If you see me walking down the street, Deon Warwick, one of the great female
singers of all time, you hear Deion Warwick's voice and you never heard a
voice like that before and you are never gonna hear a voice like that again.
Don't make me Dion's.
Music is generational because.
They just don't do it like that no more.
When Dion opened her mouth, did you know it was Dion?
Of course she did.
Anyone who ever a dream, her voice was like water in the desert.
She acquaints her food, and so I dream mom.
She was always having a, in her dress and her demeanor and her delivery.
Always the picture of elephants, what's it?
Dan War's voice has this beautiful melancholy tone that
just, just touches your heart.
I could actually feel what she was feeling.
The was an ideal partner for Burton Hell, magical combination, the way
she brought their songs to life.
It was an amazing thing to watch.
Dion was, you know, one of the few, you know, to cross over to old markets.
Dion was the first African American woman to win a Grammy in the pop category.
I mean, that's a huge, huge thing.
It's Dion War, a legend.
It's pig.
Televis.
I wasn't open to that many black women.
The people that I was privileged to be in the same room with.
Not many of my peers had that opportunity.
Some people thought that she was a sellout, she trying to be white.
All of that.
Deion had to.
Terry, what do you get when you fall?
This is the way I was represented.
When I first went to Europe.
They didn't know if I was black.
If I was white, I was going into uncharted territory.
Never this way.
You cannot separate the voice from the heart.
Dion's music inspired people.
See and look forward to the best part of themselves.
She was not just an artist, she was one of the first these genuine AIDS
activists in the United States.
DM was the hero of mine and for a lot of people, she was really the
first person in the music business to actually speak up about it.
Ah, and when you look at the great singer will come, the Cre de la Cru
DM Warwick is right at top level.
She PAVs the wife of artist like myself, great artists, great
humanitarian, great person.
That's what defines greatness.
I sing music and from that evolve, whatever this is, I am.
I come from a middle class working family.
We lived in Newark, New Jersey, and then moved to East Orange, New Jersey
where I spent all of my growing years lived in a wonderful neighborhood.
East Orange.
Every race, color, creeds, religion lived on that block.
We were virtually the United Nations.
My mom worked at a electrical factory.
My dad was a Poland porter.
I got an opportunity to travel with him a lot, which was wonderful.
My grandfather was a minister.
Oh yeah.
And uh, so I grew up in church.
You have given me something this evening that have missing, truly missing, and
it's only because I gotta keep my.
Gospel will never be that far away from what I do.
That's what I was brought up.
Singing will always sing, and it's just an innate part of it.
A path is coming.
The
very first performance, I was six years old, we had just finished Sunday school.
Jesus loves me this.
I know my grandfather said I come to the pulpit.
He had arranged five or six heavy books for me to stand on.
He says, I want you to sing for me.
I says, you want me to do what?
Sing said, I want you to sing.
Jesus loves me, so I closed my eyes as tight as I could get
him, and I started singing.
Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me
and you.
I started hearing things coming from the congregation, Jesus.
All right, see.
Oh, and I opened up, vote in my eyes, and I just let it go.
Then I started really giving it to him, and I finally finished it.
It was my very first stand in Ovation.
Yeah, dm.
She really knew what she wanted to do way back then.
So she came to live with us in our teens.
She grew up in our house.
When my mom passed, I went to live with my sister, which was Dion's mom.
I always considered her more of a big sister than an aunt.
And of course I was the boss.
, that's what she thought.
You know, the, the
Lord.
I think Dion learned how to sing because we always had a, um, a group, you
know, the drinkers, singers was before.
All of it.
They were the first gospel group to record the RCA victory.
Whenever they sang, it was like the whole neighborhood would come out and
sit on their porches to listen to.
And of course I'd open my mouth and try to, I'll sing them
all , which was impossible to do.
Gospel music is something different because it comes from way that
in here and usually troubles and tribulations that we've been through.
My daughter was raised in Gospel Church.
I am Whitney Houston.
Dion's my first cousin, and very proud of that.
I just heard gospel all in my family.
You know, we'd have Christmas dinner and then we'd sing.
We'd have Thanksgiving dinner and we'd don't sing.
Legacy is my family.
Music, pure and simple music.
The Apollo Theater gave me my first taste of being on a stage, an actual
theatrical stage, performing in 1934.
A lot of black entertainers were being discovered on the state deal power.
So they start presenting the Harlem Amateur Hour radio show renamed
Amateur Night at the Apollo tradition.
It's folklore.
It's the granddaddy of black show business.
Well, I've always loved soul singers.
I've always loved black music.
I grew up playing it in a band.
I grew up loving it.
I talked with some of the greatest entertainers around the world,
and everybody wants to experience the Apollo Theater any day now.
I will hear you say, but back, right?
Wrote any day now for Chuck Jackson, which is one of my favorite
reputable time, any day now way.
When I came to the Apollo, I thought I was pretty good as a performer,
but I was just standing up singing and the people were not lacking.
So the next show I went on, I started throwing the mic and falling to my knees.
The people were standing and cheering and there were women screaming,
and they just came into me.
And when they backed off, I was almost naked.
That's what I knew.
There's stuff to get this.
I remember the first time I walked into the Apollo Theater and the whole
wall on both sides was a mural of all these artists who have played
at the Apollo Theater, Ella Jeron, Billy Stein, Sammy Davis, Harry
Belafonte, the Oreos the Moon Glows.
The Spaniels, the Drifters, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cook, all these people on this wall.
And I said to the miracles, I hope one day we can make this wall.
Oh,
now, the first time we played the Apollo, we were terrible.
We were so terrible until the guy called Barry, Mr.
Chipman called Barry told me he wanted his money back.
He wasn't really even paying us no money.
We didn't have money to get outta the hotel.
You know what I'm saying?
But he wanted that back.
That's how terrible we were.
But it was a lesson.
They've seen everybody.
So when you go there, you better be ready.
You better bring it.
On amateur night, the Apollo, the audience judged you.
If they like you, they applaud you.
If they don't like you, this guy chases you off the stage.
Amateur night at the Apollo just crazy big.
