speaker 7: All right?

00:02:02
Speaker 3: You're right. I was like, maybe we're live.

00:02:04
Speaker 5: I will try to kind of keep it in the back of my mind when I'm writing, to not go so hard with the but it happens every time.

00:02:13
Speaker 3: It's the church of me, it's the church in you. That's fine. Definitely the church of me. It lives in me.

00:02:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, God doesn't want you to whisper it.

00:02:22
Speaker 3: He does not. I'm gonna tell my mom that God doesn't want me to whisper.

00:02:25
Speaker 1: That's right, tell her tell her that, yeah, well you won't.

00:02:31
Speaker 3: How's that, well you won't too low?

00:02:34
Speaker 5: No, that's perfect, you can have Yeah, yeah, we're eda James vibe.

00:02:40
Speaker 3: Huh sweet? I like that. Oh see, so much better for the piano. Yes, I see, bro, I can't. Okay, I didn't do well in music. I didn't do well at all.

00:02:51
Speaker 8: Really.

00:02:52
Speaker 3: I was like, I'll just stick the singing. It was not good for me.

00:02:55
Speaker 8: What did you do?

00:02:56
Speaker 5: I did piano at a at a young age, and when I was in course, I was I just couldn't never understand the music, like the notes and the key. I just couldn't read it. And my brother he just soared. He played the trumpet so he could read music very well, and I just struggled. So I was just like I want to try and get back into it. But I'm just like, I don't know if the age and just me just being all over the place. When I was younger, I think I was more you know, focused.

00:03:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, Now I don't know.

00:03:21
Speaker 1: I don't know.

00:03:21
Speaker 5: Maybe maybe maybe you're you have a daughter, right, I do, Maybe he's gonna do it.

00:03:25
Speaker 3: Maybe you could do it together. Yeah, that would be cute.

00:03:27
Speaker 1: She would be actually fun.

00:03:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's gonna do.

00:03:29
Speaker 5: School of Rock when I get back homework on I sign I wrote for that.

00:03:33
Speaker 3: Do they have that here? Yeah, that's so cute. I didn't know that was a thing. It's cute.

00:03:36
Speaker 1: They also switched them around on instruments, which is kind of sweet.

00:03:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:03:40
Speaker 3: Oh, she's gonna love it. Let me get a chance to like try everything. I will try everything. She loved the movie. She loved them. Oh, that's like one of the best movies. It's the best movie ever. It makes me cry.

00:03:50
Speaker 2: I know.

00:03:51
Speaker 3: It is such a great film. It's so good and I love Jack Black.

00:03:55
Speaker 1: Who oh god, it's the best. We should have done a Tennise Stea cover. I mean I should have said that. I didn't know you were into the date.

00:04:20
Speaker 3: There we go. What you want.

00:04:26
Speaker 5: You can't have putting your heart in my hand. I've been waiting, follering. Man, we've come to fall by faith. We've come to fall by faith. Come on in, Come on in, come on, come on in, baby, coming to my life. We don't have a lot of time hoping we can get it.

00:05:17
Speaker 2: Right.

00:05:18
Speaker 8: I can tell you don't to lie. So come on, oh.

00:05:32
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can't dream dreaming color.

00:05:44
Speaker 3: Don't you listen.

00:05:47
Speaker 8: To the nay say y'all said the boy?

00:05:52
Speaker 5: Shut high the teller. We've come to fall by faith. We come too far, Nora, and we come to five by faith.

00:06:10
Speaker 2: Come on in m hm.

00:06:24
Speaker 3: See there, I'll find.

00:06:27
Speaker 2: You where you are.

00:06:31
Speaker 9: I know that is arising in thus starts.

00:06:37
Speaker 5: So come on in, come on in, come on in, come on in. Yeah, baby coming to my mind. We don't have a lot of time open, we can get it and a ride. I continue your doc to lie. Come on, come on, a wedding for you, so I want you come on in a come on, come on, come on, come on, come on in m I won't you to come on?

00:07:44
Speaker 8: And I've been waiting for a baby a come on, come on, come on, come on in hm, come on.

00:08:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, come on, yeah, yeah, yeah, come on, come on?

00:08:29
Speaker 8: Did I no you didn't corfect?

00:08:32
Speaker 3: Yay, yay, that's good. That is fun to play. You did that early on with Leon? I did that early on. Was that your first record with him? Your second?

00:08:42
Speaker 5: That was my second record. The first one was Queen Alone. Okay, yeah, that was fun too. That was right after I did to do it with Terry Walker from London. We did an album together titled Lady.

00:08:51
Speaker 3: Nice, and I just took the name Lady and just tagged my last name on the end of it. I was like, I'm keeping that name.

00:08:57
Speaker 2: I like it.

00:08:57
Speaker 3: It sounds good, it's vibe. I think people love that. I love it.

00:09:01
Speaker 5: Yeah, I just tagged my last name on and you have a cool last name. Yeah, well my last name is changed because I'm married now. It's the cop it's different.

00:09:08
Speaker 3: It's the coat Ray rayvect.

00:09:13
Speaker 8: Ighth.

00:09:15
Speaker 3: Melodis like, Mom, but you can't hear the w Yeah. I was like, it's silent.

00:09:20
Speaker 1: You have kind of an interesting history in the music industry, very interesting.

00:09:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been going for a long time.

00:09:26
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:09:27
Speaker 3: The engine that could amazing.

00:09:29
Speaker 8: Yeah it is.

00:09:30
Speaker 3: I started in the late nineties with Missy Elliott.

00:09:34
Speaker 1: That's crazy.

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Speaker 5: It's so crazy because back then it was it was no like crazy social media or nothing. It's just like back then, you either meet the celebrities or you just kind of like figure it out or go to New York and just go to labels. And you know, back then Missy actually lived like right down the street from me and my brother in Portsmouth. That's where I'm from, Virginia, Virginia.

00:09:57
Speaker 3: She lived and I didn't know who she was. I had no idea.

00:09:59
Speaker 5: I was about sixteen when I met Missy and she went to the high school, like right down the street, and they had like a talent show, and so Missy was there and my brother and his group.

00:10:09
Speaker 3: They performed.

00:10:10
Speaker 5: My brother's a singer too, and She's like, well, you guys sound great, but I'm looking.

00:10:13
Speaker 3: For a girl singer. And my brother was like, my sister, she can sing. And this is when the landlines were really popular. He gave us.

00:10:19
Speaker 5: He gave her our house phone, and she called the house and talked to my mom. And I was over at my friend's house and I remember my mom was like, it's a girl over. Her name is Missy Elliott and she wants to meet you.

00:10:30
Speaker 3: And I'm like who.

00:10:31
Speaker 5: And I remember walking we made like this path because we would walk to school and it's this little dirt path and I remember walking, I'm like, this might be my chance.

00:10:37
Speaker 3: You know, back then, it was just so.

00:10:39
Speaker 5: Exciting, you know, to get into the music industry and you know, reading magazine. Everything was just like it's a mystery. Now everything is like right in your face. I remember getting in the house and she's there. She had like her little those ocean fingerwaves, and she's there and she's like she has a magazine. She's like, I heard you can sing, and I'm like yeah. She's like sing something for me, and I sung week s w V. I ain't get it, so she was like, oh, she's like girl.

00:11:04
Speaker 3: She said.

00:11:05
Speaker 5: She called me the young Mary g Bloge back then. She was like, you remind me of a young Mary.

00:11:10
Speaker 3: That's so cool.

00:11:11
Speaker 5: And I think from that moment I just stuck to her, like we were this inseparable. And she said, when I get my record deal, I'm gonna get you a record deal too. I was like her little sister, that's amazing, I got a record deal. I remember flying here to New York to meet Sylvia Own of Electra Records, and I was so nervous.

