CSI MIAMI STAR: SOFIA MILOS

Sure making it in Hollywood is about being in the right place at the right time.  But then again, it is also about studying and perfecting your craft, marketing your image and doing an amazing job once you land the role of a life- time.  There is little  doubt that Sofia Milos is riding high on pro- fessional success…the hit CSI Miami and the much anticipated show The Border, which revolves around homeland national security and will air on the USA channel later this year.  But life for Milos is about more than a script and a role…it’s about making each moment count. 

 

Milos was born and raised in Zurich, Switzerland.  Later in years, she moved to Rome where she studied business and economics.  The passion she carries to both her on and off screen life can be credited to her Greek mother and Italian father heritage.  Combining the best of both old world cultures she developed a serious crush on the thrill of fine watches and the taste of good chocolate.  She is fluent in four languages: French, Italian and German and can stir up a decent conversation in Spanish and Greek and says she learned English from her first American boyfriend.  When she landed in L.A. she set out to conquer English and began working with some of the best dialect coaches in the business.  These days she speaks perfect English with- out an accent for acting purposes only.  The charm of her native language is something she never wants to lose or forget.  Talking about her zest for life and learning she says that she has the persistence and tenacity of a warrior, with the sensitivity and sensibility of a child when it comes to appreciating all that is spiritual and beautiful. 

“One of the things I enjoy besides bringing a film or television character to life that moves the audience is cooking and painting.  Mostly I paint women and faces,” she states.  “I love representing and painting women because women are smart and beautiful.  Like a fascinating, resilient, never dying flower women never cease to amaze me as we have endless amounts of courage and potential, intelligence and strength not only for ourselves, but for all the men around us who seek our unpretentious strength through them.  Women are men’s greatest validation.  I admire my mother, my grandmother and beautiful girlfriends because of it.  Every time I represent a woman in a film or role, I get to explore and communicate her world, culture and heart through my passion, my eyes, and I hope my breath between the words spoken.  I used to freelance in fashion design for women’s clothing, which I did in my late teens while modeling for 10 years across the world for every top magazine you can name and every designer you can think of.  Hence, my flair for clothes, though I would live in my birthday suit all day long if I could.”

Milos is a breath of fresh air.  Our interview was down to earth and to the point…reflective of her independent, strong and yet vulnerable and spiritual personality.  It is easy to see why this beautiful, talented and evolving young woman is making such a splash in Hollywood.  Her desire to make her life the best and the world better—gives all of us inspiration to do the same.

Her first acting role on TV was in 1992 on the new WKRP In Cincinnati, as a nun.   Soon she was seen across the screen on shows such as Friends, Mad About You, Caroline In The City, Curb Your  Enthusiasm and The Sopranos  among others. Then came CSI Miami.  Milos nabbed the role of Columbian detective Yelina Salas in 2003—an appearance that could have easily been a one shot deal.  But true to her nature the ‘woman warrior’ emerged and by 2006 she had turned an initial guest role into a regular character that not only boosted the already skyrocketing ratings, but created a character that the audience wouldn’t let go.

ST: Starring on one of the top rated shows on prime time television is such a coo. How did the CSI gig come about?

SM: During season one the show was looking for a new female to be matched up with David Caruso—a possible love interest.  They created a new role with- in a three-episode arc.  I went in and read like many others did and got the part that day.  Television is about ratings and how well you communicate with the audience…especially a show with the outreach of CSI—seen in 180 countries.  It comes down to the actors and people in their living rooms watching us.  It’s scary and wonderful.  It’s a blessing to be part of such an incredible show.  Of course, when I went on board the show was already doing amazing with an audience of about 16-17 million viewers.  Then I did my three episodes and the ratings did exceptionally well.  The audience enjoyed the chemistry between my character and David’s.  I have to thank the viewers for making me an integral part of the show because after those three episodes they asked me to stay on. 

ST: We’ve seen actors on successful shows start believing their own press, leave to pursue superstar status and then  fade away.  Why give up something so amazing for uncertainty?

