transcript
Speaker 1:
[00:00] Hey, what's up, y'all? It's me, it's Shawn. And what you about to check out? It's probably one of the best conversations I've ever had. Now, you're going to see part one right here, but if you want to check out part two, you got to join the Patreon community on On That Note. So make sure you do that, and you'll be able to see part two. But in the meantime, enjoy part one.
Speaker 2:
[00:20] What's up, y'all? I'm Ralph Tresvant, and you're watching On That Note with my man, Shawn Stockman.
Speaker 1:
[00:26] Welcome, welcome, welcome, everybody, to another episode of On That Note. Of course, this is the place where we speak a language we all understand, and that is music. But before I introduce my highly esteemed guests, make sure you guys grab on to the Patreon community. Make sure you join. All kinds of exclusive footage and all kinds of good stuff that you can only get on the On That Note Patreon community. All right. So this was hard, man. You know why? Because you got to understand, and my wife, she clowns me all the time. Y'all my heroes, man. So it was hard for me to kind of like encapsulate everything that I wanted to say. So I tried to keep it as short, but representative as possible. So all right, here I go. My guest, ladies and gentlemen, is an icon. Let that sink in, because he is, right? He's one of the most important vocal identities in modern R&B.
Speaker 2:
[01:34] Wow.
Speaker 1:
[01:35] Smooth, emotional, controlled. He helped to find the sound and influence everybody. Everybody. From Boyz II Men to today's melodic R&B artists. He is the voice of an incomparable assemblage of the greatest group of all time. His voice is recognizable from the first lyric. His prowess on stage is matched only with the greats. Ruffin, Wilson, Jackson. Take your pick. He's inspired many and has solidified his status not just as the front man of his own band, but also on his own. One of the coolest, most humble superstars I have been blessed to share a stage with and actually call a brother. A wonderful father and an all-around good spirit. Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for Ralph Edward Tresvant, aka Ralph Tresvant.
Speaker 2:
[02:30] The second I thought you was talking about me, bro. Is that me? I love it. Thanks, Shiz. I appreciate that. What's good, man? I'm good, man. You know, I'm having a ball out here on the road, you know.
Speaker 1:
[02:42] How's touring going? Like, tell me, how's the touring life going, bro?
Speaker 2:
[02:46] Touring's going? You know how it's going.
Speaker 1:
[02:48] I'm just saying, you know.
Speaker 2:
[02:49] You're killing it with me, man.
Speaker 1:
[02:50] Come on.
Speaker 2:
[02:51] This is, it's going like it's going. We're killing these builds and we're selling them. Are we breaking records?
Speaker 1:
[02:55] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[02:56] I always felt like if we got together and did something, it would do something we've never seen done before.
Speaker 1:
[03:01] We always felt that.
Speaker 2:
[03:02] You know what I mean? Like, Boyz II Men, New Edition never collabled on something, record or touring something, that it would be something milestone.
Speaker 1:
[03:11] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[03:12] And sure enough, that's what this tour feels like.
Speaker 1:
[03:15] It's one of the top grossing tours in the country right now. Like straight up, this is not even a flex. Like, this is real fact. And the New Edition's Way Tour, starring these guys, these guys, and that queen, is we're putting smiles on people's faces, Riz. And we knew that this was going to be something special from the conception, because we understand our fans. We understand the people that support us. And they've been wanting this, too. So it's, I'm just finally, just like you said, it finally happened. I'm happy it did. And I think the people are happy, too. So I just want to congratulate you.
Speaker 2:
[04:02] Yeah, likewise.
Speaker 1:
[04:03] On your success. And Riz is classy, because he also comes bearing gifts. As you can see, he gifted me this amazing copper onk with the crystal quartz in the middle. If anybody know anything about this, this is pure spiritual energy right here. This is healing from the inside out. And this is an amazing gift, Riz, and I appreciate you.
Speaker 2:
[04:34] I know you know about it. When we were talking at the rehearsals, I said, I've told you then. I said, I got something. I got a bunch. I got one like that, that's tall as you, man. That I walk around the property with. It's down there. And just get the energy, man. I'm barefooted, trying to do it like they did it back in the day. So I knew you, as soon as you said that, and I saw what you were wearing, you already had it on. I was like, oh, Shawn can appreciate this. I've had that on the tour bus this time. It's my little protection thing. So I said, let me bring this to my bro.
Speaker 1:
[05:03] Well, I appreciate this.
Speaker 2:
[05:04] I really, really do. Transfer his energy into that, man.
Speaker 1:
[05:07] Yeah, baby, we got another one.
Speaker 2:
[05:09] We get it. Yeah, go drive wifey crazy. So I'm about to drive wifey crazy with it. Yeah, exactly. She already said, you ain't got no more room for that.
Speaker 1:
[05:16] Right, exactly. Well, we got to make room for this one. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:
[05:19] That's what's up.
Speaker 1:
[05:20] No, but thank you, brother. You got it. So how's life, man?
