Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Rushion interviews Legendary R&B singer WILL DOWNING. He has released a new single, "Till We Meet Again." According to Will Downing, the song was inspired when he lost his daughter to suicide in January of this year.

Transcript

Rushion interviews Legendary R&B singer WILL DOWNING. He has released a new single, "Till We Meet Again." According to Will Downing, the song was inspired when he lost his daughter to suicide in January of this year. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations.
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Speaker 2: It's to show that she is the secrets of success
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Speaker 2: experience firsthand by marketing and branding expert Rashan McDonald. I
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Speaker 2: will know he's giving me advice on many occasions. And in
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Speaker 2: case you didn't notice, I'm not broke. You know he'll
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Speaker 2: be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry decision make because
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Speaker 2: it's what he likes to do, it's what he likes
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Speaker 2: to share. Now it's time to hear from my man,
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Speaker 2: Rashwan McDonald. Money Making Conversations.
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Speaker 1: Here we go. Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. I'm
0:32
Speaker 1: your host, Rashawn McDonald. Our theme is there's no perfect
0:35
Speaker 1: time to start following your dreams. I recognize that we
0:38
Speaker 1: all have different definitions of success. For you, it may
0:41
Speaker 1: be the size of your paycheck. Mine's inspiring you to
0:44
Speaker 1: accomplish your goals and live your very best life. It's
0:47
Speaker 1: time to stop reading other people's success stories and really
0:50
Speaker 1: when you think about it, and start living your own.
0:53
Speaker 1: People always talk about their purpose or gift. If you
0:55
Speaker 1: have a gift, leave with your gift and don't let
0:58
Speaker 1: your friends, family, or choral stop you from planning or
1:01
Speaker 1: living your dreams. That's the way life is. I always
1:04
Speaker 1: tell people, is about you, not about what other people
1:06
Speaker 1: think of you. My guest is legendary R and B
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Speaker 1: singer Will Downing. He is affectionately dubbed as the Prince
1:12
Speaker 1: of Sophisticated Soul. Where the repertoire consisted of signature interpretations
1:16
Speaker 1: of R and B classic like I Go Crazy, Wishing
1:19
Speaker 1: on the Star, Stop Looking Listen, and I Tried with
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Speaker 1: original hits like a Million Ways After the Night, Sorry,
1:25
Speaker 1: I Everything I Wanted, My Lady and the show stopping
1:28
Speaker 1: chart topping duet with Rachelle Farrell. Nothing has ever felt
1:32
Speaker 1: like this. Here's a new release song out Till We
1:35
Speaker 1: Meet Again. The song offers a message of hope and
1:37
Speaker 1: understanding that will resonate with anyone who has faced mental
1:40
Speaker 1: health challenges. According to Will Downey, the song was inspired
1:43
Speaker 1: when he lost his daughter to suicide of January of
1:46
Speaker 1: this year. He is on the show to discuss his
1:48
Speaker 1: career and the song Till We Meet Again to alert
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Speaker 1: you the mental health issues and suicide. Please welcome the
1:54
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation Masterclass, Will Downing. How you doing, sir brother?
1:59
Speaker 3: That intro was like, you know, when I go out,
2:03
Speaker 3: that's the way I want it. I want it just
2:04
Speaker 3: like that.
2:05
Speaker 1: Well, you know, we thank you, thank you know, my
2:08
Speaker 1: snap said Richie, you really wrote this on up today.
2:10
Speaker 1: I said, Well, I said, I sat down. You know
2:13
Speaker 1: when I think about why you wanted to come on
2:15
Speaker 1: the show, and then our relationship over the years, the
2:18
Speaker 1: interviews we had, and you know, I know you got
2:20
Speaker 1: to my pieces doing this thing out there you on tour.
2:24
Speaker 1: How you doing right now before we get into our interview.
2:27
Speaker 4: You know what, I'm pretty good man for the most part.
2:29
Speaker 3: You know, I have my moments based on everything that
2:33
Speaker 3: you just said, the passing of my daughter in January.
2:35
Speaker 3: So I can't say that everything is perfect. You know,
2:38
Speaker 3: sometimes during the day a brother breaks down, you know
2:41
Speaker 3: what I mean.
2:41
Speaker 4: I see a.
2:42
Speaker 3: Picture or a memory or whatever it is, and it
2:45
Speaker 3: reminds me of you know, of her. But you know,
2:48
Speaker 3: we keep going, and you know, we try to spread
2:51
Speaker 3: the good word in spite of and hopefully help other
2:54
Speaker 3: people up.
2:55
Speaker 4: In definition of a song.
2:57
Speaker 1: Well, you know that's your talent, your gift. My gift
2:59
Speaker 1: is you know. I used to work at IBM and
3:01
Speaker 1: then I started making people laugh. I was a stand
3:04
Speaker 1: up comedian, and then I became a writer on sitcoms
3:06
Speaker 1: and that created a body of work that people can
3:09
Speaker 1: turn on Netflix and see did you write that episode?
3:11
Speaker 1: Did you write that about Sister and Sister Jamie Fox?
