-Welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for being here.
We met once in Jamaica. Do you remember that?
-Of course. -You do?
-I still have flashbacks.
[ Laughter ]
-Flashbacks of me, yeah, right. I was freaking out.
-I see you there at the beach. -I love you.
Yes, of course. -Swimming with, I think,
your daughter and my granddaughter in the pool.
-That's right. -My son remembers that.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-I just love meeting you there because obviously,
you're from Jamaica, and you're very --
-Yes. -You lived there for how long?
-13 years? -Until I was 12.
-12. -Going on 13.
-Yeah. -Maybe a month.
-Oh, yeah. -It makes me more 13 than 12.
-I believe you. I'll take 12.
But then you moved from Jamaica.
Where did you -- you went to -- -Then we moved to Syracuse.
Syracuse, New York. -Syracuse, New York?
[ Cheering ]
-I know. A big university.
-So you went from Jamaica... -Yeah.
-...to freezing-cold Syracuse. -Oh, it was awful.
-I mean, right? -Yeah, but I have so many
fur coats now. Forget it.
Oh my -- yeah, exactly. -No, it's terrible.
People are spraying things on me.
I say, "You didn't come from Jamaica and go
to Syracuse in snow. Then you will understand."
-Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you get that.
-Yeah. -But why did you go there?
Why did you end up moving? -My parents migrated there.
They were immigrants. -Oh, cool.
-So, yeah. -That's fantastic.
They were immigrants, hello.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I gotta get my political view. -Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, you have to get it out there, sure.
Of course. -Yeah, yeah.
-Congratulations on the documentary.
-Thank you. -I loved it.
"Bloodlight and Bami." -And Bami, yeah.
-Yeah, what does that mean?
-Okay, bloodlight --
When you're in the studio with Sly and Robbie,
and there's a red light that goes on and off when
you're not supposed to go in the recording studio.
And they said say, "The bloodlight is on."
So, that's bloodlight. -Ah.
-The red light flashing means "Don't come in,
we're recording." They call it the bloodlight.
And then bami is a food that I love in Jamaica.
It's made out of the cassava plant, very healthy.
But you can fry it. You can bake it.
You can boil it.
-Is that the one that -- -Yeah, so, item when you get
jerk -- everybody knows about jerk chicken, right?
-Yeah, absolutely. [ Cheers ]
-Yeah, man. So yeah, man.
Yeah, man. -Yeah, man.
Yeah, absolutely. -Come on!
-Jerk chicken man, yeah. -So, they serve you either bami
or festival. When you go and order jerk,
they'll say, "do you want bami or festival?"
I don't like the festival. So I love the bami.
So I just say, "I'm a bami girl."
-Yeah, of course. -So of course,
the film is about my professional recording life,
performance life, my home life in Jamaica.
So the two together, you get bloodlight,
and the bami is eating at home with the family.
-In in this film -- First of all, it took 12 years
to make this? -Yeah, a little over 12.
I stopped counting at 12. -Yeah, exactly.
-Let's just say we stopped counting at 12.
-And you go, "When is this thing going to come out?"
-No way. No, I like things to come,
you know, fluid, like -- you know, like the ocean.
Just, you know, comes when it's --
When it's ready, it's going to come.
-Is that right? -Yes.
-Is that the way you just approach life?
-Pretty much. -Yeah.
-Yeah. Because there's a reason.
There's a reason, I believe, for everything.
It's like, if I'm going to take a plane -- and one time I felt
a little bit dizzy like somebody tilted the tarmac.
And I said, "Did anybody else feel that?"
They go, "No." I said, "Well, I'm getting off."
-Really? -Sometimes just --
-You just feel -- -So I felt -- we felt the film.
When it was ready -- you know? And it's funny.
It's funny, because my mom just got to see the film.
She passed away just after it was finished.
And she's in a lot, in the film. -Yeah.
-So again, it's kind of like,
"No, no, I'm not sad about that."
-No. -It finished at the right time
for her to see it. She was in her late 80s.
And of course, our family sometimes goes to 104.
-No. -Yeah, yeah.
-104? Wow. -Yeah.
-What is the secret? Bami?
-Bami. [ Laughter ]
Bami! -Bami's the secret.
[ Applause ]
I love that you talk about -- in the thing, you talk about
how, like, if anything goes wrong on stage,
if something breaks, if the lights go out, you're fine.
You can roll with it. You can do it.
-Yeah, I can. Yeah, because it happens.
You can't be in control of everything.
-Yeah. -And I was once in Italy,
in, like, a coliseum-type stadium,
and they lost all the lights.
Everything. The sound, the lights.
I remember I had two dancers -- three dancers
with me at the time.
I just told them, "Any flashlights,
just find some flashlights."
And they just came on with the flashlights.
And of course, we were in a coliseum kind of arena.
So the sound is amazing sound.
You don't even really need sound in that type of --
the way that it's arranged, you know,
the sound is fantastic. I sang a capella.
-Yes. -Yeah, with flashlights.
-See, that's what I'm talking about.
-How cool are you? I mean, you're the best ever.
-What are you gonna do? [ Cheers and applause ]
-I love that. -You know?
I love that. You're obviously a fashion icon
as well as everything else you've done.
Here's just a couple of my favorite outfits.
Now, look at that one. -Oh!
-That's Studio 54. -Opening of Studio 54.
Oh, my gosh.
-What do you remember about Studio 54?
-Oh, well, of course. -Any crazy stories?
-Oh, that night. Yeah, a lot of people
couldn't get in. It was snowing.
I remember Nile Rodgers was so upset.
You know Nile. -And I worked with Nile
years later.
And he couldn't get in.
And apparently he went home and he wrote, "Ahh,
[ Bleep ] off."
"Ahh, "F" off." You know?
Because he couldn't get in. -Yep.
-And it turned out that it was one of his number one songs,
"Ahh, freak out."
-That's right! -He was so -- yeah.
-It was actually called... -Ahh, freak out.
-..."F" off. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Really, about not getting into Studio 54?
I love that. Come on, that's a great story.
-That's an amazing story.
[ Applause ]
-Well, I love you. I want to show everyone
the clip of it. Here is Grace Jones performing
"Pull Up to the Bumper" in the new documentary,
"Bloodlight and Bami." Take a look at this.
-Okay.
♪♪♪♪
-♪♪ Pull up ♪♪
♪♪ To it ♪♪
♪♪ Don't drive ♪♪
♪♪ Through it ♪♪
♪♪ Back it ♪♪
♪♪ Up twice ♪♪
♪♪ Now that ♪♪
♪♪ Fits nice ♪♪
♪♪ You grease it ♪♪
♪♪ Spray it ♪♪
♪♪ Let me ♪♪
♪♪ Lubricate it ♪♪
-♪♪ Slippery ♪♪
-♪♪ Pull up to my bumper, baby ♪♪
-♪♪ Pull up to my bumper, uh-huh ♪♪
I see you partying up there!
-♪♪ Pull up to my bumper, baby ♪♪
-You think I don't see you?
[ Cheers and applause ]
-That is grace Jones, everybody!