As a child, sneaking a listen to Aretha Franklin's powerful voice through my bedroom door, I learned the true meaning of soul. This week, I'm honored to welcome Ms. Toni Green, a soul sensation whose music is steeped in the heritage of South Memphis. Her story takes us on a journey from the gospel-infused streets where she found her voice to the far-flung stages where she fought for and won international acclaim. Toni's narrative is an ode to jazz and gospel, and she shares how these genres, along with the rebellious spirit of musical greats like Aretha, carved her path in the soul music landscape.
There's something about the sweet taste of hometown recognition after a global standing ovation that Toni Green knows all too well. Toni's pursuit of her musical dreams took her from the skepticism of her Memphis roots to the applause of audiences in Algeria, Spain, Italy, and France. Our conversation is a heartfelt discussion about the resilience it takes to chase the spotlight and the bittersweet symphony that plays as an artist's life unfolds. It's a story of perseverance, the emotional highs of international success, and the deeply moving moment of local validation that brought him to tears.
Wrapping up our session, we take a closer look at the evolution of Southern Soul Music, transcending genre boundaries through the eyes of Toni, who has left an indelible mark on the scene. We shed light on the importance of authenticity and the challenges faced by artists to maintain their unique voices in an industry often inclined toward homogeneity. Thriving in a musical landscape that's constantly shifting, Toni's legacy serves as a beacon for up-and-coming musicians, teaching us that community support and empowerment can pave the way for careers that resonate with truth and leave a profound impact. Join us for this inspiring exchange that honors the profound legacy and the voices that shape the soul of music.
If your in the music industry- singer, songwriter, composer, indie, neo singer, rapper, country artist, promoter, manager, music lawyer or blues please email me to be a guest on my show at myguest@spit2dabeat.com I would love to hear your Spit about the Music Industry.
As a child, sneaking a listen to Aretha Franklin's powerful voice through my bedroom door, I learned the true meaning of soul. This week, I'm honored to welcome Ms. Toni Green, a soul sensation whose music is steeped in the heritage of South Memphis. Her story takes us on a journey from the gospel-infused streets where she found her voice to the far-flung stages where she fought for and won international acclaim. Toni's narrative is an ode to jazz and gospel, and she shares how these genres, along with the rebellious spirit of musical greats like Aretha, carved her path in the soul music landscape.
There's something about the sweet taste of hometown recognition after a global standing ovation that Toni Green knows all too well. Toni's pursuit of her musical dreams took her from the skepticism of her Memphis roots to the applause of audiences in Algeria, Spain, Italy, and France. Our conversation is a heartfelt discussion about the resilience it takes to chase the spotlight and the bittersweet symphony that plays as an artist's life unfolds. It's a story of perseverance, the emotional highs of international success, and the deeply moving moment of local validation that brought him to tears.
Wrapping up our session, we take a closer look at the evolution of Southern Soul Music, transcending genre boundaries through the eyes of Toni, who has left an indelible mark on the scene. We shed light on the importance of authenticity and the challenges faced by artists to maintain their unique voices in an industry often inclined toward homogeneity. Thriving in a musical landscape that's constantly shifting, Toni's legacy serves as a beacon for up-and-coming musicians, teaching us that community support and empowerment can pave the way for careers that resonate with truth and leave a profound impact. Join us for this inspiring exchange that honors the profound legacy and the voices that shape the soul of music.
If your in the music industry- singer, songwriter, composer, indie, neo singer, rapper, country artist, promoter, manager, music lawyer or blues please email me to be a guest on my show at myguest@spit2dabeat.com I would love to hear your Spit about the Music Industry.
visual effects air me.
Speaker 3:And welcome to spirit to the beat podcast. I'm your host, stacy aka Be unstoppable prayer. We are live in the studio on facebook and stacey be unstoppable prayer or stacey spirit to the beat prayer, you can definitely go on my youtube channel right now, subscribe, like and hit that notification bell. I really would appreciate it. And as stacey spirit to the beat on youtube, we are live and in full effect. I am so super excited today I got a legend in the building with me today and I just Can't wait to bring it on.
