E-mail a friendPatti LaBelle
original airdate May 10, 2004
In her multi-decade career, Patti LaBelle has established herself as a peerless singer-songwriter, accomplished actress, savvy businesswoman and best-selling author. She's recorded more than 50 albums, including her latest, "Miss Patti's Christmas," and won countless awards. She also gives as much of herself offstage as on, with causes that include diabetes and AIDS research. The tireless diva recently launched the "Patti LaBelle - Good Life" brand and has plans for a third cookbook and an instructional cooking CD.
Ms. LaBelle talks about her new CD, TV show and friendships with other great performers.
Patti LaBelle
Tavis: All right, I gotta behave myself tonight, because for those who know me know that I am delighted to have next to me the incomparable Patti LaBelle. And I don't know how to act when Miss Patti shows up. She is a multiple Grammy-award winner. Her just-released CD is called 'Timeless Journey.' There you see the CDs cover and, Patti LaBelle, you lookin' awfully good. She's hosting a new show for TV One called 'Living It Up with Patti LaBelle.' Miss Patti, nice to see you.
Patti LaBelle: Nice to see you, cutie Tavis.
Tavis: Look at you. You lookin'--almost 60. You're almost 60. I can say that 'cause you were never shy about talkin' about your age.
Patti: Never. I'll be 60 May 24th. Age ain't on my page. I don't know what 60's supposed to feel like. I'm just a 60-year-young woman.
Tavis: Age ain't on my page.
Patti: It ain't on my page.
Tavis: I like that. Those who know your story know that one of the reasons why you so value--why you so value being almost 60 is because you've lost your mother and your sisters and your best friend to a variety--
Patti: I lost my mother to diabetes, my father to Alzheimer's. They were like 69 or 73 or something like that. But my sisters all died of cancer before they turned 44.
Tavis: Right.
Patti: Something like that. And I just started celebrating life harder when I realized that I didn't have to be this young. I didn't have to make it to 60. I call 60 young. Um, and I did, and so when people say, 'You don't have to tell people how old you are,' I say, 'That's not old.' I say, 'That's a blessing.' To wake up every day and you're older, each day you're older. Celebrate being older.
Tavis: And wiser.
Patti: And wiser. And you can call it 60 years old or 60 years young. I'm 60. I'm just 60.
Tavis: Age ain't on your page.
Patti: Age ain't on my page.
Tavis: And you know, I'm still impressed. I still don't know how you do the heel thing on the stage. You're wearing--you've got them on now, don't you? Look at this. Those are fierce. You love shoes. Shoes are your thing, yeah.
Patti: This is like a 3-inch heel. I usually do 6 inches. But this is cute.
Tavis: I'm curious--I want to know how you move across that stage with those 6-inch heels on.
Patti: I just do it. I was at a party the other night--
Tavis: You ever afraid you're gonna fall down or something?
Patti: Never. Nope. Never fall.
Tavis: But you dance--you're not just walking. You dance and move in the heels.
Patti: And I danced in some 6-inch heels the other night at the Ray Lewis party. I was dancing like a young girl. But the next day I couldn't walk.
Tavis: Ha ha ha!
Patti: Everybody in the house getting tipsy. I wasn't tipsy, but my calves were killing me. But, yeah, I still walk and dance in my pumps.
Tavis: For those who don't get the hip-hop on, when you say, 'E'rybody in the club getting tipsy--'
Patti: Somebody in the club or the house getting tipsy. I like that stuff.
Tavis: I like it, too. That's a hip-hip reference, and I had to make it clear for those--see, my mama wasn't with me on that. You said, 'E'rybody in the club getting tipsy,' she couldn't follow that.
Patti: She didn't know what 'tipsy' meant?
Tavis: Don't know the song, don't know the artist. Now you know the hip-hop game, and what's fascinating for me is that you have survived decade after decade after--before you came on the scene, nobody had ever heard of hip-hop. But you've been representing in the sixties, the seventies, the eighties, the nineties. Here you are in '04 with a new CD out. What's the trick?
Patti: The trick is just really always believing in yourself, never letting anybody tell you you're not great. If you think you are, continue to think that. Like I watch 'American Idol' sometimes, and sometimes those kids can leave bruised for life, like they can think that they'll never be anybody because people judged them and told them that they weren't good enough. I've never let anybody ever tell me I wasn't good enough.
