Time Flies When You're Having Fun
Release date: 8/25/2009

Smokey Robinson – one of the most beloved and influential figures in the history of popular music will unleash a new album of original material (and one surprising cover song.) Time Flies When You're Having Fun is slated for release on August 25, 2009 on ROBSO Records/ADA Distribution. The first single going to radio will be Robinson’s cover of “Don’t Know Why.”

With guests Carlos Santana, Joss Stone and India.Arie lending their estimable musical talents and famed graphic artist Shepard Fairey’s Studio Number One providing the cover art, Smokey’s newest disc (which he produced with the assistance of Gary Gold and Brian French) will undoubtedly galvanize new fans as well a longtime admirers. And as a slew of awards and other honors come his way, this Motown trailblazer and national treasure is sure to dominate in 2009 as he celebrates a dazzling 50 years in the limelight.

Time Flies was recorded, like his Motown tracks, with the band in one room. “That way was like doing a concert, because everybody was feeding off of each other,” Smokey reflects. “It’s just that live vibe.” The new songs recall various phases of his career, boasting old-school duets (such as “You’re Just My Life,” with India.Arie, and “You’re the One for Me” with Stone), midtempo R&B-pop (“Girlfriend”) and intimate soul ( “Whatcha Gonna Do,” “Love Bath” and the title track). Santana’s inimitable guitar chimes in on the sensual jam “Please Don’t Take Your Love.”


Smokey’s one departure from self-penned material is his take on the Norah Jones hit “Don’t Know Why,” which he makes entirely his own – and which is sure to send chills down listeners’ spines. The whole package will be wrapped up with cover graphics by Shepard Fairey’s Studio Number One, best known for the ubiquitous Barack Obama “Hope” poster.

Smokey is once again ubiquitous himself. On June 26, the man Bob Dylan once called “America’s greatest living poet” will receive the prestigious Rhythm & Soul Heritage Award from ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) during the 22nd Annual Rhythm & Soul Music Awards. The honor is bestowed on artists who have had a major impact on the legacy of Rhythm and Soul Music.

Further recognition of that legacy came from Boston’s Berklee College of Music, which in May conferred an honorary degree on Smokey; the Ivor Novello Awards, where he received the UK International Special Achievement Award in May; the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which inducted him with his group, The Miracles, in March (he’d already received a star as a solo artist several years earlier); and Elvis Costello’s acclaimed TV series “Spectacle” on the Sundance Channel, during which the host spent a spellbinding hour chatting and singing with the music-world icon. In 2006 (the year of his last release, Timeless Love), he was among the five honorees at the Kennedy Center Honors.

It’s scarcely a surprise, in the year of Motown’s 50th anniversary, that Smokey would be so roundly praised and feted – he is, after all, the sterling pen and satin voice behind such mega hits as “Shop Around,” “Tracks of My Tears,” “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” “Tears of a Clown,” “I Second That Emotion,” “Going to a Go-Go” and “Cruisin’,” among others too numerous to list here.

And those are just some of the Smokey hits that Smokey sang; Marvin Gaye (“Ain’t That Peculiar,” “I’ll Be Doggone”), The Temptations (“My Girl,” “The Way You Do the Things You Do”), The Four Tops (“Still Water (Love)”), Mary Wells (“You Beat Me to the Punch,” “My Guy”), The Marvelettes (“Don’t Mess With Bill,” “The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game”), Brenda Holloway (“When I’m Gone”) and other Motown greats propelled a trove of sparkling Robinson compositions up the charts during the years of Motown’s unrivaled dominance. All over the world at this very moment, radio stations, jukeboxes, iPods, movie soundtracks and the absent-minded humming of myriad music fans are alight with his melodies.
With Time Flies When You’re Having Fun, the great Smokey Robinson has conjured still more songs to get stuck in listeners’ heads. “Has it been 50 years already?” Smokey asks. “Time really does fly.”

Trax:


Girlfriend
Love Bath
That Place
One Time
Time Flies
Satisfy Me
Don’t Know Why
Whatcha Gonna Do
You’re Just My Life (feat. India.Arie)
Please Don’t Take Your Love (feat. Carlos Santana)
You’re The One For Me (feat. Joss Stone)

http://www.smokeyrobinson...r.php?id=0
[Edited 8/6/09 7:40am]

With guests like Joss Stone and Carlos Santana,this CD looks like a winner.I'll have to check it out!