SM: As an actor you take a job not knowing what you are going to be in for.  You hope for the best.  You hope you will do a great job and bring some- thing important to a show and, that the show will bring something important to you.  Some actors don’t calculate a ride of four, five, six, ten—years.  It’s harsh to judge anyone because it’s very hard work.  You have to really want a certain lifestyle.  For me I am very appreciative.  I love being called back season after season.  That’s what is so amazing in television…what power an audience has and how much involvement they play in a show.  The audience literally kept my character alive.  We have an incredible  season finale on May 18th which I’m a part of and it’s exciting.  I’m honored that they keep asking me to return.  

ST: Although your days are busy taping shows, you make time for charity work.  

SM: Being on the show affords me a platform to use my celebrity and voice to help others.  It gives me power and ability to gather a group of people to fundraise for things I really care about.  I just came from New York and did the American Italian Cancer Foundation.  Other foundations I give my all to are Citizens Commission of Human Rights (which is against psychiatric drugging of children).  All this hype about ADD and ADHD.  Of course I understand the problem, but I encourage people to get informed about drugs they give their children so they are in a place to be able to make a more educated choice.  There are side effects to these drugs that are not publicized.  This drugging of children is in my opinion a self-pocketing business.  Is drugging our children the solution?  I don’t think so.  I think finding a solution to the problem is the solution.  I support CRIMINON, a rehabilitation program for prison inmates.  It finds ways  to raise their self-esteem so they choose not to commit crimes.  The belief is that if we invest more time, effort and money on rehabilitation we have a better chance of helping people stay out of prison.  While inmates are in prison we encourage them to do an extension course which changes their lives.  They become better human beings working to the good of their families and their communities. 

ST: Tell us about your life away from Hollywood.  

SM: My mother lives in Rome.  I lost my father three years ago unfortunately.  My mother is my life and my love and we talk every day on the phone.  I have an older brother who is married and at age 23 had his first child.  We really chose different paths in  life.  Now he has a teenager.  It’s really funny between us.  He sometimes envies me and my jet-setting and I envy him and that he has a beautiful family.  Sometimes I work 16, 20 hours a day.  It’s difficult, but the incredible thing is that I get to do what I love to do.  I get to bring words and characters to life.  The rewards are so great.  I am living out my passion.

By Suzanne Takowsky

Photo by Pierre Andre Transunto

MEGAN FOX

In Hollywood, there are brats, there are bitches, and there are sons of bitches—and then there’s Megan Fox, who is none of the above.

 Look for her name in The Smoking Gun, an online clearinghouse for celebrity mug shots, and you’ll find nothing.  Do a Google search for “Megan Fox” and “scandal,” and you won’t find one verifiable tale of drunkenness, drug abuse, public crotch-flashing, or cruelty toward people of lesser fame and status.

Fox, who will turn 23 on May 16, has been working in Hollywood since winning a small role in the Olsen Twins movie Holiday in the Sun (2001).   Since then, she’s appeared in hit films such as 2007’s Transformers and the Lindsay Lohan vehicle Confessions of  a Teenage Drama Queen (2004), not to mention TV series such as Hope & Faith, starring Kelly Ripa and Faith Ford.  Outside of her onscreen performances, she’s gained the most fame for her beauty—glowing skin, slim but curvy figure, and flowing black hair—that gives off an aura of sex, like steam rising from a hot tub.  She’s also attracted attention for her longtime relationship with former Beverly Hills 90210 star Brian Austin Green, who’s more than 13 years older than Fox.  In other words, she’s gotten public notice just because she’s stayed with the same guy for months and months.

Not that Fox is all shy and old-fashioned.  She simply got a lot of wild partying out of her system early.  As a kid in Rockwood, Tennessee, and St. Petersburg, Florida, she displayed a rebellious streak that sometimes disturbed her mother.  “I’ve done drugs,” she’s admitted. Then added, “That’s how I know I don’t like them.”  When she was 18 she loved to go out to strip clubs like The Body Shop. “I don’t do that anymore,” she said a couple of years later.  

