February 26, 2025 • 45 mins
Coco Jones Dating Donovan Mitchell, SZA's BBL, Disney, Lil Wayne, & Special Performance By Teddy Swims
In this special episode of Club Shay Shay, Shannon Sharpe sits down with Coco Jones and Teddy Swims for an unforgettable conversation about music, life, and perseverance.
Teddy Swims, the Grammy-nominated powerhouse vocalist, reflects on his journey from a small-town Georgia kid to a global music sensation. He shares his excitement about becoming a father, how he started out as a cover artist in a band, and the importance of vulnerability in his career. Teddy also opens up about his admiration for Lil Wayne—he has Tha Carter III lyrics tattooed on his eyes—and reminisces about his first tattoo experience. He touches on his interracial relationship with singer Raiche Wright, how she helped him heal and seek therapy, and the influence of his grandfather, a minister. Before wrapping up, Teddy delivers a heartfelt performance of “Bad Dreams”
from I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy.
Coco Jones takes center stage as she details her rise from child star to one of R&B’s most respected artists. A Grammy and NAACP Image Award-winning singer, platinum-selling songwriter, and accomplished actress, Coco reflects on her early love for performing—balancing sports with the arts—and how her mother played a pivotal role in building her confidence and career. She shares her experience moving to L.A. alone at 17, learning to manage her finances, and navigating the pressures of the entertainment industry as a dark-skinned woman. She recalls working with Victoria Monét at 14, landing a starring role in Bel-Air as Hilary Banks, and sharing the screen with Tyler James Williams in Let It Shine. Coco Jones opens up about the struggles of being a young Black actress, from attending a predominantly white high school to losing Disney’s Next Big Thing.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, Welcome to another very very special edition of Club Shaysha.
I am your host, Shannon Sharp of also the propriet
of Club Shasha. Stopping By is not one but two guests.
The first guest is one of the most vocally gifted,
talented artists we have out today. A Grammy Award an
NAACP Image Award winning singer, a platinum selling songwriter, an
(00:20):
accomplished actress, a top tier dancer, a chart topping hit maker,
a natural star, a respected role model, multifaceted musician, creative
and entertainer. R and b's next superstar MS Coco Jones.
Remember I told you not one but two. He's a
powerhouse vocalist, a Grammy nominated singer, a multi platinum songwriter,
(00:41):
chart topping conquering artist, global musician, sensation, genre defying, and
he's my homeboy, a Georgia boy. Mister Teddy swimms All my.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Life, grinding all my life, Second Fis Russell pet Prison
one Seche.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
All my life, grinding in all my life, all my life,
running all my.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Life, Second Fights, Pus.
Speaker 5 (01:06):
One slice, doctor all my life, Poppy ground in all
my life.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, what's up?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Thank you guys for stopping by having us. Oh my goodness.
Both of you guys started off doing covers. How do
you think that helped your careers? For me?
Speaker 6 (01:28):
I think songwriting and learning why I like certain songs
and how they make me feel and how to translate
that into, you know, my own thing. And I also think, honestly,
just being able to have something trendy that brings attention
to your name. When you're doing covers, you know, it's
kind of like you're trying to get that click.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Baby, right, Yes, you know that attention.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Did you ever did you ever have the fear of,
like when you were starting to put yourself your own
stuff out there, that there was just like, God, I
already did some of these best songs in the world,
Like how do I how do I how do anything
that I do ever going to compare to that?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (02:04):
Is there that fear?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Absolutely?
Speaker 6 (02:05):
I mean even still now I'm like, now I'm comparing
myself to myself. Yeah, man, But I think that what
worked for me is just being so honest and so
vulnerable that you just feel it. You know, if you're
talking about something real, it's you just feel that. I
try to just tell the truth and and let it
go because I really can't control that.
Speaker 7 (02:24):
What about you, yes, say, I guess same.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I think I think I did go through a phase
for a long time where and I still do where
I'm like, you know, uh, I feared that somebody was
gonna say, just like, shut up and sing Shana Twain,
you know and or or you know you sound you
sound way better singing Stevie wonderfat Boy than you ever
will sounding. But I think I think the biggest thing
for me was that I realized every song that I
learned also helps me and in songwriting and understanding music
(02:49):
better and and portray myself and and the stuff I
love and well, I think the biggest thing that set
me free was that I was able to say, you know,
Stevie didn't grow up listening to Stevie, or Michael didn't
go up listening to Michael. And so when I when
I have those when I learned those tools from those people,
it also I guess it's like another tool in the
shed that I get to use and get to pay
(03:10):
homage and honor to those people that I look up to,
rather than comparing myself so much to them. You know,
I remember us like playing little bars and little restaurants
and stuff coming up, and at the time, it was
like three hours of like cover songs for one hundred
and fifty bucks, but three ways. And then they wouldn't
even give you the bar tab either. So usually we
would we would leave there and it'd be like, hey,
(03:31):
you owe a thirty bucks. I remember these same people too,
would be these same people that would say like, hey,
one day we're gonna like say we had Teddy come
here and saying I'm gonna be able to brag about
that forever.
Speaker 7 (03:43):
You're gonna be such a star and know this, they
know this of you, but then would do that.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
You know, it's like, yeah, when somebody knows you're worth,
it gives you significantly less than your worth and looks
at you in the eyes. And but I also I
think that was I was accepting that for myself, you know,
and I just wanted to be heard, and I get
the little exposure from one hundred people in Covington was
more than enough to suffice for just wanting to be heard,
being able to sing was meant more to me than anything.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
You know, if this the kind of the path, the
direction that you would hope and it would lead you
to yeah hell.
Speaker 6 (04:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, to be here, to be able to
sit across from somebody who I think has made such
a path that is so specific. You know, I think
that's what every creative wants, is to be able to
have that creative control, to not have to fit into
a certain box, and to have people appreciate their music.
So yeah, I would say that it led to where
we need to be.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Teddy U and Coco, you both guys. You came from
football backgrounds. Your dad put you in black football. You
heard you with the juice of the guy.
Speaker 6 (04:42):
Really, I mean yes, before I knew music was like
my calling sports was, I think it was like the
the obvious choice.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
You know my family, I'm the shortest in my family. Wow,
that's the way.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
But yeah, I think that's like the natural thing you
do with your kids. You put them in a bunch
of sports and see where they progress. And I'm so
freaking competitive right that, I just wanted to be the
greatest wherever I was.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
But yeah, you balled to a little bit right ahead.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
But I mean, you know, at five seven defensive linement,
it's not gonna happen. I'm so I'm so happy I
found this a little later on. You know, I think
I was in high school and I like got in
the theater with Jesse who's playing guitar, and I really
found my love for it and was like really thankful
for that, that transition of my life.
Speaker 7 (05:30):
And I mean with that, I see so.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Many kids too that you know, how many like Tom
Brady's or are used there could have been in life,
you know, but maybe senior year shattered their ankle and
now their their whole life built up to this, and
their whole family's lives built up to this, and it
can be taken away just like that. So I'm grateful
I found this, this opportunity in my life to if
I if I break my arm, you know, I could still.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah right, a hit song.
Speaker 7 (05:55):
Yeah, you know it's all cast.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
You're about to become a first time father, correct, Yeah, sure,
and uh you know what the gender is. Yeah, but
you want to keep it, you want to keep it
a secret.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
She wants to keep it a secret for the time being.
If I drive, I would like to tell you, I
really like to tell you, but I don't know. She's
actually at the doctor right.
Speaker 7 (06:15):
Now to drive.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Before I came, you were talking earlier, but you're thinking
about relocated because you want your child to have a
Southern action.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Amen, I wanted I want to yes slam, yes, I mean,
of course I'll raise so he'll have that, you know,
but you know having laying in the yard and a
trampoline and a treehouse, and you know that I want
I want that baby to run.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I feel that for real. Okay, So I heard that
you went to beauty school, cousin.
Speaker 7 (06:42):
Yeah, sure did, Yeah, sure did?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Please explain, Well, my mama, My mama always did hair
coming up, so throughout my whole life, I was always
when I was a kid, pulling her hair through caps
and cut my friend's hairs and stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
And you would cut your friend's hair.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
Yeah yeah, I just look.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, so you know, I'm it's been a long time,
like it's probably been twelve thirteen years, so I wouldn't.
Speaker 7 (07:04):
I wouldn't like go go to town on any even
guys right now, I wouldn't. Don't.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I don't know if I still have it, but yeah,
I mean I used to. I used to cut all
the time. And my mom was like on the on
the thought process of if you if you wanted to
pursue music, you.
Speaker 7 (07:17):
Can do hair in the meantime.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
And so when I went to cosmetology school, she would
to actually go get her cosmetology teaching license so we
could go together.
Speaker 7 (07:24):
And so me and my mom went to speak.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Mom sound like yo rolls off?
Speaker 7 (07:28):
She is, Yeah, yeah, that's what I've written on my forehead.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 7 (07:31):
That's my girl. Man, Wow, that's my first love. Man me,
that's my baby.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
You know it speak of tattoos. You have the one
on your eyes too.
Speaker 7 (07:38):
Yeah, it is says tough love.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Now, how much did that hurt?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
It doesn't hurt that much. It's like it's just the
needle's gotta be really thin because it could puncture. So
you do feel your eyeball like bounce. You kind of
cry underneath it. It is a weird sensation. But I
was like the Carter three was like my favorite album,
like my ninth grade year. You know, I was like
some of my first parties I went to and like,
so the Carter three was like my whole life at
(08:03):
that time. And you know, he had the fear of God,
and I just wanted to be like little Wayne. So
you know, all I ever wanted to do, all I
ever wanted to do is get a eyelids tattooed.
Speaker 7 (08:10):
You know, I was like, he's he's fucking cool.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
So waite, did you ever think about rapping? Or yeah?
I did?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
You know?
Speaker 7 (08:15):
Actually Teddy Swim started out?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Is that my first tour I did in March of
twenty nineteen before I started doing covers, was was me
and my pal Addie, who plays guitar my band. We
started doing like some you know stuff. We went on
our first tour, like just rapping and he's great at it.
I'm like, you know, I'm not. I'm not hot at
it by any means I can get it done, but
you know it just that wasn't for me. I'm a singer,
(08:37):
you know that.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, let me ask you this. After you mentioned your
girl and you're about to welcome your first child in
this crazy industry that you're in, how did you know
she was the one?
Speaker 7 (08:49):
Uh well, you know see that's the same thing.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
And my dear friend, our studio archer hit Kid in
my studio a couple of years ago and he's like,
you gotta hear this girl I'm working with race, and
uh so I tacked out and it's like a messager
like yo, I love you.