00:11:28
Speaker 3: I got on the airplane.

00:11:28
Speaker 5: My mom was my manager back then, and I was just like, I'm going to meet Sylvia Own.

00:11:33
Speaker 3: I didn't know who she was either, but I was just so excited.

00:11:35
Speaker 5: I saw the lights and everything in New York, little country Bumpkin from Virginia and I get here, I'm just so excited. And we just started working on the album back in Virginia Master Sound Studios.

00:11:45
Speaker 3: Wow.

00:11:46
Speaker 5: And she introduced me to Pharrell. I worked with Jimmy jam and Terry Lewis, everybody. I'm just like Wow. From there, I just kept growing growing. I was never writing anything, just you know, just a muse.

00:11:58
Speaker 3: You know.

00:11:59
Speaker 5: Put out my first album in nineteen ninety eight with Missy Elliott titled Make It Hot, and that did very very well, and I started touring right away.

00:12:08
Speaker 3: Was in school in high you were in high school? Were you still in high school?

00:12:11
Speaker 5: I was in high school when when my album dropped video came out. I was in the cafeteria with my lunch trade, and I always I was always telling everybody I do music, I make, I make. I met Fath Faith Evans, I met Little Kim and you know, I felt Biggie small.

00:12:26
Speaker 3: Son and you were They were like, no, you don't you know.

00:12:29
Speaker 5: And I'm in the cafeteria, never forget it. I'm walking with my trade and they let us watch music videos. I went to like my school was called Booker T Washington.

00:12:37
Speaker 3: It was like lean on me. I'm telling you the.

00:12:38
Speaker 5: Movie that my school too, and that was yeah, it was like it was it was just like the movie Lean on Me, Get those chains off the door.

00:12:46
Speaker 3: Oh my god. It was crazy.

00:12:48
Speaker 5: But I remember just being in the cafeteria and everybody just swarmed around the TV and like that shit, that's her right there. And I think from that moment, I was like, Okay, I think I've I've made it. And then the journey, the journey began, right, you know. I start, you know, going through my musical journey, working with different artists and producers, and that outlived itself and I went from there, from Missy Elliott to Rockefeller Records. Like maybe I want to say maybe maybe about I want to say maybe seven years later, five or seven maybe five or seven years later after Missy Elliott?

00:13:24
Speaker 1: How many records did you make with Missy?

00:13:27
Speaker 5: I made one record and I start went one more, but it never saw the light of day. And everybody's asking me, are you gonna put this album out?

00:13:34
Speaker 3: And I'm like, I don't know. It's just a pain.

00:13:38
Speaker 5: But everybody knows that I worked on. This album was titled Electric Blue, and it was beautiful music. And I'm like, you know, when you're young, and you're like new in the industry. You're kind of jaded.

00:13:47
Speaker 3: You don't know.

00:13:48
Speaker 5: I didn't know the industry, and I was just like, I just want to put my music out, you know, And I'm thinking about it now.

00:13:52
Speaker 3: I'm just like, you know, that door was open. It was a beautiful door. I walked through that door. I did the thing. The door shut. Now it's a new door. So now I look at it like that. It's hard to go back in time. Yeah, it's very hard. It's easy to stressful. It's easy for someone else to want to do it, but it's hard for it. It's hard for me, you to do it. Yeah, it's just like I can't live there.

00:14:11
Speaker 1: Did that album get lost in the washing machine of the music industry?

00:14:14
Speaker 3: It did? It did? It got lost?

00:14:15
Speaker 5: And some songs surfaced on the internet. And then I have my crazy fans and they're like, will you please put this music out. I'm just like, I have no control over this album. And so I went from there and I started working with the most notorious rap label ever. I remember just being in my.

00:14:33
Speaker 3: Sister house like I was. I was down and out and I saw it.

00:14:37
Speaker 5: I was up, like in the week hours of the morning and the videos came on and I remember it was just Philadelphia scene. It was Beanie Seagal, Freeway and all of those rappers. I was like, I want to be signed to that record label. I don't know what made me want to, Well, I do because I always love hip hop. I love me some hip hop. I started. My first love was hip hop. You know, as a kid, my brother put me onto hip hop, and I think that's probably what it was. And I felt like it would be a place where I can thrive, I can write, I could kind of just be myself.

00:15:03
Speaker 3: And my wish came true. I manifested it. Somehow.

00:15:06
Speaker 5: I ended up in New York again, in the big city, and I'm just hanging out with this girl and she was so cool. She knew some people over at Rockefeller and she was like, I'm gonna take you over there. I think they would love you.

00:15:16
Speaker 3: And I was like, are you kidding me? Just like that, I met Damon.

00:15:20
Speaker 5: Dash and I had a dream about him many years before I met him, many years and he had I think it dated Aaliyah and she was part of our camp rest her soul, beautiful, beautiful person, and I just was like, well, am meeting Damon Dash. I don't know if he's gonna want to sign me because I'm a singer and they have all rappers. But he heard some music that I was doing in the studio with the A and R over there. He was like, I heard your music. Let's talk and I was like, okay, I know what that means. And we talked, and next thing you know, I'm in the studio working on albums. I did like two albums and none.

00:15:54
Speaker 1: Of them came None of them came out, only like one or.

00:15:56
Speaker 3: Two singles came out.

00:15:58
Speaker 5: So because that situation was, you know, jay Z was leaving and I was just coming in and I didn't know what was happening over there. And I remember going home and so excited, and I got the news on the internet. That's when the Internet was like popping like social media back then, and it was like, oh, jay Z's leaving Rockefeller, Damon Dash is taking some artists, and I'm.

00:16:16
Speaker 3: Like, hum, like here we go again. What does this mean? What does this mean for me and my dreams and everything?

00:16:22
Speaker 5: And yeah, I felt I was just like wow, I had to go back to the drum board again.

00:16:27
Speaker 3: Were you crushed. Were you like devastating?

00:16:29
Speaker 5: I was devastated because this is one thing that I really I really loved it there.

00:16:34
Speaker 3: I thought that they accepted me, all of me. They let me be me.

00:16:39
Speaker 5: It was fun, you know, I was I was always in the studio working with some great producers and it was just fun. And I just was like, and I was a big fan, still a big fan of jay Z, and I met him and I just didn't know what was going on, and I was crushed. Yeah, and then I had to go back to the drum board. And this is where I found myself. Two thousand and six, I went back to Virginia, packed my stuff up, and I moved down to Atlanta.

00:17:04
Speaker 3: And I was just like, what do I do now? I don't I didn't know a soul in Atlanta. You just music. They said music is driving here, and it was. It was thriving there.

00:17:14
Speaker 5: And I didn't know anybody there. My mom actually had moved there. She was the only one there that I knew.

00:17:19
Speaker 3: Well that's person. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm just like, well, she's not a.

00:17:22
Speaker 5: Producer and she doesn't have a studio, so what are we gonna do? Have some tea and I'm like, well, my mom is here and I'm here, and I got to figure it out. And I just start meeting people. And in Atlanta they have the strip club scene and you take your you take your music to the strip club.

00:17:38
Speaker 3: In Atlanta, break your song.

00:17:40
Speaker 5: So I was meeting like, you know, your managers and just people that was out and about, and they were like, you know, Coleray, and you know, they were asking me, like what happened with my career and they wanted to jump in and help, and I was just like eager. I'm like I'm here. But in that downtime, before all of that, it was just quiet. I had got a cute little apartment and it was just me by myself before my brother come the wrecking.

00:17:59
Speaker 3: Ball, and it was just quiet.

00:18:02
Speaker 5: It was myself in my apartment and I just you know, began to just love on me, and I you know, and I think all the smoking mirrors, everything was gone.

00:18:11
Speaker 3: It was just me in my own mind and me, just me. It was quiet.

