# Music Icon: He shares real-world lessons from a 40+ year entertainment career. Highlight professional preparation, mindset, and integrity.

An episode of [Money Making Conversations Master Class](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1264705641), 26 Apr 2026, 33 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/b1db7263-d1a3-4d00-8976-af62012aab44/541fe675-5e5d-4e82-bd05-b40c01521cea/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=35a10561-3e1b-4d05-a529-af62012aab6a

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Howard Hewett. Legendary R&B vocalist and former frontman of Shalamar—joins Rushion McDonald to reflect on his early career, his rise through the music industry, and the philosophy that fueled his longevity. Hewett recounts growing up in Akron, Ohio, his early professional singing experiences, and ultimately his path to Los Angeles where he worked in show groups before joining Shalamar. A large portion of the discussion focuses on preparation, visualization, integrity, and being ready when opportunities show up. Hewett reveals the remarkable story of how he joined Shalamar: a surprise phone call during a tense meeting at the Motown building, followed by an audition the next day, a flight to meet the group, and a TV performance within 72 hours. The interview blends career storytelling, business lessons, and personal philosophy—making it valuable for creatives, entrepreneurs, and anyone pursuing long-term success. 🎯 Purpose of the Interview Rushion McDonald brings Hewett on to: • Share real-world lessons from a 40+ year entertainment career. • Highlight professional preparation, mindset, and integrity as keys to sustained success. • Inspire listeners to embrace vision, self-belief, and business readiness—especially small business owners and creatives. • Pull back the curtain on the origin story of Shalamar's most iconic lineup and Hewett’s personal development journey. This episode is crafted as both an inspirational masterclass and a historical narrative. 💡 Key Takeaways 1. Preparation is the difference-maker Hewett emphasizes that being in the right place is useless unless you’re prepared. His decades of singing before Shalamar prepared him for the moment he had to sing on the spot for Dick Griffey. Lesson: Preparation turns chance into opportunity. 2. Visualization is a powerful tool After moving to California, Hewett meditated and visualized every day by the pool—imagining performing for audiences of thousands and negotiating high-paying gigs. Lesson: Vision boards and mental rehearsal help create your future. 3. Integrity is a non-negotiable asset Even when offered the biggest opportunity of his life (joining Shalamar), Hewett insisted on giving Motown a chance to fix their mistake because he gave them his word. Lesson: Integrity strengthens your reputation more than any contract. 4. Career breakthroughs come fast—when you’re ready Within three days: • Friday: received offer from Shalamar • Saturday: auditioned for Dick Griffey • Sunday: rehearsed • Monday: filmed a TV performance Lesson: Momentum happens suddenly, but only to the prepared. 5. Value of small beginnings From gospel singing at 10 to small clubs, to overseas show groups—every stage built foundation and resilience. Lesson: Don’t despise early stages; they prepare you for later success. 6. The music industry requires adaptability & consistency Hewett’s story shows how artists must navigate gigs, shaky contracts, and unreliable companies—but maintain professionalism. Lesson: Talent opens the door; discipline keeps you in the room. 🗣️ Notable Quotes (From the Transcript) On professionalism: • “You're professional when you can sustain yourself… when this is how you pay your bills.” On visualization: • “Every day… I would go down to the pool and just visualize what I wanted to do.” • “I visualize singing in front of thousands of…

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Welcome to my show.
[0:01] Speaker 2: I'm Rashon McDonald, a host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
[0:04] Speaker 2: where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
[0:07] Speaker 2: stories and start planning your own.
[0:09] Speaker 3: Now.
[0:10] Speaker 2: You don't want to miss an episode, so please take
[0:12] Speaker 2: a moment right now to follow or subscribe to Money
[0:14] Speaker 2: Making Conversations Masterclass.
[0:16] Speaker 1: It's free.
[0:17] Speaker 2: You can follow me on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
[0:21] Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your podcast. New Money Making
[0:24] Speaker 2: Conversations Masterclass episodes drop daily. I want to keep you
[0:28] Speaker 2: on alert because my guests provide tips on how you
[0:30] Speaker 2: can uplift your community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or
[0:34] Speaker 2: advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Now, let's
[0:38] Speaker 2: get this podcast started. My next guest is entertainment career
[0:42] Speaker 2: spans more than four decades. Known for his smooth tenor
[0:45] Speaker 2: and emotional delivery, his voice remains one of the most recognizable.
[0:49] Speaker 1: In R and B and soul music history.
[0:52] Speaker 2: He captivates audiences worldwide performing with Shallamar We Got to
[0:56] Speaker 2: Talk About That and as a solo artist, thus bringing
[0:59] Speaker 2: fans the best of both worlds, the group's iconic classics
[1:02] Speaker 2: and his timeless solo hits. We would discuss his timeless
[1:06] Speaker 2: career and get some tips or advice on surviving the
[1:09] Speaker 2: entertainment industry as a small business owner. Please Walking the
[1:13] Speaker 2: Money Making Conversations master Class. My friend Howard Hewitt, Man,
[1:18] Speaker 2: how you doing.
[1:18] Speaker 3: It's good seeing always good seeing you, man. It's been
[1:22] Speaker 3: a long time, though, to make sure that won't happen again.
[1:28] Speaker 1: Because I was I was joking with what I was doing.
[1:30] Speaker 2: I used to do be Tea's Comic View and every
[1:33] Speaker 2: time they needed somebody just to round the rout of
[1:36] Speaker 2: the crowd, get the women all fired up, Howard.
