July 3, 2023 • 29 mins
Former First Lady Michelle Obama teaches Team Supreme about Chicago-style stepping and explains why she won’t ever run for office.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Couest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
episode was produced by the team at Pandora. Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to another episode of QLs Classic in which we
have cost Love Supreme dig into our archives to bring
you some of the more amazing stories and interviews from
past episodes.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
What can I say?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
We kind of joke to First Lady Michelle Obama that
would love her to do our podcast, and she called
her bluff, and what can we say? We were so
happy to get to talk to about her life now
after the White House and her experience of music, her
being a fan of music. We really hope you enjoyed
this episode of our talk with First Lady Michelle Obama.
(00:43):
Here we go, Ladies and gentlemen, this is your host
Questlove and I'm gonna take a little detour here. It
gives me great honor to present a special Quest Love
Supreme one on one with the one and know we
I'm talking about South Side of Chicago's very owned I'm
(01:06):
talking forever First Lady, Yes, Michelle Levon Robinson to Obama. Yes,
I have to say all board your names.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So I just want to say on behalf of my
entire Supreme team. That's Fan Takeelo, It's Liaiah Unpaid in Boston,
Bill and Sugar Steve. We are very, very honored, and
we like to express our deepest gratitude for you for
taking time.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Out to UH to do our our our little podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Well, I am excited, I am honored. I love you
first of all, so you know, give us time to
chat the wonderful break.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Thank you first of all.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I mean, just in general, how has this whole experience
been for you? Did you expect to sell as many
units and come out the gate like this this book
is changing, Like to go in the chat rooms and
see people's reaction to the book and the staggering sales, Like,
(02:12):
did you expect any of this at all?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Honestly, no, no, I don't expect anything that has happened
in my life. You know. I'm a girl who grew
up on the South side of Chicago. Every day Barack
and I wake up and go what so we're still
doing that. But my hope was that the book would resonate,
would resonate. I knew that I would be writing a
(02:39):
book because all first ladies, all for presidents, are expected
to write a memoir of some sort, so I had
to I had some time to think about what I
wanted this to be. And you know, this could have
been just a chronology. I could have just sort of
walked through the days of those eight years blow by blow.
(03:00):
But I knew I wanted to book the book to
be more than that. I wanted it to be a
book that would inspire people to dig deep into themselves
and understand their stories in the way that I've had
the luxury of doing over the course of my life.
So I feel like I'm just maybe the muse that
(03:22):
my story is the framework. But my my overall goal
was that people would start having these conversations about, uh,
their memories and the the context of their lives and
how it's shaped them and you know what, what they
(03:43):
want to do going forward. So I'm excited that, uh,
not just for the sales and the units and the
arena crowds, but more of what you're seeing the comments
and how how it's moving people to think differently about
their own lives and stories.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah, and I'll say that even and well, first of all,
thank you for granted me the honor of of of
of scoring the the playlist that goes with the book,
but even with me, like I have to dig so
deep into memories, and you know, songs for me are
(04:19):
like polaroids of moments in my life. So songs aren't
just songs for me, they're they're like audio polaroids.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And you know, even for me.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Knowing your your vast music tastes, which I really want
to get into, I you know, for me, it was
also an experience like trying to figure out what moment
you were uh or trying to guess what moment you
were feeling when this particular thing happened or that particularly
(04:51):
thing happened. In classic questla form I forgot to mention, yes,
the name of your book is becoming.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Duh.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah. I'm one of those people that will have the
guests on the show and be like, oh, by the way,
we were talking about someone's going to keep wifelies and
gentlemen good night. You so knowing that the how big
of a role that music plays in your life, I
always start this question with all my guests, do you
(05:22):
what was your first musical memory or.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Do you remember the first album you ever brought or
first single year? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, I talk about that Talking Book. Stevie
Wonders Talking Book was the first album I remember getting
as a gift, and I got it twice, That's how
good an album was. I got it as a gift
(05:48):
for Christmas from my parents and then from my grandfather Southside,
who I wrote about, who is sort of the musical
core of our family, my maternal grandfather, who he gave
me the album. You remember there was the album you
could get with the lyrics and brail. Yeah, yeah, And
I remember spending time just not only listening to the
(06:12):
record over and over again, but trying to feel the
brail and understand the words and to think about and
I would memorize the cover because there's something about that
cover with Stevie without his glasses, sitting like in a
canyon area in that Dashiki Afghan sort of thing with
the braids and all of that was, you know, that
(06:37):
cover to me was as much the experience of the album.
For me, I was trying to really find I was
really trying to figure out what goes on in his mind,
what is he thinking, what does it feel like being blind?
How does he feel music? So that was the first
album that I ever owned as a child. But then
There was the music that I bought myself that was
(07:00):
the forty five version of something with the Jackson five ABC. Okay,
you know Stop the Love You Save. That's when those
were the forty fives that you played on your little
makeshift record player thing. It wasn't like the big stereo
that your parents allowed you to use, but the thing
you plugged in and you had to put the little
(07:21):
round thing in the hole, right, you know. That was
the music that I was allowed to play on my
own keep the record in my bedroom kind of thing.
