Author: Calvin R. Evans
Published: October 29, 2005
Tool: [ email ]
Manhunt: Mrs. Adams, it is a thrill to have the opportunity to speak with you today.
Adams: The same for me too.
Manhunt: Thank you very much for speaking with us. Your fans have been waiting for your CD for four years and we are all very excited that it has been released. Give us your thoughts on the project Day By Day.
Adams: Well I think it’s a great project. It’s a journey of two years for me from start to finish. I always say that nothing happens out side of God’s timing, so it came out when it was supposed to come out. And I believe that it is exactly what we need right now in our society. It gives encouragement, and it lifts you up, it makes you think, it makes you laugh and it makes you dance.
Manhunt: Amen, all right. Well I know that there is a lot of positive reaction about the CD, a lot people say pretty much what you just said, it makes you sing and dance and it has a lot of mood to it. There are a lot of different feelings involved in the project. What I love most about your music is your ability to address personal issues that everyday people might struggle with in your songs. When I told my wife Nita I was doing this interview, she said there were many times when she was at the lowest point of her life that God used you to minister to her soul through your music. I am sure she is not alone with that testimony. I know that music becomes very personal to the person who creates it. How personal is this CD project to you?
Adams: Oh my goodness! It’s very personal because it actually takes you into my private life, into my private time with God, it takes you into my praise time with God, because you cannot create a CD like that without having some relationship with God, you just can’t do it. It is really a glimpse of who I am and who I was through that whole two-year process.
Manhunt: Well we’re really excited, and everybody is happy that you’re back out.
Adams: Yea.
Manhunt: (Laughs) Now I understand that you have some special guests that are touring with you on the “Yolanda Today” Tour correct.
Adams: Yes, but its been postponed until January, because…
Manhunt: Huh!
Adams: Yeah I know. Everybody that I talk to is like “What?!”
Manhunt: (Laughing, sighs playfully), aw!
Adams: It was postponed as a result of Hurricane Rita, and also in culmination with Hurricane Katrina and all the devastation it caused.
Manhunt: Sure.
We had the band members and all the crew in Houston and right before Hurricane Rita hit, our Mayor said he would rather be safe than sorry. So we sent the crew and the band members back home and that took us out two weeks. And whenever you book theaters and big venues, those places are usually booked for the entire year. So trying to backtrack and go back the next week or the week after that it was just totally impossible and it didn’t work.
Manhunt: Ok. All right, well postponed doesn’t mean cancelled completely right?
Adams: Oh yeah…no, no, no. Right now we are in the process of making sure that those people who did buy those tickets for the right round, that they are able to come in and be a part of the concert this time around. All they have to do is show their ticket. One of the things that Al and I were talking about is those people who bought the pre-sell tickets what we could do is like either before the concert have a luncheon for those people, or have something special like let me sign something for them or take a picture with them to thank them for buying the tickets in advance.
Manhunt: That’s nice, that’s very nice. Well I need to keep in touch with Latrice to find out when the tour is coming to Charlotte, because I would love to catch up with you in Charlotte.
Adams: Oh yeah, we always come to Charlotte.
Manhunt: All right!
Adams: Yeah.
Manhunt: You also have a lot of heavy hitting special guests on Day By Day. What was the experience like for you as you recorded this project?
Adams: Oh it was so awesome, you know I can always depend on Donnie (McClurken) and Kirk (Franklin) for anything. Calling them was like, calling on the cell phone saying, “Hey, I need so and so and so and so.” And they would be like, ”Yo ok, when do you need me to be there.”
Manhunt: That’s awesome.
Adams: And the same thing with Mary, Mary, those are my girls. I have loved them for years and years and years. Before a lot of people even knew they were as awesome as they were, I knew they were extremely awesome.
Manhunt: They are great.
Adams: It’s just so wonderful to see what God is doing with them because he is really, really blessing them.
Manhunt: Amen. They are great, they really are.
Manhunt: Now even though it has been four years since the last CD, you haven’t actually been resting.
Adams: No, as a matter of fun I’ve been busier than I’ve ever been (laughs).
Manhunt: I know that you have been on the tours. You did the Sisters in the Spirit tour…
Adams: Yup, the Hopeville tour three times.
Manhunt: The Hopeville, Oh my goodness! Three times that’s right! (Both laugh)
Adams: But you know it was all good, and like I said before, there’s nothing that happens by accident with God, nothing at all. So I was just so excited that Kirk and Donnie wanted to get together and do this huge tour. It was amazing, it was successful and we did so many great things with that tour, and the same thing with the Sisters in the Spirit. Al Watts had this idea that he would love to combine an all-girls band, which didn’t work out, but at least we got it as close to all-girls as possible (both laugh). But we had so much fun. The one thing about touring is that it can be as hard or as easy as you make it.
Manhunt: Ok.
Adams: And when you have great people around you, when you have a great cast of folks, singing and praising God it’s just so easy. You know, no catfights, no foolishness.