[1:38] Speaker 1: You would just walk on stage.
[1:40] Speaker 3: Man.
[1:41] Speaker 2: We just have some magical major personality has always been magical,
[1:45] Speaker 2: Howard talking to us about that, you know, I mean,
[1:48] Speaker 2: I don't know, man.
[1:49] Speaker 3: Is I just thank God every day? You know? It's
[1:51] Speaker 3: like you the things that when I first started out,
[1:56] Speaker 3: this is all I've been doing. We were talking earlier
[1:59] Speaker 3: about the business right, longevity, longevity, and I mean I've
[2:05] Speaker 3: been doing this since I was literally there's two concepts
[2:09] Speaker 3: as far as like professionals concerned. Like I've always looked at.
[2:13] Speaker 3: One concept is your professional when you make your first dollar, right,
[2:17] Speaker 3: you know, well, I know people that made a dollar
[2:21] Speaker 3: and then they waited tables for about ten years and
[2:23] Speaker 3: they made another dollar. Now is that professional? I don't know.
[2:27] Speaker 3: Another concept I look at is when you can sustain
[2:31] Speaker 3: yourself when you are when this is how you pay
[2:35] Speaker 3: your bills, This is how you take care of your family,
[2:38] Speaker 3: This is how you take care are your responsibilities since that,
[2:42] Speaker 3: I think I was about twenty one or twenty two
[2:45] Speaker 3: when that when that started happening because I got I
[2:50] Speaker 3: got with the group. I was with a group before
[2:53] Speaker 3: Slamara and it was a show group. You know, I'm
[2:56] Speaker 3: making two fifty three hundred bucks a year a week
[3:00] Speaker 3: rather and you know, it was a show group, top
[3:05] Speaker 3: forty stuff. But we spent all our time. All of
[3:09] Speaker 3: our gigs were overseas. So was I was, Well, you're
[3:12] Speaker 3: originally from originally from Ohio, Akron, Ohio and born and raised.
[3:18] Speaker 3: And I left there. I think when I was twenty
[3:21] Speaker 3: years old. I was talking about that just earlier touchdown
[3:26] Speaker 3: I touched. I went to California and went straight to California, Wow,
[3:29] Speaker 3: because my cousin was out there. So my cousin called
[3:32] Speaker 3: me says, oh man, come on out. You know I
[3:37] Speaker 3: just met a girl. She has a two bedroom apartment
[3:40] Speaker 3: in her roommate. I love you so like, you know,
[3:45] Speaker 3: twenty years old, you know, I jump up, I go there.
[3:49] Speaker 3: I go to you know, California. And I hadn't been
[3:53] Speaker 3: to California since I was eight years old. Okay, yeah,
[3:57] Speaker 3: but my dad, my dad, powered I have four older
[4:00] Speaker 3: sister and younger brother. My brother is about three years
[4:03] Speaker 3: younger than me, and he piled all of us, my sisters,
[4:08] Speaker 3: my brother, my mom, and his sister. My aunt I
[4:12] Speaker 3: had got restless, so she passed away some time ago,
[4:15] Speaker 3: and he piled all of us in the car and
[4:18] Speaker 3: we took across country trips from Ohio to California. It
[4:22] Speaker 3: took us forever to get out there because.
[4:25] Speaker 1: With this time, did you drive a fly? Well, you
[4:28] Speaker 1: went down when you were twenty.
[4:30] Speaker 3: When I was, I flew. I'm not driving. When I
[4:33] Speaker 3: was twenty, I flew, but like got there and when
[4:38] Speaker 3: we went and when I was eight years old, we
[4:41] Speaker 3: spent like ten days out there and visiting my uncle,
[4:45] Speaker 3: my mom's brother, and came back went back to Ohio.
[4:49] Speaker 3: And from that time I said, I mean literally, I
[4:53] Speaker 3: always said I'm going to live in California. Wo I'm
[4:57] Speaker 3: gonna live in California. Never went back until on my
[5:00] Speaker 3: cousin called, and it.
[5:02] Speaker 1: Was you know, but it was always in your mind.
[5:05] Speaker 3: It was always in my mind, and that was my
[5:08] Speaker 3: you know. But like I said, I've always I've sung since,
[5:11] Speaker 3: I mean professionally, whichever concept you want to you wanna
[5:16] Speaker 3: take on, uh, since I was ten years old, and
[5:20] Speaker 3: I mean I used to seriously and we I had
[5:24] Speaker 3: a in twelfth grade in high school, I had a
[5:29] Speaker 3: last period study hall. So if I didn't have anything
[5:33] Speaker 3: I had to do during that study hall, I would
[5:37] Speaker 3: sit there literally and say, love, Howard Hewitt, most best, best,
[5:44] Speaker 3: always Howard sign Steve Harvey does that, yeah, you know.
[5:48] Speaker 2: He would always practice his signature always, and I would say,
[5:51] Speaker 2: he said, he said, because I'm gonna sign a lot
[5:53] Speaker 2: of things.
[5:54] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[5:54] Speaker 2: That was so you was creating your vision board, a
[5:56] Speaker 2: word that wasn't used back They were vision boards. Yeah,
[5:59] Speaker 2: you said, CALIFORNI, Oh yeah, practicing your signature love and
[6:02] Speaker 2: all that stuff, which means you were set in the stage.
[6:05] Speaker 2: Some people might say that was silly, but you was
[6:07] Speaker 2: so instilled in you this is what you was going
[6:10] Speaker 2: to do.
