WD: Yeah, I mean, it really was. He said “Yeah, I got something, I’ll send you something.” He sent me this MP3 and that’s the first thing I heard and I was….I’ll be the first to admit I was downstairs in my basement, man, this song came on, man, I’m in there, tears are streaming down my face as I’m hearing this song. I’m crying uncontrollably. I’m like “Please, Lord, don’t let my daughter come downstairs and see Daddy crying.” (Both laughing)
Smitty: And you’ve got some great cats on this project, some of my favorite musicians, like Rex Rideout.
WD: Oh yeah, yeah.
Smitty: And my boy Dwayne “Smitty” Smith.
WD: Oh, yeah, Dwayne “Smitty” Smith.
Smitty: Yeah, man. That’s my boy!
WD: Yeah, he’s one of my favorites. I’ve tried to surround myself with quality folks and I’ve tried to do that from the inception, man.
Smitty: Yes indeed. Let’s talk about something that I know is dear to your heart and that’s the American Stroke Association, and I know you’ve done some work with them and you do a charity event for them. Talk about how you became associated with this and what that’s done for the Association as well as yourself.
WD: Well, I’ve been a spokesperson for the American Stroke Association for the last two years, and it’s another project that I kinda lucked up upon because they needed someone just to do a voiceover, they needed someone to read the copy, and I do that from time to time as well here in New York. So I’m reading the copy, the guy likes what he’s hearing and he said “Listen, man, we’re trying to kinda bump up our status out here and we’re looking for folk to be, you know, heavily involved as spokespeople for the Stroke Association. Are you interested?” I said, “Sure. Let me make sure I read up on it, you know, what I’m promoting.” Come to find out that, like, I have a lot of people that are in my family that have unfortunately suffered from strokes. So then it kinda hit home even more. And I got heavily involved. Now, my thing is it’s easy to be involved and to make a speech here or there or to do a little sound bite, but I really tried to get involved and I created something to really attract people to stroke awareness, and I do an event, it’s called Strike Against Stroke, and what Strike Against Stroke is, we do a play on the word “strike” and we throw bowling events across the country.
Smitty: Oh, cool.
WD: And what we do is we ask folks to come out to make a donation of $20 and they get to bowl as much as they like between an allotted amount of time, we get other celebrities and athletes to come out, and the American Stroke Association comes out and they do screening sometimes and I hand out pamphlets and, you know, really just to raise the awareness. If you can get folk to come out and listen, they’ll understand how serious, you know, of an issue this is. So it’s been ridiculously successful. We have another one coming up very soon in L.A. and I’m calling on my buddies. Wayman Tisdale’s gonna come out and I talked to George Duke just a little while ago, he’s gonna come out, and Vesta and Phil Perry, and, you know….
Smitty: Wow.
WD: Oh yeah, it’s the real deal. We have a ball. And it’s non-competitive ‘cause they would all lose to me anyway. (Both laughing)
Smitty: Now, that’s at the Midtown AMF Lanes in LA?
WD: Midtown AMF Lanes, right.
Smitty: Very cool, and that’s a great way of reaching people with the whole “strike” thing, to “strike” against stroke, because that’s the whole objective of bowling. Yeah, I like that. That’s a very creative way to call attention to the cause.
WD: Every once in a while we get it right.
Smitty: Yeah, man, yeah. And speaking of getting it right, man, you have put together something I think is very special, a book, and this is not just your ordinary book. This is a book of some serious substance. Just talk a little bit about it. It’s called Unveiled.
WD: Right.
Smitty: Talk a little bit about this and how you came about this. This is kind of unique.
WD: Well, I have a book entitled Unveiled, and what it is, for those who don’t know, when I’m not singing, I’m a photographer, and it’s something that I’ve been doing for the last, I’d say, ten years or so, and sometimes you’ll see me at concerts or you’ll see a big lens come from the side of the stage. (Both laughing) More than likely it’s me. And what I do, and what I started doing many years ago, is if I’m in concert with someone, if I go on first, I’ll perform, I’ll go get myself cleaned up, I grab my camera, I come out, and I’m shooting from the side of the stage. Or if I’m closing the show, I’m out there first and I’m shooting the other people that I’m performing with, and then I’ll put my camera down and I go get dressed and then I perform. So I have amassed a pretty nice array of musical talent on film, or on disc these days, digital, and I decided to put it in book form, and this book is called Unveiled, obviously because no one knows that, well, few people know that I’m a photographer, so this is my way of unveiling my work, so that’s where the title came from.
Also, what I’ve done in the book is I’ve given an opportunity for seven young African American artists….painters, most of them, and given them an outlet for their work on a more national scale. I’m not saying that these are all newly discovered unknown talent, but they’re known in their circle and I’ve decided to kind of give them a national, forum to show their work. So it’s a book of artwork and photography which you have actually never seen before.
Smitty: Yeah, that’s beautiful. Well, I must say, I was one of those fans that did not know it either until I saw the book, but I’m here to confirm that this is a magnificent piece of work.
WD: Thank you.
Smitty: Wow. I stood there with one other musician and all we did as we turned the pages was ooh and aah and ooh and wow, and “I know who that is.” And we kept saying “I didn’t know he did this cool stuff.” I’m just gonna give everyone one little precursor. There’s a photo of, I believe it’s, yeah, Chris Botti….
WD: Yes, and do you know where that was shot?
Smitty: No.
WD: That was shot at the Twin Towers, the World Trade Center in New York.
Smitty: Really?
WD: That was shot two weeks before it went down.
Smitty: Oh man, oh man.
WD: Yeah, a lot of the shots….in New York they have a series. There’s a radio station in New York called CD101, and they did a series, it was a Wednesday series, and every Wednesday in the afternoon at lunchtime they have quality artists come out and perform. So every Wednesday you could go down there and, you know, you could see just about anybody. Chris Botti, you’d see Bob Baldwin, you’d see Marion Meadows, anybody. So I went down there on this Wednesday and photographed Chris, and then two weeks later….the buildings went down.
