Up next in 10
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis Talk New Album 'Jam and Lewis Volume One' | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
Jul 29, 2021
It has been almost 40 years since Jimmy "Jam" Harris and Terry Lewis have been promising an album under their own names. And now we finally get some grown folks music in the form of Jam and Lewis Volume One. The duo called into Sway In The Morning to talk about the making of the album.
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Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis Talk New Album 'Jam and Lewis Volume One' | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
https://youtu.be/k1Zu8Zautc8
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0:00
[Music]
0:05
so basically that's all we're doing
0:07
there you go man the architects the
0:09
architects big round of applause for the
0:12
architects
0:13
we got to say thank you you got to say
0:15
thank you sometimes hb you got to thank
0:18
people for what they bring to your life
0:20
thank you
0:21
thank you for what you did with janet
0:23
jackson with us here with johnny gill
0:25
with lionel richie with heard albert
0:27
keep them going thank you with what you
0:29
did with new edition mary j
0:31
khan mary mariah carey tlc sounds of
0:35
black as gwen stefani kelly price
0:37
eric bernay pia sedora solo to humanly
0:40
roger melanie
0:42
george michael vanessa but thank you
0:45
thank you thank you for your energy
0:47
sometimes we just got to say that
0:49
just thank you thank you for those
0:51
frequencies that you were able to reach
0:54
while being in that lab that just
0:56
illuminated all over the world and
0:58
brought people together through this
1:00
source we call music
1:01
it's healing these vibrations that these
1:04
men have architect over the decades i
1:06
know it for a fact
1:08
because when i listen to their music i
1:10
feel good
1:13
that's divine work right there that's
1:15
just not two construction workers
1:18
with hammers and chisels chiseled away
1:21
as songs
1:22
that create melodies that create vibes
1:25
that create an energy that brings us
1:27
together what makes me so happy as many
1:29
times as i've spoken with them
1:31
i'm nervous like it's the first time
1:33
heather b
1:34
and i know him personally but i just
1:36
know their greatness and i want to
1:37
welcome him to the show please welcome
1:39
them back to one and only
1:42
jimmy jam and terry lewis
1:58
that's not true you guys are new artists
2:00
right now what does it feel like you got
2:02
your debut album jimmy jam that's your
2:04
debut album
2:05
hey man we want to be there we thought
2:07
we told we told them we said we want to
2:08
be the
2:09
we want to be the oldest best new
2:11
artists at the grammys if we can do that
2:12
they said we didn't qualify because
2:14
we've already won grammys but that's
2:15
okay but
2:16
anyway we're still doing it man we're
2:18
keeping it alive we're having fun
2:20
you're having fun um are you nervous
2:22
terry like you know it's
2:24
it's always that thing when you make the
2:26
baby and you put it out in the world you
2:27
hope people receive it
2:29
do you get beyond that point because of
2:31
all the accolades or do you still
2:33
lay up at night wonder how people gonna
2:35
receive it
2:37
brother i i we never did it for
2:39
accolades man we do it because we love
2:40
it
2:41
so i mean certainly um you get a little
2:44
nervous when you're releasing something
2:46
because we make music that we like and
2:47
we hope everybody else agrees
2:50
and um you know we just hope everybody
2:53
agrees
2:53
but still we're just going to continue
2:55
making music can't let it
2:57
let it get you get your head all crazy
2:59
man you got to go
3:00
go do what you do okay jimmy jim terry
3:03
lewis i gotta get used to being
3:05
interviewed
3:07
got a new group
3:10
they gotta get used hey man y'all ever
3:12
have a fight and almost break up as a
3:14
crew
3:16
[Music]
3:17
no man not even not even close man
3:20
um i'll tell you what happened with us
3:23
was um
3:25
one thing what we did was at the very
3:27
beginning at least of our business
3:28
relationship because we were friends
3:30
before
3:30
for a long time but our business
3:32
relationship we basically shook hands
3:34
and we just we said 50 50. and so that
3:37
eliminated
3:38
creatively all the things you would ever
3:40
argue about like you know it's my lyric
3:42
well it's my melody well it's my music
3:44
but it's my what you know
3:46
you take all of that out of the
3:47
conversation so that's the first thing
3:48
we did foundationally
3:50
but the other piece of it is we never
3:52
have arguments and
3:53
we've never had an argument because we
3:55
always look at arguments as something
3:56
you're trying to win
3:57
right so let's say we have an argument
3:59
and i win the argument that means terry
4:01
loses the argument
4:02
and why would i ever want to see my
4:03
friend lose anything particularly
4:06
at my hands right so we take the word
4:08
arguing out of it
4:10
but we do have disagreements but a
4:12
disagreement is something you're trying
4:14
to solve as opposed to an argument which
4:16
you're trying to win
4:17