[6:10] Speaker 3: It's visualizing, you know, visualizing, I remember, and meditation, right,
[6:16] Speaker 3: very important. I remember first getting out. When I first
[6:20] Speaker 3: got out to California, one of the places where I
[6:24] Speaker 3: stayed was with my cousin and my uncle and his dad,
[6:28] Speaker 3: my uncle Joe, and he had this one bedroom apartment
[6:32] Speaker 3: in this in this about two hundred and fifty three
[6:36] Speaker 3: hundred unit buildings, you know, And he would get up
[6:39] Speaker 3: every morning. Every morning he got up and went to work,
[6:42] Speaker 3: you know, he worked construction. So at five o'clock in
[6:45] Speaker 3: the morning he was gone and then but and most
[6:48] Speaker 3: of the of the complex, it was a working building, right,
[6:52] Speaker 3: so most of the people in the complex had a
[6:54] Speaker 3: nine to five. So like that meant that in the afternoons,
[6:59] Speaker 3: everything was clear. With the apartment. We had overlooked the
[7:03] Speaker 3: little pool that they had community pool, so nobody was there.
[7:08] Speaker 3: So every day, basically every day at twelve twelve, twelve
[7:13] Speaker 3: thirty somewhere around there, I would go down to the
[7:16] Speaker 3: pool and I would just sit on the side because
[7:18] Speaker 3: I didn't know how to swim at the time, so
[7:20] Speaker 3: I wasn't jumping in the pool anyway, so like you know,
[7:24] Speaker 3: but I would sit on the side and just visualize,
[7:30] Speaker 3: just meditate and visualize what I wanted to do. I'd
[7:35] Speaker 3: visualize singing in front of thousands of people. I even
[7:39] Speaker 3: got it down to the point one time. One scenario
[7:43] Speaker 3: I had in my head was I was at my
[7:45] Speaker 3: mom's house and I'm just visualizing. No, I don't want
[7:50] Speaker 3: to do it for fifty thousand, now now I get sixty,
[7:53] Speaker 3: or I'm not doing it. You know what I'm saying,
[7:55] Speaker 3: and those type of things, and I would you know,
[8:00] Speaker 3: that would be my daily you know route, Yeah, routine.
[8:05] Speaker 3: I go down there every day about twelve twelve thirty
[8:09] Speaker 3: and I just sit there for about an hour and
[8:12] Speaker 3: just you know, visualize what I wanted to do.
[8:15] Speaker 2: That's important because I wanted to bring you on the
[8:17] Speaker 2: show to talk about those techniques, those tips, and you're
[8:20] Speaker 2: talking about Rashwan. Look, despite I didn't see where I
[8:25] Speaker 2: was going, but I knew that inside of me. I
[8:27] Speaker 2: wanted to be prepared when the opportunities presented it so
[8:31] Speaker 2: you would be overwhelmed.
[8:32] Speaker 3: Correct. Correct? I mean is because I would do a
[8:37] Speaker 3: thing and when I would tell the story as far
[8:40] Speaker 3: as like which we'll probably get into, as far as
[8:42] Speaker 3: like the offer the beginning of Shallamar lets talk about that? Yeah,
[8:48] Speaker 3: but I got an offer talking to Howard Hewitt. Yeah,
[8:52] Speaker 3: I was doing like I when I first got out
[8:56] Speaker 3: to LA. Got to go back to when I first
[8:59] Speaker 3: got out to LA. The month before after I got
[9:01] Speaker 3: out out there, I connected with uh, this cat John
[9:06] Speaker 3: Daniels and his brother Alonzo Daniels. They owned this club
[9:11] Speaker 3: in the Crenshall district called called Mavericks Flat, right, and
[9:16] Speaker 3: so Mavericks stand up comedy basically Richard, Richard Richie Mavericks
[9:24] Speaker 3: out there Mavericks Flats. Uh. You would look out there
[9:27] Speaker 3: sometimes you see Lionel Richie's sitting out there, Shaka Khan.
[9:31] Speaker 3: And they never sold liquor because they never had a liquor,
[9:35] Speaker 3: like absolutely, you know. But they they made these fruit
[9:38] Speaker 3: smoothie drinks and stuff, you know, so but that didn't
[9:41] Speaker 3: do it. They had some of the finest women that
[9:43] Speaker 3: would come to beautiful, beautiful women and uh, and then
[9:47] Speaker 3: you know all the people everybody used to come come
[9:50] Speaker 3: hang out. And so like I started, I connected my
[9:56] Speaker 3: cousin and I went down there because this cat that
[9:58] Speaker 3: played bass for this group that was from Ohio at
[10:02] Speaker 3: back in the day. They went to California, but then
[10:05] Speaker 3: they broke up to give you an idea about as
[10:08] Speaker 3: far as Ohio was concerned, the type of situation we
[10:11] Speaker 3: used to do. All kinds of talent would come up
[10:15] Speaker 3: in Ohio, but we never had that outlet that we
[10:20] Speaker 3: could see. You never had the record companies that we
[10:24] Speaker 3: could see. So people would come up and you know,
[10:27] Speaker 3: groups would would form and they'd be cold blooded groups,
[10:31] Speaker 3: cold I mean, just talented. But then they break up
[10:34] Speaker 3: because you couldn't see, you couldn't see where you were
[10:38] Speaker 3: you were taking it. But then but as far as
[10:42] Speaker 3: there was a group there called my group back in
[10:44] Speaker 3: Ohio was called Life, I spelled it l y f E,
[10:48] Speaker 3: So Life Jennings when the first captain did there, we
[10:52] Speaker 3: did that back in the seventies, l y and so
[10:56] Speaker 3: we we were like protege of this other group called
[11:01] Speaker 3: Revelation Funk and Revelation Funk to tell you, to show
[11:06] Speaker 3: you what the talent caliber talent, it was like the
[11:10] Speaker 3: Revelation Funk had a keyboard player that only played keyboards
[11:14] Speaker 3: and only sang background because he didn't consider himself a
[11:18] Speaker 3: lead singer. His name was James Ingram. Okay, very good, yeah, man, man, James.
