00:01Well, our first guest is a Grammy award-winning singer, a certified sex symbol.
00:06He's been off the scene for seven long years, but he's back with a brand new album.
00:11It's called A Black Summer's Night.
00:14Please welcome to our show, Maxwell.
00:22Hi!
00:28Hi.
00:30I don't think I've ever met you before.
00:38No.
00:39I don't think...
00:41Wow.
00:45That's weird.
00:47Yeah.
00:47Yeah.
00:48So we've never met.
00:49We've never been...
00:50This is my first time looking at you all close up and everything.
00:52You're a handsome man.
00:53You're a beautiful woman.
00:55Yeah.
00:56If you put your feet down like this on those shoes,
00:59I want to give you some Maxwell shoe cam.
01:01Yeah.
01:02Yes.
01:04Are you bobbing?
01:05Yes, Maxwell.
01:07Now, all right.
01:08How are you?
01:09I'm doing very...
01:10Oh, thank you.
01:11I'm doing very well.
01:12Thank you for being here.
01:12How's everybody doing out there?
01:13How's everybody doing out there?
01:18So, if I were to walk past you on the street, I wouldn't recognize you.
01:22That's a good thing for me now.
01:24Because the afro...
01:25Yeah.
01:26Yeah.
01:26I like it.
01:27Yes.
01:28Whoa!
01:29Well, that's who we think of when we think of the Maxwell look.
01:33Yeah.
01:33So, what made you do that?
01:35Did you go through a divorce or something?
01:36No.
01:37I don't know you as ever being married.
01:39I divorced my hair, I guess.
01:40Yes.
01:41No, you know what?
01:42I just wanted to not be a haircut.
01:45I wanted to be music.
01:46Yes.
01:47I wanted to not be a gimmick and a caricature of myself.
01:51And more importantly, people like Sam Cooke and Harry Belafonte, who were more than just
01:58how they looked, who were very much more interested in civil rights and representing an African-American
02:06man in a way that was much more broader, evolved over time.
02:11And I just wanted to evolve.
02:12Just do something different.
02:13Yeah.
02:13So, Maxwell is 42.
02:20Yeah, I'm 42, guys.
02:21And he's from New York.
02:25You grew up here in New York.
02:26Brooklyn, New York.
02:27Yeah.
02:31So, Maxwell, what were you doing for the last seven years?
02:34You know, just basically, for me, I'm not a celebrity type of thing.
02:39I'm not interested in it.
02:41Right.
02:41I see the pitfalls of all those sort of worlds.
02:46I don't disrespect anyone's hustle.
02:48You know, you get there how you get there.
02:51The music for me is more important.
02:52It's the most important thing that I feel like that I will leave behind.
02:56I've heard so many incredible stories about people having children, to my songs at certain times, moments that I have not been aware of.
03:07I wouldn't have minded being in the room at times, but, you know.
03:12You're a freak.
03:15No, but, you know, it's just, for me, it's a labor of love.
03:18So, what were you doing?
03:19I mean, seven years, Maxwell, were you traveling the world?
03:22Yes.
03:23Did you go to India?
03:24You know, did you, you know, get a cleanse in Hawaii?
03:29Maybe I should have done that.
03:30I mean, how were you making money?
03:32Were you doing concerts?
03:33What were you doing for seven years?
03:35Well, we were touring.
03:36We did, like, you know, we did, you know, we're doing the Essence Festival for July 1st.
03:41But we did it a year ago.
03:45You know, the thing for me that I was so excited about and blessed about was that I like the feeling of knowing I don't have to have a record out to be able to go out and record and to do a show for people.
03:58That's very brave.
03:59You know what I mean?
03:59Because a lot of people think that they have to keep churning out albums.
04:03So, you strike me as a guy where money is not everything.
04:07Nope.
04:08And I bet you don't eat bacon.
04:09I do eat bacon.
04:11You do?
04:11Yeah.
04:12I'm a bacon.
04:13I'm from the Caribbean.
04:15Oh, oh, oh.
04:18But you know what?
04:19I mix it up with the vegan.
04:21You know, obviously I'm 42.
04:23You've got to take care of yourself.
04:24Yeah.
04:24You see that, you know, there's a responsibility to health.
04:27You see a responsibility to the fact that you have to live up to the legacy of the music that you've created.
04:34It's been 20 years of making music for me.
04:37So, you're a sex symbol, which has got to be, that's got to add another layer of weirdness on celebrity.
04:50Right.
04:50You know, because women, I would imagine, throw themselves at you all the time.
04:54Tell me something funny that, oh, you hope.
