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Exclusive: Melba Moore Shares Untold Stories & Sings Live! 🎶 | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
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May 30, 2025
Legendary Tony Award-winning icon Melba Moore joins Sway In The Morning for an exclusive interview you can't miss! 🎶 Watch as Melba shares untold stories from her incredible career, including her groundbreaking moments on Broadway, her rise to music fame, and the challenges she's overcome along the way. In this heartfelt conversation, Melba reflects on her journey, pays tribute to fellow legends like Phyllis Hyman and Freddie Jackson, and reveals insights into her lasting impact on the entertainment industry. Plus, don't miss her stunning live performance of "Falling" and the debut of her new single "No Filter," produced by Terry Hunter and George Pettis! 🎤 Melba also gives the scoop on her upcoming meet-and-greet in Brooklyn on May 31st and her special performances at the Blues Alley Jazz Club in Washington, D.C., this July. Tune in now to experience the magic of Melba Moore, the timeless star who continues to inspire generations. Subscribe to Sway’s Universe for more exclusive interviews and unforgettable moments with your favorite artists and icons! #melbamooreinterview #actingcareerhighlights #broadwaylegends #inspiringperformers #tonyawardwinner CHAPTERS: 00:00 - “I’m Falling” Live 05:01 - Melba Moore on Broadway and Impact on Black Actors 17:51 - Instagram Insights 18:43 - Importance of a Solid Team 20:03 - Characteristics of a Great Team 21:24 - Navigating Different Versions of Yourself 25:25 - Entertaining Groupies: A Reflection 26:35 - Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame 29:04 - Death by Temptation: A Discussion 29:27 - Live Performances vs. Acting with Melba Moore 30:20 - Melba Moore on Diet and Lifestyle Changes
View Video Transcript
0:00
come on man give it up for me no more i can't do that mama what just happened right there give it up for me no more
0:07
she blew you out i told you wait till I get warm wait till you get
0:13
warm falling [Music]
0:18
i'm falling [Music] i'm falling
0:25
[Music] i love a high note come on i see i can't
0:32
do that with you though oh that's all right okay you can sing back up i got you Melville i got you can we sing this
0:39
one i'm going to read this one yeah oh yeah oh yeah
0:45
[Music] seems like my life has finally come
0:51
together everything that
0:57
goes suddenly feels so much better
1:04
it's the things that you do someone like any other
1:12
[Music] just when I thought I could never
1:18
love another my part
1:25
i'm falling yeah i'm falling
1:32
[Music] i'm falling in
1:38
love with you Mel i'm falling i'm in love with you sh oo
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[Music] you know finding myself constantly thinking of you
1:53
come on Mel talk to me i don't want to love you
2:02
sing to me girl come [Music]
2:07
on inspiration [Music]
2:13
i never want to let go never want to let go [Music]
2:20
come on Sh
2:27
you ain't falling you left hold on i'm falling
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[Music] i'm falling in love with you Melba and you
2:39
know what what i'm in love you in love with me too oh yes sway Melba sitting in a tree okay I
2:46
[Music] thought I
2:53
would never tried before i could never win
3:07
fall you going to hit that note in a minute you know the one I'm talking
3:13
about i don't want to do it too soon it's a long That sounds different all
3:19
right [Music] that's live already that's live y'all
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wow [Applause] [Music]
3:43
i'm [Music] falling up and I'm falling
3:50
[Music] and it feels so
3:56
good like I hope that it would
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[Applause] [Music]
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[Applause] and I'm falling in love
4:21
that's live let me get my feet on the ground
4:28
and stand [Music] upend more
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the legend Broadway movie
4:42
and she was ready yes thank you so much thank you running
4:48
over wow moore coming to Brooklyn May 31st make sure
4:54
you're there she'll be performing come on go to eventbrite.com she's coming to Brooklyn May 31st she'll be performing
5:01
my gosh if it ain't already sold out oh my gosh melba welcome to Sway in the
5:06
morning Melba oh thank you thank you thank you i hope you know I respect you wow yeah i was getting ready okay yeah
5:14
you are cuz it's it's early in the morning uhhuh and usually you know you're in the studio you have a chance to rehearse and warm up and do it one
5:21
little section at a time and if if you don't like what you did you can come back the next day or whenever you think
5:27
you're ready but you don't get to do that with Sway okay no no but yo we got to come live you come ready you got to
5:32
come ready if you don't Hey if you get if you stay ready you ain't got to get ready yeah melba come on i love it melba I
5:41
think you and I feel like the two of us can duet you're going too far no no he can
5:48
do anything he wants to honey thank you you put me on his radio show and let people hear me all the way live that it ain't memor come on and it ain't memorex
5:55
heather see me Heather this whole morning cuz I I saw I saw I saw a post
6:01
cuz you know I had did a duet with Melanie Fiona and and and Cynthia Revo
6:06
and and I saw a post on your Instagram said I'm looking forward to singing with Sway so I got all excited i got my warm
6:12
water right it helped you a lot he said "Thank you i need
6:18
see." And and so and so thank you for making that dream come true my whole family is tuned in right now and we've
6:25
been big fans of yours uh for years you know your career has been golden um when
6:31
I look back and I think about some of the milestones in your career some of the people you've had a chance to work
6:36
with and you continue working and you continue celebrating you got a big meet and greet May 31st go to eventbrite.com
6:45
it's going to be in Brooklyn all right you're going to be at the Blues Alley Jazz Club in DC July 24th and 25th which
6:52
what y'all heard tonight was live when this morning i feel like I'm in a nightclub absolutely that was live and
6:58
when I go back and you know I'm a kid of the 70s so I grew up with Sherman Hemsley you know oh yeah yeah sherman
7:06
Hemsley come on come on i just remember too that uh Helen Martin remember that show 222 come on yes yes and she sat in
7:13
the window there yes i forgot to always forget to mention Helen Martin because she's an icon too helen Martin who
7:19
played Pearl uh no she played uh um what's the name she What show you
7:26
talking about pearly my Pearly oh you said remember 222 that was a TV series
7:33
227 what was it 227 227 oh I got the wrong yeah the lady in No no no no that
7:38
that's a good reference but I think she played it was either Pearl or Rose it was her first Oh in her character in the
