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Gem of a Woman : The Teena Marie Interview

Teena Marie’s voice has become iconic. Her songs “Fire and Desire”, “Square Biz” and “Lovergirl”
are certified classics. She is a trailblazer in the music industry. She is singer, songwriter, and
producer. Not very many artists can claim all these titles. She’s had these titles before many of the
artists on the charts were born. She’s been nominated for four Grammys in her long career. She
was signed to Motown at 19 years old. She took ten years off to take care of her daughter and
returned to the music scene on Cash Money Classics, with La Dona, which was gold smash. Now
she is back with sparkling Sapphire. She took time to talk to True Artist Entertainment about her
life and career and family.

True Artist Entertainment (TAE) : When you were first signed to Motown, how did that feel?
Because you were very young.

Teena Marie: Yes, I was and it was very exciting because my idea of what a star was was seeing
Diana Ross and The Supremes on TV. So from the time I was little girl I dreamed of being there. So
to have that happen to me was dream come true.

TAE: Did they know what to do with you initially, being a white female R &B singer in the 70’s?

Teena Marie: (Chuckle) I think they did a good job.

TAE: I do to, but I was wondering if they knew how they were going to market you.

Teena Marie: Well, I was with them three and a half year, before I did my first album. I was
working in the demo studio producing my own tracks, working all different kinds of producers.
Barry (Gordy) kept saying ‘When someone brings me some songs as good as this girl sings, maybe
we’ll have something’. Then all of sudden Rick (James) came along and we starting working
together and that was a very magical time on that first album. After he produced the first album, I
went on to work with Richard Rudolph, who was married to Minnie Riperton. He and I produced
the second album. From the third album on, I was writing and arranging and producing my own
stuff.

TAE: Did you have to fight to produce your own stuff?

Teena Marie: No, I was actually on Motown before Rick, so I was working in the demo studio for
three and a half years before I did my first album. They were hearing my demos and stuff and had
time experiment and it turned out be a really good thing.

TAE: You are signed to Cash Money, which is a rap label. Did you have any concerns about
signing with them?

Teena: I did when they first called, but then when I found that they were starting the classic label
and they wanted me to be the first artist. They signed the album the way it was. They said ‘We
are starting a classic label and we want you to be the first artist’. So, I wasn’t going to be on the
rap label.

TAE: When La Dona came out it did well, after a ten year absence how did that feel?

Teena: La Dona felt great. The album went to #1 on the R & B charts and It felt incredible.

TAE: What was your favorite song on that album?

Teena: “My Body’s Hungry”

TAE: What inspires you to write songs?

Teena: My life and looking around at things I see , the people I see. What my friends are going
through. Different things I see in the world. Different things I am going through myself.

TAE: I have noticed that whatever is going on in your life you do put it out there.

Teena: Not all of it though. I do keep some things to myself. (laughs)

TAE: How long did it take you to record Sapphire?

Teena: Not long, I started recording a couple months after Rick passed. I was kind of on a
mission. A year. I had written “You Blow Me Away” and “God Has Created” years ago.

TAE: I was going to ask, if any had already been written because they have such a good sound to it.

Teena: What is your favorite?

TAE: The song you do with Smokey Robinson “Cruise Control”.

Teena: That’s the next single.

TAE: That is an awesome song!

Teena: I am glad to hear you say that because I just did the edit on it.

TAE: What inspired the title Sapphire?

Teena : Because Rick had called “Sapphire” on it was about Black women and their contributions
in society historically and it a really really beautiful song. It’s never come out, but it’s one of my
favorite songs that he ever recorded. I would always tell him ‘Wow, I wish this would come out
because it is a whole other side to you that people need to hear and see.’ He would always look at
me and say ‘You’re a sapphire too.’

TAE: You daughter, Alia Rose, is on one of the songs as well.

Teena: “Resilient” The last song on the album, “Resilient”

TAE: She sounds incredible. There is so much growth in her voice from when she sang on “La
Dona” to now. I was like wow.

Teena: A lot of people have been saying that to me. They say she sounds like a little angel. She
did most of the background with me on this album. She starting to get into her own. That was
awesome, to see her sing harmony. She’s been able to sing harmony since was a little little girl. So,
to be able to sing with own child, is a joy that I can’t even describe.

TAE: I know you have been sampled by Dre and the Fugees and I was wondering if you have ever
turned down a sample request?
Teena: My Motown stuff I don’t have permission to, I don’t get asked. I didn’t have my
publishing at Motown. All my CBS stuff like ,The Fugees and stuff like that they have to ask me.
They have to send the record to me and get my permission first. I was happy about the Fugees
because the lyrical content wasn’t degrading. That’s what I look at first. What do they do with the
song? And that it sold so well was just the icing on the cake.

TAE: Do you have any plans to tour with this record?

Teena: I on the road now. I just came off a cruise with Tom Joyner, The Tom Joyner Cruise. I
did two shows on the cruise, then I flew to New Orleans and I played The House of Blues two
nights. I am playing in Florida, then I am coming back here, to California play a show this
weekend.

TAE: What do you think has added to your longevity as an artist?

Teena: I feel love music, I feel love me music, I feel real passionate about what’s going on. I still
feel I that I have a lot to say. I always loved words. I was an English major in school. I love
poetry, I love reading and I love to take words and put them into songs.

TAE: During your ten year absence, did you still record music?

Teena: I didn’t for awhile, because I quit to raise my daughter. I did not want to be one of those
mothers that wasn’t a part of her child’s life. I wanted to raise her myself. So, that is why I was
away for awhile. I did not want to be the celebrity mom.

TAE: How has being motherhood changed you and your music.

Teena: I don’t know if it has changed me or my music because I’ve always wanted to inspire
people and I been very careful about the words that I put out there. So to motivate and not to
degrade and disintegrate human beings. I think it inspired me to be even more so like that, I would
say. She is just a wonderful wonderful girl and it is wonderful to watch her grow and give back and
see the things that give her joy.

TAE: What advice do you have to someone who is young and wants to be a singer?

Teena: To really really look at as a business. When I first started in this music business, I loved
music so much you could have sat me on the peer and I would have sang for nickels. That’s how
much I loved it. I never really looked at it in the early days as wow this is a money making
business. You can be taken advantage of. They told me I wasn’t a publisher and I didn’t know
anything about publishing so, I was like ‘I’m not a publisher.’ I didn’t know that it only takes $150
to open your own publishing company! It wasn’t until I got to CBS, that I became a publisher and
realized how much I had lost before that. So, I always tell young people that even though it is great
joy, and a wonderful thing in your life, you have to take care of your business and look at as a
business.

TAE: You were one of the few people that stuck with Rick when he went away they forgot about
him. Why is that?

Teena: He was my family. He was more like my brother than anything else. He was like a brother
to me. I was young kid when I met him. I knew him longer than most people. He was really my
family and you never turn your back on family. No matter what. We all a bad boy in our family.
Or bad girl. And they are really bad, you know what I am saying? They are just spirited and gifted
and when things go wrong you just have to be there for them.

TAE: How would you describe the Sapphire sound to someone?

Teena: I think it has a flow. I think it defiantly has a flow from beginning to end. I think you can
just play it and you don’t have to take it off. It flows together well. There isn’t thing depressing
on it, even though part of the time I was working on it, I was in a real sad place. It is not a sad
album at all. I think maybe because I was writing myself out my pain.