00:18:15
Speaker 5: I was listening to jazz, Carol King and you know, just painting. And then I met some producers. I would go in the studio, we will go to the strip club and they would play some of my songs. They were real like gritty R and B, which I didn't know if that was the lane that I wanted to be in, but it was.

00:18:31
Speaker 3: It was. It was working for that moment.

00:18:33
Speaker 5: And then I get a call maybe about a year or so later from Damon Dash and he says, I'm working with the Black Keys.

00:18:41
Speaker 3: And I want you to come to New York.

00:18:43
Speaker 5: I'm just gonna get your ticket and you're not going back home. I was like, but, but, but, But in my mind it was it should have been a but because I had really nothing going on. I was actually excited and I was like, I didn't know who they were either. And I flew to New York just a round trip, not even no, it was a one way.

00:18:58
Speaker 3: It wasn't even one way ticket.

00:19:00
Speaker 5: And that one way ticket just open up everything and all the possibilities and everything that I loved as a kid, like the gospel Tolive because I grew up in church. And when I heard Dan, I heard a track that he had done before I met him, I thought he was like a heavy set black man.

00:19:15
Speaker 3: I'm not even gonna I'm not even gonna hold you. I thought he was a heavy set black guy.

00:19:19
Speaker 5: From like a Memphis somewhere, and when I met him, I was like, oh my god, your voice is incredible.

00:19:25
Speaker 3: It's strong, it's insane, and they just took to me.

00:19:27
Speaker 5: And we just started working on the black rock album with Damon Dash with a lot of rappers from the past and today, and that situation opened up another situation.

00:19:35
Speaker 3: It was like, we're gonna work on our album.

00:19:37
Speaker 5: We want you to come to muscle shows Alabama, and I was like really, And so I drove from muscle shows Alabama from Georgia to work on that brother's album with the Black Keys, and from there it's just I was just like, this is where this is where I always kind of wanted to be. So things just started feeling good to me again with the music and I didn't feel like, you know, depressed, and I don't know, it was my care going and I felt like, this is this is where I want to be. It felt organic, you know, the live and just singing from my heart and not trying to fit in somewhere where I didn't fit like the stuff that I was doing before in Atlanta, like kind of it just didn't make sense. And now when I listen back, I'm like, yeah, I'm glad that come out.

00:20:17
Speaker 3: That's such a crazy ride. Crazy ride, crazy ride.

00:20:21
Speaker 5: And then I met Leon through Terry Walker, the girl that I sung with overseas, and she knew their manager at the time when the record label was Truth and Soul.

00:20:30
Speaker 3: So you didn't meet Leon through the Black Keith. No, I did because he played with them. Did he meet them through you? I don't even know. It's very separate. That's so weird. And so it's so weird. I met Leon through his manager Keith.

00:20:44
Speaker 1: At the time.

00:20:44
Speaker 5: They're not he's not they're not working together anymore. But Keith, you know, he's from London, he's like swaggy, he's like eight mag you know. I love your writing, Nicole, and you're just amazing. And I'm like, yeah, that's cool. But Leon, they are doing some amazing things over and then they wanted us to do a group so they went over there to Damon Dash's studio because I was still in cahoots with Damon.

00:21:05
Speaker 3: Dash with Terry Walker.

00:21:06
Speaker 5: That's how I met Terry Walker do Damon Dash, and so I'm like, everything was just happening so crazy back then, and I just felt like, I don't know if I even want to be on this ship anymore.

00:21:16
Speaker 3: It just was weird. I wasn't getting anything done. I don't know what was happening. I was just happy to not be at home.

00:21:23
Speaker 5: I was like anything, just to just be sitting at home and not you know, you know, just being active and doing and you know, pushing my muscle, my music muscle and being creative. So I was just like, and Leon they walked in, him and his music partner at the time, and they walked in and it just felt like, you know, like something out of a freaking seventies movie, like they're coming to save my life.

00:21:43
Speaker 3: I didn't walked in and they're like, who are these girls?

00:21:45
Speaker 5: And we're sitting in there and Damon Dash he has this guitar, fake playing the guitar.

00:21:49
Speaker 3: I was like, you don't know how to play that guitar.

00:21:51
Speaker 5: But he's like, yeah, these are my girls. And they're like, well, we want to work with them. We want to get them in the studio. So it went over to Truth and Soul studio that was in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and we started cutting this cutting some music with Terry with Terry and there was another girl that was Dayton. Damon Dadh at the time that situation did not live to.

00:22:09
Speaker 3: See the light of day. She got kicked out of the group. It was just crazy.

00:22:13
Speaker 5: It was like a real sixties seventies movie that was happening right before my eyes. I had never been in a girl group, and I don't know if I ever want to be in one unless it's with you, Unless it's with you, And I was like, what is happening here? And then she went her separate ways and we're still talking today, but you know, back then, it was just crazy chaos happening, and Terry and I just we just started rewriting the songs and it started feeling good and we put the album out. And then you put that album out with Truth and Soul. Leon, yeah, and he wasn't if he was El Michael's affair back then, he might have been.

00:22:48
Speaker 3: I don't think so.

00:22:49
Speaker 5: And then I get a call, I go back home and then let the married album kind of songs marinate. Then Leon asked me to come and write on Lee Field's album. And I remember when I very heard when I very first heard Lee feels, I thought that he was an artist of the past. This music that I heard me too, and it just brought me to tears. I'm listening to the music.

00:23:10
Speaker 3: I'm in the car.

00:23:11
Speaker 5: My cousin had just passed away, and I'm like, who is this man? And they were like, this is Lee Feels, I say, and I said, is this old? I said no, this just was recorded like last year. I said, get out of here. And I met him at a show and I just was overwhelmed and I just I don't know. I was just overwhelmed seeing him on stage and I was like, this is crazy. And Leon was like, you want to come and write with him? And I'm so happy that Leon trusted me. Out of everybody I worked with, nobody seemed to ever like understand it. I can write music too. They were like you need help, you need writers, you know. But he was always been so consistent and I love him like a real brother. Like he saw me, he saw everything that I wanted to do, and he was like, if you want to sing, let her sing, and that's I'm like, I just want to sing. I want to sing him write and this is what I want to do. And I think ever since I've met Lee on everything, the doors have been opened. Everything has been just flowing and flourishing. And just it's been consistent, and that's really all I ever wanted, and it's I'm here.

00:24:09
Speaker 3: I'm here with you. That's so beautiful. I'm here with you. He really is the.

00:24:12
Speaker 5: Best, is the best, so talented. He doesn't like to be called a genius, but he's a genius. He's a genius.

00:24:18
Speaker 3: I get it.

00:24:18
Speaker 1: He's like it's a compliment. Ye, he's well, he's a sneaky genius because he's not. He's not like imposing right with anything. He's not never He's really good at recognizing things and like bringing them.

00:24:37
Speaker 3: To bring it to light.

00:24:38
Speaker 5: And there's no pressure. I felt like in my career I was always chasing this. It's just as a high. He's just chasing this one thing.

00:24:45
Speaker 3: And now I'm not. I'm just like living in a moment.

00:24:47
Speaker 5: I'm getting a chance to breathe, and in the studio, I'm getting a chance to breathe. I'm laughing, I'm having a good time. I'm not having someone yelling at back. And it made me just a perfectionist and I don't even know it sometimes And sometimes when i'm leon I'm like, I'm overthinking it sometimes because it's in my subconscious and I've been like on that crazy wheel of you get it right or you go home and and that's not the case.

00:25:09
Speaker 3: Now, No, that's not the case. It hasn't been for many years.

00:25:11
Speaker 5: But that's how I started with all that freaking pressure as a young kid, as a.

00:25:15
Speaker 3: Young kid, as a young kid. Yeah, that's really hard to break out of. It's so hard. I'm proud of you.