You gotta go up there.
Everybody's cheering, yelling, screaming.
You think Sam Man's gonna come out and yank you off?
. It's hard to get your confidence up.
It's scary.
It was frightening cuz you know what can and has happened, and I've seen it happen.
And there's a saying that says, if you can make it at the
Apollo, you can make it anywhere.
And that is the truth.
Go ahead.
Go research.
How many people won Amateur night?
Amateur night launch, the careers of so many incredible women.
Ella Fitzgerald was the first then followed by Sarah Vaughn,
then a young lady from Harlem by the name of Billy Holiday.
Then in 1957, this incredible young lady came and performed on Amite and her name.
Was Miss Dion Warwick,
shall I?
I'm going send one by one, one for a little bit.
The baby he was born, born.
He was born in Beth.
Hell.
Our gospel group decided who gonna sing a song is recorded by the Imperials.
I'm still adult.
Imperials happened to be on that particular show,
So when we got on stage, the Imperials were standing there watching us.
We used to laugh about a house.
Scared she was, she said she was hitting notes she didn't even realize.
And when we came off, we said, we, we didn't.
You did a wonderful job on this song.
Are you kidding me?
We loved it.
And when the time came to announce the winner, we were winner.
Which was a wonderful thing.
Young man at one of the shows that we were attending needs
a vocal group to do background work on a recording, big mouthy.
I said, oh yeah, we know how to do that.
I said, do you, was that, what's the background work?
said, I don't know.
We gonna find out, I guess
And as it turned out, we went into civil glory records in Newark, New Jersey,
and we did the zas and occasional, yay.
Yay.
And that was the beginning of our background careers.
While I was in high school, I would travel into New York and do demos, and while
I was in college, even, I arranged my.
So that I could come in and do that.
It was made a very, very good living, helped to put me through college.
Dionne Warwick did what she needed to do to strengthen her professional life,
learning the skills that you need to be a great musician, to get a bachelor's
degree, to get a master's degree.
She changed the notion that African Americans can't study,
they can't sing that way.
The fact that she can read music, write music, play music site, read music,
which is no easy feat, by the way, takes years and years and continual practice.
It allows you, I think a flexibility and a freedom to just really never be held.
Back
when I met Dion, we're gonna record Mexican divorce with the Drifters.
Wanted to have a girl group in the background and these
four, um, ladies came in.
They were pretty awesome.
I mean, the way they sounded, you couldn't tell who was the best singer.
Some of Dion stood out, she sort of looked like could be a star.
Bird approached me and asked if I would be interested in doing more demonstration
records of songs that he'd be writing with Halal David, a new songwriting partner.
And I said, yo, I guess as long as it doesn't interfere my education, cuz
my mother will kill you, . And me too.
Dion came in to sink her how and myself and we signed her right.
Florence Greenberg who owns Step Record, she said, I can't believe that voice.
I just heard it was heavenly.
Thank God for my daddy who negotiated my contract and, uh, let Florence Greenberg
know we're gonna take care of my baby.
I did a demonstration record of a song called Make It Easy
on Yourself, and it was agreed between Backpack, David and myself.
That would be my very first record.
Calvin Carter was a and r at BJ Records and he called and he said to me, you
know that song, make it Easy on Yourself.
One to do with Jerry Butler.
Basically run the date book the musicians.
That was a big opportunity for me.
Well, I was on my way from Hartford down to New York to do a session
for them and I had the radio on my.
And out of the radio King Jerry Butler singing, make It
Easy and Make It Easy On the,
on the, and that didn't sit too well with me.
So when I got to New York, I kinda let know Uhuh, you don't do that to me.
One thing I want you to both to understand is there's something you
can never do to d try to make her over.
So don't even think it how they put pen and paper.
Don't make me,
don't make me over.
Now that you know,
a lot of companies thought Bert and Hal CEP were losers.
When they released, don't Make Me Over.
They said it couldn't happen a format.
Radio Station wouldn't touch it.
Other jockeys wouldn't touch it because it was something brand new
and they weren't playing new music.
When I played, don't Make Me Over.
The phones lit up.
I knew from that moment, Deion war would become a star.
I was coming home one day listening to a pop station and it came on.
And I said, oh my God, they did it.
I met Dion when I was 13.
I remember hearing Don't Make me Over.
And I was saying, you know, there's a new song about Dion Warriors,
incredible, Bert Barrick and Hal David.
Great.
But Dion was the glove that fitted them perfectly.
She was the one
in the name of the greatest people that have ever tried this earth.
I draw the line in the dust and tossed the gauntlet before the feet of turn,
and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.
My very first tour was the true chitlin surrogate.
We did the South when it was not popular to be black and go into
the south, it opened my eyes.
It surprised me because I had never encountered anything
of that nature before.
If the black restaurants are closed, we don't have any place to eat.
We've been shot at for wanting to go to the toilet, you know, or you get to the
place and there are toilets there, and once it's men, Taylor says women, and
around the back somewhere it says colored.
Like if you're colored, you are just, there's, you know, gender, you know, all
the colored people go to the same one.
We have absolutely no intentions of integrating in the south.
Those areas would have been segregated for at least a hundred years.
They didn't want us even staying overnight in certain towns.
we were going ease in, do our show, you know, and ease out.
I toured with the Motown review and I remember they had just experienced,
um, someone in the south shooting at the bus and had missed the gas
tank I inch from the gas tank.
I can remember the story very, very clearly.
We were in,
but I'm old and young.
Twist them the night away shows were completely sold.
Every night.
It was one side, which was white where they were seated, and the
other side was a ballroom type setting where everybody was standing.
Blacks were on this side, whites were on this side.
The stage was straight ahead, and I remember Sam saying, Dion, do not
turn your back on the white boat.
And I said, well, why not?
He said, do not turn your back on the white boat.
I said, okay.
First thing I did when I went out there, I walked straight to the
band and turned my back and played the ones that looked like me.
Everybody could hear me, everybody could see.
Someone and I come together.
We were in South Carolina.
Sam decided that he was going to treat everybody to lunch.
