Merry Clayton Finds Redemption

00:00:15 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Mary Clayton is a legendary backup singer and one of the few who managed to consistently steal the spotlight Sven Man, You bet Up, keep you all Hair, don't forget what are You good? Book Ship. Mary grew up singing in her father's Baptist church in New Orleans before becoming a part of Ray Charles backing group, the Raylettes in nineteen sixty six. From there, her powerhouse vocals appeared on a number of classic songs from artists like Leonard Skynard, Neil Young, and Carol King. Mary's journey from a renowned backup singer to a solo artist was documented in the Oscar winning documentary Twenty Feet from Stardom. In twenty thirteen, almost exactly one year after the film was released, Mary was involved in a near fatal car accident in Los Angeles. That accident resulted in her losing both of her legs. After years of intensive physical therapy, Mary was back in the studio working with her longtime producer Lou Adler on brand new material. Her new album, Beautiful Scars is a testament to her enduring faith, featuring songs by famed songwriter Diane Warren and also cold plays Chris Martin. On today's episode, Mary Clayton talks to Bruce Headlam about the lasting impression hearing Mahalia Jackson and Arita Franklin singing Church left on her as a little girl. She also recalls how the Rolling Stones convinced her to get out of bed in the middle of the night and sing on their nineteen sixty nine classic Gimme Shelter, and how Chris Martin was the first person to get married back in the studio after her tragic car accident. This is broken record. Liner notes for the digital age. I'm justin Richmond. Here's Bruce Hadlam and Mary Cleaner. So this new album, it's it's got some great old songs. It's got a lot of gospel. When did the idea for the album come to you? Well, it actually, in the beginning didn't come to me. It came to my uncle Lou. I was when I was in the hospital after my accident. I would speak to lu like every day, you know, maybe two or three times a day. And because I was in the hospital for almost five months, I would speak to Lou and he kept saying to me, said Mary, when you get out of there, you need to be singing. I said, yeah, sure, suresh sure. You know, he would keep he would keep revisiting the same thing, and of course I said, well, yeah, well I'll think about all of this. So when I finally got out of the hospital, he said to me, well, what do you think you think you want to you want to record again? I said, well, I really don't know. I've got to get through what I'm going through before I even think about recording again. He said, but you gotta be okay, don't don't you know, don't worry. The main thing he said, I want you to do is get well, and want you get well, we're revisited again. So about eight months into my recovery, I got a call from from my then manager and he says, you know, I got a great call from well from Chris Martin. Let's say Chris Martin. What do they call it? Boy? He said, well, they wanted to call to see how you were doing, and how's Mary and how she fielding, how's the recovery going and whatever. He said, well, well, we're gonna be in Talented about two weeks and we would love it if married we can get married to come by the studio. So I spoke to my manager and I said, you know what, that would be a great time for me to get out and just kind of hang in the studio and hang with the guys, you know. So I went to the studio and we just kind of out and talked and listen to them. This is when they were recording Kalidoscope. But now in the meantime, Lewis called me said, I hear that you're visiting Chris Martin. I said, yeah, I'm here with the guys at the Old A and M studios. So of course, after the Kaleidoscope sessions, he kept saying to me, Mary, you need to be recording. So we called my great producer f and Terry Young, and Terry said, you know what, I've got three great songs. I'm coming over. I said, okay, And he came over with Old What a Friend? That was the first song, and then he came back with God's Love. Then he came back again with another song, and we just went over the songs and Lou heard it and we loved it. So he says, you know what, I'm gonna make a call and we're gonna get going to studio. Where would you like to do this? I said, well, I'd love to do it at I'd like to go home and do it, which is a in recording studio to me, which is the Hanson studio, And we would Henson and it was on That's amazing. Now had you known cold Play before you sang on that album? I knew Chris, I didn't know the rest of the guys. So what was it like, first time after your accident to be in there singing? What did it feel like? Well, it felt like any other recording session really, or any of it, you know, just hanging out with some friends and they wanted my presence and my spirit to be there. So as I as we were kind of hanging out, Chris says, you know what, let's go out to the piano. So here he comes, you know, he's wheeling me out to the piano. And we got to the piano. He said, Mary, can you sing this little part? So what little part? I wasn't supposed to sing? He's, oh, you can sing this little part. So he says, go on the booth. Let's let's go on the booth and put that on. But that's how that started. Then I put one part on a background part of then I put another background part on. Then they called me two other times to do the same thing again, and we