00:25:19
Speaker 4: I did it.

00:25:20
Speaker 2: You did it.

00:25:21
Speaker 3: I did it with a lot of prayer. It's amazing.

00:25:24
Speaker 1: Well, Leon is really good at not chasing perfectionism, and I think that's what's so good about the stuff he does. That's why it sounds so good, because it's a lot, and it's raw and it's it's amazing. There's plenty of perfectionism on the radio.

00:25:41
Speaker 3: There is. It's a lot. And I don't think it's for everybody.

00:25:44
Speaker 5: It's not for everybody, now, it's not. It's not unless you out on the town, you got your drinks, you hanging out, and then you know, I like it, but no, you're right. But then in your moment you're like, this is a little bit much and this is not my thing.

00:25:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, he does, he does. He does the good stuff. I didn't read stuff all some juicy stuff.

00:26:03
Speaker 5: Yeah, so good, and it feels so great and I'm just I feel blessed to have still been on this journey.

00:26:10
Speaker 3: And it had pivots.

00:26:11
Speaker 5: It had moments that I didn't think I was in a dark that I was gonna see that, Tonnel, I promise you I've been I used to like cry on my pillow and I'm like, and I asked myself, now, I was like, have I ever been depressed?

00:26:22
Speaker 3: And I'm like, I have And I didn't realize. I didn't realize it.

00:26:26
Speaker 5: I would be crying in the room with the pillow and I would see like the the mescala on the pillow in the room I would live. I was living with my mom, and it just was just I was I never thought that I would just do anything that I loved again that you know, And I didn't do anything wrong. That's the thing I never done. I had great relationship with every everybody. It's just that sometimes in the industry, people they move on, they forget, and they move on to the next thing.

00:26:52
Speaker 3: And I learned that at a young age, like, don't get attached.

00:26:55
Speaker 5: And that's always been my thing, and I want to get attached to people, and I asked people. People ask me all the time, do you have any industry friends. I was like, yeah, Nora Jones, Claro, you know, you.

00:27:04
Speaker 3: Know I have friends.

00:27:06
Speaker 5: But back then I didn't have many friends because I was always scarce or you.

00:27:10
Speaker 3: You didn't let them get I didn't let them get close because I just I felt like, you know, I might get burned. You might have protected yourself from a lot of weird stuff. I know I did.

00:27:20
Speaker 5: I I dodged a lot of things and a lot of people that are coming up in this social media now. I met I met the R Kelly's I met, I met R Kelly, and I felt like I dodged that bullet. And I was such a big fan and when I heard that stuff, I was just like, oh my god. I met him and I was just like, I really wanted to work with him.

00:27:39
Speaker 3: You were in that mix, I was in the mix. Yeah, well good you were protecting Yeah. I was definitely had a shield.

00:27:46
Speaker 5: And that that song Jesus be a fence all around me every day. I was like, he it was a fence around me every day in my career and I am I just feel so blessed to still be here. And to have some relevance of what's happening in the music business and not be And I tell my daughter, she's seven and she's already on top of she's growing up in the industry where everything is right here to technology, she's already grown up.

00:28:11
Speaker 3: We didn't have that.

00:28:12
Speaker 5: I'm like, iPhone. My husband's like, you want a new iPhone. I'm like, I don't want to have to go and set everything back, but pably thank the Lord for her. Yeah, thank the Lord. She's gonna learn so much more. And my little old self, old school mind. I'm like, she'll help me push me on.

00:28:30
Speaker 3: It's crazy. Thank the Lord for children.

00:28:32
Speaker 5: Yeah, I know.

00:28:34
Speaker 1: I also think it's interesting. The writing thing.

00:28:38
Speaker 3: I remember I.

00:28:39
Speaker 1: Talked to Mavis Staples and you know, she didn't she didn't get a lot of chances to write either. And then she was telling me about this album she made where she wrote all these songs and then they took credit for the minute it just she never wrote again. She said, yeah, you know, there's just like this thing and and people put you with co writer now and it's a whole industry in itself, and it's like it's too busy. Is that coming from your heart. I mean, maybe a lot of it is, but some of it isn't.

00:29:08
Speaker 3: I know that some of it isn't.

00:29:10
Speaker 1: I know that a lot of it isn't.

00:29:11
Speaker 5: It's a ladder and it's a business. It's a business. I always tell people music. Business is like ninety most of the business is about the business, and it's really less about it's a lot of the business. And the business is scary, right, Yeah. Sometimes as a female, maybe because.

00:29:29
Speaker 3: If I was a guy, I could be.

00:29:30
Speaker 5: Like, I don't care, and I'm gonna go to sleep and I don't think about all this crap. But sometimes my little self, I get overwhelmed of the business and in the nighttime, to me, everything seems so scary, And in the morning it's just like it's all those thoughts are gone.

00:29:45
Speaker 3: The sun is coming up, and all those things.

00:29:47
Speaker 5: That I've had in my mind at night about the business, no, it goes away, and I'm like, Okay, I can handle this. I've got this far in my career and I've made some decisions, whether they've been bad, good or in between. But one thing I just don't like burn bridges. I don't mess up relationships. I try to be on time, I try to keep that part of when I was young and keep that part of me because I I've heard, like some artists are just like they're terrible, and I've heard some stories. I'm like, I'm glad I'm not that, And I was like, maybe if I was that way, I've probably been further in my career.

00:30:19
Speaker 8: Maybe maybe or not or.

00:30:22
Speaker 3: You like, no, I've heard she is crazy. I'm not dealing with her.

00:30:29
Speaker 5: Sometimes I think like some artists they get so far and they're so bad. They're so bad and they're so far ahead, but they won't last. They'll fizzle out somewhere, or they probably won't sleep at night or something like that.

00:30:41
Speaker 3: Crazy.

00:30:42
Speaker 1: At least they're not having a good time have a good time.

00:30:45
Speaker 3: Maybe they're they're faking it.

00:30:46
Speaker 1: Maybe they're faking it all.

00:30:48
Speaker 3: They're faking it on social media.

00:30:50
Speaker 1: It's such a weird business because it's so weird when something hits and then something doesn't and you don't know what's going to I.

00:30:58
Speaker 3: Mean, it's like a gambling it's shooting in the darkness.

00:31:01
Speaker 1: Like it would be weird to be a record executive. I don't want to be I would, well now it would be awful. But like back in the day, even it was probably exciting.

00:31:09
Speaker 3: It was I saw the excitement.

00:31:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's all the parties and uh yeah, it was if you put enough money behind someone then they will head.

00:31:17
Speaker 5: They will but usually usually but not always and not always. And now you have to you have to get on that bike and take that ride. Yeah, and that ride sometimes hurts your legs. Yeah, you're winded.

00:31:27
Speaker 3: You're like, I'm going up this hill your eyes, yes, you know what. You feel good.

00:31:34
Speaker 5: I feel like now I'm learning because my management labeled like, you gotta you gotta do this, you got and I'm like, I'm old school. I come from like the late nineties and we didn't do all that. But I know now I'm a tourist. I can be stumboring sometimes, but I have to look at other people that are doing it and it has to feel organic for me to want to jump on that ship, right, And I'm just like, Okay, now I see certain artists that are doing things that look fun, and so if I can do it and it looks fun and it feels fun unto me, I will get on it. But if at first it was terrifying, like TikTok, I'm like.

00:32:05
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I gotta get my hair done.

00:32:07
Speaker 5: I gotta know I'm not the and I'm like, maybe it's just just I'm learning about it too much.

00:32:11
Speaker 3: This saying, just saying this sing and yeah, your podcast, I'm just like.

00:32:15
Speaker 8: Just so great.

00:32:15
Speaker 3: Just sing on TikTok.