Our bus was parked right outside of a place called the Toddle House.
So we walked in and this waitress came by.
She says, um, what do you gals want?
Which kind of started the hair rising on my neck.
I said, we have a list here.
These kind sandwiches and this kind of hamburger and da da.
So I said, well, where can we sit down?
She said, oh, no, you gonna stand right here and wait till I get it back to you?
Excuse me?
She said, no, there's no way you're gonna sit down here.
You're not supposed to even be in here.
Well, that's when I turned around.
He said, I was crazy.
Anyway, everybody knows that.
I looked at it.
I said, well, you know what?
You can do that order I just gave you.
When it comes, shove it up.
Your mm.
And we walked out.
Well, we got back on the bus and Sam said, where's the food?
I said, that woman's got stuck up her butt, . That's what I told her to put it.
Less than three minutes after we got back on that bus, a
police officer came to the bus.
She stood at the front right where the door opens.
He said, okay.
Where those two girls that was in the title house, they seemed to
have been very, very insubordinate to the waitress in there.
And I wanna know which one of them said what.
I almost stood up said, I said it, and Sam, just stop me.
Sam said, listen Sarah, I don't mean to be rude to you.
However, this is a private bus.
It happens to belong to me.
You do not belong on it.
So I'd ask you to please leave it.
And he.
He said, Dan, you could have got us put all in jail up.
Stop.
Daddy, don't beat me wrong.
Deion had in her act, what I say, Ray out a song and she had in
it, tell your mom, tell your paw, we going to integrate Arkansas.
And we were in one of those cities where you didn't do that.
So they told her that she cannot do that part of the song.
And Dion went on stage.
And then I hear you say, your mom tell your mom, you say Y.
Tell your paw.
And when she said, Anna, she didn't finish graded, the cops
stopped the show right in there.
The police told us we had so many minutes to get out of town.
, we made sure that Deion was the first person to get out of town.
She took chassis.
Because I would never have said that if they told me not to, but she said,
they're not gonna tell me what to do.
And she went through a time where it was just hard being a black
person, not alone being a black woman, but that made her who she is.
And I believe that what don't kill you makes you stronger.
To sing back racks, melodies, you almost had to have a music
education just to read what he wrote.
Different registers, time signatures, man marched to his own drummer.
If you wanted to be a part of that, you had the march.
With Dionne is able to read music, she was able to play a little piano.
That's a real.
There were a few of us who decided that a music background was very important.
One was Valley Simpson.
I found Dion Warwick through singing background.
I was lucky enough to get the premier gig, which is Bet Back Rack,
and Hal David and Dion Warwick.
She can look at a piece of music, the notes on the page, interpret
that, and then make those notes come to life in a special way.
It was an amazing thing because her training made that sound easy, backtrack,
and David wrote very rangy melodies and she just effortlessly sang them.
I am forever grateful that I learned from her as much as I learned from John Qure
in the sixties, though we were awful bits.
In Detroit, we heard Dion, her unique interpretation of the Burt
Pack rack and held David songs.
Were iconic, raw, and real.
They were just perfect works of art.
They were a bit like Picassos.
When you can take a song and you can completely transform the listener
and make them know that every single word, every single note counts.
It transports you.
Anyone who have a at me and know love honey.
Anyone who have dream good and know I dream love you knowing I love you.
And at Nissan
her.
That floated through those lyrics with those complex melodies was magical.
Dion, it's a huge range.
Anyone had her heart, you know, she's very delicate and then she's
very explosive, very unusual to have a singer that can do that.
Knowing
Z young girl.
One of the voices that touched my heart most in the world was Dan's voice.
I grew up in Australia and when I was 15 I went into a talent
contest and uh, I actually won the talent contest with anyone I.
So she was the beginning of my career.
I grew up listening to a lot of music.
It made me realize I wanted to be a voice.
My guitar is my voice.
And when I heard Deion Warwick's voice, I said, I wanna have a voice like that.
She was like jealous.
Iic.
Anyone who had a heart tore at my heart and is still one
of my favorite all time songs.
They were forming what I would call a musical marriage and the way
she brought their songs to life.
It was just magic.
I don't like it at all.
I don't like it.
A and I would write and beat a piano, and maybe I'd have part of a melodic fragment.
Maybe how I would have a lyric, a title.
That's how we, we started.
The more we recorded Dion, the more I could see what she could do.
I, I think, how David was tuned into the world.
I don't call him a lyricist.
I call him a poet.
He wrote to you, not at you.
He wrote from his heart things that he felt needed to be said.
And I think that most people literally wanted to be able to
say, that is why I revere him.
Hell was really mild mannered, but Byrd is very strong, so you have to be sure of
yourself and, and Deion had that quality.
I'd always try to get her to stop smoking.
It's a hard habit to break.
I guess I'd been on her case a little bit and she had some T-shirts made up.
Don't tell me to stop smoking.
It's pretty good.
In the 1950s and sixties there was music, so there was rhythm and blues, which
was considered for African Americans,
and then there was pop music.
It's my party
and it was really hard to cross over.
There was almost a river that separated them.
Back then we were, you had two different sets, the criteria.
You had white radio and you had black radio.
Have do a lot with fears that this race music might contaminate
people, make them act differently than the society would want.
In the studio, we would record it.
Dion, sister Dei, Merna.
And Sissy Houston.
And then we would bring three white girls who did all the jingles
and the pop stuff in New York.
Put sissy's group on the bottom and then on top would be the white girls.
That was kind of the format.
This is the way I was represented when I first went to Europe in Paris.
That those white blonde, blue eye, this is Deion Warwick, I changed
cause that's all he ever saw representing me.
And when I walked out on that stage at the theater was like, it was a gasp.
And I told him, I said, yeah, I know I ain't white.
I am attempt.
Teasing Brown.
Okay.
If you see me walking down the street and I start to cry each time we be walk on,
oh me leave and you don't see thes, just let me in private.
Cause each time I see you'll break down and cry
are gone by stop.
There were some black people who thought that she was a seller.
A little too white.
And then there was Wes that was saying almost the same thing.
She had it coming from both ways.