just kind of kick didn't had a great time and did a little recording. But I didn't have a problem going in the studio. That was like drinking water. What songs had you done in that studio? Well? I did the Mary Clayton album there, and that very studio, which I didn't even know where I was going. I had no idea that the studio that the session with Coldplay was even going to be at Hinson A and m I just you know, they were driving and they wouldn't tell me anything. So when I got there and they took me into the studio, I said, oh my god, this is my studio. You know this is where I did this Mary? What did you do here? I said? Did the Mary Clayton help here? And we also did Tapestry here. The Mary Clayton album was your second album, right, Was Gimme Shelter your first? Yes? So that had that incredible version of Southern Man on it. Yes, do you remember recording that? Of course? I remember every session I ever did. I want to hear about that one because it's such a great song. The way you do it it was fabulous. Well, thank you. Lou. Had just at that song to my husband, who also worked for Lou at on the A and M lot, and we got home on it even and he said, you know what, we need to listen to this song. Lou asked, you know, to check it out to see if you'd like it and if you want to record it. So I listened to it, and I listened to it again. I listen to it a couple of times. I said, you know what, if we just bump this up a little bit, I think this would be a great song. The message was incredible at that time. So then I had my great friend Billy Preston played on that. I had I think Joe Sample, I had a couple of the Crusaders, I had David T. Walker, I had all the great musicians on it. So we got through it and did the way we wanted to do it. Then we loved it. Had you known Billy Preston from Ray Charles then when you sang with him, Well, this is another story. Billy and I were childhood friends. We knew each other from nine years old. Are you kidding? No, Billy went to a church called Victory Baptist Church, he and his mom and family, and I went to a church on the other side of the town called Mariah Baptist Church. So these two black churches would always visit each other. They would like hold revivals where a minister would come in and preach for a whole week, you know, and hold these great new Bibles, and they have these great choirs to sing. And I went to Billy's church and saw this little guy nine years old playing this Hammond organ, and I said, well, who is that? And my mom said, that's Billy. That's Robbie, Robbie's Robbie's son, Billy, little little Billy. So they got us together and we became great friends as kids. And whatever Billy would do, I would do. Wherever Billy would play, I would play, so we kind of mimicked each other. And where every record company he would go to, I would go to. Whatever he would do, he would always recommend me to do vocals. So that's how our whole situation worked until you know, he left this earth. Did you sing with him in church? Where? When? Oh God, yes, yes, absolutely. When we were kids, we always sung. Billy would play and I would sing. And did you sing solo in your church? Of course I was the baby. I was the baby girl from God. I've had to be four, maybe four or five years old. And your dad was the pastor, Yes he was now. But New Orleans had such great secular music as well as church music. Yes, when you got older, did you go out and start seeing like New Orleans greats or did your dad not like that? What happened in my situation was at my dad's church. It was every maybe two weeks, there would be great singers that were in town doing gospel in New Orleans, and they would all come to my dad's church to sing. You know. My dad's great friend was Mahalia Jackson, and Mahelia loved I just loved. They were really great. They kind of came up together. And she would always when she was in talent, you'd always come and I some kind of way would find where she was and go and sit us nestled myself right up under her. She would be on one side, and Lynda the Hopkins. She would always sit with Lynda Hopkins. Lynda Hopkins was my dad's friend also. She was a great singer. So when Mahelia was there. Whatever she was saying, I would mimic her the next Sunday and different sundays. Sam Cook may walk in, and you know, he may be in town, and he would come and sing your dad's church and with the Solstres. He was the solstress at that time. So all the gospel, all the great gospel singers, and Rita's dad, remember Franklin would come and he would, you know, have a word or whatever, and Aretha would sing, you know, so everybody kind of knew each other, you know. And I was like, I was about like seven or eight years old. Did you ever sing with Aretha or with Mahalia? Well I didn't sing with Mahalia, but I did sing with Aretha. If anyone knows me more than thirty years, my family doesn't know me as Mary Clayton. All my family and close close friends call me baby sister to my sister named me that. Before I was born. My mom asked her what does she want for Christmas? And she said, I want a baby sister. So Christmas Day I came. So all my life I've always been known to my family, close inner circle friends as baby sister. So Aretha would call me and say, let me speak to Big Daddy. I said, she speak to Big Daddy. But that's what they would call my husband, Let me speak to Big and Curtis would get on the phone and he'd work out whatever they wanted to work out. And