Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Melody Thomas Scott Full Interview

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Melody Thomas Scott Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: right James eyl Ray Let's upon for the official story.
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1:18
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Money Making Conversation. I am your host,
1:20
Speaker 1: R Sean McDonald. It's important to understand that everybody travels
1:23
Speaker 1: a different path to success. That is because your brand
1:26
Speaker 1: is different. The challenges you face in your life are different.
1:29
Speaker 1: So stop reading other people's success stories and start writing
1:33
Speaker 1: your own. My Money Making Conversation interviews will encourage you
1:36
Speaker 1: to lead with your gifts and never use age as
1:39
Speaker 1: an excuse when you're planning your goals. My next guest
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Speaker 1: is Melody Thomas Scott. She's best known for Amy nominated
1:47
Speaker 1: work and the iconic role of Nicky Read, a character
1:49
Speaker 1: she's played for forty years and counting on America's the
1:52
Speaker 1: number one daytime television drama The Young and the Restless.
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Speaker 1: How memoir Always Young and Restless. It's a very motivational
2:00
Speaker 1: I read it. It's very very recommended. It's a compelling
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Speaker 1: book about her life. We'll be discussing her life, her career,
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Speaker 1: and overcoming the odds. Please, Welcome to Money Making Conversations.
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Speaker 1: Melody Thomas Scott. Well, hello, Sean. Well. Uh well, first
2:16
Speaker 1: of all, thank you for coming on the show. Thank
2:17
Speaker 1: you for having your people send a book to me.
2:20
Speaker 1: You know, I read a lot of books, Melody, and uh.
2:24
Speaker 1: One thing that jumped out of this book was Overcoming
2:26
Speaker 1: the Arts was one. Uh. And motivation. You you constantly
2:31
Speaker 1: self motivated? Uh? Can you talk about that a little
2:34
Speaker 1: bit before we were getting dealt about different things and
2:36
Speaker 1: that I read about the book and some of the
2:38
Speaker 1: questions that your your team asked me to enquire about
2:41
Speaker 1: when we were doing the interview. It's so funny that
2:45
Speaker 1: you consider me to be a self motivator. I don't
2:49
Speaker 1: believe that about myself at all, but I'll take the compliment.
2:53
Speaker 1: We are because because you know the thing about it.
2:55
Speaker 1: I I look at my life, you know, and people
2:57
Speaker 1: laugh at me because I can remember are things when
3:00
Speaker 1: I was two, three and five very clearly. I can
3:03
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna tell you something I can. I
3:05
Speaker 1: can remember when my sisters, you know, back in the
3:08
Speaker 1: day before they had the little pampers where you could
3:10
Speaker 1: just have a little when it had safety. I can
3:13
Speaker 1: remember my sister's actually sticking me intentionally because because because
3:18
Speaker 1: I was the middle child. I was the middle child.
3:20
Speaker 1: I can remember and I tell people, they go, you're
3:22
Speaker 1: not telling you, how could you remember that? And then
3:24
Speaker 1: I read your book and I go, I finally met somebody,
3:28
Speaker 1: isn't it wonderful? And I only know before now learning
3:32
Speaker 1: about you, there's only one other person and that I've
3:35
Speaker 1: found that has the same memory that we do. So
3:38
Speaker 1: there's three of us anyway, And it's really interesting because
3:42
Speaker 1: you know it is so. As I'm talking to starting
3:45
Speaker 1: your book and you you mentioned that, I go, okay,
3:48
Speaker 1: you know you started, you said, okay, I can relate
3:50
Speaker 1: to her. Now, you know, we we have a kinship
3:54
Speaker 1: here because how many people have told me in fact
3:57
Speaker 1: and first in fact, when I tell people that they
3:59
Speaker 1: said this, they told me I've not been telling truth
4:01
Speaker 1: so many times I don't even tell people anymore. They
4:04
Speaker 1: don't believe you. I I totally understand. And so it's so.
4:08
Speaker 1: But but it's tied to it's tied to it's not
4:11
Speaker 1: tied to trauma. It's not. It's just that somehow in
4:14
Speaker 1: my life I am very you know, there are points
4:17
Speaker 1: in my life where you know, I'm not as clear.
4:19
Speaker 1: But for some reason, for some reason under five. I
4:23
Speaker 1: am very clear about what happened in my life between
4:26
Speaker 1: first grade from from under five. I'm very clear melody is,
4:33
Speaker 1: isn't it strange? I mean, I remember being in my crib,
4:36
Speaker 1: I remember all these I remember events that happened when
4:39
Speaker 1: I was one that have been verified by family members.