I just can't, Dion wasn't really gospel.
She had another spirit in her where she went.
Was where she was supposed to be.
They didn't know where I fit, if I was black, if I was
white, if I was what I was.
The music I was singing was nothing like anything that any of them
were singing, black or white.
So they really didn't know what to do with me.
Roy Pock was a true blues club.
I didn't know nothing about no blues, but I was booked there.
When I showed up at Saints Home made me over.
I knew they hated me.
They had heard the song that there was a white girl singing
and Henry Wyn own Thero.
God.
I told Mr.
Wynn, I said, I am not coming back here.
These people hate me.
So he says, no, no, no.
Don't say that.
It's not true.
They do like it, but you just not sing the right thing.
Do you know a song called What I Say by Ray Charles?
I said, yeah, everybody know that song?
He said, good.
So now your next show, what I want you to do, I want you to open with what I say.
I said, well, why you want me to do that?
He said, you'll find out everybody.
Oh, oh, it oh, oh, oh.
I
had people singing it and carrying up.
By the time I got thumb make me of it, they didn't care what I was saying.
It was wonderful.
You see this girl, this girl in love with you?
Yes.
I'm who love said you love when you smile.
We know each other.
Now you gotta understand there are cultures.
In this world, Dion could touch anybody with her music across the board because
she wasn't so far one way or the other.
Dion was, you know, one of the students that had the kind of material and the
voice to, to cross over to all markets and making an international kind of an appeal.
And the people that she was dealing with also knew how to
take that middle of the rope.
So she hooked up with them and you know, with her sweet voice like she has, you
know, it was just the perfect match,
if not a.
Even though I had a head record in the States, my career
literally blossomed in Europe.
It was exciting.
I was treated like a little princess.
Which I loved . It was a lot of fun.
Marlene Dietrich showed me what it was.
I really was headed for, oh, give your something.
The dream about Mr.
Marlene took very good care of Dion in Paris, and Marlena lived in Paris.
I was going to appear at the Olympia Theater and Berta let Marlene
know that I was heading that way and to please take care of the.
Okay, see, put us in the limousine.
Took us to our hotel, went to the Olympic Theater with me,
did my lighting, my sound check.
She did everything and she just show me your clothes.
So I took her back to the dressing room.
She looking at my dresses that I thought were pretty ill.
Okay?
And each one she looked at, she tossed into the hall, off the rack, into the
hall, off the rack, into the hall.
I thought the woman had lost some eye and the New Jersey started coming outta me
and I asked, I said, what are you doing?
She said, no, no, no.
You must wear good tool too.
I said, what?
Good tour?
I said, good tour.
What is good tour?
He says, she took me shopping much to this, your grand and my accountants,
. That was my introduction to.
The designers of the industry.
Hey, little girl, comb your hands.
Fix your makeup.
He will open the door.
What?
A woman is attractive and she has a talent and she's displaying it, they become sex.
And I think Dion was one of those the first time I see her.
Magnificent.
The high cheek bones looked like a Nubian princess.
Deion was always the picture of elegance in her dress, in
her demeanor and her delivery.
She was always elegant
and we used to always tease her and say, this thing, you
gotta show those pretty legs.
Now, don't always wear those long dresses because when we saw her legs,
she had these tremendous legs, you know?
There was this sense of pride in her stature in the way she carried
herself that made you feel good.
Um, about being black.
I used to have thoughts of Dion Warwick.
Uh, I am five foot, three and a half, uh, Dion War was always taught.
I always thought about how be climb that mountain.
No disrespect Dion.
Much love to you, sisters, but back in the day, your boy did.
I have big for you, girl.
Oh, my wife is not watching this.
I'm in trouble.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Wari, I happen to be amongst the fortunate view that people of all nationalities and
races listen to my audiences worldwide.
And that's the beauty of music.
It transcends color.
I was, when we were first the artist to perform before the Queen Mother
of England, I had the Royal Command performance, the Palladium in England.
I was one of the first.
Recording artists to tour Europe completely.
France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Machi, Sokos in
these days.
Daddy mess.
I was involved in being a lot first.
Yeah, sometimes it's nice to step outside the box once again.
Dun Warwick, a chair is still a chair even,
and the, there's no one there.
You your, that's not one there.
You can be good enough.
I found that people outside of the United States not only knew
I was, but appreciated my talent.
They didn't understand what I was saying.
I didn't understand what they were saying, but musically, they knew exactly.
Who and what I was and.
It's exciting in Europe.
When I came back to the States is when it started snowballing.
You welcome, please Miss Deion.
Deion
grandpa.
Oh,
together.
My first Vegas room was The Sands, which was the home of the wreck hat.
Sammy Davis Jr.
Was one of my major mentors.
Okay, you coming in?
Welcome to the family kind of thing.
When I first met Elvis, he said, you got records here in town, don't you?
I said, yeah, I do.
Elvis put a photograph of himself inside it, every album of mine in Las
Vegas and made announcements about it.
I sold so many albums, I, I realized how many albums I sold.
Said, alright, now, Mr.
Fred, thank you,
I was able to play the Apollo Theater, which was relatively, uh, looking at an
African American audiences to the Brooklyn Fox, which were basically white teenagers.
If you see me walking down the street and I started to,
I was able to perform at the Apollo and the Brooklyn Fox and.
Both entities seem to feel that, okay, I, I enjoy what you're doing.
She was able to define pop by bringing something to the table
that was original and unique.
Me.
I did not wanna record outfit because it had already been recorded by 46 people.
I said, okay, I'm gonna record this song in one tape, and if you
don't get it, you don't get it.
And that turned out I'm the only one who had a hit record with the song.
Paid off in the long run.
What's it all about?
S
what's it when you it off?
All
its what?
To be cruel.
Television wasn't open to that many black women or black people, period.
At any rate, so, uh, doing the Sullivan Show, doing the Per Como
show, doing the Donna Shore Show, doing Rich Kel and Danny Kay.
I was kind of put into another, I, I don't even know, bubble the
people that I was privileged to be thrown in the same room with.
Not too many of my peers had that opportunity.
