TONIGHT

• Home
• Video
• Podcasts/RSS 
• Local Showtimes
• Past Shows
• Blogs
• About the Show
• Tell Tavis
• Features
• Mobile

RELATED LINKS

• Ms. Headley's official site
• Q & A with Ms. Headley
• Article on Ms. Headley

E-mail a friend

Tavis: Heather Headley is a Grammy-nominated singer and Tony-winning Broadway star who, of course, starred in two of Broadway's biggest musicals, "The Lion King" and "Aida". I saw them both. Next week she's out with her second solo CD called "In My Mind". From the new disc, here is some of the recording session for the title track, "In My Mind".

[A film clip is shown]

Tavis: Heather Headley, how you living?

Heather Headley: I'm doing good.

Tavis: Nice to see you. You know, what's in my mind is, the next time you do a CD, you got to diversity your producers. I mean, Baby Face, Jimmy and Terry, Lil Jon and Shaggy. That's just not enough for one CD (laughter). You got to diversity.

Headley: (Laughter) It's just not enough for one girl.

Tavis: How did you end up with Baby Face and Jimmy and Terry, Lil Jon and Shaggy on the same project? On a Heather Hedley project, no less?

Headley: I know, I know.

Tavis: It's the "Aida" girl with all those people.

Headley: I know. Nobody's put it that way before, Tavis, and you hear me laughing. But I love versatility. I love finding, you know, great songs. It was just about bringing me these great songs that we wanted to sign and that's what happened. Everybody started bringing them in and I was like okay. But I agree. You see the list and you think to yourself, "How did Lil Jon hang in with, you know, Jimmy and Terry and all this stuff?" But it all works out in the end.

Tavis: It does indeed. I like diversity. I like versatility. I wonder whether or not you have ever have had or perhaps are having difficulty getting people to accept you as one who can do all of this. I mean to suggest there's no doubt about your talent. That's clear. But when people know you from "Aida" and from "The Lion King", what's the transition like, the journey like, from going from Broadway star to R&B pop sensation?

Headley: Right. I have to admit to you that I was a little naïve in that. I thought, oh, well, I do this Broadway every night. It's tough and it's hard. Maybe some of the hardest work ever for Broadway people. Oh, it's going to be easy doing, you know, like a CD. It's going to be fine. I think people just had a different view of what it was. You know, at first we were getting songs like, you know, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" (laughter) and it's like, no, and we're --

Tavis: -- I'm looking for Shaggy and Lil Jon, yeah.

Headley: Lil Jon, please? So it was very, very weird and I think that was something that we had to try to get people around. And within that, also to make sure that the Broadway side doesn't think that I've like totally left and gone a completely, you know, different route.

Tavis: How do you balance that? Let me just ask you that question. How do you balance that?

Headley: For me personally as a singer, I always want to be versatile just like all those guys are, to be able to sing a Broadway tune and be able to sing a jazz song and then sing an R&B song and a gospel song and everything else. Like the album has a gospel song on it and that's me. I don't like any -- do not pigeonhole me. Do not put me in a box. I will fight you to get out, you know? And I feel that way about my voice; that I have to be able to sing everything.

Tavis: You intimated something earlier that I want to pick up now when you suggested that you don't want Broadway to think you have just gone off the deep end.

Headley: Yeah.

Tavis: Why is that a concern for you and is that the reality of the Broadway experience? That if you are perceived as having gone too far from shore, that there's some penance you have to pay?

Headley: (Laughter) You know, I came from the Broadway world. That's where anybody who knows me knows me from. I did "Aida" and did "The Lion King" and Broadway, through Disney, accepted me and things went very well there. I think sometimes, you know, a lot of people come to Broadway. Like Hollywood stars go to Broadway to do the show and I think people have always said that I was almost like this homegrown thing. So I think, like with anything else, if you say, well, I'm going to go do this now, people are like, well, wait a minute. You're our little baby. You know what I mean?

So for me personally, it's kind of like I don't want you to ever think that I'm gone. I'm not gone. I'm just doing something different and then definitely will do another show hopefully and everything like that. But I think the Broadway world loves the diversity. I think they like it because the more diverse we are, the more people that will come in to see the show, different kinds of people and all this kind of stuff, you know. We're getting different audiences all the time on Broadway.

Tavis: Let me adjust the definition of diversity. In this conversation, we've been talking about diversity and versatility in terms of styling.

Headley: Right.

Tavis: Let me talk about it now in terms of the racial elements since we're talking about diversity. What's your sense of how Broadway is doing these days where diversity is concerned? I mean, you were a huge, huge star in both of these plays we talked about earlier. What was your experience like as a black woman on Broadway?

Headley: Well, you know, I was blessed because I was in three shows. Got blessed a lot. There was "Ragtime" that I did, then "The Lion King" and "Aida" and you could consider them to be, you know, majority black shows and so there was that diversity and two of those shows were done by Disney, "The Lion King" and "Aida". I had a great experience in that area. Now we have "The Color Purple" and we have a lot of other things going into Broadway.

