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Tavis: For nearly three decades, Frankie Beverly and Maze have been making great music, scoring an impressive 24 R&B top 40 singles and a string of gold albums. Next year, I pray, fans will look forward to seeing the release, I pray, of a new CD. But lately, he's been spending a lot of time lately - helping victims of Hurricane Katrina. I am pleased he's found the time to come see me here, one, because he's always busy, but, two, I've been asking for this interview for 20 years. I'm glad - to have Frankie Beverly finally slow down enough to come see me. Frankie, nice to see you.

Frankie Beverly: (laughs) Man, it's nice to be here.

Tavis: I'm always honored to talk to you, man. Let me start with that. Why don't you talk more? Matter of fact, I - just had to have you on the show to prove to people that you can talk. 'Cause all they ever see you do is sing. You never sit down for interviews. Why - you so shy?

Beverly: I am shy. I guess that's basically it. I'm not overly shy, but I'm recluseful and that sort of stuff. I can go, though, when I need to talk...

Tavis: Now, you talk backstage now.

Beverly: Yeah, yeah.

Tavis: When you - let me in your dressing room, you know, you - get going. But you just don't, after all these years and all the success and all the hits, - I've searched for stuff. Every now and then, 'Jet' magazine - can get you to sit down once every blue moon.

Beverly: Yeah, that's a good...

Tavis: That's a nice conversation there in 'Jet,' but you don't sit for these conversations. I'm glad to have you.

Beverly: I - really can't explain it, except that's where I come from. It's just not - I'm not much of a talker, I mean. For TV, yeah.

Tavis: Well, I got you for 12 minutes now. You're gonna talk now. I got 12 minutes. And speaking of where you come from, we're gonna talk about it.

Beverly: Great, great.

Tavis: All right. Things that I had to go dig out to learn that I didn't know, as many times as I've seen you, I didn't know that Frankie wasn't the - first name.

Beverly: No, it's not.

Tavis: See, I'm gonna put all your business out there now...

Beverly: It's not, unfortunately.

Tavis: ...Now that I got you, I'm putting all your business out there. All right. So Frankie wasn't the first name. Tell the story. Tell the story.

Beverly: No, Frankie comes from my idol, Frankie Lymon. I was singing in church before then, and he actually got me out of, not out of the church, but certain singing, secular. And I was so into him, just had such a big impact on my life that the people in the neighborhood started calling me Frankie, 'cause I sang the songs all the time, on the corners and all that stuff. So, I just kept the name. It wasn't really something planned or anything like that. You know, it really wasn't planned at all - now that I look back on it. People started that, and I just kept it.

Tavis: It worked, though, Frankie Beverly.

Beverly: Yeah, it has a nice ring to it.

Tavis: It works. After - all these years, it ought to, yeah. (laughs) If it ain't working by now, I got news for you. It ain't gonna work.

Beverly: Howard, Howard don't sound...

Tavis: Yeah. Howard Beverly. I know you're thinking, "What was the name?'

Beverly: Howard Beverly don't have the ring...

Tavis: The real name is Howard. Howard Beverly.

Beverly: I gotta ask my mother, "Mom, what was you thinking about?'

Tavis: Frankie Beverly, Frankie works. That works. Speaking of what works, people don't know that it was Marvin Gaye that really put y'all out there. Y'all had the pleasure of opening for Marvin. What was that like?

Beverly: Yeah, that was way, way back there. '74 or something - like that, and he wanted a band to open the show and wanted the band to back him up, too. I wasn't really interested in playing that part of it, but you know, we did get tight, and he let us open up shows for him. This is pre-Maze. We were called Raw Soul.

And one - in Atlantic City, there was about three or four of them, but one stands out, San Diego. A cool jazz festival. And - it was funny. He got them to put us on the show, and we went on about 2:00 in the afternoon. I don't know. You know, I was just so hurt, you know. Just five people. I was just blown. And that night, he had a great, one of the greatest shows I've seen of him in my life.

And we got back to the room and, you know, he said, "Well man, how did you do today, man? How was it?' I said, "Well, man, we played, you know. They threw us on at 2:00 in the afternoon.' And I started crying and stuff. 'I really wanted you to be proud of me' and blah, blah, blah. And he sat there, and went, and I'm looking for, 'Man, it's cool.' Man, he lit into me, man.