3:14
Speaker 1: All these different shows, the Parkers, and you have a
3:17
Speaker 1: body of work, and that body of work allows you
3:19
Speaker 1: to see thousands of people walking in the street and
3:23
Speaker 1: people just walk up to you. How does that affect you?
3:26
Speaker 1: When people pick out certain songs, they say how important
3:30
Speaker 1: that music is to them.
3:32
Speaker 3: Well, it's a great feeling, and you know, you feel
3:34
Speaker 3: like you've had a sense of accomplishment. You know, that's
3:37
Speaker 3: what every artist the goal is is to you know,
3:40
Speaker 3: to make sure that the world reaches that the song.
3:43
Speaker 4: Reaches the world, and that it affects the world in
3:46
Speaker 4: some sort of a way. So I hear that all
3:48
Speaker 4: the time. Matter of fact, I was out.
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Speaker 3: To lunch yesterday with my guitar player and we were
3:52
Speaker 3: sitting there this young lady who was our waitress. That's
3:56
Speaker 3: what I call almas. They have a specific term I
3:58
Speaker 3: always say. So I just saided to her that way,
4:00
Speaker 3: I said, listen, you know, what do you really want
4:03
Speaker 3: to do in life? She says, well, you know, I
4:05
Speaker 3: want to be a singer. I said, oh okay, And
4:08
Speaker 3: so the guitar playoffs with he said, well do you
4:10
Speaker 3: know you're talking to and then he said my name
4:13
Speaker 3: to her and she, you know, just like she lit
4:15
Speaker 3: up a little bit. And I was like a little
4:17
Speaker 3: bit too young for me, you know, honestly, like.
4:21
Speaker 4: How do you know who I am? My mother loves you?
4:23
Speaker 4: And then she got a mother on the telephone. Wow. Yeah, yeah,
4:26
Speaker 4: it was interesting man.
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Speaker 3: So all that to say, it was a great feeling
4:30
Speaker 3: to know that you're still relevant, that you know, the
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Speaker 3: younger generation still appreciates what you do or they appreciate
4:36
Speaker 3: what you do, and the generation you came up with,
4:38
Speaker 3: they still appreciate what you do.
4:40
Speaker 4: So it's a great feeling.
4:41
Speaker 3: We know.
4:41
Speaker 1: The interesting thing about music how important it really is.
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Speaker 1: You know, let's let's be honest. It can lift you up,
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Speaker 1: it can motivate you, it can inspire you. And then
4:51
Speaker 1: your song that you've written based on the death of
4:54
Speaker 1: the suicide of your daughter, is it inspirational, motivational? What
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Speaker 1: is the sense of that particul the song?
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Speaker 3: Well, it's supposed to be all of that, but it's
5:03
Speaker 3: almost when it was written, it was almost like a
5:06
Speaker 3: conversation that I've had with her more times than I
5:09
Speaker 3: can count. Right, So the first couple of lines on
5:12
Speaker 3: the song is, can you tell me what the hell
5:15
Speaker 3: was on your mind?
5:16
Speaker 4: Right? I heard you say that.
5:17
Speaker 3: I went, WHOA okay, right, because when I last spoke
5:21
Speaker 3: to you, you were doing fine. So I've had that conversation.
5:25
Speaker 4: With her, and all my children, have three of them,
5:30
Speaker 4: more times than I can count. You know, they do
5:32
Speaker 4: something and it's like, come on, man, really, like, like
5:35
Speaker 4: what were you thinking?
5:37
Speaker 3: You know, last time I talked to you, you said you
5:39
Speaker 3: weren't going to do this, or you told me you
5:40
Speaker 3: were going to do this, whatever it might be. So
5:43
Speaker 3: it's it's a conversation from a parent to a child.
5:47
Speaker 3: But at the same time, when we've had our conversation off,
5:50
Speaker 3: I said what I've had to say, and I kind
5:52
Speaker 3: of opened up my arms and go, I still love you.
5:55
Speaker 3: Come on, come on, give me a hug.
5:57
Speaker 4: Don't do that again, you know, let's think this out,
6:00
Speaker 4: talk this over. So that's kind of what it is.
6:03
Speaker 3: And unfortunately it's a conversation that we can no longer
6:06
Speaker 3: have as two individuals. But it's still like, you know,
6:11
Speaker 3: my spiritual conversation, like what was going on with you?
6:14
Speaker 3: All right, Okay, that moment's passed. I'm letting you know
6:19
Speaker 3: it's okay. You're not alone. Someone's watching over you. I'm
6:22
Speaker 3: always here. We can talk however, we can communicate, but
6:27
Speaker 3: it's okay until we meet again. When we meet again,
6:30
Speaker 3: we don't had this conversation, right, but until we meet again,
6:34
Speaker 3: know that I love you thinking about you.
6:36
Speaker 4: God's got you, He's holding on to you till I
6:39
Speaker 4: get to you.