By the time she was 21, she was confessing to Maxim magazine, “I never go out. I don’t like drunk, sweaty people whose only goal is to have sex. I stay home and play computer backgammon. Every once in a while I go to Color Me Mine to do pottery. I’m not wholesome, but I’m trying to behave.” 

Fox has even downplayed the traffic-stopping looks that have helped to make her famous.  At the Golden Globe awards in January, Fox disagreed with an interviewer who praised her beauty: “No, no. I’m a doppelganger for Alan Alda.”

Fox does have vices, of course.  She’s a sloppy housekeeper. “I’m horrible to live with. I don’t clean,” she’s told FHM magazine. “My clothes end up wherever I take them off. I forget to flush the toilet. Friends will tell me, ‘Megan, you totally pinched a loaf in my toilet and didn’t flush.’”

Then there’s her sex drive.  “I have the libido of a 15-year-old boy,” she’s said.  But that’s a part of her life that she doesn’t live out where the world can see.   When Fox is in public her clothes stay on.  (They may be tight and clingy, but they stay on.) 

“We will all laugh at gilded butterflies,” says a tattoo on Fox’s back.  Fox, a Hollywood golden girl blessed with beauty and fame, may be gilded—but she’s also grounded.

Hollywood’s Biggest Brats 

What’s up in Hollywood these days?  With your average Joes losing their home, struggling to pay the light bill, desperately seeking a job to support their families, or having all they worked for go up in smoke thanks to some creep running a Ponzi scheme, you would think that rich and famous Hollywood-sters would be thanking their lucky stars for the privileged lives they lead.  BUT OH, NO!  Day after day, night after night, the circus continues with antics from the bad, the spoiled and the just plain stupid.  As these brats go on making headlines, we hope  that they’ll either get some professional help—or just friggin’ grow up.

 

Diddy’s Done Lost His Mind

What the hell is Diddy doing, giving up his Miami crib to Rihanna and her abuser, Chris Brown?  Yeah, Sean John, we heard your statement to Ellen DeGeneres about letting them have space to work things out.  Ellen kicked your ass.  You sounded like a moron.  You have daughters of your own.  Would you like one of them to “work things out” with a guy who had beaten her unconscious?  Come on, Diddy.  We thought you were cool.  Now it seems that you’ve moved from being a great entertainer and our ultra-favorite millionaire entrepreneur to taking your shot at domestic-violence psychologist.  Dude, what were you thinking?  You seemed like the kind of guy who would protect a woman against that kind of violence.  Now you’ve started a bed and breakfast for abusers and the battered to “work out their problems”?  WHOA!  If you are the stand-up guy we thought you were, you wouldn’t even consider putting Chris Brown and Rihanna in the same house to work things out.  Brown needs to be behind bars and Rihanna needs to see that her victimization will continue until she stands up to this ear-biting bitch.  And you, Diddy, need to go back to making music and selling clothes and vodka.  Your secret, true feelings about domestic violence are staring us in the face.

When Bad Gets Boring

We’re just plain tired of Lindsay Lohan.  Why, Lindsay? Why can’t you get back on track and stay out of the lenses of the prying paparazzi—not to mention prosecutors?  Please go back to the days when you were a fabulous and talented actress, making headlines for your accomplishments rather than your bad-girl behavior.  Drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, DUI tickets, car chases at high speed on city streets, bad boyfriends, a strange girlfriend—if you were 18, we could say that you were young and dumb; but at 25, and in the spotlight since you were 8, you should know the “praise em’ to heaven, then drag em’ to hell” Hollywood cycle.  If you’re tired of the Tinseltown rat race, take a break and move to the mountains of Wyoming and vedge for a while.  Get some rest, read a few good books, contemplate your future and ready yourself for your next evolution.  Few actresses on the big screen have your talent.  Why throw yourself in front of a bus and destroy your career while you are “finding yourself”?