4:43
Speaker 1: So it is a freakish umber, yes, but you know
4:50
Speaker 1: it's a blessing and occurs. I mean you probably don't
4:53
Speaker 1: remember some of those things, right, But let's talk about
4:56
Speaker 1: your career. Why did you write the book? Okay, for
4:59
Speaker 1: like I said, when I it, it became a very
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Speaker 1: motivating memoir to me. Why did you write the book? Well,
5:05
Speaker 1: thank you, Um, I wrote the book. I've I've always
5:09
Speaker 1: known for many years that there was a book in
5:11
Speaker 1: me that needed to be out there in the world.
5:15
Speaker 1: And it took a very long time, I think, um
5:18
Speaker 1: getting over the the emotional blocks that one might have
5:23
Speaker 1: in writing about adversities in childhood, and mine were particularly unique,
5:29
Speaker 1: I would say, But I mean I was never going
5:33
Speaker 1: to write about write a book simply about the young
5:35
Speaker 1: and the restless. I mean that that just would not
5:39
Speaker 1: do it for me. I mean, yes, it's interesting to
5:41
Speaker 1: the fans. But my real motivation was to write about
5:45
Speaker 1: my personal life and yes, things that I have overcome. Um,
5:50
Speaker 1: but when I said to you earlier, I don't view
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Speaker 1: myself as self motivating. Uh. It just happened to be
5:58
Speaker 1: that I was able somehow guardian angels or who knows what,
6:03
Speaker 1: to uh break out of what could have been a
6:07
Speaker 1: very bad road. Uh it was not. It was never
6:11
Speaker 1: my uh intant at the moments of thinking, all right,
6:15
Speaker 1: I'm going to overcome this. No, it was almost something
6:18
Speaker 1: otherworldly that guided me to a different path, uh for
6:22
Speaker 1: my government. And I'm so grateful for that whatever forces
6:27
Speaker 1: or powers allowed me to do that and showed me
6:29
Speaker 1: those roads. It's really interesting. Let me I'm gonna repeat.
6:33
Speaker 1: I don't know if you heard my intro before I
6:35
Speaker 1: introduced you. And that is why, and then is why
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Speaker 1: this book is such a natural to my storytelling about
6:42
Speaker 1: what you're bringing you on the show. I say it
6:45
Speaker 1: is important to understand that everybody travels a different path
6:48
Speaker 1: to success. This is her, but when you read her book,
6:51
Speaker 1: this is her book. That is because your brand is different.
6:55
Speaker 1: Brand is just a life, and that's her life. The
6:57
Speaker 1: challenge you're facing your life are different that her. And
7:01
Speaker 1: then what she did was she stopped reading other people's
7:03
Speaker 1: success story and started writing her own. I could not
7:07
Speaker 1: have written I said that. I said that every time
7:10
Speaker 1: I opened my show, Melody, I could have not written
7:13
Speaker 1: a more classic intro that that mirrors your book. It's amazing,
7:19
Speaker 1: and I like to believe that what I'm trying to
7:22
Speaker 1: do on my show and what you've written in that
7:24
Speaker 1: book trying to accomplish the same thing. You're telling your story,
7:28
Speaker 1: but I'm also inviting on the show to let people
7:30
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying is the truth. Yes, And that
7:35
Speaker 1: is why I wrote the book. I had to be
7:38
Speaker 1: truthful about everything. I had to include the dark with
7:42
Speaker 1: the light. You can't write a whole book all about
7:45
Speaker 1: the light. That that meaningless some way. So um, I
7:51
Speaker 1: just needed to let it out there. And since the
7:54
Speaker 1: release on August eighteens, I've heard from so many people
7:58
Speaker 1: already that are thanking me for delving into particularly sensitive areas.
8:06
Speaker 1: That hearing from so many people, Oh my gosh, Melody.
8:10
Speaker 1: You know, I had similar things when I was a kid,
8:13
Speaker 1: and they're still carrying them around, you know, as an adult,
8:18
Speaker 1: and it's so wonderful to be able to release that
8:21
Speaker 1: and move forward and lead the past in the past.
8:25
Speaker 1: And it really is important. I know, I'm working on
8:27
Speaker 1: a book myself, a motivating book, melody. And the thing
8:30
Speaker 1: that I found and rightened it you you start remembering
8:35
Speaker 1: things that you kind of like yet you buried. Yes,
8:39
Speaker 1: I mean there were many times where I'm sitting at
8:41
Speaker 1: my computer writing a particularly grueling chapter and I am there,
8:46
Speaker 1: perhaps due to our early childhood memory abilities when writing
8:51
Speaker 1: at I am there in the room where things were
8:54
Speaker 1: happening when I was four. And it's total recall and
8:59
Speaker 1: it has to be in order for it to be honest.