There was a manager that I had way back in the day who told me that I was too black and ugly and my nose was real big. Since then, I had my nose done, but not because of what he said, because I just looked at some photos of mine. I said, 'This heifer got a big nose, and if she ever gets any movie roles, I want my nose to be smaller.' So I had that done, but not because he said that about me. I just really believe in me, and that's why I'm still around. And I don't fall into like doing hip-hop music because I know that's not really for Patti LaBelle. But my favorite songs are 50Cent, and the Tipsy song, and the Usher song. I mean, Usher got me going crazy just...
Tavis: Yeah, I'll tell her. She's watching right now.
Patti: I think that's what it really means, right? Something like that. Like Mary J. Blige and Musiq yesterday... I did a Mother's Day brunch and they introduced me, and Mary said that I made her feel sometimes better than her real mother because I was so honest with her and telling her things about--probably that her real mother can't tell her because her real mother has not been in show business the way that I am. So I see all the things that she's gonna go through, so I warn her before she gets to them, and I'm always checking on my kids in this business.
Tavis: But the amazing thing about you for me though is that there are a lot of folk that are talented. I cast no aspersion on your wonderful gift. There are a lot of folk who have a gift but still have not found a way to make themselves relevant for 4 or 5 decades. Now, you're much too modest about that. You're not just gifted and talented. A lot of folk are that. But you found a way to remain relevant. What's the trick to that?
Patti: Stay real. Be real.
Tavis: Yeah.
Patti: Like talk about what's really real in your life.
Tavis: In your music.
Patti: Within a song, I speak the truth. On stage, I tell the world, you know, 'My divorce is final. I'm now a single woman.'
Tavis: Can I call you now?
Patti: Yeah, you can call me.
Tavis: OK, I'm just asking.
Patti: E'rybody in that club be tipsy! And I got some dogs, too though, Tavis.
Tavis: I know you do.
Patti: Now you know I've got those training dogs. They're not gonna bite--they won't bite you.
Tavis: Until you get rid of your dogs, I can't come by the house.
Patti: No, they won't bite you. But I talk about that. I go through the same things in life that every woman goes through. The only difference is Patti LaBelle is on stage, and she can talk about it. So on stage they see this real girl telling stuff that I don't really have to tell. You know? And I think that keeps me around all the time. I'm just always in your face, but I'm not forcing myself in your face or in the place. Everything that I say is from my heart. Everything that I sing is from my heart. So I think if you don't get, like, all jaded, and trying to get all the money--a lot of people get on the money train because that's the popular thing to do right now, 'So I'm gonna do it.' I'm not that girl.
Tavis: I went on your web site just to look at what you were doing in April and May, just for 2 months. I looked at April and May, getting ready for our conversation here in may now. I don't know how you keep it up. TV show. Tell me about the TV show.
Patti: 'Living It Up with Patti LaBelle on TV One,' and it's, uh, I do like you. I interview people. I go from city to city and interview different people. The first show, I think... Uh, I didn't see the first show, but it should have been the one with Shoshana Johnson. We had a beauty day.
Tavis: The P.O.W.
Patti: Mm-hmm. She needed that day because, you know, she's been through hell and back. We done had a day with my girlfriends Phylicia Rashad and Sheryl Lee Ralph at my house. I cooked dinner for them, showed them closets, all my drag and my pumps.
Tavis: I'm so jealous.
Patti: I'm gonna cook for you. Don't worry. And I'm doing my own clothing line on Home Shopping Network. This is--I did it twice. I go back in May to sell Patti's Pots and Pans, Patti's Pumps, Patti's Jewelry, and Patti Hose.
Tavis: Patti, Patti.
Patti: Patti, Patti.
Tavis: I like that. Patti Hose.
Patti: Patti Hose, right. You know when I wear my hose, they'll be Pattis. And I just finished doing this album, you know, in Philadelphia, at my son's little raggedy studio--it's not raggedy, sorry, I'm only joking--and saved a whole lot of time and money. You know, it's my son's--
Tavis: Did he give you the mama rate?
Patti: Child, he gave me the mama, grandmama, and the papa rate, too. He just gave me the rate.
Tavis: That's good.
Patti: And so therefore, I could create because I knew there was no clock sayin'--I was in one studio for this album project, one of those New York rich studios. It was $24,000, and only thing I saw were flowers and candles. I never did a song. That was just to be in that freakin' studio for--
Tavis: With the flowers and the candles.