But the Jackson five that was what young people. That's
we grew up imitating the Jackson five and putting the
record on and cousins would be Tito and I'd be Michael,
(07:43):
my brother would be on the drums. You know. We
spent the whole afternoon like just shaping our performance to
Stop the Love You Save. So those were some of
my first memories.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I always tease, I always tell them that when I
want to see the Jacksons that you know, for a
lot of us that were young and you know, like
they were the first superheroes that we really had, the
Jackson's were an occupation almost.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Well, and it was interesting culturally because there were the Osmond's, remember,
were the big sort of white family group back then,
and there were the big debates about who was better,
the Jackson five or the Osmond's, and that was a
sort of a political statement. So how did you fell
on the lines?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
How did you feel about One Bad Apple when it
came out? Were you fooled?
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Like?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
You know it? It was cute because back then you
didn't have like fifty million stations, right, you had the
one station and that played all the pop music. So
you heard stop the Love You Say along with One
Bad Apple and that. You know, you had your little
grooving dances to that too.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
But where was your heart?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
You know? Yeah, your heart was with the Jackson five.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Okay, you always call it first, and you were Michael.
That's funny because I was.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
I'm one of those friends in the group of friends
that it is always last to call something, So I
was always Tito.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Everybody right, Yeah, I was like, well, I was also
surrounded by my brother and my male cousins, so I
was the only girl in the in the in the
posse then, so it was just natural that I stood
out as Michael. You know, I felt I would justified
(09:28):
in being Michael. If I had to hang out with
all these boys, I should at least be able to
tell them what to be around my grandniss.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
So even then, you knew, you knew you had a
role to play, without even knowing what your future was
going to be.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Obviously, do you remember your first concert?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
You know that's that we were too broke for concerts.
I mean, you know, I'm trying to think, because my
kids go to concerts all the time, and I'm like,
you all are so lucky. We were too poor for concerts.
Quite frankly, I never saw the Jackson five live. I'm
trying to think. Maybe it was in college where and
(10:08):
it wasn't really a concert. It was like an arena
orchestra sort of Stevie Wonder was playing in an orchestra.
Maybe it was in Philly. It's kind of a blur,
and a girlfriend had the idea of getting tickets and
going to see it. I do remember that because what period,
(10:28):
Oh gosh, if I had to have been maybe a
sophomore in college, so that was what eighty eighty two,
eighty three, And it wasn't Stevie wasn't like on some
big arena tour. Maybe it was a benefit. I don't
even remember, but I do remember that we had front
(10:50):
row tickets and we both walked in not knowing where
our tickets were, and then we realized that it's like
we are in the front row. What happened? We were
around waiting for somebody to tell us to move, to move,
but it was just him and his band and he
played some numbers and then he called his bodyguard. People
(11:12):
picked some people to come up on stage and stand
around the piano and sing Ebony and Ivory and me
and my girlfriend were picked. So I was standing on
stage with Stevie by his piano thinking what but that
was yeah, yeah, I never told him about that because
(11:33):
I figured he didn't see me. Right.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Remember, well, I know that Stevie has been at the
White House at least fifty eleven times, maybe any event
that I've seen between two thousand and eight and twenty sixteen.
Like it's almost like Stevie Wonder comes with the package.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Like, you know Stevie, Stevie is you know that he
and he is always you know, he's always game if
there's a cause and it's something he believes in. Ooh,
the first time he showed up was at one of
the biggest fundraisers that I had during the campaign. It
was at UCLA, and this was a big announcement because
(12:20):
I was highlighting I was the keynote representing my husband
in the campaign. But Oprah introduced us. It was Maria
Shriver and that was a big deal because that was
right when she was going to endorse Barack over what
her husband, the governor, was doing, and that was a
(12:41):
big deal. Caroline Kennedy so was a women's empowerment kind
of thing. The first time I was surrounded by all
these mega giants and I was the keynote speaker. They
were passing off these introductions to me. And right before
I went on stage, one of our staff said, Stevie
Wonders on the phone and he's in the area. He
heard about the concert and he wants to come by.
(13:04):
And I was like, oh yeah, so he just shows up.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
How many like I know?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
That happens a lot. I actually wanted to ask, are
there any other non Stevie wonder moments at the White
House that stand out to you?
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, Prince, but the first one is Prince performing.
But of course Stevie performed too. I know.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
So he's all right, Stevee's the ultimate party crash. I
get it, I get it right right.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
And when Stevie's there, everybody's like, Okay, Steve's got play.
But Prince and we went back and forth trying to
get Prince because every time we do our parties and
you've been to one of the parties, I've been Yes,
you've been there, and so oftentimes the personal parties were
around a birthday or something like that, and of course
Prince doesn't celebrate birthdays, so he was like, I can't come,
(14:00):
but I want to come. So we had to figure
out how to create something that wasn't a birthday that
he could come to, and we finally worked it out,
and that, you know, that was just that's just amazing.
