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• Mr. Midòn's official site
• Article on Mr. Midòn
• Mr. Midòn at the Kennedy Center

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Tavis: Normally we feature a conversation, as you know, with our musical guests, before we hear them perform, but tonight I wanted to do something a little different. I'd like for you to see Ra'l MidUn's musical talent first. Then you'll be even more interested, I am sure, to hear his compelling story.

So there you have it. Ra'l MidUn. This is the CD called 'State of Mind.' As I promised you, and as I figured, it would be much more fascinating to hear his story once you heard him perform. Ra'l, that was terrific. I'm glad to have you on the program.

Ra'l MidUn: Thank you. I'm glad to be here.

Tavis: I'm glad to have you. For those who don't know your story, you've been blind all your life? Yeah. And you have a twin brother...

MidUn: Yes.

Tavis: Who's also blind.

MidUn: Yeah. We were both born premature and put in an incubator. Of course, unintentionally, the oxygen caused damage to our retinas. So that's how we became blind.

Tavis: Your brother's name is Marco.

MidUn: Yeah.

Tavis: But obviously your blindness didn't stop you, because you're doing your thing, and Marco was doing his thing at NASA.

MidUn: Yes. I know. I think that's even cool--in a way, more amazing than--I mean, blind musicians, there's sort of a tradition there, you know, with Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder and Jeff Healey and all these people...but blind engineers, that's really--

Tavis: Ha ha ha! That is impressive. So I've gotta figure out how one of you went in the arts direction and the other clearly went in the sciences direction. How'd that happen?

MidUn: Uh, you know, we were always kind of inclined that way. We were both inclined toward each other's fields. I'm also into radio. I'm a ham radio operator. My brother's a ham radio operator. We've always tinkered around with stuff, but he was always more interested in the electronics, and I was always more interested in the arts, so...but we both kind of do both, also.

Tavis: How often do you guys get a chance to talk and to see each other and hang out now that you're in 2 different fields, 2 different sets of interest here?

MidUn: We talk a lot. I mean, there's cell phones. Of course, we always try to talk on the radio because that's more--that's cooler for us.

Tavis: Doing the ham radio thing.

MidUn: Yeah. You know, even though it's the same thing, but we'd rather talk on the radio than on the cell phone.

Tavis: Have you ever in your--How old are you now?

MidUn: Um...I--I don't--

Tavis: You don't tell your age?

MidUn: No.

Tavis: OK. That's fine. That's fine. I only ask that because I'm wondering if, over your lifetime now, you have ever had occasion to be angry about what happened. I mean, it's one thing to be born prematurely, it's another thing to be accidentally or inadvertently put in an incubator, and the oxygen gets sucked out of it, and it damages your retina. You become blind. I mean, that's a lot for somebody to, one could argue, legitimately be angry about. Have you made peace with that?

MidUn: I think so. You know, I think I have been, at times, frustrated with being blind. You know, there's no doubt about that. I don't think I've ever been really angry about that. I know that accidents happen...

Tavis: That's more than an accident, though, Ra'l. That's a huge...

MidUn: But you know, I've been blessed. I really feel that. I really feel like, for whatever reason, you know, I was supposed to be here now this way, the way that I am. And there is no way to know how different my life would be if I could see. I think I would probably still be a musician, but you just never know.

Tavis: What do you think, though--This may be an impossible question to answer, since you haven't had the other alternative to compare to. What do you think, though, you have gained, musically, from never having had the ability to see?

MidUn: I don't think anything. I think the only thing that blindness might give you or may have given me, is that when you're blind, you have less information coming in. You know, I don't know what the percentage is, but people get, like, some--like 80% of their information through their eyes. So when you're blind, of course, you know, you're hearing, and you're smelling, and you're tasting, and you're touching, and you're doing all these things, but you are getting a lot less data into your brain. And I think as a musician, perhaps it allows you to focus a little more, maybe get less distracted. Maybe while I would've gotten into basketball or something like that, but because I am blind, you know, I've just always been interested in music, from a very young age.

Tavis: As a youngster, who were you listening to that piqued your interest in music, since you have always been fascinated by it?

MidUn: Um, it's varied and...

Tavis: Somehow I knew you were gonna say that. I have to interrupt. I knew you were gonna say that. You know why I knew that? Not because I'm psychic or anything, but because one hears that in this CD. There is such an interesting and eclectic mix in your sound, but actually, you make it all work together. Even in the performance just now, there's so much that's mixed up in there, one can tell that you had to be influenced by a variety of artists.

MidUn: Yeah. I mean, I had a wonderful musical family. My father had a lot of records, great records. We grew up in the middle of nowhere, for the most part, so thank God--

Tavis: So did I, in Indiana, but that's not--

MidUn: Yeah, well, thank God for public radio, and thank God for a good record collection, because that's the way I got exposed to music. But you know, it goes--My first thing that I was passionate about was Argentine folkloric music, actually. I wasn't into rock 'n' roll the way other kids were. I wasn't into pop music until later. Then I was very fascinated by jazz. You know, I started listening to Charlie Parker and Miles probably, from the age of 9 on. And my father had these great records. And then, of course, I started getting into--I've always been into Latin music and soul music. Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway--obvious influences. And it was only later that I got into pop music and to wanting to write songs. So...