9:01
Speaker 1: And that's what makes the book compelling. And now now
9:04
Speaker 1: remember you stay every shot. I don't really see myself
9:06
Speaker 1: as a self starter. Well, I'm gonna point out some
9:08
Speaker 1: examples of what I thought with a self start if
9:11
Speaker 1: you don't mind when you intend to it, when you
9:14
Speaker 1: intentionally gained weight for that role, nobody, nobody told you
9:19
Speaker 1: to do that, but you saw an opportunity. Okay, even that,
9:25
Speaker 1: you're giving me too much credit? Why Why am I
9:28
Speaker 1: giving you too much credit? Speach speak speak to me,
9:33
Speaker 1: because I still can't tell you to this day. Why
9:38
Speaker 1: when I was thirteen and reading Variety and learned about
9:41
Speaker 1: this part in this new Clint Eastern movie. I still
9:44
Speaker 1: cannot tell you what inside is. Me said, that's my part,
9:48
Speaker 1: and the part is of a chubby girl. Why I'm
9:51
Speaker 1: not chubby, but I can be very soon, and just
9:55
Speaker 1: started eating with no promise of an interview. My agent
9:58
Speaker 1: had not ever uttered the words of system uh. And
10:02
Speaker 1: it was just something in me that And it wasn't like, oh,
10:07
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go get it. I'm gonna go get that,
10:09
Speaker 1: get a moment. We're gonna argue positively on this show,
10:13
Speaker 1: ms go because because you are fantastic, and I think
10:18
Speaker 1: i'd like to say you kind of underseil yourself a
10:21
Speaker 1: little bit, but I can't say that because you're so successful.
10:23
Speaker 1: But what I see is a person that let's just
10:26
Speaker 1: point out another example, to shoot this, to shoot this.
10:31
Speaker 1: The director he worked, he worked with him twice. Right,
10:35
Speaker 1: you saw an opportunity you called his lovely assistance. I
10:38
Speaker 1: feel a bit that that was a bit of a
10:40
Speaker 1: devious movement my part. All right, you know some people,
10:44
Speaker 1: we're getting that. What you would tell everybody if you
10:46
Speaker 1: don't mind that genius move there, that actually the role
10:49
Speaker 1: could have went to another blonde starlet. I won't reveal
10:52
Speaker 1: that little aha moment, but you did a genius move.
10:57
Speaker 1: Until long after we shot the film, I did not
11:00
Speaker 1: know who was supposed to play that part. But it
11:02
Speaker 1: was just kind of a strategic move on my part
11:06
Speaker 1: because I really did feel like, you know, my career over,
11:10
Speaker 1: should I go back and focus on my piano. I
11:14
Speaker 1: was a bit at a crossroads, but I felt that
11:17
Speaker 1: taking a meeting with Don Seagal because I had worked
11:20
Speaker 1: with him twice before and I did know he was
11:23
Speaker 1: going to be doing the shoot this, but I didn't
11:26
Speaker 1: let on to that in the meeting, and that it
11:31
Speaker 1: was just again one of those why you did when
11:34
Speaker 1: you talked to his assistant. You didn't let on then
11:36
Speaker 1: either strategic, strategic, strategic. Then when you made it with him,
11:42
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, then you made it with him, So you
11:44
Speaker 1: did it twice. I'm just saying, you're very smart, and
11:47
Speaker 1: that's why I'm just letting you know that these are
11:49
Speaker 1: the tools that I took away from the book, that
11:51
Speaker 1: sometimes you have to make your opportunity, sometimes you have
11:54
Speaker 1: to be a self starter. And these are the motivated
11:56
Speaker 1: moments that I took away from the book, and I'm
11:58
Speaker 1: encouraging people to read because here's a person. Sometimes you
12:02
Speaker 1: don't Sometimes an opportunity is not presented to you. Sometimes
12:05
Speaker 1: it may be so far away you might say, I
12:07
Speaker 1: can't achieve that. That's what happened. When you was eight
12:09
Speaker 1: years old. You was you were skinny. The road was
12:12
Speaker 1: for a chubby kid, and your mind, your agent didn't
12:15
Speaker 1: say anything about it, but you read it said I'm
12:17
Speaker 1: gonna get this, and you went and got it. But
12:19
Speaker 1: through effort, through effort, though well, through a lot of eating.
12:23
Speaker 1: I gained twenty pounds in two weeks. And I still
12:27
Speaker 1: don't know how you did that. I still don't know
12:29
Speaker 1: how you did that. You'll grubbing big time. I was determined.
