RYAN LOREN: So Eric, thanks so much for being
here at Google today.
ERIC ROBERSON: Ryan, thank you very much.
RYAN LOREN: Second time is a charm, I heard.
ERIC ROBERSON: I'm getting more and more
familiar with the stage.
I handed in my application to Google.
I love the building so much.
Hopefully, I'm just waiting for a call back.
I knew I should've got rid of that iPhone.
That's another story.
I'm getting an Android any second now.
RYAN LOREN: Cool.
That'll probably put it over the top.
Just kidding.
Just wanted to talk.
We're celebrating Black History Month tonight.
And I'm so happy you're here, hosting the event.
ERIC ROBERSON: Thank you.
RYAN LOREN: I heard you were Mr. Black Teen Universe.
ERIC ROBERSON: Mr. Black Teenage World was actually the
title, yes.
RYAN LOREN: World.
So the whole world, not just the US.
But everywhere.
ERIC ROBERSON: They put like one person from overseas and
was like, we've got it.
We've found the world.
But yeah, I was 16 years old, man.
And my sister, who I give a lot of credit for me even
doing art in any form or fashion,
because she was so talented.
She was in a lot of pageants that my mom and my father were
putting her in.
And my mom found a pageant for teenage boys.
And I got up there and embarrassed
myself, and won the state.
And then I won the national.
And it gave me a full scholarship to Howard
University.
So that was the great part that came out
of it, also as well.
RYAN LOREN: Yeah.
I'm sure that couldn't have hurt your image of yourself.
Mr. World.
ERIC ROBERSON: Mr. Teenage World.
RYAN LOREN: But in seriousness, can you explain
how did that affect your trajectory from there?
Was that a big moment, or was it just something you did?
ERIC ROBERSON: It was a huge moment.
It was a huge moment.
I think one, I've always said that I was somehow going to go
to college on a scholarship, whether it was playing
football or doing something.
And at the same time, going into my junior year, where at
that point I was drawing, designing clothes, doing
theater, making music, skateboarding, BMXing, I was
just all over the place in everything I wanted to do.
So to gain a scholarship by pretty much singing, for the
most part--
I had to do other things in the pageant--
it really said, Mom and Dad, I think I'm not going to be a
political science major.
I think I want to try--
there wasn't an R&B major.
Can I major in being Al B. Sure?
I couldn't do it.
So I grew up doing theater.
So I went as a musical theater major.
And going to Howard, it was one of the best decisions ever
in my life.
RYAN LOREN: Can you talk about Howard, and the role of
historically black colleges and universities, and also
what Black History Month means to you?
ERIC ROBERSON: Indeed.
You're walking down hallways that Donnie
Hathaway hummed down.
You're going into practice rooms that Roberta
Flack played in.
You're standing on a stage reading a monologue that
Phylicia Rashad read a monologue on.
Just the history of it.
And I learned very early on to be very prepared.
Because at any second, Q-Tip from a Tribe Called Quest or
Bill Cosby or Muhammad Ali will walk down the hallway or
across the yard.
But at the same time, my friends were getting signed.
If anybody remembers, and if I ever--
the group Shai, "Fall in Love" song, we were friends.
They were our buddies at Howard.
And they handed their record to a DJ.
And two weeks later, they were on Arsenio Hall.
And five weeks later, they had finished the album in a week.
Handed in in the album, sold three million copies.
And I handed them my demo and said, just hand it
to somebody in LA.
Before you know it, I was flying there.
And in my sophomore year, I got a record deal.
And so it was just a very working environment.
One of my professors, the late, great, amazing Al
Freeman, who played Elijah Muhammad in the "Malcolm X"
movie, was one of my teachers.
And he shot it while teaching.
So I'm like, uh, I'm going to LA next week to try to meet
with Warner Brothers for a record deal.
Like, how could he be like, no, stay here and work on your
studies, when he's like, I'm going to meet with Spike.
It was just a working environment.
Marlon Wayans was a good friend of mine.
He was doing movies and going to class at the same time.
So I think I needed to see that.
