Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Chris Jasper joins Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley to discuss his legendary run with The Isley Brothers and his timeless impact on funk and R&B.

Chris breaks down writing classics like “Between the Sheets” and “Fight the Power,” the global success of “Caravan of Love,” and how his classical training shaped one of the most influential catalogs in music history. 

He also shares insights on songwriting, sampling (Biggie, Jay-Z, Whitney Houston), staying creative across decades, and his latest music including “Be Number One” and his funk-focused releases. 

This is a deep conversation on musicianship, longevity, and the mindset behind timeless records.

🎙️ Topics include:

• Isley Brothers era (1973–1983)
• Writing “Between the Sheets” & major samples
• “Caravan of Love” and Isley-Jasper-Isley
• Songwriting process & classical influence
• Touring, studio evolution & creativity
• New music and staying inspired

🎙️ About Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley

 Featuring legendary and emerging funk, R&B, and Prince-associated artists. On air since 1982, spanning five decades of music history.

My next guest here is a longtime friend of musicians Reveal with Joe Kelly. And he's been to our studios several times when we were at wvof. He's a Rock and Roll hall of Famer, Grammy Award winning lifetime achievement award.

I think it was three albums, but the biggest hit, Caravan of Love. And this man is so consistent. I believe he has 19 solo albums to his credit right now. Is that right, Chris?

17. 17.

17.

Okay.

I was giving you credit.

Another one coming up, so it'll be 18 soon.

Yeah, you.

You've got. We see your. You're in your studio, I believe, and you've got all the awards. Just. Just a portion of the awards we're seeing, right?

Yeah, it's just a small portion of One Wall behind. And those are, like, covers, you know, from other artists. Let me. Let me do this. Hold on.

Okay.

There were cover covers from other artists. You know, like Whitney Houston's Back Here. You know, a few rap artists are back here, right?

And I got, you know, one of our gold singles right in the middle there. Right there. Right, That's. That was from the Icy Brother days, right? I think. I think that was Fight the Power. But it was.

It's what's all over the studio. You know, it's like a. It's like a small museum.

So when you bring your friends over and you show them, you get. You must get pummeled with a lot of questions, right?

Oh, yeah. You know. You know, what's this one for? What's that one for? I got all my solo albums up here, you know, on either side, so it's. It really looks good.

You know, it's. I. I look at it sometimes and say, wow, you know, I was a lot of work.

Yeah, I mean, you. You're.

You're ambitious from probably a young teenager, right?

Oh, yeah. Like, when I was young, I wanted to, you know, record music. I wanted to compose music.

And when we started working together, the, you know, the six of us, the. The six Isaac Brothers, that's when. That's when I started to do a lot of work as far as, you know, producing and writing and even touring.

Doing a lot of touring.

Right.

That's when I started to really write a lot. And.

Because our career just kept, you know, getting better and better, and as it did, you know, we needed material you know, a record label, record company, CBS was looking for, you know, something else and.

Right.

You know, every year, you know, we were fortunate enough to be able to give them another album every year like that, you know.

So how does it go? I mean, you're. You had the older Isley brothers who were there already, and you were with two of the younger ones.

How.

How did it get into that you were going to be primarily the songwriter, or did you just have the best ideas and how does that work?

Just has to do with my background, you know, like, since. Since I was 7 years old, I started to take piano lessons. And my teacher was a professor at. At a university in Cincinnati.

And he just started to teach because I said I wanted to be a composer when I was seven years old. Wow. He goes like, okay, well, you're gonna have to learn a lot. You're gonna have to do a lot of work. So when he.

When we go over the pieces, he would go over how they were constructed, too, how the composer constructed the piece, you know, the. The different harmonies, the different motifs that they would use and how they would come back to them.

You know, all those things that tricks, you know, that composers would use.

He would teach me and say, you know, you know, Bach did this, and, you know, Beethoven would do that, and, you know, Ravel would do this, you know, and that gave me a really good background in how to compose a song. And I use that in a lot of my. My songs that I wrote. You know, I use some of those.