my husband would come to me and say, the queen wants you to come to New York. I said, the quick, come to New York. Yeah, she's doing Avery Fisher Hall, or she's doing whatever, and she wants you to come. She wants to see you, and she wants you to come and sing with her. So they would pack me up and send me to New York or where Wheretha was. And I was singing with her group. You know, I was saying, whoever, whatever she wanted me to do, I was there for her and this one all for years. I have to ask you, do you remember Sam cooking the Soulsters singing? Absolutely? Do you remember what they sang? I think it was Jesus gave me water and it was not from the whale. Jesus gave me water. Jesus gave me water. Jesus gave me water. I want to let us play this way. Yeah, yeah, I remember that. Wow, What I don't understand is how you went from your singing in your dad's church. You were in New Orleans and then you moved to LA. I think it was pretty young you moved to LA. I moved to LA when I was eight, almost nine years old. Oh, I see, when did you start singing on records? Then? When did you start doing backup and that kind of thing? Well? I started doing back up at fourteen. I would think. I was in junior high school, getting ready to go to high school. And I went to a session with someone I don't remember who, and they heard me sing it said, you know what, you need to join the group. Why don't you come and just sing with us? So they picked me up. I went to the session and I sung just so happened. This particular session was for Bobby Darren. Was that the song who Can I count On? No? No, no, no, no no. It wasn't that particular song. This is where he heard me sing and asked me, who are you? What is your name? He said, you're singing really loud, and I would back up and we start again, and I would start singing loud again, you know, and I'd back up some more, and then they he said, well, who is who is that voice? So he finally brought me in the booth, brought me behind the board and said sing your part. So i'd sing my part. He says, wow, you sure can't sing. And we had another session. He said, you know what, I would certainly like to speak to your parents because I like to record you. You know. You got with my mom and they talked about what was necessary. And what was necessary was that I take a nap. They would pick me up from school. I'd take a nap and they had to correct my homework and then I could go downstairs and cat Capitol Records and sing with Chordy Rogers in the big band. Was that scary for you? Well, no, when you know, when you when you come up singing in the church, I came up with singing with some great singers. So I wasn't intimidated at all. I never happened and intimidated to sing with anybody at any time, anywhere and with anybody. It really didn't bother me at all. And I remember that session because it was sort of late in the evening, almost like about six six thirty seven in Eden, and I kept saying, what are they going to do my song? What are we going to do our song? So mister Darren, he would tell me. He says, well, so the next song is going to be our song. So they put me in a booth. My section was on one side and he was in front of me on the other side in the microphone. So I would start singing and he told me what he wanted me to sing, and I just sung it, and he was like, where does that come from? It was funny to me, where do you how We'll talk to you how to sing like that? You know? I said, I don't know. I just sing like that in church all the time. He says, well, you should be singing all the time. So when when we did the listing back, I was able to hear myself and say to me. I said to myself, oh my god, that really sounds good. Did you want to be a singer at that point? Was it just something you did? No, I didn't particularly want to be a singer. I just wanted to sing, you know. I didn't know that it really meant being a singer. I just loved singing. And what was Bobby Darren like? Was he was he a nice guy in the studio? Was he helpful? He was wonderful. He was just a joy, what a joy, A very kind, very loving man. I mean, he was very It was a big session. This was a huge session. And this was with short You are just big band, you know. So to hear that, to hear that orchestra, and well you heard the song, you heard the orchestration, yes, it was it was just it was killer. I said, Oh my god, I get the scene with all of this. And I would always say, wow, that sounds like Ray Charles is bad because he was like the only guy that we would get a chance to really see maybe once a year, was Ray Charles. Growing up, you'd only see Ray Charles was the only guy you would see. Yeah, why was that? Well, my father was a minister. You couldn't be hanging out and lollygagging somewhere you had no business being at that age, at four eighteen fifteen years old. That was not gonna happen, not my house. Did he make an exception for Ray Charles? Absolutely, m Do you remember the first time you saw him, Yes, Billy and I here here we go again, Billy and I. Billy and I and my sister went to see him. And my dad allowed that, and my and my music professor Eddie Kendricks. So we go and see Ray and Billy and I find our way at the really front of the stage. They were standing you could stand and watch the show. And we were standing at the front of the stage and I was talking to Building. He was talking to me, and he looked at me and he said, we can do this. I said, I could sing like those