♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ♪ We are the spirit of the age of Aquarius ♪ ♪ Age of... ♪ >> ♪ Aquarius ♪ >> ♪ A-a-quarius ♪ >> ♪ Aquarius ♪ >> The iconic and phenomenal Melba Moore, next on "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by the following.

At Wells Fargo, we are committed to diversity and understand our responsibility in supporting and empowering diverse communities.

Diversity and inclusion is integral to the way we work.

Supporting the financial health of our diverse customers and employees is one of the many ways we remain invested in inclusion for all today, tomorrow, and in the future.

American Petroleum Institute -- through the core elements of API's Energy Excellence Program, our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental and sustainability progress throughout the natural-gas and oil industry in the U.S. and around the world.

You can learn more at api.org/apiEnergyExcellence.

Reynolds American, dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against racism and discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

At AARP, we are committed to empowering people to choose how they live as they age.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> We are honored to welcome to "The Chavis Chronicles" one of the most phenomenal entertainers, phenomenal change leaders in the world today, Melba Moore.

Welcome to "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> As you can see, I'm so excited and honored to be here.

>> You're an award-winning singer.

But I want to go back to your beginnings.

You come from a family of musicians.

Tell us about your upbringing.

What led to who you are today?

>> Well, as many, many African-Americans, I started from a single-parent family.

My mother was an aspiring singer.

So, I have it in my DNA.

>> Yes.

>> And she got pregnant with me, and she moved from Birmingham, Alabama, to New York.

And she took her invalid mother to try to take care of her.

But I was raised by a woman who never learned to read or write.

The last place that she remembered being was Salisbury, North Carolina.

She wasn't even a sharecropper.

She was an orphan, illiterate, post-slave-- well, she lived like a slave.

Went from house to house, and she found her way to New York City.

And somehow my mother hired her.

So, she really raised me.

But I credit her for getting the Tony Award for "Purlie," because I was an orphan, illiterate maid who found a preacher.

Then my mother married a piano player from Newark, New Jersey.

He had a son and a daughter.

So, then I got a sister and a brother.

So, when you asked me about my siblings, I was trying to say -- we were so close.

I kind of stumble when I say my stepbrother because we were so, so close.

>> Yes.

>> His name was Dennis Moorman, and we lived in Newark, New Jersey, and he's passed away.

But he was an incredible piano player and university-level music teacher.

And then there was me.

You asked, "Were we musicians?"

I'm just taken over with music.

So, it comes from my stepfather.

My natural father is Teddy Hill.

He ran Minton's Playhouse.

So, this historical influence in my life about these things -- that came up during the '50s and the '60s.

So, my first Broadway show, once I got out of teaching, was "Hair."

So, "Hair" was the first Broadway show -- >> That was a hit, "Hair," on Broadway.

>> It was a huge hit.

>> Yes.

>> I wound up replacing Diane Keaton.

Broke all the rules.

A black woman played Abraham Lincoln, and it was a joke.

It was a parody.

But it was a series of things making statements for the first time in public.

So, I came up in this kind of civilly rebellious environment that gave us an opportunity to break out.

It was the first time -- you probably know.

We were not allowed to wear our hair natural.

As a schoolteacher, I had to straighten my hair.

>> Wait a minute.

Explain that again.

In Newark, New Jersey, as a public schoolteacher, you couldn't wear an Afro?

>> No.

>> That was one of the rules?

>> Well, unspoken.

But you know how the unspoken rule can speak so very loudly.

>> So, when the black cultural movement, "Black is Beautiful" movement, started, that was a phenomenal change.

>> Whoo!

Yes.

And part of it for me was moving out of -- having a real job, as my parents had told me, doing something to have a backup, to getting into the music industry.

One of the first people I met was Valerie Simpson.

And she was a new artist.

>> Yes.

>> But she was also doing jingles and studio work.

And we met, and we exchanged information.

So, that ushered me into the recording industry but as a backup singer for whoever the stars, recording artists, were at that time.

