Up next in 10
The Legend Ron Isley Speaks on 60 Years In music & New Song 'Friends & Family' Featuring Snoop Dogg
Jun 27, 2021
Ron Isley speaks on his iconic career spanning over 60 years of music. He is still going and introduces his new single 'Friends and Family' featuring Snoop Dogg.
Subscribe Here! http://bit.ly/SubscribeSU
Watch the Best of Sway In The Morning! http://bit.ly/BestOfSITM
Check out More From Sway’s Universe
http://swaysuniverse.com
http://twitter.com/swaysuniverse
http://instagram.com/swaysuniverse
http://facebook.com/swaysuniverse
#RonIsley #TheIsleyBrothers #SwaysUniverse #SwayInTheMorning #SiriusXM #Shade45
About SWAY’s UNIVERSE
Exclusive interviews from Sway Calloway and the Sway In The Morning/ SwaysUniverse.com team with some of today's biggest celebrities, like Kevin Hart, Kanye West, Eminem, Usher, Jessica Alba, Steve Aoki, Torey Lanez, Julia Stiles and so much more.
The Legend Ron Isley Speaks on 60 Years In music & New Song 'Friends & Family' Featuring Snoop Dogg
https://youtu.be/9D1xpsR_GOU
Sway’s Universe
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
keep them applied going come on man we
0:03
just started right now
0:05
come on man we got the icon with us
0:07
right now had to be
0:09
let's keep these supplies going man when
0:12
you hear the name
0:13
eisley you have to stand up at attention
0:16
ladies and gentlemen
0:18
iconic for over five decades 18 million
0:21
units sold
0:23
way more than that several hit songs
0:25
four top ten
0:26
singles come on man you know you make me
0:30
want to shout
0:31
come on man 16 other albums started in
0:34
top 40. 13 of those albums have been
0:36
certified gold platinum with
0:38
multi-platinum
0:40
come on man they've been added to the
0:42
hollywood's rock walk
0:45
inducted into the vocal group hall of
0:47
fame
0:48
the grammy lifetime achievement award
0:52
inducted into the songwriters hall of
0:53
fame in 2020
0:55
you saw him on verses with earth wind
0:57
and fire and you got it right here on
1:00
sway in the morning give it up for the
1:01
one and only ron
1:03
eisley ladies
1:10
mr eisley how you doing this morning
1:12
graham rises hi
1:14
how you doing i'm listening to you
1:16
[Applause]
1:19
hey man hey man i tried to do that so
1:22
much you
1:23
i wanted you to turn around and say well
1:24
who are we talking about
1:26
[Laughter]
1:29
hey it's a honor absolute honor
1:33
to have your energy on this show sir
1:36
absolute honor to have you on the show
1:39
uh you know i love
1:41
you know talking to you and doing doing
1:43
shows like this man
1:45
and thanking the fans and just
1:49
thinking about my my career has been so
1:51
long you know and
1:53
yeah got those die-hard plans you know
1:57
for 62 years and it's it's just amazing
2:01
oh man come on wow 62 years and i i i
2:05
can only um
2:05
man your what's your background bro like
2:09
what how did it
2:11
was the family was everybody performers
2:14
you know the the
2:15
the elders in your family like yo your
2:18
parents your
2:18
four you know the forefathers and your
2:20
families everybody was performance
2:22
yeah my father was a performer and my
2:25
mother was a
2:26
teacher uh she taught us early
2:30
she started my career when i was two
2:32
years old you know
2:34
and she was just a teacher we started
2:37
off doing gospel
2:39
records you know like clara ward and the
2:42
warren singers
2:43
and uh country and western and just
2:46
about every
2:48
type of music that there were was you
2:50
know
2:51
and they taught us
2:59
from the beginning they wanted to have a
3:01
quartet
3:03
and she had four boys and
3:06
he just was that quartet man just
3:09
singing singing thing from the beginning
3:12
until then yeah wow man we got ron
3:16
eisley here um your first big hit was
3:21
you know you make me wanna shout right
3:24
sweetheart are you gonna still keep
3:25
trying to sing it
3:26
i thought mr eisley might appreciate
3:28
that mike in case you need to back
3:30
up if you need a background vocalist
3:31
when you perform that song i'm here for
3:33
you sir
3:35
you're right you're right man they
3:37
that's a song that's here
3:39
all you know when everybody gets married
3:42
and the weddings and uh you know from
3:45
1959 all the way up to here you know
3:48
that's
3:48
when wow yeah
3:52
[Applause]
3:56
you know you make me
4:12
and that was with motown you know we
4:14
hear so much
4:15
you eventually left motown but i love
4:18
that motown era man we hear so many
4:20
great stories
4:21
about the singers and the songwriters
4:23
and how barry gordy kind of had what you
4:26
i'll call it an incubator system where
4:28
everybody kind of ran through that
4:30
system and
4:30
the writers appointed different songs
4:32
and choreography and how you dress
4:35
what what was that experience like when
4:38
you were younger
4:40
first that song was with rca victor you
4:43
know
4:43
before more time okay um
4:46
uh we were with motown in 64.