Copycat said:

Very surprising he's covering the Bobby Brown hit.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

The article says the only cover is "Don't Know Why". Maybe it's a new "Girlfriend" by Smoke himself.

Timmy84 said:

Sorry, but I could her good old William singing the hell out that track.

Click on http://www.smokeyrobinson.com to hear Smokey's rendition of "Don't Know Why".

I know he had a covers cd out a couple of years ago which i'm not
a fan of. The last thing i remember being good by Smokey was a song
he had out in 2000 called Easy to Love.

What with al of the guest? I really dislike when artist do this. It tells me that they can't do it on their own.

phunkdaddy said:

Smokey Robinson speaks on his new album, 50 years in the music industry, and his friend Michael Jackson
by Simon Vozick-Levinson
August 2009


Speaking only for myself, I first became aware of Smokey Robinson as the guest star in a memorable Sesame Street skit. It wasn’t long before I learned that the guy dancing with the letter-U puppet was one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time — a talent whose influence on contemporary pop and soul music would be difficult to overestimate.

Today, 50 years after scoring his first national hit as leader of the Miracles, Robinson is still going strong. With his latest solo album, Time Flies When You’re Having Fun, due to arrive on Aug. 25, he called the Music Mix to chat last week. Read on after the jump for Robinson’s thoughts on his new music, the Motown legacy, his five decades of industry experience, and the loss of his dear friend Michael Jackson.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Smokey, you sound great on the new record. How do you keep your voice in such good shape?

SMOKEY ROBINSON: Oh, well thank you. You know, many young kids ask me that. They want to know if there’s a remedy — the hot tea, and the lemon, and this and that. The secret to it is you have to take care of yourself and try to do the right thing by your own body on a daily basis. I don’t drink or smoke — not to say that I condemn people who do.

What were your goals when you set out to write and record this album?

I actually had a ball making this album, man. Because I recorded it live in the studio. I got a bunch of great musicians and singers, and I had them in the studio playing and singing while I was singing. Recording has become so sophisticated, man — people who play and sing on the same records don’t even see each other nowadays, basically. I wanted to go back to the old-fashioned way of recording. You still get the same leeway, because you’re recording on a computer with ProTools, so you’re gonna have the leeway of everybody having their own track, but everybody’s there feeding off of each other and grooving off of each other.

You wrote all the songs on the album except for “Don’t Know Why,” a Norah Jones cover. Why did you choose that song?

I’m a song lover and a songwriter fan. And I loved that song from the very first time I heard Norah sing it when it came on the radio. I love the content, and it has one of the greatest melodies around. I was always humming it to myself. So I just wanted to do my own rendition.

You collaborated with a couple of younger artists, India.Arie and Joss Stone, on this album. What was it like working with them?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, man! First of all, Joss and India and Carlos Santana, who is on there also, are really good friends of mine. I actually wrote those songs with them in mind. I met Joss in New York — I had already put my own voice on the track, and I went to New York and overdubbed her. And while she was singing, I got inspired, so I did my vocal again. Then India, I sent the stuff to her in Atlanta after I’d recorded it and she put her own voice on there. And Carlos has a studio in San Francisco, so I went to San Francisco to put him on the track. We had a ball.

The name of the record is Time Flies When You’re Having Fun. When you look back over your career in music, does it feel like it’s been 50 years?

No, man, that’s why I called it that. “Time Flies,” the [title] song, is actually about being in love with somebody, and you’re having fun with that person. ‘Cause I didn’t just want to just write it about my career. I wanted it to have a universal meaning. But it is about my life. I can’t believe that last year we started to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Motown. In a way, it just seems like all that stuff just blurred by. It’s gone by overnight, man.

The first five albums you recorded with the Miracles were just reissued as a box set. How do you feel when you look back on those records? Do you ever listen to them?

When they do the box sets, they remix them and try to update the sound, so I take a listen to them just to see what they’ve done to them. Those songs are near and dear to my heart. Most of them I wrote. It brings back memories of my days with the Miracles, and how it was. I think they did what they could to update them…And now I’ve got to buy a record player, because Time Flies When You’re Having Fun is going to be also on vinyl. I think it’s a cool thing that vinyl’s coming back. We’ll be able to have album covers again.