6:40
Speaker 1: We know the interesting partner. Thank you for that statement
6:43
Speaker 1: of what it was all about. Cler I said, you
6:45
Speaker 1: heard you say that. At the top, I went, that's
6:47
Speaker 1: pretty strong. But then they got me to the end
6:50
Speaker 1: because I think when I was listening to the song
6:53
Speaker 1: Till We Meet Again, I'm talking to Will down in
6:55
Speaker 1: R and B legend, you know, the whole approach to
7:01
Speaker 1: how you feel. I thought that the line was like
7:02
Speaker 1: the one line in the song and not saying the
7:05
Speaker 1: rest of the song that you was like the ultimate
7:09
Speaker 1: frustration of why you didn't call me, Why didn't you
7:13
Speaker 1: just back up the phone, Why all the days where
7:16
Speaker 1: were you at mentally that you thought you could speak
7:19
Speaker 1: to dad, right, you spoke to Dad on so many
7:23
Speaker 1: things that were irrelevant, so many things that were selling,
7:26
Speaker 1: so many things that didn't matter just to you. But
7:28
Speaker 1: I was there for you.
7:30
Speaker 3: Right right right, And here's the day. All you had
7:33
Speaker 3: to do is pick up the telephone and we could
7:35
Speaker 3: have talked this through because four or five days prior
7:39
Speaker 3: to that we talked on the telephone, and then five
7:42
Speaker 3: was you know, five days prior to that, which was
7:43
Speaker 3: like New Year's Eve. You know, even I left the
7:46
Speaker 3: message on the song if you listen to the song,
7:48
Speaker 3: I left her voicemail that she held me on the song.
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Speaker 3: So eleven days later she was dead.
7:55
Speaker 4: So it's like, wait a minute, how did we get there?
7:58
Speaker 4: How do we get what happened?
8:00
Speaker 3: Like, you know, talk, Why didn't you talk to me?
8:02
Speaker 3: Why didn't you say something? Was it what were you
8:05
Speaker 3: going through? Was it financial?
8:06
Speaker 4: Was it? Was it mental? Was it someone messing with you?
8:10
Speaker 4: Was it? You know? Like it just leads you down
8:13
Speaker 4: a rabbit hole of the amount.
8:15
Speaker 3: Of questions that you can come up with as to
8:18
Speaker 3: why you did what you did and how did you
8:20
Speaker 3: think that the ultimate solution was to take your own
8:24
Speaker 3: life right?
8:25
Speaker 1: And I just you know the whole thing about this interview.
8:27
Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure that we got to talk,
8:29
Speaker 1: will you know, because you know your daughter, you know,
8:32
Speaker 1: initiated this interview because of the tragic turns she took
8:35
Speaker 1: with her life taking care. But it's really a bigger
8:39
Speaker 1: problem out there, especially in our community, because when such
8:42
Speaker 1: denial about because you mentioned that your daughter at the
8:46
Speaker 1: top of the song the video I saw it talked
8:48
Speaker 1: about bipolar, depression, and some farmer schizophrenia. You know, if
8:53
Speaker 1: you could tell our audience what exactly all those type
8:57
Speaker 1: of symptoms are, if you're familiar with it. I'm not
8:59
Speaker 1: trying to put you on the spot, but you know,
9:01
Speaker 1: I've heard bipolar, I don't know what that means. I've
9:03
Speaker 1: heard depression of some maybe I maybe even experienced some
9:06
Speaker 1: depression and really didn't know understand what I was going through.
9:10
Speaker 1: And then you have schizophrenia. Can you talk about those
9:12
Speaker 1: three forms that your daughter dealt with that eventually led
9:16
Speaker 1: to her death.
9:17
Speaker 3: Well earlier on in her life, and she was thirty
9:20
Speaker 3: one when she passed away. You know, we had noticed
9:23
Speaker 3: certain things, me and my ex wife had noticed certain
9:25
Speaker 3: things that she was doing that very moody unbelievably moody,
9:30
Speaker 3: Like you could go from from zero to one hundred,
9:33
Speaker 3: you know, like okay, we're cool, we're cool, We're cool.
9:35
Speaker 3: You say one word and then another person would come
9:38
Speaker 3: out and it's like, all.
9:39
Speaker 4: Right, okay, Well I attribute that to growing things. I remember,
9:43
Speaker 4: you know, growing.
9:44
Speaker 3: Up, and my parents would say something to me and
9:45
Speaker 3: I'd be the same way, like, you know, I hate.
9:48
Speaker 4: You know, me not to that face.
9:51
Speaker 3: You know in the back of my mind, you don't un'erstaying,
9:55
Speaker 3: and so I'm you know, we attributed that to growth.
9:58
Speaker 3: And as the years went on, I remember going to
10:00
Speaker 3: my parents and especially my dad, and just kind of
10:03
Speaker 3: saying like, you know, I'm seeing some stuff that I
10:06
Speaker 3: ain't really comfortable with, and you know, my father hit
10:08
Speaker 3: me with you know, like, hey, when you were that age,
10:11
Speaker 3: you were kind of the same way. Then the years
10:14
Speaker 3: went on, I said it again to him and he
10:15
Speaker 3: was like, you know what, you need to take her
10:18
Speaker 3: down home. Down home was North Carolina, that's where you
10:20
Speaker 3: know my parents are from. Let him run around in
10:23
Speaker 3: the fields and get some polygraensentlemen, and right at need
10:28
Speaker 3: some ice staters.