Speaker 3:But before I bring her on, I definitely want to thank my sponsors, all those who have donated to this podcast. We have made it possible for me to continue to do these shows, these episodes, each and every day and to bring you the most updated Content in the music and entertainment industry. Thank you so much for your support and let me give a special shout out to sanders cater Facility. Mr Sandner has been a tremendous Donator of this podcast. I really do appreciate you. Thank you so much and y'all continue to listen to the podcast, share it with your friends, family. We're on all social media platforms Spotify, amazon music, our hard radio and all platforms. Wherever you get your podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in today and again today, my very special guest I'm gonna bring on right now, ms Tony Graham, a letter introduce herself.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody, Hello Memphis and around the world. Hey, how you doing. I'm great to be here. I'm used to blessing.
Speaker 3:Good, good. Tell my audience, those who may not know you, a little bit about yourself, your history a little bit.
Speaker 2:Well, uh, where you when we started.
Speaker 3:I was uh growing up growing up.
Speaker 2:I grew up from, uh, the big area of south nephus. I'm a south nephus native of nephus, down in the dead of south, as they call it, and I came up around some of the greatest musicians and singers In the world. There were the barcays. I was surrounded by them, the mad lads surrounded by those people, the Tempries the newcomers call it Thomas Uh. Al Green came in uh, at high studios where I recorded as a kid, and with the great willy mitzvah my first CD was done with him. It's so much to say yeah, uh, but I came from south, uh, south side high school, okay, lincoln jr, hi, and All of my other friends went to boogity, washington and carva and all of that. So, um, I came up around the greatest of all greats. You know they were right there in my, in my neighborhood.
Speaker 3:Uh, your father was the musician in the home at the time. He was growing up and I was reading that he was the uh, more like it's a jazz right. He was a jazz music.
Speaker 2:He was actually. My father's voice was so silky smooth like he, um, his tones were like nat king cope, wow. So he had that real smooth jazz thing. So I'm actually a jazz singer.
Speaker 3:I grew up singing jazz before Anything that's right, I was gonna get into like, how did you go from the jazz to the blues, what? What influenced you to make that transition?
Speaker 2:Well see, on one side of the street was gospel, okay, the other side was r&b, so I could run back and forth.
Speaker 3:Hold on you talking about in your neighborhood in my neighborhood.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I lived on trig and florida at that time.
Speaker 2:So, across the street was the, was the uh gospel group, and then on my side of the street where I I lived, that they were like my grandmothers were sisters, you know. So that was going on all the time and they were like singing duwap, you know, without me, without musical instruments, and when they did get something and it was like um, um, the guitar, like the brass guitars and and the old fashioned keyboards, but Also was the duwap which was out, was without music. So our propellers, how I grew up to sing, and then my dad was a jazz singer. Okay, so I had a little bit of influence of everything, but I was a rebel, and being a rebel I liked. When I heard aretha franklin, I lost my mind, did you? Because I wanted to do that. So actually it was almost like I was going against the grain.
Speaker 3:So there was a forcing you to stay in the jazz, but when you heard aretha, no, no, they never.
Speaker 2:They never influenced me to do anything, but it was like I was coming out of the realm to do something else. As a matter of fact, I got my first whipping for for buying an Aretha Franklin CD, which I told her about that later on I I Went to wash dishes for this, this, this lady in the community, and at that time, cds or LPs $3.57.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and Of course we were poor and my mother was looking for me all day long. But I'm in there. This lady had me bent over like a slave. I didn't only wash dishes, I cleaned all the walls. Oh, you know whatever I'm saying to myself. This lady got me doing more than she said, but there's three dollars in some sense when she only gave me four dollars. Yeah, you know, yeah, but I knew I had just enough to buy that CD, which was a reason Franklin and my mother was looking for me all day long. So when she did get me, I got the spanking of my life. But I told her that I bought the CD of the album, the album, album, lp, and when I did, she she was not happy about it and but later on she teased me about it. She's the girl you know. We needed that money. I said, I know we did. She said but baby, I love you because my mother became my biggest fan.
Speaker 3:So how, making that trans? Well, I'm gonna say transition, but just accepting the type of music that you really want to sing after you hear a reathor Franklin? You did a lot of Before. Then you did a lot of backup singing for a lot of artists Isaac Hayes, so many other that you backed up. You started that way, so how was that part of your life?