That's just Prince doing his thing and jamming in a
way where he for the first fifteen minutes, he just
let his band riff, you know, that generosity that he
(14:23):
has to let his you know, backup singer lead the
song in and his basses. They were just jamming before
he even showed up, and that was amazing. Paul McCartney
singing Michelle to me, Wow, you know Aretha, Aretha has performed,
(14:44):
performed many a time, and you know she would come
with her fur and her Medal of Freedom badge on,
because when she came to the White House, she wore
all her stuff and she's blown the house down. But
everyone from Mick Jagger to oh one of the more
(15:06):
beautiful performances was Esperanza Spaulding before she was really really
like hot, hot hot the first time I had seen her. Yeah,
that beautiful head of hair and that beautiful face and
that body with that big base of hers just tearing
up a song. I mean I could go on and
on and on. Gladys Knight, Shaka Khan because one of
(15:30):
the things I wanted to make sure was that we
got all of the like the greats to perform, because
it was like, I don't know if anybody's ever going
to ask these people to come to the White House. Yeah. Yeah,
Diana Ross came and performed just for the staff. Bruce
Springsteen the show he's doing on Broadway right now, he
(15:55):
tested that out. It was just a fluke he wanted
to do. He offered to do something to say thank
you to the staff, and we were like, of course, Bruce,
you can do whatever. And he put together what became
the Broadway Shows.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
ANOTHERMB always shows Hamilton the same thing, like, absolutely, that's
how he got the inspiration to even go through with it.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yeah, he tested on you first.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Yeah, and we thought he was a little crazy. We
were like, okay, don't do a wrapout Alexander Hamilton. Okay,
that's nice, that's cute.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
It's funny to say that.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
I always say that, like, I was part of the
production team that did the cast album, and apparently I
missed the email of him pitching it to me.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
So I told him.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I found the email after I did the record and
I read the email and I told him, I said, yeah,
there's probably I would have probably said, no, I'm fine,
I'll set this one out, because.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Just looking at it the whole concept, I was like,
this has the chance being a little corny.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Right, yeah, but somehow, Yeah, he wore me through. You know, absolutely,
I have you. You and your husband are true chicagoans
Uh to the bone.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
And probably one of the most touching things that shocked
me during your administration was the the letter of condolencens
that you sent to Chicago househeads Uh when Frankie Knuckles
passed away. And I always wanted to know, like as
a true blue chicagoan. Are you a househead?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Like, have you going to any house parties to see
any of the gods of house music? DJ? Ever?
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah, I was. I was old by the time house
music was like a big thing in Chicago. Uh, you know,
everybody has the music, the house music, you know it.
But by then I was out of clubbing and going out,
so I never got to experience the you know, going
(18:05):
to the club just being all up in it. But
you know you couldn't. You can't be in and out
of Chicago without knowing the house music.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Right. Well, you know what about stepping? Are you a
good are you in your husband good steppers?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
You know I love to step. Barack is you know
he can, he can do it. But you know who
loves to step with me is Sasha, my youngest Uh she?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
She She gets such a huge kick out of me
leading her through the So that's sort of one of
the things that we do when we're at a party
together and we're at a family event, She's like, mom,
let's step, let's step. But you know, we never had
the time, Barack and I never had the time to
like do the step classes. Because that's what couples do
in Chicago. You go, you go to Kennedy and King
College where you are taking the step class. H So
(18:53):
we never we never trained in step, can I say?
It's just sort of it's kind of just a bop,
you know, And if you've got like a rhythm and
you've got the right song, you got a little you know,
a good step in song. It just comes. But I
grew up watching it on TV and parents doing it,
(19:13):
so it's almost like I could imitate it. But I've
taught Sasha how to step, and that's she's my step
in partner.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Really. I will say that.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
The party that you guys grant me permission to to DJ,
I'll say that I was holding back maybe for like
the first hour or so because like, okay, I'm at
the White House.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
I can't be too lit at the White House. And
oh boy, little did I know.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
That you all speak the same vocabulary musically, So yeah,
for you know, how important is it to also embrace
because that's the thing I've.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Just never seen. I've never seen like.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Parents wholeheartedly embrace the music culture of their kids. Like
normally the parents I know roll their eyes up in
the air and kids.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, you know that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Whereas you guys were out partying your daughters at you know,
the last week at the White House party, and I
was just jaw dropped, like, so, I mean, how important
is it to you to to bond and also understand
like the music they like and the artists they like,
(20:29):
like you know who chanced.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
To rap up?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Oh? Yeah, absolutely? I mean, I you know, when you
love music, you love all music. And if it's a
good song, if it's got a good beat, you know,
I can tee. I'll tease my kids about how good
their favorite artists are compared to the greats. I'll play
that game with them. But I can appreciate a good
(20:52):
whatever it is, you know. And and I love that
time with my daughters. I love to let them teach
me about what they love. And again, Sasha is my
more musical child. You know. She she's got her room
set candles lit, you know, colored light bulbs with a
(21:13):
certain sound, and it just depends on what her mood is.