7:43
show yeah she played Yes but she was in that play along with uh Robert Gill
7:48
robert Gillon robert Gillon did the uh the video version okay but the the uh Broadway version was done by Cleon
7:55
Little cleon Little the Blazing Saddles blazing Saddles was the first movie I
8:00
ever saw as a kid in the drive-in and that man Cleon was playing a lead role
8:06
right at a time where black actors were not getting lead roles and that's that was one of the importances of Pearly um
8:14
Phil Rose who directed it he did Raising in the Sun he really opened the way for black people on on broad on Broadway do
8:22
you remember who Diane Sans is diana Sans diana Sans tell us well she was a
8:27
serious actor and she she did the movie of um Raisin in the Sun with uh um Azie
8:34
Davis oh Aussie Davis okay and Ruby D okay she played uh Bonita okay wow i
8:39
love this i love a history lesson yes talk to us she she died very young she didn't get to get her roses so So we're
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giving it to her today just saying i'm grateful I'm still here no but more Come on you ain't just still here you out
8:51
here showing off mhm i see the outfit now I'm a black or white baby yeah I see
8:57
you come on like a pistol over here when I say Diane
9:02
Keaton what what comes to mind for you oh the Broadway show Hair Hair which is another thing that opened the way for
9:10
just everybody to have a chance it was about hippies and when I came into uh uh
9:16
hair I first my first work in this industry was as a backup singer because
9:21
I ran into kind of on purpose Valerie Simpson who was doing voiceovers and uh
9:27
booking dates and that kind of thing she was starting to write music and everything for for Mottown as well uh
9:33
but um let's give Mela Moore some water here man you can't just have her singing like this and not giving her some water
9:40
rip that tag off one of the recording sessions u doing
9:45
backup for um with Valerie was for a gentleman by the name of Galt McDermott
9:51
he wrote the music and was the music director for the Broadway musical Hair and they were just wide open they said
9:58
they were still looking for strong black singers and they invited everybody on that recording session to come and sing
10:03
for the director and the produ producer of the play but Valerie said she wasn't going cuz she knew they didn't pay no
10:08
money and she was going to write hit records for Mottown and make some money i said "Oh my god they'll teach me how
10:14
to act on on the stage right at they thought I was an interesting person now basically." How old were you at that
10:19
time uh oh come on now you was like a teenager no okay keep going keep moving
10:24
i was grown okay go ahead keep it moving keep it moving keep moving that's how I
10:29
got in the show uh but they left it open for anybody to do any role so they had a
10:35
series of people doing the female lead her character was named Sheila and one of them was Diane Katon she left and
10:41
they kept looking for people so one of the black girls said "How come I thought you said this was open how come you don't let a black girl try for the
10:46
role?" I said "Well we didn't think of it." That was Jerry Ragny and Jim Rao who were the two leads but they also wrote the book so they said you know Mel
10:54
can try for it if she wants to so they trained me for the role i tried up for um matineese and I got the role so but
11:01
the point is I replaced Diane Katon yeah that was huge though right gosh how how did your success you feel
11:08
like impacted Broadway as a whole for um black actors not at all really what no
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everything did it I think independently all the different um producers producers
11:20
and writers and u playwrights each one made their own mark and their own it didn't really open the way for anything
11:26
else but what happened was while I was in there uh I've been in the show for a year and a half that's a very long run
11:32
for a Broadway show and so one of the actors was saying "Remember you know this show is not going to last forever
11:38
ever you need to find something else to do." I said "Well I've been going to all the open mics i don't know nobody else
11:43
in Broadway so I'm trying to see if I can get me a record deal." So one of the actors told me about auditions for Pearly because I I wouldn't have I
11:50
didn't have an agent or any anything really kind of got coincidentally I won't call it an accident so uh she said
11:57
"Well this you have to try to look like the part." So when they see you they have an idea if you write for it so she
12:04
said the the the character Ludy Bell Gussy Mary Jenkins was an orphan illiterate domestic from the backwoods
12:10
of the South well as it turned out because my mother was a singer and she was gone all the time I was raised by an
12:16
orphan illiterate domestic oh wow really well as many of us were really because
12:22
our our parentage is from the south and we originally were slaves and some of us kind of fell through the cracks and
12:28
didn't get an education found our way somehow up north and worked for different families so I just lapsed into
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my the person who raised me I call her Mama Lou and I thought it was interesting that my character's name was
12:42
Ludel wow seemed destined right so you know everybody thought I was acting i
12:48
mean had studied acting but but I was just doing my heritage so I'm just saying God is good and it's kind of
12:54
accidental and I got into it and but that once I got into the show and got
13:00
the Tony Award then I was invited to do everybody's TV show i was on Ed Sullivan
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Johnny Carson everybody's show so that made me instantly known by everybody
13:11
gave you that kind of exposure yes it put me on the map literally and then what so then then you and Clifton
13:17
started doing the show too correct uh yes i'm trying to think yeah was it
13:23
while I was still in it was it still in parley i think I was still I'm not sure exactly
13:29
when it's getting to be a real long That's all right now we got I got the information right here no we But you
13:35
y'all did a variety show it was in the 70s so I think I think was it was probably right after Pearling and Cotton
13:41
Comes to Harlem right after that yes that was the first little movie that did
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yeah but I I didn't really call it a movie career i mean I had a really nice role in a more recent one of the
13:52
Fighting Temptations cuz I'm proud of that one cuz I was in there with Miss Beyonce you was there with Beyonce come
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on that came out she was a tall one yeah but but did did Beyonce was Beyonce