00:32:17
Speaker 8: You know it's like do what works.

00:32:18
Speaker 5: Yeah, my managers like, you can sing the phone book Nicole, just just sing And that was my first time hear that.

00:32:24
Speaker 3: I can sing the phone books.

00:32:25
Speaker 1: Just sing.

00:32:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's such a weird world. It is weird. It's you have to be good at your self promotion. You have to be you have to, you have to you have to just do it all. Now.

00:32:38
Speaker 5: Yes, I wrote my first resume just for fun when last weekend, really I found a little app and my husband's like, won't you just do it for fun? Just because I've only had like one job in my whole life, one job.

00:32:52
Speaker 3: And I was like, I am.

00:32:53
Speaker 5: I think I'm a real artist because when I look back, and it was a job me and my mom had and it was in Norfolk, Virginia. It was all summit remodeling and we would just like sell, like get your roof fixed. And I got fired because I was on the phone singing.

00:33:09
Speaker 3: You got fired for singing.

00:33:10
Speaker 5: I got fired for singing. It's like, you can't come here singing. And it was my only last job and I don't even think I had a resume for that. And my husband's like, you can do it.

00:33:17
Speaker 3: You you have your own business. You were already doing marketing. You're already.

00:33:21
Speaker 5: And I was so nervous, and I put that freaking resume together and I have it in my files just in case I need.

00:33:26
Speaker 3: To get a job one day. Oh my god, just in case, just in case.

00:33:32
Speaker 5: It's the cutest resume ever to see all my little information on there and all my like, oh, it's just cute.

00:33:38
Speaker 3: And it was fun to do. That's good.

00:33:40
Speaker 1: You got to be a self sufficient.

00:33:42
Speaker 3: You have no Yeah, and I put up their mom mom, it's my first job. Yeah, oh my god. Juggling and all juggling at all. Yeah, it's it's it's a thing.

00:33:52
Speaker 2: It is.

00:33:52
Speaker 3: It's a thing. Yeah, And it's a thing. People do it, people do it. Yeah. So this new album you made, I remember when you.

00:34:02
Speaker 1: Guys were making it a few years back, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, Leon was excited about it.

00:34:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we have boots on the ground. We just started.

00:34:10
Speaker 5: Our first kickoff date was last night in Philadelphia at the field More and it was cute and cozy. Yeah, and my best friend from high school was in the front and I just heard him yelling so loud and it was so cute. I mean, we still keep in touch, but just to see him in the flesh, yeah, I mean, I've seen him at Beyonce concerts. It's about to be at my concert and he was right there front road yelling, having a time with his life and singing and it just felt so good.

00:34:37
Speaker 3: So boots are on the ground. We got more places to go, and we're just excited that this album is out.

00:34:42
Speaker 1: It's really exciting when the album first comes out, it is. Yeah, it is really exciting to sing new songs. And yes, even if the audience doesn't know him yet, Yeah, it's exciting for you.

00:34:52
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:34:52
Speaker 5: The last album was a few years ago, over five years ago, and I've been just singing no songs and maybe trying to do covers, and I'm like, it's time for some new some new energy on this thing, you know, and to have those new songs and the fans are there, their eyes are lit up and they're like last night, at the end of the show, after the encore, this guy he's handing me his phone.

00:35:12
Speaker 3: He's like, can you sing this song? I'm like, this show is over. I'm so sorry, bye bye. Maybe next time. But I thought it was so cute.

00:35:20
Speaker 5: I met him after the show and at the merched and he was just like, I'm a DJ, and when you're forty five came out and I plate this song. You have to sing this song next time. So it's certain songs, It's just so many songs. There's a lot of songs. I'm just like, I think I need to have like a meeting of what songs. I don't know if that's a thing. I need to have a set list meeting.

00:35:40
Speaker 1: I asked chat gpt to make me a set list once and it kept naming songs that didn't exist.

00:35:45
Speaker 3: Oh wow, I'm gonna ask.

00:35:47
Speaker 8: I'm like, no, I don't know.

00:35:48
Speaker 3: It's not quite there. Yeah, not right there. We're gonna get you together. Yeah, you were on top of your exactly do you ever do the song? Make it?

00:35:57
Speaker 1: Uh?

00:35:57
Speaker 3: Make it?

00:35:58
Speaker 4: I have to.

00:35:59
Speaker 3: I said I was gonna take it off. But if I do all do it, I still.

00:36:02
Speaker 2: Do what I did it.

00:36:03
Speaker 3: I do it all the time.

00:36:04
Speaker 5: It feels so fun to rap and get this ye freaking it wass not new energy because it's old, but it's different from the different from the rest of the set. And when I'm overseas, some people don't even freaking know that I did music yesterdayear They're like, what is she singing?

00:36:19
Speaker 2: But I like it, you know.

00:36:21
Speaker 5: I can see them in the crowd is looking confused but like into it, like what is this?

00:36:25
Speaker 3: I don't know this song? And then I meet them They're like, oh, I got to go find this music. And it's just so cute. That's so sweet. Just have these songs that just.

00:36:32
Speaker 1: They're still with you, yeah, and they change and probably has a different.

00:36:38
Speaker 3: Different meaning, different sound.

00:36:40
Speaker 5: It feels like, I don't know, it's just amazing to have that, yeah, and not to kind of be still stuck there. There are some artists that I love and I want to say no names, and I don't know what's happening with them, but they are kind of like just stuck with these same songs forever.

00:36:58
Speaker 3: And I'm like, you gotta make some new stuff.

00:37:00
Speaker 1: It's really nice to feel like you're able to do that. Yeah, And I would, Yeah, I would. I would lose my mind.

00:37:07
Speaker 3: I would lose my mind if I was just stuck there. I don't know. I just I don't know. But to each his own. Yeah, do you want to do a song from the new album?

00:37:15
Speaker 2: Yes?

00:37:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, album, let's do the title track.

00:37:20
Speaker 3: And I'm losing my sight me too?

00:37:22
Speaker 5: Okay, a bad way, but everything is like glory. But they told me that I have twenty twenty vision. I said, you're a freaking lie.

00:37:27
Speaker 3: Are you talking about up close close? Does that happen? Terrible? Yeah? Same, I just I got to like pull away this week.

00:37:34
Speaker 1: I actually started wearing my glasses all the time, all the time.

00:37:37
Speaker 3: I got a new pair coming. When I get back to the noise.

00:37:39
Speaker 5: They should be at the house and I can wear them all the time because they have the prescription at.

00:37:43
Speaker 3: The bottom I was thinking of doing, and they can do. They're gonna show me how to navigate them. But I'm so excited. Did you get a cute pair?

00:37:49
Speaker 5: They are so cute a night they look so cute like the Devil Wears product the big frames.

00:37:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, they are so cute. Oh cute. I cannot wait. I think I need to up my game up.

00:38:00
Speaker 5: The geeah and so it's so many, it's a thousand pairs of glasses, and I was like, what do I And even you can do the sunshades, because that's what I was gonna do. They can take those big frames and put the prescriptions in those. So look at those two and then.

00:38:13
Speaker 1: They turn the sunglass in the sun.

00:38:16
Speaker 3: Oh my god, that is a lot. Or you don't have to do that.

00:38:19
Speaker 5: You can just take the frames of the sunglasses and put your prescription hear in those, because you can get real funky with those. I think I'm gonna do those next. My husband like, you have great sight. You don't need to be focused on getting I was like, look, hush, I can't see.

00:38:33
Speaker 3: At least they're gonna be fun. They're gonna be fun if I'm gonna wear them.

00:38:36
Speaker 1: Did you see that SNL with Lady Gaga where it's like the older ladies and.

00:38:39
Speaker 9: The little red glasses.