You walk into her room and she could be playing
classical music, or she could be Jama Decissa or you know,
you're just always surprised by her taste, and that reminds
me of the how I grew up. You know, my
grandfather was a jazz lover, but he respected my mother's music.
(21:36):
He respected our music. And I think that's just when
you love music, you're open to just something that feels good.
So there. I love sitting down with Sasha and just
telling her, tell me what's good, tell me what you're
liking now. Or she'll say I just heard you're gonna
love this, and she knows my taste. This is a
(21:58):
new artist, You're gonna love them.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Think.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
You know, she's like, I think of you when I
think of this artist. So in that way, they keep me, uh,
they keep us both. Uh on point, I don't know
all the artist names now, I confuse the you know.
I just recently realized, uh that what Migos wasn't just
(22:21):
one that I kept saying, you know, let's meet who's
met him? Right, right, let's meet him? And they're like, no, Mom,
that's not just that's group. And then then I found out, okay,
well then who who are they? Uh? You know, so
I'm not all down with it. But when when I
like a song, I like a.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Songer halfway there, I mean your daughter shares music with you,
like you know, I share music with my parents, and
that might be grounded for two weeks.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I try not to be.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Yeah, she's like, don't do that, like that, but I
try not to be judgmental with the music because it's like,
that's how I felt about social media throughout the presidency.
The question is, if we're going to reach kids, we
have to understand their language. We have to know what
they're hearing. If we want to get young people to vote,
we can't get them to vote just talk in our language.
(23:18):
So we had to figure out, well, what is Twitter
and what's Vine? And what are the kids listening to?
And if you're busy judging it, you can't communicate with them.
So I don't want my kids to feel shut down
because their music isn't what I grew up with. So
I think it's very important. But you know, stuff I
don't like, I don't like, and I will tell them
(23:39):
if I think an artist is crap, you know, and
we'll have debates about it. So I think that's a
good conversation for families to have.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Okay, Okay, well I have one more question before I
let you go.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Yes, let's hypothetically think, Okay, let's let's go to let's
pick a year.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Let's say, let's say twenty twenty four. M hypothetically speaking,
if you.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Are accepting the nomination of presidency, just hypothetically speaking, what
song do you want me to play for you while
I'm djaying your acceptance speech?
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Oh you know that's just wrong, wrong. Oh yeah, well
that that hypothetical will never happen, never again, never ever. No,
And let me just yeah, let's be clear, Okay, the presidency,
it's it's hard. It's it's not something it's not an
(24:58):
endeavor you take on without serious considerations. And it's not
just about whether you personally can do it or whether
they're people who want you to do it. But it's
a it's a hard ride to take your family on.
It's a it's a huge sacrifice to ask the people
that you love. And it's not I'm not just talking
(25:19):
about my kids, but anyone that has that is within
our orbit gets impacted by this. And I just would
never do that to my girls again. You know it
it it it shapes their life. You know, there are
many great things that they got from it, and you
(25:40):
know they don't regret it for a second, but their
whole childhood was truncated in a way because you know,
imagine growing up and trying to go to prom with
armored guards and trying to you know, have a boyfriend
or go to a concert. You know, right now, my
oldest daughter can't can't go to a public place without
(26:03):
everything she does being scrutinized. And she's and they've held
themselves up well in it, you know. And so when
people say that, I know that there's an excitement and
what people need. But as a parent, I feel like,
you know, my family has made a sacrifice, and now
it's time to make room for the next generation. And
(26:28):
the flip side to that is that if we continue
to sit in these seats of power and we don't
train and build up the next people, we look around
and we find that our bench is empty, you know.
So I don't think it's good for a democracy to
have the same set of families with the same set
of ideas, just sort of passing the mantle back and forth.
(26:48):
I don't think it's good for the country. So that's
why Barack and I are dedicating our foundation the work
that we do to really building up that next generation
because there are a lot of young people out there
who will be good at this, who will have no
way of knowing. How do you access politics? How do
you raise money? You know? How do you go from
(27:11):
being a nobody to being in this exclusive network where
you can fundraise and you understand the issues and you
can build a team. You know, if we're sitting on
all those resources, using them again and again for our
benefit and not passing it on, where will we be
in twenty twenty four? You know what kind of Congress
will we have? How many mayors will we have out there?
(27:33):
So we want to take this energy and devote it
to empowering and lifting up and supporting those that are
coming behind us.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Well, okay, you convinced me. Okay, I'll still be your
DJ every moment happens that you Well.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
We'll find some other things to djay around.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Okay, Yeah, I need to read thank you and you don't.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Okay, so let me say this for the record. I
don't know why you're tripping. You were just you were perfectionists,
and you're like, that's not I didn't.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Everybody had a ball.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
You were amazing. So I'm like, okay, you can get
a Doover. We will find a party, okay for sure
if you just want to do it, but you did
not need a do over. People partied until like it
was like four in the morning.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
I want to do a lot of that house. I
need a do over just so I can sleep, all right,
I thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Becoming Michelle Obama in stores online. Uh, this is Quest
lovel On behalf of the Team Supreme.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Couest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
episode was produced by the team at Pandora. Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to another episode of QLs Classic in which we
have cost Love Supreme dig into our archives to bring
you some of the more amazing stories and interviews from
past episodes.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
What can I say?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
We kind of joke to First Lady Michelle Obama that
would love her to do our podcast, and she called
her bluff, and what can we say? We were so
happy to get to talk to about her life now
after the White House and her experience of music, her
being a fan of music. We really hope you enjoyed
this episode of our talk with First Lady Michelle Obama.