so to me the ultimate win is when you
4:20
solve
4:21
whatever the issue is you solve it and
4:23
now everybody wins
4:25
and so that's the way we always look at
4:26
it so we never argue we never have had
4:28
an argument ever
4:29
have you have you ever had because i
4:31
would imagine and
4:32
i'm going to interject this because you
4:34
know my partner king tech
4:36
both of you know king tech and king
4:37
taking it king taking our terry said the
4:40
same thing
4:41
in the beginning like look i'm a writer
4:43
i was a writer
4:44
emcee he's a producer but we did a whole
4:46
lot of other things and we made that
4:48
same decision
4:49
to no matter what it's 50 50. so if you
4:52
go out make
4:53
you know whatever or make whatever we
4:54
put in the same part we're 50 50. we
4:56
stayed together for 30 plus years
4:58
but there has been some i told you so
5:00
moments
5:04
listen when it comes to some business
5:06
decisions that
5:08
all right man you want to go that way
5:10
and then we go that way and it was like
5:11
ah
5:12
i told you so terry you ain't got no i
5:14
told you so moments with jimmy
5:17
uh the only told you so moment i have
5:19
with jimmy is that i told him
5:20
that he'd be a great dad and it actually
5:24
come to fruition so uh you know i'm
5:25
happy about that i told him
5:27
you know my thought was this that
5:30
you know people are like like plants so
5:33
you you go
5:34
grow plants you plant the seeds that you
5:36
want to grow
5:37
and a lot of people just plant weeds and
5:40
then there's a lot of people in the
5:41
world that have something to offer he
5:43
was one of those people i said
5:44
you know it's not a monetary thing it's
5:46
just you have wisdom that you can pass
5:48
on we need your
5:49
your kids in the next generation so
5:52
um i finally talked him into it and he
5:54
has some wonderful kids
5:56
you got some beautiful kids damn man
5:58
these dudes love each other
6:00
yeah that's brotherhood for real
6:04
i ain't mad at that what about you jimmy
6:06
you ever have any uh uh
6:08
this business decisions that made you go
6:10
hey man told you so
6:13
um not that i can think of and and it's
6:15
really because
6:17
terry's decisions have always been good
6:20
and that goes back to
6:21
you got to go back to our roots like
6:23
when i'll go back to like the time when
6:25
the time
6:26
started well no no i'll go back before
6:28
that i'll go back when terry and i met
6:29
like in junior high school
6:31
i remember the first thing that terry
6:33
said to me one of the first things was
6:35
he was putting a band together and he
6:37
said he i want you to be in my band
6:39
and i said okay great and i said i'll
6:40
play the drums and he said i already got
6:42
a drummer
6:43
and i said you do and he says yeah i
6:44
already got a drummer he said but you
6:45
should play keyboards because your dad
6:46
plays keyboards
6:47
and i was like okay cool so we went and
6:49
stole my dad's keyboard from the club
6:51
that he was playing at and then we did
6:53
our first little gig together
6:54
so that was the first thing terry said
6:56
and that was you know he was absolutely
6:58
right about that
6:58
and then even getting in the time he
7:01
kept saying man you need to join the
7:02
band you need to join the band and at
7:04
that point i was just djing and stuff
7:05
and i was like no i'm just going to dj
7:06
and whatever
7:07
he said nah man you need to get in the
7:08
band and play and literally as soon as i
7:10
joined the band
7:11
that's when prince said hey man i'm
7:13
gonna take more so i'm gonna get you
7:15
guys a record deal and morris came over
7:16
to our band
7:17
that's how the time started so he was
7:19
the one that did that
7:20
and then he was also the one when we
7:22
were touring with the time
7:24
he said i'm going to la on our break
7:26
who's coming with me
7:27
and everybody was like nah man i'm gonna
7:29
buy a vcr because that was the thing
7:30
back in the day man i'm gonna buy a vcr
7:32
and i said i'll come terry said and i
7:35
said where we gonna stay terry says i
7:36
don't know i said where are we gonna get
7:37
the equipment from he said i don't know
7:39
he said well we'll figure it out i'm
7:40
like okay cool
7:42
so i just i've always just gone with
7:43
what terry has said
7:45
he's he's like nostradamus he just knows
7:48
and i just trust him so my my my big
7:51
thing is just trust what terry says and
7:53
we go along with it so
7:54
we haven't really had any i told you so
7:57
at least not to me like i told you so
7:58
type
7:59
things because all the i told you so
8:00
they've all been yeah he's told me and
8:03
he's been right
8:04
so along with barry there you go
8:07
oh i remember one now i do remember one
8:12
let's hear it okay i remember one i told
8:16
jimmy
8:17
when we first started i said we were
8:20
taking like uh positions so um
8:24
he wanted to be president of productions
8:26
because productions was making all the
8:28
money and i said
8:28
well i'm gonna be for uh i'm gonna be
8:31
the president
8:32
of um tune flight time tunes which is
8:35
our publishing company
8:37
i remember that and um i said well
8:40
that's
8:40
that's what's going to make all the
8:41
money he's like
8:44