Speaker 2:Actually you're half and halfway correct.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Actually I had my own group. My own groups consisted of my cousin which, who was Elvis ever at Hamburg, levera Broadnecks and Pat Love and then my brother see my mother back then.
Speaker 2:You remember they always had things in the backyard right right and it was always any kind of parties going on. Then if you were the singer, either people joined alone or they came along. I mean, it was just a community thing. So we were always commissioned to do something. So we eventually formed a group which ever at Hamburg, was my cousin, which was one of the best singers in the world. He passed on in the early 90s but he was the one that really influenced me to really sing. He and John Gary Williams of the mad lads. So I had no other alternative but to sing With them and I was like leave vocal most of the time. And then when I Isaac Hayes saw us, he wanted us to come along with him.
Speaker 2:Okay but you have to remember we had already recorded our first song, our first CD, our first record was done with the great Willie Mitchell. Okay, so he recorded my first song, which is boy, what have you done to my heart, my world, and which went on to do some great, some good things?
Speaker 3:How old were you at the time I was like 12 or 13?, really Wow.
Speaker 2:And to hear me sing that song now is just really. But that was. My musicians were Teenie.
Speaker 3:Hodges.
Speaker 2:Diva Hodges. John Hodges, you know I had Howard Grimes, I had all the best musicians always around me. Yeah, so they, you have to remember. They taught me, they made me sing correctly, mar Marville Thomas. He was a diction perfectionist because he wanted to hear the words whenever I sang they forgot that you was 12 or 13 at the time, Right Well they did, but I had this old spirit.
Speaker 2:Okay and I was very tough Because I was not. It was not gonna be hard to get, it was not gonna be easy to get to me. You couldn't get inside of me, still can't, because I still had that thing of that, that mother with sense. I'm older than what I really am. Like you say, you got a old soul old soul.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I was always stubborn to do and I knew what I wanted. So I designed all of our clothes, the steps, the music, everything I chose Because I wanted, I had a vision in my head and in my heart to do something. So I'm jumping all around this to bring you back to the core of what you asked me, and that is, and going from gospel to blues to now R&B jazz. My mother was in gospel, more so than anything, so mom wanted me to sing gospel too. Yeah, so I had everybody pulling at me. So I had to make up some of my mind to do what I wanted to do.
Speaker 3:Okay, wow, that's amazing story just in itself, from that time of 12, 13 years old. They decided what you want to do. I'll take a short break and we'll come back. We'll talk about your international travels.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:You're listening to Spit, to the Beat Podcast with your host, the one, the only Stacey B, unstoppable Per Year.
Speaker 3:Hey, this is Stacey, aka the Unstoppable Per Year with Spit to the Beat Podcast. Would you like to be my guest? If you're a singer, songwriter, musician, producer or promoter, give me a call at 901-341-6777 or email me at myguestsatspit2thebeatcom. And welcome back to Spit to the Beat Podcast. I'm your host, stacey, aka the Unstoppable Per Year. We are live in the studio and I'm joined with my very special guest, miss Tony Green, the legendary singer. She already dropped in on Jules and just to let you know that my podcast is all about educating in the music and entertainment industries and she has definitely given us a history lesson, so we're definitely going to tap in some more with her right now, as we talk a little bit about your international traveler and how did you? We talked earlier you said how you had to go abroad to be recognized, to be accepted, before you came back to the United States.
Speaker 2:Well, to be honest and just right I won't say real, but just right with you I had in the fifth grade. Our teachers asked all of us what was our aspirations, what did we want to do? And when it became my time I said I wanted to be an international recording artist. I wanted to travel all over the world. So my classmates all laughed at me they remind me of this right now, some of the ones who are still here and they tell me yeah, tony Green, yeah, you said you're going to be, and I see what you're doing right now. Let me get a little chance with you now. It ain't going to happen.
Speaker 3:All right, you can't like me now, there you go, right.