And it was the first lesson of learning how to balance
everything.
RYAN LOREN: Yeah.
That's a lot going on at once, and I think inspiring to see.
ERIC ROBERSON: Yeah, very much.
RYAN LOREN: So thanks for sharing that.
ERIC ROBERSON: No problem.
RYAN LOREN: So can you talk about how--
you had the deal with Warner--
and you were, in my mind, you were kind of a trailblazer of
independent music.
People were doing it.
But you've been able to do it and sustain it.
ERIC ROBERSON: I think my career has been able to
overshadow how many times I've been dropped from record
labels, or just how unsuccessful I was.
Getting a contract signed was one thing, but getting that
album out is a whole 'nother tricky monster.
And I remember having a song on
Billboard, and it's growing.
In school, I remember telling my parents, I
can't make it to class.
I've got a video out, and just all these people
are grabbing me.
I literally can't make it to class.
I can't do this.
So I took off two years.
And then the Warner Brothers situation didn't work out.
I went to Island, and the Island
situation didn't work back.
And my mom was like, you're going to go back to that
school, and you are going to get your scholarship back.
I was like, all right.
I went in there, I literally sang to everybody.
Like, please give me my scholarship back.
I'll get straight As, I promise.
And amazingly, I went back.
But it was crazy because I went back and it's like, oh,
there's that kid that had that record deal.
Like the whispers walk across the yard, like, oh, that's
that kid that fell off.
Wasn't he in that video?
That was a long time ago.
I wonder if he still got money.
So the humbleness, it made me a better student, a better
singer, a more humble artist, a more focused everything,
every aspect.
And I will tell you, if I had this huge record and just took
off, I wouldn't be doing music right now.
I wasn't talented enough at the time.
I didn't know how to handle everything.
So I had to go back.
And going back to school and graduating was like the
hardest thing I've ever done in life.
It really was.
But it was a great decision.
And even with that, I went back to college, and I started
writing songs for other people.
I lent a song to 112.
And there was a group called [INAUDIBLE]
on Warner Brothers.
So I was placing songs and still recording.
And it just got to the point where, for me, the deals
weren't working out.
And I had just too many songs that just made it
too much for me.
It all started with, I had a real bad break up, and I just
closed the studio doors and started recording.
And those songs weren't--
I wasn't going to give to somebody else.
So that's how my independent career started.
RYAN LOREN: That's cool.
Would you mind sharing a couple of the song titles that
fall under that category?
ERIC ROBERSON: Yeah.
There was a whole album called "Esoteric." And it's crazy
because it was a healing record for me.
So when the album came out, and the songs like, what are
some of the song titles-- "Newborn Child," which is
saying I'll cry like a newborn child, which I was
doing at the time.
When the album came out, and I would meet women, they'd be
like, this record is so beautiful.
And I'm like, what do you mean?
This is about pain, you horrible person.
Don't ever listen to my record, you don't understand.
But I had to realize that people could relate to what I
was going through.
And it helped me heal, but it helped them heal.
There was a song called "Miles Away" on it
that was really important.
And really, the record, "Esoteric" means only meant to
be understood by a chosen few.
And that to me was my career.
I wasn't trying to change the world.
I wasn't trying to win everybody over.
I was trying to just do music for someone
who would feel this.
Because I always felt like my music career and my love life
were parallel.
They always have been.
And as a songwriter, I was doing great.
I had songs for everybody and their mother.
I was writing all these songs.
I was doing very, very well.
But was I fulfilled in what I was doing?
I feel like I was a soul artist writing, a lot of
times, compromising, or just missing, as a fan, missing
what was on the radio.
So I said, all right, let me start doing what I feel like
I'm missing.
And I think that's what I'm still doing to this day.
RYAN LOREN: That's great.
As someone--
I mean, I'll be real with you.
I have healed from your music.
And that's why I first got into you.
"Past Paradise," "Find the Way," those are songs that
when you listen to, you're like, man, he's
been through it.
Thanks.
ERIC ROBERSON: Make checks payable to
Eric Roberson, whoever.