Speaker 7 (09:03):
You're awesome. And then we met a couple of years later.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
We ended a tour in uh Atlanta and she's living there,
and you know, she came to see the show and
uh and you know, we just hit it off and
I shot my.
Speaker 7 (09:13):
Shot all strong, and you know what current I was like,
I'm trying to shoot my shot. That's you know, you're
gonna come in hot, man. I didn't want to waste
any time.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
It's like I think, I think it's navigating relationships is
already hard enough for people. I'm just always like, look, okay,
do you find me attractive? Do I find you attractive?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
All right? How do we do it?
Speaker 7 (09:32):
Are we gonna be friends?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
And we're gonna you know, let's just go ahead and
throw this out there before everybody's thinking all weird and
you know what I mean, just let's let's just figure
out what we are.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
I feel like you have to be direct.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
At this time in the world, I feel like women
are very strong.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, yeah, like a little too strong, little little too strong.
Speaker 6 (09:52):
I think it could be more balanced, depending on what
you're going through in life, you might have to take
your armor on, Okay, but yeah, I do. I do
think directness always has been something that worked for me
in the world, in this industry. I don't want to
feel like you're cutting corners and talking in parables.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Because what are we saying? What are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah? Just say it, you know, just say those I
wanted to ask me, man, I'm looking at you, tatty.
You tatted it from head to toe. I've never seen
someone with tats in the in the ponds like you
have in here. How old were you when you first
got started tatting your body and then you like the
hell with I'm going for it?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Well, I always wondered one of the first things that
when I was a kid, you know, my mom used
to always give us ten ten dollars on Friday after
doing our chores and stuff, we get allowance and after
Sunday after church. My granddad was a pastor, so after
church we go to this Mexican restaurant and I just
get it all in the quarters and like put it
in the little machines and just get the fake tattoos.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
Yeah, walk around.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
But they used to ask me, like, what do you
want to be when you grow up? And that was
the first thing tattooed, you know, And I know that's
I guess tattooing is a job. But I wanted to
be tattooed. I just always, I don't know, I grew
up musicians was tattooed. No cool people were tattooed.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
So I just wanted to be mostly rock stars dotting
enormously cruders like yourself being tatted like that.
Speaker 7 (11:09):
Yeah, well you know from George, George, I don't know,
little both best of both worlds.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
I guess, man fire, What was it like with your
granddad as a pastor.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Well, he'd always he always told me, you know, son,
to call on the goddess without repentance.
Speaker 7 (11:25):
He just told me, promised me not to get my
face tattooed. And uh, when he.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
When he passed away, one of the it's a beautiful story.
When we passed away, my grandma's first thing. She said,
you know, it was a beautiful thing the first time
I said, with death, like firsthand. And my grandma was
sitting there and she said, you know, uh, he's home
at last. He's home at last. And then she looks
up and she said, but you left me behind. And
they were together for fifty two years and I held
her and hugged her, and so I got home at
(11:51):
last tattooed. It's my first face tattooed, just I guess,
like to like commemorate him, but to like kind of
piss them off one more time.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
You know.
Speaker 7 (11:59):
I'm like, you.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Know, I know, he goes up my ass when I
get you know, it was kind of the like I
hope he's rolling over his grave.
Speaker 7 (12:06):
I love out of respect, rolling over in your grave.
I guess if that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
You know, that's like the type of relationship you guys.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, yeah, you know, because I remember one of the
last things he said to me when he was like,
you know, he was so like by the book and
like so old school. He's like all these kids out
here hip popping and break dancing for the Lord and
all this carrying on, and I was like, pop, like,
nobody's broke dance since my mama was a kid. If
they would have, if they would have break danced for
the Lord, let him break dance with the door. Why
(12:33):
is that, like, why is that so jarring to you? Like,
just let these kids break dance and wrap like, yeah,
I mean.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I had your buddy on last week. Donnielle rock. Yeah,
have my dog mad. He was up here saying and say, no, bro,
that Teddy swhims you Teddy drowning. But anyway, he talks
about mixed relationships a lot, and you're in a situation
you were to mix relationship.
Speaker 7 (12:55):
Do you do?
Speaker 1 (12:56):
How do you how are you going to convey to
your kid, your child that you know what, I'm white,
your mom's black and it's okay to have that conversation.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, I mean, I think, I think, I think, I
think that's so much more to uh, you know, especially
because we get looks all the time going places, and
and especially her, she she she's got a black dad
and a white mom, and she's she's shared with me
so many times about like how it feels too. She's
like I'm never black enough or I'm never white enough.
And she's gone through a lot more. And I think
(13:28):
she's she's a way better person to tell that story,
you know, especially to my child that that she's I
don't I would never want to tell that story for
her because she's she's she's like so elegantly like living
through that and knowing what that's like, and and uh,
I mean, all I know is what it's like when
we're getting looks in public, and it doesn't it doesn't
affect me so much as is it as I see
(13:48):
it affecting her in her life, is through her whole life,
you know. So I just, uh, I just I just
want to tell my child to navigate you know, being
I don't know, just being safe and being open. And
I hope I can create that safe space. And I
know that that kid will go through struggles that I
never went through. And yeah, man, I guess I guess
you got to play it as it goes. You know,
I've never I've never been through like being mixed. So
(14:10):
I don't know how to tell that kid how to
deal with that. But I will only be supportive as
I can and tell him son the daughter, you know,
maybe like just whatever it is, just like be you,
be you baby, be you and be open, I mean,
be you, be whatever you want to be, be it
whatever feels authentic to you, and don't let nobody tell
you different, and don't let nobody tell you and not
allowed to be this or that.
Speaker 7 (14:29):
And that's all I can really do.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
But until we get there, I don't really know how
to give that kid good advice on being a mixed baby,
and I'm just throw wipe daddy.
Speaker 7 (14:38):
You know, I'm just like.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
You're white with seasoning.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Get you out here on this. And when I hear
you talk about your partner, I see the passion in
which you speak. I see how you light up. And
I read where you said she's helped you more than
you can put into words, because she helped you get
into therapy and she helped you become the teddy that
we see sitting on this couch today. Speak to that.
Speaker 7 (15:03):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I think one of the biggest things with her too,
is that she's like she kind of like, uh, I
guess I want to say, like in the nicest way,
like finessed me into a therapy place, you know, because
it was like as we were getting ready to have
a kid, and I know, I know she knows that
I have things that I've got to heal from and
we both do.
Speaker 7 (15:19):
We all got some baggage of caring.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
And she was like, look, I think what we should
do is as we as we get into you know,
having a child, that we should both go to couples
therapy and get into like the best, the best like
versions of ourselves, the most healed, safe environment for that child.
And I was like, okay, okay, a little reluctant at
the first time, and we started it.
Speaker 7 (15:37):
It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
And the next thing, you know, I get my own
idea of like maybe I should be doing this by
myself as well, you know, And then it was like,
I think that's the most beautiful thing about her is
that that it was. It was a way of like
letting me see what it was for what it was
and doing it with me and for us and each other,
and for me to find it and see it for
myself rather than being like, you need therapy.
Speaker 7 (15:58):
Yeah, you know, and that's that's how you do. That's
how you treat that's how your mental health. Yeah, that's
how that's how. That's how a woman does.
Speaker 6 (16:04):
You know.
Speaker 7 (16:05):
That's a strong ass woman right there.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Thank you. I appreciate that. Now, coming to the stage
to perform his hit song bad Dreams from your album
I've tried everything but therapy Part two, mister Teddy swims.
Speaker 7 (16:31):
Son is going down.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Tom is running now.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
No one else so brown but me, steady and losing life,
steady and loads in my mind, moving shadows and crime.
Speaker 7 (16:47):
With about you.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
They're bringing up placing me to hi about that? No
head I can sleep to now, but I do fubby
little quiet bounce?
Speaker 7 (17:01):
Why k slipping in.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
The bad dreams with ds on you?
Speaker 1 (17:08):
When I.
Speaker 7 (17:10):
No sound when I cry?
Speaker 6 (17:13):
I love you.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
I need you to certainly freeze from all the things
bad dreams waiting on the air the side, no sound
when I cry. I love you, ever, I need you
to certainly freeze from other things, bad dreams, all of these. Baby,
(17:51):
Please come around, help me settle now every shabbits can
crawl my he what you hated for something physical? I
can't do this bad s with about you, There'll be
no place from me. Say how with about you? There's
(18:13):
no way I can sleep. So now what I do
for the little bit of peace? And why with pounch
keep slipping into bad dreams with things? Knowing you and I.
Speaker 7 (18:30):
Oh sound where I cry?
Speaker 5 (18:33):
I love you and I need you to certainly free
from all the things bad dreams made it on the earth,
the sound, no sound.
Speaker 7 (18:47):
Where I crawl.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
I love you and I need you to certainly free
from all the things HOLI things.
Speaker 6 (19:10):
Things.
Speaker 7 (19:21):
I listen just again, Yeah here, I'm it's we.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Thank you're Teddy swims, Thank you so much for singing
your hit song bad dream from the album title I
tried everything with Therapy Part two. Yes, but you did
your thing and got my.
Speaker 7 (19:45):
Sweet friend Coco. Yes, you sound amazing.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Y'all sound amazing.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
You know what.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
We gotta talk. We gotta te Teddy. You know you
said you want to. We'll get you one too bad
of course.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Co co oh my God.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
To everybody success and continue success in twenty five and beyond.
An I would like to personally thank Teddy Swims again
for singing his hit song bad Dreams off of his
album I've tried everything but Therapy Part two. Who's scoring
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Speaker 1 (21:50):
Coco, I will share something with you. You probably didn't know,
and I know you're not old enough to know this,
but your dad and I used to work out together
in South Carolina. Wow. He's originally from South Carolina. He
played at m C State and ninety one and ninety two.
I would go back and work out with my brother,
who went to the University of South Carolina but lives
(22:11):
in Columbia, and I would work out, and so all
the guys that played at South Carolina or lived in
South Carolina would come and we would all work out together.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I didn't know until I looked at I was looking
at the cards and I'm like, hold on, Mike Jones.
Why did that name sound familiar? So I got on
the phone and called my brother. I said, I says,
make you remember Mike Jones. He's like Mike Jones and
Detacker from NC State. I said, yeah, I'm sitting down
talking to his daughter. He's like he got a daughter.
I was like, yeah, Coco Jones. So another buddy of
(22:41):
ours that used to work out with us. He's like, yeah,
and she's famous. So your dad was a famous football player. Yeah,
and you played sports. You played flag football, you played basketball.
Was sports kind of did you want to do sports
or that was just something that like to pass the time?