I was so thrill to be here to honor not only a great star, but someone
I once dated, and that's no joke.
I really did date Sammy Davis, Jr.
We had a lot in common.
I started singing gospel at the age of six, and he started breaking the
Commandments at the age of seven
I still don't know why Sammy went out with me in those days.
I just wasn't as tight.
I wasn't sexy.
I wasn't beautiful.
I wasn't white
lay it on.
He came backstage after that show.
He said, sing a comedian now, right?
I said, no.
What's wrong?
Every night I'm sleep.
My things
a's the Warwick has the supreme common.
Everyone accepts you.
Of course, she broke down racial barriers, ma'am, because her music is everybody.
Music be the first says a lot because there were none before you,
but there'll be many after you.
There's always somebody that gotta open the door and then
they all come running through.
There's a song called Do You Know the Way, San Jose, that I really
was not gonna record this song.
We had to kind of coax Dion to get her to do it.
She's glad we did.
We're glad she did.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You didn't write that, did you?
You know the way to
wrong, you know, the way to, so some of these, uh, these big.
You can really
swear.
I was born and raised in
tomorrow went the hall.
I first went to Northern California to visit Hillary.
We just started going out and I said, we gotta drive to San Jose because I can't
stop singing that Dionne Warwick song.
And I want to say yes, I know the way, and so help me.
I drove her down there singing the song all the way.
Do you know the way to San Jose
Deion was the first African American woman to win a Grammy in the pop category?
I mean, that's a huge, huge thing.
She opened the door for many, many artisan different color to be that woman, to
stand out and, and, and break the mold and show women that you could do anything.
Do you know the way to San Jose,
get back to Jose
1968.
Do you live way to San Jose?
It's a crossover six days year.
Dr.
King was killed with so much pain and the streets were a blaze.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.
Shot as he stood alone on the balcony of a hotel room.
He died in a hospital an hour later.
Martin Luther King, he was our voice.
We dedicated that evening to him.
And uh, the battle him of the Republic happened to have been
one of his favorite songs.
It got to me.
I was a wreck.
The glory, um, calling all the Lord, he is traveling out the
vintage where the grace of around.
He has losed the faithful lightning of his
through
Jesus.
Oh,
I have a dream Lord.
One day hall, this nation rise up, live up.
The true meaning its he means to be self-evident.
That.
All of this craziness that happened in the sixties,
unfortunately was happening again.
The windows of the world are covered with rain.
Where is the sunshine we want?
Everybody knows when little children play.
They need a sunny day to grow straight and tall.
Let the sun shine through.
The windows of the world are covered with rain, wind, willows,
relax guys, hair to blue.
Slavery brought on a lot of things that people are not ready to accept.
When ands the dead, some to die.
Let the sun shine.
So what is change?
Nothing.
But I think, um, there is hope, love is answer.
What do you get when you fall in love A with a job and that's
what you get falling your
in another again, no, no.
At a very early age, I fell in love, I thought with a young
man named William Elliot.
We started dating and one thing led to another, finally asked me to
marry him, and I thought, oh, okay.
I don't know.
Let me think about it's thought about.
I said, okay, let's do it.
Never fall in love again.
Never fall in love.
Couldn't have been more than two weeks after I got married.
I woke up that morning, said I didn't really wanna be married.
So I to Mexico outta those chains of chains of five
and I got a Mexican divorce.
We were divorced for two years and yes, me married again, you gonna
think I'm crazy, but I said, okay.
Never bought in love again.
That lasted well over 12 years and out that came my two incredible babies.
We're boys to men and we're gonna for you.
Mm.
. It's a
We really rehearsed this.
I can't believe you.
. She's a legend.
You know, I, I've gotten that for a long time, but really, she's mom.
I knew she was busy, but she would divert her tour to make sure she
was there for a little league game.
You know, those were special times.
My mom is a single mom, but she's everything.
She's like, mom, dad, sister, when I need friend.
No, she's, she's the everything of the family.
My kids were very close to Dion when she was working in
Florida or somewhere close by.
She used to come on the weekends, get a plane and she'd take my kids with them.
God was the days.
I love those days, Charlie, with Dion on the roof.
I remember this, those stuff happening and it's not my thing.
So I said, maybe I'll just give it up and I'll never forget we
were doing the dining shore show.
And Clive happened to be.
And he and I conversing about, well, what are you doing?
Who are you recording for?
And all that good stuff.
But you guys a wonderful way of doing, she was ready to leave the recording business.
He said, wait a minute.
What you talking about?
I just started a new label.
Would you consider joining me on Arisa?
I said, no, you know, maybe I'll just give it up and I'll
never forget what he said to me.
You might have left in your mind the music business, but we in
music and I particularly need you.
It will stay with me for the rest of my life.
What you gonna say?
But, okay, let's try Arista about that.
, I had this song that I knew would be incredible and the song
that I was holding for her was, I'll never love this way again.
You looked inside My fantasies made.
Something no one else had ever found.
Lou, you I've The memories one, Bible one.
Since you took, I know this way again.
Oh, this again.
Hold on, hold on.
Oh, on.
Tomorrow reaching back, boy, you, I won't turn my head in.
So
while standing and remember just how good it's been and know
he,
we came out with our Never love this way again, and it explode.
And then Dejavu, that became a hit.
This is insane.
It's like a, I used to love.
How can this be?
You're a different space in time to me.
Place
long.
Call it of it.
Could you?
My dream I You
could you My dream,
I Keep Remember me, remember.
So the album so beautifully.
And then comes the Komi Award time there and the Best Pop Female performance.
Is Deion Warwick
water thrill?
I feel, uh, to this day, she won the best female pop meat for,
I'll Never Love This way again.
And in the same Grammy, she won the best female r and b performance for Deja.
There was a great comeback to inspire everybody.
Dion was back on top, heartbreaker another one.
I was basically badgered into recording.
I shouldn't buy the brothers Gibb.
These stay in the alive the city and everybody stay in.
Barry Gibbs writing eye here.
The BGS were so incredible, and I said, Barry, I'd love to work with you.
I mean, is there an artist on my roster that you'd be interested in working with?