How has the way you approach the songwriting process changed over the years since then?

The way I approach writing a song? Absolutely nothing. Nothing’s different. Every time I sit down to write a song, I’m really trying to write a song. I want to write something that if I had written it 50 years before then, it would mean something — like some of those songs on those Miracles albums. And today it’s going to mean something, 50 years from today it’s going to mean something. I’ve always approached it that way, since Berry Gordy mentored me in how to write songs professionally. When I met him, I was a young teenager, and he was a songwriter himself. And I still do it the same way.

One of the striking things about those early Motown recordings is how relevant they still feel. Why do you think that is?

Thank you. I appreciate that…On the very first day when Berry Gordy started Motown Records, there were five people there: Him and four others of us. And he sat us down and said, “We are not going to make only black music. We’re going to make music for the world. We’re going to make quality music that has some great beats and some great stories. And our standard is always going to be high.” That’s what we set out to do, and thank God, we accomplished it beyond any of our wildest dreams on that day. We thought we’d be successful, we wanted to be successful. But, see, we didn’t realize we were going to make history. Motown is a once-in-a-lifetime musical event. Nothing like that had happened before then, nor do I believe anything will happen like that ever again.

You spoke eloquently at Michael Jackson’s memorial service. Now it’s been a little over a month since we lost him. Has it gotten any easier to process that loss?

Well, first of all, like I said at the service, Michael was my little brother. There is and there has always been a Motown family. All of us were involved in it — all the artists, all the musicians, all the people who were behind the scenes. We all functioned together. We had family picnics and did outings and stuff like that together. So Michael was my little brother.

I knew Farrah [Fawcett] too, but it had been touch-and-go for a long time for her, so all of us who loved her and knew her knew it could be any time now. But Michael, that was just like sudden impact, man. For me to hear Michael Jackson died of a heart attack, man, that’s just unfathomable to me. Michael, seemingly to me, he was in good shape, he was so energetic, he danced. He was a young man. So it was a hard pill to swallow, man. I’m getting better, and I’m sure that we’re all getting better. But it’s hard to let it rest, because the news media’s not letting it rest.

Every day you turn on the TV and you hear something about it: “Now they’re thinking about arresting the doctor.” And I think it’s a shame what they’ve done about [Jackson's] kids, talking about the DNA, who’s the real sperm donor, and blah, blah, blah. Those are kids, man. And Michael was their dad. No matter what comes up about the DNA, Michael was their father. So for them to do that, to run those kids through the mill like that, is atrocious as far as I’m concerned.

It’s a ridiculous thing. They’re not thinking about [the fact] that these are kids that they’re doing this to, and what impact it’s going to have on their lives. They just want people to listen to whatever thing they’re doing. It’s a shame. So I haven’t had a chance to totally recover, because all this stuff is still going on.

Moving to another subject, are there any other young artists, songwriters specifically, who you like now?

There are a bunch of them. ‘Cause I listen to everybody, man. I have everybody from Nelly to Muddy Waters in my CD player at one time. I love music. You have people like Alicia Keys and Mariah Carey and Justin Timberlake and Usher and Maxwell and John Legend and Beyonce and Carrie Underwood out there, who are making some great music. Yeah, I listen to everybody.

http://music-mix.ew.com/2...ime-flies/

Cool interview

Smokey Robinson's Motown Memories
Soul great on his new album and high notes from the past - writing hits, hanging with Stevie Wonder and more

August 4, 2009

Smokey Robinson is practically synonymous with Motown.

Not only did he pen some of the most enduring and instantly recognizable songs of the past five decades, but he served as the label's vice president for over 25 years. And while he may no longer record for Berry Gordy's imprint, Robinson is helping celebrate Motown's 50th anniversary this year, and his latest release, Time Flies When You're Having Fun, finds him as smooth and soulful as ever. The record features guest spots by Joss Stone ("You're The One For Me"), India.Arie ("You're Just My Life") and Carlos Santana ("Please Don't Take Your Love"), and its leadoff single is a sultry cover of "Don't Know Why."

