Stevie Interviews Mary J Blige for Interview Magazine
 

In the newest edition of Interview Magazine, with Amy Adams on the cover, Stevie interviews MJB. I have been unable to find the interview because they have not updated their website, http://www.interviewmagazine.com/ but there are people on ebay selling the mag right now. Anyone else hear of this or get the magazine?

*Bump*

No, but I'd like to read this article too!

lige © ddp
2008-01-21 03:20:09 -



MARY J. BLIGE is praying AMY WINEHOUSE survives her battle with drugs, because the future of music relies on her.
The R&B superstar senses music is heading for a renaissance, and needs talents like Winehouse to help the industry recover from years of "drought".
She tells Fleetwood Mac star Stevie Nicks in the latest issue of Interview magazine, "Someone like Amy Winehouse is so important to the music business right now. It's very painful (to see her battle drugs). I hope she makes it.
"I think it (the music industry) kind of got lost and we ended up in a drought for a while, but I see it making a turn, so instead of music being just synthetic, we'll see it going back to actual instruments. That's what I'm hoping for anyway, because that's the kind of music I'm making."


http://www.pr-inside.com/mary-j-blig...he-r395989.htm

Awesome. I'm praying for Amy as well. She's an amazing talent.

rbs

Oh yes, Mary J., thy name is Irony! I hope YOU survive your battle with steroids because the future of music relies on you too, Sistah.

I was at Barnes and Noble yesterday to pick this issue up and it's not in stores yet, since the release date, as the girl there found out, is January 22nd LOL.....in case anyone else can't find it ;)

Part of the interview
 

MARY J. BLIGE
BY STEVIE NICKS

IF THE AMERICAN SOUL HAD A VOICE, IT MIGHT SOUND SOMETHING LIKE HERS


With the success of 2005’s The Breakthrough, it seemed that Mary J. Blige was ready to embrace the power of positive thinking. That may be true, but the singer hasn’t completely abandoned the soul-searching, get-in-touch-with-your-pain lessons that made her famous. On her recently released eighth studio album, and in her interview here with Stevie Nicks, Mary J. Blige explains just what Growing Pains (Geffen) is all about.


STEVIE NICKS: Mary J. Blige—how are you?

MARY J. BLIGE: I’m good.

SN: Where are you?

MJB: I’m at home in New Jersey. I was taking a nap.

SN: Are you an early-morning person?

MJB: I do better at night for sure. Because of the studio, you end up having to be a night person. But I have so much going on these days that I’m up early a lot.

SN: So I’ve got a few notes here; I don’t know if you’ve ever interviewed someone, but it’s an interesting thing. Anyway, since this is a special issue on America, I thought a good place for us to start would be how you feel about the music business right now.

MJB: Well, I think it kind of got lost and we ended up in a drought for a while, but I see it making a turn, so instead of music being just synthetic, we’ll see it going back to actual instruments. That’s what I’m hoping for anyway, because that’s the kind of music I’m making.

SN: Speaking of the kind of music that you’re making, I just got your new album this afternoon. It’s a lot of music to take in, but I’m thrilled with what I heard. You know, how I feel about your music is strangely similar to the way I feel about my own.

MJB: Wow. Thank you, Stevie!

SN: Whenever anybody asks me about my process I’m like, "Well, whether I’m onstage, or in my living room with a small group, I have always tried really hard to pretend I’m playing the music for a few really trusted friends.” That has always been how I made it fun for myself. When I listen to your music, I trust you and believe you. And that is what I think is the heart of your success. I feel like the Internet and e-mail and texting has taken the place of calling up a friend and talking to them for an hour. And for children, it’s taken the place of playing and just having fun. That’s what music today feels like to me.

MJB: Right, it’s become very impersonal. You can’t touch it anymore. It’s synthetic. It’s like there’s no time for families at dinner tables anymore. And because of computers everything is really quick; nothing is homegrown; nothing is up close and personal anymore.

SN: And nothing is slow and beautiful and sensual. Everybody’s in a rush. But, anyway, I think your album’s terrific, and I think that these first five songs that I heard were really wonderful. And I love the way you sing—you remind me a little bit of Otis Redding, a little bit of Wilson Pickett. But I talk way too much, Mary. Now you talk.

MJB: [laughs] Well, I guess you ought to ask me some questions! But I want to say thanks for doing the interview. I love you, I love your voice, and I especially love your song "Dreams”—I’m tearing up right now because that song reminds me of when I was 6 years old. I don’t know what was going on for me during that time, but that song was one of the ones playing on the radio a lot then. I just love your voice from the days when you were in Fleetwood Mac. I didn’t know you—you just stood out. To this day there is not a voice out there that sounds like Stevie Nicks’s. It makes all the hair stand up on your back. I saw your Behind the Music interview and I was just blown away, and it made me think about myself. I was like, We’ve almost had the same lives, just in different generations. You know, there’s a song on my new album called "Come to Me (Peace)” that’s about making peace with your friends, your husband, yourself.