really yeah and i was right
8:48
that is true that's what told you so
8:50
right
8:52
that is absolutely right that is right
8:54
jimmy jim and terry lewis the debut
8:56
albums jamming lewis volume one is
8:58
out now they got some incredible people
9:01
on this album hb you want to jump in
9:03
yeah i do jimmy terry hi this is heather
9:06
thank you so much for joining us today
9:08
when sway made the introduction and he
9:10
just ran off some of the artists that
9:12
you guys
9:13
just put your energy around and help
9:15
make class
9:16
you know just classic timeless music and
9:19
this is for both of you
9:20
was there anybody that you guys were
9:23
ever intimidated to go into the studio
9:25
with
9:28
wow um i i would say everybody a little
9:31
bit
9:32
because you don't want to disappoint
9:34
people you want to you know try to do
9:35
the best you can
9:36
with everybody with each of the artists
9:38
but i mean going back to our
9:40
i mean i think we were intimidated when
9:42
we went back in the studio with climax
9:43
that was one of the first groups we went
9:44
in the studio with back in the year
9:46
yeah and we were intimidated we were
9:48
intimidated by that
9:50
but the intimidation was never more than
9:52
the joy
9:53
and uh and the inspiration of creativity
9:56
that we had
9:57
being in the studio so i think we had a
10:00
thing where we didn't want to disappoint
10:01
people
10:02
but um but i think everybody i mean if
10:05
you think about the people we've been in
10:06
the studio with
10:07
it was more that we just didn't want to
10:09
you know disappoint them
10:10
you know uh right right and and so we
10:13
would do but we did our homework
10:15
to make sure we did and i was telling
10:17
somebody the other that matter of fact i
10:18
was telling quest love i was with him
10:19
last night
10:20
and i was saying to him that barry white
10:23
was
10:23
when we did barry white he gave us the
10:25
best compliment ever
10:26
which was whenever you're working with a
10:28
legendary artist we would always do our
10:30
homework and then try to figure out what
10:32
what it was we could bring to that
10:33
artist um that would make it special
10:36
and when i remember we did a demo for
10:38
barry white and i did the
10:40
like the little vocal on it and stuff
10:41
and i was like oh baby you know like i
10:43
was trying to be like barry white
10:44
and when it went off we played it for
10:46
him and when it went off
10:48
we said well what do you think mr white
10:50
because we always called him mr white he
10:51
said
10:51
what do you think mr white and he said
10:53
he just reared back and left he said
10:56
sounds like me
11:00
the best compliment we could get it
11:02
sounds like me and of course he went and
11:03
sang it and killed it right but that
11:06
compliment from an artist is always the
11:08
best when we've captured something that
11:09
makes them feel when we i remember when
11:11
we worked with the isaac brothers
11:13
we started playing them a song that we
11:14
had written and
11:16
literally ernie started picked up the
11:18
guitar he was like man you guys got a
11:20
guitar you guys got a guitar
11:21
and ron started singing the melody
11:23
before i could even sing him the melody
11:25
he started singing and he said oh i know
11:26
where this goes i know where this goes
11:28
and that's always the best compliment to
11:30
me so as intimidated as i guess we could
11:32
be
11:33
and probably feel a little bit of that
11:35
the music is the thing that solves all
11:37
of that
11:38
if we got the music to it right and the
11:40
artist feels like man this is mine
11:42
then i think we we got it you know we
11:44
got to figure it out
11:45
um the the project when you listen to
11:49
from beginning to end until i found you
11:51
um to
11:52
baby love featuring morris dave jerome
11:54
uh in the roots
11:56
the the first thing honestly listening
11:58
to the album the mary j
11:59
blige track um which was the first one i
12:03
i was able to listen to because tell i
12:05
found you wasn't available in the states
12:07
but the marriage the mary j bl bly's
12:09
track spinning
12:10
let's spinning let's play this a little
12:12
bit the first thing i said was man they
12:15
right in her sweet spot take a listen to
12:17
this
12:19
i was spinning y'all i was out of
12:22
control
12:25
you know what i'm talking about
12:29
[Music]
12:31
stop playing jimmy damn and terry lewis
12:35
wow go on let that rock
12:39
[Music]
12:47
[Music]
12:51
ain't nobody home so i feel alone
12:56
gotta get away gotta leave this
13:02
[Music]
13:05
that's what i place know doesn't matter
13:08
what i do
13:10
i'm still confused
13:17
come jimmy jam on lewis i'm giving you a
13:21
touch of this spinning featuring mary j
13:23
blige that's off the gym and louis
13:24
valley one y'all better stop playing
13:27
larry you better stop playing let me let
13:30
me ask you this you guys
13:32
would because mary is so established all
13:34
the artists on this project
13:36
have just really made a mark for
13:37
themselves do you ever get to a point
13:40
where
13:40
the artist does they have you haven't
13:44
had an artist that didn't agree with the
13:46
song the direction
13:48
of the song and then how did you how did