Speaker 2:But it's just something that was in me. I just wanted to do more. So when the music came to me and I remember coming back to Memphis and it was really, really hard my father had gotten sick and I needed to come I moved to Louisville, kentucky, from Memphis because it was just like everybody wanted to be a singer and everybody wanted to be on Bill Street, everybody wanted to be in the clubs. So when I came back to Memphis the doors were not open for me. Okay, and it was really hard and these were like my people that I grew up with and I'm like, I'm hurt, I'm shocked that I couldn't get in and these are the people that I welcome to my stage and they wouldn't let me in. And I'm going like, okay, now, what do I do now? So God gave me a vision to at that time to get a recording deal, but he didn't want me to just get it with anybody, so I he gave me the exact person to get it with. So I did so.
Speaker 2:From that point, people had heard about who I was when they would come to Memphis from overseas, but the basics of the people who were still doing something. And I get it. You know you're going to hold on to your role as long as you can, if you can. So I wasn't able to get in, but but the doors opened for me and I went overseas. And when I went over to overseas I made so low in money until, believe you me, you can even buy two-pace with it. Okay, wow.
Speaker 2:But I took a chance on doing something in order to build something to where I am now. Okay. So I worked my behind off to make sure that I was not going to be forgettable. So from that particular time in 2005 or six, I've been rolling. I hold my own ground. I have my own band, my own group. This is my second CD from international value and I'm just excited that they still receive me, and I hope that I have set precedence, for the other ones who want to go there Will aspire to do greater than me when they do go there.
Speaker 3:So where has been some of the places, the locations? Have you been?
Speaker 2:Wow. I have been to Algeria, which was such a phenomenal place to be because it's of our culture. I have been to Algeria, been to Spain. I just made my Wow. It was so great. This past year, this year, this year, I was in Milan, italy, which was at the Blue Note, and it's hard to get into the Blue Note. I have ventured to Paris, france, many, many, many times. I even lived there and, living in Paris, france, I was at New Morning, which was encompasses all the great jazz, blues, r&b, rap, everybody who's ever been big. But I've been there and God has blessed me to headline my own. I've been in some of the biggest arenas in the whole wide world, like the Roman amphitheater, where they were killing the lions and the gladiators and stuff and wrong, and wrong.
Speaker 2:And I've been there looking out and going like oh my goodness, and I've been in Greece.
Speaker 3:This little black girl from.
Speaker 2:South Memphis, all the way across the waters, wow. And you know, the greatest thing is, they understand your music.
Speaker 3:Yes, they do, they do.
Speaker 2:And they know your catalog better than the people here. They might not, they don't speak our language, but they know our music and they know the lyrics to the songs.
Speaker 3:They study us.
Speaker 2:They knew who my mama was. I'm serious, I believe it. My, my daddy, my mommy, my, you know everybody. As a matter of fact, they know who my sister is. It's Treesie Cummings. You want to see Treesie. You know they love her. You know because she's and she's. You know, treesie is my right hand, that's my baby sister. That threw you for a culture shock, didn't it? When they started asking them questions like I'm like really, really shocked that they knew so much. But this has been going on since 2005. And he keeps on blessing me. So, but let me tell you, stacey, when the doors here were closed on me, it was so hard for me because I wanted to be accepted by my own people here. Yes, so the other night, when that happened to me, I actually wept. I did because I didn't think that they really liked me here. So I, when I got in my car, I just pulled over to the side after I left the building and I wept because the people's response was so overwhelming.
Speaker 2:Yes, and to hear them, you know, calling out my name and knew who I was. And I'm going like thank you, God, you know, my living has not been in vain.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:And my doings and my work is showing over here.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I get it over there. I get standing in invasions. You know three and four times per my shows. They know who I am.
Speaker 3:But it's not like you're on the set. It's not like you're on the set.
Speaker 2:And you just want to be, don't you want to be in?
Speaker 3:place To know you. Yes, yes, you want somebody to be loved.
Speaker 2:You don't want. I'm not conky, I don't want them to. You know, just oh, Miss Tungray, I don't want you to worship me, but sometimes in my heart of hearts, I'd like to be accepted on programs and situations and things. But God said to me If this is not what I want you to be, then you don't do it, because you either have to choose is that where you want to be, or do you choose what I have for you? So I chose God. Okay, so sometime in choosing God, it's a hard journey.
Speaker 3:It's a hard, hard journey right, right, you know, takes in different directions a whole and it might not be what you want.