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familiar with you in your career when y'all worked when you were offset and you got a chance to hobnob i'm I'm not
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sure because we didn't really hobnob okay she really really really sweet person though i know she told me "I
14:17
heard you could hit this long note." She asked me to hit this long long note i hit it for She said "What do it again."
14:23
[Music] I I did it again she said "Do it again." She made me do it for about three times
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that's about you know the length of our conversation
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three what do you think she was why what do you think Heather why would Beyonce want to do it it's just her her mom
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probably told her about you and your history and Beyonce um you know
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everybody's always complimenting her on her you know her perfection if you will for lack of a better word and she
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probably marveled at what you did you know one time all right cool twice maybe you lucky three times is like yo this
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person really really did it so she that was that was admiration if you ask me well in my opinion um she ought to know
15:06
I mean she's an incredible singer with incredible range and diversity but how you can do all that and be an athlete
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like she is and and dance like that i would have been had called the ambulance you know the ambulance
15:20
no but I think too though I mean for her skill set it is incredible but I think we were all before you got here we were
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all talking about in the time when you were were making music full-time and doing your thing it was hard i mean they
15:34
they were legitimate singers out there you know who had to just stand flatoot and sing everybody couldn't make that
15:41
cut it's just that's why y'all's legacy is what it is because we grew up while
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they were frying chicken and making potato salad y'all's music was the soundtrack for us and those same women
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yourself uh Stephanie Mills Shaka Khan Auntie Patty Legendary GL it's all
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Glattest Night it's all embedded in us because y'all stood on those pillars and
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your voices nobody could imitate it i mean people try but y'all birthed all of
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these singers now each one of the persons you mentioned they have a unique sound that's all they don't sound like anybody else no none of y
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your songs came on the radio each one of you we knew exactly who it was you weren't trying to sound like anybody
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else you know and so it's love there and and props i don't want to take anything away from Martha Franklin and Diana Ross
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either but it was very distinct sounds what do What do you think of like right
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now including yourself you got shows you see Diana Ross is on tour you see
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Patty's on tour Patty Leel Glattus Night and Stephanie Mills yeah are you excited
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about Absolutely it's a new day we have so much more diversity in terms
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of marketing ourselves mhm it was just up to a few radio stations a few managers and a few agents and if you
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weren't in a certain genre the young gen the new generation coming up there wasn't anything for you no there was no
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pathway made for you you have a show so I can be on i can be here and uh D Nice and uh so many other
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people um my my songwriters and producers uh um one of them is Janice Dempsey one of them is uh um George
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Pettis uh Terry Hunter um they come to you to bring new music and they have
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followings in what we call followings now it's just not uh Broadway or R&B or
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um it's there's so many you know one person can have a million followers that's right damn yeah so you you've
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created um a mechanism so that we can still exist and we don't have to depend on one little neighborhood radio station
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that's right man melba Moore is here let's go to your Instagram we want people telling you about her Instagram
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do you are you active is that you on your Instagram say his name say his name ron Richardson
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hi Ron ron what up ron ron's pretty he got you looking really hip cuz this dude bearing but he's good this dude be
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liking everybody's uh I be seeing your name across all the social media daddy Kane everybody it's like I was like "Wow
18:17
this is dope." Like but that's what a team does yes but he can't sing like me right he can't run no okay okay no you
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sing like me you ain't got a career ahead of you brother better get in the radio start talking stop singing um but
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get some help so so you have a team you're my help yes yes you could teach me how to sing you helped me and I Okay
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I'll keep playing you got a new song I'mma play thank you all right but can you talk about like through the ages yes
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what did you always have a solid team mhm no I um but I always had God okay
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amen so I had no clue what I was doing but I told my father my stepfather that
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he wanted us to teach school and have what he called a real job because he was a musician and a black male and you know
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back in the 40s and the 50s the time when he was coming up so I said "Well Daddy I love teaching i'm really good at
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it but I want to see if I could be a performer like you and mother you all seem like you're having so much fun."
