Rhonda Smith Interview Page 4

Smitty:  You toured with Candy and that must have been a serious thrill  because she’s a great person and she has a serious funky vibe, just talk a little bit about your experience of touring with Candy.

RS:  Oh my gosh, Candy is fantastic.  I first met Candy, of course, working with Prince, where there’s basically two ladies that I knew who had a longer relationship than I have had, which has been ten years with him, which is, of course, Sheila E, who goes back way longer than I do, and Candy, who goes back longer than I do.  And I first met Candy, I don’t even know what tour it is because I can’t even remember one tour from the other anymore.

Smitty:  (Laughs.)

RS:  But I first met Candy when she was touring with us and great girl, great sax player, and the last thing we did together before she asked me to come and do some dates with her was Musicology and we had a great time on that tour.  And I did a couple of dates with Candy and one of the really fun things we did—and I spent probably three different trips, if not three months in Europe this year—we did a summer tour with Candy Dulfer & Friends and it was really a lot of fun, but we started the year off earlier with another group that I have, called C.O.E.D, which is an all-girls group with Sheila E on drums, myself, Kat Dyson, and Cassandra O’Neal, and we added Candy as a special guest on sax and we did a month in Europe in February and we went out and toured and it was a ball, man. 

We did Paradiso and we played in Paris and we just had such a great time, so we started off 2007 with that so, I mean, Candy’s been a big part of my year.  Yeah, always.  She’s a great friend, I love her family, I love her Moms, I love her Pops, I mean, we’re just a big family, and I love her music and I always support what she does.  She’s always been really great with me.  And it’s just a lot of fun.  I’m actually going to go with Candy to—I’ve never been to South Africa before, believe it or not, so we’re going to do the Capetown Jazz Festival in March 08.

Smitty:  Wow, very cool.

RS:  Yeah, that’s gonna be a lotta fun.

Smitty:  Oh, I wanna go!  (Laughs.)

RS:  Yeah, I know, and I’m gonna miss you and, of course, with the super great Althea Rene.

Smitty:  (Laughs.)

RS:  That was just so much fun for that concert that Amy Winehouse didn’t show up at, you remember?

Smitty:  Oh, I remember.

RS:  She was a no-show.

RS:  And we got to see Marcus, so that was great.  No disrespect to Amy, but I love Marcus, so what can I say?

Smitty:  Yeah, that was so cool.

RS:  And we got to see Sly too.

Smitty:  We got to see Sly.

RS:  And the Family Stone, which was, I mean, and now here’s the other thing, you know, from going about with Graham I got to see Cynthia, who I hadn’t seen forever because she used to tour with us with Larry Graham, because when we first ran into Larry Graham in like 1997, he had Cynthia playing trumpet with him and Jerry and all those guys in his band, so I hadn’t seen Cynthia in probably eight years.

Smitty:  (Laughs.)

RS:  So it was a trip to see her. He brought her down.  Man, it was great.  She was back with Sly so, I mean, I was like oh my gosh, Cynthia.  How wonderful.

Smitty:  That was like a reunion, you know?

RS:  It was great.

Smitty:  It was really cool and I loved that Dutch vibe, man.  I just loved those people there.

RS:  I love it every time I go back.  I’m a little slow with some things, you know, like over time Japan’s taken me several years and many trips to really start to love it, but now I really love Japan.  I’m not saying I wanna move there, but I really enjoy myself much, much more.  Same thing with Amsterdam.  I’ve had the opportunity obviously with Candy to spend a lot more time there and it’s really, really a great place.

Smitty:  Yeah.  So you’ve got all these great things coming up in 2008 and are you thinking about doing another record?

RS:  I am but I probably won’t do it this year.  I wanna get this band out on the road.  We wanna play.  We’re also gonna do some dates in the U.K.  We wanna spend a lotta time in Europe.  I’d love to go also to Japan with this band, but I wanna do a lot of hits in the U.S. too because it’s a hard rocking, hard hitting band, so I’m really more concerned with—and it’s hard—you don’t usually hear girls say that, but I’m ready to hit the road.

Smitty:  Yeah, girl!  Well, I love it when you say that.

RS:  Yeah.

Smitty:  Well, I just wanna say to all the fans out there, when you find out where Rhonda’s coming close to you, I can guarantee you that you will not be disappointed if you book this show and do it because it is a great experience and you just gotta be there to appreciate what I’m saying.  Rhonda, thank you so much for spending so much time with me and having so much fun.  It’s great to see that you’re doing so many great things and all the best to you in 2008, and we love you for what you do and who you are and what you are.

RS:  Smitty, thank you so much, and what a wonderful and blessed way to end a great year, with you.

Smitty:  Ahh, how cool of you. I wouldn’t have it any other way. (Laughs.)

RS:  Thank you so much.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.rhondasmith.com and www.myspace.com/rhondasmith.