Ok this is a very long yet very intriguing interview from Maxi Bond of The Mary Janes Girls :

She tells her truth on why JO JO lead singer of The Mary Janes Girls have beef with the rest of the girls . She speaks of Rick James not wanting them to succeed without him and she speak of Prince having been friends with Rick James and got the idea of creating Vanity 6 from Rick . She speaks of how Rick James blocked any and everything they tried to do ( The Mary Jane Girls ) after departing from his camp and gave props to Prince for allowing Vanity & Apollonia to brand themselves and going out on their own : She speaks of Cherrie reasons for leaving The Mary Jane Girls and joining Morris Day girl group The Day Z's and how Rick sued & blocked her from doing that project : She speaks of her new solo career & club hit SHINE : , her cook books and putting The Mary Jane Girls back together :

She goes in hard on Rick James , Jo Jo Mc'Duffie & her husband , Val Young , and good things about reuniting The Stone City Band :

The interview actually starts at 20 min & 23 seconds : Very informative :

http://www.blogtalkradio....jane-girls

[Edited 6/10/12 18:38pm]

[Edited 6/10/12 18:45pm]

Wow! That's a juicy interview!! Maxi doesn't hold back Alot of interesting details and insight.

SoulAlive said:

Wow! That's a juicy interview!! Maxi doesn't hold back Alot of interesting details and insight.

I was very impressed with this interview : You can tell she held all that in for years :

MusicLover6 said:

SoulAlive said:

Wow! That's a juicy interview!! Maxi doesn't hold back Alot of interesting details and insight.

I was very impressed with this interview : You can tell she held all that in for years :

indeed! I hope JoJo listens to this interview,so she can finally come to her senses.This group needs to reunite!

Will defo give this a listen, thanks for the link

Thanks for the link. Maxi is my favorite MJG. I love "Leather Queen" even though it sounds like she says "Who's This Chicken?"

In 2010 JoJo McDuffie lead singer of The Mary Jane Girls released a Jazz album and she did this interview back then : Courtesy of EuroWeb :

*The last time we left off with JoJo McDuffie Funderburg she was telling EURweb.com about her ups and downs with Rick James and, boy, were there a lot of those. Here, she continues talking about what the Superfreak put her through as well as her ongoing battles with his estate after his untimely death in 2004. She also talks about her new jazz CD.

People say they get into the record business because they want to be a star and because it has always been their dream, but if they were honest they’d say it was all about the money. Plain and simply put, people believe record artists are filthy rich. But that is actually rarely the case. There’s too much money going to too many people that are not performing. McDuffie says she learned that lesson all too well.

“I decided to let bygones be bygones. He promised me he would do me right, I would get my money, this that and the third,” said McDuffie. “When the compilations came out he said, it’s okay we could use the name Mary Jane Girls. Finally I told my agent to go ahead and book me; he had two or three shows lined up. Rick said ‘You can’t do that’. He said he was going to sue me if I did that. He said, ‘I’m getting ready to have a reunion and you all are going to get back together.’ I say no I’m not because I saw him starting to use them drugs again. So, I stopped using the (MJG) name.

“In 2002 he sued me, thinking I wouldn’t be able to defend myself and that I would have to eventually come back to him and work for little or nothing,” JoJo explained. “He passed in 2004 and I’m thinking maybe his business people, seeing that this is frivolous, wouldn’t continue with it. The lawsuit, right now to this day, is still going on. But they won’t settle with me. I don’t know what they want. When he sued me I had to counter sue. I counter sued him for royalties. We never got royalties, merchandising or anything. The only thing we were able to do is get tour money. They (James’ estate attorneys) know what my royalties are because they come to that office. I signed a production contract. When the publishing and royalties come they now go to his estate. For some reason they still won’t settle with me, (on top of that) the (legal) people Rick hired were replaced 2 years ago for embezzlement. They removed $1.5 million from his estate.”