Speaker 2:You know, for every door that's been shed on me, I promise you God opens up doors. When I can't bring my rent telephone bill, I get a call from from juba, juba juba, from overseas, telling me I got chose or something will come about Because I chose God.
Speaker 3:It's not gonna be easy road when you travel to travel, when you choose God and I chose him and that's a good segue to my next question from you to Education point what you would tell artists that are trying to come up? Get their foot in in the door Either locally in the United States or brawl how to stay the course.
Speaker 2:It's not an easy job. To give you a quick scenario, I will. I went to a show once and the doors are. I mean I'm standing up there with all platinum oh, you can't miss, because I'm almost six feet, I'm five feet seven and a half, and all of these people on stage, I knew them and they did not acknowledge me not one time. Wow, I felt some kind of way and I left there and I call my best friend, lucille Katrin, who owns Daisy down on Bill Street, and she and I just very good friends and I went and she said, oh, baby's gonna be okay. But God came in and he said do you want what they have for you? That's why I got that little scenario. Do you want what they have for you, tony, or do you want what I have? Well, me being like everybody, go ahead.
Speaker 2:I Still was gonna be in that zone of the humanistic thing. Well, you know, no, but you know, I kind of want, I kind of thought that they would just like me a little, you know. And so he, I didn't hear no more from God. Hmm until he came back that Tuesday, because I that was on a Saturday. He came back that Tuesday said, go back. I Went back the next time.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:I had on all this other colors and stuff, and they still didn't acknowledge me. The Lord came to me again this is a true story, just like you. He said now, do you want what I have for you, or do you want what they have for you? This time I was smart enough to say Right, I want whatever you have for me, god. Yeah, whatever you have lined up for me now. When I did that, then I felt my wings Wow, we're in. Yeah, come up under my wings. I feel lifted up a thousand tons of whatever dropped off of me.
Speaker 2:You sent me back the third time. I didn't care if they called my name or not. See, I had to get boldly in Christ before they could understand what he had in me. See, they had. He had to condition me and said don't worry if they don't call your name, don't worry if you ain't on the stage. If I wanted you to be there, you'd be there, right? I want them to call your name, you would, right? I got another journey, another path for you to travel. Now you need to understand who I am. So when I did that, god came in and he got me.
Speaker 2:In the same breath I had gone to another prominent radio station. They had black ball me because I was friends with another radio, jock and whatever, and they didn't want me on that station. That same day Algeria called and said I want you here, flew you all flew me over, yes, and the money that I made was triple the amount of money that anybody that was on this took care of all your expenses.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay so I got that money. I got that going to Algeria when I got over. There was such a spiritual place because Algeria is our home. Yeah, yeah this is a birth of where the Christians and the Muslims had the war, the Great War, the spiritual, the spiritual thing that was there was unbelievable. It was so thick.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'd never been there in my life, but they were calling out and shouting my name. They knew I was. But I'm just saying they didn't want to play me on that particular station. But God Put me at number 14 All over the world on the greatest radio station in the whole entire universe, that is, the BBC. Don't play with me. Okay yeah, won't he do it?
Speaker 2:He will he will he took me from this. That was on the plan. Maybe fifty six, a thousand watts to all over the world. You hear me, you know you speaking to me too. Hey, I'm trying to, okay, and he let me know.
Speaker 2:Don't you worry, yeah, about what they say and what they think about you. Step out into your zone, be you who you gonna be. You know you. If I'm not I've never been a Conkey person with diva, because that's just not my stance. I don't run like that. But you're very confident. But I hold my presence, yes, in the Lord. I don't hold my presence in me. Oh, my presence and what he's given me. So I ain't worried about what you think about me. Yeah, be a man, woman, dog, a cat. See it on work, you don't bother me. And I walk in. I walk in with the, but I didn't always have it. Every now, then, I have. My spirit has been almost broken all the way down from what I had a boyfriend or a friend, girl or or even family but I never got so far down that God wasn't right there to pull me right back up and get me back on track.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah because it's gonna happen.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, that's. That's amazing within itself. I'm taking another short break. Won't come back. I want to talk a little bit about your first LP he did in 1998 Mix emotional. Okay, okay, okay, go on, talk about them.
