Tuesday at Rehearsal
Private Location

Familiar Faces
When I arrived, DP was in his car with his sons Derek Jr. and Darrell. They got out and DP was on his cell phone telling Donnell that Doc couldn't get off of work. Shortly after, Godfather, then Duane Face arrived, followed by Donnell, who let us in. Duane rapped NWA's Straight Outta Compton, Donnell said he obviously doesn't have kids. I told DP about the correct spelling of Lorenzo's name.

Donnell had just been in Miami the day before. Dwayne had a new Pod XT guitar pedal.

I asked Donnell what he was going to do with the video, he said put it through regular channels. He said that he wasn't going to sell it, there would be enough for a making of unless I filmed it.

Over time, Dwayne, Halima, Jacques, Mike, Nephew, Charlie (wearing an Aikman jersey), Smoke and Lorenzo arrived.

They went over Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl - Donnell wants it to be performed in a certain way. He joked that it was Halima's fault. She said okay. She said it was by the Neptunes more than Gwen Stefani. She asked if Stefani was really white, I said yes. She said I should pick up the album, I said I was probably not interested. She said, "Yeah, you like GoGo." I told her how things work there, that Dwayne always says mistakes are Donnell's fault and that Donnell says he's always right. I said if you agree with Dwayne, you are part of the Union, Dwayne is Jimmy Hoffa. If you believe something should be performed in the pocket, then you are on Donnell's side. Dwayne talked about how with Redds and the Boys, that he was the only musician Redds feared. He said if he were alive today, he would tell you. He said Vincent (Redds' son) was at Tradewinds the week before last, he would tell you. Vincent was sixteen and Dwayne seventeen when he joined. Donnell said you've heard of me, I've been your boss for a year now.

Donnell said that there's something wrong with one of his Saxes, the one he was using right then, that it is off key, but different for different notes. He said he may have ruined his son's musical career because he used it and was kicked out of the band, but it may have been the horn.

At one point, we smelled burning, Nephew wouldn't go. Halima did, the hot plate was on. Halima said to Nephew and I, you can't protect me on the red carpet. I told her about going to a premiere and not realizing it was a real premiere. I said she didn't need protecting. Halima said of my leg jiggling that I have a demon inside. I told Mike he should use Charlie's video. I told Mike about Donnell singing Credence and why.

Donnell had a frontline meeting.

Mark talked with me and Duane about being into geneology, that he was interested in his roots. He said he has white ancestry too, the Hopkins from England. He said his parents are Henrietta and George Lawson. He has a cousin Steve who is a musician. Godfather told us about how a man should treat women and their own kids. Godfather's wife is Bernita Curtis. I told both Mark and Duane Mile's quote on 60 Minutes, they both said that wasn't for them:
Miles and Harry Reasoner were discussing his marriage to Cicely Tyson, which included Reasoner quoting a passage from Miles' book.
Miles responded that he didn't know that, that he hadn't gotten that far in his book to proofread it, causing both to laugh.

Continuing:
HR: "It sounds like maybe you think, maybe you should never have married her (Cicely) in the first place."

MD: "I didn't marry her for that reason. I didn't marry her for sex. I didn't marry her for that reason. I thought she was a level-headed black woman. You know, but it switched."

HR: "She changed?"

MD: "She changed because she got so jealous."

HR: "Will you ever get married again?"

MD: "To who?"

HR: "To anybody, not to Cicely."

MD: "I know there's a couple guys I've been looking at, but never to a woman again."

(HR laughs at Miles' tongue-in-cheek joke, Miles sardonically chuckles a bit, too ... probably still smarting from his divorce settlement with Cicely).

Original airdate: November 12, 1989.