Larry Jewell

We have Stacey Q with us. Stacey, hello. I have a big stack of cards right in front of me. So where are you, Larry? I'm here someplace. Plus we have a photographer that's actually taking pictures and I'm still seeing spots before my eyes. Welcome to St. George. Thank you. This has been one wild tour that all of you guys have been on. Yeah. They're wonderful though. Jets, Jermaine, everybody. It's nice, you know, everyone gets along. It's great. The tour began where we kicked it off in Oklahoma City about four weeks ago. A little less than four weeks ago. And since then you've been all over the western United States? All over the place. Last night San Bernardino, night before that Phoenix. San Bernardino is close to my hometown. Then Phoenix is Carl Moet, my drummer, his hometown. So everybody's getting to see all their family and friends. It's nice. That's great. What part of the area are you from? What part of the west? I grew up in Southern California, in Anaheim, in Orange county, right outside of la. Part of Cucamonga and Azuza. Isn't it Anaheim? No, that's a little bit north. Isn't that the old thing? All aboard for Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga. I'm a little bit down there. Disneyland country. That's the beach. Yeah. Oh, I went to work for Disneyland when I was about 11. You did? Uh huh. Yeah. Dancing in the parades. Super. So there is hope for people to get to work for Disneyland. You can be make big time, right. You're sort of on your own, but yeah, there's hope. I'm going to play dumb now. Let's trace the career right from the beginning. When did you first get an inkling that you could sing professionally and make some money at it and entertain people? I never really thought about it actually because I was dancing and very interested in theater, but with dance as my forte and not singing. So I never had singing lessons or even acting lessons, although I'm extremely comfortable with acting and the singing. I'm getting used to. Began with dance, went to acting and ended up in singing. Yeah. So what's left? Bird calling? I don't know. Serendipity, I guess. Where did you actually get your start as a singer? When was the first time you performed? Well, the producer that I work with now, John St. James, I became began to work with him just as a fluke in 1981, recording in a studio. And it was actually just a studio project called Q. And that's where the Q comes from. John is quite the Ian Fleming fan. Q seems to be a big letter now anyway, doesn't it? Yes, it has grown to be quite popular. And of course it's Quincy Jones nickname, which is why we changed it from Q to ssq. In the beginning we just put my initials in front of the Q. My name is Stacy Swain. And so the cue really was adopted from that project. A lot of people were wondering, does it stand for Quackin Bush or something like that? From the old Marx Brothers? No, that's where it comes from. Now you've done television as an actress? Yeah, a little bit. A couple of things. I played a recurring character on Facts of Life named Cinnamon and I made a cameo appearance on Full House. Tomorrow we're going to be in Tucson and then the band goes back to Los Angeles for a short break. I'm going to Hawaii. I believe the jets are too, either going to Tonga or Hawaii. And I'll be doing a film. Ah, what one? A feature film. It's got a working title called Maximum Force. It's very action packed. It's kind of a thriller. Very serious movie. A lot of blood and guts. I believe so. Well, this maybe even mine. Well, it'll all be makeup, right? That's right. Have you enjoyed the career? Oh, yeah, I recommend it highly. Even starting as a dancer and an actress, you've enjoyed the music? Mm, oh yeah. Well, everybody loves music. You know, it's always there. You know, the radio, since you're very tiny, you know, you have brothers and sisters and you listen to all the music they like. You know, just naturally, I think subconsciously you pick all that up. You know, there's music everywhere. You can't watch a film without, you know, source music in the background. It's just something. It's a fact of life, I guess. Recurring Question number 175 is, who was your favorite group or favorite artist when you were a kid? David Bowie. David Bowie is my favorite, I think one of my all time favorites. He writes very highly on my list. With your career, what sort of things have you been trying to put into your music that you want to have come out of your music to reach out to people? What sort of things do you try to get into that? I haven't really gotten that far yet. So far we're still very spontaneous in the studio, so whatever comes up comes up. Hopefully it's positive. People think of musicians, singers, dancers. Hey, two hours they're on the stage and they work like crazy for two hours. They don't think about all of the Other stuff that goes into it. How many hours do you spend in rehearsal before you ever go out on a tour like this? Oh, it's endless. All day, every day. You sort of live and breathe it, sleep it. And before you go into a recording session, what sort of preparations do you make before you go to a recording session? We spend a lot of time writing. We don't do John and myself and the band. We don't do a lot of pre production. We don't sit down and write songs and then say, these are the songs that we're going to go in and record. We sort of show up and go, well, let's make an album. So it's kind of like it's looser, you know, and it's very spontaneous. I like it that way. There comes a point, I assume, when you say, hey, something magical has happened, everything has come together, boom. Yeah. Well, to go back to the question you asked me, I think magic is important part of music. I think that's what everybody's hoping for, is to bring across a little bit of magic that can touch everyone. Doing recordings much different than being a live performer. What do you enjoy about either of those aspects of a singing career? The spontaneity, I assume, with recording, well, live performance, that's always nice because, you know, you have all these