Speaker 2:
[05:25] Life overall is good for me, man. You know, it's coming to a crescendo for me. You know, I was like, all of the things that you felt like maybe was going to pass you by, you know, some of the accolades, I would say, we're doing it as long as we've been doing it. You know, everybody, all the fans, how come they ain't having on The Walk of Fame? And how come they're not on The This? How come they didn't have a residency? And kind of all that stuff just piled in a few years, almost like, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:
[05:50] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[05:52] And just put a smile on everybody that I know's face, from my family, my sister, everybody's super proud, my brother's super proud, you know, my aunts, they're just wearing that thing on their chest now. That's what I'm talking about, y'all. They finally recognizing y'all for this and that. And I had come to the point where it didn't matter anymore. I was able to feed my family. We weren't in the projects, they were more per se, you know? We got a lot of friends and family there, so I'm still down there. But at the same time, we were blessed to move on and have a better life from what we've been doing all our years. And that became the most important thing after a while. So if I didn't get all of these other things, I was still gonna be cool with my run, right? But just watching all of that come to head has put a different type of smile on my face, man. I just feel like all of it was worth it, you know? And other people are being able to, like the fans, they're sharing all of our accolades with us. You know how they know this. They feel like they won the award when we won an award. It ain't got nothing to do with us. So, seeing them fulfill and being able to wear, say, I told you my group was one of the best and all this stuff. Being able to have that badge of honor for themselves, I feel really proud to have stuck with it and kept it going all these years. I just feel good right now.
Speaker 1:
[07:13] Well, I like to start my shows off by going way back in the beginning because as much as I know things about you, I don't know certain things that are very important. So we're going to go back. I like to do a segment called We're Going to Go Back, Way Back, Back in the Time. So when you were about a 10 year old, 10, 11, I always use that age because that's those formable years, formative years where you're not a kid anymore, you're growing out of being a kid and you're actually listening to music differently now. So 10, Roxbury, Massachusetts, Orchard Park. What was being played that influenced you to want to pursue a career in music? Who were your heroes?
Speaker 2:
[08:06] Goodness. Everybody, man. I just was a fan of the radio. That's why I became a DJ after a while.
Speaker 1:
[08:15] You were a DJ, DJ?
Speaker 2:
[08:17] Yeah, actually, cut, scratch, blend, mix. And I do all of it, thanks to my mentor, Brian Cropper, rest in heaven, man. They took him, he would be here with me today, if I can guarantee that, if he was still alive. But the Cropper family, Brian introduced me to turntables and stuff like that. My family had already introduced me to music. The Motown Sound, obviously. Anything that was top 10 and being played on black radio, I was influenced by, man. Roger Trotman was a huge, I was a huge fan of Roger and he introduced me to the Talk Box and all that kind of stuff. I was, you know, Parliament Funkadelic, the funk era, Bootsy Collins, a Sly and the Family Stone. There was so many things. Marvin Gaye was way up there. I think that that influence came out when I started doing my solo stuff. Because I never thought that I would be doing songs like Sensitivity, man. I was into the funk and I was into the type of album Bobby put out. I was going to hit the block with being that dude. And somehow I went up to Flight Time and that dude came up. The Stone Cold Gentlemen, the Sensitivity guy, whatever. You know how they write based on what they see in you. You spend time with them for a few weeks before you even sing a note. I don't know if they're writing, but before you sing a note, they're just observing you.
Speaker 1:
[09:38] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[09:38] And that's what came back.
Speaker 1:
[09:41] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[09:41] They started playing me records. I was like, what? I thought I'm not the everybody's talking. Right. We're not going to get that.
Speaker 1:
[09:48] Wow.
Speaker 2:
[09:49] It's like, man, this is.
Speaker 1:
[09:50] So you wanted to go completely left to what was already.
Speaker 2:
[09:53] I had an album called Living In A Dream prior to working with them that I was just trying to put together. It was just music at the time. But I was starting to form it into an album because it was it was just real representative of what I thought I was coming out the projects and the friends I had, you know, the type of lifestyle I had. It was representative of that.
Speaker 1:
[10:11] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[10:12] But God had another plan, man. When I got up there, they saw a whole other energy and I heard the song. And it was just undeniably beautiful.
Speaker 1:
[10:19] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[10:20] As a record, when I heard the chords and the progress, I heard sensitivity. I was like, what am I about to do?
Speaker 1:
[10:26] I think it worked out for you.
Speaker 2:
[10:28] It did, man.
Speaker 1:
[10:29] I think it did. OK.
Speaker 2:
[10:30] Overall, yeah. Multi-platinum records later and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:
[10:35] Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
[10:36] It did all right.
Speaker 1:
[10:37] He got one of those things with this record in it.
Speaker 2:
[10:41] I got those.
Speaker 1:
[10:42] That's platinum color.
Speaker 2:
[10:43] I got that. It was a beautiful thing. Thank you, Jimmy and Terry.
Speaker 1:
[10:48] So that answers my question because that was one of my questions because I was told that sensitivity almost wasn't made like the song.
Speaker 2:
[10:56] Yeah. I don't know if it was not almost made, but it was just one of those things that I would have never guessed. I wasn't planning that. That's kind of what, when I heard it, I was making it. I never had heard it and said, no, I don't want to do that.
Speaker 1:
[11:08] Okay.
Speaker 2:
[11:08] Never did that. When I heard that song, it just was a contradiction to the type of style album that I've been working on, the music I've been working on by myself with my nephew's, my niece and nephew's dad, Dwayne Omar at the time. I was working with him and we were just putting music together. I was enjoying his writing, his music style. He was enjoying my writing style. It was combining that scene with, and it was just, we was coming up with some real heat for that era. It was the swing before the swing, it was the teddy before the teddy, you know what I'm saying? It was in that realm. But you know, when I got with Jimmy and Terry, it just turned into a whole nother energy. And I kind of just grew up being in Minneapolis into a side of me that I didn't really realize that I was or that I had. I know I'm sensitive, but I'm not that sensitive. Didn't feel like we supposed to be making music about it. It was oozing out of me when I'm talking to people. I didn't feel that. I said, how are they picking that up?
