Smokey Robinson Stream this entire interview for free!
An Exclusive Interview with Smokey Robinson
Stream: Windows Media Player Required.

Smokey: Hey Chris. Chris: Hey, hello there. Smokey: How are you? Chris: I’m fantastic, how are you? Smokey: I’m good man, thank you. Chris: Good, it’s an honor and a pleasure to be speaking with you. Smokey: Well it’s my pleasure, Chris, and I appreciate you doing this. Chris: I was just listening to the new album, Timeless Love. Specifically the song "More Than You Know." And wow, I mean, your voice, it still sounds so incredibly fresh. Smokey: Thank you very much. Chris: Almost like...I can't really tell the difference between what you sound like on this album and Quiet Storm. Smokey: Oh, thank you Chris, I appreciate that. Chris: How do you do it? How do you keep yourself sounding so youthful and so alive in your music? Smokey: Well, you know what, Chris? I think there's two things involved with that. The fact that I love my job, I love what I do...I love...I'm very blessed. I get a chance to live a life that I absolutely love every aspect of. And so, and then, I tell young people this all the time, young singers that I meet, and they say, well, "What do you do when you get hoarse?" and stuff like that. Now very seldom in my life now, and I have to knock on some wood here, am I ever at the point whereas I cannot do a concert, I'm hoarse where I can't do it, because I take care of myself. See. They say, well, "You drink some tea, you take some lemon" and all that. That stuff doesn't do anything. You have to take care of yourself, you know, you have to be conscious of the fact that you got a job where it's grueling, you know, so you have to take care of yourself. And I guess that's the reason, man. Chris: How do you take care of yourself? Smokey: Well, I work out and I run some and walk and, you know, just stay active, man. Chris: Right. This is the first nonholiday or gospel record that you've done since '99. What made you decide to tackle an album of standards? Smokey: Well, you know, the spiritual CD that I had out is the only spiritual CD that I've ever done, you know. That was just a...I just variated from what I normally do on that particular CD. But this one is comprised of songs, man, I've been singing these songs live in my show for the last 13 or 14 years. I mean I didn't just all of a sudden say I'm going to do an album of standards and stick these and say, OK, here are a bunch of standards, now let me pick A, B, C, and D. No. These songs, plus some more that I have in the can that I recorded at the same time I recorded these, are songs that I have been including in my live show for about the last 14 years or so. I sing at least one of them in every concert that I do. So it's not like these songs are new to me, you know what I mean. And so I...originally I had the idea that I was gonna sing them, record them live, and I was gonna, you know, just have an invitational thing whereas I invited four or five hundred people to a place where I rented, and do...just do a live concert of all these songs. But it didn't pan out like that. But I did the next best thing for me because I recorded them with all the musicians playing at the same time that I was singing in the studio. And so it was like doing it live, and we had a blast. Chris: You could record just about any song ever released. How was it that you came to select these...this specific set of songs for Timeless Love? Smokey: Because I love these songs, Chris. I'm a song lover. And I'm a songwriter lover. I mean, you know, I've been loving songs and songwriters since I can remember. And as...these songs on this particular CD are some of the first songs I ever heard in my life as a baby. You know, I grew up in a home where there was always music playing, and I had two older sisters, and this was the music that they played. They played these people, and my mom played these people, you know. And these songs were written when the song was king. And everybody recorded these songs. I mean, everyone. When a hit song came out, Frank Sinatra recorded it, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Mel Torme, Patti Page, Sammy Davis--all the people recorded a hit song. So these songs were written in that era, man. So I...these are the first songs I ever heard in my life. Chris: People don't do that anymore. They don't record "a song." Or someone will compose, such as...someone such as yourself will compose a song, and then as you said, all the greats will record it. I'm curious, what do you think of contemporary songs or contemporary music? Smokey: Well, it's according to who you're talking about, Chris, because there are some wonderful, wonderful young writers out there and young talent and young artists who are doing wonderful music. You know, there's Alicia Keys and there's Maxwell and there's Beyoncé Knowles and there's Usher and people like that. They're making some great music man. They're making some really wonderful music. And if you listen to their songs, their songs are talking about life as they know it. Chris: Right. Smokey: Yeah, so hey man, there’s a lot of wonderful young talent out there. Chris: So you are keeping up. Smokey: Absolutely I do. I listen to everybody, man. I have everybody on my iPod. I listen to everybody, man. You know why? Because I'm still in the