start?
Evelyn: I was five years old when my dad made sure I knew I was a singer and a dancer. I used to roll my belly a lot. I rolled my stomach a lot and he had taken me to the Apollo. He was a stand-in. I just know at five years old, he let me know that’s what I was going to be doing. He basically told me “you’re a little performer.” It basically didn’t jump off until I was fourteen. I was in a local band. I’ve always been singing. At fourteen, in a local band, I knew that was my calling. In high school and all the schools I was at, I always sang. At recess time, I would go to the bathroom and sing instead of hanging out and being bad. From then on, at 14 going on 15, I was actually discovered by T. Life and every time I talk to him he lets me know, I was almost fifteen when he met me. I was cleaning with my mom at a studio and I got discovered why I was cleaning. I was singing a song by Sam Cooke, A Change Gone Come and I didn’t expect anyone to be there. My mom said, “Get in, and get out.” I was happy to work with her, I was happy to clean up. My mom was a receptionist as well and she would also do cleaning. I came in with my mom and I came out of the men's
room singing. T. Life heard me and said one day I’m going to make you a star. I said, “No.” I had this little chip on my shoulder. I said, “I’m happy working with my mom.” I just wanted to go home. He kept saying, “I’m going to make you a star and kept backing it and here I am. It’s almost forty years. I’ve very proud and “Shame” blew it out of the water.
I call Johnny my little Prince because he plays every instrument. I’m very proud of him.
Johnny: I discovered that I was a musician when Evelyn struck it big and I and my brothers said this would be a great opportunity for us to put something together. I was ten years old and my mother bought me my first drum set and I was making a whole lot of noise for a little while, but I actually think I was pretty good on the drums. I was born to be a drummer. As Evelyn said, I’m a multi-instrumentalist. My brother and I had a song. If Evelyn wasn’t on the road or on tour, she would still have her instruments at the house, so we could be able to use this great professional equipment and so I would help to set up rehearsals; keyboards, guitars and stuff like that and we would spend time with the band when they would actually get there. I was always told that you should stick to one thing. I didn’t necessarily listen to that and so I start playing different instruments and I started taking singing more seriously.
Fuzionz: What was your biggest challenge in the music industry and how did you get past it?
Evelyn: For me, the biggest challenge was being a teenager, traveling on the road and not seeing what’s going on behind the scene of your business is the hardest thing. Of course, I had my parents there for me. My dad was road manager, my mom was road manager. I had a brother and a