Speaker 1:
[12:11] But that's what makes them who they are. Like the crazy part about Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, producers, like extraordinary, like one of the greatest to ever do it. And what a lot of people don't know about them is that before you record a note, people, me and my guys went to Minneapolis to record. Like before we would sing anything, we would sit for four hours and just talk.
Speaker 2:
[12:41] That's right.
Speaker 1:
[12:42] Not knowing that what they're doing is they're formulating the song as they're talking.
Speaker 2:
[12:46] Absolutely.
Speaker 1:
[12:47] So as Brian Michael Cox says, the song is in a conversation. You know what I'm saying? So a lot of times you're sitting and you're talking and out of the blue, you'll see Jimmy.
Speaker 2:
[12:59] That's it.
Speaker 1:
[13:00] Then you'll see Terry and then there it is.
Speaker 2:
[13:03] Exactly.
Speaker 1:
[13:04] But that's their formula. It makes sense because songs have to come from a real place. A lot of times we try to contrive these images or contrive these scenarios that really don't relate to us. Opposed to, you're talking, all of a sudden some chords come out, and then the very sentence that you said becomes the lyrics. You just add a melody to it, and then that's it. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:
[13:32] That's how they move.
Speaker 1:
[13:33] That's how they move.
Speaker 2:
[13:34] We did everything but music for a while. We played basketball. We went to Timber Wolf games. We ate barbecue at certain spots. And we played on his lake and in their boats. And we just did all kinds of stuff to just feel who you are. And then you hear it come back. And you can tell it's you. When soon as they start playing it, you can tell that it really is you. They didn't make up something. But it's a side of you, you would have never probably addressed. I just think for me, they bring out the better side of you. You might want to approach, like I said, the thug or the project kid. It's like, okay, that's out there, man. How do we do something greater than that? That's when you keep songs like Do What I Gotta Do, one of my favorite. Stone Cold Gentlemen and stuff like that. It's like a combination of how to make that. You can still represent that day, but you got to represent them better.
Speaker 1:
[14:30] To be honest, it's how we've always viewed you. You being the front man for New Edition, you represented that gentleman, that person that was smooth and just your whole swag exuded that. I think even though, and this is just the funny thing about a lot of us, a lot of singers, a lot of people don't realize, yeah, we might have that type of stature as far as our sensibilities and everything, but at the end of the day, we hood dudes. We come from certain areas where we're influenced by other things too. So that's also a side. I always talk about how I grew up around dudes like yourself. I had big bros that I used to admire because there was nothing soft about them.
Speaker 2:
[15:25] Nothing.
Speaker 1:
[15:27] But when it came to the ladies, they got soft. They understood how to talk to the ladies. Change right up. They could be talking shit with us. Then a cutie will walk by, hey miss, miss, miss. They do the famous hand grab thing where they grab the hand, gentle, gentle.
Speaker 2:
[15:48] That's true.
Speaker 1:
[15:48] You don't yank a woman's arm, you out here. But you gently grab her, you pull her to you, you whisper something. I used to watch this as a kid. Me and my other young boys, we'd look and they would say something and they would make her laugh. Then her walk would change in a whole nine yards. We'd sit there like, damn.
Speaker 2:
[16:09] That's how it's done. That's the same thing. Brian, the one I just mentioned earlier, Brian today is the reason why I had a shag. Right. I had waves. I started walking around, brushing my hair in a posse. He had his little V open with the chain on.
Speaker 1:
[16:24] Right, right, right.
Speaker 2:
[16:26] He just was cool, real quiet. I believe a lot of me, a lot of Brian, is what I became.
Speaker 1:
[16:33] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[16:34] You know what I'm saying, watching him, just like you said, doing what he's doing, the ladies loved Brian.
Speaker 1:
[16:38] Right.
Speaker 2:
[16:39] And I was like, well, I want him to love me. He was like, man, let me show you how you do your hair. Right, right. Show you how you do your diss. He said, you know, loosen up your shirt.
Speaker 1:
[16:47] Right.
Speaker 2:
[16:47] We're buttoning up every now and then. Every now and then. So I was starting to put on my cologne. My dad still, I was sneaking in his hot karate.
Speaker 1:
[16:55] What a hot karate.
Speaker 2:
[16:56] I don't remember that. Throwing that joint down, going outside, smelling like too much of it. Too much. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[17:02] We never knew how much to put on.
Speaker 2:
[17:04] We never gonna smell like this. Because this is a part of it. Right, right. All those little things like that, man. You start realizing how you danced, how you moved.