record business. I'm still all competing against these people. I'm a fan, but I still know that I have to know what they're doing in order to compete with them. I have to know what they're doing. I'm not going to try to be like them, you know what I mean, but I have to know what they're doing so I can know the quality of music that they're making so I can keep my quality up. You know. So, yeah I have everybody. I have Nelly on there, you know what I mean. I listen to everybody, man. Chris: Well, I have to say, I really don't think you...you have any competition, Smokey. Smokey: I love you Chris. So now, you know I've got to take you everywhere I go from now on! Chris: You've written an obscene amount of songs. Like over 4,000 songs to your credit. Smokey: Yeah. Chris: After writing so many songs, how do you continue to find inspiration? Smokey: Because there's life Chris. There is life and life goes on. And that's what I write about. I write about life and love. And see, I'm not a writer. I'm not one of those writers who has to take two or three months off and go to the mountains and isolate myself and write. Or go down to the beach and rent a hut and write. You know, I write...and I'm not exaggerating this...almost every day of my life I write a melody or some words to a song, even if I don't finish them. You know. I do that because it's my gift. God gives everybody a gift, and this is my gift. And it's easy for me. It's not...it's not a laborious kind of thing; it's not a labor. And even when it is a labor, it's a labor of love. Some songs, I've taken...like "Cruisin'" for instance. It took me five years to write "Cruisin'," OK, because my guitarist, Marv Tarplin, he writes wonderful music, and he puts his music on tape for me, and he gives it to me and I listen to it until I come up with an idea for it. You know. So it took me five years to come up with what "Cruisin'" is finally. I wrote three or four songs to that music, but it wasn't right. You know what I mean? And then, "Shop Around" took five minutes. You know what I mean? So there's different...it just happens like that, man. Chris: And everybody knows it. Smokey: Yeah, so it...you know. Chris: You said it was a gift, your music, a gift from God. Smokey: Yeah. Chris: When did you really first become aware of this gift that you had? Or have? I'm sorry. Smokey: Well, you know what, man, I guess, I guess you know, as you get older and you get to be an adult and you start to appreciate life and the things that go on, you know, but I've been writing songs, Chris, since I was 6 years old. I started writing little songs when I was about 6. In fact the first song that ever was heard by anybody other than me was when I was 6. I was in a school play at my elementary school, Dwyer Elementary in Detroit. And we had a class called Auditorium. And in Auditorium we did little plays and little musicals and stuff like that, and I was in the junior glee club and what have you, you know, and I was portraying Uncle Remus. Now Uncle Remus is a, is a fictitious fable character, a black man, who told all the little kids stories about how the animals got to be how they are, why the pig has a curly tail [and] why the monkey swings on the tree. So I was portraying Uncle Remus in this little play that we were doing, and my Auditorium teacher had written this little melody for the opening and the closing of the show. And her name was Mrs. Campbell. And I said, "Mrs. Campbell," I said, "can I write some word to that melody?" And she said, "Yes." And I did. So, I've been doing it since I was about 6 years old.[ Chris: And you never stopped writing. Smokey: Never stopped. Chris: There's a line in the song, Timeless Love...well, the song is called "I'm Glad There's You." And the line goes, "In this life of overrated pleasures..." Smokey: In this world. Chris: Right. I'm sorry. "In this world of overrated pleasures and underrated treasures." Smokey: Yes. Chris: I’m curious, what would you say are life’s most underrated treasures? Smokey: Ah, gosh, probably our children. You know. Because I think that the world is such now that, that they don't get a chance to be kids long enough. You know, there's the computer and there's television and there's all these exposures and they know life too quickly. You know. So I feel like that. Chris: I couldn't agree with you more. Smokey: Yes. Chris: In fact, you were talking about how in school you had a class called Auditorium. I don't think anything exists like that now. Smokey: I don't either, you know. In fact, a few years back Stevie Wonder started this thing whereas a bunch of us artists had gotten together and we have this thing where we're trying to keep the arts in the curriculum of schools, man, because schools don't have that anymore. They don't have little bands, they don't have glee club, they don't have...where the kids do plays. That's been cut out, you know. Economically they say they can't afford to have that stuff anymore. They don't have, you know, kids taking music and stuff in school. And I think it's atrocious, it's a real shame, man. Chris: Yeah, it’s absolutely true. And I think it’s sad. Smokey: Yeah. Yeah it is man. Chris: Very sad, people are growing... Smokey: It’s very sad. Chris: People are growing up without any sort of knowledge of music and what it can mean in their life. Smokey: