“I feel like R&B can never die.” (Photo courtesy Donell Jones) We’re not holding anything back, and we’re going to give it to them in the raw, and that’s how I approached it. My family asked me, ‘Do you want me to talk about this?’ I was like, ‘Man, ya’ll just keep it 100 and tell the truth. I just felt like…I didn’t know I was going to get the opportunity to do it, but I said, ‘If I ever do this show, I’m going to let it all out because if I’m going through it, maybe my story can help somebody else.’Īnd I just wanted to be 100% real. You know why? I had watched that ‘Unsung’ show a few times with artists on there. Was it therapeutic for you at that moment to share so much of yourself and get things off your chest? I learned things about you that I didn’t know. Zenger: When I watched your ‘Unsung’ on TV One, you had a very brutally honest episode.

So, I’m glad I didn’t know, but I think that added to it a little bit. Had I known it was a Stevie Wonder song, I probably would have been so intimidated to do it, and it probably wouldn’t have even come out right. I didn’t even know it was a Stevie Wonder song. When I did that particular song, I didn’t even know it was a Stevie Wonder song.Ī lady had sung it to me, a producer’s wife sang the song to me, and I sang it back to the tape. Let me be completely honest with you, man…and I’m a Stevie Wonder fan. Jones: Wow! I don’t know about that (laughing). But I gotta tell you, your rendition of Stevie Wonder’s, ‘Knocks Me Off My Feet,’ I believe you outdid the legend on that one. Zenger: ‘Where I Wanna Be’ has to be one of the greatest songs ever made. It was something that I was supposed to do, and it hit me at that specific moment. And that’s exactly what happened with that particular song. When songs hit me like that when I’m sleeping, that means I’m supposed to do it. So, immediately I went downstairs and started making the music, and just wrote a whole new song from it, but I kept their thing, which was, “Payback.” She asked me, ‘Damn, what song is that?’ And I told her that it was The Stylistics joint. I woke up one day I was in bed with my wife, and I woke up singing the song.

So, I always knew one day I was going to do something with that particular record. Me and my group used to sing that record. That record was an old record from, The Stylistics. Jones: Thank you! For me, it’s always been just following my heart. Is it just a matter of keeping your ear to the street?

I’m always amazed how artists like you are able to not only create timeless music but relative music as well. Zenger : ‘Karma (Payback),’ love the new single. Percy Crawford interviewed Donell Jones for Zenger News (Photo courtesy of Percy Crawford)

Donell jones wife