Wow, the drama continues even after the death of the rock and soul legend. Funderburg says those that replaced the prior executers of the James’ estate were even less moved by her plight.

“They refuse to be wrong. The arrogance of some people I guess. Now there’s a trustee there and, unfortunately, the trustee is an accountant. They see what’s going on, but they still won’t settle with me. They started to recoup royalties in 1997, they claim. They paid Corvette, who sang nothing. They paid Cheri, who sang on one song. They paid Candy, who sang one song on the second album but it got no airplay. They paid Maxi. I’ve never been paid royalties to this day, never!”

To a logical mind the most talented individual in any situation deserves to be paid first, and paid the most … right? Not so in this wild tale. To add insult to injury, she says James’ daughter has concocted her own version of the Mary Jane Girls.

“They got somebody by the name of Val Young (Lady V of Brides of Funkenstien). So, they licensed the name to Val Young, Candy, Maxi and Cheri. Now, Maxi and Cheri left and they have a group of Mary Jane Girls. Now there’s three groups.”

With the talent pool diluted in the manner that it was, the talent level of the other Mary Jane Girls groups is watered down as well. Now Jo-Jo says everybody’s pockets are suffering.

“The reviews since they’ve been working, every last review has been horrible. They’ve got terrible reviews. What they do when they go out is they try to make them think that I’m there. They use the music, the video and my pictures to make people think I’m there.”

Meanwhile, after years of singing and fighting as one of the Mary Jane Girls, musically McDuffie has moved on to another creative venture.

“It’s called ‘Slightly Dangerous’,” said JoJo of her new album. “Because it’s totally far removed from the Mary Jane Girls. People have been listening to this group for 28 years? I personally wanted people to know that that’s not the only thing I could do. I sang this kind of music for 8 years before Mary Jane Girls.”

The album is considered a jazz offering and features remakes of music from Sade, among others, as well as some original music.

“It needs to be heard and I need to know, for real, what people think. I need to hear what people think. I am not going to die if people say ‘Oh my God, this is the worst piece of crap I’ve ever heard.’ I don’t know if it’s a piece of gold or a piece of sh*t right now and I’m really curious as to which way it’s going to go. I am very curious but I am not afraid. In this project I took everything that I learned from (Rick) and put it into this
project because he was also one of my all time favorite songwriters. I am hoping people will hear that and just love it for what it is.”

CANDI & CORVETTE of THE MARY JANE GIRLS :

CHERIE & MAXI : CHERIE one of the orginal MARY JANE GIRLS had left the group and became lead singer of MORRIS DAY'S girl group ( THE DAY Z's )

CHERIE pictured as 1/5 of THE DAY Z's

[Edited 6/11/12 21:34pm]

in 1984,when Cheri left the Mary Jane Girls,she auditioned to be in Shalamar (Jody Watley had just left the group and a replacement was needed) but she didn't get it.

SoulAlive said:

in 1984,when Cheri left the Mary Jane Girls,she auditioned to be in Shalamar (Jody Watley had just left the group and a replacement was needed) but she didn't get it.

Wow : Did'nt know that : Thanks for that information :

I'm only a few minutes in, but modesty isn't really in her vocabulary is it. She's already told us what a beautiful body, beautiful mind and beautiful spirit she has - tell us more!!

MusicLover6 said:

SoulAlive said:

in 1984,when Cheri left the Mary Jane Girls,she auditioned to be in Shalamar (Jody Watley had just left the group and a replacement was needed) but she didn't get it.

Wow : Did'nt know that : Thanks for that information :

They should have hired her.She's cute and talented,and could have given them the "pop crossover" appeal that they were looking for.But it's possible that Rick sabotaged this opportunity for her.

SoulAlive said:

MusicLover6 said:

Wow : Did'nt know that : Thanks for that information :

They should have hired her.She's cute and talented,and could have given them the "pop crossover" appeal that they were looking for.But it's possible that Rick sabotaged this opportunity for her.

