SB: Yeah. [Laugh]
But seriously. I pray a lot. And I am always working. Because I love what I do. I am blessed to have a job where I love what I do. So, I am ‘always’ working. I constantly go over my lines. So when you see me in the car and you think I am talking to myself, I am actually going over material. And because I am always working people get offended when I don’t act a certain way. If I am auditioning, I tend to stay in character and I become that character.
TM: Why did you stay in Alabama?
SB: I am taking care of my mom and grandparents. My mom and I moved here from Detroit, MI when I was 12 years old. When my grandfather, the late Elder Frank (Lucille) McMullen passed I promised him that I would take care of everything. Now my mom and grandmother are taken care of.
A lot of celebrities don’t live in the big city. And that’s one thing that I love about Tuscaloosa, I don’t have to put on a face and be who I am not when I walk out the door. I want to be ‘just Steve” and here I am just that. But I thank Tuscaloosa for that. Abroad, I am treated like a king, but in Tuscaloosa they treat me like straight… []. But I appreciate that though, it keeps me humble and grounded.
TM: How do you separate “Steve Brown” from Steve at home?
SB: Man, my kids think that I am the
devil... I am a strong disciplinarian. I have three boys, 24, 22 and 17. And they think I am their curse. For real. I strongly believe in young men acting like young men. I don’t tolerate the sagging pants and the disrespect. They often ask, ‘when you going back on the road?’ [Laugh] They just want to be free. [Laugh].
And I have two beautiful daughters.
But I am regular dad. We go on family trips and we do family stuff. But my baby girl is most like her dad, she is a character!
My middle son, is in prison in Georgia and I go to see him quite often. And with him I’m still just dad.
TM: Why Nachera?
SB: What about her? What about Nachera Smith – Brown? Uhm. She’s crazy! She is so CRAZY! What I mean by that is, she is so funny to me. She does not act the way she looks. She constantly keeps me laughing. I mean, she gets on my nerves, like a wife does. But she is a really good woman. Very supportive. Honestly, she was a great catch. A great catch.
TM: Can I say ‘she gets on your nerves’?
SB: Yeah! I’m going to give it to you, honest. As I am sure I get on her nerves like a husband does. We get on each other’s nerves at times. But at the end of the day it’s like, unconditional love. We love each other to death. And we have a whole lot of fun.