13:50
you work through that
13:53
that's a great question that's a great
13:55
question i mean
13:56
the one that comes to mind for me where
13:58
it wasn't so much that they didn't agree
14:00
with the direction
14:01
well yeah it is that they didn't agree
14:02
with the direction of the song the one
14:03
that always comes to mind for me is the
14:05
human league
14:06
when we did human and um but that was
14:09
simply because we did the song
14:11
and then terry did the backgrounds on
14:13
the song the background vocals along
14:15
with a girl named lisa
14:16
keith who was one of our she was like
14:17
our secret weapon back in the day in
14:19
minneapolis she used to do backgrounds
14:20
on all our stuff
14:21
and the girls in the human league didn't
14:23
like the fact they called her the other
14:25
girl
14:26
they said we don't like that other girl
14:27
singing on the song and we were like
14:30
okay well that's cool
14:31
and then at one point phil okay who was
14:33
the lead singer came in and said
14:35
we don't like that other girl singing on
14:36
the song and we're like oh what are you
14:38
talking about man
14:39
but he was seeing one of the girls in
14:41
the human league right so it was like
14:42
okay we get it you know it's good that's
14:44
going home with you i understand
14:46
and we called the record company and
14:47
said hey we're going to take the song
14:48
off the record because
14:49
if we can't finish it the way we want to
14:50
finish it then we're just going to take
14:52
it off the record and they were like
14:53
no that's the single are you kidding me
14:55
we gotta you got to leave it the way it
14:56
is
14:57
so what happened was it was really cool
14:59
though terry got the girl
15:01
that was complaining to do the talking
15:03
part at the end
15:04
where she says when we were apart i was
15:06
human too which to me was a thing to
15:07
really finish that song off in a great
15:09
way
15:10
so it all worked out the way it was
15:11
supposed to but it was a little bit
15:13
rough for a minute
15:27
[Music]
15:30
i had no idea they did that song come on
15:33
digging in the crates y'all
15:34
like wow we digging in the crates
15:37
jamming lewis value
15:38
one is out now tracy man
15:42
legend so happy to be conversing with
15:45
you guys
15:45
i'm curious because you both shared how
15:49
preparation um is what gives you
15:51
confidence
15:52
in these studio sessions what really
15:54
makes you feel like you can connect
15:55
with ease um with whatever artist but i
15:58
also know
15:59
creativity can be spurred by spontaneity
16:03
it can just drop
16:04
out of nowhere you know whether you're
16:05
in the shower sometimes an idea can come
16:07
when you're making love to somebody
16:09
where is like the most um out of the
16:12
norm
16:13
place where you've had a spur of a
16:15
moment idea and what was
16:17
it well my best ideas come to me when
16:21
i'm
16:21
at disneyland just being with the kids
16:23
and just
16:26
i write more songs that i can't figure
16:28
out
16:30
at disney i don't know why i've been
16:31
able to do that over the years i just go
16:33
there and
16:34
everything just sets itself free and
16:37
crazy
16:38
yeah it's a crazy thing wow so you
16:40
literally go
16:41
to disney world thinking to yourself
16:43
this is where i'm a brainstorm
16:44
and capture these ideas no no i
16:48
i it just if if there's a lyric that i
16:50
can't figure out or
16:52
a melody that i can't quite connect with
16:54
something
16:56
when i get there it just just happens
16:59
yeah and then i just capture it in my
17:01
phone now because it's in in today's
17:03
world you can capture everything in your
17:05
phone
17:05
yeah so it's over the years that's been
17:08
the place that you know
17:09
i had some alexander o'neil lyrics i was
17:11
trying to figure out
17:12
many years ago okay fake like fake you
17:15
wrote fake at disney
17:18
no actually um
17:22
i can't even remember which song now but
17:25
it kind of revealed itself to me
17:27
at disney i think we had just gotten off
17:29
of the small world or something
17:33
[Laughter]
17:36
that's just because you know you get to
17:37
be a kid and you get to relax
17:39
and you know i'm not really there
17:40
putting pressure on it it just
17:42
comes to me there i love it jimmy jam
17:46
and terry lewis this project
17:48
[Applause]
17:49
what was the first time y'all met mariah
17:51
carey like what is it like work
17:53
she has a song called somewhat loved on
17:55
this project and
17:57
it's just i feel like y'all brought
17:58
everybody like even babyface
18:00
um he don't know nothing about it which
18:03
is probably one of my favorite tracks on
18:05
the album
18:06
uh you brought out the quintessential
18:08
artist
18:09
like and when i listen to mariah it's
18:11
like
18:12
she's sounding as good as she's ever
18:14
sounded along with the track how did
18:17
when did y'all first meet mariah and
18:19
someone who has written so many hits
18:21
alongside of you guys how does the
18:22
collaborative process work
18:26
well mariah is amazing obviously um but
18:29
the first time we met her actually was
18:30
cool it was in minneapolis
18:32
um long time ago um and we had never