(00:43):
Here we go, Ladies and gentlemen, this is your host
Questlove and I'm gonna take a little detour here. It
gives me great honor to present a special Quest Love
Supreme one on one with the one and know we
I'm talking about South Side of Chicago's very owned I'm
(01:06):
talking forever First Lady, Yes, Michelle Levon Robinson to Obama. Yes,
I have to say all board your names.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So I just want to say on behalf of my
entire Supreme team. That's Fan Takeelo, It's Liaiah Unpaid in Boston,
Bill and Sugar Steve. We are very, very honored, and
we like to express our deepest gratitude for you for
taking time.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Out to UH to do our our our little podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Well, I am excited, I am honored. I love you
first of all, so you know, give us time to
chat the wonderful break.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Thank you first of all.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I mean, just in general, how has this whole experience
been for you? Did you expect to sell as many
units and come out the gate like this this book
is changing, Like to go in the chat rooms and
see people's reaction to the book and the staggering sales, Like,
(02:12):
did you expect any of this at all?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Honestly, no, no, I don't expect anything that has happened
in my life. You know. I'm a girl who grew
up on the South side of Chicago. Every day Barack
and I wake up and go what so we're still
doing that. But my hope was that the book would resonate,
would resonate. I knew that I would be writing a
(02:39):
book because all first ladies, all for presidents, are expected
to write a memoir of some sort, so I had
to I had some time to think about what I
wanted this to be. And you know, this could have
been just a chronology. I could have just sort of
walked through the days of those eight years blow by blow.
(03:00):
But I knew I wanted to book the book to
be more than that. I wanted it to be a
book that would inspire people to dig deep into themselves
and understand their stories in the way that I've had
the luxury of doing over the course of my life.
So I feel like I'm just maybe the muse that
(03:22):
my story is the framework. But my my overall goal
was that people would start having these conversations about, uh,
their memories and the the context of their lives and
how it's shaped them and you know what, what they
(03:43):
want to do going forward. So I'm excited that, uh,
not just for the sales and the units and the
arena crowds, but more of what you're seeing the comments
and how how it's moving people to think differently about
their own lives and stories.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah, and I'll say that even and well, first of all,
thank you for granted me the honor of of of
of scoring the the playlist that goes with the book,
but even with me, like I have to dig so
deep into memories, and you know, songs for me are
(04:19):
like polaroids of moments in my life. So songs aren't
just songs for me, they're they're like audio polaroids.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And you know, even for me.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Knowing your your vast music tastes, which I really want
to get into, I you know, for me, it was
also an experience like trying to figure out what moment
you were uh or trying to guess what moment you
were feeling when this particular thing happened or that particularly
(04:51):
thing happened. In classic questla form I forgot to mention, yes,
the name of your book is becoming.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Duh.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah. I'm one of those people that will have the
guests on the show and be like, oh, by the way,
we were talking about someone's going to keep wifelies and
gentlemen good night. You so knowing that the how big
of a role that music plays in your life, I
always start this question with all my guests, do you
(05:22):
what was your first musical memory or.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Do you remember the first album you ever brought or
first single year? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, I talk about that Talking Book. Stevie
Wonders Talking Book was the first album I remember getting
as a gift, and I got it twice, That's how
good an album was. I got it as a gift
(05:48):
for Christmas from my parents and then from my grandfather Southside,
who I wrote about, who is sort of the musical
core of our family, my maternal grandfather, who he gave
me the album. You remember there was the album you
could get with the lyrics and brail. Yeah, yeah, And
I remember spending time just not only listening to the
(06:12):
record over and over again, but trying to feel the
brail and understand the words and to think about and
I would memorize the cover because there's something about that
cover with Stevie without his glasses, sitting like in a
canyon area in that Dashiki Afghan sort of thing with
the braids and all of that was, you know, that
(06:37):
cover to me was as much the experience of the album.
For me, I was trying to really find I was
really trying to figure out what goes on in his mind,
what is he thinking, what does it feel like being blind?
How does he feel music? So that was the first
album that I ever owned as a child. But then
There was the music that I bought myself that was
(07:00):
the forty five version of something with the Jackson five ABC. Okay,
you know Stop the Love You Save. That's when those
were the forty fives that you played on your little
makeshift record player thing. It wasn't like the big stereo
that your parents allowed you to use, but the thing
you plugged in and you had to put the little
(07:21):
round thing in the hole, right, you know. That was
the music that I was allowed to play on my
own keep the record in my bedroom kind of thing.