Speaker 3:Thank you and welcome back to spit, to the beat podcast. I'm your host, stacy aka be unstoppable prayer, and I'm joined in the studio with my very special guest, miss Tony green, and she is I'm sure you all that I they're listening right now live definitely getting a wealth of information about the music industry and Personally about her life and her testimonies and her, her walk with God. I would say she's ministering to me as well in the situation that I am. So I know the God is good and you stay on his side and with him He'll take you beyond that no man can ever imagine. Come on, they can take you. So I want to thank her for being in the studio with me and we're gonna talk a little bit more now. We're gonna talk a little bit about her first LP you did in 1998 Mix emotion. How did that project come about and what did it take to make it happen?
Speaker 2:The project was a little bit about what I started telling you about when I came back to Memphis from Louisville, kentucky, and I knew everybody and I couldn't. The avenues were not open for me to perform, everybody kind of closed when it let me in and it was just closed doors on me.
Speaker 2:So the Lord came to me and spoke to me about going to get a deal. So I got a deal with a gentleman by the name of Quentin Clunch who was with Go Wax Records and I, you know God directed me to him because he had James Carr at the time. He had had James Carr and he had done some great things overseas and all over the world with his label Go Wax and he talked to me about going there. But as being with Go Wax, I read the book of this law of business.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:He had it in his library and I asked if I could read it and he allowed me to read it, but I read it.
Speaker 2:But Quinn was very prolific in talking with Willie Mitchell, which, mind you, this was gonna be my second journey with Willie Mitchell because I recorded with him when I was 12 or 13 years old, so he automatically knew me and at the time William with the mad last I can't even think of his last name, he's gonna get me or he's passed on now but he was one of the producers there and so we came up with this mixed emotion CD which I wrote most of the songs on there, and Quinn Clutch was the producer. So that was like the entry, the entrance to the blues segment of my life.
Speaker 3:Okay, that where it came in at.
Speaker 2:And I wasn't too familiar with the blues. Just to tell you the truth, I didn't like the blues. I ain't gonna tell you a story. I did not like the blues. I didn't feel like it fit me, but I was smart enough to know sometimes you gotta touch upon things to get to some things. So I did that and I think it still didn't get much work because you have to remember I'm a R&B jazz, blues, gospel opera.
Speaker 2:I have to tell you about that part of my life, the opera, operatic thing. You don't have the scholarship to go to sing opera because I have seven octaves and I had. I saw they didn't know what to do with me Down here in the dirty south.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'm trying to approach the blues the best that I know in my ear and my thought pattern Even in between. There, before I got there, was Gene Bodex Miller who had also recorded me. I forgot all about that. He recorded me as people of rice and reminded me Saturday about that. I had all of these great things that happened for me but it just wasn't time to do.
Speaker 3:But so the mixed thing Did you?
Speaker 2:feel that you were like a head of your time. I know I was and I still feel like I'm ahead of my time, but I had to learn to embrace it and don't worry about it now. But I guess it almost comes and I'm almost a thousand years old and it gives me the opportunity to still tell somebody young don't be afraid to embrace who you are. Don't be afraid if you have different guitar licks, if you have a different drum beat, if you have different vocals, don't be afraid, just jump into it. I was always ahead of my time and I like that. That's why, even having a boyfriend, he has to understand who I am. That's right.
Speaker 2:He has to understand. I'm a head of my hey get with here. You got to understand.
Speaker 3:Right, give it to the program. Yeah, come on, come on, there you go Get up or be left out.
Speaker 2:I'm just making y'all laugh, but the point that I'm making is that the mixed emotion album was the one that set a precedence for me to be and to do what I'm doing now.
Speaker 3:Amazing, amazing. That's awesome. Look, what do you think about these? We're gonna touch a little bit on the opera. I'm gonna come back to that. What do you think about the new Southern Blues that's out now? It's like Blues has taken another, not another direction, but another title to it. What do you think about that? You hear the songs on the radio.
Speaker 2:Southern Soul Music. Believe it or not, I'm gonna make a laugh. You know I started that, don't you?
Speaker 3:Oh, did you.
Speaker 2:I did. I have a song called Southern Soul Music. If you go back and look at one of my CDs you'll see Southern Soul Music is what I started. But I never felt that honestly. So to just tell you now I can't feel it. I mean.