girls. He said, I can play like those guys. And we looked at each other and said, you know, one day we may just get a chance to sing with Ray Charles. I said, boy, that show would be great. And you know, about five or six years later, you know, he heard Billy and just lost his mind when he heard Billy loved the Billy. Ray absolutely adored Billy. So Billy called me one day and said, hey, what are you doing. I said, I'm folding towels. He says, you need to get up here. Did you get up here? And saying for Ray? I said, Ray, who Ray Charles, but all something cute and come up here to the RPM building. Well, of course I did what he said, and I went to the RPM building, had my sister to take me to the RPM building and sung for Ray and left with a contract. He wanted to go out on tour with him. So he spoke to my mom, you know, my mom and dad, and they said, you know, we have to see about that. And then we my mother found out that Billy was going, and his mother found out that I was, you know, thinking about going, and the parents talked and you know, they figured out, you know, it's be a good gray experience for them. We have to have somebody to look out for them. So the lookout person for us was Curtis Amy, who was the musical director. He's a pretty good lookout guy. Yeah, he was. You know, I met him. We fell deeply and love with each other and married in nineteen seventy and was married for thirty two years. So when did you start touring with Ray Charles? Then? What year was that in nineteen sixty six? What was he like as a bandleader, Ray Charles? Oh boy, he was a taskmaster. You had to be on your game. If you were not on your game, you could not be on tour with him. He was a wonderful man and a great teacher. Everything I learned. I knew how to sing harmony, but I mean I really knew how to sing harmony when when you know, when I parted and left to Ray Charles, he had that very close close because he had four singers, four girls. That's hard harmony to sing if you're not you don't have a good ear, you know. But he taught us. We would rehearse for us every day because he wanted a certain sound and you had to sing it, and you know, you had to sing it the way he taught you to sing it. So did he did he do a lot of the arranging himself or he did he have arrangements for you know, he had arrangements for us. He knew what he wanted his girls to sound like, right, he knew exactly. He already had his big arrangements. But he know what he knew with his book, he wanted his vocals to sound like you know. So that's why that's why he meticulously took time. I mean, we were rehearsed every day. We get into a city and he'd ran out the ballroom and we'd sit in this big ballroom with this big baby grand and we'd sit around the piano and he'd work out parts with us every day. It didn't matter if you knew it and knew the part or not you were you. You had to sing it again because he had to know that you knew it. Wow. Yeah, can you remember what were the hard songs to sing with him? Of his heads? For me, it was Together Again. If you saw twenty feet from starting I talked about that song. I mean I could not hear the second part. I just could not hear it. Bobby Wolmack was in the band at that time, and Bobby everybody had everybody was trying to help me with these notes. He said, Baby, I'm gonna play this part. I'm gonna play a first note. And when you hear that note on my guitar, you that's the part you come in on. My husband, Curtis said, okay, I'm gonna play this particular note on the saxophone. Everybody was trying to help me. I could not hear the note. So we were in Carnegie Hall, and do you know when when it came time to sing that song, I got ready to sing. The song was Together Again and my part was twogether rocking the Great Skies An that was the second part. I could not hear it and I did not sing the correct note. And do you know that he took his finger and banged out my part. He took his finger and banged out my part where I tell you one thing. No one had to tell me about that part again. I could sing that part in my sleep because I wasn't gonna be made to look like a fool. Did you sing on recordings with him as well? Yeah? I did Let's Go Get Stone with him, which was his very first hit, and I also worked on Oh God, eleanor Rigby for the movie In the Heat of the Night, and Oh God. I worked on several things for him. Did you decide to leave to do more backup in your own work? Then, Well, I wanted a career for myself. My husband and I had discussed it. I was engaged Curtis by then, and we had discussed it, and I discussed with my mom, and you know, I just felt like I could, I could be a great artist by myself. Did ra Charles understand that, Well, No, he didn't want us to leave. He didn't want me to leave at all, and he sure didn't want his conductor to leave. Yeah, because like we were, we were his fame. He loved me and Billy, and he loved he loved Curtis. So he said he did not do that did not make him feel too good at all. Later, later years we talked about it. He would always says, Sistemia, you just left me. Oh my god, he's still horning on Systemia. You just left me, because that's what he would call me. It was to Mary, you just you just left me. I so well, you know, I wanted a career. I couldn't have a career out on the road with you. We'll be back with more from Mary Clayton after a break. We're back with Mary Clayton and Bruce Headlam. So when did you meet Lou Adler and all of