Rage-a-holic

Seal, Seal, Seal. You’re spitting fire and doing everything but fistfighting with photographers outside restaurants and clothing stores. Meanwhile, your smiling and good-natured wife, Heidi Klum, looks on like a deer in the headlights.  Seal, you’re married to one of the world’s most beautiful women—who, by the way, is a walking, talking money and baby-making machine.  She can’t stop gushing over how fabulous you are and how happy she is.  So give the bad behavior a rest, Seal!  Sit back and enjoy the ride.  You are one lucky guy.  Look, we understand that you don’t like to be followed and flashed by every photographer around.  We wouldn’t like it, either. But a wave and a smile take only a second and assure us that you know how to handle whatever goes down.  Your actions also show us whether our Heidi is in good hands with a good man who can take charge of a situation or the prisoner of an irascible hulk who can’t control his temper.  It’s your choice, Seal.  Make the right one.

Bad Boys, Bad Boys

Alex Baldwin, Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, Sean Penn, Bill O’Reilly:  We know it’s difficult to be nice all the time—but at least try, OK?  All those nasty images of you guys grabbing, hitting and slam-blasting people who get in your way… put them in the past and move forward.  At least Christian Bale apologized for his rant and rave at a crew member on the Terminator: Salvation set.  After a tirade peppered with “F— you” and “F— you more” and “I’m going to kick your f—— ass,” Bale came up for a breath and took responsibility, calling his behavior “inexcusable.”  That’s what we like—a man who is man enough to take the heat without melting under the pressure and come out looking like a guy who made a mistake instead of an ass who uses his clout to push others around. 

Dead in the Bong Water

Michael Phelps—you did good in the water bringing home all that gold.  Now maybe it’s time for a crash course on dry land about how to separate good friends from wannabes and users.  You might be young, but you’re going to start aging fast and accumulating gray hairs on that smooth, chisled chest of yours if your stupid mistakes and bad judgment calls lead to losing millions on endorsement deals .  We aren’t saying you have to give up the right to bong or guzzle, but you do have a house, condo or apartment, don’t you?  Dude, party there and invite friends you trust! Or if you must party down with the plebeians, have security men sweep visitors for cameras and confiscate cell phones.  High-rolling A-listers do it all the time. You can’t afford mistakes that interfere with your income.  We suggest that you hold tight to your “Golden Boy” rep and not acquire a new one: “The guy who won a jillion Olympic medals and then blew it.”

Hollywood Couples Who Rock!

 

Hollywood romances come and go and often our favorite star hook-ups don’t even make it to the altar even after all those highly publicized exotic vacations, blinding bling presents and all that public smooching and butt grabbing they put us through.  Worse—others who “I Do”—in the end don’t—and matrimonial bliss ends up mere a flash in the pan, with a way too cordial divorce (nobody buys) and it’s onto the next love of his/her life.  February is ‘lovers month’ so we just had to pick our favorite couples—some married some not—nevertheless, public opinion seems to be that we’re all rooting for these match-ups.  More than that—we’re certain the angels in heaven will weep and here on earth all hell will break loose—if they don’t make it!

 