12:36
Speaker 1: Without a solid opportunity at the end of that road,
12:39
Speaker 1: I didn't know. It was just something that made that thought, well,
12:43
Speaker 1: I'm going to do this and then and uh and
12:46
Speaker 1: then then you achieved it. And so when you achieved
12:49
Speaker 1: these things, you know, I'll never take it for an
12:52
Speaker 1: example myself. M Scott is there sometimes I I've accomplished
12:57
Speaker 1: things in life and then I kind of like, I
12:59
Speaker 1: think it's no big deal, and I'm understand that but
13:02
Speaker 1: I'm just in my person out and I see a
13:04
Speaker 1: lot of things that that you you've accomplished in your
13:07
Speaker 1: life and that you're doing your life sometimes obviously like saying, Okay,
13:11
Speaker 1: it happened because guess what was supposed to happen was
13:13
Speaker 1: the right place at the right time. And I tend
13:15
Speaker 1: to kill those statements in my life because I realized
13:18
Speaker 1: that it happened because I made the effort. Like that
13:20
Speaker 1: happened because guess what, when somebody will give twenty three
13:23
Speaker 1: hours in the day, I gave twenty four hours. And
13:25
Speaker 1: I got that from your personality, Like when you went
13:27
Speaker 1: back to the Broadway store to work, you don't have
13:29
Speaker 1: to go back to that story work. And when you
13:31
Speaker 1: went back to that store, that led to another opportunity.
13:34
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, it's just your your your ability to
13:37
Speaker 1: see opportunities and make opportunities is what shines in this
13:41
Speaker 1: book when I read it. Well, you're starting to convince
13:46
Speaker 1: me now that perhaps there is a bit of that
13:49
Speaker 1: in me all the goodness outside, because there's so much
13:53
Speaker 1: activity in my house right now. Sorry for that, um goodness,
14:01
Speaker 1: Um I am, I'm starting to agree with you. Um.
14:06
Speaker 1: I mean, you know what you could, you could convince
14:09
Speaker 1: the snowman to buy ice. I'm telling you, I think
14:11
Speaker 1: you first of all, when when the reality is that
14:14
Speaker 1: That's why I was so excited when I got the book.
14:16
Speaker 1: You know, they sent it to me, a book, and
14:17
Speaker 1: he said, you know, and I vary familiar with your talents.
14:20
Speaker 1: You know, A big fan of the show. Uh. I
14:22
Speaker 1: grew up you know, my mom was a soap opera fan,
14:25
Speaker 1: and so so that's over the sixties. I was, you know, seventies.
14:28
Speaker 1: I was watching before I went off to college, and
14:31
Speaker 1: my life took a whole new direction and I thought
14:34
Speaker 1: I was a man of men and things like that
14:36
Speaker 1: and became the person I am today. But along the way,
14:39
Speaker 1: it was like even when you even when you had
14:41
Speaker 1: the opportunity to audition for the iconic role that you
14:46
Speaker 1: have right now, you know, you had a sitcom opportunity,
14:49
Speaker 1: a pilot up to time you was on the Waltons.
14:53
Speaker 1: But yeah, still but yeah, and still well but I,
14:58
Speaker 1: as you read in the book, I didn't I really
15:01
Speaker 1: wasn't interested in the role on The Young and the Restless, because,
15:04
Speaker 1: as you say, I had that other opportunity that I
15:07
Speaker 1: very much wanted to do. It's only because my agent
15:09
Speaker 1: convinced me to take wine, aren't And goodness gracious, the
15:13
Speaker 1: moral of that is always listened to your agent, because
15:15
Speaker 1: we see were shot so right. Forty one years later,
15:18
Speaker 1: I'm still on that show, which is incredible. Wow. I
15:24
Speaker 1: just love talking to you because you are the incredible one,
15:28
Speaker 1: young lady. But you see, I have always felt, even
15:33
Speaker 1: as a child, and to this day, I feel that
15:35
Speaker 1: I'm very much the statalist, and that you know, things
15:40
Speaker 1: that come to me come to me from other forces,
15:43
Speaker 1: because wherever I'm at is where I'm supposed to be.
15:47
Speaker 1: And if another opportunity opens up, I don't feel that
15:50
Speaker 1: I gunned for it until you started talking to Rashaan McDonald. Now,
15:57
Speaker 1: Roshan mcdowe got you thinking about your sail a little
16:00
Speaker 1: bit different. Here you should have may be right, I
16:04
Speaker 1: will give him full credit. But you can just onto
16:07
Speaker 1: something here because because you can give your agent credit
16:10
Speaker 1: if you want to, rushaw won't, Okay, rush won't because
16:13
Speaker 1: you still have to give one effort. And when you're
16:17
Speaker 1: writing this book, you may have had those two opportunities,
16:21
Speaker 1: but you wanted this opportunity. Then you when you went
16:24
Speaker 1: in read you you naturally matching the screen test. You
16:29
Speaker 1: you the effort, and then the fact that you got it.