10:32
Speaker 4: I don't know if that's a solution.
10:34
Speaker 3: But and then she got older and then you know,
10:37
Speaker 3: he kind of saw some stuff and it was like,
10:39
Speaker 3: all right, now, what are.
10:40
Speaker 4: You gonna do about this? I'm like, what am I
10:42
Speaker 4: gonna do?
10:42
Speaker 3: I told you, I said, I bought this up to
10:45
Speaker 3: you seven eight years ago. You told me let him
10:47
Speaker 3: run around in the field.
10:48
Speaker 4: So and so.
10:50
Speaker 3: She she got professional help in that reguard and found
10:53
Speaker 3: out that the bipolar aspect of it is more of
10:57
Speaker 3: internal uh and balance, you know.
11:01
Speaker 1: That could be him with medicine, correct by both right.
11:04
Speaker 4: And she was diagnosed with medicine, was diagnosed.
11:07
Speaker 3: She was given medicine, but she hated the way the
11:09
Speaker 3: medicine made a feel and made her feel methargic and
11:12
Speaker 3: tired and made it feel like she wasn't in control
11:14
Speaker 3: of herself, so she would stop taking the medicine. So
11:17
Speaker 3: then she started kind of like self medicating. You know,
11:21
Speaker 3: she started drinking a little bit, you know, I started
11:23
Speaker 3: smoking a little something something to make her feel better.
11:26
Speaker 3: And that wasn't the answer either. So that's the bipolar
11:30
Speaker 3: aspect of it. The schizophrenia part, and and that was
11:34
Speaker 3: a very small part of it. Was kind of seeing
11:38
Speaker 3: and hearing things that wasn't necessarily true, right, you know,
11:42
Speaker 3: kind of like oh, yeah, you know, this is woman.
11:45
Speaker 3: She looked at me, and you know, she called me
11:48
Speaker 3: in my you know, in her mind, it was like, yeah,
11:50
Speaker 3: she looked at me a particular way, she said a
11:52
Speaker 3: particular thing to her or something like that, or she
11:55
Speaker 3: felt a particular way about if someone was trying to
11:58
Speaker 3: help her.
11:59
Speaker 4: It's like really trying to help me. I know what
12:01
Speaker 4: you're up to. I know what it is. So it
12:03
Speaker 4: was a lot of that as well, and you know,
12:06
Speaker 4: some of it was aimed directly at me and her
12:09
Speaker 4: mother as well. So you know, we had some some
12:12
Speaker 4: instances that were just kind of like you know, whoa whoa,
12:15
Speaker 4: whoa wha.
12:15
Speaker 3: How we get here? Like, no, that's not the case
12:18
Speaker 3: at all. And then you know, you didn't have to
12:20
Speaker 3: like talk her down or something like that. Not that
12:22
Speaker 3: it was going to be a physical confrontation or anything
12:25
Speaker 3: like that, but it was certainly like, you know, just
12:27
Speaker 3: like you could just.
12:28
Speaker 4: Physically see her amped up. It's like, hey, no, that
12:31
Speaker 4: that wasn't the case. What I meant was we want
12:34
Speaker 4: to this is what we like to do.
12:35
Speaker 3: And then it was kind of like oh okay, all right, okay,
12:39
Speaker 3: you know, because I thought that you were, and so
12:41
Speaker 3: it was.
12:41
Speaker 4: It was. It was a lot of that as well.
12:43
Speaker 4: So those are the two aspects.
12:45
Speaker 1: Now I want to talk about it because you mentioned depression,
12:48
Speaker 1: because I want to look at that because I'm in
12:50
Speaker 1: one of those high stress worlds when I say that,
12:53
Speaker 1: because sometimes I think music helps me. I think I
12:57
Speaker 1: watched TV a lot. You know, I'm always keeping my
13:00
Speaker 1: mind active, so I won't just stay on the subject that.
13:04
Speaker 1: Because you know, entertainment, that's like, you know, it is
13:06
Speaker 1: one of the most emotionally up and down businesses you have.
13:11
Speaker 1: You know, you can have a concert, there was a
13:13
Speaker 1: soul lot this concert half field. You know, you can
13:16
Speaker 1: have a hit song in the next five years, maybe
13:18
Speaker 1: not another hit song, and then people start questioning you.
13:21
Speaker 1: I'm just talking about myself too. On shows, you get
13:23
Speaker 1: on the show, you think that show going to be
13:25
Speaker 1: on for a year. They canceled left to three months.
13:27
Speaker 1: That's what happened. When I was on our Senior Hall sitcom.
13:30
Speaker 1: I thought, this is our senior Hall, We're gonna be
13:32
Speaker 1: working for five years. A few months later they pulled
13:34
Speaker 1: the plug and so then so you went from this
13:37
Speaker 1: big high to this major low and that's what depression
13:40
Speaker 1: can really trap you. And so you mentioned that, can
13:44
Speaker 1: we talk a little bit about that.