Tavis: Marvin jumped on you.

Beverly: "Man, you played, didn't you? I heard you was good, man.' And blah, blah, blah. Oh, he got on me that night, boy. You know, and it taught me a lesson, man. I was looking for the brotherly soft touch and - you know, he shook me up that night, man. I'll never forget that night, though, one of the greatest performances I had ever seen from him.

Tavis: How ingenious was he? When you hear his stuff now, and obviously, we know the - obligatory stuff, 'What's Going On.' But when you hear his stuff now, Frankie, he is as relevant in his lyrical content today as he was then, and interestingly, not just as relevant, but still ahead of his time.

Beverly: Yeah. Yeah, he was one of the greats, man. I mean, if you look back, it's not an overstatement to say he was the quintessential R&B male singer. I mean, you can't, I mean, you might can say Sam Cooke in his time, but not really, man. I mean, Marvin Gaye is the only one that took up that space. There's nobody that's come really, really close.

The one that's come the closest was probably Teddy, Teddy Pendergrass, and unfortunately, they kind of nipped that, what happened to him, but he was the closest one. Marvin is in a class of his own.

Tavis: You mentioned that when Marvin put you guys out there, the group at the time was called Raw Soul. So just as I prefer Frankie Beverly to Howard Beverly, with all due respect to your mom and them. Just as I prefer Frankie to Howard, I prefer Frankie Beverly and Maze to Raw Soul.

Beverly: I do, too.

Tavis: But let's just tell the whole story. Before there was Raw Soul, you had some stuff that was worse than that. Get this, y'all. The Blenders and The Butlers.

Beverly: That's right.

Tavis: Before it was Frankie Beverly and Maze, and before Raw Soul, before that, y'all were rocking, The Blenders was one group, The Butlers was another group.

Beverly: I wish I had some pictures, man, to show you back then.

Tavis: Yeah. The Blenders and The Butlers.

Beverly: Yeah, The Blenders and The Butlers. I know, man.

Tavis: See, you laugh when you say it yourself. You know it's funny.

Beverly: I do. But, I mean, we could sing, though. We could sing. We were good.

Tavis: The name didn't work, but y'all could sing.

Beverly: We were good, though, definitely.

Tavis: Yeah. Speaking of singing, what is it after all these years, and again, for persons who don't know you, first of all, shame on you if you ain't never heard of Frankie Beverly records. You've got to go get Frankie Beverly and Maze. You are not living until you have heard their music or seen them in concert. But certainly, inside of black America, inside of that America where there is soul, y'all can go out on tour any day, anywhere, and sell out stadiums full of black people. And I still ain't figured out how y'all do that without putting out records routinely.

Beverly: Because it's not about the records. Some acts are recording artists, and we're not. That's second with us. We're first a live band. We come up in nightclubs five nights a week, five sets a night for most of our career, man. I mean, so we - this is not a - recording act, and I think that's a big part of why we're able do this. The second part, though, is we've won the confidence of the people.

Tavis: No question about that.

Beverly: The people know we don't jive around, we don't mess around, and I think again that has helped us, regardless of the records. I mean, some of the veteran artists, you know, Stevie Wonder, how long had it been before he had a new album?

Tavis: And 10 years since the last one.

Beverly: That's what happens as you get older and there's - and it's nothing wrong, it's just that the art, you've done this and you've done that and you don't want to repeat yourself. And - you almost back yourself against the wall. 'Cause I don't want, you know, we're not gonna put out filler things, you know, while we're getting to the next thing or something.

Tavis: But do you ever struggle with coming out on stage and singing this song for the gazillionth time. And if you do struggle with it, it don't show on stage 'cause every time you hit that stage it's like you were giving it like you giving it for the first time.

Beverly: Yeah - I never struggle with that, because what comes with all this is this fact. There's - not gonna be a time that we're gonna be Maze coming on stage that the people are not gonna demand us to sing something. So get that through your head.

Tavis: Yeah, they will riot if you don't sing it.

Beverly: And learn how to keep stepping and doing this - and keeping it fresh, you know, for you as well as them. Yeah.

Tavis: The trademark hat. I was surprised when you walked on set today and saw you in all black, I don't know that I've ever seen this. Frankie Beverly in all black, hat, shirt, pants, shoes. We know the trademark look.