4:51
uh we did this so hard or not okay this
4:55
whole heart of mine
4:56
and then uh was your it's your thing
4:58
that was on t-neck records then
5:00
yeah that's what's going on yeah
5:03
okay 69. okay
5:11
[Music]
5:22
wow
5:23
[Music]
5:30
[Applause]
5:35
so that was back then well y'all making
5:37
money yet in the 60s or well y'all just
5:40
survived oh it's making big big
5:48
well you know not to get in your pockets
5:50
but big money today
5:52
you know means is a different number
5:54
than maybe back then how big
5:56
how big back then was big money like in
5:59
a year
5:59
like in a year back there then if you
6:02
made a thousand dollars a night that was
6:04
big money you know big money
6:06
okay when when you guys would perform
6:10
i'm gonna ask a bunch of questions hb
6:11
jump in
6:12
uh whenever i love it okay when when you
6:15
talk about performances
6:17
i was talking to the legendary george
6:20
daniels from georgia's music room out of
6:22
chicago
6:23
and we were talking about
6:27
those times and i remember seeing shows
6:30
you know like on video or whatever and
6:33
it seemed like
6:34
artists didn't just perform one set a
6:36
night
6:37
like if you went to the apollo you had
6:39
to perform three four
6:40
five like what was the amount of what's
6:42
the most amount of sets you ever did in
6:44
the day
6:46
well at the call you did about five but
6:48
you know
6:49
maybe maybe you were doing two or three
6:52
songs
6:54
you know a show because they had so many
6:56
people on the show
6:57
you know uh you would do your two songs
7:00
your hit or whatever that was and
7:02
you off the stage and somebody else
7:05
would come on you know and then
7:07
they let the audience out and then they
7:10
have another show
7:11
on saturdays they would have five shows
7:14
yeah can you imagine five shows a day
7:17
and then i can only imagine
7:20
you know i heard a story once um smokey
7:23
robinson
7:24
who said like he would he would hang
7:27
backstage sometimes and look
7:28
peel back the curtain when someone else
7:30
was performing just to read the room
7:33
and to see who was in the first five
7:35
rows because
7:36
and his reasoning was if you can't if
7:38
you can't move
7:39
the first five rolls you're definitely
7:42
not going to move the balcony
7:45
right
7:49
is that true what would you agree with
7:51
that's wrong
7:52
yeah that sounds right um
7:56
have you guys did you guys ever bomb on
7:58
stage
8:00
never never
8:06
i love it i love it
8:09
who who did y'all consider cause now
8:11
like when you
8:12
first of all we got ron eisley here man
8:14
we gotta just keep saying that my
8:16
goodness
8:16
okay you know in our in our day and age
8:19
i know you good friends we're gonna play
8:21
uh with snoop and different folks uh
8:23
swiss beats of course timbaland that was
8:25
an amazing verses
8:26
um that you guys did with earth wind and
8:29
fire
8:30
and just bri even with that with the
8:32
verses that you
8:33
you guys did what were your
8:35
conversations like even afterwards
8:37
did you know what you was walking into
8:40
oh yeah we knew we were walking into and
8:42
we were talking about
8:44
where we were going to eat at and what
8:46
kind of food
8:48
what we order and that type of thing
8:50
with steve harvey and
8:52
you know just just just simple things
8:55
like that
8:56
mm-hmm y'all didn't talk about going
8:59
because
8:59
you know rappers you know they usually
9:01
get on the tour bus and and start
9:02
recording music together you know when
9:04
you guys you know earth when the fire
9:07
you guys can get on the tour bus or
9:08
decide to go back into the studio
9:11
oh i i decided to go in the studio and
9:14
record a record on them
9:16
you know and we did that uh
9:19
maybe two or three days and we uh
9:23
performed on a record that uh i think
9:26
it's going to be amazing when you're
9:28
here
9:30
okay something i always wanted to do
9:32
until i got a chance to do that
9:35
with phillip yeah and bernie
9:38
right
9:42
we uh we use 1500 there's a band that's
9:46
been on
9:48
some great records in california and
9:50
they went all kind of grammys and