13:46
Speaker 3: Well, you know, all the things that you just said
13:49
Speaker 3: apply to a lot of people in entertainment, sports and
13:53
Speaker 3: life in general.
13:54
Speaker 4: You know what I mean.
13:55
Speaker 3: There's always like this, this picture in your mind that
13:58
Speaker 3: you have and ay not necessarily turn out to be that,
14:02
Speaker 3: and so you start to look at that as being,
14:04
Speaker 3: you know, somewhat of a failure. I think, you know,
14:06
Speaker 3: one of the best answers I heard even recently was
14:09
Speaker 3: from Giannis, you know when you say, right when a
14:13
Speaker 3: reporter asked, hey, you know, are you are you defining
14:17
Speaker 3: your career by this loss?
14:18
Speaker 4: Or or or was the year a loss? Was it?
14:21
Speaker 3: And then he kind of gave this amazing definition of
14:24
Speaker 3: you know, what success is or or what a failure is,
14:28
Speaker 3: or what a failure.
14:29
Speaker 4: Is not you know. So, you know, I think we
14:32
Speaker 4: all go through stuff like that.
14:37
Speaker 5: We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass
14:40
Speaker 5: with Rushawn McDonald. You are now tuned into the Money
14:45
Speaker 5: Making Conversations Minute of Inspiration with Rashawn McDonald.
14:49
Speaker 1: Despite being known for loud, bombastic comments and his trademark
14:53
Speaker 1: propensity to debate. A much softer side of Steven A.
14:56
Speaker 1: Smith is revealed when discussing the inspiration for his success.
14:59
Speaker 1: The fin product is for the fans.
15:01
Speaker 2: I'm about the work, the process, the grind, the day
15:05
Speaker 2: in and day out, meticulous, tedious work that you have
15:09
Speaker 2: to put in to perfect your craft. And the reason
15:11
Speaker 2: why that resonated with me so profoundly, Rashaan is because.
15:15
Speaker 5: Now let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashaan McDonald.
15:21
Speaker 1: That was my next question. Continue, well, that was my
15:23
Speaker 1: next question, that social media is really an issue now?
15:27
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean, if you don't get excellent of likes,
15:29
Speaker 3: this gives everyone a false sense of everything, like how
15:32
Speaker 3: many friends you have or anything like that. So there's
15:37
Speaker 3: no there's not as much human contact as they used
15:42
Speaker 3: to be to even find out whether someone is genuine
15:45
Speaker 3: and or not genuine. Everything is just keeping up and
15:48
Speaker 3: you're always reinventing yourself, especially these days. Every freaking week
15:52
Speaker 3: you gotta be somebody new. You got to post something
15:54
Speaker 3: or stay relevant, like let people know you're still alive,
15:57
Speaker 3: you're doing something that's relevant and interesting and this, that
16:01
Speaker 3: and the other.
16:02
Speaker 4: So you know, she was caught up in that as well.
16:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, because she did artwork, right, she had that was
16:07
Speaker 1: a skill set, right, So I'm sure posting had a
16:09
Speaker 1: lot to do with people reacting with likes and things
16:13
Speaker 1: like that tell us about her her skill, her talent.
16:16
Speaker 3: Well, she was a phenomenalon She was phenomenal with everything
16:18
Speaker 3: she touched. She was also an esthetician, so you know.
16:22
Speaker 3: But but when things didn't really like rise to you know,
16:25
Speaker 3: that certain level, it's like, well.
16:26
Speaker 4: I got to do something new, all right, So I
16:28
Speaker 4: got to I'm doing art. Now.
16:29
Speaker 3: You know, she's always done art, and so she would
16:31
Speaker 3: do that. And you know, art is subjective.
16:34
Speaker 4: You know what one person's trash is another person's treasure.
16:38
Speaker 3: So you know I always kind of encouraged her in
16:41
Speaker 3: that regardless, like I'm not bringing enough moneies. It's like,
16:44
Speaker 3: you know, life is a balance, you know, do something enjoyable,
16:48
Speaker 3: enjoy yourself at the same time while making some money.
16:51
Speaker 4: You're gonna be okay. But I got to keep up.
16:53
Speaker 4: I got to keep up. I got to keep up.
16:54
Speaker 3: So you know that that played a huge role in it.
16:56
Speaker 3: But you know, a really great artist, uh. The artwork
16:59
Speaker 3: that we used on the cover of the single that's
17:01
Speaker 3: something that she had painted, uh, she had, and.
17:04
Speaker 4: It's a it's a fairly large piece as well.
17:06
Speaker 3: So I have it hanging in my home and I've
17:08
Speaker 3: distributed some of her other artwork to family members, so
17:11
Speaker 3: they think that they can have her in their household
17:13
Speaker 3: and thinking for all the time.
17:14
Speaker 1: Right, you know? Till with Me again is the song
17:16
Speaker 1: that he's talking about that unfortunately is tied to the
17:19
Speaker 1: suicide of his daughter. How can we gain access to
17:22
Speaker 1: this song? It has? It is released, it is available.