You can just fill it out.
My father's back there.
He'll accept the checks.
And I'll tell you, I hope--
I say this respectfully.
I got a text earlier, and I could show you for whoever
doesn't believe me, a guy who I was talking to who's in the
industry, and he's struggling in his travels.
And he says, man, you write great songs
about passing up vaginas.
And I was like, what a great, horrible compliment.
That was amazingly horrible.
Incredible at the same time.
But for me, I realized a long time ago.
What I will tell you is that the lyrics come, and I can't
take credit for them.
They come, and then I learn what they mean.
And then I try to be good enough to follow them.
You know what I mean?
And that's been my whole career.
So it's like I write a song and go, wow, this sounds
pretty good.
And then the lyrics are stable.
And then I learn what that song meant for me.
"Find the Way" was important, because it was--
if anyone listens to "Find the Way," it's a song of mine.
And it's like I sang it two parts, one high
note and one low note.
And I panned the high one all the way to the right, and I
panned the low one all the way to the left.
And the high one meant to be emotion.
And the low note meant to be reality.
And as a man, I was battling that.
Sometimes we meet a young lady, and we're so used to our
routine, she could be the soul mate.
But I've got that game.
I've got to put that game on her, that I'm just ruining--
like, can I stop the game for two seconds just
to see who she is?
And I've been lucky enough to write about
it, or my break ups.
I made a decision a long time ago when I went back to Howard
that every subject that came to mind, or everything I went
through, I'll put to music.
So every argument, every great day, every whatever would be
put to music.
And I lost a lot of girlfriends that way.
It came with the good and bad.
You wrote that for me?
You wrote that about me?
It was the same thing, literally 24 hours apart.
But it's something I decided to do.
And if God allowed me to have certain thoughts and lyrics
and melodies, how dare I not use them.
RYAN LOREN: Yeah, no, that's incredible.
So what's your process?
Do you just wake up with something in your head?
Or does it vary?
Because I know sometimes people say, oh, I woke up in
the middle of the night.
Sometimes I actually sat down.
Does it change?
ERIC ROBERSON: It changes.
I'm a fisherman of creativity.
So I'm just under the belief that the
idea, it already exists.
I just have to find it and make it tangible.
So a lot of my records are written in the bathroom.
I'll leave it up to you think what's happening in the
bathroom when I'm writing them.
But every aspect from shaving to showering to other
S words that fit.
RYAN LOREN: Situating.
ERIC ROBERSON: Soaping up.
Situating, yeah.
It's funny because before, I was very much a slave to
creativity.
I was very much like, if a idea came and I was at the
Thanksgiving table with my family who I haven't seen all
week, I would get up right then and go in the studio.
I was very much like, I have an idea, and everyone must
respect the idea.
Now, I believe that it's going to come back now.
So now having kids and having a wife, I realized that it's a
great idea, but I'm pushing my son on the swing.
And he's too young to be left here.
It'll come back.
And it comes back.
It comes back.
But I'm always writing, always.
My phone is full of lyrics.
And I'm always writing letters, and I feel like you
should just write in general to stay in shape for when the
idea comes.
RYAN LOREN: Definitely.
You mentioned your kids.
Just two more questions.
One is, what's one thing you learned about yourself since
you've become a father, which was two years ago, ish?
ERIC ROBERSON: Yeah.
I have a two-year-old and a seven-month-old and I'm not
going to cry in front of all these people.
The thing I learned about myself.
Man, I don't know.
There's a lot I learned about my kids.
But I learned that I can be a morning person.
I probably, for the last 20 years, have averaged waking up
at 12:00 to 1:00 in the afternoon.
And now, my sons get up 7:30, 6:00, whatever in the morning.
But I learned it's another level of love, man.
But it's tough, because I have great parents who, I knew the
example of incredible love.
I have amazing nephews and nieces.
And I mean, I was crazy over them.
So I knew that it could exist, where it wasn't just more of
an a-ha moment.
But if anything, I learned that you can balance it all.
I will tell everybody out there, there was a guy
recently who I was just working
with, who was a cameraman.
