Mary J. Blige – Interview

Nobody tells it like Mary. With a voice that is rough and ready, sweet and pure, Mary J. Blige is capable of conveying heartache and happiness in a single musical phrase. A confessional singer, her emotional honesty reflects the great traditions of blues and soul with a ripped-from-the-pages-of-your-diary immediacy that has won her countless honors and a devoted, ever-growing audience around the world.

We interview Mary!

HIP: Today there was some big news—the album is number one.

Mary J Blige: I’m happy and healthy so I can’t complain. It’s amazing. That’s all I can ask for.

Did you have any expectations?

You know what I’m happy about? I’m happy that my fans are happy. I never wanted to let them down or disappoint them in anyway.

Can you believe how long you’ve been able to have a career?

Don’t get me wrong—it has been hard. There were days when I was tired. But when someone comes to me and says that I’ve saved their lives—that has kept me doing this. While I was on tour I would let the fans know that is why I kept doing it because if it wasn’t for them I would have been done. I was doing an interview a couple of weeks ago where fans were calling in and a girl said “Mary, I’m glad you are back but where were you when I needed you?” That moved me and told me it was bigger than me. But it gets hard.

When fans tell you that the songs are so important to them and help them—what is the feeling like?

You have no idea how humbling that is. It does nothing to me except for making me want to credit God. I can’t cure anyone but because God gave me the ability to speak on my life and make it a ministry—because that has been what it has been since the My Life album.

A lot of young artists get into it today for the money—but you have something they don’t realize—the ability to touch people. That is bigger than money.

After the My Life album there was a moment when I put it on wax there were so many people that spoke to me or wrote me about that album and how they identified with that album and my suicidal pain. I didn’t want them to go through those suicidal pains so I wanted to get myself together so that we could all get ourselves together. I can’t force things down people’s throats but what I can do is try to fix Mary. That is probably what people are seeing.

When you are writing your songs you are thinking about Mary but when they hear it they are thinking about themselves and going through the same things.

Exactly. You nailed it. I didn’t know what to do with the stuff that was in me and was surprised millions of people were like me too.

Why do people call this album a comeback?

I kind of fell into a slump and people didn’t know what was going to happen. People weren’t sure if I was done. They were guessing. When you are in a healing process you get into a dark area called confusion. During the Love & Life album there was a lot of confusion and no one really knew what I was doing and there was too many cooks in the kitchen. When you go with your heart you lose a lot of people because in my heart I had to get well but then you have Puffy saying we needed to make people dance and I didn’t know that. I think my fans appreciate it more when I give them the raw and real Mary. I didn’t have the distractions with this one and I went totally crazy with what was going on in my heart because I didn’t want to let them down again.

Isn’t it crazy that fans can feel what is natural and real?

It’s a beautiful thing because you see how much attention people are paying to you. It makes you quicker on your feet when you step into the studio. I didn’t want to do another My Life because it was something we did. My fans are really smart and have been fans for a long time. This time when I went into the studio I didn’t want to fail them again and listen to someone else and go against what was in my heart.

How were you able to keep the sound cohesive with lots of different producers?

You have got to have the openness with you when you work with a person. If it is a great idea and it goes with your heart then go with it. If it goes against your heart then you can’t—it’ll be oil and water.

How did the recording of the US song “One” happen?

What happened with that record was about four years ago Music Heritage had a tribute to Bono and they wanted me to sing that song. So I went and listened to the song at home and it drove me crazy with the lyrical content is something I would have sung that record. Bono sang it with so much passion and conviction that it made the hair stand up on my back. So two years later I was sitting at Jimmy Iovine’s house and that song came on and I told him I had to record that record. So when I went into the studio and Jimmy called and when Katrina happened Bono and I did it on television for a benefit. So we took what Bono did on the special and then I went and rerecorded it for the record.

I loved it.

Thank you.

Can fans look forward to a tour for 2006?

I will definitely go on tour. I’m rehearsing and hope that in well get out on tour for April.

Any idea what the show will be like?

I have ideas but I don’t want to talk about them because I don’t know how they are going to shake out. (Laughs)

+ Charlie Craine