this? Okay, So I met Lou. Lou was doing an album called Dylan's Gospel all Bob Dylan songs, but he wanted to do them in a gospel flare. So he wanted to call all the great singers in the LA to do these particular sessions, which consisted of the honeycomb. He wanted all the great background singers. So you know, he put out the call and Gene Page called me the great arranger. He says, Mary, you know, I'm doing this record with the producer Lou Adler, and I have a couple of songs but may be great for you. Come to my office and let's kind of go over them. If you feel like you liked them, we'd like you to sing them on this record. So I went to Jeans and I loved the songs, you know, and they were right they were right up my alley because they were you know, they had a gospel flare to them and I could sing that in my sleep. So the section was in about two weeks. Went to the studio and everybody had a different lead on different songs. So I met Lou at the studio and then we did I think the first song was Quinn the Eskimo and times are changing, well by times in the change were changing. Lou pulled me in the hallway said, you know what, I'd like to talk to you after all this is over. So we met with Lou at his office, my husband and I, and he offered me a deal. Wow, and I was I was really ready for a deal, and he gave me a great deal and we decided to sign the Lou. That was in nineteen sixty nine. Now you you had a lot of friends who were who were background singers. Yeah, was it really competitive? Among you to get jobs. Was it a tough business to be in? I didn't think it was tough. It wasn't tough for me. I just always thought that if it was for you to have or for you to be on, you'd be on it, you know. I mean, if it wasn't, then you wouldn't. I mean there were so many different singers, so we all just loved each other. We really really cared for each other. So whatever somebody could help each other. Somebody would call me and said, well, you know what, they're doing a session from Motown and they need a top or they need a second soprano. You sing everything, Mary, so can't you just come to the studio for sure? And I'd go and there would be other singers. It would be Clydie King, to be Vanetta Fields, maybe Shirley Matthews. Maybe if you treat somewhere in the holloway, but there would be Gloria Jones. These ladies were all great singers and writers. So I did there. I didn't. I didn't detect any competitiveness in that. We were all just grateful to be doing this wonderful work. And then before you did your first album, you did the Guinea Shelter session, Yes, which is very famous. They called you in the middle of the night. Yes. Now do you still understand why when you were called in the middle of the night you were very pregnant. Yeah, you delivered just such an incredible performance. Well, I think every time I go to a record date or do anything, I bring everybody that has ever been good to me, everybody that has said anything nice to me, everybody that has prayed for me are really been for me, meaning all of my ancestors. I bring all my ancestors with me wherever I go and whatever I do, especially when I'm singing or doing my craft. And I brought all of them with me that night because they had to help me, because that was a long It wasn't a long night, but it was a very strange feeling that night in the in the air, you know, it was a beautiful feeling. It was a little strange, you know, getting up almost eleven o'clock at night to go into a session and Jack Niche calling that late. Jack has never called me that late to come to the studio. So as you know, of course, you probably heard my husband. I'm talking to Jack, and my husband takes the phone and say, hey, man, what's going on as well? We'd love this group to call the rolling And before he could get stones out, my husband grabs the phone. He said, what's going on? He says, well, they would love to have a lady sing on this part, and Curtis Jack when he Jack talked, he would always talk like Curtis. I think it would be something great for Mary later on down the line. I think he was always really great and always in my corner. Jack Nichi. So he says, well, baby, I really think that you should maybe, he said, you know how you are, it won't take you long to do this. So opened the front door and the car is sitting down at the end of the stair wheel down there waiting for me, and the drivers standing on the kind of leading on the car. So I go to the studio and Nick and Keith had been out in the back, so they're coming through the back door. They were out doing whatever that they did, and they said are you marry? I said yes. It says, well, we want you to do this part, and of course that's the old children just a shot away, just a shot away. So I did that, and then it got to the part of rape murder. Well, first of all, old children just a shot away was very very high. It was very very high. So I sung it, and of course I had everything and everybody around me that I brought with me, and they helped me to get through it. But when they got to rape murder, I was like, rape murder. I turned to Keith and I said, honey, I'm here by myself. I know you don't want me to sing nobody no rape murder. They said yeah, they said, well tell me what does this mean regarding the song. So when they gave me the gist of the song, I said, okay. So we started to sing rape murder, and boy, it even got higher when I started singing rape murder, and I