But the Jackson five that was what young people. That's
we grew up imitating the Jackson five and putting the
record on and cousins would be Tito and I'd be Michael,
(07:43):
my brother would be on the drums. You know. We
spent the whole afternoon like just shaping our performance to
Stop the Love You Save. So those were some of
my first memories.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I always tease, I always tell them that when I
want to see the Jacksons that you know, for a
lot of us that were young and you know, like
they were the first superheroes that we really had, the
Jackson's were an occupation almost.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Well, and it was interesting culturally because there were the Osmond's, remember,
were the big sort of white family group back then,
and there were the big debates about who was better,
the Jackson five or the Osmond's, and that was a
sort of a political statement. So how did you fell
on the lines?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
How did you feel about One Bad Apple when it
came out? Were you fooled?
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Like?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
You know it? It was cute because back then you
didn't have like fifty million stations, right, you had the
one station and that played all the pop music. So
you heard stop the Love You Say along with One
Bad Apple and that. You know, you had your little
grooving dances to that too.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
But where was your heart?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
You know? Yeah, your heart was with the Jackson five.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Okay, you always call it first, and you were Michael.
That's funny because I was.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
I'm one of those friends in the group of friends
that it is always last to call something, So I
was always Tito.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Everybody right, Yeah, I was like, well, I was also
surrounded by my brother and my male cousins, so I
was the only girl in the in the in the
posse then, so it was just natural that I stood
out as Michael. You know, I felt I would justified
(09:28):
in being Michael. If I had to hang out with
all these boys, I should at least be able to
tell them what to be around my grandniss.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
So even then, you knew, you knew you had a
role to play, without even knowing what your future was
going to be.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Obviously, do you remember your first concert?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
You know that's that we were too broke for concerts.
I mean, you know, I'm trying to think, because my
kids go to concerts all the time, and I'm like,
you all are so lucky. We were too poor for concerts.
Quite frankly, I never saw the Jackson five live. I'm
trying to think. Maybe it was in college where and
(10:08):
it wasn't really a concert. It was like an arena
orchestra sort of Stevie Wonder was playing in an orchestra.
Maybe it was in Philly. It's kind of a blur,
and a girlfriend had the idea of getting tickets and
going to see it. I do remember that because what period,
(10:28):
Oh gosh, if I had to have been maybe a
sophomore in college, so that was what eighty eighty two,
eighty three, And it wasn't Stevie wasn't like on some
big arena tour. Maybe it was a benefit. I don't
even remember, but I do remember that we had front
(10:50):
row tickets and we both walked in not knowing where
our tickets were, and then we realized that it's like
we are in the front row. What happened? We were
around waiting for somebody to tell us to move, to move,
but it was just him and his band and he
played some numbers and then he called his bodyguard. People
(11:12):
picked some people to come up on stage and stand
around the piano and sing Ebony and Ivory and me
and my girlfriend were picked. So I was standing on
stage with Stevie by his piano thinking what but that
was yeah, yeah, I never told him about that because
(11:33):
I figured he didn't see me. Right.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Remember, well, I know that Stevie has been at the
White House at least fifty eleven times, maybe any event
that I've seen between two thousand and eight and twenty sixteen.
Like it's almost like Stevie Wonder comes with the package.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Like, you know Stevie, Stevie is you know that he
and he is always you know, he's always game if
there's a cause and it's something he believes in. Ooh,
the first time he showed up was at one of
the biggest fundraisers that I had during the campaign. It
was at UCLA, and this was a big announcement because
(12:20):
I was highlighting I was the keynote representing my husband
in the campaign. But Oprah introduced us. It was Maria
Shriver and that was a big deal because that was
right when she was going to endorse Barack over what
her husband, the governor, was doing, and that was a
(12:41):
big deal. Caroline Kennedy so was a women's empowerment kind
of thing. The first time I was surrounded by all
these mega giants and I was the keynote speaker. They
were passing off these introductions to me. And right before
I went on stage, one of our staff said, Stevie
Wonders on the phone and he's in the area. He
heard about the concert and he wants to come by.
(13:04):
And I was like, oh yeah, so he just shows up.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
How many like I know?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
That happens a lot. I actually wanted to ask, are
there any other non Stevie wonder moments at the White
House that stand out to you?
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, Prince, but the first one is Prince performing.
But of course Stevie performed too. I know.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
So he's all right, Stevee's the ultimate party crash. I
get it, I get it right right.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
And when Stevie's there, everybody's like, Okay, Steve's got play.
But Prince and we went back and forth trying to
get Prince because every time we do our parties and
you've been to one of the parties, I've been Yes,
you've been there, and so oftentimes the personal parties were
around a birthday or something like that, and of course
Prince doesn't celebrate birthdays, so he was like, I can't come,
(14:00):
but I want to come. So we had to figure
out how to create something that wasn't a birthday that
he could come to, and we finally worked it out,
and that, you know, that was just that's just amazing.