And one of the recording sessions, they were still casting for the Broadway musical "Hair."

It was being done by Galt MacDermot, who wrote the music for the Broadway show "Hair."

Make a long story a little bit shorter -- that's how I got my first Broadway show.

>> That's great.

>> You know, well, "Hair" was a huge hit, but it was about antiwar.

It was a peace movement.

It was anti-racial.

They let us wear our hair natural.

I had the biggest Afro in the world!

>> ♪ ...nation of moving paper fantasy ♪ ♪ Listening for the new-told lies ♪ ♪ With supreme visions of lonely tunes ♪ >> ♪ Singing our space songs on a spider-web sitar ♪ ♪ Life is around you and in you ♪ ♪ Answer for Timothy Leary, deary ♪ ♪ Let the sunshine... ♪ >> After "Hair," what was your next challenge?

>> One of the girls in the chorus of "Hair" reminded me that I didn't get that show by auditioning.

So, I still didn't know how to audition.

So, she gave me some contacts and some clues about how to audition, where they were, and the information was for this new Broadway show that was going to be a black show called "Purlie."

And she told me to do what you call "typecasting."

>> Yes.

>> That means you learn something about the character, and you try to look like it and act like it.

But I was telling her I was raised by a woman who never had any education.

She stayed in people's kitchens.

So, that's who I was raised by.

So, they thought I was an award-winning actor then, but I was just acting like Mama Lu.

>> ♪ He said, "No more scratching for a living" ♪ ♪ Like a chicken, pecking ♪ ♪ He's got the whole world figured out ♪ ♪ And even more ♪ ♪ I reckon the moon don't rise to light the sky ♪ ♪ The moon comes up just to shine on Purlie ♪ ♪ Purlie ♪ >> ♪ Dah-nuh-nuh, dah-nuh-nuh ♪ ♪ Dah-nuh-nuh, nuh-nuh ♪ >> ♪ My Purlie ♪ >> ♪ Dah-nuh-nuh, dah-nuh-nuh ♪ ♪ Dah-nuh-nuh, nuh-nuh ♪ >> ♪ You know... ♪ >> Anyway, I got the part and not just learned how to audition.

But that show gave me the Tony Award.

Once you get a Tony Award like that, then you're thrown into TV.

I got my own TV show with Clifton Davis.

♪ >> ♪ Ooh, I'd sacrifice for you ♪ ♪ I'd even do wrong for you ♪ ♪ Oh, baby, hey ♪ >> But I was also on "The Ed Sullivan Show," on "The Carol Burnett Show."

♪ ♪ ♪ >> ♪ Lately, I've noticed all my friends avoiding me ♪ ♪ And a guy who loves me up and said goodbye ♪ >> ♪ It's the same with me ♪ ♪ Let me tell you, girl ♪ ♪ My whole world is coming apart ♪ ♪ Falling in on me ♪ ♪ And I guess deep down I know the reason why ♪ ♪ >> Specials with Bea Arthur, "The Tonight Show," every major television show.

So, I was instantly a star.

>> Tell us how "Purlie" came to win all these awards, and you get a Tony Award for your performance.

>> The role of Purlie, the character was a Southern preacher.

He was trying to get his church back, and his family lived like sharecroppers.

They didn't own anything, and they owed everything to the company store.

So, he had this plot that he was going to get to get his inheritance that he should have gotten.

And Lutiebelle, me, was going to pretend to be Cousin Bee.

It was her inheritance.

And the basic thing was to get the church back and own and have a possession of the church and their community and have a little piece of the rock.

>> So, acting, singing, you know, converged in your career, and then you go off to TV.

>> Yes.

>> So, tell us about your early days in television.

>> Well, amazing.

And what's great about that is all of those TV shows are on tape.

You can see them now.

I also went back later and with my then-husband, Charles Huggins, convinced Phil Rose to put "Purlie" on tape.

That's why people can still see it now.

