Up next in 10
Video: Billy Porter Is Getting Ready to Raise the Volume in a City Near You
May 17, 2024
Today, GRAMMY, EMMY, and twice Tony Award-winning singer, composer, director, author, actor, and playwright Billy Porter is hitting the road for his BLACK MONA LISA TOUR: VOLUME 1 and telling us all about it in this video!
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
0:10
Tony Emmy and Grammy Award winner, Billy Porter, is about to kick off his Black Mona Lisa tour, volume one
0:16
And I caught up with Billy here at the legendary Sardis. Well, first of all, it is a pleasure to catch up with you, my friend, here at Sardis
0:25
I know. Good to see you. How is everything? I am doing great. Hey, look, yep
0:29
My little Sardis, you know. That's cool. Everybody wants one. I know, and I already have one
0:37
My darlings. How cool is it to have that on the wall here at the legendary Sardis
0:41
Well, you know, it's a dream come true. You know, one of my original dreams was the Broadway, conquering Broadway
0:49
And after 25 years, I was able to, you know, do that thing, originate a Broadway show
0:56
you know, originated a role in a Broadway show and a spectacular one
1:00
And, you know, I pinch myself every day. Gotta let these children know what time it is
1:07
Because I've been there, that one I just so you know mama knows it best I
1:12
How excited are you to be kicking off this tour? Oh, you know, speaking of original dreams
1:18
the other part of my original dream was to be the Mailwitt in Houston
1:23
And for those of you who don't know, my first R&B album came out in 19, The industry was very homophobic at that time
1:31
And it just didn't work out for me. And blessedly, I had other avenues to go down
1:39
other roads to travel. And now I joke, I've come in the back way
1:47
Come in the back door, I'm signed again to Republic Records. You know, it's back to my sort of mainstream R&B
1:55
R&B, soul, pop, crossover music roots. And I'm going to be on a rock and roll tour bus and everything
2:03
I'm just excited and scared. See, that's the only place this joke works
2:07
Y'all know what I'm talking about. I've been trying to use it, and it has not landed properly
2:13
It will land with this audience. But yes, I'm excited and very, very scared
2:18
Well, listen, 25 cities. This is amazing. This is like old school. I know
2:22
Right? At a tour bus, right? On a tour bus. With bunks on it, 12 people on the bus
2:28
I haven't even seen it. I haven't seen no pictures. I don't know what it looks like
2:32
I'm going to take one suitcase and a toiletry bag and my computers
2:39
That's it. That's it? That's it for me, for my regular clothes. Because I'm going to be sleep, eat show
2:47
Sleep, eat show for five weeks. That's all I'm going to have the energy to do
2:52
I'm excited, though, to be fronting a. a band as myself with my own music that I have written you know finally speaking musically to the world
3:09
in the way that I want on my own terms. And I'm just, I'm excited to share
3:16
Yeah, so what can the fans expect? What kind of songs will be in the show
3:19
So I'm doing 10 songs from the new album. That's all pop and R&B and soul and all of that
3:25
So that's, there's that. There's that, and then I have like a section with a nod to my very first album
3:33
Then I have like a, I have the theater section, which will include Kinky Boots
3:39
I have my political section. And it's sort of a retrospective of my life and career, because what I find hilarious and ironic is for the first 25 years of my career, particularly in the theater
3:53
everybody thought I was a singer and not an actor. So I spent 25 years trying to get people to take me seriously as an actor
4:03
And now it's like, oh, I didn't know Pray Talka sing. You know, so I have some work to do to kind of like remind the children
4:12
Bring it all together. Yes, I have to bring it all together. Talk about your brand new single, which drops tomorrow
4:17
Tomorrow. Baby was a dancer, is what it's called. and it's, you know, a song about me and the haters
4:27
and sort of hearing what the haters say and overcoming that, believing in yourself enough
4:37
to do it anyway, whatever the it is. It's a bop, as the children say, as the kids say, it's a bop
4:47
And I'm just excited. I'm excited about it. I'm excited about it
4:51
Now, this is part of a whole album, right? And singles will drop along the way
4:55
Well, singles have already dropped. Children was a single that dropped about a year and a half ago
5:02
Stranger Things was a single that dropped around the election because that's one of my political songs that are on the album
5:11
Baby Was a Dancer is dropping on Friday, March 24th. And then I'm going to have a series of, I think
5:21
three or four more singles before the actual album drops at the end of the summer early fall
5:27
This was a very personal album for you, wasn't it? It is a very personal album
5:31
You know, it really is me claiming and celebrating my life
5:45
leaning into joy, a big old hug and saying you've done good
5:54
And hopefully when people come to the show, that you know my mission and my hope is to share you know to celebrate life celebrate love celebrate joy celebrate hope remind people that all of those words are actions