That's just Prince doing his thing and jamming in a
way where he for the first fifteen minutes, he just
let his band riff, you know, that generosity that he
(14:23):
has to let his you know, backup singer lead the
song in and his basses. They were just jamming before
he even showed up, and that was amazing. Paul McCartney
singing Michelle to me, Wow, you know Aretha, Aretha has performed,
(14:44):
performed many a time, and you know she would come
with her fur and her Medal of Freedom badge on,
because when she came to the White House, she wore
all her stuff and she's blown the house down. But
everyone from Mick Jagger to oh one of the more
(15:06):
beautiful performances was Esperanza Spaulding before she was really really
like hot, hot hot the first time I had seen her. Yeah,
that beautiful head of hair and that beautiful face and
that body with that big base of hers just tearing
up a song. I mean I could go on and
on and on. Gladys Knight, Shaka Khan because one of
(15:30):
the things I wanted to make sure was that we
got all of the like the greats to perform, because
it was like, I don't know if anybody's ever going
to ask these people to come to the White House. Yeah. Yeah,
Diana Ross came and performed just for the staff. Bruce
Springsteen the show he's doing on Broadway right now, he
(15:55):
tested that out. It was just a fluke he wanted
to do. He offered to do something to say thank
you to the staff, and we were like, of course, Bruce,
you can do whatever. And he put together what became
the Broadway Shows.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
ANOTHERMB always shows Hamilton the same thing, like, absolutely, that's
how he got the inspiration to even go through with it.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yeah, he tested on you first.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Yeah, and we thought he was a little crazy. We
were like, okay, don't do a wrapout Alexander Hamilton. Okay,
that's nice, that's cute.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
It's funny to say that.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
I always say that, like, I was part of the
production team that did the cast album, and apparently I
missed the email of him pitching it to me.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
So I told him.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I found the email after I did the record and
I read the email and I told him, I said, yeah,
there's probably I would have probably said, no, I'm fine,
I'll set this one out, because.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Just looking at it the whole concept, I was like,
this has the chance being a little corny.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Right, yeah, but somehow, Yeah, he wore me through. You know, absolutely,
I have you. You and your husband are true chicagoans
Uh to the bone.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
And probably one of the most touching things that shocked
me during your administration was the the letter of condolencens
that you sent to Chicago househeads Uh when Frankie Knuckles
passed away. And I always wanted to know, like as
a true blue chicagoan. Are you a househead?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Like, have you going to any house parties to see
any of the gods of house music? DJ? Ever?
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah, I was. I was old by the time house
music was like a big thing in Chicago. Uh, you know,
everybody has the music, the house music, you know it.
But by then I was out of clubbing and going out,
so I never got to experience the you know, going
(18:05):
to the club just being all up in it. But
you know you couldn't. You can't be in and out
of Chicago without knowing the house music.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Right. Well, you know what about stepping? Are you a
good are you in your husband good steppers?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
You know I love to step. Barack is you know
he can, he can do it. But you know who
loves to step with me is Sasha, my youngest Uh she?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
She She gets such a huge kick out of me
leading her through the So that's sort of one of
the things that we do when we're at a party
together and we're at a family event, She's like, mom,
let's step, let's step. But you know, we never had
the time, Barack and I never had the time to
like do the step classes. Because that's what couples do
in Chicago. You go, you go to Kennedy and King
College where you are taking the step class. H So
(18:53):
we never we never trained in step, can I say?
It's just sort of it's kind of just a bop,
you know, And if you've got like a rhythm and
you've got the right song, you got a little you know,
a good step in song. It just comes. But I
grew up watching it on TV and parents doing it,
(19:13):
so it's almost like I could imitate it. But I've
taught Sasha how to step, and that's she's my step
in partner.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Really. I will say that.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
The party that you guys grant me permission to to DJ,
I'll say that I was holding back maybe for like
the first hour or so because like, okay, I'm at
the White House.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
I can't be too lit at the White House. And
oh boy, little did I know.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
That you all speak the same vocabulary musically, So yeah,
for you know, how important is it to also embrace
because that's the thing I've.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Just never seen. I've never seen like.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Parents wholeheartedly embrace the music culture of their kids. Like
normally the parents I know roll their eyes up in
the air and kids.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, you know that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Whereas you guys were out partying your daughters at you know,
the last week at the White House party, and I
was just jaw dropped, like, so, I mean, how important
is it to you to to bond and also understand
like the music they like and the artists they like,
(20:29):
like you know who chanced.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
To rap up?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Oh? Yeah, absolutely? I mean, I you know, when you
love music, you love all music. And if it's a
good song, if it's got a good beat, you know,
I can tee. I'll tease my kids about how good
their favorite artists are compared to the greats. I'll play
that game with them. But I can appreciate a good
(20:52):
whatever it is, you know. And and I love that
time with my daughters. I love to let them teach
me about what they love. And again, Sasha is my
more musical child. You know. She she's got her room
set candles lit, you know, colored light bulbs with a
(21:13):
certain sound, and it just depends on what her mood is.