HEIDI KLUM & SEAL

If ever there was a Hollywood couple with a story book beginning that took them straight to a snappy “I do” and all the way to forever and beyond…it’s these two.  Forget gorgeous, everything about them is CUTE including their three kids, Leni, Harry and Johan (all under age six)!  With their fourth year of marriage comin’ round the bend what we like is that they cuddle and froth over each other no matter where they are. They dig each other and we dig them!  German-born supermodel Klum announced to the world that she and Seal were engaged at the end of 2004, and what a proposal it had been!  Skiing in British Columbia, the Nigerian born/British raised, R&B superhunk hired a helicopter to take them to the top of a 14,000 foot glacier to do the asking.  They married on a beach near Seal’s home in Costa Careyes, Mexico months later in 2005.  Klum is proud as punch to this very day over landing the 6’4” superstar stating to InStyle magazine, “Sometimes I lie in bed and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, there’s Seal lying next to me.  What’s he doing there?  I get a smile on my face immediately.  Some people wake up in the morning and turn over when they see their mate. That’s not us.  Our honeymoon period is definitely not over.”  We hope not!  The duo first locked eyes in late 2003.  Klum had abruptly ended a long-term relationship with a man who had to have been crazier than a loon to let her get away.  Klum soon discovered that she was pregnant by the bad boyfriend and was ready to go it alone as a mommy warrior, when she accidently hit Seal’s radar screen. The two started kicking it with some serious dating.  What the heart wants the heart gets and when Klum gave birth to her baby daughter in 2004, Seal was standing right by her side and promptly assumed the role of the baby’s father.  Two more kiddies (sons) followed zippity split and now the family lives happily ever-after in Beverly Hills where all rich, happy people live.  When the Grammy Award winning singer—who by the way has a degree in architecture is not globe-trotting around with his stellar concert career (15,000,000 million-plus albums sold worldwide, his sixth album SOUL was released this past November and produced by music icon David Foster), and Klum is not overseeing her ever-growing dynasty of modeling, clothes, jewelry, fragrance, pitch person, glittery Victoria Secret winged entrances

—not to mention a sixth season on Bravo channel’s-Emmy nominated hit show Project Run—they veg-out  with the kids in parks, on swings, going down slides, to the beach and having the time of their lives.

 

Jim Carrey & Jenny McCarthy

These days our favorite funnyman seems to have more on his mind than making us laugh.  Since Carrey’s high- profile romance with Jenny McCarthy took off, he has been in over-drive supporting her and her year-old son Evan, helping McCarthy champion for causes close to her heart, namely bringing awareness to autism intervention of which she is a mighty advocate.  Through her efforts McCarthy  has shed light on the fact that autism is an environmental illness.  Executive officer of the UCLA Hospital System, Dr. David Feinberg, referred to McCarthy as “my hero” citing her efforts to raise awareness to the condition.   He also recognized the Canadian-born  superstar Carrey as being a tremendous supporter of the treatment center as well.  As a former Playboy Playmate, and chosen by People (USA) magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world, not to mention being singled out as Sexiest Women in the World,  McCarthy has shown us that with dedication and perseverance nothing is beyond a miracle as in the case of her son, who is experiencing miracles at every turn in his recovery. Amazingly, working within the medical community fighting for changes in both diagnosis and treat- ment isn’t that far out of the ballpark; McCarthy was enrolled in nursing school before Hollywood came calling.  Using her quick wit and unforgiving sense of humor, she has become an accomplished author lending a laugh to times in her life that were less than glamorous— namely pregnancy. On a more serious note her best-selling book “Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism,” cut to the chase on a mother’s heartbreak.  With McCarthy’s work, the federal court system recently conceded that vaccines could contribute to autism, something many parents of autistic children have considered for years, due to the fact that  by two years of age…most children have received somewhere in the area of 36 immunization shots.  Looking like a man on top of the world, with the woman he loves by his side, photos crop up everywhere of the smooching, hugging and handholding couple.   With zero need to prove his status in the movie industry and already richer than rich, the Golden Globe winner Carrey seems at home and in bliss with McCarthy, her son and his beautiful teenage daughter  Jane, from a previous marriage.  Although the Carrey/McCarthy romance has been in overdrive since 2005, and they live together, marriage plans are on hold.  And as McCarthy told Ellen DeGeneres on her show last year—we don’t need a “piece of paper.”  We agree.  It looks to us like the deal is already sealed.