16:33
Speaker 1: And then she she gives you, your agent gives you
16:35
Speaker 1: this half compliment where the other girl was prettier. You
16:43
Speaker 1: could you could have told me everything. Okay, but you
16:46
Speaker 1: know they turned out other girl because she was actually
16:48
Speaker 1: prettier than you, So thank good. But they said that.
16:53
Speaker 1: She said, well, the other girl was prettier than you,
16:55
Speaker 1: but you were the better actor. There you go, there
16:58
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Speaker 1: T E R dot Ai. I am. I think I've
19:01
Speaker 1: gotten you. I think I've gotten the spirit of melody
19:04
Speaker 1: on my side. Now let's talk about this brilliant career.
19:07
Speaker 1: NICKI read come on now, I had to. I had to.
19:10
Speaker 1: I had to dig deep on this. And because I said,
19:12
Speaker 1: you know some I'm reading this book and this book
19:15
Speaker 1: is so you know, it starts with a dark side,
19:18
Speaker 1: this childhood. And she's like me, she's remembering a lot
19:21
Speaker 1: of things that most people say you're foolish to be
19:24
Speaker 1: able to you're just lying. You're not telling the two years.
19:26
Speaker 1: You're just acting right now. But that's part of what
19:29
Speaker 1: the other magic of who you are. And then then
19:31
Speaker 1: you take all these stories but they don't affect your
19:34
Speaker 1: everyday life, and you know, it doesn't slow you down,
19:37
Speaker 1: you know, and you just all like you said, all
19:40
Speaker 1: you wanted was a sense of normalcy in your life.
19:42
Speaker 1: That's what you're said in the book. And and and
19:45
Speaker 1: ironically that normal to me was being an actor and
19:51
Speaker 1: getting I knew that I was not living the life
19:53
Speaker 1: as a normal little girl at all. But I knew
19:56
Speaker 1: that if I got a job, I could go to
19:59
Speaker 1: a video and play the part of a normal little girl.
20:02
Speaker 1: And that was everything to me. And that is probably
20:05
Speaker 1: but what was the very beginnings of my deep desire
20:09
Speaker 1: to be an actor. It was like, Hey, I'm living
20:11
Speaker 1: the craziest world ever at home with this nutty family.
20:15
Speaker 1: But I can feel successful and at peace with my
20:21
Speaker 1: own self by being an active by jumping into another
20:26
Speaker 1: character's mind. That and I still feel that way. That
20:29
Speaker 1: is the joy of acting for me is to take
20:32
Speaker 1: a character that doesn't exist in reality, but making her real.
20:37
Speaker 1: I'm speaking to Emmy nominated actress who plays the iconic
20:41
Speaker 1: role on The Young and the Restless NICKI Read forty
20:45
Speaker 1: years in County. We're discussing her book Always Young and Restless,
20:49
Speaker 1: is very motivational book as a memoir, it's about her life.
20:52
Speaker 1: You know, is um you call her NICKI Read? And yes,
20:57
Speaker 1: indeed she was NICKI Read. But every today they all
21:01
Speaker 1: want to say NICKI Newman, NICKI Newman? Is that whole
21:03
Speaker 1: Newman thing? You know? Of course, she has been married
21:07
Speaker 1: twelve times, so I'm not going to fall. So so
21:10
Speaker 1: what what do you want me to do now? Ms?
21:13
Speaker 1: Scott Nicky Read or Nicki Newman. You've been married toll time.
21:17
Speaker 1: See see. I love talking to you. I love you.
21:20
Speaker 1: You're probably one of my most interesting guests because like
21:23
Speaker 1: like this book can there's a couple of things in
21:26
Speaker 1: the book. I want to say that that I agree
21:29
Speaker 1: with you when you said right place at the right time,
21:32
Speaker 1: like when you went in and Kirk Douglas braided your hair.
21:36
Speaker 1: M h okay, that's that's that's all. Now here explained
21:41
Speaker 1: this to me, if you will, okay, cool, thank you.
21:45
Speaker 1: When I was in that stock room at the Broadway
21:47
Speaker 1: selling shoes, and I had been told do not answer
21:50
Speaker 1: the phone in the stock room and I never do
21:53
Speaker 1: so that one day and again I don't know what
21:57
Speaker 1: what made me go pick up that receiver and say,
22:00
Speaker 1: you know, well, ladies shops, how can I help you? Uh?