18:34
worked together and she kept telling us
18:36
always wanted to work with you guys
18:38
always wanted to work with you guys and
18:40
we were like okay cool and you know a
18:42
lot of people say that
18:43
but then if you ever said to them what
18:45
song do you like of ours
18:47
they go well i just like all of them and
18:49
it's like we don't even like all of them
18:51
so you know like what song specifically
18:53
you know
18:54
but she walked in the studio like
18:56
literally it was really cool because she
18:57
walked in like probably three or four in
18:59
the morning because
19:00
she's on those hours and she had a whole
19:02
entourage of people it was exactly what
19:04
you'd expect right there was a
19:05
an assistant and a makeup girl and a
19:07
hair grown there was all these people
19:08
right
19:09
but then we just went to this little
19:11
room and she started singing us
19:13
uh didn't mean to turn you on by
19:14
sherelle and tell me if you still care
19:16
by
19:17
sos band and encore by cheryl lynn and
19:20
and like even like thelma houston um
19:24
used to hold me so tight like she was
19:25
digging deep in our catalog she could
19:27
sing every word to every one of the
19:28
songs we ever did
19:29
and she said i love what you guys do and
19:32
we knew then that we had a connection
19:34
so we went in and started writing and
19:35
doing things now what's interesting on
19:37
this
19:38
project was we had center a different
19:40
track like for a different song idea
19:42
that we had
19:43
and she said i'm not sure whether i can
19:46
do this
19:46
justice the way that you want she said i
19:48
know what you're hearing i'm not sure
19:49
whether i can do that and i didn't know
19:51
we were like
19:52
yeah okay well she doesn't really like
19:53
the song it's what we're thinking but
19:55
then what she said was
19:56
when i got this other song she said i
19:58
was working on this idea
20:00
with with the dream and it's kind of
20:01
cool and can i send that to you and let
20:03
me know what you think
20:04
and so she sent it and it was just a
20:06
little piano melody
20:07
and a little thing and we were like oh
20:10
hell yeah we can do something like that
20:12
so we put our stuff
20:13
on it we sent it back to her and she
20:15
said oh my god i love this she said i
20:16
gotta resing it now i gotta re-sing it
20:18
now that you guys put a beat in
20:19
everything on it
20:20
so what we try to do is we try to take
20:21
all of the elements all the ingredients
20:23
that you love about the mariah whether
20:25
you like
20:25
the soft ballad mariah whether you like
20:28
the bob like to always be my baby type
20:30
mariah
20:30
but then to make sure we put the
20:32
whistles and all the stuff in there
20:33
that's
20:34
all of her signatures and try to put it
20:36
all into one
20:37
record and the whole idea is for us make
20:40
the artist sound
20:41
remember when you remember why you fell
20:44
in love with that artist when you hear
20:45
these songs like you and you mentioned
20:46
babyface
20:48
you're right so you at a certain point
20:49
you fell in love with babyface we want
20:51
to remind you that moment you fell in
20:53
love with babyface that
20:54
moment you fell in love with mary jay
20:55
that moment you fell in love with mariah
20:58
and we think this song hopefully does
20:59
that when you hear it you go oh this is
21:01
mariah this is the way i want to hear
21:02
mariah
21:03
well put jimmy that's exactly that's you
21:05
just put found the words i've been
21:07
trying to say
21:08
every song reminds me why i fell in love
21:10
with these artists
21:11
yeah wow wow man we in the minds of
21:14
jimmy jam and terry lewis
21:16
um and because now they can't do
21:18
anything they're new artists so they got
21:19
to take any questions we give them now
21:23
you know what i'm wondering sway go for
21:25
it like jimmy terry have you guys
21:27
ever did anyone ever reach out to you to
21:29
be like judges on a show like the voice
21:32
or
21:32
american idol um or would you what guys
21:35
want to do something like that what do
21:36
you think
21:39
well that's an interesting question yes
21:41
we have been approached about doing some
21:43
things like that
21:44
um actually it was funny because one of
21:47
them we actually
21:48
i wouldn't say call it an audition
21:50
exactly but they did
21:51
ask us a bunch of questions like how
21:53
would you handle this if this situation
21:55
happened and how would you handle that
21:57
and at the end of it we we at the end of
21:59
it they said
22:01
you guys are too nice like they they
22:03
wanted us to like cut people down and
22:05
they wanted to become like a
22:06
competitive thing and an argument you
22:08
know argument and we weren't interested
22:10
in that we were like if we can be in a
22:12
situation to help
22:13
somebody find what it is then that's
22:16
what it is but we don't we're not trying
22:17
to put people down and trying to be like
22:19
that they
22:20
literally told us we were too nice and
22:21
we were like okay cool then we're good
22:23
we don't need to do it
22:24
wow i got punished for being nice wow
22:27
rich nice you would
22:28
freaking a nice rich nice are you there