Manhunt: No drama.
Adams: Yeah, yeah (both laugh).
Manhunt: Now we have seen you on the small and big screens during the four-year musical hiatus.
Adams: Hooray (laughs)
Manhunt: Do you enjoy acting?
Adams: Oh course I am! I’m trying now to see if somebody will let me have a comedy show.
Manhunt: Wha…hey, that’s what I’m talking about.
Adams: They don’t see me like that. You know, you know the comedy side of me because you’re speaking to me and I made you laugh. But people see me as (hits a funny opera sounding note). (Both laugh).
Manhunt: I want you to have a TV show. That would be awesome.
Adams: Ok, so you pray, your wife pray and have everybody pray.
Manhunt: We will, we will. We are gonna make this thing happen. God is good, He is in control so we’re gonna cover it.
Adams: I know that’s right.
Manhunt: So you really enjoy acting then?
Adams: Oh yes.
Manhunt: What about acting do you enjoy?
Adams: I get to be somebody that I’m not, or I get to show the world that I’m really a cool person.
Manhunt: Ok, I’ve seen you in a couple of things, but I thought that you on The Parkers were phenomenal. I thought that was great.
Adams: We had so much fun.
Manhunt: Nicky is too much.
Adams: She is crazy.
Manhunt: Monique is absolutely nuts. Now, one of the beautiful things about you is your commitment to the community beyond singing. Would you mind telling us a little about the “Voice of an Angel” foundation?
Adams: Well you know the foundation was created, of course you know I was a former school teacher…
Manhunt: So was I.
Well cool. But I’m finding that that is one of those career choices that a lot of kids are not making right now, simply because they don’t understand that you get a chance to help people and you also get two months off for the summer. That’s like, “whoa”. So you go and you have a shorter work year with two months that you know you are going to get off. It’s amazing, it’s like, why wouldn’t you want to do that? And you get a chance to help mold children into who they are supposed to be. You actually have a part in their destiny. That’s like the coolest part to me.
Manhunt: Yeah, that’s the beautiful part of teaching.
Adams: Right, it’s hard work but…
Manhunt: Yeah, it has its challenges, but that is the beautiful part. It’s helping someone, just really helping someone mold their destiny, their future.
Adams: Yeah.
Manhunt: That’s great. Now that’s not the only project that you are involved in, tell us a little about your involvement with the FILA Corporation’s Operation Rebound Program.
Adams: Well that program has now been dissolved, but we were worked with that program in the early nineties when they were going into the high schools and middle school talking to kids about the dangers of drugs. I got to work with so many great basketball and football players in conjunction with the Fila Corporation. We did about four schools when Juwann Howard was just entering the NBA, he was there and there were several other NBA players who came. So I got a chance to see them as they really are, and they are really great guys.
Manhunt: Yeah Juwann is a good guy.
Adams: uh huh, and they want to give back to the community, and they do give back to the community in a great way.
Manhunt: That’s great.
Adams: Umhumm.
Manhunt: So what can we expect from you next?
Adams: Wow, more great music, I plan to get into more of the acting and more of the television within the next five years. Hopefully we will be able to have a record company by that time.
Manhunt: All right!
Adams: Yeah to help young people who would like to get into the field of jazz and gospel music.
Awesome. You know one of the things that I really appreciate about you is your realness. I get an opportunity to speak with a lot of people in the gospel industry, brothers and sisters in Christ and its wonderful, but sometimes people get so wound up…
Yeah, yeah you’re right.
Manhunt: They are so wound up and what I appreciate about you is your realness. You are willing to work with other artists. I read about how you talk about all these other artists that you work with started in the church, and that they love God as well.
Adams: Oh my goodness, yes. And you can’t pigeonhole people. You can’t put them in boxes because God is so much bigger than that and their destinies could be so much greater than what you see right now.
Manhunt: Amen, amen. That’s awesome. I like the realness of your spirit. I think that is wonderful.
Adams: Oh thanks.
Manhunt: So is there anything that you would like to the people out there that might be checking this out on joe538.com?
Adams: Well just thank you so much for being great fans and for supporting the music for all these years. I have such an awesome fan base and they are always there for me. They never leave me; it grows as a matter of fact. So those are great things that should be broadcasted. I have so many people that come to me all the time, “I’m praying for you.” People I don’t even know.
Manhunt: That is wonderful. You feel that don’t you?
Adams: Yes I do. Really, and I feel that when they say it its not just, “Ok here’s Yolanda Adams, I’m going to say this.” It’s always because they mean it and that is so wonderful.
Manhunt: That’s awesome. Well you know what, we are just excited about all of the good things that are happening in your life and we anticipate many more good things to come and we want to encourage you to just continue to be Yolanda Adams.
Adams: Ok, and you just continue to pray for me.
Manhunt: We will. Thank you so very much for taking the time to speak with us.
Adams: Thank you so much.
Manhunt: Ok bye bye.
Adams: Bye bye.
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