people there. It's either a very large audience or a small intimate one. And you just get to be there with them. It's very nice. It's amazing. Sometimes you can see every single face in a crowd. You can see what color shirt they're wearing. It's incredible. There'll be thousands of people there. You really look. You can see every single one of them. And they don't know it. I'm sure they think, oh, she can't see me. All of the glare of lights and all. Yeah. Sometimes I almost forget what I'm doing because I'm so much with them. I'm forgetting to be Stacy. Q. It's a two way street then. Yeah, I like it that way. I'm still at that point where I'm meeting them. You can sense the feeling of an audience. I can see them. I mean, see every single one of them almost always. It's great. I know they don't know that, but I'm telling you, I can see you. Wash your face tonight before you come. Make sure your hair is combed. Really. You better be singing along. Which one of your songs gets the most response or has been getting the most, or do you find it different in each concert? I do. Well, I find it different individually. People respond differently. Everybody has their favorites. There's a large bunch of people that can't understand why the song Better than Heaven isn't in the set. We have quite a condensed set right now. It's about a half an hour show. So in this set, I would say the more current songs like Don't Make a Fool of Yourself and the new single I Love you and Two of Hearts get the best response. Two of Hearts has been, believe it or not, with all of the new things. Two of Hearts has been getting the most response as far as requests here at kdxu. Do you find that that's common as you visit with radio stations? Actually, yes. I found that quite a few people really enjoy that song. The new single that we have, I Love you is quite a bit in that vein. So those people that liked Two of Hearts will probably be very happy with I Love you. Every performer, I think has a favorite song that they like performing because of whatever experience they've had with that song and creating it or whatever meaning. Is there one that, that you have? Well, I like I love you. I like singing I love you. Now, you know that changes. You know, your favorites change. But I like I love you. I just like singing it over and over. And you mentioned your career is headed to a movie. Feature movie. Singing wise. What. What comes after the tour? Oh, gosh. Well, we're doing a US tour. We're probably going to be going over to Japan, hopefully for a. The same group. Jermaine Stewart and the jets and Stacey Q. Actually, no, just Stacy Q. That plan is in the works right now. I'd like to go over to Europe, visit Europe again. We were over there last year and the year before. I did quite a bit of television there in France. They do things quite differently. They like to expose you through television. You find yourself on these very strange combination, game show, treasure hunt, talent show combinations. They're really weird, but they're very popular there. I'd like to go back to Europe. There are places that we didn't get to last year that I'd like to go. Like to go to Australia, Sweden, very successful songs over there. There's a lot to do, that's for sure, for the tour. How did this. This is a pretty high powered group. Stacey Q, Jermaine Stewart, the Jets. This is a pretty high powered group, no question about it. How did this tour get put together? Oh, well, a lot of people have a hand in that. You know, the managers and the agents and the Groups themselves, you know, definitely have a say. Oh, gee, yes, we'd like to have Stacey Q. On the show with us. You know, that would be nice. And then we say, well, we'd love to be on the bill with you. And then it's a matter of working out the dollar figures. Do you enjoy this hectic a tour? Is there a fun in it? Or do you find that it becomes a grind after a while? Oh, it's fun. No, it's all fun. It'd be silly if we weren't enjoying ourselves and everybody would be running around backstage all crabby and grouchy. That wouldn't exactly be worth it, now, would it? It's different to get paid for having fun, isn't it? Yeah, well, I was talking to somebody outside. He was saying, great way to see the country, isn't it? And I've toured before. I was telling you, I used to work for Ringling Brothers. Really? Yeah. It was nice to be that young and traveling, which is something I love to do and being paid for it. So we're all very fortunate to be able to do something we love and to earn a living as well. Couple of things. Do you ever find out. Do you ever find yourself saying, here I am, Stacy, why have I been so fortunate? Do you ever find yourself thinking about that? Why have I had this. All of these experiences when there's a lot of people out there that would like to have these experiences? Why? Have you ever thought about that? Yeah, I think we all have. I think we all realize how fortunate we are. Is it tough? Obviously, when you become a star, recording tv, whatever makes you very visible, there's a lot of adulation, just spontaneous adulation. Some people enjoy the music. Some people just enjoy being around celebrity. Is it tough to deal with? Personally? No. I mean, sometimes it might be a little. A little disturbing. But no, I don't find any problem with it at all. Like I said earlier, I recommend it to anyone as long as you have a good attitude about it and people are very nice about it. To me, they're not ridiculous and screaming and silly. They're very nice. I don't have a problem with it at all. Stacy, you're delightful. It's been enjoyable. Oh, thank you. Thank you for coming to St. George. It's been fun. Thank you for having us. And everyone's looking forward to the concert tonight at 7 at the Dixie Center. Well, say hi to Leroy when he gets to the studio. Okay. I guess we are going to get Leroy from the desk. Stacy. Thank you. And we'll play your latest song here. See you St. George, tonight at 7. Stacy Q. Delightful lady. Thank you, Stacy. I love you. With Stacy q on Dixie's 890k DXU at Rhymes. What can I say?