Tavis: Let me ask you--And I love Stevie, love him dearly. But Stevie's name comes up so often when you talk about music because he clearly is a musical genius. He's an inspirational icon where music and love and compassion are concerned. We thank Stevie for that. But since Donny Hathaway's name--who I also love so much--doesn't come up as often, what do you get--what do you so love about this Donny Hathaway?

MidUn: You know, there is something about the way that he sang and the things that he sang about. You know, it was a different time, you know, and he sang songs like 'Someday We'll Be Free,' 'In the Ghetto,' and, you know, these were things that sparked my imagination. I mean, I was out in the middle of New Mexico, you know. I didn't know these things much. I didn't have that--that kind of coloring. I didn't think about those things until later because I was just, you know--I wasn't in that environment. I wasn't in an urban environment.

Tavis: I was gonna ask--I thought to ask a moment ago for you to give me 3 persons who happen to be blind who you have been most inspired by. I was gonna limit it, initially, just to musicians, but I assume, since we find inspiration everywhere, it doesn't have to come just musically. But because you been such an overcomer and are, where this blindness is concerned, give me 3 people in any field, any genre, who you have been inspired by, given the handicap of their blindness, in some regard.

MidUn: Well, unfortunately I don't know if I can come up with names. There was a guy who sailed the Pacific Ocean who was blind, and I remember that very clearly. And I thought that was incredible. And I think he lost his equipment in the middle of it, and he still got--I think he sailed from California to Hawaii or something. Of course, Stevie Wonder--extremely inspirational.

Tavis: Stevie's on the CD.

MidUn: Stevie's on the CD.

Tavis: Harmonica solo. How'd you pull that off?

MidUn: You know, it was interesting, because we were working on the record, and Arif Mardin, who co-produced my CD along with J... Mardin, was--you know, we were sort of getting everything going on, and one day I kind of joked around with him. I said, "Hey, can't we get Stevie Wonder on the record?" And he goes, "I will call him."

Tavis: Ha ha ha.

MidUn: And he called him right there, and he got--you know, he got somebody, and, "Oh, yeah, Stevie agrees, you know, to listen to the material." Now, this is another little thing that runs with this is I wrote Stevie a letter in Braille, and in that letter I reminded Stevie that my brother had actually met Stevie Wonder before I did at a technical conference in L.A. because my brother is, of course--because he works for NASA and he's blind, he's up with all the latest tools for blind people and, you know, software.

Tavis: Stevie loves that stuff.

MidUn: And Stevie's into that stuff and has been at the forefront of things like the Kurzweil reading machine and all that sort of thing. And he was so impressed with Marco, he took him over to the house. And I asked my brother, I said, "So did you show Stevie my stuff?"

Tavis: ha ha ha!

MidUn: He said, "It wasn't on my laptop." I was so mad. I was, "I can't believe this!"

Tavis: You were with Stevie, and you didn't tell him your brother was an artist.

MidUn: Yeah. He did, but he didn't have anything to--I think he said, "Yeah, my brother's..." Yeah, you know. Whatever. So I wrote this letter, and I sent it to him, and we sent him a couple of songs and didn't hear back from him for a while. And the album was done, and we were, like, well, we tried. We gave it a good shot. And I get a call, like, the day before mastering, from J... Mardin. He said, "Hey, I hope you're not sleeping. Get down here right now to the studio, because Stevie's ready to record on your record."

Tavis: Everybody who knows Stevie who's watching right now is laughing, because that's just the way Stevie rolls. He just up and calls you and says, "I'm ready to do it now."

MidUn: "I'm ready."

Tavis: That's the way he is.

MidUn: And we get down there, and I'm in New York, and he's in L.A., and we've got a little phone line patched in so we can hear each other and talk back and stuff. And he does the first take and says, "How was that?" And I'm speechless. "I can't believe Stevie's on my record!" And I can't say anything much. Like, "I liked it," you know. So luckily Arif is there and, you know, Arif's worked with Stevie before. "It was good, Stevie, but play some more. Play through the solo." you know. 'Cause he wanted to get more from Stevie, so it was great. And he did an incredible performance and just nailed it.

Tavis: When you get Stevie in the studio, you get all you can. So I ain't mad at your boy for asking for more. His name is Ra'l MidUn. Remember the name. And the new CD is called 'State of Mind.' You've seen it, you've heard it, and I know now you're gonna run out and get it. It's in my collection and should be in yours as well. Ra'l, we expect big things from you in the coming months and years. Glad to have you on the program.

MidUn: Thank you so much for having me.

Tavis: It's my pleasure.