Im sure if Rick sued Cherie in the Day Z's then Im sure he did Shalamar : Well now I have a new-found respect for Prince for allowing Vanity & Apollonia to brand themseleves without the lawsuits etc . However I do wonder why it took 20 plus years fro Brenda to finally peak out and release some music and why Susan have totally abandoned any press. Is it because she was one of the first women in his camp and have all the answers and info on him or maybe she just want to put that image of herself being in his group behind her :

[Edited 6/12/12 22:46pm]

[Edited 6/13/12 20:22pm]

Listened to the rest of this - it really wasn't worth it. The longer it went on, the more bitterness and money talk there was. I understand that the MJGs got a raw deal, but they weren't exactly the Beatles, they were a manufactured pop group. New info was very thin on the ground, nothing about the music itself, all about egos and cash.

NouveauDance said:

Listened to the rest of this - it really wasn't worth it. The longer it went on, the more bitterness and money talk there was. I understand that the MJGs got a raw deal, but they weren't exactly the Beatles, they were a manufactured pop group. New info was very thin on the ground, nothing about the music itself, all about egos and cash.

Maybe not but their music is still played daily on radio and weekly in clubs . These newer acts come out and get any and everything overnight , so to me it's only right to give any artist who have contributed to any form of music that is still played , sampled , & re-made some sort of due :

She was fiending for a reality show, and obviously at some point JoJo had told her in no uncertain terms that the MJGs was her and her voice - because she brought that up a few times, no names of course. I didn't know Rick's daughter was peddling her own version of the MJGs though, I think I'd be pissed about that too if I was Maxi.

"Let me be your leather queen toooooniiiiggggghhhhhhttttt, let me be your leather queen toniiiiggghhhhtttt!"

after listening to Maxi's interview,I lost alot of respect for JoJo I hate when people let money and ego get in the way of common sense.JoJo may think that SHE is the only original element of the group worth seeing,but I'd rather see Maxi's newly formed version of the group.

SoulAlive said:

after listening to Maxi's interview,I lost alot of respect for JoJo I hate when people let money and ego get in the way of common sense.JoJo may think that SHE is the only original element of the group worth seeing,but I'd rather see Maxi's newly formed version of the group.

Agreed.

I like Maxi's spirit, and I like her dedication to the legacy of Rick James and his musical concept for the group as a whole (vs. making it the "it's all about me" show)., I dare say I also appreciate her sense of business savvy. It's clear that there was a lot of hurt and disappointment in that interview, but I'm very impressed by her objectivity when it comes to the business side of the music business, and I think it's very good foresight on her part to think of how the whole organization of musicians who worked under the Rick James umbrella at that time can continue to work.

I loved when she was breaking down the numbers of what they could accomplish as a united front- and the fact that if people could set aside their egos, the whole family could be eating, and eating well. Honey, at 50+ years old ain't none of y'all about become a headlining star, so get on your costumes, get your choreography tight & right, and get thyself to a Tom Joyner Labor Day Cruise, or Ol Skool Family Reunion Picnic concert near you. All this "I'm the voice of the group- and I didn't get my solo record as promised " BS is rdiculous. Shoot, at a certain age you need to start thinking about your retirement, and what JoJo is doing by isolating herself from the girls just isn't smart business.

I had no idea JoJo released a solo CD. I used to love her voice, but I'm not feeling her on some of these cuts. I'll have to decide later whether I'm going to purchase the disc or not:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jojo3

Unfortunately these ladies are starting to resemble some of the

older Motown female acts.

it look like this version of the Mary Jane Girls are actually performing with a real band,and not just singing over pre-recorded music Whenever I see JoJo in concert these days,it's just her singing to instrumental tapes.

SoulAlive said:

it look like this version of the Mary Jane Girls are actually performing with a real band,and not just singing over pre-recorded music Whenever I see JoJo in concert these days,it's just her singing to instrumental tapes.

Maxi mentioned in her that radio interview that they are using members of the actual Stone City Band for their performances