I'm sure there are always ways to make it better and to do more, but I have to commend -- you know, there are a lot of shows that are coming into Broadway that are different. Not only black, but you have like Asian influences. You know, like "Madame Butterfly" and so many other things. Needless to say, of course, there can be more. And the casts are different colors and all that kind of stuff. I love those shows. That's what I like.

Tavis: You got some hit singles, so one could argue that the decision you made wasn't the worst decision you've ever made to leave Broadway and to do the R&B thing. But what's going on inside your head when you're trying to figure out whether or not you want to make this transition from something that you are really, really, really good at? Not just good at, but very, very, very successful at. What's the point of jumping? If there ain't nobody pushing you, why jump?

Headley: (Laughter) Right. I'm like I know this grass. This is good grass (laughter).

Tavis: Yeah, you know this. I got this. I can do this, exactly.

Headley: What is over there? No, no.

Tavis: Everybody knows the George Wallace joke. People say grass is greener on the other side. Do you ever turn grass over (laughter)?

Headley: (Laughter) But it's true, it's true. And you always see it and you think, well, I can do that. But really, it was something. I grew up in the Caribbean, in Trinidad. Before I knew about Broadway, I knew about Whitney Houston and CeCe Winans and that's all I would look at every Saturday morning. I'd be in front of the television like I want to sing like that. Ironically, the first movie I ever saw was "Sound of Music" and I just thought all movies had music in them, you know.

So when I was doing the show, I always had this feeling in me that one day I would love to do an album. One day I would just like to do it. I just wanted to be Whitney Houston for one day and just try it and see what happens. So when RCA came and said we'd like to do this album with you, I was like, okay, we'll try it. There have been some days that I've been like what was I thinking? But in all, I'm glad that I had the opportunity to do it.

Tavis: You said earlier that I had you laughing. Now you got me laughing. I'm thinking about you wanting to be Whitney Houston for a day and I'm like she ain't saying being Bobby Brown (laughter).

Headley: (Laughter) The old Whitney, the old Whitney.

Tavis: (Laughter) I love Whitney, but on any given day, I'm not sure you really --

Headley: -- the old Whitney, my childhood Whitney (laughter).

Tavis: You mentioned that you grew up in Trinidad in the Caribbean.

Headley: Right.

Tavis: One of the things we have in common -- my talent is nowhere near yours, but one of the things we do have in common is that, when you left the Caribbean, you went to a place called Indiana.

Headley: Yeah. Isn't that where everybody goes when you come from an exotic island? Isn't it?

Tavis: (Laughter) I went from Mississippi to Indiana, so I don't know about the exotic island, yeah.

Headley: (Laughter) A big exotic island.

Tavis: You were in northern Indiana in Fort Wayne. As my viewers know, I grew up in Kokomo and went to school in Bloomington, a big Hoosier here. So what was your Indiana experience like?

Headley: Oh, God, a slap in the face. I will tell you that the first -- I remember it was October when we came in. I had my little shorts on and it was sunny outside and I lost my mind and thought just because it's sunny, it can't be cold. I remember walking outside and the wind slapping me up side the head and I was like, oh, Lord, we are in the states and the snow.

School was a problem because, in Trinidad, with all due respect to the states, our schooling was different. There's a lot more discipline. You know, when a teacher walks into the class, anybody older than you, you get up and you say -- you know, you stand up. "Hello, Sir" or "Hello, Miss". So for the first few weeks of school, I was jumping up like every minute. The teachers were like we love you. Doing my homework, you know, like scared in class.

Tavis: (Laughter) Here in America, we don't do homework, we don't stand up when teachers --

Headley: -- you don't stand up when teachers walk in. I was like scared they'd -- you know, you still got paddles and stuff. But the schooling, I think, was hard. Just the difference in the culture, you know what I mean? I grew up where the village raised the child. You know, if I was walking home from school and I saw Sister Allen on the corner and I did not say good afternoon to her -- because she wasn't in her yard. She was like in her house and I could see the shadow of her head -- if you didn't yell, "Hello, Sister Allen", by the time you got around the corner home, Mommy would have the phone in her hand like "Um-hum, Um-hum, I got her, Um-hum, Um-hum." Walking in and "Why didn't you say hello to Sister Allen?" I'm like, "She was in her bedroom." (Laughter) But if I could do it over again, I would still live in Trinidad. I would still grow up in Trinidad.

Tavis: It's a great place. Not a bad place to go.

Headley: Have you been?

Tavis: I have.

Headley: For carnival?

Tavis: Not carnival. I was actually on a business trip, but I was there for three days and I got a chance to play a little bit. But now you're asking too many questions now (laughter). What happens in Trinidad stays in Trinidad. We'll leave that alone (laughter). The new CD from Heather Headley. I really got to go now. The new CD is "In My Mind" by Heather Headley. You'll love it as I do. Heather, nice to see you, and great stuff.

Headley: Thank you.

Tavis: Have a great year.

Headley: Oh, thank you.

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