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Yeah right i want to have some fun at what I do too so he started taking me around and meeting agents and people and
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that's how I actually got into the to the um industry but I didn't have a clue if I was going to be successful or not i
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I just had a love for music because then once my mother married my stepfather and
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they were performers music I had no music in my life before i didn't know if I could sing until I was 10 years old and for you to be the instrument that's
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very very very very late but uh since music became the centerpiece of our lives we all studied piano i I studied
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music then I taught music wow you was a teacher as well so So I'm an educator
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now so So I guess that means I'm going to be a perennial student which means is I respect you thank you wow i appreciate
20:04
what makes a great team today yes what in your opinion what makes your team great what do you need to have a great
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team me you know why why because I look at each person to see how has God wired
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them and what do they want to do and let them go out and see what they want to do
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see if they can bring in some projects and how they do it so it's like a um a team of independent workers that all
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feed into one but however they're wired so because I I never really had well I
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had some good management but I'm not a man i don't know how to do that yeah mhm but I know as an artist and as a person
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how to be with people that you need them so you try to pay attention to who they
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are and what they are and then see if they can do something um that works and
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Ron keeps bringing in projects uh uh my daughter starts starting to bring in projects her name is Charlene now um uh
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Angelo Elerby is Angelo Elby yes give that man a round of applause imagine we
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had him on the show as well he's working on projects so and you you
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know Angelo yes now you know Ron uh so you know they are very individual type
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you can't put them in a a lane even not much less a box right so they worked
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their own way and we worked the best we can to coordinate everything well you got
21:26
228,000 followers on your Instagram you realize that quarter of a million
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followers on your Instagram follow Melba Moore citizens we want to get more followers for her today follow her at
21:37
light it up Melba Moore melba with all of those followers it kind of brings me back to um when you won the Tony Award
21:44
for Pearly right and then you spoke about how you had all of these different press opportunities and it feels like
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more and more of the world is falling in love with you and oftentimes what I will
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find with those in the public eye is that while there all these folks they don't even know have such a strong
22:03
feeling towards them the folks that they do know start to change start to feel uncomfortable with all the attention
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they remember all the different versions of you and then that can create I don't know a bit of a clash because you have
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these two different worlds did you experience that absolutely and how did you navigate it what did you experience
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and how did you navigate um um looking back on it I think um I just still try
22:30
to listen to them as who they were and we realized that um oh from what they're
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saying um this is kind of strange to them so like I I remember my stepfather
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was all even I was with him on on his deathbed he wanted me to be with him because he was my stepfather and we
22:48
didn't always have each other he wanted me to know what a difference it made in his life because I knew what it was like
22:54
not to have a father and so I treated him in a certain way and I always let him know what he what he meant he said
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he didn't say it on his deathbed but pretty much just before that he was always disappointed that I didn't stay
23:06
teaching after all that was after all you done
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yeah you didn't teach but I still love you and he was an entertainer i would I would have thought he would have
23:17
understood that um and then the different aspects of different people in my family who um I think there was kind
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of like a um envy with with my brother he was a
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performing artist and um I think he wanted to play with me but we kind our
23:35
styles just didn't go together and um he was like always a leader of whatever group that he was in but he I he
23:42
couldn't lead me and I couldn't I didn't want to lead him but would it just
23:47
didn't go together so and then I think I probably did as a person I grew so much
23:54
so fast as a result of what happened to me becoming from a private person into a