Speaker 1:
[17:12] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[17:13] All carried and played into that song. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[17:16] Being on tour, I've had the chance to try food from all over the world. It really makes me appreciate how much flavor is out there. But then I come back home and it's easy to fall into old routines. Cooking what I already know or grabbing something quick. There's nothing wrong with it, but nothing to be excited about either. That's why I like HelloFresh. You pick your meals, it shows up at your door, and you're in the kitchen cooking with real ingredients, lemongrass, curry paste, flavors you don't usually have on hand. You're putting something on a table with real flavor, little spice, little character, something you're proud to serve. Now, you're not just eating to eat, you're in the process cooking, taking your time and sharing that with the people you love. Because when it comes down to it, nothing hits like home cooking. I use HelloFresh and you should too. Go to hellofresh.com/on That Note, 10 FM now to get 10 free meals plus a free NutriBullet Ultra Plus two-in-one compact kitchen system, a $189.99 value on your third box. Free meals applied as a discount on the first box. New subscribers only, varies by plan. Must order the third box by May 31st, 2026. I'm going to tell you, because me and my guys, again, watching more so when you guys did the Heartbreak record, and where videos at that time was even more prevalent, and you got to see them more, and BT was around and all the other stuff. So we got a chance to, when you had the VHS recorder, and you would tape your favorite music, and your favorite shows and all the other stuff, and me and my guys would sit over Mike McCarrie's house, we would just watch y'all videos over and over. And I'll admit to this, when we first started performing for real, I would try to take some of your moves. There's certain things that I would do that I was like, yo, Ralph would do that. You know what I'm saying? That type of thing. And what's crazy is, I'm going to tell y'all a little insight about, because I'm a student. I'm going to forever be a student. But the great thing, the reason why I call him one of the top tier performers is because Ralph has a way about how he performs, where yes, he's the lead and his heavy lifting is the vocals, but every once in a while in the midst of the vocals, he'll go into the step with the guys, not even break a note, uh, uh, and they come out, you know what I'm saying? Do his thing, fall back in, perfect. Don't miss not one fucking step, you know what I'm saying? And then do a spin. And what I noticed about you and what I try to do is you never stop moving. You never stop moving, like especially during the heartbreak era where you would do something, but you're constantly moving your feet. You're constantly moving your hips. You're constantly moving your body to the point where it like, oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:
[20:15] That's MJ though. That's all the greats in front of us pretty much. When they're on stage, they're always entertaining. You never really see them still.
Speaker 1:
[20:23] No.
Speaker 2:
[20:24] You know, they always have something going, something that makes you feel the rhythm, the beat. Keep the pulse of the song going, whatever that is. I'm always doing that too. I got that from them probably.
Speaker 1:
[20:36] But what I noticed too, is that it helps with the breathing.
Speaker 2:
[20:39] Yeah, it does, doesn't it?
Speaker 1:
[20:41] Because if you're constantly moving, your body's warm, so you're not pausing. So you're constantly keeping your vocal cords warm, and you're singing, and you're not losing yourself within the actual show.
Speaker 2:
[20:55] And what's crazy is that, you know, Brooke Payne, choreographer, mentor. He used to pull that out. He'd make sure I learned the whole routine. So when we went to rehearsals, I learned the whole routine. I just didn't learn my part, that I had to be the hook or whatever it was.
Speaker 1:
[21:15] You learned all of it.
Speaker 2:
[21:15] I learned the verses. Everything everybody had to do, I learned as well. So it's playing in the back of my head while I'm performing. So at any point in time is I'm doing the choreography in my head while I'm doing the lead. So that's why I can stop at any point and jump into a part that they're doing. And I know that's where they are in the song. I don't have to look back to make sure, because repetitively doing it over and over again and learning the whole routine from the beginning to the end. And that's what sticks in my head. As I'm doing the thing upfront, I'm doing the choreography in my head as well.
Speaker 1:
[21:52] That's the smooth shit. There's this video that's online, you guys can watch it on YouTube, 1988 in Philly, the Heartbreak Tour. And Count Me Out is playing. And then he goes, And I want to hang, tonight just for the game. He's singing it and hitting the steps at the same time and not breaking and then he'll come out of it. I'm like, yo, this dude is cold. That's crazy. But again, I used to watch you, Ronnie, as well. But then the other acts, the David Ruffins, one of my favorite is when Dave would do a spin, throw the mic in the air, grab it, drop to his knees. Those things are impressionable.
Speaker 2:
[22:43] I see you right now flip the mic every now and then, grab it in the other hand. I was like, okay, shit, man, let me see this. I see you.
Speaker 1:
[22:54] I do. I see these guys do it.
Speaker 2:
[22:58] That's dope.
Speaker 1:
[22:59] You don't know how many times I dropped that before. Yeah, but I would just practice.
Speaker 2:
[23:04] Now you got that timing.
Speaker 1:
[23:06] Yeah. But this is the dialogue that I've always wanted. Because from one entertainer to another, you know what I'm saying? These are the jewels that I think personally, a lot of entertainers today are not really taking advantage of. We live in a day and age of information, and there's all types of things that you can just look up, that you can kind of glean from and get tutelage from in a whole nine yards. You see some of these young boys on stage and they're just walking around, grabbing themselves and not giving no performance, not saying thank you, not bowing, not, you know, all those things obviously taught to us by the guru, you know, Brooke Payne, but those things matter. And a lot of these kids out here don't really understand the importance of it.
Speaker 2:
[24:00] And they're not going to be around for 45, 50 years, you know, they're not going to be around as long as we been able to stay in the game. Because people appreciate that. They really do. They can see the sincerity in you wanting to give them the best performance. They want to get, you know, that you appreciate them coming and watching you perform, paying their money for your records. And they see the genuine or not. You know what I'm saying? They can tell if you're not genuine about it. And after a while, they're on to the next thing. You know what I'm saying? So those are the little things that you don't realize. That bow, that thank you, those things you just mentioned. That makes a person want to, okay, I want to keep supporting that person.
Speaker 1:
[24:37] Yeah, real talk.
Speaker 2:
[24:39] This is how it is, man. That's how you get longevity.
Speaker 1:
[24:41] Yeah, absolutely. Now, okay, the proximity between your guys. Again, as we mentioned, I know y'all grew up in Orchard Park, projects in Boston. Who lived where? Give me the map. Who was this place, that place and how close or how far were you guys?