The frequent guest of American Idol recently spoke to Rolling Stone about writing his biggest hits and being complimented by Bob Dylan.


What's the story behind stocking Time Flies When You're Having Fun with so many vintage soul sounds?

Time Flies When You're Having Fun came about because that's how I feel about my life. Last year we started to celebrate — we're going to celebrate straight through 2010, we're having a three-year celebration of the 50th anniversary of Motown. So that's gone by overnight to me [laughs]. It seems like it's been maybe 10 years ago, and here it is 50 years. I'm very blessed, and I'm living the life that I absolutely love. I love every aspect of my work, and when your job is something that you love like that, time flies.

And also, I recorded it live. When I say "live," I mean live in the studio, the old fashioned way, when you have the musicians in there playing while you're singing. We had a ball — I have a lot of great musicians on there. Guys that I have known forever and ever. When you have everybody in the studio at the same time, it's like doing a concert. Everybody gets a chance to feed off of each other, everybody gets a chance to feel each other. You just don't get that recording everybody separately.

How did the special guests get involved?

I have three guests, and they are all my really good friends, who I've known for a long time. I've known Joss since she was 15 years old, I've known Carlos for thirty-something years, and I've known India for 10 or 12 years. I was introduced to India by Stevie Wonder. It was a joy recording with all of them. They're the only people that I actually overdubbed, because I had the tracks recorded, and my voice was on there.


How did you decide to cover "Don't Know Why"?

"Don't Know Why" is one of my favorite songs — I loved it since the first time I heard it by Norah Jones. You have to really pay attention to what "Don't Know Why" is saying, to really get the fact that it is a love song, and it's one of regret. It's an abstract song, but the melody is so beautiful, and it's such a great song. I love great songs, man. So I just chose to do my own rendition of it.

Do you think there can ever be another Motown?

No, I don't. I don't think anything like that will ever happen again. Nothing happened like that prior to it, and I doubt seriously if anything like that can happen again. It was too phenomenal. As far as I'm concerned, Motown was a once-in-a-lifetime musical event, that will never happen again.


Are there any modern day artists that remind you of Motown artists from the past?

There are a lot of talented young people out here, singing and writing and performing songs. So any one of them could have been at Motown. I'm not one of those people who sits back and says, "The music of today is ridiculous," because that's not true. There's always been negative music, and our waters run off of the negative now. All news is negative. Every time you turn on the news you're hearing a bunch of negative stuff — all the death and the this and the that. The negative gets all the attention. So I think people have given negative music the forefront, and that's not so.

Who are your favorites current artists?

I'm a fan of Maxwell, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, Nelly. I got a lot of them, and it runs the gamut. I listen to everybody — all kinds of music, all the time.

What are your memories of writing "Shop Around"?

"Shop Around" was actually a song that I wrote for an artist that we had at Motown at the time named Barrett Strong. And Barrett Strong ended up being a hell of a songwriter — he and Norman Whitfield wrote so many wonderful songs for the Temptations. Barrett had a huge record, "Money (That's What I Want)."

See, songwriting is so unique for me, because some songs take a long time to complete, and some songs just flow out. I had completed "Shop Around" within 30 minutes — I'm not exaggerating that. It was just one of those songs that flowed out like water. I was very excited about it for Barrett. I went and got Berry, and we went down to the piano at the studio, and played and sang it for him. He said, "No, man, I want you to sing this song." So he and I went back and forth about that for about 20 minutes, and he finally convinced me to sing the song. "Shop Around" I recorded with the Miracles, and it had been out for maybe two or three weeks, and Berry called me at 3 in the morning, and said, "Get the group together and come to the studio," because he was going to re-record "Shop Around," and change the beat and the sound of it. That's what we did, and it went to Number One. It was the first million seller that we had at Motown.


What about "The Tracks of My Tears"?

I credit that song to my guitarist, who has been with me forever and ever — he just retired last December. His name is Marv Tarplin. He is the source of so many songs for me, and "The Tracks of My Tears" is one of those songs. He had that guitar riff, and he gave it to me. Like he always did — he put it on a tape, gave it to me, and I listened to it until I could come up with a song for it. So Marv Tarplin is the source of the track.

And "The Tears of a Clown"?