23:59
star overnight and had having to make all those adjustments like coming here i was nervous as I my voice is going to be
24:05
okay or not that changes you you were nervous coming up here you Melba more i'm still talking kind of fast and loud
24:11
oh okay still nervous me too Melba i'm glad you said it damn it i couldn't I was just thinking the same thing i was
24:17
nervous too i was nervous about singing too i told you not to not to be nervous
24:24
about you could have cut some of the nerves down i feel better Melba i'm glad both of us are nervous right now i feel
24:30
good now but I think it it changes you and makes you grow in so many different ways that
24:35
[Music] um you if I'm going to be compatible with my close and personal friends I
24:42
have to make the changes but but but I want to know people that I'm a public person so it's my privilege
24:49
and my job to learn people and continue growing at that and understand that
24:54
these opportunities now put me in another age so I can't look at people the way I did before except to to be
25:00
open I think and say well what's going on now and how is it being expressed now and do I fit in and that's what part
25:08
probably makes me nervous and to say well if I do well you know I I I dare to say the
25:15
world has to fit in to you you're Melbour Moore we we got to fit into what
25:21
you've already laid down for decades I'm I'm curious too with that I I thought that was a great question because now
25:27
you're in different audiences and you're on different stages now yeah and with that comes maybe a different kind of
25:33
groupy cuz I can imagine you had a lot of groupies oh yeah when you were coming up right yeah um did you ever entertain
25:41
groupies like outside of the performance entertain them what do you mean like go on dates oh entertainment entertainment
25:50
entertainment i'm No you didn't do that okay okay i'm
25:57
just curious Melba you know you look great you know and Oh well thank you okay yes yes yes i didn't know what you
26:02
needed you still get that but when now it's a whole new audience I'm sure you still get a lot of that type of
26:08
attention right oh yeah you mean romantic yes yeah yeah from all ages
26:14
well they're all younger than me now so i guess I'm going to be a cougar huh yeah well yeah you won't be alone you're
26:22
a cheater all right or you said cheetah or cheater cheetah
26:28
cheetah melba Morris is here we celebrating this amazing person in her in this amazing career you know I I I'll
26:36
be remiss if I didn't mention Cat Williams man I saw that clip you know when when when you got your star on the
26:42
Hollywood Walk of Fame and welldeserved and welldeserved and Kat is just such a
26:47
generous person um because people think you get these stars and it's for free
26:52
and you just show up and but I really didn't know how it worked but Ron my partner once again he went through the
26:57
whole process and and it took several years and he he told he probably told me something about it but I was focusing on
27:03
what I was doing so I didn't really pay attention so I didn't really know how it worked until he let me know and then
27:10
when they could send he told me what it cost like 75,000 right 75 75 it used to be 25
27:18
when Every year it goes up every year yeah cuz I remember when it was 50
27:24
it used to be 5,000 to get the Hollywood Walk of Fame 75,000 so when you found
27:30
out the price what did you say well it was not just the price it's just the whole process um they don't just let you
27:36
in there because you're popular or whatever there certain um criteria criteria that you have to meet i said
27:42
"Oh my goodness." I was devastated uhhuh i mean in shock really and I said "Oh my
27:49
goodness." And I I have I have I'm starting to stutter i I haven't met Cat
27:54
mhm so I didn't know what kind of a personality he was or anything and when we got to the Hollywood um Walk of Fame
28:02
celebration and he was there i was standing there looking at him really kind of trying to take it all in yeah
28:08
yeah and I'm sure I just stood there and cried yeah that was your first time meeting him in person it was the first
28:13
time good man what a beautiful gesture man that that's that's godly that's godly what did it feel like for you to
28:20
go through that ceremony and receive those accolades
28:26
um my trust in God was was was right that it would lead to I didn't know what
28:32
would lead to that but it would lead to me having a healthier life hopefully being a good good example doing the
28:38
right condom you can do anything you can be naked you can you can curse you can do anything you want to m but I thought
28:44
he wanted me to try to set some standards and and to do some community service work and try to be a good
28:49
citizen not just to enjoy being a star and that's um a recognition that says
28:56
whatever you thought being a star was whatever they think it is you a star yeah that's what's up melbour is here db
29:03
you want to jump in yeah this this might be my only time where I get to ask you this question Miss Moore because I got to watch Death by Temptation the other
29:10
day with uh you and Sam Jackson written and directed by James Bond you were starring with uh uh uh a bunch of other
29:17
people that were in that film you know a lot of great film but um you also had the soundtrack the song at the end of the soundtrack too Face to Face which is
29:23
a dope song that Oh that's written by Janice Dempsey yes do you prefer the Broadway live aspect or you know being
29:30
on stage rehearsals and all of that or do you kind of like the kind of scaledback acting jobs like Death by Temptation where you get to play
29:36
somebody else but there's no music or performing involved it's just the character i think I prefer the live because it's more demanding of you like
29:42
if you don't do a good take you can do it again and again and again and again i love it as an art form but I think it's
29:48
something exciting live whatever it is is always more challenging so you you
29:53
you have to get ready you can't you know can't go there you you know I know sometimes I would slip out of character