9:53
stuff like that so we were recording
9:56
our album so i decided to do
10:00
a record with them yeah
10:04
um okay well ron eisley here the new
10:06
song is friends and family featuring
10:08
snoop that's out right now
10:09
let's let's make him go platinum again
10:12
um hey you want to jump in
10:14
yes mr eisley thank you so much for
10:16
calling into the show today
10:18
i you you mentioned having a career that
10:21
has now extended six decades i mean just
10:24
for that alone
10:26
is amazing but what comes with that um
10:29
a lot of times people who started out
10:30
when you guys started out
10:32
they get stuck but what i find
10:34
fascinating about
10:35
the eisley brothers and with you in
10:37
particular is your sense of style i
10:40
remember
10:41
we were all at home sitting around
10:43
watching you on verses
10:45
and we didn't even recognize you we was
10:47
like well who's the fly guy
10:48
sitting there like with the shades on
10:50
and the coat and the get like
10:52
who's that ronald and when you stood up
10:54
it was like
10:55
oh my gosh it's between my grandmother
10:58
and my aunts and myself and my nieces
11:01
and nephews
11:02
everybody knows you everybody knows who
11:04
you are
11:05
what do you contribute that to because
11:07
not many artists who have careers that
11:09
expand six decades
11:11
has an audience from you know their
11:12
grand grandmothers to the grandchildren
11:16
wow you know it's a really a blessing
11:20
i think it's a blessing from god but you
11:23
know uh
11:25
you know expects so much
11:29
out of me you know you know i i gotta be
11:31
mr beads i got the ready
11:36
he hits all the time so i i love doing
11:39
that
11:39
yeah um ron eisley is here man who was
11:43
your competition who did y'all say okay
11:45
we gonna get on this stage and smash
11:46
these dudes
11:48
yeah we tried to smash jackie wilson
11:54
really yeah i'm sure
11:58
james brown can tell you the times when
12:00
we smashed him
12:01
in philadelphia yeah all right hold up
12:05
ron eisley they got this expression
12:07
called cap
12:08
now you know the younger kids say no cap
12:10
meaning no lie man
12:12
if you if you're not telling the truth
12:13
they say you capping
12:15
you telling me y'all smashed james brown
12:19
james brown man we you know we did it
12:22
in a way where they had to set the show
12:25
down after we came off the stage yeah
12:30
what does that mean how did they shut
12:32
the show down what was what do you mean
12:34
well you know we thought we were doing a
12:35
record shout
12:36
and people got up and it was it was
12:38
shouting and
12:39
tearing up with you know the theater and
12:42
they said they had to close the curtains
12:44
and
12:45
you know and then making people be calm
12:49
again
12:49
you know and the people just looked you
12:52
know
12:52
just doing a hallelujah
12:57
yeah we were doing it too you know what
13:00
did james say
13:01
what did he say anything to y'all after
13:04
james said y'all
13:05
may get me up here but you you ain't
13:08
gonna get me down south
13:10
that's what he said oh
13:13
man you gotta love it and it's different
13:16
hp because back
13:17
i'm i'm gonna go way back at a time when
13:20
they wouldn't even let the artists
13:22
you know go into hotels you couldn't
13:24
stay in hotels because of segregation
13:26
right
13:27
yeah you're right and so what would
13:29
y'all do would y'all sleep on the buses
13:31
on the tour buses and the cars like what
13:33
how would y'all deal with that
13:35
well they had certain houses that you
13:38
you know that we would
13:40
go into that uh it was
13:43
like like before us you know certain
13:46
houses that would like hotels or
13:49
sleepover places you know we were you
13:52
know we
13:52
know that know about those places on the
13:55
road
13:56
you know now that that
13:59
that's that was with us i don't know
14:01
what other people would do
14:03
i heard other stories you know but that
14:06
that's what we would do what was it like
14:10
um performing at that time
14:13
with the the social climate of the
14:15
country
14:17
you know and you're going down south or