We always had Christmas parties at Motown, and all the artists and all the employees came. Stevie Wonder came to me at the Christmas party, and said, "Hey man, I've got a track, and I can't think of a song to go with this. I want you to take it, listen to it, and see what you can come up with." I did, and it was "The Tears of a Clown." The little thing that goes [sings the song's opening melody], reminded me of the circus, so I wanted to write something about the circus — that I thought was heart wrenching. So I wrote about Pagliacci the Clown, but I kind of personalized it.

Bob Dylan once paid you a great compliment, saying you are "America's greatest living poet."

I think it was a fantastic quote and Bob is my friend. I've known Bob forever. That was a very flattering thing to say. Bob is a very great songwriter himself. One of his songs is one of my favorite songs in life: "Like a Rolling Stone." That's one of my favorite songs ever. That was fantastic for me.

How would you like Michael Jackson to be remembered?

I would like Michael to be remembered in as much as he was probably the greatest overall artist that there's ever been. His legacy should be that. He changed the face of music — he changed the face of delivering a song. He changed the face of videos. I would like him to be remembered for that. And he was a philanthropist — he was a very generous man. He did a lot of charity stuff that people didn't even know about. He was constantly giving.

Would you like to share a memory of Michael?

One of my fondest memories of Michael is what I thought of him at 11 years old, singing my song, "Who's Loving You." And singing it like he had been living for 40 years, because "Who's Loving You" is a song about somebody who had somebody that loved them, but they did the person wrong, and the person left them. And then they're sitting around, brooding about it, because they realized that they made a mistake, and they're wondering who this person is loving now. So at 11 years old, he couldn't have possibly known that — but that's how he sang my song.

Out of all the artists that have covered one of your songs over the years, which is your favorite?

I have none. As a songwriter, when I sit down to write a song, I'm wanting to write a song — if I had written it 50 years before then it would have had meant something, today it's going to mean something, and in 50 years it's going to mean something. There are millions and millions of songs, so [artists] have a vast choice out there. But if they chose one of mine, I just love the fact that as a songwriter, I've accomplished what I set out to do. And many people who have recorded my songs are songwriters themselves. I'm very flattered by it — I don't critique them, I just love them.

This man is a walking history book. I'd love 2 pick his brain 4 a few hours.

Graycap23 said:

I would too. Smokey is awesome.

August 17, 2009

Smokey Robinson Q & A


The songs alone speak volumes. "Shop Around." "You've Really Got a Hold on Me." "Ooo Baby Baby." "The Tracks of My Tears." "I Second That Emotion." "The Tears of a Clown." "My Guy." "My Girl." "Cruisin'." "Being With You." These songs are just a handful of the classics written and--in many cases--uniquely interpreted by William "Smokey" Robinson.

The singer/songwriter is celebrating his 50th anniversary in music this year, as is his iconic twin, Motown Records. On the eve of the release of Robinson's new studio album, "Time Flies When You're Having Fun," Billboard talks to the man behind the beloved tunes and exclusively premieres the video for "Don't Know Why." Out Aug. 25 on Robso/ASA, the album also features a diverse cast of special guests including Carlos Santana, Joss Stone and India.Arie.


What's the origin of the nickname "Smokey"?

My favorite uncle, who was also my godfather, gave it to me when I was 3 years old. I used to love cowboys; that was my thing--especially the ones who sang. And he would always take me to see cowboy movies. His cowboy name for me was "Smokey Joe." Whenever anybody asked me what my name was, I'd tell them "Smokey Joe." The Joe dropped off when I became 12.

When did you first know you wanted to be a singer/songwriter?

I have felt like that since I was 4 years old. At times it seemed like it was going to be my absolutely impossible dream given where I grew up in Detroit. But it was always my dream. Nobody in my family was a professional musically. My mother sang in church and played the piano; my dad sang in the shower [laughs]. However, I listened to everything that was being played at home: from gospel to gut-bucket blues to jazz and classical. My two older sisters listened to bebop: Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. I formed my first group when I was 11. We went from being the Five Chimes to the Matadors and changed members until we got to be the Miracles.

How did the group come up with the Miracles name?