Five Davis came to see me.
He asked me if there was someone I'd like to produce.
He gave me a list of artists and his face lights up and he says, Dion
Warwick, that's the lady right there.
He was so thrilled.
He sucked.
I'm gonna write you a song for Dion Warwick.
You're gonna get it in 10 days.
So he came up with a song along with Morrison Robin called Heartbreaker.
I was excited that this might be a hit for her.
He says, I wrote this.
He said, for Dion, and I did the demo.
Oh my God.
So we both were the be of breath for waiting.
I would sing the song in Bolsen because that was a woman's key,
and I did an heartbreak that way.
To see, and it's hard.
Mommy can me cry in?
Daughter would never be.
I can only of one thing to say about that, that she did it about it.
Maybe that's why she wasn't keen on it.
I, there's something about that song, I just did not want to record it.
Between Barry and Morris, CLA Davis was very strong armed at the time.
Uh, I just kept going at it saying, I just know that it'll
work and you just gotta trust me.
And when it came time to record the record, where do we show up?
What studio they want to.
He said, Clive, wherever she wants to record it, I will go.
That has never left me, especially considering the power that
he had, Barry guarantee, he said it's gonna be a big hit.
Major hit for you is to this very day, the biggest European hit I've ever had.
You.
What You,
ah,
you have to.
Heartbreaker worked out to be really successful all over the world.
It was number one.
If you wanna make a great record, make a deal more
It's cheating, but nevertheless, , if you wanna know what's gonna be hit, ask me
and I'll tell you, that ain't going hit.
I don't like that, so I'm not gonna record it.
And then you'll find out right down what at this , my God is the Bible.
Everybody is your brother's keeper.
Everybody.
I don't care who you are, white, black, green, orange, indifferent.
You can be striped and I, you're still my sister or brother by the
rules of God, and I've got to do what I think is right to help you.
Scientists at the National Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta today
released the results of a study which shows that the lifestyle of some
male homosexuals has triggered an epidemic of a rare form of cancer.
I became very, very vocal and very public with the AIDS issue based on the fact
that, uh, we're losing so many people.
Our industry was becoming decimated with this thing, and this was long
before we even knew what it was.
Well, the 1980s were a very, very dark time in the AIDS epidemic.
There was a lot of misinformation out there.
Can you catch it in a bathroom or drinking a glass of water from a person who had it?
People were scared.
People forget now what it was like when there was no medicine there.
Just a question of when, not whether you were gonna die, unless you were
some sort of biological miracle.
People that we know are losing their lives to this, uh, something gotta be done.
In the early days, it was hard at amfAR for us to organize benefits
of any kind because everybody feared that to be associated with this
disease meant that you must have it.
So to have someone like Deion dedicate a song on behalf of this
disease was simply groundbreaking.
My sister Deion called me on the phone.
She said, Hey, look, you, I need you in the studio, uh, this afternoon about 12.
And she said, Stevie's already on it.
Well, I was happy for the moment that I was called to be asked to be a
part of it, and most importantly, do something, uh, that would help despite
against aids, I thought, God, these people have already done something.
I've gotta get off my big fat ass and, um, do something positive.
I remember my first time hearing that song as a kid, to hear those voices together
and to hear how she's that motherly.
Voice on there that could just comfort you and let you know that everything was gonna
be alright and, uh, never I feel as far
to say that I do believe I love.
And if I should ever away.
Well then your eyes and try way we do today.
And it you can remember.
Keep smiling, keep shining and know and can always count on me.
That's what friends are for, for good times and bad times.
All.
That's what,
well, you came and opened me and now there's so much more.
I see.
Am so by the way, I thank you.
You know, there's a saying that's been around since the beginning of time United.
We stand the divide that we fall.
She's an incredible singer, but equally as important as her heart
is one of the greatest of all times, it's typical of a Warwick performance.
She started on a peak and went up from there.
And her generosity is also akin to her talent and ability because the
proceeds are being donated to the American Foundation for AIDS research.
She realized that President Reagan had given her an
opportunity to be an advocate.
I consider it an honor to be invited to announce my AIDS agenda for
1988 as Ambassador of Health Dion's known presidents and worked with
them since the Kennedy's president.
Reagan appointed her health ambassador.
He wanted her to use that job to be a voice in American around
the world to increase awareness, compassion, sensitivity, willingness
to do something about this.
And that's what she did.
Uh, Always at her own expense.
As far as I know, nobody ever bought a plane ticket for her as president.
She was helpful to me mostly because she was never satisfied
with how much I'd done.
She was pleased that would triple the efforts to help people
with AIDS around the world.
But she would always tell me it was never enough, and the president needs
to remember that she is truly one of the greatest ambassadors of good will.
I said what I had to say.
I did what I could do.
And that's the way I moved to this very day.
That's what friends are for, for good times and bad times, am
yesable all these years later.
That's what friends are for, is still the anthem of the AIDS movement.
It was just a very magical day and the lyric summed up exactly what needed
to be said at that particular time.
But the help of my good friends, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Elton John,
and all those people who gave it their time, their money, and their hearts.
We raised over $1.5 million with all of the proceeds.
Going to the American Foundation for AIDS research.
Otherwise, and Bar
supposed do.
Now on behalf of amfAR, let me welcome you to our offices.
We know that you haven't been here before.
We're all really excited to have you here.
My camera.
Where we going?
To your left.
Left to do that?
Yeah.
That's the song, isn't it?
You were the first recording artists who donated royalties to our cause.
I think it was really quite special.
I mean, there, there weren't many people who were willing to
even talk about this disease.
Ronald Reagan didn't mention the word AIDS publicly until 87.
I know he made him do it.
Took 40,000 people had already died.
So this was really early.
I made him say the word, and it was at a press conference, what is it called?
President of Reagan.
He said, uh, come on, you know the name.
He said, aids.
I said, yes.
See, you can say the word aids, can't you?
So he wanted to kill me.
I saw it in his eyes.
He thought you were crazy.
Oh yeah.
The stigma was so bad.
Oh, the stigma was horrible.