So, television was extremely important, of course, in reaching zillions of people, like the Internet does now, but also taking me instantly to all the major, major, major people in the industry and being thought of as a major young icon.

>> What are some of the projects that you're working on today?

>> Well, I have a brand-new album called "Imagine."

And it's spearheaded by my daughter.

So, it's my turn now to pass the baton on.

>> Is your daughter a singer?

>> She said she don't want to sing.

She said, "Ma, it's too hard."

I said, "Well, let me tell you how to be the boss, then."

>> So, she's a producer?

>> She's producing me.

She started her own recording company, and I'll be her first artist because I love singing, acting so much.

So, but it teaches me to focus on okay, how do you move to your next level of executive and pass the baton on, protect it, and learn from the next generation?

I mean, that's my reason for doing.

>> So, tell us about "Imagine."

>> Okay, "Imagine" is a brand-new album.

I didn't mean it to be spiritual, but I am spiritual.

♪ >> ♪ Can you imagine?

♪ ♪ No more hate ♪ >> ♪ No more hate ♪ >> ♪ We'd all be free ♪ >> ♪ We'd all be free ♪ >> ♪ Ooh-ooh-ooh ♪ ♪ Can you imagine?

♪ ♪ A place for love ♪ >> ♪ A place for love ♪ >> ♪ A place for peace ♪ >> It came into being because she and her Uncle Beau, which is Charles' brother, over the two years or more of pandemic kept bringing me these songs that he said he thought was great for me.

And she thought they were, too, and that I should try them.

So, one by one, I went into the studio, and then there got to be about 15 songs there.

I said, "Well, we have enough for an album if we wanted it."

So, she said, "Mama, what should we do?"

I said, "I don't know.

You've been bringing these songs to me.

Why don't we put them together and see if there's a synergy or sequencing?"

This really sounds nice.

I never listen to myself.

So, I've been growing.

Before, I was just a soprano with a very, very wonderful high voice.

Now that I'm older, I got the low voice, too, and so much more expression because of living.

And, of course, I have somebody besides myself to care about.

So, it has another whole dimension to it that made me see, "Well, who is this new person?"

And so, she said, "Well, Ma" -- she's grown up in the industry because of me and Charles.

So, I said, "Well, you have both of us to just guide you now, and you can take whatever it is we've learned over this time.

You see what the foundation is for any business.

Then you can decide what you want to do."

>> The relationship that you have with your daughter, and I think that's very interesting.

Well, talk about that mother-daughter relationship.

>> I don't want to make your show a confession... >> It's okay.

>> ...but it comes from being glad and grateful for the opportunity to have every day to try again, to make it right, and to be an example.

When sometimes we think we have success, and we're okay, we can just walk away.

You cannot.

And you can really understand that if it's your blood... >> Yes.

>> ...that needs to be taught.

And she's come in terms of saying certain things that, you know, "Well, I could teach her this.

Oh, okay.

Let me put this aside.

I know duh-duh-duh-duh."

And she's going through certain things because I'm a public person.

Let her tell you what it's like for her to go through so you can have her take this position that everybody's helped you to take, and then you can actually pass it on.

I think it makes such a huge difference that she's my flesh and blood, and we're in a broken marriage now.

So, this allows her father, myself, and us to mend fences because we want to desperately.

Nobody's making us.

We could all go our own ways.

We're all grown.

But we desperately want the best for each other.

And I think that's a great thing that happens.

You have an opportunity to repent, to mend fences.

You have a chance to be the solution of healing for humanity by your own example and your own experience.

>> So, I want to ask you about social consciousness.

Those of us in the Civil Rights Movement, everything that we did was enhanced and encouraged by brothers and sisters in the entertainment industry.

>> Right.

>> Can you talk about the importance of people in the entertainment industry like yourself also having a social consciousness about freedom, justice, and equality?

>> It's extremely important because I can see now from a personal point of view and a public point of view and a business point of view, music is extremely powerful.