mean, being pregnant like that. I don't know if I really should have been singing that high, but something just took me over, you know, just took over my whole being almost And at that time, it was a lot of racism going on. It was the war in Vietnam, it was Doctor King and you know, the Black movement going on. It was just a lot of it was just very weird out there in the street police from the brutality, and I think I kind of took that spirit on that night, and I was like, I was just crying out to the heavens to please give me shelter, to give a shelter from all the stuff that's going on here, because it touched me very deeply. So by the time I got finished with that, it was like I left myself and then I came back to myself. And by the time I came back to myself, they said, well, they were hooting and hollering in the booth, just hollering and screaming in the booth, and I'm looking at them and I said, okay, do you want me to do one to say, oh, just one more? Can you do one more? Can you keep the crack? Oh? Can you keep the crack that's in your voice? And it was so late my voice crack. That's why my voice cracked, right, you know in that song in my voice crack And it apparently that was that was good, And they said, can you give us one more? Please keep the crack, don't don't, don't get rid of the crack. I said, well, I tried, but that's just what my voice did at that time of night. So I did it again, and before they could come out, I was waving goodbye and I was on my way home, and that was about the I did about three tapes of that and I was done. Were you surprised when it became a big hit? Yeah, it was a humenous hit. Yes, I was. What was it like when you did it for your album, because it's very different. Oh, I was having fun. I as I said, I bought everybody with me, you know, and I have all my great musicians in there with me, and I had some of my family there and we just had a great time. It was just a great time because it was my first album, Perie, my first record, and as Mary Clayton, and it was wonderful. I just had really a great time with a great groove. When we sheltered on the guitar, it was just wonderful. You do a version of Bridge over Troubled Water, yes, which you know people know the original and they knew Aretha Franklin's version, but this version is it's very different. Yes, it's really wonderful. Can you talk a bit about that. When we did that song, you know, that was just how I was feeling. I was feeling like a bridge over troubled Water. You know, you have to have a certain feeling to sing those type of songs, and was still a lot of trim all going on in the world, and I felt like we were definitely a bridge that was over some troubled water, you know. And I just bought all of the spirit stuff into the session with me that day, and everybody just seemed to love it. But it was just my spirit, That's what that was. Was dwelling in my spirit that day. I think that we had just we had just done the Moderate Pop Festival and I had the whole Love Unlimited band with me at that festival that day, so I tried to recreate that when I went into the studio and it just turned out so great. We were very happy with that. And then you did your next album with Southern Man and Steamroller, and yeah, you did a Carol king Son you had sung on Tapestry, Is that right? Yeah? I didn't do it with Carol on Tapestry called Way Over yonda. Oh. I didn't realize that was you. Yeah, that's me. And did you do other background on that album as well? Yeah? I did all the wocal background on Tapestry myself and Julia Waters did Oh incredible, what was Carol King like to work with. Like my sister, we're very cold. We're very very close. We've always been closed. We're still close. She was a joy. She she loved my husband and he did brother to brother with her and he worked on tapestry also with her. You know. But we were like family. You know, we're the same record labeled and we would all we would always do everything together. You know. We had kids, you know, and we would never we never talk about anything but the children. We didn't talk about music at all. You know, sometimes we talk about me, but our main conversation was always about the kids. You know. The kids were always on the lot there at A and M and kind of hanging out. She said, oh, come and get Kevin. Mary Clayton's son is an office cause it having Carol's kids would be there. So we were like a big family. And she was like, I came one night. I was taking a girlfriend out to dinner and I didn't have the credit card, so I stopped by to get the credit card from my husband, and Carol was waving me in, did come come here? Come here? And said what's going on? She says, come, I want you to sing the slu part. And it was way over Yonder. So I sung that part and I went on out to dinner with my girlfriend. Is that funny? But we want to do the listening back. She said, this is what you did. Listen to yourself? Is the sun shutting? Shut it write down? I said, oh, Carol, that's great. She said, Oh, lucays, oh, Mary was wonderful and it turned out really, really great, so we were happy about that. Why were you able to do things so quickly? Did you read music by this point? Of course I did, but I didn't have to. I didn't have to read music to do Way Over Yonder. I mean it was like it was like a church field. Way Over Yonder was a place where I know that I could find shelter from a hunger and cold, and the sweet taste in good life is so easily