Patti: Yeah, for about 4 hours. I said something's wrong with this picture--that I never knew before until I took time and went to my son's studio and did demos. And so we co-executive-produced the album. I wrote about 10 songs with the guys. I did 44 songs. And I came out with $5.00 in my pocket. Now, ain't that cute?
Tavis: That's real cute.
Patti: $5.00 to go towards a pair of pumps.
Tavis: That's real cute. Course, your pumps cost a whole lot more than $5.00.
Patti: I knew you were gonna--
Tavis: Um, tell me what's on this new CD. What are folk gonna get on this 'Timeless Journey CD?
Patti: You're gonna get the same stuff that you've been getting. It's just that it's different because I was really involved and I took time to love the song before I recorded it. Now, I loved all the songs that I've done in the past, but I wasn't really knowing if I should have paid all that money at that time, but at the time it was like 150,000 for a producer to do one song. This time, I had time to feel the song, love it, and after I loved it, I listened, and then I realized I didn't really love it, so therefore, I didn't spend all that money.
I had new producers that--some of them that you've never heard of, some that you've heard of. Babyface is one of the main producers. He did 2 songs. And the other guys are, like, not really well-known. Sami McKinney did--Carlos Santana sent me a track, and we wrote the lyrics to this song called 'When You Smile,' in memory of Celia Cruz. And I dedicated the album to all of my girlfriends who have passed. Nina Simone--
Tavis: She was a good friend of yours.
Patti: Celia Cruz. We didn't know what either one of us--
Tavis: You sang at her funeral.
Patti: I performed at her funeral.
Tavis: I remember this, yeah.
Patti: I'm sorry, I didn't perform at her funeral. I sang 'Ave Maria' for the first time in my life. I was petrified. And then I performed with her before she passed, and then I did a show for her before she passed.
Did the last show with Nina Simone before she passed. Nina Simone was my wisdom queen. She would tell me how to be a bitch. I said, 'How you do that?' 'You just demand everything!' I said, 'I can't, Nina.' 'You better do it.' So she would call me once a week, Nina, with her lesson for me. 'This week is your lesson. I'll show you how to kick butt with a pointed-toed shoe.'
And then Barry White, Gregory Hines, all of these friends of mine passed. And Barry White was supposed to start--he and I were the first to sign to Def Soul Classic. So I'm the first lady of Def Soul.
Tavis: Wow.
Patti: And there's songs on my album with Floetry that we did together...
Tavis: Those girls are talented. They were on this show a few weeks ago.
Patti: Baby, are they awesome, or what?
Tavis: Amazing.
Patti: Yes. Then I did something with Ronald Isley, and I did something with Santana and, everybody else are people that you haven't heard of.
Tavis: All these producers that we haven't heard of, we're about to, once they--
Patti: You're getting ready to hear some greatness from unknowns. And I believe in the underdog. I believe in giving the underdog a lift up. So if you can get on Patti's back and take that ride, get on. But you better be respectful.
Tavis: There you go. What have you not done that you want to do? Now you're doing TV. You've written best-selling books.
Patti: Oh, I'm doing movies.
Tavis: Oh, see. I knew there was something.
Patti: Well, I did this movie--
Tavis: You've done TV. You've done the small screen already.
Patti: I did the small screen. So I just did 'Be Cool,' the sequel to 'Get Shorty' with John Travolta and Uma Thurman. I played myself as a DJ. And now I'm doing 2 movies in Philadelphia with Lee Daniels, the guy who did 'Monster's Ball.' Yeah, so I'm playing a real estate lady who's kinda cuckoo. And this other one I'm playing, another movie, where I'm just a mother who sees all the bad and never talks about it. She a little special. So, I'm gonna make a stretch. She a little special.
Tavis: Well, I like your kinda crazy.
Patti: You do?
Tavis: I like your kinda crazy, Patti LaBelle.
Patti: I like your kinda everything, Tavis Smiley.
Tavis: Aw, I gotta get outta here.
Patti: You're so sweet!
Tavis: I'm outta time. Nice to see you.
Patti: It started last Friday. Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Tavis: They gave you the whole weekend! You deserve it. Patti got the whole weekend on TV One. So check her out.
I will see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching and as always, keep the faith. Get Patti's new CD, Timeless Journey.' You'll love it!
Patti: Yeah, keep the faith.
Tavis: Keep the faith.
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