00:38:41
Speaker 1: I gotta see that, and it's like, yeah, if I got my animal print you know, shirt on and my little red glasses, you know, I'm still a little funky exactly.

00:38:49
Speaker 3: That's cute. I gotta be that. Yeah, I would have definitely that for sure. Oh my God, this little old lady ever.

00:39:02
Speaker 4: H m.

00:39:08
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm mm hmmm.

00:39:12
Speaker 9: Uh when you look at me, way do you see?

00:39:24
Speaker 8: Am I.

00:39:26
Speaker 3: Your image of beauty?

00:39:33
Speaker 5: I've lost myself trying to please someone else.

00:39:42
Speaker 7: I want to be me again.

00:39:52
Speaker 8: Don't cover up, cover girl. Don't you hide from the world. Don't cover up, color girl. Don't you had from from the world. The joy that I have means more than it easy.

00:40:38
Speaker 9: I know.

00:40:40
Speaker 8: Just who who loves me. It's me.

00:40:49
Speaker 3: It's me.

00:40:51
Speaker 2: Oh oh, it's me.

00:40:56
Speaker 5: I am.

00:40:59
Speaker 3: The beauty I see.

00:41:07
Speaker 8: Don't cover up, cover girl. Don't you hide from the world. Don't cover up.

00:41:27
Speaker 10: Don't you cover cover a girl. Don't you hide? Don't you hide from the world? Yeah, yeah, yeah, make up colors so pretty? You think that's all that I am? Youre so silly eyelashes, sunglasses.

00:41:55
Speaker 3: Now you can't see me. I'm mute.

00:42:02
Speaker 8: Don't color up, color girl. Don't you hide from the world?

00:42:11
Speaker 2: God, God, God, god god it.

00:42:22
Speaker 8: Don't color up color girl.

00:42:27
Speaker 6: Don't you hide from the world. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, color girl.

00:42:56
Speaker 3: Oh that was pretty pretty.

00:42:59
Speaker 8: I loved it too.

00:43:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I was like, oh my god, cute, Oh my god.

00:43:07
Speaker 1: I knew we were going to sing together. When I met Remember, we were like best.

00:43:13
Speaker 9: Night.

00:43:13
Speaker 3: I was like, I like her so much.

00:43:14
Speaker 1: I didn't have a few margarita's, but yeah, it was fun.

00:43:18
Speaker 3: Yeah. Leon was DJing. It was DJing. It was so awesome. It was it was so fun. It was like, I want I want you to meet somebody. I was like, who's like No, I was like Nora.

00:43:26
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:43:27
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, I'm getting near. I was like, oh my god, I'm going to be oh my god. We had fun. We had so much fun. It was just chilling.

00:43:32
Speaker 2: It was chill.

00:43:33
Speaker 3: We dance, we danced a little. The food was really spicy. It was so good. It was good. It was a fun night. It was lit, just perfect.

00:43:41
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:43:41
Speaker 3: It was just a couple of us, a handful of us. Yeah, I was small a restaurant. It was so cute. It was great. Yeah. And then I saw you in Atlanta on tour. Yeah. Yeah, that's when we got out. Was like date night for me and my husband. And do you get tired at night? Is it hard to go to shows? I think I get geared up for it.

00:44:02
Speaker 5: When I'm not, I would definitely be at home and I will be in bed watching some movies I would on a regular I wasn't no, I'm home.

00:44:10
Speaker 3: I was happy you came out. I find that more and more.

00:44:13
Speaker 4: You know.

00:44:14
Speaker 1: I live in New York, so there's always something to see. I love that, and I have friends coming to town that I want to see, but I never it's so hard to go out at night.

00:44:23
Speaker 3: It's so hard, and the world is crazy.

00:44:25
Speaker 1: Now the world is crazy, but it's fun.

00:44:27
Speaker 5: You got to get out, Nora, and that was you. Well, we just moved from Atlanta. We downsized, were put our house up for rent, and my husband's in navy. Now, oh wow, I'm a Navy wife too, talk about that. But yeah, we downside. So we have a two bedroom in Illinois and it's the cutest walk out of the house. Everything is home Goods is right there, so you can go get.

00:44:47
Speaker 3: My hair done and go to Whole Foods.

00:44:49
Speaker 8: Wait, so you moved up bar.

00:44:51
Speaker 3: The bars are there. We get melloy and Nanny I mean, Hubby are out.

00:44:55
Speaker 5: We don't have to drive the car. We can walk to the mall or ride a bike. I'm always wanted that.

00:45:00
Speaker 1: So it's like a little bit of like it's like a small town.

00:45:03
Speaker 5: It's a small town, Vernon Hills is so cute. It's the cutest little town right out forty five minutes from Chicago.

00:45:09
Speaker 3: That's amazing.

00:45:09
Speaker 1: And then Chicago's International Airport.

00:45:12
Speaker 3: That's how I think. Yeah, it's the cutest neighborhood that I'm meeting. This lady in my building. Her name is Sue. She's like the mayor.

00:45:19
Speaker 5: And she was at the pool the other day and she's like, you see that lady over there. I don't like her, and don't you talk to her. I was like, whatever you say, Sue. She's like, I need to get you some clips for your towel. What color do you want? She like pulls out all these cute like clips for the towel. I'll take pink.

00:45:33
Speaker 3: She is so cute.

00:45:34
Speaker 5: She's like, I've been here when they open this place, and she said the pool needs to redo. She's like, yeah, I'm funky and I'm dating a forty year old.

00:45:40
Speaker 3: I say, good for you.

00:45:41
Speaker 1: I like Sue.

00:45:42
Speaker 3: I like her. She's awesome.

00:45:44
Speaker 5: Every time I see her, we're like talking and giggling and she's so awesome.

00:45:47
Speaker 3: She's like seventy years old.

00:45:49
Speaker 5: I hang out with older women. It's older women and my fans are like older men overseas.

00:45:54
Speaker 3: Like all older men. I'm like, what's happening here? I wonder what that's about.

00:45:57
Speaker 5: I wonder too cute, Like you should come hang out at my farm. I'm like, I don't think so.

00:46:04
Speaker 3: I don't want to. I love that you have a farm, but I don't think I'm going to come to your far.

00:46:09
Speaker 5: So when you go out to you go to Chicago or is it, oh yeah, we do date night. No, it's like forty five minutes.

00:46:15
Speaker 3: It's not bad. We do. We do Ramen. We love Ramen, and we get like ideas.

00:46:19
Speaker 5: And we go to like hook a lounge just to get out, you know, because we were missing him for six months. He's doing did boot camp Wow, And it was just different in our house because we had him there and then he just had disappeared.

00:46:30
Speaker 3: And I'm like, oh my.

00:46:31
Speaker 5: God, I gotta get this house situated. I gotta get Melody ready for school, I gotta learn these songs.

00:46:35
Speaker 3: I gotta get here. I gotta plan to plan my life.

00:46:38
Speaker 8: Yeah.

00:46:39
Speaker 3: And so to have him back is just like I can just breathe.

00:46:42
Speaker 5: That's nice, and just to us to be back together again, it just felt like a time just stopped.

00:46:48
Speaker 1: It's a hard life when somebody's.

00:46:50
Speaker 3: Gone it was and they're used to being in the equation is we deal with that a lot.

00:46:54
Speaker 1: Because I leave a lot.

00:46:55
Speaker 3: I leave a lot too.

00:46:56
Speaker 1: It's not like being in the military, but it's I know, it's still disruptive.

00:47:00
Speaker 3: Disruptive for the little ones.

00:47:02
Speaker 5: Yeah, and Melody, she's like she's a she's a Gemini, So she has two different sides. She's sweet, you know, sweet and sour in a good way. But she's like she's like grown up with me and singing and the music and she knows that's what it is, and she she goes.

00:47:20
Speaker 3: With the flow. Do you bring her on the road? She's been on the road before.