Techniques with that kind of training.

You know, I've talked with Bernie Worrell when he was alive and yourself, I always consider, you guys are in the class, you know, a higher level of how they. They compose and hear things. Is it easier to write songs like that? You know, it's.

It's easier to. It's. It's easier if you have more exposure to a lot of different pieces, a lot of different genres. Like, I was.

I listened to classical, I listened to jazz. You know, I listen, definitely listen to R B and blues.

Right.

You know, all of it. And it gives you a wider scope to deal with. You know, you. You know, sometimes, okay, I might put a little jazz right here, you know, in this.

In this song, you know, another song, I said, okay, I might add a little classical maybe on the intro. You know what I mean?

Right.

Just to give it a different feel than other.

Other music, you know, to give it more of an identity, you know, because it's all like highways of My Life, you know, when that starts off it sounds different than other songs because there's classical elements, know, in that introduction.

Right.

And it does, it does kind of distinguish your music when, when you can use a lot of different types of genres in, in it.

Now, growing up in Cincinnati, we all know Ohio. We always have debates with listeners of the show.

You know, it's all good, but Ohio, Dayton, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Philly got the best funk coming out of there. But something about Ohio, people, people stand up for, Stand up for the funk.

Yeah, it's, you know, it's. That's, that's what we heard a lot growing up. You know, it maybe it had to do with, you know, what the jocks are playing on the radio, you know.

Right.

Or maybe some groups that were playing, you know, that you were able to hear, even bands you never heard of, you know, that maybe didn't make it.

You know, they, they were influenced by James Brown and, you know, other people who were playing, you know, funk, you know, maybe some stack artists, you know, but that's, that's, that's. It seems like that's what happens when you grow up there. You know, you, you hear, you know, a lot of blues and funk.

You know, that's the reason, you know, you have the bands that come out of there that are playing a lot of funk, you know, But I'm surprised how many, how many Cincinnati, you know.

Yeah. I mean, you got.

And Dayton, you. You got Zap, Lakeside, right?

Yeah. Did you.

Do, you know Bootsy growing up? Did you.

You guys. I didn't know. Didn't know any of the bands growing up because, see, when I was coming up, I was also playing classical music, you know.

Okay.

And that was a lot different than the song, you know what I mean? So. But then on my own, because I used to play by ear on my own.

I would play, you know, stuff from Ray Charles, you know, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, you know, some of the Motown stuff. I would, I would just do that on my own. You know, my teacher didn't have that music.

Right.

But, you know, I was doing kind of both things at the same time. And I think that. I think that helped me a lot. It helped me a lot because sometimes if I would get stuck, you know, I was.

I would resort to, you know, maybe one of the. The things I learned in composition, you know, on R B songs.

Right.

You know, you know, don't do this, you know, this, you know, parallel fists or, you know, maybe you might not want to do that. Contrary motion might be good right here. You know, just tools the composers Would. Would use.

Right.

I would use a lot, you know, and. And it really helped me. The education really helped me.

Yeah, I alluded to how ambitious you were, because I'm thinking back to when I was college age. I went to NYU for a semester, but I wasn't as focused until I got older. But you were like Juilliard School of Music in New York.

CW Post studied under Billy Taylor, and then, you know, into professional career. What were those days? Like? You said you always wanted to play music for a living, right?

Yeah, I. I wanted to be a composer. I throw my. My T shirt because he.

He would bring, you know, the music because he had stacks and stacks of music in his house, you know, and he would pull out some music, and I said, I want to. I want to be like one of these guys, you know, have their name up here, the little guy, you know, saying, I wanted to be a composer.

So it was like, you know, he said, okay, all right. But it's just. I always thought that way, you know, I always thought I could do it because I could.

I could hear a song and almost play it, you know, from just hearing it on the radio. I could go over to the piano and just play the chords, you know, to the song. And that's why my mother told me to take lessons, because.

Right. Smart.