Speaker 3:I'm just being honest.
Speaker 2:I love the artists, whoever you may be, don't get offended. I love every last one of you, but I need to hear something that makes me wanna just think about it later that night, that make me wanna come to your concerts, that make me wanna spend the 16, 15, 30, $100, whatever. That makes me wanna really get into you. The emulation of emulating is getting to be a little taxing for me. Okay, I'm probably gonna get really thrown some rocks at, but who cares?
Speaker 2:The point that I will make keep on being you, but get back to the basics of where your soul is. Yes, see, cause can't nobody take from your soul what God has placed in there? If Southern Soul Music is it, dig in a little deeper and make it something that people can remember you by. I don't wanna be a novelist. I don't wanna just have something called my booty was shaking and whatever and it dropped on the floor. I don't wanna do that because I have grandkids and I have kids who will think about me later on, and I think every artist should always remember this is gonna follow you for all of your days. This is a catalog, so I think that when they realized you put me a stamp on this thing, just be careful.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, am I making sense? You're making a whole lot of sense, whole lot of sense. Let's jump back right. Well, I talked about the opera. Okay, let's go into that. You say you got seven octaves, so how'd the?
Speaker 2:opera come. The opera was I had a teacher by the name of Charlotte Pope who was at Carver High School and then Southside, and every year we would go to participate in the Northwest and the Southwest chorus. To be able to get in that you had to be your voice, had to be whatever, you had to sing acapella or with accompanist and at that time a lot of people who were Anglo-Saxon were really receiving us as much. But she pushed for us at that particular time, for the blacks to really get in there and really show that we do have the credentials to be able to sing. With that, scholarships were given, as well as recognition, you know, acknowledgement, and I was given the opportunity because I had this little first soprano that was going on really first, first, first soprano.
Speaker 2:Okay, and I honed it because every day I would practice so my and honing it, you know. Naturally my octets became stronger and I went up to the octets, you know, three, four, five, six, seven or whatever. On a good day when I'm rested, I can do it now because I'm so much older. But it came and I had a scholarship to go to Louisville. I mean, what is Lamon College? What's going on in college? But I wanted to be the hard head when then go with Isaac Hayes, so that kind of deferred deterred me from doing what would have. Probably. I wouldn't say that I would be like Lea Tyn Price, you know, or any of the other greats, but I will say that I'd probably hung in there and did it if I wanted to, but it gave me an insight on dictionality and even critiquing the vocals that are out there now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, you're definitely gonna be a great teacher once you decide to settle down and teach music.
Speaker 2:I'd love to embrace. When I hear other singers, I have to be careful because I'm still in that mode of what I hear and my ears can be. You know, my ears were being quickly but I tried not to be so critical of anybody, and not unless they come and say Miss Tony, I want you to teach me. If you're in my class and I'm teaching you, then that's when I critique you, you know. But I'm not gonna go to a show and go like, oh, he just sing the wrong note or she was the wrong note or she didn't have one. I don't do that, you know, because I'm supportive.
Speaker 3:That's great. What was your final question? You wanted to talk to the people. What would you say? Musically wise, how do people need to approach their career in it? Or anything else you would like to share personally?
Speaker 2:I can say. First of all, what's in my heart is that If we is a nation of people, nation, be black, brown or whatever color, if we can be more supportive and stop, let me say, being territorial, blocking each other and hurting each other, and be more Supportive like some of the other races, and I think we'll get, we would get a Lot further. Especially down here, the southern soul music, blues don't get the props as R&B or rap or whatever and other parts of the country. Yes, with the Lewis paid. Yes, I pay has not risen. The, the blues artists that have been out there for a while and just now getting 15 and 20 thousand dollars After they've been in the business umpteen years. Right, that's a unfair concession number one.
Speaker 2:Here in Memphis alone, we don't have the backing from the community or the or the city period to get in and dig in with us. So most of us don't have anything to expand or to expound upon with our talents. You know, because we are all huddled against each other. Bilstry for one, that's not paying anybody. You got to do ten shows in order to get to split $35 a month.