Speaker 2:
[25:06] I'll start from my side of Orchard Park, where I lived. Ricky was, there was a street that separated Ricky and I. His building was here. I was here in 28th Street when we started. Ricky was right across on the first floor. I can't remember what that building number was. But it was all Adams Street. And then we had to park behind Ricky's building. I think that was Yeoman or Hamden. Yeoman was up here. I can't remember now. I'm going to get Eustace. And something was at the end of Adams. As you go down Eustace, you get to, there's a park between behind Ricky's building. And that's where the field was, the baseball park, the basketball area. We had, there used to be an area that had a water fountain spot out in there when we were little. That eventually ended up being a muck place with broken carriages and glass and sticks that we used to use as a, almost like an obstacle course, see if you can get through without falling into the muck.
Speaker 1:
[26:05] That's right, right.
Speaker 2:
[26:07] Then you got to the middle where the school was, the Dearborn was. And the Dearborn is where, that was my first school.
Speaker 1:
[26:14] Okay.
Speaker 2:
[26:15] Then you had Bobby's house. Bobby was kind of in the middle.
Speaker 1:
[26:18] Okay.
Speaker 2:
[26:20] And then, there's a street there. That's one of the streets that, no, that's not the street that just got renamed, but it's connected to the New Edition Way Street. That just got renamed.
Speaker 1:
[26:31] Okay.
Speaker 2:
[26:31] You cross that street, which I think is now is Albany. You cross that street and you get to the last part of the projects before you get out with the train tracks and you leave the projects. That's where Michael was.
Speaker 1:
[26:45] Okay.
Speaker 2:
[26:46] So Biff lived on that side. I was on the far end. Bricky was right beside, crossed from me, then you had Bobby kind of in the middle and then Mike at the end.
Speaker 1:
[26:54] Where's Ron?
Speaker 2:
[26:55] Ron wasn't in the projects at the time. When I grew up, Ron, we found out Ron lived there for a while when he was younger, but he had moved out. His mom and him had moved out to Bricks before we started New Edition. Brooke was coming back down to Orchard Park in the Bricks and doing concerts. He was doing shows with his groups right at this place called The Hi-Hat that was in where our bus station was, Dudley Station. And it was a place called The Hi-Hat. And he had the Untouchables and another group, it's gonna slip my mind right now as I'm trying to think of it. And he had his group called A Touch of Blue based on Blue Magic. So those groups, we used to rehearse and perform at this place called The Hi-Hat. And that's why Brooke was always down there and Michael and Ricky and Bobby were introduced to his work through those acts that they admired. Because they would come up there in limos and dress like they were already stars and they would be like, wow, how did we get like that? We got to get with him.
Speaker 1:
[28:02] I see.
Speaker 2:
[28:03] So that's how they saw Brooke. And so when I joined New Edition a couple of years later, they had a version of it that never did any work, they never did any shows or anything with Travis Pettis and Corey Anderson. And those guys went on the way to doing basketball and other stuff like that.
Speaker 1:
[28:19] Right.
Speaker 2:
[28:20] So Bobby wanted to start back up. That's when I got in, they went back to Brooke.
Speaker 1:
[28:22] Got it.
Speaker 2:
[28:23] So Ronnie was then introduced after we got the interest of Maurice Starr.
Speaker 1:
[28:28] Right.
Speaker 2:
[28:29] So when Maurice Starr said, I want to record you guys, we started going to Maurice Starr. As we were moving around, he was like, he wanted to do the five man thing. That's when Brooke said, well, I know somebody be perfect for this. And went and got Ronnie, brought Ronnie to one of the rehearsals down at Orchard Park. One day he just sat him in, they said, y'all stand here. Very similar to how it was in the New Edition story. He said, you stand right here and y'all just do what y'all have been doing. And Ronnie's standing in his spot. And he just knew right, it was already there. He just killed it, he was like, ooh, wait a minute, what is this? Fell right in, we were like, oh, this is our dude. Because we had tried like two or three other people from Orchard Park, they didn't work out. This wasn't working out right. And we could feel that, we could tell it was just something off. And then when he slid Ronnie in the way he did, he had already taught him at home, they lived together. When he came in and slid into his style, it was like, this is it. Never looked back. So that's how Ron got in the group. He wasn't actually living in Orchard Park growing up with us during the time we was coming up.
Speaker 1:
[29:35] Got it, got it, got it. Did everybody accept Ron right away?
Speaker 2:
[29:38] Everybody, yes, we did. Everybody looked, when he did what he did that day at rehearsal, we loved him. Some of the people at Orchard Park did, and we had a dude named Brian Baker who was like, well, you don't want him in the group. He don't even look like you. He was killing Rod all day. He was like, I'm going to bust his ass. It's like, you ain't going to do nothing, baby. That's our boy, man.
Speaker 1:
[30:06] That's wild. Redhead haters.
Speaker 2:
[30:08] Yeah, he got red hair. He don't even look like you. He used to say stuff like that in the room. That's how he talk. Well, you don't want him in the room. He don't even look like you. We was cracking up, man. We talked about it for years. We still bring him up every now and then. We just laugh about them days, man. But that's what it was. We accepted him right away. Some of the people around us was trying to figure out why he ain't from what you're part.
Speaker 1:
[30:34] Yeah, right. He ain't from the soil.
Speaker 2:
[30:36] Right. That type of thing.
Speaker 1:
[30:38] Well, obviously he earned his keep.
Speaker 2:
[30:40] Oh my God, did he?
Speaker 1:
[30:41] Yeah, what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:
[30:43] Ron is pretty much the blueprint behind, you know, without Ron in there, it ain't the same at all. You know what it is. He just kind of is the foundation in there, that pillar that you think of the new edition, you think of pretty, remember Robert has pretty eyes and his nice skin, just killing the ladies. Right, right, right, right, right. And he's a dancing machine, you know. We keep up with him when we trying to make sure we got our stuff together on stage.