22:03
Speaker 1: And it turns out to be my childhood agent, which
22:06
Speaker 1: led to an I mean as if no time had
22:08
Speaker 1: passed and it has been years since I had spoken
22:10
Speaker 1: to her. Uh. And then I go to the address
22:13
Speaker 1: she gives me, I walk in and there's Kirk Ductles
22:16
Speaker 1: behind the desk, and that led to me getting possive,
22:19
Speaker 1: which really led to me getting back into the business
22:21
Speaker 1: as an adult. Uh to to work continuously, but explain
22:26
Speaker 1: that to me? What made me answer that song that
22:29
Speaker 1: that same quality that I keep saying about you, the
22:32
Speaker 1: overriding desire to win and to you know, some we're
22:36
Speaker 1: not winning. What I talked to a lot of successful people,
22:38
Speaker 1: and you truly are a successful person. And in the
22:42
Speaker 1: end they wind up being successful because they trust themselves.
22:45
Speaker 1: People tell them what not to do, they do it
22:48
Speaker 1: anyway because they trust themselves. They don't do They don't
22:50
Speaker 1: do it because of the fact that they're trying to
22:52
Speaker 1: break a rule. If it doesn't make sense to them,
22:56
Speaker 1: then they're going to break the rule because it goes,
22:58
Speaker 1: why can't I ask this phone? And and and and
23:01
Speaker 1: and that. When I was read that part of the book,
23:03
Speaker 1: I go, she's been an incredible actress all these years.
23:05
Speaker 1: Where they were what answer the phone? And when I
23:08
Speaker 1: when they got to that part, and then when you
23:09
Speaker 1: answered the phone, it all made sense because that's the
23:12
Speaker 1: natural if you if you read yours of course of
23:14
Speaker 1: course you're read story. You wrote it. You were rebellious
23:17
Speaker 1: all the way up to that point. Okay, very rebell
23:21
Speaker 1: You're very rebellious. So so when you when somebody telling
23:24
Speaker 1: a very rebellious personality, Look, don't answer the phone. What
23:28
Speaker 1: do you think it's gonna happen? You answered the phone,
23:32
Speaker 1: and you answered the phone, and guess what it was
23:35
Speaker 1: somebody that Wow, this is so crazy. I'm gonna share
23:39
Speaker 1: a story with you. I'm gonna tell you we're so interesting,
23:43
Speaker 1: how our lives intertwined. And I'm saying, you're me, and
23:45
Speaker 1: I'm you're I'm you. When I was in the hospital,
23:49
Speaker 1: I was my lung collapsed, okay, and I was I
23:52
Speaker 1: was in I c U that came out and I
23:54
Speaker 1: was in hospital, and it was just I was a
23:57
Speaker 1: stand up comic, you should be a very popular stand
23:59
Speaker 1: up and a comedy competition was going on. I knew
24:03
Speaker 1: nothing about it because I was in the hospital. But
24:05
Speaker 1: lungers collapsed and the phone wrong in my hospital room, melody,
24:11
Speaker 1: I picked it up. It was this guy asking me,
24:15
Speaker 1: did I want to compete in a comedy competition? Now,
24:19
Speaker 1: you see, that was the same kind of moment. You know,
24:22
Speaker 1: we are very much alike, you understand, And so that
24:25
Speaker 1: moment right there, lip got me. I was I was
24:28
Speaker 1: released from the hospital. Three days later, I was on
24:31
Speaker 1: stage and I made the finals. It was a national
24:34
Speaker 1: TV show. It got me back into the stand up
24:36
Speaker 1: comedy grew because I had fallen off because I was
24:39
Speaker 1: in the hospital. But it's the same scenario. So when
24:43
Speaker 1: I'm reading your book, I'm like, there are too many
24:45
Speaker 1: aha moment aha moments with you and I because we're
24:49
Speaker 1: we're we're self starters, okay, and you know, in life,
24:55
Speaker 1: people have told us what we cannot do, and we've
24:58
Speaker 1: accomplished things that as people have considered the extraordinary. And
25:04
Speaker 1: yet we're nice people because you are a nice person. Well, fak, well,
25:09
Speaker 1: you've just met me. Now give me a little time.
25:11
Speaker 1: You might change mind that I read all two seventy pages. Okay,
25:16
Speaker 1: I could read between the lines. Now, oh you're wonderful.
25:22
Speaker 1: Let let's talk about the story. We're a little bit
25:24
Speaker 1: that just being a star on the show that long
25:27
Speaker 1: and the responsibilities of being a star on the show
25:30
Speaker 1: that long. Can you talk about that a little bit?