Speaker 2:People, that's not fair. Yeah, you know, these people are working hard to have families and Things to do, you know, with their personal lives and other bit and other expenses. My thing, my heart, has always been an advocate for us and I think, until we all start to advocate for each other, be supportive. Don't hate on you because you're doing what you're doing Right. Get with you and find out what you can do to help you, because if you already have a Foundation, find out what you can do to make sure that that that expands, instead of coming in and trying to destroy it. Get with me, I'm a senior citizen. Well, let me say not senior citizen, I'll say very refined.
Speaker 3:There you go, there you go, yes.
Speaker 2:Don't dislike me because I walk in the building. I might have something that you might need. Yes, and I might have a story to tell so the doors can open for you. Yes, get with me and hold me up so that I can hold you up right.
Speaker 2:Whoever's out there in the, in the front forefront, I think we should get in and support them If they're doing all the right things and doing all the great things according to Christ. Now I'm not saying you ain't got to kiss nobody behind, cuz I ain't asking you to kiss my. Yes, support your people. But if the city does not want to do it, you must get in there and dig in to let the city know that we are viable thing, because I represent the city all over the world.
Speaker 2:This Memphis thing when I step on the stage, just because I'm from Memphis, they already received me, but I need Other folks to receive me and I, as I receive. Then we need to receive each other. Let me just say that about that. So I think that the community of musicians, be you rap, gospel, r&b, whatever you are, country now, would be on, say, opening and expounding upon this great thing that she did. Do you know? I was offered a contract to do something. I was too scared Because I didn't want them do items. I was afraid of the rejection Back in the 70s, 60s, oh no right right.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I was just too afraid I was gonna get rocks and beer cans and everything Bob's thrown at me. But we have to get in and stop being so critical of each other and and start being supportive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, except that a support each other, find out what I know, what. What made me work? How did she get in there? How did he get in there? What happened? How can I back? Can I Find their recipe and and and emulate some of their recipe? Yes, how can I get with them and be supportive, not hating? So I think until we get that in our hearts and our heads, we are not going to excel. I think we're gonna be dead in the water here, but we must learn how to do it.
Speaker 3:I Want to thank you for being on this show. Thank you, educate. I think we're gonna do a part too. I think, though, a Miriam she was posted out put our comment up. Wait, let me say this, not Miriam, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 2:My girl, miriam. I love you first and foremost Because you took a chance to believe in me. You pushed me in there. You gonna make sure mr Stacey saw me and heard me or else, but the fact is that her heart is so good and she wanted to do something. That's what I mean. Well, you got people like Miriam yourself. Yes, this show, you know it, gives the other foundation or the forum for people like me who are not heard here in the States To be heard, and given another Foundation to work upon and build upon. See, our building is your building. Yes, we can build together.
Speaker 3:There you go.
Speaker 2:And that's what it's all about. But, miriam, I love you, my sister Tresia, I love you, stacey, I love you and all those who believe in this music thing and Memphis and Tony Green and even this podcast. I want you to make sure that you keep on, keep on, just stay tuning in.
Speaker 3:There you have. Thank you so much for being on the podcast and I said, yeah, we never gonna do a part to a two. Come on, but I got kids when you come back.
Speaker 2:No, I guess me when I come back. We'll be gone again. I'm gonna be gone, I'm going to re on Rion France and I go to Dijon like mustard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, france and then I go to reunion. I come back and I go to reunion, which is Madda gas car, the island. Okay, so I'll be in between, I'll come back and then I'll go back again and then I've got then my. Actually, that's when everything starts to come together every, all of the festivals, all of the clubs, all the everything overseas. That's what I do every year. That is my, but I love my hometown of Memphis. Yes, I want to be here and I want to when I go over there. I'm supporting you. Please support me and keep me in your prayers as I travel those roads and highways.
Speaker 3:Look, you know, I said thank you for coming on the show and in between time you're traveling. Whatever we're gonna make part two Happy, good.
Speaker 2:Just let me know yeah, got me. Yeah, love you, memphis.
Speaker 3:All right, All right. There you have it. Memphis Queen Tony green on spit to the beat podcast. Thank you so much Again. I want to appreciate everyone who's tuning in and definitely don't forget to watch. We are producing live episode each week a spit to the beat podcast. So thank you again for tuning in and God bless you.
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