17:25
Speaker 3: Where can we go If you want to see the
17:27
Speaker 3: video and hear the song, you can always come to
17:29
Speaker 3: my website, you go to will Downing dot com. If
17:33
Speaker 3: you want to support it and you know, purchased like
17:35
Speaker 3: the music or something like that, you can come to
17:38
Speaker 3: the Prince of Sophisticated Sooul dot com and the video
17:42
Speaker 3: is there as well. You can go on YouTube, you
17:44
Speaker 3: can go to iTunes, all the places that you normally
17:47
Speaker 3: get your music, so you can support in that regard.
17:49
Speaker 1: So, so you was able to get the r M
17:51
Speaker 1: for the Prince.
17:56
Speaker 4: I don't think anybody else will wanted it.
17:59
Speaker 1: That's a lot of type of man, I mean, sophisticated Prince.
18:02
Speaker 1: I got the prince sophisticated. They're gonna have a problem,
18:05
Speaker 1: right there, sophisticated with.
18:11
Speaker 4: The F you know s O F S.
18:14
Speaker 3: T No, no, no, you know, you know, as it.
18:20
Speaker 1: Was something I want to move back in your conversation
18:22
Speaker 1: because as the black community, I want to stay on
18:24
Speaker 1: that a little bit, because that's really the reason we're here,
18:27
Speaker 1: because of the fact that it's about education and motivating.
18:29
Speaker 1: Because as you said, our parents and our grandparents, how
18:34
Speaker 1: they handled these signs, these warning signs of things like that.
18:38
Speaker 1: It's really really my computers on mute. Huh, mute my computer?
18:48
Speaker 1: What's going on? Oh that, don't worry about that.
18:55
Speaker 4: Cool.
18:55
Speaker 1: They were worried about my computer was dinging. At the
18:58
Speaker 1: same I thought, I, hey, we did this whole interview.
19:01
Speaker 1: Mute problem. I'll be taking some people this wrong. You
19:06
Speaker 1: gonna do some old school flogging around there. No, they
19:10
Speaker 1: were just talking about my computer was a dingy in
19:12
Speaker 1: the back of you. They heard you and I we
19:14
Speaker 1: did in our conversation.
19:15
Speaker 4: We need nothing.
19:17
Speaker 1: But I wanted to talk about as we talk about
19:20
Speaker 1: our parents, because I come from phield Ford, Texas, six sisters,
19:23
Speaker 1: two brothers, and I remember our parents and you know
19:25
Speaker 1: we're born. I was born in Houston, Texas, play from Sreeport,
19:28
Speaker 1: Louis Atham. So we go back into the country, outhouses
19:31
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. And as I said, you know,
19:34
Speaker 1: we didn't even want to acknowledge the gay community and
19:38
Speaker 1: the black community, okay, because we didn't know what that was.
19:42
Speaker 1: Uncle uncle was like this and like that, Uncle dressed
19:45
Speaker 1: that way. But we just just hushed it right up.
19:48
Speaker 1: And then you come back to this major turn of events,
19:51
Speaker 1: the mental structure of the black community because we're always
19:55
Speaker 1: getting beat up. A lot of people need to understand
19:56
Speaker 1: about the black community racism, so we can't ever show weakness.
20:00
Speaker 1: We always the last higher, the first fire. So a
20:03
Speaker 1: lot of those things will come into play. Well, we're
20:06
Speaker 1: willing to say show vulnerability and to say that you
20:10
Speaker 1: are mentally quote unquote unstable. They gets you out to
20:14
Speaker 1: do real fast. Do you think that plays a role
20:16
Speaker 1: as well?
20:17
Speaker 4: Well, definitely.
20:18
Speaker 3: I mean, as you just said, it's something that we
20:21
Speaker 3: as a community do not talk about openly. You know,
20:24
Speaker 3: there's a sense of shame attached to it. And you
20:28
Speaker 3: pretty much hit like the top two. You know, the
20:31
Speaker 3: sexuality is one thing, and you know mental illness is
20:34
Speaker 3: sort of like we have this picture in our mind
20:38
Speaker 3: that you know, people think that you're crazy because you
20:40
Speaker 3: talk to someone about what's going on with you internally
20:44
Speaker 3: in your mind or how you feel a particular way,
20:47
Speaker 3: especially these days when we're in a very uncaring society.
20:51
Speaker 3: You know, we hold everything in and then when you
20:53
Speaker 3: do birst it's like, you know, how do we get this?
20:56
Speaker 3: It's like, well, this person ever had the pleasure of
20:59
Speaker 3: talking with someone and releasing it and getting a different
21:02
Speaker 3: perspective on what's.
21:03
Speaker 4: Going on in your life. You're not being judged.