Fortunately, I'm a born-again Christian.

So, I see through study and through revelation and inspiration God has a purpose for music.

It's to make things better.

It enhances.

It creates a whole environment and makes you say, "Ah, ah, ah!"

or "Ugh, ugh, ugh!"

And that's supposed to be used to enhance the community.

And sometimes we know that innately.

And if we've been brought up well -- I was, to be socially conscious -- you're taught to volunteer when you're young, and, as you grow, you see the connection, and you get more opportunities like I did to be with Jesse Jackson -- excuse me -- Reverend Dr. Jesse Jackson.

>> Yes, yes.

>> He used to say his "Keep hope alive" was my "Lean on Me."

You can see the connection and the power that we give each other, first of all.

Of course, we understand that immediately.

We see that we are empowered.

Then, you know, you must do the right thing with it.

You can curse and fuss and everything, and people will follow you.

Or you can hold it and say, "God, what do you want me to do with this?"

and see the power that that brings.

>> In some school districts, Melba, they are taking music and arts out of the school system.

They say for budget purposes.

Can you just talk about, from your own experience, the importance of giving young people an opportunity to explore the arts?

>> They have to explore it because it expands the spirit and the soul and the feelings and your ability to come out of yourself and just be happy or see what expression and emotion is.

They just do that.

That's what they do.

Like, if you eat, you get full.

That's what God meant it to do.

And so, it's necessary.

But, of course, we get to our own agenda, we keep cutting, cutting out, and cutting out.

And these things seem frivolous.

Like, you think playing and golf -- it's not frivolous.

You need joy.

You need to take a break.

God created this, and that's why he calls it recreation.

It literally re-creates you.

So, we need it.

So, if it's out of the schools, then it's up to people like me to provide other alternatives.

I'm not in the school system anymore.

I can't tell them what to do, but I can help somebody else provide it somewhere else, or I can go to schools that will accept me and say, "Can we help you put it back in your school?

You need it."

>> Can you talk about the importance of people learning the history of music and culture, particularly from an African-American perspective?

>> Well, especially since we came here as slaves, and people tried to say we weren't even human beings, some of what's left of that continues to be passed down.

And whoever's coming into the planet now only knows that.

So, they think there was never anything else.

And so, they don't know their own beginnings.

You have to have the history to find out what happened before you, to see what the connection is.

>> From your perspective, what is Melba Moore's best song?

>> My best song is "Lean on Me."

It's not the Bill Withers one, although that one's great.

It's the one that I first -- it was written by Van McCoy.

Now, Van McCoy is important because he ushered in the disco era.

>> Yes.

>> And he's a very, very prolific songwriter, orchestrator, recorder, musician.

But the first person I heard sing it -- you make me so excited, Dr. Chavis.

I'm so glad to be here.

I'm talking fast and giggling.

I'm so excited.

>> Well, we're glad to have you.

I see you as a person who has not only striven for excellence but attained excellence.

But once you get to excellence, you hold onto that glow.

>> The first person I heard sing the song "Lean on Me" was Ms. Aretha Franklin.

>> Wow.

>> So -- right.

So, I don't have to say anything for everybody to understand what an inspiration she still is.

>> "Lean on Me."

>> "Lean on Me."

And, of course, I couldn't sing it like her.

And I was just beginning to come into my own career.

But I kept singing it and singing it and singing, singing.

And it helped me develop the style that I have now because I was so inspired by the words and by her.

And I know that she's a woman of God.

And I was inspired to hold onto my faith and grow to the point where I actually became.

I don't credit her for this, but it was -- you got to begin somewhere.

>> Sure.

>> And when this thing takes firing, it doesn't ever leave you.