What did Clive Davis say to you when you said, we're gonna, oh my God,
he looked at me, he said, you've just given the biggest record you'll
ever have in your lifetime away.
Well, you know, if you'd kept the royalties from this, you probably could
have retired a long, long time ago,
Yeah.
But, uh, I, as far as I'm concerned that this is something that, uh,
as I said I committed to and, um, anyway, really knows me, that's
when I say Yeah, it means, yeah,
yeah.
The royalties for, that's what friends are for is now into the tens
of millions of dollars and counting that money has literally changed the
trajectory of the epidemic in America.
I'd like to see people acknowledge the fact that she was one of the first.
His genuine AIDS activist in the United States.
DM was definitely a hero of mine and a hero to a lot of people that she was
really the first person in the music business to actually speak up about it.
Anybody who lives goes through tough times.
I think the difference being her tough times are publicized.
Today, you'll find out what Dionne Warwick has to say about
the psychic Friends network.
Call the Psychic Friends Network and get a psychic power reading of your very own.
It was the first of its kind, and they got a person who was camera
friendly to talk to you about it.
She was a host.
Unfortunately, it overshadowed who she was as a singer.
When you have a celebrity as an a parent, the things that are
normally private, everybody knows.
Sad news for music legend.
Deion Warwick, the fabulous woman who's had tons of hits and
even more money, suddenly filed bankruptcy because of negligent
and gross financial mismanagement.
Having an accountant that totally screws you over, and the only thing
that happens through that is the government points their finger at you.
She gives, gives gifts, gifts, gifts and gifts even when she doesn't have it.
She gives, she donated all the proceeds to, uh, of her wonderful song.
That's What Friends Are for, which is a song that continues
to be recorded and sung.
Whoever needed help, that's what she gave the show up and for free so many times.
They never tried to sell a record.
sense was that Thomas was God's gift to her.
It was her way of saying, thank you.
If General Motors can file bankruptcy, why can't Deion Warwick?
You know, what's the big deal about it?
You know, there are many rumors about Deion Warwick, and they still are.
Uh, so gossip, which I find hysterical.
Uh, oh.
I was, I was taking drugs not in my arms.
I was taking them in my legs.
That's why I wore gowns all the time.
People go say and do whatever they wanna say and do you know what?
And my feeling is, and I've said it, talk about me.
As long as you spell my name out, make sure you do that.
It's really a pleasure to enter, act, and relate to each other on all levels.
Levels of business, levels of religion, levels of education.
And levels of miso.
His lyrics given to us by these so-called gangsta rappers,
gangster rap has become incredibly popular and profitable.
People either like it or hate it.
I felt very strongly about stuff rap.
First of all, it was not gonna be ever played in my home.
Your hands way up in the air and wave them all around like you just don't pay.
I remember driving my car one afternoon, Damon was in the car with me.
Those misogynistic lyrics came on the radio.
I'm still on.
Hit legit now.
More for Rome with the dog.
Pound right behind me.
You're rolling with my bitch.
That's where your I turned radio off.
These kids were calling people out of their name, especially little girls.
You don't call me outta my name.
You don't know me that well.
So let's, let's get a grip on that first.
We must support and uplift those who are doing things.
However, we must also remind them yes, of the responsibility that's
right, that they have and carry, that they're gonna carry messages.
These kids are expressing themselves, which they're entitled to do.
However, there is a way to do it.
Mom decided she was gonna get respect.
I have two sons and they also understand that I'm crazy.
They do, they understand very well that I am crazy.
She decided to have a meeting with Snoop Sugar Knight, whole
bunch of gangster rappers.
I said, well, listen, you need to talk to me and I need to talk to you.
Snoop Doge dog in the house with the pound, like every, and
I'm right back up in with Dr.
Dre like I was young.
Kind of thuggish, not really like hmm, who I am now.
So we like Deion Warwick, what she wanna do with us over there.
Like we kind of like scared and shook up like we are in the industry.
We're powerful right now.
But she's been powerful forever.
30 some years in the game, in a big home with a lot of money and success.
Not much scares us, but this got us shook.
I told them, I want you all at my home.
7:00 AM tomorrow morning.
We show up at our door by like 6 52.
Cause we wanna be on time.
We wanna be promised you understand me.
Cause we realize what we in the presence of.
7:00 AM my doorbell rang.
I remember waking up very early one morning and seeing about 15 SUVs,
and I knew what they were there for.
My sons thought I had lost my mind.
She opened the door.
I remember she had like a big old walkway.
We stepped down, walked into the living room area, and then she just had us sit
down, gave us some drinks and ordered some donuts and we had coffee and tea and
we sat and we talked for quite a while.
She took control of the room, like you at grandma house with the plastic on
the couch and you, you trying to be on your, you see candy on the table?
You don't even want to take me.
You, you don't even want to ask granny, do you old seven then.
I made a point, a very important one.
She said, I wanted to, to meet you, and then she said, and I
want you to call me a bitch.
Uh, what?
She said, go ahead, call me a bitch.
She came in the store saying all of that, like, Using our lyrics
against us was like, miss Ms.
Ward, Ms.
Ward, miss, you know I got respect for you Ms.
She said, so if you have respect for Mr.
Why?
What gives you the right?
And she looked at everybody to call women.
Bitch, these little girls don't have tales and they don't walk on
four legs, so why are you calling them what you're calling them?
It's like she was talking to me directly.
Checking me at a time when we thought we couldn't be checked.
You need to change.
You know your lyrics and because you're gonna be a father one day.
One day you're gonna be married or you are gonna have a child.
It's gonna be a little girl.
You're gonna want that little girl to come to you and say, daddy, is that you?
She just give me all this stuff.
And I'm like, I ain't even got no kids.
I'm like, man, what is she talking about?
But I'm hearing what she's saying and I'm respecting what she's saying.
Cause we recognize and we realize who she is as far as like this is a
powerful figure in the music industry.
And I'm like, man, why is Deion Warwick talking to me?
I told him, if I didn't care about you, I wouldn't be here.
This is like one of your auntie that got all the wisdom and the money and the.