21:06
Speaker 3: This person is there for you to listen to or
21:10
Speaker 3: to listen to you and to maybe kind of give you,
21:14
Speaker 3: like a different perspective as to how they see it. So,
21:17
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of times we sort of look
21:18
Speaker 3: at that we have this vision in our mind of
21:20
Speaker 3: a couch and you know, you're sitting there, someone's in
21:23
Speaker 3: this white jacket then writing down all of this stuff,
21:26
Speaker 3: you know, and then they hand you a bill and
21:28
Speaker 3: give you a couple of bills and pick out the door.
21:30
Speaker 4: They say, you.
21:31
Speaker 3: Know, we ain't gonna talk about this, right you'ren't telling
21:32
Speaker 3: nobody else here. So you know, that's the picture that
21:37
Speaker 3: I have in my mind and to those who I've
21:38
Speaker 3: spoken to about this sort of thing, that's the vision
21:41
Speaker 3: that they have as well. And you know, we're very
21:43
Speaker 3: apprehensive about talking about it. So you know, we have
21:46
Speaker 3: to do better as a society. We definitely have to.
21:49
Speaker 1: Well, you know, black people prostate cancer don't want to
21:52
Speaker 1: do that, you know what I'm saying, and tell us
21:55
Speaker 1: what that's what we need to do. You know, mental health,
21:57
Speaker 1: mental care don't want to do that. Well, don't any
22:00
Speaker 1: knowledge to our sexuality within our community because you know,
22:04
Speaker 1: and I'm not pointing no finger, but guess what. We
22:06
Speaker 1: live in a racist country, Ladies and gentlemen, a country
22:10
Speaker 1: that enslaved us. Don't want to acknowledge the fact that
22:12
Speaker 1: they did enslavers. In fact, they want to take that
22:14
Speaker 1: out of books. They want to take all that out
22:16
Speaker 1: of the book. They just want to go, we freed, y'all,
22:19
Speaker 1: and just skip everything else.
22:21
Speaker 3: Well, either that or the fact that it happened so
22:23
Speaker 3: long ago we're still talking about, like what.
22:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, if if we don't talk about it and then
22:31
Speaker 1: it would happen again. Like you said, it's hard to
22:33
Speaker 1: repeat history when you can see it happening again and
22:37
Speaker 1: then you can stop it, okay, But if you don't
22:39
Speaker 1: know your history, then all of a sudden you can
22:41
Speaker 1: be stunned and say I didn't see they coming. And
22:44
Speaker 1: so when I think about your career and I think
22:46
Speaker 1: about the longevity, as we wrap up this interview, well
22:50
Speaker 1: and thank you again for coming on my show. You
22:53
Speaker 1: know it's really true. I remember I started doing a
22:55
Speaker 1: stand up I left my job at eighty six to
22:57
Speaker 1: do stand up comedy, and you know, I and see
23:00
Speaker 1: the future. You know, you just out there performing. You know,
23:03
Speaker 1: in ninety two I did death comedy Jam and I
23:06
Speaker 1: started writing those sitcoms. And it's that longevity conversation I'm
23:10
Speaker 1: having with you. It's like it's like you look at
23:13
Speaker 1: your success and that's where the worry. Fear comes in
23:18
Speaker 1: fear of can I keep it going? Fear As we
23:21
Speaker 1: rapt this interview up and talk about your success, how
23:26
Speaker 1: you've overcome fear, how you overcome doubt. Because when we're young,
23:31
Speaker 1: there's no fear. We're just out there. But as you
23:34
Speaker 1: have success, sometimes success can work against you because can
23:39
Speaker 1: I do it again? Will I be able to do
23:41
Speaker 1: it again? Will I be able to sell out this show?
23:43
Speaker 1: When people know who I am next year or five
23:46
Speaker 1: years from now mentally as an artist? Can you talk
23:49
Speaker 1: to my autists, talk to my fans about that?
23:52
Speaker 3: Well, I always say when I hear stuff like that,
23:55
Speaker 3: you know, chasing success is has killed the best of
24:00
Speaker 3: who we've had musically, you know.
24:04
Speaker 4: So when you look at Michael.
24:05
Speaker 3: Jackson's, when you look at Prince, when you look at
24:08
Speaker 3: your Whitney Houston's, people like that, you know they all
24:13
Speaker 3: passed away chasing success. In my opinion, you know, Michael bleached,
24:19
Speaker 3: his skin, changed, physically changed his features, would stay up constantly.
24:25
Speaker 4: Just to kind of keep up, you know what I mean.
24:27
Speaker 4: So it's kind of like, Okay, I've been to the mountaintop.
24:29
Speaker 3: I know what it looks like, and someone else is
24:32
Speaker 3: coming up, but they're not as good as I am.
24:34
Speaker 4: So you know what do I have to do to
24:36
Speaker 4: keep up? Well? Okay, stay up? Okay, Well I'm tired, Okay,
24:39
Speaker 4: well I need to get some rest, all right.
24:41
Speaker 3: And then he started taking the profofall which gave him
24:44
Speaker 3: the best rest you ever had. And you know, the
24:47
Speaker 3: doctor dropped the ball. I forgot to wake him up.
24:50
Speaker 3: I gave him too much or whatever. However that went down,
24:52
Speaker 3: but it was all chasing success. Whitney Houston same way.