You walk into her room and she could be playing
classical music, or she could be Jama Decissa or you know,
you're just always surprised by her taste, and that reminds
me of the how I grew up. You know, my
grandfather was a jazz lover, but he respected my mother's music.
(21:36):
He respected our music. And I think that's just when
you love music, you're open to just something that feels good.
So there. I love sitting down with Sasha and just
telling her, tell me what's good, tell me what you're
liking now. Or she'll say I just heard you're gonna
love this, and she knows my taste. This is a
(21:58):
new artist, You're gonna love them.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Think.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
You know, she's like, I think of you when I
think of this artist. So in that way, they keep me, uh,
they keep us both. Uh on point, I don't know
all the artist names now, I confuse the you know.
I just recently realized, uh that what Migos wasn't just
(22:21):
one that I kept saying, you know, let's meet who's
met him? Right, right, let's meet him? And they're like, no, Mom,
that's not just that's group. And then then I found out, okay,
well then who who are they? Uh? You know, so
I'm not all down with it. But when when I
like a song, I like a.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Songer halfway there, I mean your daughter shares music with you,
like you know, I share music with my parents, and
that might be grounded for two weeks.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I try not to be.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Yeah, she's like, don't do that, like that, but I
try not to be judgmental with the music because it's like,
that's how I felt about social media throughout the presidency.
The question is, if we're going to reach kids, we
have to understand their language. We have to know what
they're hearing. If we want to get young people to vote,
we can't get them to vote just talk in our language.
(23:18):
So we had to figure out, well, what is Twitter
and what's Vine? And what are the kids listening to?
And if you're busy judging it, you can't communicate with them.
So I don't want my kids to feel shut down
because their music isn't what I grew up with. So
I think it's very important. But you know, stuff I
don't like, I don't like, and I will tell them
(23:39):
if I think an artist is crap, you know, and
we'll have debates about it. So I think that's a
good conversation for families to have.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Okay, Okay, well I have one more question before I
let you go.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Yes, let's hypothetically think, Okay, let's let's go to let's
pick a year.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Let's say, let's say twenty twenty four. M hypothetically speaking,
if you.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Are accepting the nomination of presidency, just hypothetically speaking, what
song do you want me to play for you while
I'm djaying your acceptance speech?
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Oh you know that's just wrong, wrong. Oh yeah, well
that that hypothetical will never happen, never again, never ever. No,
And let me just yeah, let's be clear, Okay, the presidency,
it's it's hard. It's it's not something it's not an
(24:58):
endeavor you take on without serious considerations. And it's not
just about whether you personally can do it or whether
they're people who want you to do it. But it's
a it's a hard ride to take your family on.
It's a it's a huge sacrifice to ask the people
that you love. And it's not I'm not just talking
(25:19):
about my kids, but anyone that has that is within
our orbit gets impacted by this. And I just would
never do that to my girls again. You know it
it it it shapes their life. You know, there are
many great things that they got from it, and you
(25:40):
know they don't regret it for a second, but their
whole childhood was truncated in a way because you know,
imagine growing up and trying to go to prom with
armored guards and trying to you know, have a boyfriend
or go to a concert. You know, right now, my
oldest daughter can't can't go to a public place without
(26:03):
everything she does being scrutinized. And she's and they've held
themselves up well in it, you know. And so when
people say that, I know that there's an excitement and
what people need. But as a parent, I feel like,
you know, my family has made a sacrifice, and now
it's time to make room for the next generation. And
(26:28):
the flip side to that is that if we continue
to sit in these seats of power and we don't
train and build up the next people, we look around
and we find that our bench is empty, you know.
So I don't think it's good for a democracy to
have the same set of families with the same set
of ideas, just sort of passing the mantle back and forth.
(26:48):
I don't think it's good for the country. So that's
why Barack and I are dedicating our foundation the work
that we do to really building up that next generation
because there are a lot of young people out there
who will be good at this, who will have no
way of knowing. How do you access politics? How do
you raise money? You know? How do you go from
(27:11):
being a nobody to being in this exclusive network where
you can fundraise and you understand the issues and you
can build a team. You know, if we're sitting on
all those resources, using them again and again for our
benefit and not passing it on, where will we be
in twenty twenty four? You know what kind of Congress
will we have? How many mayors will we have out there?
(27:33):
So we want to take this energy and devote it
to empowering and lifting up and supporting those that are
coming behind us.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Well, okay, you convinced me. Okay, I'll still be your
DJ every moment happens that you Well.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
We'll find some other things to djay around.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Okay, Yeah, I need to read thank you and you don't.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Okay, so let me say this for the record. I
don't know why you're tripping. You were just you were perfectionists,
and you're like, that's not I didn't.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Everybody had a ball.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
You were amazing. So I'm like, okay, you can get
a Doover. We will find a party, okay for sure
if you just want to do it, but you did
not need a do over. People partied until like it
was like four in the morning.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
I want to do a lot of that house. I
need a do over just so I can sleep, all right,
I thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Becoming Michelle Obama in stores online. Uh, this is Quest
lovel On behalf of the Team Supreme.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Laiya St. Clair
Questlove
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