And he travels a lot.
He just got married.
He said, my wife wants to have a kid.
But man, I'm just traveling too much.
And I'm like, it's going to fit.
It's going to make its way, man.
Don't hold off for that.
I don't think we really waited.
I didn't push it away.
But now, my last two records, I recorded with a lot of time,
my son was on my lap, either one of them.
Because I've got to get this idea done.
I want to spend time with him.
And he wants to spend time with me.
Let's go in the studio.
And it just works.
It just works.
And I look forward to having them on tour with me, and the
first time they actually write a song, or
something like that.
I look forward to all that.
So I feel, what I may have learned, is just that my
dreams are coming true more and more.
RYAN LOREN: Excellent.
That's wonderful.
So speaking of the studio, last question, what's coming
up next for you?
I've heard United Tenor is in the mix.
ERIC ROBERSON: And I'm not going to cry
about this one, either.
I have to say that first.
Because if I don't say it, I will cry.
I started doing music because of three influences.
And one was A Tribe Called Quest.
Number two was Stevie Wonder.
And another was a group called Commissioned.
It was a gospel group from Detroit called Commissioned.
Thank you.
And one of the founders of that group was a guy named
Fred Hammond.
Amazing vocalist, amazing writer.
And not only just musically, but I remember as a kid,
hearing their music and going, whatever that is,
I want to do that.
And I've had chances of meeting Fred Hammond for many
years, and I passed up every time.
And my staff and some friends surprised me with a meeting.
I'm in a restaurant, thinking I'm about to be interviewed by
Tom Joyner.
And in walks Fred Hammond.
I'm like, I try to run away.
And I was like, aw, you got me.
Man.
And just because I wanted to be able to tell him like, yo,
my career means so much--
not going to cry.
Here we go.
Toughen up, toughen up--
because of you.
I have this career.
And I didn't know if I was where I needed to be at yet to
really understand.
I didn't want to just hear, oh, that's cool, man.
Thanks a lot.
What are we going to eat?
I didn't want that to be blown over.
And so we kept in touch.
And a couple months ago, he said, I got an idea.
I want to form a new group.
And I would love for you to be a member of the group.
And I as like, uh, OK.
I mean, I'll play the piccolo on an album for free.
I'll pay to do it.
And it's not only just me and him.
It's Dave Hollister from the group Blackstreet, an amazing
solo artist who, I'm a huge fan of Dave, and another
amazing artist in Brian Courtney Wilson, who I'm
friends with already.
I met him years ago.
And we kept in touch.
And we all went to Dallas.
And over the last month or so, we traveled back and forth.
And we recorded an incredible album.
And so the group's called United Tenors, or UT.
The album comes out March 26th.
We had our first concert last Saturday.
We shot a music video, had a live performance
for a crowd in Dallas.
And we cried through the whole show.
Like, all four of us are just literally--
it's a dream come true, really, in every aspect.
We performed four songs, and we played
the rest of the record.
So while we're singing, we're crying.
While we're playing the records for
people, we're crying.
Someone said something amazing on stage, so we're crying.
So we're literally, when you see the video, we're all like
this with towels on our face through the whole performance.
But it's tears of joy.
And we're probably not going to stop crying anytime some.
In all honesty, probably 10, 20 shows in, we're still going
to be just like, I just so appreciate this opportunity.
And it's a gospel album.
I pride myself on it.
I never hid the fact that I'm a Christian.
And I feel that there's been a ministry in all of my music.
So it's really cool to be doing a gospel album, and then
with two of my heroes and a very good
friend of mine, as well.
RYAN LOREN: Yeah.
That's incredible.
Thanks for sharing that.
I'm really honored to have you all here today to the point
where I might cry with you.
ERIC ROBERSON: Tears of joy.
Everybody, everybody, pass the tissues out.
RYAN LOREN: So Eric, thanks so much for being here.
ERIC ROBERSON: Ryan, always a pleasure.
RYAN LOREN: Looking forward to tonight.
ERIC ROBERSON: Always.
Thank you.