04:56Tell me something funny that'll make us all cackle about the craziest thing a woman has ever done to get at you.
05:02Just sort of showing up in the room and being in the room when I got in the room.
05:07Yeah.
05:07Well, now, who lets these women in?
05:09I don't know.
05:10Someone really was very, very resourceful that day.
05:13Do they hide under the bed or in the closet or behind the toilet?
05:16I think when I went to the bathroom, there was someone in the bathtub.
05:19That's not how I am.
05:20In the bathtub.
05:21Now, what happens?
05:22Was she beautiful?
05:22Did you kick her out?
05:23No.
05:25Wow.
05:29My brother, would you kick her out?
05:32Okay.
05:33I don't know, because I'd be like, okay, she might be beautiful.
05:36Well, it depends on.
05:36It's slightly crazy.
05:37Well, you know what?
05:38That's the other thing.
05:39I, it's funny, being 42, I love owning the 42.
05:46Yeah.
05:46This is so important.
05:47Yes.
05:48Because we live in a, we live in a culture where it's all about staying young, being young,
05:52acting dumb, being young, and I feel like that the experience of having gone through all
05:59these experiences.
05:59The wisdom that you, yeah, accumulate.
06:01The wisdom, and then not, I don't connect myself with the music.
06:04The music is something that God has allowed me to have, and, and I don't connect my ego
06:10with it.
06:11So, that's why when I go away, I get to re, reacclimate myself to being the guy that can
06:17write a song for the people that I grew up with.
06:19So, you needed the time off, the seven years, to really just refocus on the music.
06:22Let me ask you about your real love life.
06:24Talk to you more.
06:24Okay.
06:25Because, no, I, I, I knew, I played with you about divorce before, but I, I know you've
06:29never been married, and you don't have any kids, to my knowledge, and my nosiness.
06:34Do you have children?
06:36Um, I've had a few close calls.
06:41Some of them were truthful, and some of them did not work out, because of, obviously, certain
06:46situations don't work out.
06:47Are you in love now?
06:48Medically.
06:49I'm in love.
06:50I can say that I feel really a deep love, but the issue...
06:53With a woman.
06:54I'm not talking about your music.
06:55Yes, yes.
06:56Or your new dishwasher.
06:58You know?
07:01Hmm, hard question.
07:02Which one?
07:03Um, yeah, no, I feel, I feel love.
07:05I mean, right now, I'm in a, you know, we move around so much.
07:08I don't, I think you understand what I'm talking about with your career, and what you have to
07:13do, and it's very difficult with what we've just discussed with, you know, walking into
07:17a bathroom and seeing someone up in your room.
07:19Yeah.
07:19And, you know, a woman wants to feel number one.
07:24Right.
07:24And you always have to really, really make them know, look, this is just what I do.
07:30It's not what I am.
07:30I love you very much.
07:32Please understand.
07:34Perfect example for me is Michelle Obama, our first lady.
07:37There's a song on the new album where I name check her, and it's basically about saying,
07:43you know, I just want a Michelle Obama lady to hold me down.
07:47Yes.
07:48When the world goes crazy.
07:50Yes.
07:50And that's what is very difficult, is to find someone who has that kind of security
07:55and strength within themselves.
07:56So you're working on a woman, but you're not really all the way there yet.
07:59No, we're there.
08:00Okay.
08:01We're there.
08:01We're just, we're just, we're just here and there and there, and with this album coming
08:04out, it's a, it's a, it's very difficult to maintain.
08:08Because you've got to get back on the tour and on the hustle.
08:09It's going to be hard.
08:10And now you're going to be with thousands of women in New Orleans at the Essence Music Festival.
08:15And you're headlining.
08:17Yeah.
08:18It's a very big deal.
08:19Yeah.
08:19It's a, you know, it's interesting.
08:20We headlined July 1st, Mariah Carey headlines the second.
08:24Uh-huh.
08:24Day after that.
08:25And Kendrick Lamar.
08:26So it's a really big, big, big deal.
08:28That is a big deal.
08:30It is.
08:30Well, it was nice to finally meet you.
08:33What, what took you so long?
08:34I don't, I've been busy and you've been out of the country cleansing.
08:40Maxwell's new album is called Black Summer's Night.
08:44Oh, and it comes out July 1st.
08:46His new single is called Lakeland.
08:49By The Ocean.
08:50It's available now.
08:51Up next, everybody, we're going to give two lucky Wendy watchers a fabulous celebrity makeover.
08:55So keep it here.
08:56Good.
08:57Good.
08:57Good.
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