Speaker 6 (22:57):
Well, to me, it was kind of like, you know,
you do what your parents say you should do, and
I liked it.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
I liked winning. I did not like losing. And I
didn't mind practice, but I ain't prefer it. But I
wanted to be the best. So I think at that
time it was kind of like, you know, you're taught
what you should do in life. You do this, you
go to church with this, you play a sport. I
would like, okay, that's fine.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
And then I would also like in school, I would
do like talent shows or things like that, and like
the little plays.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
And I just really liked that.
Speaker 6 (23:27):
I really liked that feeling of being on stage. So
I kind of shifted naturally from sports.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Being you like being popular because you play sports, you
the talent shows, you could sing, you could dad, you
could act, you could play sports. You're like really cool. Huh.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
You know what, I don't like being popular. I wouldn't
say that now in school.
Speaker 6 (23:45):
When I was in real school, I did homeschool like
in high school, but like for work and everything. But
I did like being popular with the basketball girls because
it was giving like a cute little quick but other
than that, like when it comes to this world, no,
I definitely don't like being popular. If I could have
it my way, I would be like a singer in
a mask or something, honestly truly.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
And I have to do no interviews, no press. They
would just buy my song.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
I would just go on tour maybe like a hologram,
and then I'd go home and be normal and go
to the grocery store.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
So if you basketball player, were you, like, let's say,
Candice Parker, buy your more, Caitlyn Clark, I.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Mean it was giving me more wwyd I don't.
Speaker 6 (24:28):
I definitely wasn't eating like that, like when I remember it,
I was eating. But I also had like this perception
of myself that like I was just that girl. So
I don't know. My siblings like to say they like
to humble me, but yeah, I think actually my cousin
was like the girl in our family who was that
sports girl. So she probably was more in the realm
of all of the basketball girlies. But I just wanted
(24:51):
to be with the cool girls and win.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
But you had brothers that played college ball, played in NFL,
so where they're like rival, do you rough house with them?
Speaker 6 (25:00):
My older brother is adopted and so he was much
much older than all of us, and my younger brother, Nah,
we didn't really rival. It was kind of like we
all had our own separate things. And I think my
parents did a good job of making it feel like
all of our world were, you know, really important, because honestly,
around the time where I can like really remember what
sports was like, it was on the back burner because
(25:21):
I was like, singing is my thing, that's my thing,
you know. But now I don't feel like there was
any rivalry. I definitely feel like everybody's got to get
used to things like this, right, but not in a
rivalry way more and just like you know, your own
inner perception of what you think fame is like, and
what you think about people who are your friends because
(25:41):
of your sister, and what you think about me being
on that screen. You know, everybody's got to get their
own mind wrapped around it. Because we had no idea
how big it could be. It was just what I
loved and what I was willing to work hard at.
So my family was with it.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
So once you started to like, okay, you transition from
sports and like you start singing. Were your parents like
Joe Jackson? Were he like Richard Williams? Was he like
Earl Woods? Or was it like okay, babe, whatever you
want to do? Or did they drive you? Because I
mentioned those because they drove their kids and it benefited them.
I'm saying anything's wrong with it. I just wanted to
know what type of parents and how were they with you.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
No, my parents did not force anything. I think.
Speaker 6 (26:20):
To me, singing was like this treat you could dangle
over me, Like if I didn't do good in school,
we're not taking you to no audition, Like if I
didn't do what I needed to do, Like, no, we're
not gonna put our effort and time into that. If
I didn't rehearse, if I didn't practice, if I did
an audition, I ain't know my lines.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
No, why would we take either?
Speaker 6 (26:37):
You're not serious. So to me, it was me that
had to prove that I wanted it, you know. But yeah,
honestly it was my mom who was like my main
She focused and she locked in with me. She drove
me to all the auditions. She was my team before
the team and my dad did the sports world with
my brother and sister.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
So I had to beg her like, please take me
to Nashville again.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Because I and she's your first vocal coach, first stylist,
hair and makeup, glad manager, tour manager, co write, co producer. Yeah,
how did she help you? Because I guess she could sing?
So how did she help you? Hone in what you
needed to do to be craft what we see today?
Speaker 3 (27:17):
I mean, my mom is such a blessing.
Speaker 6 (27:19):
And I don't even think she knew in her own
life how much she was prepared for me before I
even got into this world. My mom did the singing route,
and that was of course her dream, but she didn't
have that supportive system. It was more like, oh, that's
really cute, but what are you doing for your work?
Speaker 3 (27:35):
What are you doing for your job?
Speaker 6 (27:37):
Her income, and so it was always on the back
burner for her and so to me. I think she
got to live out some of her childhood dreamcariously through you,
of course. And also my mom comes from a family
of women business owners. We have a funeral home that's
been in our family for generations.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (27:53):
And so she knows a lot about just being a
good businesswoman. And she changed my name from Courtney to
Coco so that there could you know, that separate legally.
And some of the moses made some of the contracts
I didn't sign, and some of the performances and the
songs I chose, they were her looking up what's hot
and figuring out how to burn it onto a CD
and then sending that to executives. My mom like, she
(28:15):
put her back into it, and I think it was
half because nobody did that for her.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
You know. That was what I wanted to ask, because
you mentioned all the things that she was doing, so
clearly she taught you a lot about the business of music.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Yeah, I would say that the business of music. No,
we didn't know that too. We didn't know how that worked.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
The industry. She taught you how this thing? Did she
teach you how this how this thing worked? Because you
mentioned that she's your first manager, your tour manager, all
these things, so obviously there's a lot it was there
a lot of trial and era because she didn't have
what you had, because you had someone helping you along
the way.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
Yeah, I think my mom taught me a lot about
protecting yourself. Okay, we didn't know how this industry works.
We didn't know, and we tried to go about things
the nice route, but sometimes it was like, Okay, maybe
they went and over there doing that shady stuff, like
I don't know, And so we were kind of figuring
it out as we go and just protecting ourselves and
(29:09):
trying to stay true to who we came to la
and who we came into that world as.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
And my mom didn't know.
Speaker 6 (29:16):
We probably knew the same amount when it came to
how these things work, and we didn't know how to
get there. But she taught me a lot about believing
in myself. And when I show up and go into
a room full of twelve executives who don't care about
me and just ready to go they want to go home,
to still be able to portray self love and belief
and confidence, and to hold my head up high through rejection,
(29:37):
to hold my head up high when you pass this
line of auditions and there's seven girls who look like you,
and then there's seven girls who look like them, and
those girls get it all the time.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
So now you guys are looking at them like.
Speaker 6 (29:45):
Black, you know, to still walk out and be like,
it's my next They don't know what they're doing, you know,
to figure out how to portray this world in a
way that made me still feel valuable, which that is
something I still hold so tightly to this day, because
this industry can make you feel like.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
You know, it make you doubt yourself. Did you ever
doubt yourself?
Speaker 6 (30:08):
I think as I got older and I got out
of that bubble, because I will say that I was
sheltered in a way. A lot of the things that
I would hear, the negative critiques, even the things on
social media. My mom ran my account and so it
wouldn't come to me because it wouldn't get past her.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
She took a lot of that.
Speaker 6 (30:26):
I think as I got older and I was by
myself because my mom had to stay and raise my
other siblings.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
You know, she couldn't. She had given me everything she had,
and I had to go. I left.
Speaker 6 (30:36):
I moved when I was seventeen to LA and I
had to figure it out. And I think that's when
it was harder to push back on all of that noise,
and it did start to affect my self worth for.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Were you scared being out on your own?
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Was I scared?
Speaker 7 (30:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (30:52):
At first, no, because honestly I was sheltered. So I
did get the party, and turn out I was having.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
A good ass time. I won't even lie.
Speaker 6 (31:00):
I didn't go to college, but I met these girls
through this one guy that I liked, and they were
like in college and we were all young and we
had no idea what was going on with our lives,
but we was here and we was up.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
So I had so much fun.
Speaker 6 (31:13):
I didn't even go hold you for like those first
two or three years living in LA But then I
was like, okay, wait, the partying is all cool and everything,
but I haven't that's about right, you know.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
What I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (31:24):
And then people are starting to get internships and they're
starting to like really lock into whatever path, and I'm like,
when am I going to get another job?
Speaker 3 (31:30):
What am I gonna do?
Speaker 6 (31:32):
And then around the pandemic time, I was like, okay,
what is happening with my life?
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Wait a minute? Now everybody has like their plan. I
don't have a plan. What should I do? And I
was living off savings and so obviously as time goes.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
There's no money coming in and there's money going out
pretty soon. That cloud.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
My mom's a businesswoman. She's talking like, she's like, your
finances are they're getting light. You might need a pivot.
And so that became a part of the back of
my head, like do I have to give this up?
What would I do if I had to give this up?
What else could I do?
Speaker 1 (32:06):
You know your parents separated at some point, correct?
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Ye?
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Did that play a role? Did that impact you in
any way? Negatively? Positively? I mean, how would you How
would if you were like explaining it to a child
that's potentially going through parents or separating. We got everybody
handles it differently. But if there any advice that you would.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Like to offer, any advice?
Speaker 1 (32:29):
I mean, are you close with your dad?
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Me and my dad. It's funny.
Speaker 6 (32:34):
I've always appreciated my dad for what he instilled in me,
But I think me and my mom spoke the same language,
and me and my dad once I stopped playing sports,
we didn't really have that common thread. And I mean,
he does love music. I'm not even gonna lie to
you so, but it'd be more on like some educational stuff.
(32:55):
I'll give him that credit. For sure, like you would
put me onto like old music, old things that I
ain't never heard before. But my mom, she saw the rejection,
She saw the tenacity that it takes. She understood the
business of sometimes singing songs you didn't like, you know,
and doing things you don't want. She saw the lack
of control that I had, and so I felt like
she understood me more. And as I got older, and
(33:18):
as my parents separated and everything, my relationship with my
dad got really strayed, really really straight, and I had
to figure out for myself what do I want to
do about that? Because I'm grateful to have a dad
who stayed. I'm grateful to have a dad who did
everything he could for us, provided for us. But now
I'm hearing these other things because now they're not just
(33:39):
mom and dad. That's my mom, her, that's Vonda, that's Mike,
and they're saying all these things, you know. So I
had to figure out for myself what type of relationship
I want with my dad, And it took me like
a year to figure it out. And now we're kind
of on this how do we start from ground zero?
Because I don't remember flag football practice. I don't remember
(34:00):
all I have is from sixteen seventeen when I left
to now.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
So what now? I think the thing is for me,
my little two cents from a distance, is that you
don't try to go back and get that pick up
from now and move forward, because the one thing that
you can't recapture is time. Once it's gone, it's gone.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Once it's gone, it's gone.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
So I think building from this point on and moving forward,
you can start a beautiful relationship with your dad.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
I definitely would love to. I definitely would love to.