14:20
or wherever you're traveling and you
14:22
know you have all these obstacles you
14:24
have all of this
14:26
whites only blacks only was it ever
14:29
scary or was it just so normal that you
14:31
just saw it as a way of life
14:35
uh it was it was scary sometimes you
14:38
know uh
14:39
we would go places that they didn't know
14:43
whether we were white or black and when
14:45
we show up they say oh i thought this
14:47
was a white group
14:48
and the man would pay us without
14:52
you you all can sing here you know
14:55
we would pay us our money and we would
14:58
turn around and go
14:59
go back you know because he
15:02
performed there yeah yeah but you
15:06
definitely made sure you got the bag
15:07
though ron i actually gets his money
15:13
the people of the chitlin circuit what
15:17
can you break down was the chitlin
15:18
circuit um
15:20
and how was that instrumental in the
15:22
success of a lot of you know black
15:24
artist careers
15:26
you know we went on the tours with dick
15:29
clark and people like that
15:30
and uh we never got a chance to do
15:34
to play those children circuit
15:37
places uh you know
15:40
all i remember about about that is uh
15:43
we would uh play a lot of colleges
15:46
and we would go on tours with people
15:49
like dick clark
15:50
and uh and basically that that was
15:55
that was a big thing for us to do once a
15:58
year
15:58
you know and uh we we would hear about
16:02
all the things like
16:05
you know those other entertainment would
16:07
talk about but
16:09
that was our chip hidden in circus
16:13
i see they was getting different money
16:15
hb i get it now the eisley brothers
16:18
[Laughter]
16:21
i see what you ron you telling me yes
16:23
way we was on a
16:24
we was on a different level so we didn't
16:27
get a chance to do the
16:28
we hanging out with dick clark on
16:30
american bandstand
16:31
um you've been sampled by so many
16:34
artists
16:35
from the hip-hop community from big e to
16:37
jay-z to ice cube
16:38
to too short i could keep naming and
16:41
naming and naming
16:42
uh do you have a standout hip-hop track
16:46
track that was sampled that sampled the
16:48
isley brothers that really
16:50
stands out to you that you thought was
16:51
wow this is incredible
16:53
well we have so many we we have over 900
16:57
samples
16:58
yeah uh we were sampled more than any
17:01
artist in this business
17:02
you know uh you know the the track
17:06
with biggie smalls you know i like it
17:08
when you call me
17:10
that was one of our main and uh
17:14
footsteps in the dark with ice cubes and
17:18
and you know just on and on on and on
17:21
but uh
17:22
we are i think we're we're the number
17:25
one sample
17:26
uh group or hanger or whatever
17:30
and i think we took that away from james
17:33
brown
17:35
damn you're still competing with james
17:36
huh um yeah
17:38
you know uh audrey we're
17:42
black or white it hasn't been a group
17:46
since 1950 since the 50s
17:50
to the 2021
17:53
in this history of this music business
17:56
but uh that been shorted
18:00
from 19 from the 1950s to
18:04
right now wow eisley brothers
18:08
come on isley brothers
18:12
come on man give him a round of applause
18:15
you know what i appreciate it
18:17
um because at the time did you get a
18:19
chance to meet biggie
18:21
before he passed yes yeah oh yeah what
18:23
was that like
18:25
oh man it was phenomenal i went into new
18:28
york when he was doing a session there
18:30
and we were talking about the song
18:34
in between the sheaths man it just was
18:37
phenomenal
18:38
phenomenal what i appreciate is that
18:42
when samples well you know when hip-hop
18:44
start becoming prominent and folks start
18:46
using samplers and we start sampling the
18:48
music
18:48
it got a big backlash it was a lot of
18:51
folks that closed the doors to clearing
18:52
samples and
18:53
they didn't really respect the mute the
18:55
culture and what was coming out of it
18:57
you guys embraced it what was your
19:00
thoughts on it what was your take on
19:02
producers out of hip-hop who sampled
19:04
your muse like sample music to create