[11:25] Speaker 3: He was He was like my big brother you know,
[11:28] Speaker 3: I met so, I met James when I was singer.
[11:31] Speaker 3: James considered himself a leasing They had a lead singer,
[11:34] Speaker 3: this cat named Bernard lost In who to this day James.
[11:38] Speaker 3: Before James passed away, we used to always say how
[11:41] Speaker 3: how Bernard Bernard could sing me and me and James
[11:45] Speaker 3: both out this door, out this building. That's how bad
[11:48] Speaker 3: this war was. So but we were like, we were
[11:51] Speaker 3: like revelation funk protegs. So, you know, I when I
[11:56] Speaker 3: got they came to California about a year before I
[12:00] Speaker 3: left him went to California. But they got to California
[12:03] Speaker 3: and they broke up right so different. A few of the
[12:08] Speaker 3: members went back to Akron, some of them stayed in California,
[12:11] Speaker 3: and James stayed in California. This guy h. T. Tucker
[12:16] Speaker 3: played base. He stayed in California. So I got in
[12:19] Speaker 3: touch with t first before I got in touch with James,
[12:23] Speaker 3: and I didn't even know I was there. He said,
[12:25] Speaker 3: Oh man, I'm rehearsing with this group called the Love
[12:27] Speaker 3: Machine seven seven women beautiful. I mean, just uh miss
[12:34] Speaker 3: who was it on Friday? Remember Friday, the movie Friday,
[12:39] Speaker 3: ice Cube and Chris Tucker and the lady that played
[12:43] Speaker 3: what was the Miss Parker. I think it was across
[12:46] Speaker 3: the street, across the street Water in the Grass.
[12:48] Speaker 1: Already called the Chief Matt, Yeah, that was.
[12:53] Speaker 3: She was in the Level Kathleen Kathleen Bradley, right, and
[12:56] Speaker 3: she was one of the eventually one of the first
[12:59] Speaker 3: models from the Price is right, but she was in
[13:02] Speaker 3: the Lumba Shine, that's right. That's what she first started
[13:05] Speaker 3: out with, lum Machine. And so, like I said, Mavericks
[13:09] Speaker 3: was a club. All the soul trained people used to
[13:12] Speaker 3: come down there. All the people Richard and everybody used
[13:16] Speaker 3: to be in the audience and stuff. That's where I
[13:18] Speaker 3: first met Jeffrey and Jody before Shallamar even exists. Wow. Right,
[13:23] Speaker 3: So we uh, we went down me and my cousin.
[13:27] Speaker 3: My cousin and I went down there, you know, because
[13:29] Speaker 3: they were he said, they were rehearsing for this audition
[13:32] Speaker 3: they were going to do. So we go down there, man,
[13:35] Speaker 3: and and like we're sitting there watching the rehearsal and
[13:40] Speaker 3: John Daniels comes in, right, John Daniels, all those member
[13:44] Speaker 3: of those black exploitation movies back in the back in
[13:47] Speaker 3: the day. There was one called a couple. He did
[13:51] Speaker 3: a couple and one was called Black Sampoo. Yeah, John
[13:55] Speaker 3: Daniels was was the lead on Black Sampoo. And to say,
[13:59] Speaker 3: to give you an idea of John's his mentality, he
[14:04] Speaker 3: used to have a plaque on his desk and the
[14:08] Speaker 3: plaque said it's hard to be humble when you're as
[14:11] Speaker 3: great as I am. And he believed that stuff. Like
[14:16] Speaker 3: when John comes in, he's like looking at me and
[14:18] Speaker 3: my cousin like, who this is a this is a
[14:22] Speaker 3: closed rehearsal. Y'all know, you know you're not supposed to
[14:24] Speaker 3: be here. And then the girls were like, no, no, no,
[14:27] Speaker 3: let him stay. Let them stay, you know, you know
[14:29] Speaker 3: all this soul. He let us stay. But then we
[14:32] Speaker 3: started talking after after the rehearsal, men, John Daniels and
[14:36] Speaker 3: my cousin and we started talking and John and John
[14:40] Speaker 3: was saying, man, you know because they did show groups.
[14:44] Speaker 3: Ralph Johnson from Earth Wind and Fire, he was in
[14:47] Speaker 3: one of the show groups. He started out at Mavericks,
[14:50] Speaker 3: you know, Mavericks Flight as well. But all of their bookings,
[14:54] Speaker 3: like I said it was the booking agency was called
[14:56] Speaker 3: Maverick International, so all of their bookings were overseas. Wow.
[15:01] Speaker 3: So they would put together show groups, the Love Machine,
[15:05] Speaker 3: you know, seven chicks that they had all did top
[15:08] Speaker 3: forty stuff and they were all over the world everywhere,
[15:13] Speaker 3: the group that Ralph was with all over the world.
[15:16] Speaker 3: And so we started talking John Daniels, myself and my cousin.