Ashton Kutcher & Demi Moore 

What we like is that Demi Moore showed women that it’s never too late to go for the gusto of a younger man.  What we like even more…her choice of Ashton Kutcher.  A former Hollywood party boy, seemingly over-night Kutcher went into adoring husband mode and step-father figure to Moore’s three children by Bruce Willis.  To top that, and we can…Moore, Kutcher and Willis are all friends, and offer an amazing example to divorced couples everywhere that with love for our children and commitment to letting bygones be bygones with regards to divorce…it is possible to merge a past  and present husband friendships.  In an interview Moore told Harper’s Bazaar that she never understood the fascination people had with their 15-year age difference.   “People made such a fuss about my relationship with Ashton. You would have thought they had never seen it before. Age wasn’t what I was thinking about, but to the rest of the world it was a very big deal.”  Not to be left out of the new and ex melting pot comings and goings, Kutcher told his side of the story noting that having Willis around was something he had to work on.  ”I just had to get over my ego, which was screaming, ‘This guy used to sleep with your woman.’  And I listened instead to the little voice inside that was whispering, ‘This guy loves and cares about your woman.’  Once I did that, it was a cakewalk.”  It’s not fair…Moore seems to look younger every year and when she unveiled a ‘10 bod’ in the Charlie’s Angels sequel is was apparent that she works her butt off—literally to stay in amazing shape.  In an industry that shakes off women over 40 like a dog shakes off fleas, Moore continues on and credits her youthful look to maintaining a youthful outlook on life.  “If you think you’re old, feel that you’re done growing, then you’re going to have a stale life force around you.  I’ve always enjoyed being childlike and placed an importance on being silly and playing and remembering not to take myself too seriously…One of the most important things about anti-aging is really in your thinking…”  For a while it seemed like their interest in Kabala was at the root of their marital bliss, but according to reports the couple are not regular attendees as of late and red string bracelets are nowhere in sight. Although we’ve watched Demi progress in her craft over decades, we’ve had less chance to see Kutcher do his acting growing thing.  He stated, “I’ll probably never be the best actor in Hollywood, but I hope to be the hardest working,’ and that’s something considering that 12 years ago, he was a biochemical engineering student at the University of Iowa.  Although they married in 2005, they act like two dovey little birds.  Our most excellent pick for a Hollywood Honey couple that we  are certain will last.

SMOKEY ROBINSON

 

A Music Icon For All Ages

Music headliners come and go over decades, and for babyboomers when we talk about music greats of “our day” our kids don’t have a clue who we mean.  Not the case with Smokey Robinson.  With the man comes a legendary name and unmistakable voice as cool for our hiphop kids as for us in our rock & roll days. 

Why “Smokey”?  

Fame in showbusiness usually means a trumped up stage name that slides smooth and holds its own on billboards.  And a name like “Smokey” sure seemed to me like a breezy pick by some quick thinking publicity agent.  Not so.  Robinson acquired “Smokey Joe” from an uncle because believe it or not…this Detroit born and bred city boy loved cowboy movies.  By his teens “Joe” was dropped and Robinson evolved into a cruisin’ kinda guy.  Ever since the name “Smokey” references one of the most legendary and influential songwriters, record producers and mega talents the music industry has ever seen.  Married for  6 years, he and his wife Frances were friends for more than 25 years before the love bug struck.  While Smokey makes music, Frances turns the interiors of multi-million dollar homes into a dream come true for their owners as the founder of the successful firm, FR Interior Designers.

It began in 1955 when Robinson started a band the Five Chimes that morphed into the Matadors.  The Miracles were born around the time Robinson met songwriter/record producer Berry Gordy in 1958, and within a year the Robinson/Gordy music making team was firmly in place.  When in 1959 Gordy founded Tamla Records (later incorporated as Motown) the Miracles were one of the labels first groups signed.  In 1961 Gordy made Robinson vice president of Motown, a position he kept until Gordy sold the company in 1988.  Robinson and Gordy just celebrated their 50th year anniversary, an event marking the dedication and friendship of two men who stuck it out through thick and thin to make music history.  

With more than 4,000 songs to his credit, R&B wouldn’t be the same without the smooth, sexy ‘come over here baby’ croonin’ of a Smokey song. 