19:07
new music what was your thoughts on that
19:09
oh
19:10
we loved it man especially when it was
19:13
something
19:14
that they did that we thought was great
19:16
like the
19:17
footsteps in the dark you know uh
19:21
watch ice cube you know
19:24
do the song and call it it was a good
19:26
day and he was
19:28
describing uh what was happening to him
19:31
you know
19:32
going to work and going you know why he
19:34
was driving playing basketball
19:37
and the whole nine you know it was
19:41
just incredible for us to listen to you
19:43
know
19:44
uh the fight to power
19:49
public interviews
20:02
yeah he said you know
20:06
big and small you know so i'll see some
20:08
girls that
20:09
should be having my baby you know
20:16
he thought that was so fantastic for
20:18
them to come up with those
20:20
type of lyrics on that type of song and
20:22
just
20:23
you know uh
20:26
bonus thugs and harmony when they did uh
20:30
the crossroads you know and they did the
20:33
video and everything
20:34
because that was fantastic man that was
20:37
fantastic
20:38
salute to you and let me tell you
20:40
something i think that was wise to do
20:43
that was passing it forward
20:44
you know what i mean we are the children
20:46
of you all and so you're right
20:49
yeah and that helped give us the
20:51
advantages
20:53
that society wasn't giving us you know
20:55
what i mean
20:57
it's like our parents saying listen son
20:59
here i've been saving this for you for
21:00
this day
21:01
go ahead and take it and make something
21:04
with it
21:04
and so you see now when you fast forward
21:07
decades later
21:09
that you guys are being received with as
21:12
much reverence
21:13
today as you were when you first started
21:15
by generations
21:17
and generations upon generations where
21:20
someone like ron eisley could go in the
21:22
studio
21:23
and connect with the most noted most
21:26
popular
21:27
biggest brand ever out of hip-hop
21:29
there's not another rapper more popular
21:31
than snoop dogg
21:32
ever in the history of rap
21:33
[Applause]
21:35
you know and you were able to
21:38
collaborate with him
21:40
how did that happen oh man
21:43
this new go back a long time but
21:46
like like you said i think he's one of
21:48
the best
21:49
one of the greatest you know uh we've
21:52
been friends
21:53
for i don't know how long you know
21:56
but uh i'm always uh checking out my
21:59
records with him and
22:01
uh rick ross and some people like
22:05
you know when we need a rapper on there
22:07
you know we say hey
22:09
let me let me call somebody you know and
22:12
uh
22:13
i i will call different ones you know
22:15
and they will do
22:16
anything for me yeah absolutely
22:19
i mean if you ever need background
22:21
vocals
22:22
i'm here for you you know mr
22:26
b okay
22:33
they're always there for me yeah okay
22:37
i just think they get to
22:42
i'm smiling cheek to cheek uh would you
22:44
do a duet album with
22:46
just a a duet album with just
22:49
you guys and rappers you know
22:53
i know the album we got coming out right
22:55
now
22:56
is going to come out probably in
22:57
september okay
22:59
and it's got a lot of surprises in it
23:02
but you know
23:03
i i don't want to tell anything that i
23:06
i want i'm gonna call you back after it
23:08
comes
23:09
after the release date and we're gonna
23:13
let
23:13
we'll have a whole lot to talk about
23:16
okay well check this out well what are
23:18
you based out of what state you in
23:21
california and st louis how about this
23:25
when that album come out we'll fly to
23:26
california we could do it in person we
23:28
got
23:29
big studios with sirius xm and pandora
23:31
and la
23:32
we got state of the art studios man we
23:34
could put we could do a performance q a
23:37
hey heather b and i could turn it to
23:38
like don cornelius and dick clark
23:40
you know what i mean we could do
23:44
you know i'm gonna hold you up i'ma hold
23:46
you to that
23:47
hey man i'm gonna hold you to that one
23:50
when it comes out
23:51
okay hey we said it right here we got it
23:55
yeah we're gonna do something in
23:56
california yeah yeah