[15:20] Speaker 3: We started talking and he says that he wanted to
[15:23] Speaker 3: put together a show group of a really classy show
[15:29] Speaker 3: group with two male singers and three female singers, and
[15:33] Speaker 3: he wanted to call it Beverly Hills. Okay, so that's
[15:37] Speaker 3: when we started working on the group. We put the
[15:40] Speaker 3: group together.
[15:41] Speaker 1: We eventually it was.
[15:43] Speaker 3: It was Beverly Hills. First, myself, this guy named Ralph
[15:46] Speaker 3: de Blanc, Robert of, ROBERTA. Patterson, Gwyn Briscoe, Deanna forget
[15:55] Speaker 3: her last name. But we put together this group and
[15:59] Speaker 3: we are first gig. And whenever we would we had
[16:03] Speaker 3: to show that we wanted to try out on a
[16:05] Speaker 3: on a on a live audience. We would play Mavericks
[16:09] Speaker 3: Friday and Saturday night.
[16:11] Speaker 1: It's about three hundred people.
[16:13] Speaker 2: I'm just telling everybody, Yeah, about about that, if that, if.
[16:17] Speaker 1: That's pushing that number. At the stage on one end,
[16:20] Speaker 1: you walk past the.
[16:21] Speaker 3: Stage and all of a sudden, you would walk up
[16:24] Speaker 3: these steps, and that little back area there Mavericks was
[16:28] Speaker 3: like my second home. I used to have actually had
[16:30] Speaker 3: a key, literally had a key because I had to
[16:33] Speaker 3: let everybody in for rehearsal when we when we started
[16:36] Speaker 3: rehearsing there, and so like it was like my second home.
[16:40] Speaker 3: And and so we put we we like I said,
[16:44] Speaker 3: I met Jeffrey and Jody there first. And before Salomar existed,
[16:49] Speaker 3: they used to come down and all the all the
[16:51] Speaker 3: soul trained people would dance all over the place, and
[16:54] Speaker 3: and so like, you know, but but so we put
[16:58] Speaker 3: this whole thing together. And our first gig once we
[17:01] Speaker 3: were in shaping up to tour, our first gig was
[17:04] Speaker 3: in Helsinki, Finland. So and that started the whole thing.
[17:09] Speaker 3: I was overseas with them for about nine ten months,
[17:13] Speaker 3: the first about nine So how do you.
[17:15] Speaker 1: Guys connect with Shalamar?
[17:17] Speaker 3: So? Shalamar came much about a year later. About a
[17:23] Speaker 3: year later, I stayed overseas with the group with the
[17:27] Speaker 3: show group Beverly Hills for about a year. Then I
[17:30] Speaker 3: came home. We broke up. The group ended up breaking
[17:33] Speaker 3: up before we even left London, you know, like I said,
[17:36] Speaker 3: after about a year. So I came home. I was
[17:39] Speaker 3: kicking around and doing some sessions and stuff like that.
[17:44] Speaker 3: And after about six or seven months, I was working
[17:47] Speaker 3: with this cat, Jeffrey Bowen. He was a producer and
[17:52] Speaker 3: Motown and he was doing an album on this cat.
[17:54] Speaker 3: This guitar player Eddie Hazel used to play guitar for
[17:59] Speaker 3: Parliament Funkade. Remember Maggot Brain all that man that was
[18:04] Speaker 3: Eddie Hazel. This war was bad. And so like, uh,
[18:08] Speaker 3: Jeffrey Bowen, who he was produced, he had he had
[18:12] Speaker 3: produced Shaky Ground, all that kind of stuff, temptations and
[18:16] Speaker 3: stuff on the Comera door, Shaky Ground, Slippery win Wet,
[18:19] Speaker 3: Comera Door, all that, and so he did a lot
[18:23] Speaker 3: of stuff on Bonnie Pointer. That was his lady at
[18:25] Speaker 3: the time, so he produced a lot of her of
[18:28] Speaker 3: her stuff, and so like you know, we we were
[18:31] Speaker 3: in the studio, We're working on this Eddie Hazel project.
[18:34] Speaker 3: And after about three months, you know, they started getting
[18:37] Speaker 3: a little shaky, you know, with the money. You know
[18:40] Speaker 3: what we used to call back in the day motown
[18:42] Speaker 3: run around right right, and so like you know, they
[18:46] Speaker 3: started getting a little shaky on the money and stuff.
[18:48] Speaker 3: So my lady at the time. She worked for Don
[18:52] Speaker 3: uh Don CONNITTI Dance Studios. Right, she worked. She she
[18:56] Speaker 3: ran his office there, and so I dropped her off work.
[19:00] Speaker 3: I said, I'm going to the Motown building. They have
[19:02] Speaker 3: a meeting with Jeffrey Bowen talk about this money thing, right,
[19:07] Speaker 3: So I go. I go to the Motown Building. That's
[19:10] Speaker 3: when they were on Sunset and Argyle and they had
[19:13] Speaker 3: the top three floors of this building seventeen sixteen and fifteen.
[19:18] Speaker 3: So I'm sitting there in the office having a meeting
[19:22] Speaker 3: with Jeffrey Bowen, his co producer with his cat Angelo Bond.