29:59
and my director Phil would say "This Ludy Bell is not from New York." You know you and you can't be yourself you
30:07
So I really think it's more challenging to try to be someone else live in front
30:13
of somebody and you don't have a chance to do it again so I think live whatever it is wow throughout the decades Melba
30:20
have you had different um means of coping with nerves or anxiety
30:27
yeah mainly a diet and lifestyle change huh because the um vocal mechanism first
30:34
of all you you you think you're singing with your your vocal cords in your throat it's with the whole mind and
30:41
whole body and I'm finding like sometimes earlier now I've built up the stamina i would have to stoop down to
30:47
get the long hard high note and just stay there i can stay there all day but if I didn't stoop down I couldn't
30:53
couldn't do it i don't quite have to do that anymore but I have I I can't eat potato chips and you can't eat potato
30:59
chips can't eat potato chips i can't I can't eat um chicken fingers and stuff ma'am I have some turkey wings this
31:06
morning had that brought do you think that hurt my vocals yes don't blame it on my turkey wings you lucky she cuz I
31:13
curse your ass out don't blame my turkey wings for that voice this morning [Â __Â ]
31:18
turkey wings it wasn't no damn turkey said it melba said it melba said what worked for us
31:25
i can't eat turkey wings i'm just saying trying to blame it on you way but I
31:31
I maybe it's because I'm getting mature i Okay all right i can't eat turkey wings no more
31:38
okay okay turkey wings are banging ome can you cook are you a cook what is your
31:43
I don't have time to cook no more tell them so who cooks for you uh who whoever's down the street at the store
31:50
whoever is down the street at the stop so if you don't have turkey wings what's
31:58
like your favorite plate like what's your your go-to meal um baked or steamed
32:03
salmon okay yum that's that's And you can't eat all kinds of fish well I can't anymore
32:09
um um arugula maybe lettuce um spinach
32:16
um live salads you need the the live greens yes uh lots lots and lots of um
32:22
purified water um some of the um there's a new drink called I
32:28
shouldn't say the brand name but it doesn't have any uh preservatives in there no sodas and stuff because they
32:34
have all kinds of chemicals and stuff in it and now it goes right to my throat mhm so but if I eat the right thing I
32:40
can sing like I did this morning man you sound great you might be hungry but you sound great
32:46
[Applause] i do be hungry i know you do that look that's a bird man bird food that bird
32:53
food but I don't be fat but look at you you got a You got six packs right here
32:58
melba keep opening her jacket at me Heather how I'm supposed to I didn't mean it that way she just wants you to
33:03
flirt with her he's a big flirt however you mean it Melba you're right i'm lucky to have someone want to flirt with them
33:10
thank you no absolutely i'm staring at you know what I when I look at you Melba
33:15
and I mean this with the most respect no you don't chill brother
33:21
i want to bang you out girl that's what I like about and I mean this with the
33:26
most lipstick okay so let's hear how you finish this hole okay all right when I look at you Mel when I look at you Melba
33:33
Moore did your voice change i'm sorry he got some base in it
33:39
i don't even know where that came from Melba i think of that scene and fall in the music video oh yeah you know when
33:46
you do the shoulders you know what scene I'm talking about i do you mind can you do a little bit of the shoulders for me
33:52
falling I'm doing the shoulders y'all you can't
33:58
see it but Mel doing the shoulders beautiful okay oh there you go
34:04
right there reel up reel up keep them on their toes bro fall off the shoulders on me yo yo
34:16
can Can we talk about um now that I got you here I might as well get it all off
34:21
um a little bit more with Freddy Jackson freddy Jackson
34:27
is somebody who I feel is under acknowledged absolutely i agree he's a error in himself i agree people do not
34:35
talk about Freddy Jackson who is a really nice person by the way as well he is amazing man i tell you and he's very
34:42
very funny did you know that funny yes he's hilarious i did not know that he used to come in Melbours all the time i
34:47
met him at a restaurant in Harlem yep yep that's I met him in there he would just sit at the bar and crack me up yeah
34:54
funny a lot of times I couldn't work with him because I would be laughing so much i said "Just hold it just a second
35:00
till I get this note out." Right right he would have me on the matter of fact we used to play drugs on each other they came around to my apartment when I lived
35:06
on Central Park South and I played a trick on her i put on this crazy outfit
35:11
i don't He was coming around to He knows our daughter too mhm and um I just
35:16
opened the door and I looked so ridiculous he fell out on the floor in the hall i said cuz I'm funny too
35:25
Freddy one time I was at this party and uh it was a R&B party right they were
35:30
celebrating R&B vocalists and Freddy was standing outside the party and I'm you know I'm walking up you know the guy at
35:39
the door hey Sway hey man come on in i said okay cool but you you know who that
35:44
is right who was standing outside freddy Jackson right and I said why is why is he not they wasn't letting Freddy in the
35:51
party right really i don't think they knew it was Freddy Jackson wow and so
35:56
they were trying to get me in and I said I I refuse to go in that party before
36:01
that man walks in this party otherwise you know Was he by himself did you He might have been one other person it
36:07
wasn't He usually has like a bodyguard or something yeah he might have had one other person with him and um they let
36:12
him in and I was Well because of you i don't think because they realized who he was i won't say it's because it's me you
36:19
know yeah cuz Freddy got slim you know he had got slender that's right he was very plump before yeah and he had got