found own way over Yonder. That's why I'm bound. It was very It was like going to choir rehearsal. She says, Sing to these lyrics and sing them how you feel it. So that's what I did. Wow, did you make your dinner reservations? Of course I did. You made it on time, and you you sang a hit on the way there. I think Lou called the restaurant said they're going to be about maybe twenty twenty five minutes later, and then when we got there, everything was set up in Randy. Oh nice. So you know so many people know you from twenty feet from stardom. Yeah, and you said something in that film I think about a lot, which, as you said, every time I get ready to do something, something would knock me to my knees. Yeah. And you were talking about solo stuff and other things you would do. You know, you had this accident. It's very traumatic. You lost your husband years before that. Did your faith in your ability to get up and do this did it ever wane? No, never wavered. My faith has never wavered. From a child, I knew what I knew. I knew who I was. I've always known who I was. But more than that, I've always known whose I was. I always knew and I was always taught that I was special, that I was a gift, and that I was descendants of royalty. I was a queen and and and I was and I was great. I was always taught that. You know, we were always taught that we were wonderful just the way we were, and we were always God's property, So never waver. Whatever God does or whatever God allows in my life, you take it. It's how you it's how you deal with it, you know. It's It's like I was speaking to a great lady in my life one day at a huge party and I got her ear and I was complaining about something. I think it was a deal that was about to go down. It was making too long and oh, I don't know if I want to do it. And la la la la. I said why why why does it take so long to get stuff done? So she looked at me and stared at me for a long time, and she says, baby, she said, that's called l I f E. She said, that's life, she says, but it's about what you do in life. How are you going to handle a situation in life? It's not the situation, it's how you handle it that would help you get through it. And I always remember that that was that lady was my guy, mom, Delarese. You know when when I had my accident, she says, Now she went back to the same thing. She says, Well, however you deal with this, it's how you're going to come out of it. She said, Okay, she said, I want you to gather yourself. She said, and how are you gonna deal with this? I said, I'm gonna deal with it with love and with dignity. She said, you know who you are? I said, I know exactly who I am. Mom, And she said, well, you're gonna get through this, and you're gonna get through it in victory. So don't waiver on what you've known all your life. So no, my faith has never wavered. And I've never asked. You know how some people when they go through things, they always oh God, why, And I don't think of myself. You know what this happened. I talked to spoke to my brother, and you know, I tried to cry the blues to my brother. I said, well, I don't know. You know why this particular thing, you know, had to happen. He says, Well, there's a purpose in everything, you know, he says, So again he says, you know who you are, and again, you know who'se you are because this is what we were taught. So you'll get through it. But it's also it's going to be a challenge, he says, But such as life. You know, life is a challenge. No one kind of gets out of this without stars. We'll be back with Mary Clayton after this quick break. We're back with the rest of Bruce Edlam's interview with Mary Clayton. But first, here's some of the title track of her brand new album, Beautiful Scars. I've been on the battle field of life. I've been through it, but I just had to go through that to get to these. I've been not doubt, I've been kicked down, but face brought me back and I'm just handing here now. These are beautiful stars and I have on my heart. This is beautiful proof that I've made it this far, every herd I've been through, every cut, every bruise, wearing power like a bag, wearing like a tattoo. These are beautiful stars. These are beautiful scars. Your album is named Beautiful Scars for a great song. Was that song written for you by Diane Warren? Yes? It was? Okay? Have you had you known her before? Oh? God, yes, everybody knows Diane Warren. But I think there was a movie score that I did that she was involved in. I think that a background says she also, my granddaughter worked with a little group that she was working with from school. And they would go to her studio, and she came to you one day, she said, Grandma. She says, do you know you know Diane Warren, don't you? I said yes, She said where our studio? Does? Said what I said, did she know you were my granddaughter? She said, Now, Grandma, I didn't go up to her say anything. She says, but she is really wonderful. I says, she's only one of the greatest writers in the entire world. But when we were doing the album, we were sitting in the studio behind the board and Lou and Terry I were just talking, you know we did. We were doing a listen back and we were just talking. So Lou looked at me. He said, you know what he said to think, I'll give a call to Diane. And I looked at him and I said, Diane, who Diane warred? He says, yes, let's call Diane. And when he called Diane, he told her what he was what he was about to