[19:27] Speaker 3: So We're sitting there and I'm going through my whole thing,
[19:30] Speaker 3: you know, y'all give me the Motown running around, blah
[19:32] Speaker 3: blah blah blah blah. Right, and so like in the
[19:36] Speaker 3: middle of my whole thing, the phone rings, right, and
[19:41] Speaker 3: the cat Angelo Bond answers the phone in middle of
[19:46] Speaker 3: the meeting of the meeting that we had that we
[19:48] Speaker 3: were having. So like, Angelo answers the phone. He looks
[19:51] Speaker 3: at me. He says, it's for you, right, And I'm like,
[19:55] Speaker 3: what do you mean it's for me? I said, if
[19:57] Speaker 3: it's my lady, tell her I'll call her back when
[19:59] Speaker 3: I get done with the meeting. And this is back
[20:02] Speaker 3: before we had cellphone, was regular phone pick up, regular
[20:06] Speaker 3: phone pick up, long did He said, no, it's not
[20:09] Speaker 3: a lady, it's a guy. And it sounds like it's
[20:11] Speaker 3: a long distance because you know, back there when it
[20:14] Speaker 3: was long distance, you can hear the crackling on the
[20:17] Speaker 3: line and the whole thing. Right. So I'm sitting there
[20:20] Speaker 3: and I'm like, and I get on the phone and
[20:22] Speaker 3: it's Jeffrey Daniel from Shallamar. Right. By this time, they
[20:28] Speaker 3: had they had take that to the bank out that
[20:31] Speaker 3: Tom called take That to the Bank. They had this
[20:34] Speaker 3: cat lead singer, this cat Gerald Brown, right, he did
[20:38] Speaker 3: the he did the lead on that song. And they
[20:41] Speaker 3: were out on the road in the middle of a
[20:44] Speaker 3: promotional tour, right, they out there in l A. Yeah,
[20:50] Speaker 3: and sitting in the call get a call and he
[20:52] Speaker 3: and I and I get on the phone and it's
[20:54] Speaker 3: Jeffrey Daniels Daniel and and he says, man, I know
[20:58] Speaker 3: because they had approached me once before or before they
[21:00] Speaker 3: did take that to the bank. But I was obligated
[21:04] Speaker 3: to go back overseas with the show group, right, because
[21:07] Speaker 3: we did two tours overseas one nine months. The second
[21:10] Speaker 3: tour was about three or four months. So like we
[21:13] Speaker 3: you know, like I said, we broke up before we
[21:16] Speaker 3: came back from there. So like he says, I know
[21:19] Speaker 3: we approached it before, but we want to offer you
[21:21] Speaker 3: an equal position in the Leslie Singer. Blah blah blah.
[21:25] Speaker 3: He said. He said, you're at the Motown building, right.
[21:29] Speaker 3: I said yeah, because he still won't tell me to
[21:31] Speaker 3: this day, won't tell me how he got straight into
[21:35] Speaker 3: that office. Who I was. He said, you're at the
[21:38] Speaker 3: Motown building, right, I said, yeah. I sent him on
[21:41] Speaker 3: the fifteenth floor. He said, well, Solar Solar, which was
[21:45] Speaker 3: a record company that they were with, Solar the Sound
[21:48] Speaker 3: of Los Angeles Records. He said, Solar's offices are in
[21:52] Speaker 3: that same building, down on the ninth floor. He said,
[21:56] Speaker 3: we've already talked to Dick. We told him that we
[22:00] Speaker 3: you know, we wanted to make you the offer. Blah
[22:02] Speaker 3: blah blah. He said, he's waiting on you to come
[22:05] Speaker 3: and and uh and and and reiterate what I said, right,
[22:09] Speaker 3: and to connect with him. So like and get on.
[22:13] Speaker 3: They go down the ninth floor. And when I got
[22:16] Speaker 3: off the off the phone, I got off the phone
[22:18] Speaker 3: and I told Jeffrey Bowen and Angela Bon. I said, man,
[22:23] Speaker 3: as we was, you know Jeffrey Daniel from this group Shalamar,
[22:26] Speaker 3: they got this tune take that to the bank out
[22:29] Speaker 3: blah blah blah blah blah, and uh, I told him
[22:32] Speaker 3: they were making me an offer. That Angelo says, which
[22:35] Speaker 3: I saw him not a few some years back, and
[22:38] Speaker 3: then he'd moved back to Detroit, and he's got a
[22:41] Speaker 3: whole nother story. But I know what the story was.
[22:45] Speaker 3: Angel Bon says. He says, man, Shalamar is nothing but
[22:48] Speaker 3: a fly by night disco group. They want amount to anything.
[22:51] Speaker 3: You don't want to get involved with them. And Solar
[22:54] Speaker 3: will never be a motown, right. And then Jeffrey Bowen
[22:58] Speaker 3: starts talking, and you know, whenever stuff like that happens,
[23:01] Speaker 3: I kind of just sit back and I listened. Wow. Right,
[23:05] Speaker 3: So I sat back and I listened. They were going
[23:07] Speaker 3: through their thing, and when they got done, I said, well,
[23:13] Speaker 3: I'm parked on the street. My car's parked on the street.
[23:17] Speaker 3: I need to go put some money in the meter
[23:19] Speaker 3: so I don't get a ticket, right, So I got it.
[23:22] Speaker 3: I left out and I went right down to the
[23:24] Speaker 3: ninth floor right and got in Dick Griffy, you know,
[23:29] Speaker 3: the owner of the record company. You know. They ushered
[23:32] Speaker 3: me right into his office. He reiterated what Jeff Daniels
[23:38] Speaker 3: and like and so like I told him. I said, well,
[23:41] Speaker 3: you know, because one thing you find out about this
[23:44] Speaker 3: business for sounding is that your word is worth more
[23:49] Speaker 3: than any piece of paper you could ever sign.
[23:53] Speaker 1: Please don't go anywhere.