Speaker 6 (34:26):
I've seen so many, all the women I know, and
all of their relationships with their dad.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
They just range from high to low. But rarely is
it a good story.
Speaker 6 (34:35):
Rarely, And so I hope that I can build that
good story for my future daughter, for myself too, for
my younger self. Yes, it does tink too, And my
dad is definitely willing. But nobody taught him how, nobody
taught me how.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
We don't know.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
It's figuring it out, figuring it out as we go.
Yeah you got we mentioned you got started early nine
years old. I think you sung at the Rams game,
yeah national anthem? Well you nervous. I do not.
Speaker 6 (34:59):
Rememberber being nervous. I remember loving my outfits because my
mom took that jersey and but dazzled it herself. Hot
Googleun Okay, little two am at the house. But I
just felt like I was so cute and I was
ready for them to see.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
I was ready to do my thing.
Speaker 6 (35:13):
I had been performing and practicing it over and over again.
So yeah, I wasn't nervous, right, So.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
I mean people so will say I'm sure they did
say it. Well, she just got the saying because a
dad's on a team.
Speaker 6 (35:24):
Yeah, of course, I wish it was that easy, But
like I said, it's such a different field. I mean,
my dad, I'm sure he had some sort of connections,
but what can what can somebody in sports do for
something for me? I'm trying to be over here getting
signed to a label. You know, it didn't correlate like
that at all. I do think the leg up that
(35:45):
I had was starting so young, because it takes so
many years of failure to get to one opportunity that
shifts something a little bit, and you know that powder repeats.
So yeah, but no, I didn't have any leg up.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
But you had a nice life, I mean, obviously, Mike
Neusling an NFL. Like I said, I knew your dad leave.
I'm I think I'm a year older than he is
and got started a year in the league before he did.
And so I read what you say you went to
a predominantly white high school, and so how was.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
That middle school?
Speaker 6 (36:11):
Yeah, honestly, it was all I knew at the time,
and the black people was like related to me in
some in some way.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Yeah, to me, it's kind of all I knew.
Speaker 6 (36:22):
I think it didn't really affect me at the time
because we were all kind of kids and I was
so focused on whatever I was doing that I didn't
it didn't affect me. And then as I got older,
then I was like, oh, I don't really know what
ch'all talking about over there, so let me get let
me get tapped in, you know. And then you know,
you find friends from different worlds and they kind of
put you on game.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
You went on the Morrow Povid Show at twelve, Yes,
how was that? What was that experience? Like, I don't
you don't remember?
Speaker 6 (36:48):
You know what?
Speaker 3 (36:48):
I do remember? Actually?
Speaker 6 (36:51):
Okay, so oh dang, I hate losing any capacity, and
so I do remember that performance because my mom told
me I used to feel like my mom had some
sort of magical powers, because when she would tell me
to do something and I wouldn't do it, something bad
would happen.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Uh oh, And I'd be like, bro, I swear you
got something going on. I don't know you.
Speaker 6 (37:10):
She was like, you need to wake up early and
rehearse for that performance before you do that. That's live television.
And I was like, girl, please, I know what it
is and I know what it ain't. And I sang
Listen by Beyonce Bruh. I didn't practice beforehand. I didn't
know he was waking up that early to sing that.
I didn't know they filmed that early. So I sang listen,
and I remember I hit that high note and I
cracked bad. I cracked bad. But I think my mom
(37:34):
went and talked to them or something like that, because
I was beside myself with embarrassment. I mean, you would
know it because I finished the whole thing. But my
mom knows because we'd be like that, and I think
she was like, please please do that part.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
She did not eat.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
That was syrup. He was right, Mom, And then you
did me. When did you know you could act? Is
there a direct correlation between singing and acting, or acting
and singing.
Speaker 6 (37:57):
No, I don't think there's a direct correlation because singing
you're not even trying. You're really just doing what you know,
what's inside of you, unless you know you're one of
those crafted artists who are doing what's being told. Acting,
I think it was just another thing that I wanted
to do at a young age, like I feel like
I want to be on stage, I want to do whatever,
And the music thing was kind of ebb and flow,
(38:17):
but auditions were like a literal job. You can submit
yourself for it and see if you get the job.
And so it just was something else that I tried.
But I was really bad at acting for a really
long time, really bad. Singing was the only one that
was just natural. Everything else was baddest.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
So what's the hardest. The hardest audition that you've gone on?
Speaker 6 (38:33):
The hardest audition the one that I can think about
that it's not in film. It was a Broadway. Really
that Broadway is no joke, man, because you're singing the
whole song and then you have to do the scripts.
But also you're in charge of your own outfit and
your own props, and then you have to hit your
(38:54):
mark and it's live. There's no there's no doing it again.
There's a whole audience there. So I think my Broadway
auditions are the ones that were the most challenging.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Have you ever got a job on? You know you? Audition?
They say, well, you got to part.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
Right after that?
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (39:07):
No, No, I wish.
Speaker 6 (39:09):
I remember as a kid though, when I would go
in those Disney auditions, I'd be like I seen. I'd
be like, so, did I get it? They'd be like, girl,
you cannot just ask that. I'm trying to know y'all
be having me waiting over here for my Mama said,
we got two more months?
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Do we gotta go back?
Speaker 1 (39:24):
What's up the radio? Disney's next big thing from ten
twenty eleven? You didn't win? No, were you heartbroken?
Speaker 6 (39:34):
No?
Speaker 3 (39:35):
I wasn't heartbroken.
Speaker 6 (39:37):
I think it's because at the time, I was just
so happy to be there that I was like the
fact that I'm even here great because it was my
first time, you know, doing anything big, anything outside of
my city where I was from. So no, I wasn't heartbroken,
And plus I knew I was still going to go
on tour. I was like the second runner up. Does something,
so I'll still do that.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
You met Victoria Manney, you were able to work with her.
What was that experience like work with her and what
you met there at the time?
Speaker 6 (40:09):
Oh my gosh, yes, Okay, So yeah, when I was
first signed when I was fourteen, she was one of
the writers that they had brought in to write on
my first EP.
Speaker 7 (40:19):
Ever.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yet, Okay, isn't that so crazy?
Speaker 6 (40:20):
VI? It is so crazy? It was her and Tommy Brown,
Taylor Parks. But yeah, they wrote this song for me.
And honestly, at the time, I think everybody was like
super Green doing their own thing and I'm there with
my mom my. Mom's in the corner in the back,
like respucure, like what's going on? So it wasn't like
we were talking about anything or anything crazy like that.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
But yeah, that is so crazy when you meet somebody
like her and then she ends up winning a Grammy
and like you knew her back then, What is that?
What is that feeling like for you? Because it's like
you feel like you're part of it even though you didn't.
But I'm saying because you know her, you knew before
this moment.
Speaker 6 (40:58):
I mean, I think for me to see another black
woman get her flowers. It's just like who a breath
of fresh air. And I think for what it does
for the future of us is also really exciting. And
ye have Victoria's been working a super long time in
it and it shows me too, so many different things
(41:18):
looking at her career.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
You can write for other people.
Speaker 6 (41:20):
You can contribute to other people's journeys and their success
and still have your own thing. You can be a
mom and still do this, you know. So it teaches
me a lot just watching her in all the aspects
of her life.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Would you be interesting or have you? Or do you
write for someone else? Or you just write for you
right now?
Speaker 3 (41:36):
Currently for me, right now, just.
Speaker 6 (41:39):
Me, because honestly that it takes so much time, ruh.
But you know what, if I do write a song
and I'm like, this doesn't really fit me, I will
say that, you know, to the producers and to the
other writers that they can shop it around, because I
don't want to be the reason that somebody else don't
pick the song, you know. But in the beginning, I
do think I wrote a little bit for other people,
but I didn't know where none of that was going,
(41:59):
you know, I'm just figuring it out as I go,
and so at that time, I didn't have like like
a publishing company behind me or anything.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
So I was like, they're saying this for so and so,
and I'm like, Okay, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Have you ever turned down a song that you're like
and somebody else did it and they got acclaimed for
it or it sounded good and you're like, maybe I
should have kept that one for myself, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
Turned out a song to turn Mmm?
Speaker 6 (42:22):
No, No. I did have this one lady record a
song that was one of my super old demos, and
I was like, if this pop off, I'm gonna know something.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
But it's Bafley, No Shade, No He No Shade.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
Taylor, James Williams and letter Shot. Everybody loved Chriss Abbit School.
What was it like to work with I mean you.
Speaker 3 (42:41):
Just Tyler, Yeah, Tyler Tyler.
Speaker 6 (42:45):
So we weren't that close honestly while we were filming
it was such a huge age gap. I was freaking
fifteen and he's in his like mid twenties at the time,
So yeah, him and Trevor, they would all go out,
it'd be and I was just sitting there homeschold, happy
to be there, so no, I mean, but I knew
he was super professional. He just seemed very seasoned and
(43:07):
like used to this, and I was over here like
a freaking deer in headlights.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
It's happy to be there, very green.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Let me ask you this. Obviously, you can do both,
you act and you sing. Is their preference?
Speaker 3 (43:19):
Singing?
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Singing?
Speaker 6 (43:20):
Yeah, if I could only do one forever, if I
only had to do one, it would be singing, I think,
because there's a lot more control in singing, what you're saying,
what you look like, and also when you do it.
You know, acting is like, okay, and here's your schedule
for the next six months, and you're going to be
here for twelve hours every day except this day.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Up it changed.
Speaker 7 (43:38):
Now you're here.
Speaker 6 (43:39):
You know, you feel like you don't really have the control.
But for me, I'm like, I want to go on tour,
but not in the cold. So then that means it
could be in the summer. That means I need to
record in the winter. You know, I can make it
kind of more adjust to my life.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
So you don't like the cold, huh, No, I don't.
I don't like the cold, but I don't like it
extremely hot either you you said you a Vegas dog. Yeah,
but it's only three months. And if plus, I ain't outside,
I mean, I'm outside to get my card and then
I'm going to day.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
No.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Okay, Well why you say it like you ain't outside?
Why you saying like that?
Speaker 3 (44:13):
I mean, you lived in Vegas?
Speaker 7 (44:14):
What are you doing?
Speaker 3 (44:14):
They're reading books?
Speaker 1 (44:16):
I'm working.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (44:20):
I've only been in Vegas to drink tequila and party,
so I've never lived there.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
But pers uh, kid actors, I mean, we've we hear
so many Coco, we hear so many horror stories about
kid actors.