24:56
Speaker 3: You know, I'm up, up, up, up up. Oh this
24:57
Speaker 3: girl can sing better than me. What do I have
24:59
Speaker 3: to do? I got to and then started doing whatever
25:01
Speaker 3: she was doing. Prince, you know, was was physically hurt,
25:04
Speaker 3: you know, with his hip. It's like, oh, man, you
25:07
Speaker 3: know you're hurt, Like I mean, I can keep going,
25:09
Speaker 3: I can keep going, and you know, then you know
25:12
Speaker 3: his unfortunate demise. So I think that what people have
25:16
Speaker 3: to realize.
25:17
Speaker 4: And it hit me on top of the head as
25:19
Speaker 4: well when I got sick and.
25:21
Speaker 3: Started realizing when I had all that time off to
25:23
Speaker 3: myself that this is just one aspect of who we
25:27
Speaker 3: are as entertainers or you know, who I am, you know,
25:30
Speaker 3: and being an entertainer is just a small aspect of that.
25:33
Speaker 3: So you have to live your life, have a balanced life.
25:36
Speaker 3: There's nothing more important than to be honest with your
25:38
Speaker 3: success is one thing. And if you gain a whole
25:41
Speaker 3: lot of it, where you're gonna go after a while.
25:44
Speaker 3: You know, if you can't go out and be seen
25:45
Speaker 3: in society, what's the point of being successful If you
25:48
Speaker 3: can't enjoy what with your friends and you can't go out,
25:51
Speaker 3: can't go to the mall, can't go to the movies,
25:53
Speaker 3: can't go I can't do anything.
25:54
Speaker 4: You know, you are going to do it with people
25:56
Speaker 4: that are like you. You know, they don't even know you.
26:00
Speaker 3: So you know, just be careful, just have a balanced life.
26:03
Speaker 3: And what's for you, what's meant for you?
26:06
Speaker 1: Till we meet again? That's the song, meet again, till
26:09
Speaker 1: we meet again, you know. So as to that propos,
26:12
Speaker 1: you know, because we're gonna meet again and we're gonna talk,
26:15
Speaker 1: We're gonna smile, we're gonna share stories about because I
26:17
Speaker 1: have a daughter, she's twenty six, so this is a
26:19
Speaker 1: very personal conversation and just to share you our thought
26:23
Speaker 1: when she calls, I stopped talking to everybody to talk
26:26
Speaker 1: to you, girl, because I don't know. So when it
26:29
Speaker 1: happened to your daughter, it magnified my attention to her
26:33
Speaker 1: that you know, she called me at ten and I
26:35
Speaker 1: apologized and I didn't see the call, you know, because
26:39
Speaker 1: she called me for a reason, whether it's just say
26:41
Speaker 1: she loves me, or just to share a personal story.
26:44
Speaker 1: Because again she's out there by herself, she's out there
26:47
Speaker 1: working remote and all these life has changed, so much
26:51
Speaker 1: how people live. You know, they don't have to go
26:53
Speaker 1: into work, they don't have to interact. That gives them
26:56
Speaker 1: more time to think, more time to go online. Like
26:58
Speaker 1: you said, the internet, the social media. But as we
27:01
Speaker 1: close teal with meat again, how can my fan base participate,
27:05
Speaker 1: be a partner support you in getting this song this
27:08
Speaker 1: sing once again?
27:09
Speaker 3: Come out to my website, go to Willdowning dot com,
27:12
Speaker 3: go to the Friends of Sophisticated Soul. I love you brother,
27:19
Speaker 3: and then you go to will down In dot com.
27:21
Speaker 3: They'll tell you where I well, then come on out
27:23
Speaker 3: and come see.
27:24
Speaker 4: The show as well.
27:25
Speaker 1: So all of that and already make sure you always
27:27
Speaker 1: send banister, because there was one thing about my life man,
27:30
Speaker 1: as I always said, once you get past fifty on
27:32
Speaker 1: the down side of your life, I want to support
27:34
Speaker 1: people like you and uh individuals who have supported me unbeknownst.
27:39
Speaker 1: Your music has uplifted me. Your music has got me
27:42
Speaker 1: through my down days. Your music have inspired me, made
27:45
Speaker 1: me feel good when I felt down. So it's artists
27:48
Speaker 1: like you man play such a major role in the
27:51
Speaker 1: black community by getting this through our tough times. Thank
27:54
Speaker 1: you Will down If for coming on money and it
27:55
Speaker 1: comes to Masterclass.
27:56
Speaker 4: I appreciate, appreciate you, sir.
27:58
Speaker 1: We talked soon.
28:05
Speaker 5: Thank you for joining us for this edition of Money
28:08
Speaker 5: Making Conversations Masterclass. Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan MacDonald
28:14
Speaker 5: is produced by thirty eight to fifteen Media Inc. More
28:17
Speaker 5: information about thirty eight fifteen Media Inc. Is available at
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Speaker 5: thirty eight fifteen media dot com. And always remember to
28:25
Speaker 5: lead with your gifts