And, let’s face it…men on every continent owe Robinson gratitude.  If it wasn’t for all that slow dancing, smooching and cuddling to Smokey’s music—the majority of the male population would have spent most nights in bed—ALONE!

ST:  You were titled “King of Motown” for stacking up more than 37 Top 40 hits.  As a songwriter and record producer what’s your take on music today?

SR:  It was a great Motown ride for me.  Growing up Jackie Wilson was my #1 singing idol.  I auditioned for Jackie’s managers and Berry was there.  He was a songwriter and music producer for Jackie.  I sang about five songs I’d written and Jackie’s managers didn’t care for our band.  We were four guys, my voice was high, we had a girl in the group, were young, and they didn’t think we’d make it.  Plus, they thought we were too much like The Platters, the top group in the world at that time.  Berry heard our songs, liked them and after we finished, introduced him- self and started to work with us.  Berry taught me how to professionally write songs so they made sense.  Every- thing was on one track…no remixing.  We were all in the studio at the same time.  It was tougher being a music producer then.  Now with computers musicians are on separate tracks from vocals and it’s mixed a million ways.  The music business now is very sophisticated, but there are pros and cons.  The pros are a cleaner sound, with more options. The cons are that back in the day we were in the studio together, it was like a studio concert.  We played off each other and I think got a better feel of the music.  I think kids now still listen to songs we recorded then because it’s music-music, and that never dies.  No matter when it’s written, lyrics and melody have to mean something when people hear it.  Contents of a song stand the test of time.

ST:  When you say Berry taught you how to write a song what do you mean?

SR:  I could always write, but Berry taught me the importance of allowing lyrics to flow.  A song is a short movie, short story, short book with a beginning, middle and ending that tell a tale.  You might not necessarily end it…you might want people to make their own conclusion, but you offer enough details so they can draw that conclusion.  That’s what a song is.

ST:  You’re a legendary performer who travels the world playing packed venues.  Millions come to hear you.  Your songs are a walk down memory lane.  We love them but do you get tired of singing them?

SR:  I can’t speak for others, but every night I’m on that stage my songs are new to me because I’m having a ball.  When I go to work I have a great time.  I don’t do a concert for people…I do it with people.  We’re singing and dancing and having a party.  Many nights after a show people come backstage thinking we’re going to have a party and ask…”hey, where’s the party?”  I look at them and say, “hey man I just had the party.”  After a show I’m ready to go home or to the hotel and relax, watch TV, and unwind.

ST:  You’ve received numerous awards over the years from a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award to being a Kennedy Center honoree and receiving a degree of Doctor of Music, honoris causa from Howard University.  Looking back was the road rough getting here?

SR:  At times it’s been rough.  There’s always ups and downs, peaks and valleys.  I speak at churches, rehabs, schools, gang meetings and tell kids wanting careers in music or sports—sure some people with big dreams make it, but millions with the same dreams don’t.  If you’re going to make it in my business there are many ups and downs, NO’s, doors slammed and a lot of rejection.  If you’re prepared to withstand that, then it’s a great life.  I’ve been in the business for 50 years and rejection still goes on for me, but on some level rejection keeps you grounded.  I’ve seen hundreds achieve notoriety and think the world can’t do without them.  That’s a mistake and that’s why you hear one or two hits and they’re gone.  It’s not about ego.  Success happens through the grace of God, and you have to give glory to God for it.

ST:  What’s this I hear about you being an entrepreneur in the food industry?

SR:  The food line is “Soul in the Bowl” Gumbo & Red Beans & Rice.  I’ve eaten in the most soulful kitchens in the world.  These are my recipes.  In 2004, Leon Isaac Kennedy brought the idea to me and now we’re partners along with his wife, and a silent partner.  The line took off and is in Vons, Albertsons,   Safeway, Pavilions, and we’re coming up with some new dishes as well.

:::Suzanne Takowsky

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