22:30
i i am here
22:31
i am here that's rich nice jimmy jam
22:34
terry lewis you met him before but just
22:36
to
22:36
let you know some of the people he's
22:38
worked with is you know jlo will smith
22:41
as a producer you know ludacris 50 cent
22:43
nine
22:45
jay-z yes it goes on and on and on i
22:48
just wanted
22:49
to give a few yeah you're a good company
22:52
i love you cannot run my credits to
22:55
these guys bro my credits mean nothing
22:57
to their credit
22:58
okay okay okay hold up hold up let me
23:00
let me give you one let me give you one
23:02
y'all worked on deborah cox together
23:04
jimmy jam and terry lewis
23:06
the one and only rich nice rich nice
23:08
there you go
23:09
there you go okay the promise album uh
23:12
my executive produce you guys did a
23:13
wonderful job did you ever love me
23:15
i went out to the studio in california
23:17
mr jam wasn't there but mr lewis was
23:19
there and
23:20
you know i guess i gotta talk a little
23:22
bit of receipt time
23:24
um one night we were in the house of
23:26
blues
23:27
uh we had a three hour conversation it
23:29
was myself
23:30
terry lewis sway and prince and we were
23:32
in the confessional
23:34
and we were talking about um we were
23:37
talking about
23:38
the importance of an artist to have
23:41
creative freedom
23:43
away from label interference and
23:46
you know um i'd like you guys to tell
23:49
the citizens how important is it
23:51
to have creative freedom and integrity
23:54
away from a label
23:55
without their interference
24:01
well well you know what i was obviously
24:03
i wasn't there that night when that
24:05
conversation took place
24:06
but it's interesting because i use the
24:09
word
24:09
label interference all the time and i
24:11
always try to find a different way to
24:13
say it
24:15
um because i don't think that all labels
24:18
necessarily are all people at labels
24:21
are trying to interfere with what you're
24:22
doing but i will say
24:25
that i'm happy that terry and i are at a
24:27
point of our careers i guess as
24:29
as new artists that we don't really have
24:32
anything to prove at this point but we
24:34
do still have a lot to say
24:36
and so we're able to say it in the way
24:38
we want to make it and we were able to
24:40
make this album
24:41
without uh label interference
24:44
because we just made the records we
24:47
wanted to do
24:48
and when it was done then we looked for
24:49
the right partner to partner up with
24:51
which bmg ended up being our partner so
24:54
that that worked out good but i do think
24:56
not every artist is maybe in the
24:58
position that we're in to do it
25:00
but i do think that you know it's it's
25:03
called the music business right which
25:04
means the music comes first
25:06
so to me let the people that are making
25:08
the music make the music that's true to
25:10
them and who they are
25:12
and then do the business because without
25:13
the music there is no music business
25:15
it's not the business music
25:17
right so right i think that's important
25:20
and i think the creative freedom
25:21
and you know listen we grew up with
25:23
prince so we know all about the idea of
25:25
and and did it in minneapolis so we came
25:28
from a place where
25:29
you know nobody was really checking for
25:30
music we were making music that in the
25:32
beginning people weren't really
25:34
necessarily feeling
25:35
exactly but that's the way we grew up
25:37
but we were given our freedom to do it
25:39
prince was a
25:40
you know he was a a renegade about that
25:43
like he to do his
25:44
albums the way he wanted to do them um
25:46
to change his name
25:48
to own his masters to use the internet
25:50
initially to
25:51
put his products out like he always was
25:53
a game changer and we got a chance to
25:55
follow that
25:56
and be part of that so um we're totally
25:59
i'm in total agreement i wasn't like i
26:00
said i wasn't part of that particular
26:02
conversation but
26:03
those are the things we hold near and
26:04
dear and and we always feel
26:06
we're always on the side of the artist
26:07
we always want the artist to win because
26:09
without them
26:10
you know the music doesn't get made you
26:12
know so
26:14
it's important yeah and and a simple
26:17
summation
26:18
create a creatively uh you should always
26:21
be free to do what you feel
26:23
i guess if if there's a win-lose draw
26:25
situation
26:26
you would rather lose doing it the way
26:29
you would like to do it
26:31
than to do it the way someone else
26:33
wanted you to do it and then lose
26:34
that's kind of crazy so creatively you
26:37
have to be
26:38
yourself you have to stay within your
26:40
own
26:41
creative abilities in in in mind
26:44
and create something that you feel is
26:47
intrinsically yours
26:48
so i just think that's just part of it
26:51
that's why i say you know
26:52
never read your own press because people
26:54
get in your head man
26:56
hey man that's terry lewis right there
26:58
jimmy jam jamming lewis value one is out
27:00
now i know you guys got to go but
27:02
i got to take a couple of calls from the
27:03
listeners i promised them they could
27:05
talk to icons
27:06
today all right um spence and all
27:10