[23:54] Speaker 2: We'll be right back with more money Making Conversations Masterclass. Now,
[23:58] Speaker 2: I need for you to do me a favor right
[24:00] Speaker 2: now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversation. It's
[24:04] Speaker 2: free and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify,
[24:09] Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please do
[24:12] Speaker 2: me that favor, follow or subscribe money Making Conversations. Welcome
[24:20] Speaker 2: back to Money Making Conversation master Class with me Rashawn McDonald.
[24:24] Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, what you say you're gonna
[24:26] Speaker 3: do is what people look at more to me, more
[24:31] Speaker 3: than they look at.
[24:32] Speaker 1: So how are you telling me you said no to
[24:35] Speaker 1: a group.
[24:36] Speaker 2: You're sitting in somebody's office because they've given you the
[24:38] Speaker 2: motile run around basically asking where my money at?
[24:42] Speaker 1: In the same building. So he bad mof and Shallamar
[24:47] Speaker 1: telling you don't go down there. You tell them, hey,
[24:50] Speaker 1: hey man, I hear you.
[24:51] Speaker 3: But I got I got down there, and it changed
[24:57] Speaker 3: your whole life, change my whole life. It was like
[25:00] Speaker 3: I got in. But I told them, I said, like
[25:02] Speaker 3: I said my word, And I told Dick I said,
[25:06] Speaker 3: I said, okay, I hear you, and I love it.
[25:09] Speaker 3: I said, but you have to give me an opportunity
[25:13] Speaker 3: to give these people a chance to rectify themselves, these
[25:16] Speaker 3: people upstairs, because I had been working with them for
[25:20] Speaker 3: three months, and I said, I just don't want to
[25:23] Speaker 3: just leave like that. And I said, so just let
[25:26] Speaker 3: me get give me a chance to get in touch
[25:29] Speaker 3: with them and see if they what they're going to do.
[25:31] Speaker 3: So I said, I'll call you in the morning. I
[25:33] Speaker 3: call you back in the morning. I got in touch
[25:36] Speaker 3: with the people with Jeffrey Bowing and everybody upstairs. I said,
[25:39] Speaker 3: if y'all want to rectify this, I'll be home all night,
[25:43] Speaker 3: you know, call me. Nobody calls, right, So I go
[25:46] Speaker 3: over the next morning. I called Dick right and I said, hey,
[25:50] Speaker 3: I'm in, you know, And so he gave me his address.
[25:55] Speaker 3: I went over to his crib right into his house.
[25:57] Speaker 3: And I remember sitting in the in the in the
[26:00] Speaker 3: TV room, in this rocking chair, right, and I watched
[26:04] Speaker 3: the video tape of the of a Shalamar Saul with
[26:07] Speaker 3: with Jerald Brown, Jeffrey and Jody, And so I watched
[26:12] Speaker 3: the video tape of the show, and the video tape
[26:15] Speaker 3: goes off, and I'm sitting in this rocking chair and
[26:18] Speaker 3: Dick says, Okay, well you know, did you know, Dick Griffy, Yeah, Dick,
[26:24] Speaker 3: all right, man, all right, So sing something for me,
[26:28] Speaker 3: you know. Jeffery and Jody said, you're a great singer.
[26:30] Speaker 3: Sing something like that. Dick had always wants he always
[26:34] Speaker 3: got me he passed away, but he always wanted to
[26:36] Speaker 3: be a gangster. Sing something for him, the big old dude, right,
[26:41] Speaker 3: And so I said, well, sing something, just you know,
[26:43] Speaker 3: acapella and just singing thing. He says, yeah, sing something.
[26:47] Speaker 3: And then so I say to myself, I say, well, lord,
[26:49] Speaker 3: you know me and you right, So I broke in
[26:52] Speaker 3: the Feel of Fire by Pebo Bryceon told me stayed
[26:58] Speaker 3: and you know, just it and killed it all night, yeah,
[27:02] Speaker 3: all night long. And it got through the first verse
[27:05] Speaker 3: half the hook, and Dick says, okay, okay, okay, I'll
[27:09] Speaker 3: be right back, and he goes upstairs. Right he comes down,
[27:12] Speaker 3: he gives me some cash, about five six hundred bucks
[27:15] Speaker 3: something like that. So here's some cash, you know, leave
[27:18] Speaker 3: with your old lady, you know, pay some bills. And
[27:20] Speaker 3: then he went into his other pocket and he pulled
[27:22] Speaker 3: out an airline ticket. And this was back in the day.