SN: I love the peace song.

MJB: Yeah. That song is just so incredible.

SN: Well, "Dreams” was totally inspired by a Spinners song. I don’t really remember which, because it was so long ago, but I think I wrote it in five minutes.

MJB: That is amazing. That song is so simple but very strong, like "Thunder only happens when it’s raining/Players only love you when they’re playing.” That line is so amazing.

SN: Isn’t it weird how today some people we know [in the music business] are referred to as "total players”? And that’s really what I was saying when I wrote that in 1976—"Players only love you when they’re playing,” which means as a woman in rock, many of the different affairs and relationships I had were built around the music and being on tour. And then, when the music was over, the relationships were over.

MJB: I felt that. I can hear that. I don’t think that kind of stuff ever changes—you just get wiser or dumber about it. Today a lot of music is just a bunch of noise. But the reason I said I feel music is taking a turn is because when I came out with The Breakthrough, it was my goal to bring some instruments back into the whole thing and to keep the integrity of the music, the content—content is very important. That’s why someone like Amy Winehouse is so important to the music business right now.

SN: If she makes it, and doesn’t lose her life in this whole thing.

MJB: I know—it’s very painful; I hope she makes it. But she’s important to the turn in music as far as great songwriters. There are also artists, like this young guy named Ne-Yo who writes great songs. And there’s another guy named Johnta Austin, who wrote the song "Be Without You” with me. The content in these records is really important. Like you said earlier, this is a very delicate time—people are very touchy and sad right now, and you’ve got to lift them up. [With my music] we’ve tended to always focus on "everything is bad, everything is negative, my man didn’t dig this, my husband’s doing that.” But what about focusing on a side of life where you could say, "You know what? I’m alive. I’m fine today. I’m feeling good.” And that’s to lift up people and to let them know that if we keep focusing on the negative, it’s only going to get worse. That was my whole reason for doing this kind of album—I’ve never done that and people were like, "Oh, this is different for Mary,” and, "We like it better when she’s a mess and when she’s sad.” But the choice I made was to uplift and to try and save people. And that’s why I named my album Growing Pains, because I’m continuing to grow, and when you grow, it hurts. To get off drugs hurts. But it’s all a part of growing.


To read the complete interview with the Mary J. Blige, pick up the February issue today.

Don’t miss any more Interview—subscribe online right now!

Thanks for posting that.

I read the interview a few days ago. After this sniglet, Stevie and Mary talk about how a performer is scared to get off of the drugs because going out there on stage "alone" is frightening when people are used to seeing this wild person up there. It is hard to sep. the high from the performance because they are both highs - or something like that. It was a good read though.

No problem! If anyone would like to transcribe the rest of it, that would be great. I'm feeling cheap, and I don't feel like going out and buying the magazine just for that interview. LOL I would love to read the rest of it though...

^^^

Yea - I read a friend's copy and it is not here - if it were, I'd post it.

It's a very neat interview (at least for the part I've read) Stevie did a great job.

Romy

Just wondering, who is Mary J. Blige??? :)

Thanks for posting :) That is a really good interview so far and I can't wait to read the rest.

thanks for posting this i just read the article and i thought that she did a good job. i hope she does more of this kind of thing.

I am skipping over the Blige comments that don't relate to Stevie. The rest of Stevie's part of the interview is:

Stevie: I'm sure you felt this because I know I did -- the fear that getting off drugs meant I wasn't going to be able to music anymore. And that was terrifying to me.

MJB: Exactly, but we pushed through, and by doing that, the seed of positivity was planted in us . . . [cut] I believe there were people out there who wanted me to be more.

Stevie: And weren't you just so right?

MJB: Exactly. In America you have to be strong becuase there's so much fickleness, so you don't know who's with you . . . [snip] who'e going to stay and go through the fire and fight this out and come out on the other side with me, and who's going to walk away because they were just in it for the ride.

Stevie: I think that's why we are successful women in American music today -- because we don't let anything get in our way, and because we don't want to hang out with the depressed and the miserable.

MJB: Because we've been down that road.

Stevie: I'll tell you, every time I walk onstage and do my two-hour show I'm amazed that I can have that much fun for two solid hours totally sober. We are all capable of having a great time and doing great work without being high on drugs, and I think that if we get anything over to the world, that's the most important thing.

MJB: People need to hear that -- they need to hear your story, like I did on Behind the Music, and then see you clean, doing your thing and enjoying your life without all that stuff. [snip]

Stevie: No More Drama was like your 9/11 album, right?

MJB: Yeah, I made that during the time when all that stuff was happening. [snip].