Speaker 1:
[31:11] Well, it's amazing because, you know, 40 years, you said 45 in the game, whatever, and y'all still moving around like young cats. That's crazy. And I mean, you know, obviously, you know, we're all getting a little older, so like those dance steps take its toll a little bit more than what it used to, but at the same time, y'all still.
Speaker 2:
[31:30] The bio-freezers on deck. The game ointment, all that stuff is.
Speaker 1:
[31:35] The tire bomb.
Speaker 2:
[31:36] All that's on deck, yeah, you know, but we still have fun doing it, you know. We want to still impress the audience when we do those moves. We want to get that same reaction we used to get when we first did it, so that helps.
Speaker 1:
[31:48] We're going to get more into that like later on in the conversation. But the fact that you guys got together, Maurice discovered you guys was doing a talent show, right?
Speaker 2:
[31:59] Yeah, we did his talent, the Hollywood Talent Night. We performed and came in second.
Speaker 1:
[32:03] Came in second?
Speaker 2:
[32:04] Yeah, we came in second after-
Speaker 1:
[32:05] Who came in first?
Speaker 2:
[32:06] The Boston rappers, yeah. That part right there.
Speaker 1:
[32:14] Oh my God.
Speaker 2:
[32:15] The crowd was not feeling it, so they was booing and mad when they came up there. They let them have it.
Speaker 1:
[32:19] That's wild.
Speaker 2:
[32:20] Maurice, just like the New Edition story, it shows and he was like, I can't let this happen like this. He said, listen, I'm going to give away to, I'm going to do two recording contracts. So, you know, there was no formality done that night. Later on, we were rehearsing at my house. And I just remember we just started talking about, man, remember that guy Maurice said he was going to record us anyway? We should just roll up on him and try to find him. And that's how it all really happened. We just was thinking about reminiscing about what he said in front of the audience that night, or to us that night. And we rolled over to his house, rang his doorbell, and he was like, who are these guys then? He looked out the door and we said, he said, we're called New Edition. He said, oh yeah, I remember you guys. He let us in, you know, and then he sat us around the piano. That's when we started messing with us and seeing what was going on. And he came up with Jealous Girl. That's the first song that we ever did.
Speaker 1:
[33:07] Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:
[33:08] Jealous Girl was the first one. We were singing around the piano. I wasn't singing. I was kind of just observing quite a quiet and subdued. And Bobby's going for it.
Speaker 1:
[33:17] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[33:17] And that's how he ended with the song.
Speaker 1:
[33:19] Right.
Speaker 2:
[33:19] Because Bobby just starts saying, OK, I want you guys to take this cassette home.
Speaker 1:
[33:22] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[33:23] And when you get it, you feel like you got it down, come back to me. And probably about four or five days later, we came back to his house. We got it, man. And he started yelling, you still hear the same sound? OK.
Speaker 1:
[33:35] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[33:36] And then he started playing some more. I said, I'm going to try something else. This one, he started going, playing. And then he started singing. I was like, oh, in my mind, I'm out of snapped.
Speaker 1:
[33:47] Right.
Speaker 2:
[33:47] Now I'm hearing what I've been listening to.
Speaker 1:
[33:50] Yeah, because it's funky.
Speaker 2:
[33:51] I'm hearing that ABC, I want you back. I'm hearing that familiarity. I was like, oh, no, ain't no shyness. And I just broke. And I started singing it when he was, he went around the room and I started singing it. And when he got to me, he was like, that's it.
Speaker 1:
[34:05] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[34:06] That's that voice I remember from the...
Speaker 1:
[34:08] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[34:09] Who was something he was singing at the Hollywood talent night.
Speaker 1:
[34:12] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[34:12] He said, all right, cool. Then he started working with that. I want you guys to learn this. And he brought us in the studio and then we started recording it.
Speaker 1:
[34:21] Oh, he made some joints for it.
Speaker 2:
[34:22] Popcorn Love came next. Then Is This The End?
Speaker 1:
[34:25] Smashers.
Speaker 2:
[34:26] Then that album came together like that, man.
Speaker 1:
[34:29] Let me just go back and state that even though Ralph didn't do the entire lead on Jealous Girl, he did Wanyay it at the end.
Speaker 2:
[34:39] I did come in. Oh my God. That squeaky voice. My grandmother used to, my mother, my father's mother, she said, baby, I like this number, but it's so high. She couldn't listen to it. I liked it so I was like, what you think, grandmother? We don't. I like it, Boyz II Men. It's just so high.
Speaker 1:
[35:03] Well, the thing is is that when we first heard it, again, back in Philly, everybody was like, yo, he's like little Michael. That's the first thing that we heard. Just like you said with Candy Girl, it gave us those feels of I want you back and that whole thing, but just up with a modern twist, which was genius because of Maurice, because he understood that it was important to have legacy sounding music. Music that people heard before and fell in love with, but just adding a modern-day twist to it.
Speaker 2:
[35:40] Doing his thing to it. He always said when he told us, I mean, later on, we found out that he was always wanting to do a remake of the Jack. He wanted him and his brothers to do it. That never really worked out that way, I guess. He had his brother Michael Johnson, who ended up doing Pac Jam, Space Cowboy. He had some big records on his own, but they never did the Jackson thing when they was coming up. So he vicariously got it off through New Edition. That's what he was doing. Yeah. So when we got in there, Michael was green.
Speaker 1:
[36:08] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[36:08] And a lot of stuff, he had his voice in the background.
Speaker 1:
[36:11] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[36:12] He was already there and he would add me to that background.