36:25
and had You were talking about his voice yes this uh I'm trying to think of the song
36:31
you got to listen to this song and just listen to the riffs that he does i don't know how he can even get that many notes
36:37
in one riff you know the song we could look it up if the title is it you are my
36:43
lady you are my You are my lady not that version mela starting to tell
36:50
the truth this what I'm here for hey man she entertained you the first song sway
36:55
is over that was the That was the turkey wing remix right there the turkey wing remix
37:00
you You got that DB let's see if we can hear that let me hear turkey wing remix yeah we got Melba Moore here i'm going
37:07
to ask every question i got the right one because there's Okay one song he does this incredible riff on
37:14
Freddy Jackson man i'm look up did you work with Luther as well oh wait hold up let's hold up let's have a Freddy do you
37:20
mind if we do a Freddy moment i want to say I'm right
37:28
words in the way i just want to show my feelings for
37:38
[Music]
37:44
[Music] you moment with you
37:54
yes you should know [Music]
38:04
you are my lady i'm singing background by the way
38:10
[Music] you sing background on this song oh my god wow you are my
38:17
lady you're all I'm living for
38:25
there's no way that I can resist
38:31
your precious kiss
38:36
girl you've got me [Music]
38:46
so you stay with me that's you
38:53
[Music]
39:00
that's right ba got the moon that's That's good man good that was a
39:06
wedding song for a long time so he had obviously you are my lady rock me tonight have you ever loved somebody jam
39:12
tonight love is just a touch away and I don't want to lose your love which was another great um ballad by him shout out
39:19
to Freddy Jackson we got L on the line from Hollywood California l what's up L
39:24
we got Melba Moore in here what up L hey hey hey hey hey uh good morning everyone
39:30
i just want to All right um I was there at your ceremony so congratulations on
39:36
that and I always love to see someone deserving um not saying that it it marks
39:41
anything that anyone getting a star is less deserving but it's love to see when someone is is truly honored um that
39:48
deserve it i had a um question about the Clifton Davis show um you talked about
39:54
your nerves i I just want to know how much of impact it had on you breaking out of your
40:00
shell and the the other question was um there's there's two you know industries
40:07
you have your comedic side and and the music side um those those two families
40:15
as you would say how how much did it impact you throughout your career uh are
40:20
you saying you said the comedic side and the music side yeah yeah dealing with
40:26
comedians and um dealing with music artists um I I haven't really dealt with
40:32
a lot of comedians probably the only one that I had a lot of working relationship with was Flip Wilson flip Wilson wow
40:40
salute to Flip Wilson jersey City New Jersey uh Gerald Dean geraldine gerald Dean
40:47
right baby come on man flip Wilson right my god so I I got a lot a chance to do a
40:55
lot of comedy things mom's Mely oh Mom's Mly yes okay imagine I used to be on
41:01
concert tour with Mom's Maybelly i I opened for her wow what was she like my life like you know what I mean by that
41:08
like I know she's very Well she was very much older at that time okay and just very sweet and matter of fact she was
41:15
one of the guests one of the regulars on our TV show Clifton of Mine uhhuh i think she was she was the um the
41:21
landlord land lady no but she was just a sweet nice lady okay did y'all did Did they pay a lot
41:29
back then because when people thought if you were on TV you was gonna be rich right did it pay well
41:34
okay damn you said Yeah twice that's right i'll say that three times yeah it paid well paid very very well were you
41:41
always great at managing your money cuz we always hear stories of folks you know and entertainment i was great at
41:47
managing my money but my money managers weren't they stole it all i got uh accountants and lawyers and and
41:55
they really stole everything they stole it all yes so I I wound up having to start over because of management okay
42:02
how did you find out tax time like apparently they were stealing without you know when it's time to pay the rent and they said you evicted what oh very
42:11
seriously and they had left town and they left yeah yeah that was one of my downfalls um and it became it came
42:19
because of financial ruins right i mean but it was also around the same time that Clifton and I broke up you know
42:25
like when it rains it falls yeah it pours sorry will Smith says something
42:30
recently with Heather and I were talking to him and he said he he measures people greatness by seeing how they get up
42:38
after they lost it all that's a good way to measure because you're going to fall most likely you don't have but I think
42:45
because my parents always had terrible things about say about the industry and it was you know that before you're
42:52
coming in so and then you have I don't know this love and you have I know now I know you
43:01
have the presence of God you when you're following your heart he's telling you something and he's not telling you're going to make it he's saying just try
43:08
just try so with that you know you could fall yeah but I've learned how to fall really quick that's why I go to the gym
43:16
you better come on here you better stay come on man i love it cuz you standing
43:22
tall now in 2025 come on come on you got big shows coming up citizens you want to
43:29
see her give it up for Melbourne Moore May 31st she'll be at a meet and greet in Brooklyn tickets are available at
43:37
eventbrite.com and then July 24th or 25th she'll be at the Blues Alley Jazz Club in Washington DC l from Hollywood l
43:45
thank you for your call bro also I have Yes and me again thank you for your contribution to the arts go ahead i'm
43:52
sorry thank you citizen Brother go ahead Mela you want to say something i was just going to say that I have a couple
43:58
of onewoman plays with music one is autobiographical