It was after we recorded our first record, before Motown was established. The Matadors was a masculine name; we needed a name that would fit four guys and a girl. So we put a bunch of names in a hat and Miracles-the name I put in there-is the one we drew out.

Why did the Miracles click with fans?

It was the combination of the harmonies and the songs. We had a different sound from the other groups who were out then. We had a girl in the group and the harmonies were voiced high. It was that high-sounding harmonic sound that made us different.


You've said in previous interviews that Motown founder Berry Gordy was your mentor. What did he teach you about music?

When I met Berry, I had a loose-leaf notebook of about 100 songs. Back then, I had five songs in one song because the first verse had nothing to do with the second verse, and the second verse had nothing to do with the bridge. It was just a bunch of ideas all rhymed up because I always rhymed things. Berry made me understand a song is like a short story, film or book with a beginning, middle and end that all ties together. And even if you don't give it a definite ending, you have to give people enough material to create their own ending.

What key elements comprise a timeless song?

First, a strong melody. Then it needs a good hook that's easy to remember. People usually remember the hook first before they know what the rest of the song is about. And third, the writer's lyrical content must have a lasting message, no matter what the song is about.

One striking element of your songwriting is your skillful use of metaphors. Bob Dylan drew attention to that when he called you "America's greatest living poet." Why are these important?

Once I learned how to write songs, I recognized the fact that there are no new words. There are also no new notes on the piano or guitar. And there are really no new ideas. So you have to work within the framework of what's been going on for thousands of years since language began. You have to work within that parameter. So the trick for me was to try and say the same thing differently.




Do you ever get tired of singing or writing love songs?

No, because love is such an important aspect of life. Love can be happy, sad, mad, cruel, hateful, everlasting. Love is the most powerful emotion that we as human beings have.


What was it like working at Motown with its formidable stable of writing talent like Holland-Dozier-Holland, Ashford & Simpson and Norman Whitfield?


Motown was a very democratic place. It wasn't like Berry ran it like a dictator with an iron hand. He was a songwriter and producer himself and still did a lot of that in the early days. And some of his songs got shot down like everyone else's during our Monday morning meetings when we picked songs and records. All the artists were open to all the writers and producers. If you went to an artist with a song and he or she wanted to record it, no one said, "No, you can't record that song."



But Motown was a fantastic place to grow up in. When you hear people talk about the Motown family, it's not a myth. It's true. That's how it is today for those of us who are still here. Everybody was a part of the family: the artists, writers, producers, musicians, the sales staff. It wasn't like we had this artist clique where we didn't hang out with anyone else.

Besides Berry, you also wrote songs with your longtime guitarist, Marv Tarplin. Who else were important collaborators?

[Marv's] been the source of many, many songs for me. Marv, who retired last December, is one of the most prolific music people I've ever known. Some things just click and we did.



A lot of the guys like Al Cleveland and Frank Wilson used to give me tracks and I'd write songs to those. One of the biggest records I've ever been associated with was "Tears of a Clown." Stevie Wonder brought me the complete track just like it is on the record. He said, "Hey, man. I can't think of a song to go with this. See what you can come up with."


The biggest competition I ever had was with Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield writing for the Temptations. Norman and I would compete to try and get the next Temptations record. But we would still help each other. He could be recording something with the Temptations and say, "Hey, Smoke. I want you to sing a part on this record or clap your hands and stomp your feet." And in turn, he would do it for me. Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard, Eddie Kendrick and Melvin Franklin are on "Mickey's Monkey," along with Martha Reeves and the other Vandellas. That's how we did stuff then.



Did you realize at the time what a major role Motown was playing in breaking down racial barriers?

We knew we wanted to make great music. Not only black music but quality music for everyone. I only wish that we'd have known we were making history while we were making history. If we'd have known, I would have saved everything. Back then, there were certain areas in Detroit where, if you were black, you better be working for somebody and you better be able to prove it. When we started to have hit records, we used to get letters from the white kids in those areas saying, "We love your music. But our parents don't know we have it. If they did, they'd make us throw it away." Then about a year or so later, we began getting letters from the parents saying, "We found out our kids listen to your music and they turned us onto it. We love it and we're so glad you're making this music."