listeners quick questions they'll give
27:11
you quick answers spins in tennessee
27:13
grand rise and spence
27:15
hey spence good morning guys hey thank
27:17
you guys dream come true to talk to my
27:19
favorite producers of all time
27:21
uh jimmy jam terry lewis you guys have a
27:23
ton of great hits out there but i'm more
27:24
interested in songs that
27:26
you feel like should have gotten shine
27:27
my personal favorite song that didn't
27:28
get enough shine is making love in the
27:30
rain
27:31
uh by lisa keith and janet jackson or
27:33
lonely off of uh the rhythm nation album
27:35
what song in you guys mind
27:37
um is one that should have gotten a ton
27:39
more shine and you felt like was just an
27:40
amazing record that people may not know
27:42
about
27:44
ooh well the song the song i'll tell you
27:46
the first song that always comes to my
27:47
mind
27:48
uh when people say that um is a song we
27:51
did with gladys knight
27:52
called home alone that's the one i was
27:54
going to say
27:55
oh is that right t i mean yeah and
27:59
yeah when i whenever i think about a
28:01
song that's like that
28:02
and you know it's interesting because
28:03
making love in the rain which you
28:04
mentioned actually has now got
28:06
a second chance at shine simply because
28:09
of the her record
28:10
the damage record which uh recently was
28:13
number one
28:14
that we got to share in because it
28:15
basically interpolates
28:17
you know making love in the rain so um
28:20
that song definitely got shot
28:21
and lonely on janet's record yeah that's
28:23
definitely one of our
28:24
favorites too and now the big jim wright
28:26
who passed away unfortunately from
28:27
sounds of blackness that was always his
28:29
favorite song he'd always sit in the
28:30
piano and play that song
28:32
for us so um that was a good one man but
28:34
there's there's a lot of them
28:35
that are just kind of hidden but you
28:37
know the fact that people
28:38
will dig into the albums and find those
28:40
songs they will have a life you know
28:42
for people and that's always a good
28:44
thing legacy hey thanks for your call
28:46
your citizen brother
28:47
swear in the morning omar troy what up
28:50
though oh
28:50
what up oh hey what up though
28:55
what up man great right to throw
28:58
try to make this quick uh the question i
29:00
got is uh you know uncle jimmy jam and
29:02
terry lewis should be
29:03
mentioned in the same breath as uh
29:05
quincy jones so i was wondering if you
29:07
guys
29:07
were approached to do a documentary on
29:09
netflix or something like that
29:12
um we haven't really done any sort of
29:15
documentary thing i think we will
29:16
in the future definitely do one um but
29:20
you know
29:20
our story is basically this i think most
29:24
a lot of times documentaries at least in
29:25
the old days documentaries were all
29:27
about you know the kind of riots to the
29:29
top uh
29:31
from nothing there was a rise to the top
29:32
and then you came tumbling down with
29:34
drugs and a bunch of crazy stuff
29:35
and it was very sensational but that
29:37
wasn't really our story our story was
29:39
really what we set out to do in the very
29:41
beginning
29:41
we always said warm for a long time
29:44
that's always what we set out to do so
29:45
our decision-making process and the acts
29:47
that we work with in the
29:48
projects we did was warm for a long time
29:51
so 40 years later we're still here
29:53
and we're still warm but that's maybe
29:56
not always the best
29:57
way to approach like a documentary or
29:59
some sort of show type of thing
30:01
i think that's changing a little bit now
30:03
and i think we have
30:04
you know we probably have an interesting
30:06
story to people but our story is really
30:08
about
30:09
uh i will we will have known each other
30:12
me and terry for 50 years i think coming
30:14
into the next wow
30:15
oh and so that's our so that's our
30:17
that's our story
30:18
it's about being together and you know
30:20
so i think if there's a way to document
30:22
that and do that in some way we would
30:24
enjoy the opportunity to do that
30:26
absolutely hey omar thanks for that
30:27
question great question um
30:29
love detroit loved each other absolutely
30:33
it's it's that relationship and it's
30:34
longevity too fellas like to
30:36
go through the decades in this business
30:39
it's a volatile business the sound
30:41
changes every so often the
30:43
slaying changes every business it
30:46
changes you know and you guys
30:48
have been able to survive through the
30:51
change
30:51
and consistently reinvent yourselves and
30:54
create
30:55
uh projects with other folks
30:56
collaborative efforts that have
30:58
made me excited to talk to you man like
31:00
last night i was excited that oh
31:03
jimmy ontario tomorrow you know what i
31:05
mean i still get excited
31:07
i want to uh commend you too um
31:10
you know torrey is a good friend of ours
31:12
a colleague
31:14
over here at siriusxm and he's a part of
31:17
the recording academy's black music
31:19
collective so round of applause for the
31:20
black music collective
31:22
and what that stands for uh you know
31:25
jimmy can you talk about that the black
31:26