00:47:23
Speaker 5: And I'm kind of like a therapist mom too sometimes not trying to intrude, but I have my ways of I asked chat DBT, how do you ask this way? How do you ask these questions without making the kids like get out of here, mom?

00:47:34
Speaker 9: You know?

00:47:35
Speaker 3: And I found I should do that. That's what It's so easy.

00:47:38
Speaker 5: And you just sneak it in and you don't even know that they're they're just talking to you about like some random stuff. And I feel like oh, she's sharing with me, but I have to approach it in a great way, right and not like make her feel like I'm trying to be a teacher or you know, and make her feel uncomfortable. But we had a puppy named Hello Kitty and I miss Hello Kitty the beautiful. She's a Multese poodle and that was Melody's first pet, and we were moving and it just didn't make sense for us to take the dog. So we put her on adoption site and we got so many hits because she's adorable.

00:48:08
Speaker 3: She has a whole perfect dog, perfect dog.

00:48:09
Speaker 5: And we found a veteran and she's a veteran of Air Force and we met her and I thought she was that Hello Kitty would have a nice home because I was like, she needs to be in a nice, loving environment where a dog.

00:48:20
Speaker 3: If she wants to go outside, she can run around.

00:48:22
Speaker 5: And I asked Melody in my chat GBT, way, just want to ask her just some questions, just I just want to know because that's her dog, not mine. I mean, it was all of ours, but that was her first pet that was gifted to her, and so I was asking little things to just make sure she was okay with it. And when I saw her, like packing up the clothes and like getting her ready, and she didn't cry.

00:48:42
Speaker 3: And she was like giving the lady.

00:48:44
Speaker 5: We were taking the stuff out of the house, and at last she had picked up Hello Kitty and took her and she gave her a kiss, and after she drove, I was like, do you miss Hello Kitty? She's like no, And I was like, are you sure? But I had already like prepped and asked questions, just because we would have kept her had she answered the questions in a different way, and we would have made it work because my community it's all about dogs, and I feel like, oh my gosh, she would have been great out here, but they're moving around a lot. Yeah, And she gave her a little kiss and they did like a little thing. And the lady drove off and that was it, and I asked her, she's she sometimes she misses her. And I was like, when we move again and we get off forever home, then we'll get a dog. You can have a if you want to be inside or outside. You can get a dog or a cat because I like cats too, so we'll figure that part out.

00:49:29
Speaker 3: But it is, it is.

00:49:30
Speaker 4: It is.

00:49:32
Speaker 5: Hard, you know, being away from the kiddos and trying to you know, figure out where they are and homework and I'm like out of town and I'm doing it. I'm still doing homework on tour. I'm like, am I in the second grade?

00:49:44
Speaker 3: Or am I on tour? I think I'm in the second grade in on tour? Oh my god, that's too funny. It just gets worse. Yeah, I'm like, what is this second grade math?

00:49:53
Speaker 1: Dude? My fourth and my sixth grader? Now I can't even wrap my hand.

00:49:58
Speaker 3: I was like, I need a tutor to tutor me to get me back into the uh. I was like, I don't know.

00:50:03
Speaker 1: But I brought my daughter to Japan last week, which was really special because it was a very short trip and we had three shows and she had a few days off school anyway, So I brought her and we're on a fourteen hour flight and our ten She's like, all right, I have to do my homework now. I was like, are you kidding me? I was like, now, we're going to do this homework? And we were both cross eyed. We were so tired, but we did it.

00:50:31
Speaker 3: It's good to get it done and out the way.

00:50:33
Speaker 1: I think I was actually really surprised and really proud that she wanted to do it.

00:50:37
Speaker 3: That's awesome.

00:50:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, because usually she's a little more like, let's not do it.

00:50:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's like, I gotta get it done. Let me just do it now. So when I get to Japan is at the time of my life. Yeah, smart girl. So it worked out.

00:50:47
Speaker 1: But we had like help, you know, fraction strips of paper. We were doing fractions, show the work it out. There was like homework paraphernalia, you.

00:50:56
Speaker 5: Know, and it's the work legs. Work this problem out. Oh chat GBT word, that's problem out for me.

00:51:02
Speaker 3: Somehow it worked and she ended up figuring it out. That's amazing. I helped her.

00:51:07
Speaker 5: But yeah, I was a little rocky at the start. I'm sure I would be worried if this new math it's hard.

00:51:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's hard. I'm like they are.

00:51:17
Speaker 5: If she's in college. In second grade, I know she's like, but I want to skip twelfth grade. Mom, I'll say, you keep going to where you're going and busting out those a's, You'll be You'll be there, You'll be there. She's like, I want to be a venarian's see, whatever you want to do Babe, this guy is beyond You can go and do whatever you want. You can be the president if you want, because that's what you want to do. I'm going to support you whatever you want. It'd be tough, but I'm like, my baby is the president, get out of my way.

00:51:42
Speaker 8: Be fine.

00:51:43
Speaker 5: Yeah, with a paint the White House pink, she will. She's gonna be like the White House has to be pink.

00:51:48
Speaker 3: That's great.

00:51:50
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much for doing this.

00:51:51
Speaker 3: Thank you, But I at home good. You can come back and easy. You're easy. You're easy.

00:51:58
Speaker 5: And there are other places. I'm like, this is gonna be nervous. I don't know what they're gonna ask.

00:52:02
Speaker 3: It's supposed to be. It's supposed it's supposed to be fun. And I loved it. I loved it.

00:52:07
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:52:07
Speaker 1: I was thinking about, like, your background in church.

00:52:12
Speaker 3: You grew up in church. I grew up singing in church. Yep.

00:52:14
Speaker 5: My mom and my dad when they were still married, I felt it was actually my grandfather's church and him and my grandmother and well, not his church, but that's the church that he resided in, right, and he was like.

00:52:27
Speaker 3: A deacon in the church.

00:52:29
Speaker 5: And then my mom and all her sisters and everybody started like just pull paling into this church, right, And I'm growing up and I felt like I went to church.

00:52:36
Speaker 3: I felt like it was like seven days a week. Oh my gosh, what church was it was? It was called Holy like Church of Deliverance.

00:52:42
Speaker 5: And I have the the craziest story which I felt like I was supposed to be a gospel singer. And I remember when I was about fourteen, my mom and I we went to church one Sunday morning and I was about to go work with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis in Minneapolis. And she they do this like church prayer bowl, right, and you put the prayer and you put your thing in and you drop it.

00:53:02
Speaker 3: You go sit down, you wait to hear the word. And so the lady's sister married out on her name.

00:53:06
Speaker 5: She come with this big old head with like a big old feather on it, and she's like, I liked it. We're gonna give devotion and we're gonna start praying for people. And this morning she started pulling out the thing. She's like, I like to pray for sister Nicole and miss Deva Ray. They're going to work with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for her singing career. And I was sitting there like this is going well. The pastor gets up out of his seat and he's like gangster like he was this gangster pastor. He wears these dark gazelle shades that are like mafia driven right, and he gets up, disregard the prayer they're serving, the devil, Oh, disregarded, disregarded.

00:53:42
Speaker 1: I'm just like, oh my, he did not like you did not deserve that.

00:53:46
Speaker 3: I did not deserve it.

00:53:47
Speaker 5: And Sister Green Lord rest her soul, she said at the church, she said, he know he was wrong for that. How did you tell Hersonati fourteen? This was before my career even like began, and I always wanted to be a gospel singer. And I think that was a pivotal moment that meh, because he should have said, look, just sing at church. He could have talked to us and said pray for them and after church, maybe you don't want to go that route.

00:54:07
Speaker 7: He was mean.