We broke down a lot of walls. In the South, we'd find segregated audiences; whites on one side and blacks on the other. We'd go back a year or so after, and the kids would be dancing together, hanging out and talking. Even overseas . . . the Cold War was going on in Russia but the Russians loved our music. We'd go there and get a warm welcome.

Why did you decide to go solo?

I had no intention of going solo. Ever. When I retired from the Miracles, I was already a VP at Motown. I figured that would be the rest of my life, going to the office every day and making official decisions. At that point, my kids were born after my ex-wife Claudette had suffered several miscarriages, and I just wanted to spend more time with my family. The Miracles had done everything a group could do three or four times over by then and I wasn't contributing as much anymore. My plan was to retire from the group and probably write and produce records for other artists. But I would never again be onstage as a singer. I did that for three years and went stir crazy until Berry came by my office and said, "You know what I want you to do? Get a band together and get out of here, because you are miserable."

You later overcame a personal battle with drugs.

I speak at schools, churches, gang meetings, rehab facilities, telling people that drugs don't discriminate. I was 39 years old and my life was going exactly as I would have it go. I couldn't have written it any better. But drugs don't care who you are, what you're doing, where you are or where you're going. When you open yourself up to them, you are vulnerable. And I was. You think drugs won't get the best of you, that you will never become an addict. Ninety-nine percent of the people who start doing drugs do so with their friends. It's a social thing and you call yourself having fun. Then you look up and fun has wiped you out like it did me. I did it for two years. I was a walking corpse, totally out of it.


Drugs are also a spiritual condition. If you don't get your spiritual self together, you'll never conquer them. I went to church and was prayed for; I gave it to God. I went to church one night a drug addict and when I came out of that church, I was free. That was May 1986. I haven't even thought about drugs since then other than that I'm at war with them.



You've spent the majority of your career on a major label and now you're taking the independent route. What's your take on today's music industry?

Several major labels talked to me about "Time Flies" while I was recording it. But my first thought before they talked to me was that I wanted to do it myself. It's different nowadays because major labels are middlemen. It's going to be hard for major labels to survive given the way music is being downloaded and sold now, especially because major labels have many people to support. I'm not just talking about artists. When I went to meetings at these labels, I'd count 40 people before I got to the boardroom. I decided I've got just as good a chance of doing it myself as going the major-label route.


This is a 180-degree turn from where I started. It's a whole other ballgame; there are so many things involved now in getting a record out to the public. It's been a real education for me, I can tell you that [laughs]. However, I do like being on my own. Creatively, I'm freer than I've ever been.

If you could, what one thing would you change about the industry?

I would change the fact that people are able to get your music whenever they want to, free of charge. After you've labored over it and took the time to create it, that's unfair.


Whose songwriting skills do you admire among the newer artists?

There are so many talented young people out there making great music: Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, Maxwell and John Legend. It kills me when I hear people say music is not going anywhere nowadays. I'm sure there were some people saying the same thing when we started Motown: "What is this stuff? What are they doing?" Sure, there's some negative music out there. But there's no need to focus on that and say it's all negative.

Is there anything you'd change about your career?

I'm sure there are some things I would do differently. However, I'd leave the majority of things just as they are, including the hardships. That just builds your character. Time is the greatest educator that we have. It gives you a great outlook on life and teaches you--if you're looking. In my case, I just hope I've made a positive imprint and that I will continue to do so.




http://www.billboard.com/...ory?page=3

Nice interviews. The recent one mentions his drug abuse, as I expected, his drug use was longer than "three years", looks like he was using drugs for a while until '86. Glad he broke out of it. Scary stuff. He's one of popular music's living testaments.

Smokey @ "Live From Daryl's House" - Full Episode:

http://www.livefromdaryls...?page=ep22

Enjoy!

Graycap23 said:

I wish he releases a poetry book.

That man knows how to touch a nerve

NpgSoldier said:

That was GREAT!

Smokey's self-released new CD is on sale this week at Target for only $7.98. I'm glad that I picked up a copy because he's crafted some great, great ballads to show the younger generation how it's done.

Copycat said:

For that price, might be worth buying unheard. Although I should slow myself down. I've been very cautious about buying CDs lately. Maybe I'll sample it first.

SMOKE DOGG!!!!!

I think it was SO COOL that he showed up at Rick James' funeral in Buffalo, NY in 2004.....