music collective at all
31:28
[Applause]
31:29
yeah it's basically you know listen it
31:31
kind of the idea
31:32
started a while back and you know it's
31:34
it's interesting now i was the first
31:36
african-american chairman
31:37
of the recording academy we now have the
31:39
first african-american president
31:41
of the recording academy harvey mason jr
31:44
and harvey mason jr actually talks about
31:48
many times seeing me as chairman was the
31:50
thing that made him want to get involved
31:51
with the organization
31:52
because he felt like seeing us up there
31:55
in that kind of position
31:56
it was important for people to see us
31:58
like that to be inclusive
32:00
and all music is black music at the end
32:02
of the day
32:03
so um to have a part of the recording
32:06
academy
32:07
um recognize that and be active in
32:11
promoting it and making sure that it
32:13
gets its just due
32:14
to me is so important and you know you
32:17
talk about people always talk about
32:18
community people always say give back to
32:19
your community well our community
32:21
is the music community um but it's also
32:24
the
32:24
it's the black community so to me
32:26
utilizing music
32:28
as a way to do that to get messages
32:30
across to people
32:31
and to uplift and enlighten people like
32:33
you were talking about when you heard
32:35
optimistic by sounds of blackness people
32:38
need those opportunities to be able to
32:40
do that to have music uplift their life
32:42
so i'm proud to be a part of it i'm i'm
32:45
i'm happy to see that the leadership of
32:47
the recording academy is going to me in
32:49
a very good direction a very inclusive
32:51
direction
32:52
and really recognizing uh black music as
32:54
it should be recognized absolutely shout
32:56
out to torrey the newly elected chapter
32:58
vice president here
33:00
yep yep they they got torreira to put a
33:03
suit jacket on he wrote
33:06
terry i ain't never saw him in a blazer
33:08
t uh you know so they got him the beard
33:10
is nice everything looks good
33:12
um hey gentlemen i you know
33:16
uh unfortunately our building isn't open
33:18
yet but of course we want to see you
33:19
guys in person and then maybe
33:21
you know down the line i don't know are
33:23
you guys planning on touring the album
33:24
are you going to get usher to come out
33:25
on tour with you
33:27
we'd love to do that i mean that's when
33:29
we when we set out to do the record man
33:31
that was the thing we said
33:32
uh we were honored to go into the
33:34
songwriters hall of fame a few years
33:35
back and they asked us what hadn't we
33:37
done that we wanted to do
33:38
we said three things we looked at
33:40
babyface and we said we never got around
33:42
to doing that babyface record
33:44
so we did that we said we never got
33:45
around to doing our own album
33:47
and so we did that the third thing we
33:49
said was we never got a chance to go
33:51
play our own music
33:53
live so that thing still needs to happen
33:56
and when things get safe out there for
33:58
everybody
33:58
and everybody can enjoy some live music
34:00
in a safe way
34:02
we want to be out there doing that too
34:03
so that will definitely happen
34:05
and the other thing i want to say just
34:07
while i have a minute sway
34:09
i want to commemorate and thank you
34:12
because i always say it's like the tree
34:14
that falls in the forest
34:15
we don't make hit records okay we make
34:18
hopefully good music the people that
34:21
make hit records is
34:22
everybody makes a hit record meaning the
34:24
people
34:25
that listen to it that buy it that talk
34:28
about it
34:29
they're the ones that make it a hit
34:30
right so everybody makes it a hit record
34:33
but the delivery system for that to hear
34:36
it
34:36
it's like the tree that falls in the
34:38
forest nobody hears it
34:40
it didn't happen thank you for
34:42
delivering
34:43
the music to the people in a way that
34:45
they can hear it
34:46
and appreciate the stories behind it
34:49
because like you talk about longevity
34:51
obviously we've been doing for a long
34:53
time but brother you the same way
34:55
you've been doing it a long time so we
34:57
respect you we're honored to be with you
34:59
even over the phone but we're going to
35:01
definitely do it in person soon
35:03
oh man amen amen and amen thank you so i
35:06
love you all man
35:07
terry you know i love y'all jimmy you
35:09
know i love y'all
35:11
you know it's hard standing next to
35:12
jimmy now that you know he got the sexy
35:14
things
35:17
[Music]
35:19
you got to change your clothes now terry
35:21
you know what i mean jimmy out here
35:23
you know center folding on us you know
35:25
what are we supposed to do
35:27
that's senator james that's all it is
35:29
that's all it is
35:30
okay cool man gentlemen uh
35:34
congratulations this is an amazing
35:36
project i want all the citizens to check
35:37
it out great listening to
35:39
this entire week and to the weekend um
35:42
can't wait to see you in person and
35:43
thank you for being on the show give it
35:44
up for jimmy jam and terry lewis
35:48
all right absolutely get the jamming
35:50
lewis value one is available
35:58
[Music]
36:07
you
#Arts & Entertainment