Speaker 6 (44:32):
And they're recently coming out there. Yes, I didn't hear
any of this when I was started. Otherwise my mom
would have pivoted so fast.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
We would have never let you. And that's the that's
the that's the point is that you don't hear about
it at the time. It's only when they're much older
they tell these horror stories. Did you experience anything, Did
you see anything like that?
Speaker 6 (44:51):
I didn't see anything like that, But you know what,
my mom never let me out of her sight. I
remember at this one time in my life, we used
to butt heads so bad because I'd be like why
can't I just go in there by myself, Like, why
can't I do these things by myself? And at the
time she was just like no, you know, and I
didn't understand, But now I do understand that it's that
(45:11):
when you're alone and you're that like young sheep with
no guidance, you know.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
But my mom wasn't playing that.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two
is also posted and you can access it to whichever
podcast platform you just listen to part one on. Just
simply go back to Club Shay profile and I'll see
you there.
Hello, Welcome to another very very special edition of Club Shaysha.
I am your host, Shannon Sharp of also the propriet
of Club Shasha. Stopping By is not one but two guests.
The first guest is one of the most vocally gifted,
talented artists we have out today. A Grammy Award an
NAACP Image Award winning singer, a platinum selling songwriter, an
(00:20):
accomplished actress, a top tier dancer, a chart topping hit maker,
a natural star, a respected role model, multifaceted musician, creative
and entertainer. R and b's next superstar MS Coco Jones.
Remember I told you not one but two. He's a
powerhouse vocalist, a Grammy nominated singer, a multi platinum songwriter,
(00:41):
chart topping conquering artist, global musician, sensation, genre defying, and
he's my homeboy, a Georgia boy. Mister Teddy swimms All my.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Life, grinding all my life, Second Fis Russell pet Prison
one Seche.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
All my life, grinding in all my life, all my life,
running all my.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Life, Second Fights, Pus.
Speaker 5 (01:06):
One slice, doctor all my life, Poppy ground in all
my life.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, what's up?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Thank you guys for stopping by having us. Oh my goodness.
Both of you guys started off doing covers. How do
you think that helped your careers? For me?
Speaker 6 (01:28):
I think songwriting and learning why I like certain songs
and how they make me feel and how to translate
that into, you know, my own thing. And I also think, honestly,
just being able to have something trendy that brings attention
to your name. When you're doing covers, you know, it's
kind of like you're trying to get that click.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Baby, right, Yes, you know that attention.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Did you ever did you ever have the fear of,
like when you were starting to put yourself your own
stuff out there, that there was just like, God, I
already did some of these best songs in the world,
Like how do I how do I how do anything
that I do ever going to compare to that?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (02:04):
Is there that fear?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Absolutely?
Speaker 6 (02:05):
I mean even still now I'm like, now I'm comparing
myself to myself. Yeah, man, But I think that what
worked for me is just being so honest and so
vulnerable that you just feel it. You know, if you're
talking about something real, it's you just feel that. I
try to just tell the truth and and let it
go because I really can't control that.
Speaker 7 (02:24):
What about you, yes, say, I guess same.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I think I think I did go through a phase
for a long time where and I still do where
I'm like, you know, uh, I feared that somebody was
gonna say, just like, shut up and sing Shana Twain,
you know and or or you know you sound you
sound way better singing Stevie wonderfat Boy than you ever
will sounding. But I think I think the biggest thing
for me was that I realized every song that I
learned also helps me and in songwriting and understanding music
(02:49):
better and and portray myself and and the stuff I
love and well, I think the biggest thing that set
me free was that I was able to say, you know,
Stevie didn't grow up listening to Stevie, or Michael didn't
go up listening to Michael. And so when I when
I have those when I learned those tools from those people,
it also I guess it's like another tool in the
shed that I get to use and get to pay
(03:10):
homage and honor to those people that I look up to,
rather than comparing myself so much to them. You know,
I remember us like playing little bars and little restaurants
and stuff coming up, and at the time, it was
like three hours of like cover songs for one hundred
and fifty bucks, but three ways. And then they wouldn't
even give you the bar tab either. So usually we
would we would leave there and it'd be like, hey,
(03:31):
you owe a thirty bucks. I remember these same people too,
would be these same people that would say like, hey,
one day we're gonna like say we had Teddy come
here and saying I'm gonna be able to brag about
that forever.
Speaker 7 (03:43):
You're gonna be such a star and know this, they
know this of you, but then would do that.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
You know, it's like, yeah, when somebody knows you're worth,
it gives you significantly less than your worth and looks
at you in the eyes. And but I also I
think that was I was accepting that for myself, you know,
and I just wanted to be heard, and I get
the little exposure from one hundred people in Covington was
more than enough to suffice for just wanting to be heard,
being able to sing was meant more to me than anything.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
You know, if this the kind of the path, the
direction that you would hope and it would lead you
to yeah hell.
Speaker 6 (04:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, to be here, to be able to
sit across from somebody who I think has made such
a path that is so specific. You know, I think
that's what every creative wants, is to be able to
have that creative control, to not have to fit into
a certain box, and to have people appreciate their music.
So yeah, I would say that it led to where
we need to be.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Teddy U and Coco, you both guys. You came from
football backgrounds. Your dad put you in black football. You
heard you with the juice of the guy.
Speaker 6 (04:42):
Really, I mean yes, before I knew music was like
my calling sports was, I think it was like the
the obvious choice.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
You know my family, I'm the shortest in my family. Wow,
that's the way.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
But yeah, I think that's like the natural thing you
do with your kids. You put them in a bunch
of sports and see where they progress. And I'm so
freaking competitive right that, I just wanted to be the
greatest wherever I was.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
But yeah, you balled to a little bit right ahead.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
But I mean, you know, at five seven defensive linement,
it's not gonna happen. I'm so I'm so happy I
found this a little later on. You know, I think
I was in high school and I like got in
the theater with Jesse who's playing guitar, and I really
found my love for it and was like really thankful
for that, that transition of my life.
Speaker 7 (05:30):
And I mean with that, I see so.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Many kids too that you know, how many like Tom
Brady's or are used there could have been in life,
you know, but maybe senior year shattered their ankle and
now their their whole life built up to this, and
their whole family's lives built up to this, and it
can be taken away just like that. So I'm grateful
I found this, this opportunity in my life to if
I if I break my arm, you know, I could still.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah right, a hit song.
Speaker 7 (05:55):
Yeah, you know it's all cast.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
You're about to become a first time father, correct, Yeah, sure,
and uh you know what the gender is. Yeah, but
you want to keep it, you want to keep it
a secret.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
She wants to keep it a secret for the time being.
If I drive, I would like to tell you, I
really like to tell you, but I don't know. She's
actually at the doctor right.
Speaker 7 (06:15):
Now to drive.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Before I came, you were talking earlier, but you're thinking
about relocated because you want your child to have a
Southern action.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Amen, I wanted I want to yes slam, yes, I mean,
of course I'll raise so he'll have that, you know,
but you know having laying in the yard and a
trampoline and a treehouse, and you know that I want
I want that baby to run.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I feel that for real. Okay, So I heard that
you went to beauty school, cousin.
Speaker 7 (06:42):
Yeah, sure did, Yeah, sure did?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Please explain, Well, my mama, My mama always did hair
coming up, so throughout my whole life, I was always
when I was a kid, pulling her hair through caps
and cut my friend's hairs and stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
And you would cut your friend's hair.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
Yeah yeah, I just look.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, so you know, I'm it's been a long time,
like it's probably been twelve thirteen years, so I wouldn't.
Speaker 7 (07:04):
I wouldn't like go go to town on any even
guys right now, I wouldn't. Don't.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I don't know if I still have it, but yeah,
I mean I used to. I used to cut all
the time. And my mom was like on the on
the thought process of if you if you wanted to
pursue music, you.
Speaker 7 (07:17):
Can do hair in the meantime.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
And so when I went to cosmetology school, she would
to actually go get her cosmetology teaching license so we
could go together.
Speaker 7 (07:24):
And so me and my mom went to speak.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Mom sound like yo rolls off?
Speaker 7 (07:28):
She is, Yeah, yeah, that's what I've written on my forehead.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 7 (07:31):
That's my girl. Man, Wow, that's my first love. Man me,
that's my baby.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
You know it speak of tattoos. You have the one
on your eyes too.
Speaker 7 (07:38):
Yeah, it is says tough love.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Now, how much did that hurt?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
It doesn't hurt that much. It's like it's just the
needle's gotta be really thin because it could puncture. So
you do feel your eyeball like bounce. You kind of
cry underneath it. It is a weird sensation. But I
was like the Carter three was like my favorite album,
like my ninth grade year. You know, I was like
some of my first parties I went to and like,
so the Carter three was like my whole life at
(08:03):
that time. And you know, he had the fear of God,
and I just wanted to be like little Wayne. So
you know, all I ever wanted to do, all I
ever wanted to do is get a eyelids tattooed.
Speaker 7 (08:10):
You know, I was like, he's he's fucking cool.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
So waite, did you ever think about rapping? Or yeah?
I did?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
You know?
Speaker 7 (08:15):
Actually Teddy Swim started out?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Is that my first tour I did in March of
twenty nineteen before I started doing covers, was was me
and my pal Addie, who plays guitar my band. We
started doing like some you know stuff. We went on
our first tour, like just rapping and he's great at it.
I'm like, you know, I'm not. I'm not hot at
it by any means I can get it done, but
you know it just that wasn't for me. I'm a singer,
(08:37):
you know that.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, let me ask you this. After you mentioned your
girl and you're about to welcome your first child in
this crazy industry that you're in, how did you know
she was the one?
Speaker 7 (08:49):
Uh well, you know see that's the same thing.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
And my dear friend, our studio archer hit Kid in
my studio a couple of years ago and he's like,
you gotta hear this girl I'm working with race, and
uh so I tacked out and it's like a messager
like yo, I love you.
Speaker 7 (09:03):
You're awesome. And then we met a couple of years later.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
We ended a tour in uh Atlanta and she's living there,
and you know, she came to see the show and
uh and you know, we just hit it off and
I shot my.
Speaker 7 (09:13):
Shot all strong, and you know what current I was like,
I'm trying to shoot my shot. That's you know, you're
gonna come in hot, man. I didn't want to waste
any time.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
It's like I think, I think it's navigating relationships is
already hard enough for people. I'm just always like, look, okay,
do you find me attractive? Do I find you attractive?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
All right? How do we do it?