Come by grandma house and be like, bring Snoopy back here.
I need to talk to him for a minute.
He'd be like, what do I do auntie?
Shut up.
And, and just listen, here's what you going to do.
You going A, B, and C if you want to get to X, Y, and Z and
I'm gonna leave it at that.
Somebody just got to give them the guidance and somebody that they
trust and that they feel they might be able to learn a little bit.
Something from, I was raised by strong black women, so to have her stick me
again, like, know you was raised this way, don't have me call your mama, your
grandma, or you, oh dear, all right.
Okay, I'm gonna straighten up.
And they promised that they were going to start curtailing the way that they
were presenting themselves on recordings.
About a year later, I did tone it down on the Dog Father album.
I made it a point to put records of joy.
Me uplifting everybody and nobody dying, and everybody living
everything is free and ain't no hiv.
We were the most gangster that you could be.
But that day at Dionne War's house, I believe we, we got our gangster that day.
I, I think they all kind of grew up, which is a wonderful thing for me.
Everything that she's seen in me, everything that she thought I could be
a father, a mentor, a humanitarian Dion.
I hope I became the jewel that you seen when I was the little
dirty rock that was in your house.
I hope I'm making you proud.
I'm thrilled about it.
I've seen my mom lose so many family members still through it all.
My mom was so strong.
But when Whitney pass.
I saw something in her that I hadn't seen.
The loss was traumatic for her.
We have some sad breaking news coming to us tonight.
Singer Whitney Houston is dead again.
This is according to the Associated Press.
Whitney Houston was 48 years old.
She was always around me.
Um, grow into an incredible talent.
Gorgeous young lady.
Should I?
Nothing
in my bra?
No, it's Mike.
She's the little girl in the bed.
Losing Whitney was probably one of the hardest things
I've seen my mom go through.
It was difficult because it was so public we didn't have time to
grieve My time seemed all too brief.
Don't length it now with undue grief.
Lift up your hearts and share with me.
God wanted me now.
He set me free.
My family has always been, I think, uh, my rock.
You know, my, my, my stability.
Oh, we've had our bombs.
Don't get me wrong.
Everything has, its, its obstacles, but we managed to come together and managed to
hug each other and say we love each other.
Whitney was special through and through.
She had it all and she was a beautiful soul.
And
Mom,
Whitney's daughter, Chrissy, another one.
That's tragic.
I miss her terribly.
I miss her a lot.
I really do.
My grandfather taught me that transition takes place because you have completed
everything that you are put here to do.
Grandpa used to tell me, God put us all here to be of service to each other.
I never forgot that.
My grammar school, Lincoln now bears the name of the Gion Warwick Institute,
which I'm very proud to say, ah,
to be
and laugh.
What a love what Alys
a.
A
good day and
open your heart.
Open your hearts to what I mean.
Oh, oh, caution.
Oh
wow.
That's a, there's a, a
I
live.
Woo.
And that's shown up a.
That's a, that's a yay.
That's a, that's a yes.
It's, it's a's,
and
I know the show that I'm.
The true icons.
My shoulders are broad now.
I've learned enough to allow the babies today to stand on my shoulders.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love.
It's the only thing that there's just too love for what the world
needs Now is love, sweet love.
No, just for some but for everyone.
Lord, we don't prepare from the world to able to enjoy life.
Enjoy to the fullest and hillside.
I'm a messenger.
And I'm carrying messages of love and hope.
I think it's something that has kept me able to walk out on the, the stage, the,
it's the, A few years ago we here at the Apollo Theater started paying tribute
to some of our icons and legend, and we created the Apollo Theater Walk of Fame.
And what that is, we induct someone into the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame,
and then their names are placed in a bronze plaque on the ground and
under the marquee of the Apollo Theater, we started with Quincy Jones.
We've also had Stevie Wonder.
We've had Gladys Knight, we've had Smokey Robinson, we have
Chuck Jackson D on War, right?
She won Amateur Knight 16 years ago.
And now we just inducted for one and over Miss Dion.
Thank.
Thanks
everyone.
I feel very privileged to share messages of hope, of love, of peace through music.
When I close these two brown eyes, I want people to just rejoice that I
lived a full life doing what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it, where
I wanted to do it, how and with who.
Asking if my friends, she'll tell you how crazy Dionne really is.
It is.
The Deion will always be considered to be one of the
great female singers of all time.
Those singers don't come along for us.
Dion's music is forever and ever.
That type of legacy is protected because it's anointed.
She will open the door for today's artist, and I truly believe that without Dionne
Warwick, there would be no Snoop Dog.
I do stand on the shoulders, a Dionne Warwick, the woman who has been
able to break so many boundaries.
That's what defines greatness.
She is pristine romance.
When you'd look at the great singers of all time and you go back to Billy
Holiday and you go to Ella Fitzgerald and you go to Maha Franklin, DM
Warwick is right at that top level.
Dion, I'm sitting here doing this here because I love you, Dion.
I remember you forever and never your smile, your heart of gold.
So never forget how much I love you
long before we are
older.
. That's crazy.
My favorite song of Dionne Wars is, The moment I wake her
stop before I put my makeup.
I say a little for you forever.
Forever.
Can never I ever.
If I live, be, be hungry.
Do you know the way to say Jose?
I mean, who can rock today?
Don't make me over.
Now that I got you with all of my, it keeps smiling.
Keep shining.
That's what friends are for.
Come on baby.
What the
is love, sweet love.
It's the only thing that is just.
If you see me walking down the streets and I start to cry,
walk on by what I grew up with was rough.
And we say, if you see me walking down the streets and I have a gun
each time we meet, walk on by.
You know?
So we used to change the lyrics just, just to be rascals when you say goodbye.
Aye.
I'm walking on.
Bye.
I just love Deion walk cause she's a good person.
Thanks for the music.
I will love you internally and just keep being you loving.
You're still going strong and stronger than ever.
Fantastic.
I'm happy to call you my friend.
I mean, that's a wonderful thing, mom.
We just want to say that we love you very much and.
That's what pins are for.
, you didn't go there.
That should be the end right there.
Yeah.