Absolutely. Chris: Well, you've had some amazing achievements in your lifetime, obviously--a ridiculous number of Top 40 hits, Living Legend, Grammy, Songwriter Hall of Fame, vice president of Motown. I mean, just about...an amazing story. What would you still like to achieve in your lifetime? Smokey: I would love to do a fantastic role in a movie. It doesn't...of course I'm not thinking about starring in a movie, but I would like to do a meaningful role in a great movie. That's what I'd like to do. Even if it was just a bit part in a great movie, that's what I'd like to do. Chris: Does anything come to mind? Is there any particular story you’d like to be involved in? Smokey: No, no, no. You know, people send me scripts all the time, and you know, I haven't seen anything yet that I really had to say, well, this is it, this is the one. You know, I've done a couple of cameos in some movies, you know. I did a cameo in a Harrison Ford movie, you know, because Harrison Ford is a big Motown fan. So they surprised him by having me come and be...and do a cameo in the movie, you know. And so I did that, and then, then I did a, sort of like a cameo appearance in a movie just recently with Queen Latifah whereas we went over to Prague to shoot the movie, and I must say I was disappointed in what they did with the movie because I was in the movie and we...my band and I went over there and we were there for about 5 to 6 days, and we actually recorded, we actually shot three songs, and during the movie I had dialogue with Queen Latifah and so on and so forth. And when the movie came out, man, there was about 10 seconds of us. You know, there was about 10 seconds of the first verse of "Tracks of My Tears." And that was it. Chris: So you need a little more face time than that. Smokey: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Chris: Are you going to be...I know you still play out quite a bit. Are you going to be touring specifically for this album? Smokey: Well, what I'm going to do is, I'm not going to be touring specifically for this, because I have a bunch of dates that are already booked, you know, and the CD is not coming out until the middle of June. But what I'm going to do is, I'm going to... See, what I've done so far is, every night, for about the last 14 years, man, I've included at least one of these songs in every concert. OK. So it's not like these songs are new to me. So I've been including...but now what I'm going to do is, I'm going to change the show around whereas I do a segment of the show devoted to this particular CD. And I'm going to sing about three or four of them in every show. Chris: Oh, that’s beautiful. Smokey: Thank you. Chris: What made you decide to rerecord your classics "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "Speak Low"? Smokey: Because those are two songs that I absolutely love. "Speak Low" is a song...the first time I heard "Speak Low" I was a kid, and there was a movie called One Touch of Venus. And "Speak Low" was the theme song for that movie, and I never forgot that song. I must have been 8 or 9 when I saw it, but I never forgot that melody or that song. It just has stuck with me for my whole life, and I recorded it earlier in my career with the Miracles. But I, like I said, I have been singing it in my live show for years and years now. And I just love that song. Same is true with "I've Got You Under My Skin." I think my favorite version of "I've Got You Under My Skin" was done by Sammy Davis where Sammy just did it with bongos. There was no music playing at all--just him singing and a guy playing the bongos. And you know, "I've Got You Under My Skin" is one of those classic songs that has been recorded by everybody. And so, that's why. Chris: Do you...you said you walk around with your iPod? Smokey: Oh, yeah. Chris: Do you ever listen to the Miracles? Smokey: Yeah. Absolutely I do. Chris: How does it feel going back and listening to a lot of those songs? Smokey: Well, a lot of them, you may not understand this, but a lot of them I wish that I hadn't sung them like I sang them, you know! Chris: Why is that? Smokey: I don't know, I don't know. It's just, you know, as time goes on you just feel songs differently and you interpret them differently and so on and so forth. And another thing I think about is that you know, we sound like kids singing those songs, because that's what we were. And that's what we sound like to me. You know. Chris: It’s really odd that you should say that. Smokey: Yeah. Chris: Well, I just have one more question, Smokey. I don't want to take too much of your time, but when you reflect upon your 50 years in music, what moments are you most proud of? Smokey: Today. Right now, Chris. Right now, this moment, right now. You're interviewing me, and you're interested in what I'm doing and what I'm singing and my new CD and all that, you know. That's a blessing, man. You know, to be around for this long and still people care. So right now, this very moment that we're speaking. Chris: How does it feel to know that people are going to listen to your music for generations to come? Smokey: It feels good, man. Chris: Yeah. Smokey: Yeah, it feels good. Chris: Well, that's it. Smokey: Thank you very much. Chris: I can't thank you enough. Smokey: I appreciate it, thank you so much Chris. Chris: Thank you, Smokey.