Speaker 7 (09:32):
Are we gonna be friends?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
And we're gonna you know, let's just go ahead and
throw this out there before everybody's thinking all weird and
you know what I mean, just let's let's just figure
out what we are.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
I feel like you have to be direct.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
At this time in the world, I feel like women
are very strong.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, yeah, like a little too strong, little little too strong.
Speaker 6 (09:52):
I think it could be more balanced, depending on what
you're going through in life, you might have to take
your armor on, Okay, but yeah, I do. I do
think directness always has been something that worked for me
in the world, in this industry. I don't want to
feel like you're cutting corners and talking in parables.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Because what are we saying? What are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah? Just say it, you know, just say those I
wanted to ask me, man, I'm looking at you, tatty.
You tatted it from head to toe. I've never seen
someone with tats in the in the ponds like you
have in here. How old were you when you first
got started tatting your body and then you like the
hell with I'm going for it?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Well, I always wondered one of the first things that
when I was a kid, you know, my mom used
to always give us ten ten dollars on Friday after
doing our chores and stuff, we get allowance and after
Sunday after church. My granddad was a pastor, so after
church we go to this Mexican restaurant and I just
get it all in the quarters and like put it
in the little machines and just get the fake tattoos.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
Yeah, walk around.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
But they used to ask me, like, what do you
want to be when you grow up? And that was
the first thing tattooed, you know, And I know that's
I guess tattooing is a job. But I wanted to
be tattooed. I just always, I don't know, I grew
up musicians was tattooed. No cool people were tattooed.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
So I just wanted to be mostly rock stars dotting
enormously cruders like yourself being tatted like that.
Speaker 7 (11:09):
Yeah, well you know from George, George, I don't know,
little both best of both worlds.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
I guess, man fire, What was it like with your
granddad as a pastor.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Well, he'd always he always told me, you know, son,
to call on the goddess without repentance.
Speaker 7 (11:25):
He just told me, promised me not to get my
face tattooed. And uh, when he.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
When he passed away, one of the it's a beautiful story.
When we passed away, my grandma's first thing. She said,
you know, it was a beautiful thing the first time
I said, with death, like firsthand. And my grandma was
sitting there and she said, you know, uh, he's home
at last. He's home at last. And then she looks
up and she said, but you left me behind. And
they were together for fifty two years and I held
her and hugged her, and so I got home at
(11:51):
last tattooed. It's my first face tattooed, just I guess,
like to like commemorate him, but to like kind of
piss them off one more time.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
You know.
Speaker 7 (11:59):
I'm like, you.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Know, I know, he goes up my ass when I
get you know, it was kind of the like I
hope he's rolling over his grave.
Speaker 7 (12:06):
I love out of respect, rolling over in your grave.
I guess if that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
You know, that's like the type of relationship you guys.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, yeah, you know, because I remember one of the
last things he said to me when he was like,
you know, he was so like by the book and
like so old school. He's like all these kids out
here hip popping and break dancing for the Lord and
all this carrying on, and I was like, pop, like,
nobody's broke dance since my mama was a kid. If
they would have, if they would have break danced for
the Lord, let him break dance with the door. Why
(12:33):
is that, like, why is that so jarring to you? Like,
just let these kids break dance and wrap like, yeah,
I mean.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I had your buddy on last week. Donnielle rock. Yeah,
have my dog mad. He was up here saying and say, no, bro,
that Teddy swhims you Teddy drowning. But anyway, he talks
about mixed relationships a lot, and you're in a situation
you were to mix relationship.
Speaker 7 (12:55):
Do you do?
Speaker 1 (12:56):
How do you how are you going to convey to
your kid, your child that you know what, I'm white,
your mom's black and it's okay to have that conversation.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, I mean, I think, I think, I think, I
think that's so much more to uh, you know, especially
because we get looks all the time going places, and
and especially her, she she she's got a black dad
and a white mom, and she's she's shared with me
so many times about like how it feels too. She's
like I'm never black enough or I'm never white enough.
And she's gone through a lot more. And I think
(13:28):
she's she's a way better person to tell that story,
you know, especially to my child that that she's I
don't I would never want to tell that story for
her because she's she's she's like so elegantly like living
through that and knowing what that's like, and and uh,
I mean, all I know is what it's like when
we're getting looks in public, and it doesn't it doesn't
affect me so much as is it as I see
(13:48):
it affecting her in her life, is through her whole life,
you know. So I just, uh, I just I just
want to tell my child to navigate you know, being
I don't know, just being safe and being open. And
I hope I can create that safe space. And I
know that that kid will go through struggles that I
never went through. And yeah, man, I guess I guess
you got to play it as it goes. You know,
I've never I've never been through like being mixed. So
(14:10):
I don't know how to tell that kid how to
deal with that. But I will only be supportive as
I can and tell him son the daughter, you know,
maybe like just whatever it is, just like be you,
be you baby, be you and be open, I mean,
be you, be whatever you want to be, be it
whatever feels authentic to you, and don't let nobody tell
you different, and don't let nobody tell you and not
allowed to be this or that.
Speaker 7 (14:29):
And that's all I can really do.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
But until we get there, I don't really know how
to give that kid good advice on being a mixed baby,
and I'm just throw wipe daddy.
Speaker 7 (14:38):
You know, I'm just like.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
You're white with seasoning.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Get you out here on this. And when I hear
you talk about your partner, I see the passion in
which you speak. I see how you light up. And
I read where you said she's helped you more than
you can put into words, because she helped you get
into therapy and she helped you become the teddy that
we see sitting on this couch today. Speak to that.
Speaker 7 (15:03):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I think one of the biggest things with her too,
is that she's like she kind of like, uh, I
guess I want to say, like in the nicest way,
like finessed me into a therapy place, you know, because
it was like as we were getting ready to have
a kid, and I know, I know she knows that
I have things that I've got to heal from and
we both do.
Speaker 7 (15:19):
We all got some baggage of caring.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
And she was like, look, I think what we should
do is as we as we get into you know,
having a child, that we should both go to couples
therapy and get into like the best, the best like
versions of ourselves, the most healed, safe environment for that child.
And I was like, okay, okay, a little reluctant at
the first time, and we started it.
Speaker 7 (15:37):
It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
And the next thing, you know, I get my own
idea of like maybe I should be doing this by
myself as well, you know, And then it was like,
I think that's the most beautiful thing about her is
that that it was. It was a way of like
letting me see what it was for what it was
and doing it with me and for us and each other,
and for me to find it and see it for
myself rather than being like, you need therapy.
Speaker 7 (15:58):
Yeah, you know, and that's that's how you do. That's
how you treat that's how your mental health. Yeah, that's
how that's how. That's how a woman does.
Speaker 6 (16:04):
You know.
Speaker 7 (16:05):
That's a strong ass woman right there.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Thank you. I appreciate that. Now, coming to the stage
to perform his hit song bad Dreams from your album
I've tried everything but therapy Part two, mister Teddy swims.
Speaker 7 (16:31):
Son is going down.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Tom is running now.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
No one else so brown but me, steady and losing life,
steady and loads in my mind, moving shadows and crime.
Speaker 7 (16:47):
With about you.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
They're bringing up placing me to hi about that? No
head I can sleep to now, but I do fubby
little quiet bounce?
Speaker 7 (17:01):
Why k slipping in.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
The bad dreams with ds on you?
Speaker 1 (17:08):
When I.
Speaker 7 (17:10):
No sound when I cry?
Speaker 6 (17:13):
I love you.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
I need you to certainly freeze from all the things
bad dreams waiting on the air the side, no sound
when I cry. I love you, ever, I need you
to certainly freeze from other things, bad dreams, all of these. Baby,
(17:51):
Please come around, help me settle now every shabbits can
crawl my he what you hated for something physical? I
can't do this bad s with about you, There'll be
no place from me. Say how with about you? There's
(18:13):
no way I can sleep. So now what I do
for the little bit of peace? And why with pounch
keep slipping into bad dreams with things? Knowing you and I.
Speaker 7 (18:30):
Oh sound where I cry?
Speaker 5 (18:33):
I love you and I need you to certainly free
from all the things bad dreams made it on the earth,
the sound, no sound.
Speaker 7 (18:47):
Where I crawl.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
I love you and I need you to certainly free
from all the things HOLI things.
Speaker 6 (19:10):
Things.
Speaker 7 (19:21):
I listen just again, Yeah here, I'm it's we.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Thank you're Teddy swims, Thank you so much for singing
your hit song bad dream from the album title I
tried everything with Therapy Part two. Yes, but you did
your thing and got my.
Speaker 7 (19:45):
Sweet friend Coco. Yes, you sound amazing.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Y'all sound amazing.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
You know what.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
We gotta talk. We gotta te Teddy. You know you
said you want to. We'll get you one too bad
of course.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Co co oh my God.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
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Speaker 1 (21:50):
Coco, I will share something with you. You probably didn't know,
and I know you're not old enough to know this,
but your dad and I used to work out together
in South Carolina. Wow. He's originally from South Carolina. He
played at m C State and ninety one and ninety two.
I would go back and work out with my brother,
who went to the University of South Carolina but lives
(22:11):
in Columbia, and I would work out, and so all
the guys that played at South Carolina or lived in
South Carolina would come and we would all work out together.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I didn't know until I looked at I was looking
at the cards and I'm like, hold on, Mike Jones.
Why did that name sound familiar? So I got on
the phone and called my brother. I said, I says,
make you remember Mike Jones. He's like Mike Jones and
Detacker from NC State. I said, yeah, I'm sitting down
talking to his daughter. He's like he got a daughter.
I was like, yeah, Coco Jones. So another buddy of
(22:41):
ours that used to work out with us. He's like, yeah,
and she's famous. So your dad was a famous football player. Yeah,
and you played sports. You played flag football, you played basketball.
Was sports kind of did you want to do sports
or that was just something that like to pass the time?
Speaker 6 (22:57):
Well, to me, it was kind of like, you know,
you do what your parents say you should do, and
I liked it.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
I liked winning. I did not like losing. And I
didn't mind practice, but I ain't prefer it. But I
wanted to be the best. So I think at that
time it was kind of like, you know, you're taught
what you should do in life. You do this, you
go to church with this, you play a sport. I
would like, okay, that's fine.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
And then I would also like in school, I would
do like talent shows or things like that, and like
the little plays.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
And I just really liked that.
Speaker 6 (23:27):
I really liked that feeling of being on stage. So
I kind of shifted naturally from sports.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Being you like being popular because you play sports, you
the talent shows, you could sing, you could dad, you
could act, you could play sports. You're like really cool. Huh.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
You know what, I don't like being popular. I wouldn't
say that now in school.