do. She says, what in a studio of Mary Clayton. She's doing an album and he says yes. She says, well, I'll have something to you in two weeks. And this woman wrote this beautiful scars, And when Terry came in with it, we all just had to leave out of the studio because everybody was just in tears when I heard this song, because it was so much what I had been through. I have definitely been on the battlefield of life and I have been through it. But I had to go through that to get to you where I am today, you know, And those words they were so what I have been through in my life as an artist. But these are still beautiful scars. What was it like for you to sing it the first time? Oh? Man, it was. It was a tear jerker. You know. I had to really get myself together. I had to really get because every time I started to sing you, I started to cry. I would cheer up, and you could hear it in my throat. I'm sure you'd probably hear it in a certain part of the song. And when I say everybody's got scars, you know, and that's true. Everybody have some type of scar or another. But during the time I was recording it, the first time I recorded it, Luc says, you know what he said, I think you need to go home and really, really, really really horn in on the song and we'll come back into two days. Okay, Mary, I said, okay, Uncle Loo, that's cool. So I came home and played it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over until I got it in my spirit. Once I got it in my spirit, I was ready to go. So we got to the studio and the first take they loved it, and then here I go again, and then we did another one for safety, and then we did one more and that was it for beautiful Scars, because they wanted to capture the performance of it. Yeah, and that's what we did. I want to ask you just about one more song. It's full of great gospel songs by your producer, but you redo a song I think you did on your first album, which is Leon Russell's a song for you. Oh yes, oh Bruce, my my, my, my, my my, you know that song. You know, like couples have songs that they really like and they go back and remember things that they were doing at that time in their lives, and when that song come on, you can just look at each other and say, oh boy, I remember that song. Well, that song applied to my husband and I and that was kirk My and Curtiss song because he would always say, I always feel married that you're singing that song for me. I said, well, I am singing that song for you. And when I recorded that song, we just fell in love with it, and of course we love Leon. And when I recorded it for this album, see, I didn't know that Lou and Terry were going to pull O curtis Is solo from the Mary Clayton album and put it on this particular record. So one day we're kind of hanging out and he calls me and say, Mary, I'm gonna send a song for you, but I want Kevin to be sitting with you when you listen to it. So Kevin is my sons. I called Kevin. I said, you know, uncle Lou wants you to be here. When I listened to song for you. We had no idea what was going on. So we have these great speakers in the house. So he's sitting and we're listening. So Karvin took his finger and he was pointing to the music and I said, why is he pointing? He said, Mom, that's dad, that's dad. I said, oh my god, Lou, pull that's solo from that album, and we both just you know, it just brought us to tears. It brought us to tears. It was just it was just so wonderful. That's why this song is so special to me. Well, it's an amazing version. Thank you. It's a terrific album. What's next for you? Are you? Are you waiting to see about when you can perform again in public? Absolutely? I think we're getting ready to do a video, a couple of videos, and it's a lot of things brewing, a lot of things coming up there. They tell me we're looking forward to doing great things with this record. I want people to really be blessed by hearing this and be able to really touch somebody or help somebody in some kind of way with this music. You know, it's very important to me that, you know, I was I was telling Louisa, LOUI, you know, if I don't get a dime, it doesn't matter. I just want people to be touched because this record has healed my soul and my spirit. It's really made me feel like me again. So I just wanted to bless people and people to be to be really touched and delivered from whatever they're going through and to be lifted up in this record. You've already touched one. You're going to touch a lot more. It's just wonderful. Thank you, and I couldn't be more thrilled You're singing again and doing it so so thank you, Thank you so much. God bless you guys. Thanks to Mary Clayton for sharing so many wonderful stories with Bruce. Do You're. A playlist of our favorite Mary Clayton songs and classic tracks that feature her on background vocals. Head to Broken Record podcast dot com. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash Broken Record Podcast, where you can find extended cuts of new and old episodes. You can follow us on Twitter at broken Record. Broken Record is produced with helpful Leo Rose, Jason Gambrell, Martin Gonzalez, Eric Sandler, and Jennifer Sanchez, with engineering help from Nick Chafee. Our executive producer is Mia la Belle. Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries and if you like the show, please remember to share, rate and review us on your podcast at Our theme musics by Kenny Beats. I'm justin Richmond Pace