Beverly: Socks, socks.

Tavis: Yeah, I see that. Yeah. Nice socks, Frankie, nice socks. We know the trademark white outfit, white hat. Where did that get started? And that's your look, man.

Beverly: Very innocent. I think, you know, God has blessed us, man. And I say that very, very seriously. Seriously. It's - it wasn't done with, you know, I wasn't trying to be clever. Somebody said, "Man, you look nice with white.' In the beginning, the first four or five albums, it was all sorts of colors. And just over the years some of the friends said, "Man, you know, white looks best on you,' blah, blah, blah. And so I just started basically using white, but not in the beginning. The first five or six years, we - you know, I wasn't doing that at all.

Tavis: See, some folk listening right now thinking, "That's a trivial conversation.' No, it ain't. When you see Frankie Beverly in concert, if he walks out on the stage with anything other than his traditional white outfit and the white cap, people - wouldn't know what to do. You'd start singing and they'd still be - they'd be like, "Where Frankie at?'

Beverly: I actually wore a - red outfit, the other week, and it just blew people away, you know? It's the same sort of style, but it was red, and people, you know. But that's a good thing. Any time you can come up with things that people can identify you by - it's a good thing.

Tavis: You know what I love most about you? I love most about you, and I've seen this, as you know, I've seen you too many times to count over the years. And I have to get my Frankie Beverly and Maze fix at least three or four times a year. But I have seen you on many occasions, and we've discussed this privately. You've had some voice issues over the years.

I've seen you on any number of times hit that stage, and after the first couple of notes, I knew that you didn't have it that night where your voice was concerned. But two things always amaze me. One, you will sing without a voice. And sometimes, when you hit those notes imperfectly, you will still belt it out, which always amazes me. I mean, most people, I've seen people all the time who cancel concerts. You never cancel.

Beverly: No.

Tavis: You will go out and sing without a voice, which amazes me, but then, the thing that really kills me is, the audience loves you so much, when they hear that you're suffering that night, and this is rare, it don't happen all the time.

Beverly: Yeah, but it does.

Tavis: But when it does happen, when the audience hears that you ain't got it, they will sing every lyric to every song, and the party is just as good as if you were in full voice.

Beverly: I think you answered that. That's why I do - that's why. I mean, if I can't sing, then I can't sing, but I've never been in that position where I can't sing. The singing part is - that part you're talking about, is over the years, I found out, maybe, I'm gonna say 30%. The rest of it comes from down in here. I'm not the first one who's done this. Some of the - greatest artists of our time have had to face this under worse things than I have, so, this - ain't new with artists who aspire to be great.

I mean - I don't say I'm there yet, but I aspire to be great. I'm trying to be great, and to be great, you gotta get in the pits. You gotta get down and dirty. It's not gonna be nice for you all the time. It's not gonna be set up for you all the time. What are you gonna do when you get in that?

Tavis: Yeah, when your voice isn't there.

Beverly: And I think that goes along, goes back to that point I made before. You win more from the people than what you even know. You win a confidence, that, hey, man, you know, they're not playing around.

Tavis: Well, on those nights, I gotta get out of here, but on those nights, if you had ever any doubt that the audience was with you, on those nights, and they carry the whole show, I mean, you gotta know they're with you, then. Let me ask you right quick before you get out of here. I mentioned earlier that there might be somewhere down the road, not that you need it, 'cause y'all ain't doing bad without it, as we've already established, but might there be another CD coming at some point?

Beverly: Absolutely. I'm working on it now. You know, I've been working on this album. It's been, you know, these issues that I've brought up are - very real. It's very important to me to come out with what I need to come out with, with what I know that people expect from me. So that's - been the issue, and we're gonna take off next year, most of next year, and get this thing done.

Tavis: So I - better get my fix now, is that what you're telling me?

Beverly: Yeah. Yeah.

Tavis: (laughs) We've gotta talk when we get off the air about - where the upcoming dates are so I can get my fix now since y'all gonna be off for a year. I repeat, if you have never seen Frankie Beverly and Maze in concert, you must, when they come your way, go see Frankie Beverly and Maze. Frankie, glad to have you on the show.

Beverly: Hey, man. A pleasure. A pleasure.

Tavis: Glad to have you here. That's our show for tonight. You can catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching, and, as always, keep the faith.