Speaker 6 (23:45):
When I was in real school, I did homeschool like
in high school, but like for work and everything. But
I did like being popular with the basketball girls because
it was giving like a cute little quick but other
than that, like when it comes to this world, no,
I definitely don't like being popular. If I could have
it my way, I would be like a singer in
a mask or something, honestly truly.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
And I have to do no interviews, no press. They
would just buy my song.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
I would just go on tour maybe like a hologram,
and then I'd go home and be normal and go
to the grocery store.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
So if you basketball player, were you, like, let's say,
Candice Parker, buy your more, Caitlyn Clark, I.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Mean it was giving me more wwyd I don't.
Speaker 6 (24:28):
I definitely wasn't eating like that, like when I remember it,
I was eating. But I also had like this perception
of myself that like I was just that girl. So
I don't know. My siblings like to say they like
to humble me, but yeah, I think actually my cousin
was like the girl in our family who was that
sports girl. So she probably was more in the realm
of all of the basketball girlies. But I just wanted
(24:51):
to be with the cool girls and win.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
But you had brothers that played college ball, played in NFL,
so where they're like rival, do you rough house with them?
Speaker 6 (25:00):
My older brother is adopted and so he was much
much older than all of us, and my younger brother, Nah,
we didn't really rival. It was kind of like we
all had our own separate things. And I think my
parents did a good job of making it feel like
all of our world were, you know, really important, because honestly,
around the time where I can like really remember what
sports was like, it was on the back burner because
(25:21):
I was like, singing is my thing, that's my thing,
you know. But now I don't feel like there was
any rivalry. I definitely feel like everybody's got to get
used to things like this, right, but not in a
rivalry way more and just like you know, your own
inner perception of what you think fame is like, and
what you think about people who are your friends because
(25:41):
of your sister, and what you think about me being
on that screen. You know, everybody's got to get their
own mind wrapped around it. Because we had no idea
how big it could be. It was just what I
loved and what I was willing to work hard at.
So my family was with it.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
So once you started to like, okay, you transition from
sports and like you start singing. Were your parents like
Joe Jackson? Were he like Richard Williams? Was he like
Earl Woods? Or was it like okay, babe, whatever you
want to do? Or did they drive you? Because I
mentioned those because they drove their kids and it benefited them.
I'm saying anything's wrong with it. I just wanted to
know what type of parents and how were they with you.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
No, my parents did not force anything. I think.
Speaker 6 (26:20):
To me, singing was like this treat you could dangle
over me, Like if I didn't do good in school,
we're not taking you to no audition, Like if I
didn't do what I needed to do, Like, no, we're
not gonna put our effort and time into that. If
I didn't rehearse, if I didn't practice, if I did
an audition, I ain't know my lines.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
No, why would we take either?
Speaker 6 (26:37):
You're not serious. So to me, it was me that
had to prove that I wanted it, you know. But yeah,
honestly it was my mom who was like my main
She focused and she locked in with me. She drove
me to all the auditions. She was my team before
the team and my dad did the sports world with
my brother and sister.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
So I had to beg her like, please take me
to Nashville again.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Because I and she's your first vocal coach, first stylist,
hair and makeup, glad manager, tour manager, co write, co producer. Yeah,
how did she help you? Because I guess she could sing?
So how did she help you? Hone in what you
needed to do to be craft what we see today?
Speaker 3 (27:17):
I mean, my mom is such a blessing.
Speaker 6 (27:19):
And I don't even think she knew in her own
life how much she was prepared for me before I
even got into this world. My mom did the singing route,
and that was of course her dream, but she didn't
have that supportive system. It was more like, oh, that's
really cute, but what are you doing for your work?
Speaker 3 (27:35):
What are you doing for your job?
Speaker 6 (27:37):
Her income, and so it was always on the back
burner for her and so to me. I think she
got to live out some of her childhood dreamcariously through you,
of course. And also my mom comes from a family
of women business owners. We have a funeral home that's
been in our family for generations.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (27:53):
And so she knows a lot about just being a
good businesswoman. And she changed my name from Courtney to
Coco so that there could you know, that separate legally.
And some of the moses made some of the contracts
I didn't sign, and some of the performances and the
songs I chose, they were her looking up what's hot
and figuring out how to burn it onto a CD
and then sending that to executives. My mom like, she
(28:15):
put her back into it, and I think it was
half because nobody did that for her.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
You know. That was what I wanted to ask, because
you mentioned all the things that she was doing, so
clearly she taught you a lot about the business of music.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Yeah, I would say that the business of music. No,
we didn't know that too. We didn't know how that worked.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
The industry. She taught you how this thing? Did she
teach you how this how this thing worked? Because you
mentioned that she's your first manager, your tour manager, all
these things, so obviously there's a lot it was there
a lot of trial and era because she didn't have
what you had, because you had someone helping you along
the way.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
Yeah, I think my mom taught me a lot about
protecting yourself. Okay, we didn't know how this industry works.
We didn't know, and we tried to go about things
the nice route, but sometimes it was like, Okay, maybe
they went and over there doing that shady stuff, like
I don't know, And so we were kind of figuring
it out as we go and just protecting ourselves and
(29:09):
trying to stay true to who we came to la
and who we came into that world as.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
And my mom didn't know.
Speaker 6 (29:16):
We probably knew the same amount when it came to
how these things work, and we didn't know how to
get there. But she taught me a lot about believing
in myself. And when I show up and go into
a room full of twelve executives who don't care about
me and just ready to go they want to go home,
to still be able to portray self love and belief
and confidence, and to hold my head up high through rejection,
(29:37):
to hold my head up high when you pass this
line of auditions and there's seven girls who look like you,
and then there's seven girls who look like them, and
those girls get it all the time.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
So now you guys are looking at them like.
Speaker 6 (29:45):
Black, you know, to still walk out and be like,
it's my next They don't know what they're doing, you know,
to figure out how to portray this world in a
way that made me still feel valuable, which that is
something I still hold so tightly to this day, because
this industry can make you feel like.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
You know, it make you doubt yourself. Did you ever
doubt yourself?
Speaker 6 (30:08):
I think as I got older and I got out
of that bubble, because I will say that I was
sheltered in a way. A lot of the things that
I would hear, the negative critiques, even the things on
social media. My mom ran my account and so it
wouldn't come to me because it wouldn't get past her.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
She took a lot of that.
Speaker 6 (30:26):
I think as I got older and I was by
myself because my mom had to stay and raise my
other siblings.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
You know, she couldn't. She had given me everything she had,
and I had to go. I left.
Speaker 6 (30:36):
I moved when I was seventeen to LA and I
had to figure it out. And I think that's when
it was harder to push back on all of that noise,
and it did start to affect my self worth for.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Were you scared being out on your own?
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Was I scared?
Speaker 7 (30:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (30:52):
At first, no, because honestly I was sheltered. So I
did get the party, and turn out I was having.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
A good ass time. I won't even lie.
Speaker 6 (31:00):
I didn't go to college, but I met these girls
through this one guy that I liked, and they were
like in college and we were all young and we
had no idea what was going on with our lives,
but we was here and we was up.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
So I had so much fun.
Speaker 6 (31:13):
I didn't even go hold you for like those first
two or three years living in LA But then I
was like, okay, wait, the partying is all cool and everything,
but I haven't that's about right, you know.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
What I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (31:24):
And then people are starting to get internships and they're
starting to like really lock into whatever path, and I'm like,
when am I going to get another job?
Speaker 3 (31:30):
What am I gonna do?
Speaker 6 (31:32):
And then around the pandemic time, I was like, okay,
what is happening with my life?
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Wait a minute? Now everybody has like their plan. I
don't have a plan. What should I do? And I
was living off savings and so obviously as time goes.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
There's no money coming in and there's money going out
pretty soon. That cloud.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
My mom's a businesswoman. She's talking like, she's like, your
finances are they're getting light. You might need a pivot.
And so that became a part of the back of
my head, like do I have to give this up?
What would I do if I had to give this up?
What else could I do?
Speaker 1 (32:06):
You know your parents separated at some point, correct?
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Ye?
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Did that play a role? Did that impact you in
any way? Negatively? Positively? I mean, how would you How
would if you were like explaining it to a child
that's potentially going through parents or separating. We got everybody
handles it differently. But if there any advice that you would.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Like to offer, any advice?
Speaker 1 (32:29):
I mean, are you close with your dad?
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Me and my dad. It's funny.
Speaker 6 (32:34):
I've always appreciated my dad for what he instilled in me,
But I think me and my mom spoke the same language,
and me and my dad once I stopped playing sports,
we didn't really have that common thread. And I mean,
he does love music. I'm not even gonna lie to
you so, but it'd be more on like some educational stuff.
(32:55):
I'll give him that credit. For sure, like you would
put me onto like old music, old things that I
ain't never heard before. But my mom, she saw the rejection,
She saw the tenacity that it takes. She understood the
business of sometimes singing songs you didn't like, you know,
and doing things you don't want. She saw the lack
of control that I had, and so I felt like
she understood me more. And as I got older, and
(33:18):
as my parents separated and everything, my relationship with my
dad got really strayed, really really straight, and I had
to figure out for myself what do I want to
do about that? Because I'm grateful to have a dad
who stayed. I'm grateful to have a dad who did
everything he could for us, provided for us. But now
I'm hearing these other things because now they're not just
(33:39):
mom and dad. That's my mom, her, that's Vonda, that's Mike,
and they're saying all these things, you know. So I
had to figure out for myself what type of relationship
I want with my dad, And it took me like
a year to figure it out. And now we're kind
of on this how do we start from ground zero?
Because I don't remember flag football practice. I don't remember
(34:00):
all I have is from sixteen seventeen when I left
to now.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
So what now? I think the thing is for me,
my little two cents from a distance, is that you
don't try to go back and get that pick up
from now and move forward, because the one thing that
you can't recapture is time. Once it's gone, it's gone.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Once it's gone, it's gone.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
So I think building from this point on and moving forward,
you can start a beautiful relationship with your dad.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
I definitely would love to. I definitely would love to.
Speaker 6 (34:26):
I've seen so many, all the women I know, and
all of their relationships with their dad.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
They just range from high to low. But rarely is
it a good story.
Speaker 6 (34:35):
Rarely, And so I hope that I can build that
good story for my future daughter, for myself too, for
my younger self. Yes, it does tink too, And my
dad is definitely willing. But nobody taught him how, nobody
taught me how.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
We don't know.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
It's figuring it out, figuring it out as we go.
Yeah you got we mentioned you got started early nine
years old. I think you sung at the Rams game,
yeah national anthem? Well you nervous. I do not.
Speaker 6 (34:59):
Rememberber being nervous. I remember loving my outfits because my
mom took that jersey and but dazzled it herself. Hot
Googleun Okay, little two am at the house. But I
just felt like I was so cute and I was
ready for them to see.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
I was ready to do my thing.