25:32
Speaker 1: See kind of thinking doesn't even answer my mind. It's
25:37
Speaker 1: hard for me to even say I am a star.
25:40
Speaker 1: That makes me so uncomfortable to say that, Um, you know,
25:43
Speaker 1: we're a company, We're a repertoire company, and I feel
25:46
Speaker 1: that we are all stars in our own right. You know.
25:49
Speaker 1: The The interesting thing about when I when I meet
25:52
Speaker 1: a person like you, because we've never met before, and
25:55
Speaker 1: you know, we look and uh, you know what, But
25:58
Speaker 1: I take you after the found this and I do
26:00
Speaker 1: want to you're amazing. But when I when and then
26:05
Speaker 1: thank you for wanting to meet with me because of
26:07
Speaker 1: the fact that my whole thing and doing this interview
26:10
Speaker 1: was first of all to meet you and also to
26:12
Speaker 1: share what I view, what my takeaway is from a
26:15
Speaker 1: bookcause we all have reasons why we write a book.
26:18
Speaker 1: But I just want to let you know that some
26:21
Speaker 1: people who read the book, they are inspired. And you
26:24
Speaker 1: have to have to realize that's a blessing in my eyes,
26:27
Speaker 1: the fact that that you that you were honest enough
26:30
Speaker 1: to say, look, because I'm just telling you, when you
26:33
Speaker 1: when you hang up the phone or during this interview,
26:35
Speaker 1: if you really look at what you're talking about in
26:37
Speaker 1: your book, you overcame so many high odds, so many
26:42
Speaker 1: levels of different types of abuse, so many emotionally challenging
26:46
Speaker 1: physical moments and you survived it. And you survived it,
26:51
Speaker 1: uh and and and it didn't affect you. And so
26:53
Speaker 1: many people allow things to to take them off their success,
26:58
Speaker 1: that their path of opportunity, and you didn't. And that's
27:01
Speaker 1: why I had to say that you are a self starter.
27:04
Speaker 1: But when a moment presents itself melody, you take advantage
27:07
Speaker 1: of it. You do not. You know, when you have
27:10
Speaker 1: to take the larber called dog. You took the dog. Okay,
27:13
Speaker 1: you know you took the dog, and so you did
27:16
Speaker 1: said dog, I don't like dogs. He said, okay, we'll
27:19
Speaker 1: bring the dog on here. Because you understood relationships, you know,
27:22
Speaker 1: and all these things have when you look back in
27:25
Speaker 1: your life, you relize because you have such a great
27:28
Speaker 1: memory you could. I think you get to appreciate your
27:30
Speaker 1: life a lot more because you can't remember so many
27:32
Speaker 1: things I can. And I think that was very helpful
27:36
Speaker 1: in uh for the readers out there who think that
27:40
Speaker 1: I am NICKI Neil and a lot of people, you know,
27:42
Speaker 1: it's a fine line. They really think that that is me.
27:45
Speaker 1: And if they read everything I've been through and everything
27:48
Speaker 1: that I have come out of the other end, it
27:51
Speaker 1: it gives them hope. And if I can give an
27:53
Speaker 1: encouragement to you know, stick with it, and and there
27:59
Speaker 1: is light the end of the tunnel, then that writing
28:02
Speaker 1: the book is all worth it. If I can just
28:04
Speaker 1: help those who might be going through similar things or
28:07
Speaker 1: did as a child and are now adults still carrying
28:10
Speaker 1: it around with them. They don't need to, they don't
28:12
Speaker 1: need to dump it and move on, but move on,
28:15
Speaker 1: move on, or share it with somebody so you can
28:18
Speaker 1: dump it. And that's important too, because sometimes you need
28:21
Speaker 1: to be speaking and get it out of your system
28:23
Speaker 1: and and see how some people who care about you
28:26
Speaker 1: react to it, and you realize it's no big deal.
28:28
Speaker 1: And that's the blessing of communication. That and it tells
28:32
Speaker 1: it's been very healing for me to to have put
28:36
Speaker 1: it all out there. Hey here it is works and all.
28:39
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I'm I'm encouraging others to follow
28:46
Speaker 1: my lead. I guess you know, Nicki Newman. You know
28:49
Speaker 1: I'm talking to NICKI Newman here. Okay, the iconic Nikki
28:53
Speaker 1: no more. Now, I love talking to you. Well in
28:57
Speaker 1: your book, you met a lot of famous people, Nikki,
29:00
Speaker 1: A lot of famers Franklin huh Ahmad Ali, Oh my goodness, Yes,
29:08
Speaker 1: that was great, great day. And so when you meet
29:10
Speaker 1: these famous people you know and tell you when you
29:13
Speaker 1: said you met I'm just tell you something, John Wayne,
29:15
Speaker 1: I'm a Western nutt so John Wayne was I grew
29:18
Speaker 1: up in loving John Wayne. Kirk Douglas, a man's man,
29:22
Speaker 1: one of my sparticus, one of my all time favorite actors.