23:58
there it is lee man hey before you you
24:01
know i want to play the song but i want
24:02
to you know we got a couple folks on the
24:04
line that would just like to say hi to
24:05
you
24:06
um callers from all over we got mike and
24:08
atlanta on the line big mike big mike
24:10
hey mike
24:12
hey how y'all doing how y'all doing how
24:14
you doing
24:15
mr b how you doing how you doing i'm
24:18
doing
24:18
i'm doing i'm doing real well real well
24:20
i actually had the pleasure of
24:22
uh being with you on a terminal train in
24:24
atlanta about three years ago
24:26
but you were in family mode so you know
24:28
i didn't want to approach you but
24:30
i just wanted to call and kind of give
24:31
you flowers you know while you were here
24:34
yo like they touched on yo yo your music
24:37
span across so many generations
24:40
and i guess my only question to you
24:42
would be
24:43
who do you listen to mr who inspired you
24:48
well i listen to just about everybody
24:51
and
24:51
you know the uh just to keep up with
24:54
what's
24:54
going on in the streets at all just
24:58
at all all times you know to make
25:02
music that relevant to what's what
25:05
what's happening now
25:06
today uh
25:09
my friends would be in the early years
25:12
would be sound cook
25:14
jackie wilson uh claude mcfadder
25:18
those those were the type of people i
25:21
listened to
25:22
back there then but right now it's all
25:25
you know i'm just keeping up with
25:29
everybody that's doing something
25:31
rappers the best rappers
25:35
and the best singers the ones that are
25:38
successful you know i i i
25:42
you know i just love love this the music
25:45
business so much
25:47
that that it's just a big part of my
25:50
life
25:51
wow hey mike thanks for your call man
25:54
you're a citizen
25:55
you're a citizen man you just named
25:57
those names like
25:59
sam cook jackie wilson let me ask you
26:02
this man i always thought elvis
26:06
stole jackie wilson's whole stick
26:09
you know with the movement and then you
26:12
know the world
26:12
you know obviously mainstream america
26:15
reacted to him
26:16
i wasn't there obviously but i would
26:18
watch a lot of footage of jackie wilson
26:20
i was like yo is that where elvis got
26:22
that thing from
26:23
that made him popular what is your take
26:25
on that
26:26
what was going on well elvis
26:30
uh he was crazy about jackie wilson
26:32
because
26:33
jackie wilson did a whole lot of great
26:35
things but
26:36
elvis had his own south at his own style
26:39
which was
26:40
hard would have been hard for jackie
26:42
wilson to
26:43
do his legs and all that type of thing
26:46
that got
26:47
that elvis was doing but you know
26:50
elvis was a great performer and jackie
26:53
wilson was one of the best performers
26:55
too
26:57
elvis was uh elvis presley because
27:01
of him being a
27:05
nice looking dressing well
27:08
singing crazy you know he was
27:11
he was showing this yeah did y'all meet
27:14
did you meet him did you have a chance
27:15
to talk with him
27:17
i never had a chance to talk to him i
27:19
never
27:20
met him personally no um
27:24
okay um all right man i love that man we
27:26
definitely got to sit down and talk
27:28
again i got a lot of those kind of
27:29
questions
27:31
so if you're willing man we'll do it
27:33
again but mr ron eisley
27:35
it's a pleasure absolute honor to have
27:38
you on our airwaves
27:40
yes wow yeah absolute honor and
27:43
congratulations on it all
27:45
and yes you you're inspiring us in so
27:48
many ways and then at the same time man
27:50
i feel like we can hang out at the club
27:52
together
27:52
[Applause]
27:53
[Laughter]
27:54
oh yeah that's gonna be great man it's
27:56
gonna be great i want to thank you guys
27:58
for all the love you've been given
28:01
oh man well you know
28:04
y'all it's been wonderful to us man
28:08
and i want to tell you how much i
28:10
appreciate that
28:11
i just appreciate that more than
28:14
anything
28:15
when we think about this business and
28:17
what what it is that we're trying to do
28:20
yeah absolutely
28:35
[Music]
28:38
you
#Arts & Entertainment