Speaker 6 (35:13):
I had been performing and practicing it over and over again.
So yeah, I wasn't nervous, right, So.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
I mean people so will say I'm sure they did
say it. Well, she just got the saying because a
dad's on a team.
Speaker 6 (35:24):
Yeah, of course, I wish it was that easy, But
like I said, it's such a different field. I mean,
my dad, I'm sure he had some sort of connections,
but what can what can somebody in sports do for
something for me? I'm trying to be over here getting
signed to a label. You know, it didn't correlate like
that at all. I do think the leg up that
(35:45):
I had was starting so young, because it takes so
many years of failure to get to one opportunity that
shifts something a little bit, and you know that powder repeats.
So yeah, but no, I didn't have any leg up.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
But you had a nice life, I mean, obviously, Mike
Neusling an NFL. Like I said, I knew your dad leave.
I'm I think I'm a year older than he is
and got started a year in the league before he did.
And so I read what you say you went to
a predominantly white high school, and so how was.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
That middle school?
Speaker 6 (36:11):
Yeah, honestly, it was all I knew at the time,
and the black people was like related to me in
some in some way.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Yeah, to me, it's kind of all I knew.
Speaker 6 (36:22):
I think it didn't really affect me at the time
because we were all kind of kids and I was
so focused on whatever I was doing that I didn't
it didn't affect me. And then as I got older,
then I was like, oh, I don't really know what
ch'all talking about over there, so let me get let
me get tapped in, you know. And then you know,
you find friends from different worlds and they kind of
put you on game.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
You went on the Morrow Povid Show at twelve, Yes,
how was that? What was that experience? Like, I don't
you don't remember?
Speaker 6 (36:48):
You know what?
Speaker 3 (36:48):
I do remember? Actually?
Speaker 6 (36:51):
Okay, so oh dang, I hate losing any capacity, and
so I do remember that performance because my mom told
me I used to feel like my mom had some
sort of magical powers, because when she would tell me
to do something and I wouldn't do it, something bad
would happen.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Uh oh, And I'd be like, bro, I swear you
got something going on. I don't know you.
Speaker 6 (37:10):
She was like, you need to wake up early and
rehearse for that performance before you do that. That's live television.
And I was like, girl, please, I know what it
is and I know what it ain't. And I sang
Listen by Beyonce Bruh. I didn't practice beforehand. I didn't
know he was waking up that early to sing that.
I didn't know they filmed that early. So I sang listen,
and I remember I hit that high note and I
cracked bad. I cracked bad. But I think my mom
(37:34):
went and talked to them or something like that, because
I was beside myself with embarrassment. I mean, you would
know it because I finished the whole thing. But my
mom knows because we'd be like that, and I think
she was like, please please do that part.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
She did not eat.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
That was syrup. He was right, Mom, And then you
did me. When did you know you could act? Is
there a direct correlation between singing and acting, or acting
and singing.
Speaker 6 (37:57):
No, I don't think there's a direct correlation because singing
you're not even trying. You're really just doing what you know,
what's inside of you, unless you know you're one of
those crafted artists who are doing what's being told. Acting,
I think it was just another thing that I wanted
to do at a young age, like I feel like
I want to be on stage, I want to do whatever,
And the music thing was kind of ebb and flow,
(38:17):
but auditions were like a literal job. You can submit
yourself for it and see if you get the job.
And so it just was something else that I tried.
But I was really bad at acting for a really
long time, really bad. Singing was the only one that
was just natural. Everything else was baddest.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
So what's the hardest. The hardest audition that you've gone on?
Speaker 6 (38:33):
The hardest audition the one that I can think about
that it's not in film. It was a Broadway. Really
that Broadway is no joke, man, because you're singing the
whole song and then you have to do the scripts.
But also you're in charge of your own outfit and
your own props, and then you have to hit your
(38:54):
mark and it's live. There's no there's no doing it again.
There's a whole audience there. So I think my Broadway
auditions are the ones that were the most challenging.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Have you ever got a job on? You know you? Audition?
They say, well, you got to part.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
Right after that?
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (39:07):
No, No, I wish.
Speaker 6 (39:09):
I remember as a kid though, when I would go
in those Disney auditions, I'd be like I seen. I'd
be like, so, did I get it? They'd be like, girl,
you cannot just ask that. I'm trying to know y'all
be having me waiting over here for my Mama said,
we got two more months?
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Do we gotta go back?
Speaker 1 (39:24):
What's up the radio? Disney's next big thing from ten
twenty eleven? You didn't win? No, were you heartbroken?
Speaker 6 (39:34):
No?
Speaker 3 (39:35):
I wasn't heartbroken.
Speaker 6 (39:37):
I think it's because at the time, I was just
so happy to be there that I was like the
fact that I'm even here great because it was my
first time, you know, doing anything big, anything outside of
my city where I was from. So no, I wasn't heartbroken,
And plus I knew I was still going to go
on tour. I was like the second runner up. Does something,
so I'll still do that.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
You met Victoria Manney, you were able to work with her.
What was that experience like work with her and what
you met there at the time?
Speaker 6 (40:09):
Oh my gosh, yes, Okay, So yeah, when I was
first signed when I was fourteen, she was one of
the writers that they had brought in to write on
my first EP.
Speaker 7 (40:19):
Ever.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yet, Okay, isn't that so crazy?
Speaker 6 (40:20):
VI? It is so crazy? It was her and Tommy Brown,
Taylor Parks. But yeah, they wrote this song for me.
And honestly, at the time, I think everybody was like
super Green doing their own thing and I'm there with
my mom my. Mom's in the corner in the back,
like respucure, like what's going on? So it wasn't like
we were talking about anything or anything crazy like that.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
But yeah, that is so crazy when you meet somebody
like her and then she ends up winning a Grammy
and like you knew her back then, What is that?
What is that feeling like for you? Because it's like
you feel like you're part of it even though you didn't.
But I'm saying because you know her, you knew before
this moment.
Speaker 6 (40:58):
I mean, I think for me to see another black
woman get her flowers. It's just like who a breath
of fresh air. And I think for what it does
for the future of us is also really exciting. And
ye have Victoria's been working a super long time in
it and it shows me too, so many different things
(41:18):
looking at her career.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
You can write for other people.
Speaker 6 (41:20):
You can contribute to other people's journeys and their success
and still have your own thing. You can be a
mom and still do this, you know. So it teaches
me a lot just watching her in all the aspects
of her life.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Would you be interesting or have you? Or do you
write for someone else? Or you just write for you
right now?
Speaker 3 (41:36):
Currently for me, right now, just.
Speaker 6 (41:39):
Me, because honestly that it takes so much time, ruh.
But you know what, if I do write a song
and I'm like, this doesn't really fit me, I will
say that, you know, to the producers and to the
other writers that they can shop it around, because I
don't want to be the reason that somebody else don't
pick the song, you know. But in the beginning, I
do think I wrote a little bit for other people,
but I didn't know where none of that was going,
(41:59):
you know, I'm just figuring it out as I go,
and so at that time, I didn't have like like
a publishing company behind me or anything.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
So I was like, they're saying this for so and so,
and I'm like, Okay, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Have you ever turned down a song that you're like
and somebody else did it and they got acclaimed for
it or it sounded good and you're like, maybe I
should have kept that one for myself, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
Turned out a song to turn Mmm?
Speaker 6 (42:22):
No, No. I did have this one lady record a
song that was one of my super old demos, and
I was like, if this pop off, I'm gonna know something.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
But it's Bafley, No Shade, No He No Shade.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
Taylor, James Williams and letter Shot. Everybody loved Chriss Abbit School.
What was it like to work with I mean you.
Speaker 3 (42:41):
Just Tyler, Yeah, Tyler Tyler.
Speaker 6 (42:45):
So we weren't that close honestly while we were filming
it was such a huge age gap. I was freaking
fifteen and he's in his like mid twenties at the time,
So yeah, him and Trevor, they would all go out,
it'd be and I was just sitting there homeschold, happy
to be there, so no, I mean, but I knew
he was super professional. He just seemed very seasoned and
(43:07):
like used to this, and I was over here like
a freaking deer in headlights.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
It's happy to be there, very green.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Let me ask you this. Obviously, you can do both,
you act and you sing. Is their preference?
Speaker 3 (43:19):
Singing?
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Singing?
Speaker 6 (43:20):
Yeah, if I could only do one forever, if I
only had to do one, it would be singing, I think,
because there's a lot more control in singing, what you're saying,
what you look like, and also when you do it.
You know, acting is like, okay, and here's your schedule
for the next six months, and you're going to be
here for twelve hours every day except this day.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Up it changed.
Speaker 7 (43:38):
Now you're here.
Speaker 6 (43:39):
You know, you feel like you don't really have the control.
But for me, I'm like, I want to go on tour,
but not in the cold. So then that means it
could be in the summer. That means I need to
record in the winter. You know, I can make it
kind of more adjust to my life.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
So you don't like the cold, huh, No, I don't.
I don't like the cold, but I don't like it
extremely hot either you you said you a Vegas dog. Yeah,
but it's only three months. And if plus, I ain't outside,
I mean, I'm outside to get my card and then
I'm going to day.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
No.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Okay, Well why you say it like you ain't outside?
Why you saying like that?
Speaker 3 (44:13):
I mean, you lived in Vegas?
Speaker 7 (44:14):
What are you doing?
Speaker 3 (44:14):
They're reading books?
Speaker 1 (44:16):
I'm working.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (44:20):
I've only been in Vegas to drink tequila and party,
so I've never lived there.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
But pers uh, kid actors, I mean, we've we hear
so many Coco, we hear so many horror stories about
kid actors.
Speaker 6 (44:32):
And they're recently coming out there. Yes, I didn't hear
any of this when I was started. Otherwise my mom
would have pivoted so fast.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
We would have never let you. And that's the that's
the that's the point is that you don't hear about
it at the time. It's only when they're much older
they tell these horror stories. Did you experience anything, Did
you see anything like that?
Speaker 6 (44:51):
I didn't see anything like that, But you know what,
my mom never let me out of her sight. I
remember at this one time in my life, we used
to butt heads so bad because I'd be like why
can't I just go in there by myself, Like, why
can't I do these things by myself? And at the
time she was just like no, you know, and I
didn't understand, But now I do understand that it's that
(45:11):
when you're alone and you're that like young sheep with
no guidance, you know.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
But my mom wasn't playing that.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two
is also posted and you can access it to whichever
podcast platform you just listen to part one on. Just
simply go back to Club Shay profile and I'll see
you there.
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