Speaker 1:
[36:14] Right.
Speaker 2:
[36:15] In some instances. You hear it. Most of the time it was, just do this, do this, do this. And I could follow him because I was remembering just how Michael did it. Yeah. Shoulda never told me is like your daddy's mama's pearl or some of them songs. It was like the other stuff that was on those albums. I was just figuring out how to make that sound like I used to hear it coming through the speakers.
Speaker 1:
[36:37] Yeah, I did.
Speaker 2:
[36:38] I wanted to sound like that and that's all I was mimicking. And it helped. It worked.
Speaker 1:
[36:42] No, it absolutely worked. Like I said, being a filly.
Speaker 2:
[36:44] It was the Jacksons and our new Modern Twins. We was the first ones trying to merge like rapping and R&B. Right. You know what I mean? It was not like really a thing where R&B records were rapping on it.
Speaker 1:
[36:57] Y'all modernized-
Speaker 2:
[36:57] We literally started our record that way.
Speaker 1:
[36:59] Y'all modernized a sound that was already familiar, but y'all gave it what we were listening to as kids. What we were listening to at the time. The hip-hop element and that whole thing. So yeah, it worked out. And it's crazy because again, living in Philly, that's all our little girls used to listen to, was you guys. So it was like me listening like, yo, who is these kids?
Speaker 2:
[37:23] Taking over Philly. Taking over every day.
Speaker 1:
[37:25] Taking over Philly.
Speaker 2:
[37:26] We got to have all the girls. That was what we wanted.
Speaker 1:
[37:28] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
[37:29] We wanted the girls.
Speaker 1:
[37:29] Y'all had all the girls.
Speaker 2:
[37:30] That's all we wanted.
Speaker 1:
[37:31] Greedy, asses.
Speaker 2:
[37:33] That's all we wanted.
Speaker 1:
[37:38] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mission accomplished. Congratulations.
Speaker 2:
[37:41] Asking, you shall receive. Yeah, right.
Speaker 1:
[37:47] Because boy, I ain't going to lie, it was a little hate. Had a little hate, you know what I'm saying? Because the girl I liked used to walk around school with a Michael Jackson button and a New Edition button. Macy's percent of like, that was it.
Speaker 2:
[38:02] They okay. They all right. You know, but me and my boys is more to emplaced than that. Right, right, right. More John Blake stuff. We finna come up.
Speaker 1:
[38:12] Right, right.
Speaker 2:
[38:14] We next. Watch how we do it when we get in the game. Yeah, we heard that a lot.
Speaker 1:
[38:18] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
[38:20] New Candy Boyz, getting off the bus. We heard all of it. Y'all just mad. We ain't doing good if y'all ain't mad.
Speaker 1:
[38:26] It's true. How about that? That's a bar right there. We're going to let that sit for a second.
Speaker 2:
[38:32] Right.
Speaker 1:
[38:32] And then we're going to move on with the conversation. Yeah, you're all over the place. Y'all getting all the girls doing arenas, TV, the whole nine yards and all was good. But then there was a shift to the point where Bobby got kicked out of the group. All right. Now, this is because we're all families. We could talk like this. There ain't nobody out to nobody. Bobby was effing up. All right. Okay, so.
Speaker 2:
[38:59] He wasn't showing up this time. He wasn't doing. This is being real.
Speaker 1:
[39:03] Okay.
Speaker 2:
[39:03] Now, he said it to the point that he eventually, because he could have came back to the group if he really wanted to. But at that point, Bobby had made his mind up. He was going to be a solo artist. He just wasn't into complying with all of the rules and the stuff that as New Edition, we had put on the table, you know? There was also a protocol. They came to when we was recording. We went in the studios and they was going off the Cooler Now voice, the Candy Girl voice. They want records. The producers wanted them to, you know, if we're writing a record for the Jacksons, I want Michael to say, I'm writing it with him. So they didn't even know what the other guys could really do. So he got tired of all of that stuff, man. So Bobby wasn't showing up to stuff like solid gold performances.
Speaker 1:
[39:44] Yeah, we had this conversation.
Speaker 2:
[39:45] Soul Train, major television before. He was just like in the bed when we got up that morning to go do this stuff. He was like, we got to go now. They got to Big Ol Beast, Khalil. One time we had to jump, we had the karate size Khalil. He was like, hey man, don't put your hands on my back because he took the table. We didn't know him like that. He flipped Bobby over and everything. He was like, hey, you're going too far. We started flying over and he's dumping us and getting us off his neck. He could kill us if he wanted to. But we like that, nah, you're going too far. We just came to wake him up. Dude, we don't know you like that.
Speaker 1:
[40:23] Yo, knock it off.
Speaker 2:
[40:24] You can't be swinging, you can't be touching our boy. He was flipping him up. He flipped him out the bed. He flipped the whole couch.
Speaker 1:
[40:30] Oh my God.
Speaker 2:
[40:31] And we was like, uh-uh. But it was that kind of stuff. It was coming to that, where after a while the management and the record company, everybody stopped and said, man, he's going to ruin y'all. Y'all got sponsorships and Disney's and stuff that want to work with y'all. Y'all can't be working with that. This dude is getting caught doing this, getting busted doing these things that kept happening. So the group came to a decision, saying, man, we got to make a decision.
Speaker 1:
[40:54] Okay, there was a vote.
Speaker 2:
[40:55] There was a vote.
Speaker 1:
[40:56] Who voted Bobby out?