00:54:09
Speaker 5: He was mean until he's still alive. He's like in his nineties. And I sung at my I sung at my aunt's funeral. He was there because they had the funeral. My family still goes to the church, you know. And I sung at my aunt's funeral, and I remember him just like just looking at me crazy, and I'm just like so nervous. And I had already made it in my career at this point, right and I'm an adult, and I'm sitting there like he still got a chip on his shoulder instead of like, you know, embracing me and talking to me. Because he loved my dad. My dad was sung in his church, and he loved my dad. But somehow he just didn't like me for some reason.

00:54:41
Speaker 3: I don't know.

00:54:41
Speaker 5: But and at my great grandmother's funeral, I'm up there singing, He's walks in there. It ain't for God, it ain't right. And I was just like, oh my goodness. He just kept going and I'm just like, well that that deterred me right there.

00:54:54
Speaker 3: But I still I still I love going to church. I love it.

00:55:00
Speaker 5: I still go to church, and sometimes I want it's get up there and sing with the choir. And I was telling Leon, I'm like, I want to bring my church roots into this album. I just felt like when I was singing in the choir, I just felt so free and just a choir and just everybody singing and clapping and having a good time and feeling something. Not to say that I wasn't doing music that didn't feel like something. I just always wanted to do a gospel album, and so I was like, I'm just bring those gospel roots into this album.

00:55:25
Speaker 3: And that's how that was birthed.

00:55:26
Speaker 1: Well, you have all the harmonies, and that's such a thing.

00:55:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, Missy helped me with that. Oh my gosh, she was harmonizing really fool. Yeah, she could just harmonize. I didn't know that.

00:55:37
Speaker 9: Yeah.

00:55:37
Speaker 5: She and she'll write a song and like scribble and.

00:55:42
Speaker 3: The song is done.

00:55:42
Speaker 5: I'm like I can't read this and she's like it goes like this. And she was always awesome. But you know what, really, I think I got my early start with harmonies too, and not.

00:55:51
Speaker 3: Even know it church with church absolutely, and I mean I give.

00:55:54
Speaker 5: People a lot of credit, but I keep forgetting as a kid.

00:55:57
Speaker 3: I got my first song at church when I was eight. I sung it.

00:56:00
Speaker 5: Acquire eight all the way on up till maybe maybe ten, and then I stayed in church.

00:56:06
Speaker 3: I still go to church today.

00:56:07
Speaker 5: And I told Melody, we're gonna go you need to go to church and we go to church and you're gonna say grace. Because I was forced to say the grace in front of all adults, and like Nicole's gonna say to grace.

00:56:17
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't know what to say. Just making up anything. I just make up anything.

00:56:22
Speaker 1: Do you make her say it in front of everybody?

00:56:23
Speaker 3: Yeah? I don't make her. I just want her. Her grandparents make her.

00:56:26
Speaker 5: They're old at old school, my husband's side of the family, and she's staying there. She's like, I just want to eat pizza. I don't want She's like, I don't want to do it. And her grandma said, I'm gonna take that tablets.

00:56:39
Speaker 8: Thank you, you'll pray.

00:56:42
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:56:43
Speaker 3: Well, it's funny.

00:56:44
Speaker 1: I was listening to all these you know podcasts, all these self help you know, you make your gratitude lists. I mean that's saying grace.

00:56:51
Speaker 3: Right, Just say saying grace. You don't have to go deep. It's good for you. It's good for you. It grateful things you should. You should be very grateful.

00:57:00
Speaker 5: It's not yeah, somebody is not having a great day or a great life, or or a moment, so it's to be to be thankful.

00:57:07
Speaker 3: It's I think it's everything.

00:57:08
Speaker 5: That's that's the one important thing in this life to be grateful and just to give back.

00:57:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you you seem very.

00:57:18
Speaker 1: I feel like it would be easy, with your story and your career for you to be bitter, and I don't feel I don't feel.

00:57:26
Speaker 3: Any of that far. Oh yeah, no, I don't think it's in me. I makeup. I cannot do it. I cannot. That's probably how you got through it.

00:57:35
Speaker 2: Yeah it is.

00:57:36
Speaker 5: I'm like, my god, how did I get this far? And everybody will tell me if I was you, I would custom out.

00:57:41
Speaker 3: I would. I was like, that's not me.

00:57:43
Speaker 5: And I think in the long run, it'll what karma is, look, you know, And so I believe in my Daddy always like, do you know that little lady named Karma? You don't want to meet her? And I was like, I always heard him saying that. In my mind, I don't want to meet Karma. You know what some people do, and and when that time comes, it'll be and I'll be on the right side of wrong, on the wrong side of right, or whatever you want.

00:58:03
Speaker 3: To call it. Yeah, you know, so good. We I'm proud of you, Thank you. I'm proud so much. Much love to you, same to you. I love you too.

00:58:11
Speaker 1: We should do this again sometimes do it? Do you feel like singing one last song?

00:58:15
Speaker 3: Let's sing? So this is my sort of version of a gospel song.

00:58:19
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, I feel like in the last ten years any song that the songs that mean the most that I've written are sort of to God. And do you find that you write those kinds of songs.

00:58:32
Speaker 5: I find they just come to me. Yeah, they come to me naturally, my ancestors. I just think my great grandmother when she was alive, she always sing And sometimes I'm singing and I hear her voice coming through me, and I know she's in heaven somewhere like my grand great great grand baby is doing it and I feel that that vibration.

00:58:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you have to just let God just flow wherever wherever he is I want to be. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, all right, Well, thanks for singing the song with me.

00:59:01
Speaker 2: Do it.

00:59:21
Speaker 3: And after all been said and done, who said it best?

00:59:28
Speaker 8: Will you the one?

00:59:30
Speaker 1: Let's just forget, leave it behind and carry on.

00:59:40
Speaker 3: If you should find the time to speak, then speak to me.

00:59:47
Speaker 5: I never keep you from your fine not detiny, so gary.

01:00:00
Speaker 2: Into the choir, yet.

01:00:03
Speaker 3: I am bound.

01:00:05
Speaker 2: Well you have lost how never found?

01:00:11
Speaker 5: I lost my nerve Yeppie surrounds so gary.

01:00:39
Speaker 8: Y m hmmm into the chod it. I am bound.

01:01:08
Speaker 3: What you've lost?

01:01:10
Speaker 5: I've never found I've lost smiler, yeat, peace surround so carry all.

01:01:24
Speaker 8: And now that all.

01:01:27
Speaker 3: Been said and done, who said it best? With you the one?

01:01:35
Speaker 11: Let's just forget leave it behind, hand carry on, Let's just forget, leave it behind.

01:01:51
Speaker 7: Heyy yay, so good.

01:02:05
Speaker 3: That was beautiful. That's the first time I got to sing sing. That was like somebody.

01:02:11
Speaker 4: Yeah.

01:02:11
Speaker 3: It felt so good. I love the lyrics. Yay, thank you beautiful, thank you so much, thank you, love you, love you.

01:02:19
Speaker 8: We did it, We did it.

01:02:21
Speaker 1: Oh, that was so fun. I had no idea her whole story. I know it was a wild You're super super not.

01:02:28
Speaker 3: What I knew about. I didn't know any of it. That was amazing.

01:02:32
Speaker 1: I really love singing with her too. I hope we get to do more in the future. So thanks to Lady Ray for joining us. We'll be back next week with Martha Wainwright. Nora Jones is Playing Along is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Visit Nora Jones channel and be sure to subscribe while you're there. I'm your host, Norah Jones. Recorded by Matt Marronelli, mixed by Jamie Landry. Audio post production and mastering by Greg Tobler. Artwork by Eliza Frye for Talk Free by Shervin Linez. Produced by Norah Jones and Sarah Oda. Executive producers Aaron wan Kaufman and Jordan Rentagg Marketing Lead Queen and a key