29:24
Speaker 1: So you come you started writing off names. It's like
29:26
Speaker 1: I was jealous of you. I would say, I hope
29:28
Speaker 1: she took pictures. I hope she took pictures. And Lorn recall,
29:31
Speaker 1: Oh that that that I can just see her silhouette.
29:34
Speaker 1: You know, I'm going, Oh, my goodness, Carl Reiner, Aretha Franklin, Okay,
29:43
Speaker 1: I'm telling something. And you want to meet Rashaan McDonald,
29:45
Speaker 1: I feel even better. He was festival. But you got
29:53
Speaker 1: a book out, and uh. I First of all, I
29:55
Speaker 1: want to thank you for coming on Money Making Conversation.
29:57
Speaker 1: I want to thank you for writing a book that
29:59
Speaker 1: in inspired me to realize that I'm living the right life.
30:02
Speaker 1: All the things that I'm doing in my life I
30:04
Speaker 1: should keep doing. And age has never been an issue
30:08
Speaker 1: with you. You've been motivated by hard work and success
30:11
Speaker 1: and the fact that when and I just wanted to
30:14
Speaker 1: respond to this before we leave, because in the entertainment
30:17
Speaker 1: business it's always feels with so much uncertainty. You work,
30:21
Speaker 1: you work, and when you got that three year contract
30:25
Speaker 1: h for young and the restless, how did that make
30:27
Speaker 1: you feel? At that point, You're like, because you know
30:30
Speaker 1: what your your life had been, the experience with your grandmother, Uh,
30:34
Speaker 1: certain situations that that that people should have been been
30:38
Speaker 1: put in jail by the way they treated you physically,
30:40
Speaker 1: it didn't happen. But at that point you have offered
30:45
Speaker 1: a three year contract. What did that? What did that
30:47
Speaker 1: do for you emotionally and mentally? And uh, we know
30:49
Speaker 1: what he did for you financially. I think I was
30:53
Speaker 1: too young and immature to really appreciate what that meant,
30:58
Speaker 1: but slowly really um it. Of course, you know it
31:04
Speaker 1: does affect your life. All of a sudden, you're making
31:06
Speaker 1: regular money every week, which for you know, free lance
31:10
Speaker 1: that or that never happened, and you start making new
31:15
Speaker 1: friends life long friends on the show. You start maybe
31:19
Speaker 1: wearing nicer clothes and driving a nicer car, and it
31:22
Speaker 1: just kind of slowly creeps up on you without you realizing, Hey,
31:27
Speaker 1: I've kind of jumped into a different bracket here of living.
31:30
Speaker 1: You're living in a house and these things just occur
31:34
Speaker 1: without you giving them that much credence. But certainly as
31:38
Speaker 1: time goes on. Uh And and I mean not only
31:42
Speaker 1: did it affect my life financially, but I met my
31:45
Speaker 1: husband because of young and wrestless. I have my children
31:47
Speaker 1: because of younger Russels. So it really impacted my life tremendously,
31:52
Speaker 1: more so than most actors, I think, because of the
31:55
Speaker 1: personal rewards it gave me. Show that has been such
32:00
Speaker 1: a blessing and still is that. I mean, how many
32:04
Speaker 1: shows are even on forty one years and I've been
32:07
Speaker 1: on it for forty one years. It's truly truly and
32:11
Speaker 1: as they say, still looking good and still fine, that's
32:14
Speaker 1: you know, that's what they say in the street spot
32:16
Speaker 1: you now you know, still looking good, She's still fine.
32:19
Speaker 1: How memoir Always Restless, it's a very motivational book. Nicki
32:24
Speaker 1: Newman's on my show A k. A. Melody Thomas Scott,
32:28
Speaker 1: thank you for coming on Money Making Conversation. I really
32:30
Speaker 1: appreciate you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.
32:34
Speaker 1: And we will see each other soon one day down
32:36
Speaker 1: the live because I know less people stend to see
32:39
Speaker 1: each other some way, somehow, and we live in the
32:42
Speaker 1: start life. They allows blessings to unite. Thank you, my friend.
32:45
Speaker 1: Be safe out there. If you want to hear more
32:48
Speaker 1: money Making Conversation interviews, please go to Money Making Conversation
32:51
Speaker 1: dot com. I'm with Sean McDonald. I'm your host in
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