♪ Oh, somehow together, he-e-e-e-y, we'll make it ♪ ♪ Make it, make it, make it, make it if you lean on me ♪ >> ♪ Lean on me ♪ >> ♪ Oh, make it ♪ >> ♪ Lean on me ♪ >> ♪ Make it, make it, make it, make it if you lean on me ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ >> ♪ Lean on me, lean on me ♪ >> ♪ Said me-e-e-e-e-e-e-e ♪ >> ♪ Lean on me, lean on me ♪ ♪ Lean on ♪ [ Applause ] >> And then you see it catch other people, and they're saying, "Ah!"

Then you kind of get a glimpse of what God is giving you, and you hold onto it, and you get better.

It's like my vocal lesson, because as a voice and body mature, I can't eat or live the same.

And certain areas of my voice started to wane.

So, I changed my lifestyle.

I asked God what to do.

He said, "You can't eat that anymore.

You can't eat Popsicles and candy, and, you know, you can't smoke and drink anymore."

So, I stopped doing those things and replaced them with fish and dark greens and fresh fruit instead of sodas and all that stuff.

He said, "Pray more, pray more.

Exercise and exorcise.

You know what that is?

Drive the demons out and leave room for the Holy Spirit."

And so, the song has stayed with me and has continued to develop.

When I listen to the original recording, I hear the way I sang it.

I've kept the essences, but it's developed.

And some of the -- I'll call it "acrobatics" -- have increased.

>> I listen to people's testimonies about how your performance of "Lean on Me" has helped millions of people... >> Really?

>> ...who sometimes are facing difficulties in their own lives.

You know, we used to sing "We Shall Overcome"... >> Yes.

>> ...in the Civil Rights Movement... >> Yes.

>> ...in very difficult times.

>> Yes.

>> We really weren't overcoming, but we sang the song, anyway, to give ourselves hope.

>> Yes.

>> I know there was a time and still, even today, people listen to your rendition of "Lean on Me," and they find hope.

>> And I do, too.

So, I mean, to me, I think I'm not Baptist -- I'm baptized -- but it's the presence of God.

He keeps things brand-new, keeps reinventing them, keeps re-creating them in a way that you can witness it.

If I go and sing the song in front of somebody now, they can see the excellence in my physique, and it's not pride.

It's the presence of God and being humble enough to -- you don't feel like starting over every day.

>> So, you have an intersection between your theology, your sociology, and your musicology.

>> Absolutely.

>> I always ask our guests before ending, what gives you your greatest hope?

>> There is a God.

He wants it for us.

I focus on that so I know the details of what He's saying every day.

And you have to be a part of what's going on.

And it's very disturbing and very frightening, but you have to be part of the solution.

So, you have to be present.

But it teaches me He's -- I'm so grateful to have music as my work because it gives me a place to go away from some of the horror sometimes, too.

But then I got to make sure I'm there with those who are on the front lines who don't have any place to go and do what I can wherever I am.

So, you try to be a representative of the light, for real.

>> You were one of the performing artists who had a strong -- you were always a strong supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, strong supporter of racial justice, social justice, economic justice, environmental justice.

Sisters like you, Melba, helped generate that enthusiasm for those of us out there marching.

>> Yes, yes.

>> You know, we hear "Lean on Me"... >> That's our intention.

>> ...your voice.

It gives a lot of stamina so that we can withstand those strong head winds... >> Yes.

>> ...sometimes that we face.

>> Oh, yes.

>> Melba Moore, thank you for joining "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> Thank you.

>> For more information about "The Chavis Chronicles" and our guests, please visit our website at TheChavisChronicles.com.

Also, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by the following.

At Wells Fargo, we are committed to diversity and understand our responsibility in supporting and empowering diverse communities.

Diversity and inclusion is integral to the way we work.

Supporting the financial health of our diverse customers and employees is one of the many ways we remain invested in inclusion for all today, tomorrow, and in the future.

American Petroleum Institute -- through the core elements of API's Energy Excellence Program, our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental and sustainability progress throughout the natural-gas and oil industry in the U.S. and around the world.

You can learn more at api.org/apiEnergyExcellence.

Reynolds American, dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against racism and discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

At AARP, we are committed to empowering people to choose how they live as they age.

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