[27:25] Speaker 3: I could this would before nine to eleven. I could
[27:28] Speaker 3: ride on your ticket. You could ride on my You
[27:31] Speaker 3: didn't have to have a specific name like wow. So
[27:34] Speaker 3: he said, here's an airline ticket. You got to catch
[27:37] Speaker 3: the red eye out tonight. Meet the group in New
[27:40] Speaker 3: Jersey tomorrow because they had moved from New York to
[27:43] Speaker 3: New Jersey. Meet the group in New Jersey tomorrow. You
[27:46] Speaker 3: got it, which was Sunday morning. He said, you got
[27:48] Speaker 3: to rehearse the lip sync and the choreography to take
[27:51] Speaker 3: that to the bank. He said, because Monday you got
[27:54] Speaker 3: a TV shoulder too. And that's exactly how it went down,
[28:00] Speaker 3: and Shalla Bah came together three days. Three days Friday,
[28:04] Speaker 3: I got the offer. Saturday I did the audition, if
[28:07] Speaker 3: you want to call it. That Saturday night I was
[28:10] Speaker 3: on the plane on the Red Eye. Sunday, we rehearsed
[28:13] Speaker 3: all day Sunday to lip sync and the choreography to
[28:16] Speaker 3: take that to the bank. Monday. We are in front
[28:18] Speaker 3: of the TV camera for this like dance Pseudo Soul
[28:23] Speaker 3: trained dance so in Patterson, New Jersey, and it went
[28:27] Speaker 3: down just like that. And when I talk to young
[28:31] Speaker 3: kids now, when I talk to kids, now, that's one
[28:34] Speaker 3: thing I look at. I asked him, I say, well,
[28:36] Speaker 3: what do you think is one of the most important
[28:38] Speaker 3: things as far as like if you're trying to get
[28:41] Speaker 3: into the business. And a lot of times I'll get
[28:44] Speaker 3: excuse me, I'll get you know, got to be in
[28:47] Speaker 3: the right place at the right time. And I tell
[28:50] Speaker 3: them to say, yeah, that's the right place, right time.
[28:52] Speaker 3: It's very important, I say, But there's another part to
[28:55] Speaker 3: that whole saying that people forget about, and it's more
[29:00] Speaker 3: most important part. Got to be in the right place,
[29:03] Speaker 3: right time and be prepared. Be prepared, because you can
[29:08] Speaker 3: be in the right place at the right time, but
[29:11] Speaker 3: you haven't taken the time to prepare yourself for it,
[29:14] Speaker 3: and that opportunity can slip away. But you got to
[29:18] Speaker 3: be prepared. So all the time that I sang when
[29:21] Speaker 3: I was ten years old. From the time I was
[29:24] Speaker 3: ten years old till I was fourteen in the gospel situation,
[29:28] Speaker 3: then went from fourteen to eighteen or nineteen before until
[29:32] Speaker 3: I left to go to California in the R and
[29:36] Speaker 3: B situation, then the the overseas situation from Beverly Hills,
[29:43] Speaker 3: the show group, the show group overseas. You spent that
[29:47] Speaker 3: ten months, nine ten months, the first tour, three or
[29:50] Speaker 3: four months, the second tour, all those things, even without
[29:55] Speaker 3: paying knowing it. What was preparing me for that moment,
[30:01] Speaker 3: for the time when I got that opportunity and I
[30:04] Speaker 3: was ready. It wasn't about, oh well, let me let
[30:08] Speaker 3: me practice now I had to sing something right then,
[30:12] Speaker 3: sitting in that chair, they already had another cat in mine.
[30:16] Speaker 3: If if I wasn't, if I said I didn't want
[30:19] Speaker 3: to do it, or if I wasn't what they needed
[30:23] Speaker 3: or what Dick Griffey and them felt comfortable with, awesome.
[30:26] Speaker 3: So but because I was prepared, then you know, that's
[30:31] Speaker 3: how that opportunity came about. Man.
[30:33] Speaker 1: So that's how Charlamar came together started.
[30:37] Speaker 2: You see, when out there eight years old and for
[30:39] Speaker 2: the rest of your life til you went back.
[30:41] Speaker 1: It was always I'm going back to California.
[30:43] Speaker 3: Going back to California. Yeah, going back to California. What
[30:47] Speaker 3: was that? That was?
[30:48] Speaker 2: That was?
[30:50] Speaker 3: Who was that snooping them? Going back to Cali? Yeah?
[30:53] Speaker 3: CALLI yeah, no, biggie. Yeah.
[30:56] Speaker 2: Here's the thing that I really love about you because
[30:58] Speaker 2: you talk about integrity the whole integrity that the whole time.
[31:01] Speaker 1: And when I say tegory, your word means something because
[31:05] Speaker 1: even when.
[31:05] Speaker 2: You had the opportunity over life, because you still gave
[31:09] Speaker 2: you know, more time a shot at and they were
[31:13] Speaker 2: and they were shaking on their payments to you, but
[31:16] Speaker 2: you still say, you know something, I'm gonna give you.
[31:18] Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you what I said, my word to commit.
[31:22] Speaker 2: If you do juice for what you're gonna do, I'm
[31:24] Speaker 2: gonna stay with you. They didn't, and it led you
[31:26] Speaker 2: to Charlamal today regrets.
[31:29] Speaker 3: It's to me, like I said before, to me your word,
[31:35] Speaker 3: you know, and and and that's one of the things
[31:37] Speaker 3: that I try to to project in my music and
[31:42] Speaker 3: and and things that I say that I'm going to
[31:44] Speaker 3: commit to is is integrity. You know what I mean.
[31:49] Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you something.
[31:50] Speaker 2: Thank you for coming to Money Making Conversation on that
[31:52] Speaker 2: man because nobody knew that story. You had me locked
[31:56] Speaker 2: in the whole time, my brother, Thank you for coming
[31:58] Speaker 2: to No Money Making Conversation. Thank you man a journey
[32:01] Speaker 2: that I'm sure my fans and listeners will appreciate.
[32:04] Speaker 3: Good good, That's what it's all about, you know, knowledge
[32:08] Speaker 3: and information. Thank you.
[32:10] Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to this episode.
[32:12] Speaker 2: Now I need for you to do me a favor
[32:14] Speaker 2: right now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversation.
[32:18] Speaker 2: It's free and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify,
[32:23] Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please do
[32:27] Speaker 2: me that favor, follow or subscribe Money Making Conversations.
[32:31] Speaker 1: Keep winning.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.