44:03
that's in uh pre-production now so I'll be touring that i also have a play that's basically uh on the the Broadway
44:09
side of my life and uh some of it is autobiographical and features characters
44:14
and songs from my Broadway shows that I've done and also tributes to people like Barbara Stysan wow and some other
44:21
great um Broadway artists those are in pre-production so I'll be touring with those along with uh um George Pettis and
44:29
Terry Hunter's a hot record for the summer okay we're gonna play that song momentarily heather I wanted to um I'm
44:36
I'm very familiar with you um I I' I've actually studied you when we we played your music in my home and for some
44:43
reason last night Phyllis Heyman came to my mind oh yeah and I I went back to
44:48
read up on her i don't know if you guys had a relationship or not i that's that's just God but she liked to fight
44:55
you know and she told me if anybody was going to mess with me she would fight them for me
45:01
fight them for you that's how she was i had no idea but maybe she like that she's very passionate about a friendship
45:07
see I had maybe that's why God led that i don't know why she liked me cuz she know I wasn't going to try to hurt her
45:13
or nothing but you ain't got to fight me don't worry don't worry but she had your back she did she She died so tragically
45:21
you know and from what I remember I was a a teenager when she passed away and I
45:27
remember hearing rumors about the industry something about the industry and she left the suicide note saying
45:32
that she was just tired she was just tired may God bless you all but I'm tired what What can you say now that I
45:39
know you did have a relationship with her but for people who are in this business in this industry and who fall like Sway mentioned what were the word
45:46
what words would you give to people right now who may be feeling tired well it's not just tiredness it's what do you
45:52
think of yourself i think for one thing people who are very beautiful have a very very very very tough time because
45:58
people don't understand they want to be with them they kind of rob them of their space and their identity and Phyllis
46:05
never knew how beautiful she was she didn't take that in i don't think she I mean she loved
46:12
singing but I don't think she really understood how great she was when I say
46:18
that I mean then it takes the responsibility of protecting your your borders and your space and everything
46:23
and she thought if she got up in your face and and knocked you down that was it but that's what doesn't protect you
46:29
and it doesn't keep you from getting depressed and disappointed and not being able to handle that and trying to handle
46:34
it by yourself so she was very lonely uh it was very
46:40
difficult for to have a a healthy romance you get that personal input from
46:45
somebody that supports you for the for who you are
46:51
whatever it is and I think that's why God gave us romance you need the support from someone else not just whatever you
46:58
think of yourself or what people who are your fans it's personal and I think personally she never had a regard for
47:04
herself thank you Melba Moore thank you for sharing that i appreciate you Melbourne Moore i appreciate your regard you have
47:11
for yourself yes i care about me there you go you look amazing you sound
47:17
amazing what you look forward to more of the same more of the same i love this
47:22
life and it's kind of balancing out now because of maturity
47:29
so you have a chance to correct i don't I don't really regret anything but I stay I think I hope in a state of
47:36
repentance that means the regret you're sitting there and you're and you're very sad about it but it's it's
47:42
stagnant staying there but if you're repenting you're trying to do something to make it better and fix it and maybe do something for somebody else so it
47:49
doesn't happen to them and that gives you a life of vitality i think there's always a chance that somebody will come along and help you with their talents to
47:55
keep you going because you can't do it by yourself i love you Melmore i'm glad
48:00
I got to say that to you too you don't got to respond i see it in your eyes see it in your eyes yes you do yes you do
48:07
i'm falling oh man oh gosh tomorrow is going to be
48:13
painful in here nobody [Â __Â ] excuse [Laughter]
48:19
me but damn it come back anytime Ela this your platform Melba in the morning
48:27
come on back Melba it's all yours it's so good here thank you thank you come back we are so happy to have you and I
48:33
know that we've been trying to make this happen for a long time wow and finally got to make it happen people looking over here thank you yeah there you go
48:39
you can thank them too i know what it is um Melba you have some new music what we got exclusive music what's What's the
48:47
name of the song no Filter no Filter come on and this the one produced by Terry Hunter terry H well he mixed it
48:55
george and Angela Pettiser they They produced it roden produced it yes and for me and they did it specifically for
49:02
you i did in their studio at their house wow okay you don't need the music we going to end it with the song we going
49:08
to end it right here no filter we about to end the show thank you with Melba Moore i didn't in all the years I've
49:13
done radio melba I actually met you one time before but that was in the early 2000s when um I was working at Hot 97
49:21
and KBLS was right there in the same building and you came through there with Jeff uh uh what's Jeff jeff Jeff jeff
49:29
Jeff Fox yeah yeah yeah and I met you and I was spazzing out but I couldn't
49:34
get the words together so I finally got a chance to put failure i appreciate you
49:39
so much thank you so much for who you are and how you do things i thank you god bless you okay we're going to end
49:45
the show with no filter brand new Melbourne Moore you can get it in stores all DSPs you can do it right now and on
49:51
that note y'all stay on the right side of positivity and we have nothing left to say
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