6:11
We must engage with them like their verbs. We can't sit back
6:17
You know, we have to move forward with loving kindness and compassion
6:24
and in this place that we're in. And the world right now, that's a hard day
6:28
decision to choose, and we must choose it anyway. You know you were saying it was always a dream of yours
6:35
I always say things happen at the right time. And boy, is this the time for you to tour and to spread your love and your message
6:43
and whatever else you give? Because you're going to all these states. Yeah, I'm going to, yes, I am
6:48
I'm going to the south, and there's some people who, you know, I got four cities in Texas
6:52
and I'm not going to Florida. And so many people online were like, you're not coming to Florida because you hate us
6:58
It's like, no, no, no, no, no. That was the scheduling thing because as an artist, it's my responsibility to go right into
7:05
the vortex of the challenges. That's my point. That's the point. You know, so I'm excited to get to be able to go to some of these places where some
7:16
conversations need to happen. Yeah. You're an inspiration to millions of kids and people who finally see themselves because of
7:23
who you are. Oh, thank you. What that means to you? I mean, it means everything to me
7:30
It means the world to me. It's hard to process. And sometimes I feel afraid of, if I'm really being honest
7:42
sometimes I'm afraid of feeling it too much. Because I'm afraid that then the work might suffer
7:53
You know, the intention might suffer. I know that's weird, and I'm working on that myself
8:01
Well, that's a voice in your head. That's a voice. We don't see that. Absolutely. The beautiful message you have spread just so many people
8:07
And I know that that's a message in my. I know that that's a voice in my head
8:11
And my goal is to just remain rooted and grounded in this space that the universe has allowed me to create
8:25
You know. Pose was a life changer. Not just as entertainment, but again, what you put out there where people could see themselves
8:33
Oh, my God, I'm like Billy Porter, or I could be like Billy Porter, or I see myself like Billy Porter, what that means to you
8:39
Yeah, there was no representation. For us as kids, there was nothing that looked like me
8:46
I even talk about August Wilson, often. Love August Wilson. A genius
8:51
Ten plays about Pittsburgh, my hometown. Not one person looks like me
8:56
in the whole 10 play canon. Not one person looks like me And it took me until my 30s to understand that oh I the change that I need to see
9:12
I have to engage and have the audacity, which is the name of a song on my album
9:18
to have the audacity to step up and do it myself. How dare I, right
9:26
And I just, I just, I just feel really blessed. Yeah. Your best-selling memoir, Unprotected, was a life-changer for so many people, too
9:36
Thank you. How proud are you of that book? I am so proud of it because it wasn't until I was in my 30s that I realized I could write
9:47
and that I wanted to be a writer and that I needed to be a writer
9:52
because I had some things to say that weren't being said often enough
9:58
Yeah. And so I'm really proud to have that peace out in the world because it really did a lot to help heal me
10:11
You know, I feel like art has the power to heal. That's what I've been doing my whole life with it and set people free
10:19
You know, I set myself free with that book. And my hope is that others will be set free in the process
10:25
Yeah. I mean, I want to talk to you about you've done so much for the LG
10:29
BTQ plus community. And like you said, there's so much hate going around the country with all these
10:34
anti-drag laws and all these anti-just gay laws in all these Republican states, yet you're going there
10:40
You're going to a lot of these states and you're putting your message out there. What can people do
10:44
to help spread the good message? Well, the first thing I want to say, and it's a mantra that I want to
10:52
spread around the world is that the change has already happened. Repeat after me, the change has already
10:58
happened. We're already there. That's why the pushback is so severe. That's why they're coming at us
11:04
like this because they're scared of change. But like Tony Kushner says, the world only spins forward
11:14
In Angels in America, it's only spins forward. You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube and we
11:20
ain't going nowhere. So something is going to have to balance itself out. And I know that art has the power to
11:28
transform hearts and minds and souls from the inside out. And that is what I'm dedicated to
11:34
So finally, what are you looking forward to the most with this incredible tour
11:40
Being back out in front of people, fronting a band as myself, not a character, and singing my own
11:50
music. I hope you're going to have a film crew on this bus with you on the whole entire tour
11:55
I hope so, too. I'm working on it. Who knows? Billy always a pleasure, my friend
12:00
Thank you. Had the best time on tour. Thank you
#Pop Music
#Acting & Theater
#Broadway & Musical Theater