Speaker 2:
[41:00] Well, as far as I know, it was everybody else. Because I had, me and Bobby was like this. Because we weren't in the room per se, and everybody raised their hand like they did in the thing. It kind of was going around individually. Somebody was stepping to everybody. And I believe there was one gathering at some point where everybody was in the room. I never really was for it. I just felt it was going to be too much backlash. We all started together. We need to just figure and work it out. And I talked to Bobby and his mom, Ms. Brown, and I was like, hey, listen, I'll make the stance. I ain't doing it if it's not all of us. And that would have been if it was Michael, Ronnie, Ricky, any other group members. I would have had the same position. It just don't feel right for me, man. This is the group. But when I stepped to Bobby and his mom, he's like, they already offered Bobby to make a move. Joe had already went to Boston to talk to Bobby about doing his own thing, and Bobby accepted it. So by the time he came back around for all of that type of stuff, he was like, Rez, I'm going for it, man. I want to do the solo thing. I said, you sure? He said, yes, and that was it. At that point, he had made his own decision up, to be honest with you, but it was forced. He already was kind of pushed out and was back in Boston trying to figure out what he was going to do next. And when Joe stepped to him, he figured out what that was. Because he still, like I said, he had the option to come back, but he didn't want to.
Speaker 1:
[42:29] And then there was four.
Speaker 2:
[42:30] Then there was four, bro.
Speaker 1:
[42:32] Y'all still make it hits, though.
Speaker 2:
[42:34] We kept it moving. We kept it moving. We had to do what we had to do. And it worked for a second, you know?
Speaker 1:
[42:41] Yeah, y'all still did your thing.
Speaker 2:
[42:42] Actually, the last album we did, Bobby was, as a force, Bobby was still there, right? No, he wasn't. Yeah, he was. The last album, before he left, he was working on the All 4 Love album. And he's singing on a couple of those tracks. And that was when he was, he started making the transition.
Speaker 1:
[43:01] I see, I see. So, four y'all ventured out, did y'all thing, and who decided or what decided that you guys wanted to add a member? And then once that came about as a two-part question, why Johnny?
Speaker 2:
[43:23] Bell Biv DeVoe, you can call him that now, decided they was going to add a new member. And it had nothing to do with Bobby. It was, I was working on that album, which was talking about earlier, that Living In The Dream project. And I'm just working on music, whether we can use it for the group, where I'm just venturing into writing and producing. Like, I loved it. I was doing that and creating music and poems and stuff before New Edition.
Speaker 1:
[43:44] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[43:45] With my uncles and by myself. So it was just one of those things that I was really adamant of, that I think we can come up with some fly stuff and just stop being writers and producers as well as artists. When they got wind of that project, somehow that turned into I'm leaving the group. Or I'm about to leave them behind. I'm going to start doing my own thing, which was never my intention. I never planned on leaving New Edition. Even if I had to drop doing the solo records and producing, I'm not leaving this for that. I wasn't trading one or all. It would be great to do them all at some point. That was my thing. It got to them that they didn't feel too good about that. And so they started looking back. They started looking into finding a new member. And so when they started thinking about it, we had toured and did shows with Johnny in the past. We were in, I can't remember where this is. I think it's Bahamas, something like that. We did the Talented Teens, Howe Jackson's Talented Teens. It was one of the first times we ran into Johnny. And then throughout our touring process, Johnny would pop up on some of the shows, come on the bus, say, what's up? We kick it. We became friends in that way. They just knew how much of a powerhouse he was. Figured if they was going to try to make that move and replace me, they was going to find somebody that was dope.
Speaker 1:
[45:17] Right, right.
Speaker 2:
[45:18] So they went and got Johnny. They brought that idea to Gerald Busby. Gerald Busby told them, because he told me, told them this at least, that I don't need a new edition without Ralph Tresvant. And so they had to figure it out, right? They came to Boston, to my house, and that's the scene that's kind of in, at that point I was offended. Like y'all try to replace me, man? Why would y'all, that's, that's cold, you know? I hope the major part is starting this whole thing, man. My blood, sweat and tears, I was just pissed.
Speaker 1:
[45:49] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[45:50] When they came to my house in Boston, I wasn't trying to hear all of that. Man, we need to get this and do that and this.
Speaker 1:
[45:54] Right.
Speaker 2:
[45:54] I said, man, keep it moving. Then I got a visit from Gerald and Louis Silas Jr. at the time.
Speaker 1:
[46:02] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[46:02] And they said, man, we need you to do the sound from him. If you do it, I'll make sure you're good. You can do the solo thing and all that stuff. Blah, blah, blah, we'll take care of it.
Speaker 1:
[46:11] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[46:12] And so that's how Johnny got in the group. But I still didn't know he was still going to be a part of the group. They just was asking me to come back.
Speaker 1:
[46:19] Right.
Speaker 2:
[46:20] So I said, okay, cool. Then they told me it was going to be bringing in Jimmy Jam and Charlie Lewis. Let's go.
Speaker 1:
[46:27] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[46:28] I'm all in now, right? Yeah. I fly to Minneapolis. And when I get to Minneapolis, we go in the studio and there's Johnny Gill, ready to record. It's like, what's this? You know?
Speaker 1:
[46:41] Wow.
Speaker 2:
[46:42] That's how I found out that they was trying to put him in the group.
Speaker 1:
[46:45] Hey, hey, what's up, y'all? I hope you enjoyed part one. Now, remember, if you want to check out part two, you got to join the On That Note Patreon community. So do it right now and you'll be able to see part two of what was going down. All right? See you there. Hey, y'all, and that was On That Note. Hope you guys enjoyed it. And if you did, here's a couple more videos for you to check out. Do not forget to like, comment, and subscribe.