You have a good ear for music, to learn how to read music, you know, this professor went to our church, and she arranged for me to have lessons from her. So that was. That was my education in music. Really, really helped me as far as being a composer.

And then you. You were. You were in Teaneck, New Jersey, right?

Yeah, yeah. My sister and. And the rest of the Isaacs had moved to New Jersey.

Okay.

Why.

Why did they move to Jersey?

Well, you know, they wanted to be. I think they wanted to be around what was going on in music business. And that was. Okay, New York or LA at that time.

Right.

And cheaper to live in Jersey, New York, Louisiana.

Detroit. Right. And, you know, some, you know, like I said, stacks, and Memphis was involved, but those were the big hubs, you know, for music. And they knew.

They moved to New York, and then eventually they got a house in New Jersey, in Teaneck. Okay, Houses. They. They both. Houses in Teaneck. And so that's, you know, that's why I went to New Jersey, because my sister was married to Rudolph.

Right.

You know, I would. I would go there, and, you know, Ernie played drums at the time, so we would kind of jam. You know, we'd go. Go to his mother's House.

And we jammed, you know, play.

Play different songs that I knew, you know, and Ernie would, you know, he would, you know, play along, you know, because I was playing like Ramsey Lewis stuff and jazz stuff at that time, right? Young Ho Trio, you know, and.

But then, you know, we started to get a little chemistry going, you know, and I said, well, look, you know, we could use a bass player, too. At the time, Marvin wasn't playing a bass.

Oh, okay.

So we said, marvin, you gotta learn how to play bass, you know, so we can. So we can, you know, get the bass part to what we're doing here and make it.

Make it sound more complete, you know, because, you know, there was a Ramsey Lewis trio, you know, Young Hub Young, whole trio. So we could. We'll call ourselves a Jasmine Trio, right? Just pick the name out of there, you know. And so Kelly obviously fought Marvin the bass.

And so, you know, he started to practice, you know, and he would, you know, practice the songs we were playing. And he got better and better. And so, you know, we started doing gigs, you know, in New Jersey.

And at one point, you know, Ronald took us in the studio down, and it was a studio in Inglewood because they used to come and listen to us all the time rehearse. And he said, you guys should maybe record some of the stuff you're doing, you know.

And so Ed Townsend, he was a songwriter, you know, wrote stuff for Aretha Franklin and eventually wrote stuff for Marvin Kaye, too. Let's Get It On. I think he was a co writer on there, but he had a studio in Inglewood.

And, you know, Ronald took us down there and we started recording some of the original stuff that, you know, we had, plus, you know, some of the covers that we did. And it was a real good session. And, you know, but after that point, you know, they started wanting us to play on, you know, the records and.

And tour with them. And that's how the six member group got started, you know, from. And that's why it's called Three Plus Three, that first album.

Oh, okay.

Back in 73.

Right, 73. Three Plus Three was the first three. And then here comes the second three.

Right.

We kind of joined together, you know how.

Yeah, go ahead.

You know, just two groups coming together.

Right, right.

How exciting was it that first tour for you guys going out, I mean, yourself and the younger guys playing with. With the established guys.

It was exciting. It was. You know, I remember the first few days had nerves, you know, kind of nervous, you know.

Right.

Playing in front of big crowds and everything. But as. As time went on, you got more used to it, and it was. It was good. It was a good experience. Learned a lot.

And.

And of course, the Isley Brothers. No Memorex.

Right.

You guys were playing live and.

Yeah, we're playing live. All.

All the mistakes and all. It was the real deal.

Yeah.

If you make a mistake, keep going.

Yeah.

Did you travel with your keyboards or you had it on Backline?

At first we started to.

We would rent stuff, you know, the promoter would rent, you know, like, if we needed a rose or, you know, a clarinet or something, they would rent keyboards, you know, make sure they were there. But after a while, you know, I start. I started to get my own keyboards.

Okay.

And then we have. We got roadies.

Yeah.

Stuff just started to build, you know, we got a sound crew that travel with the roadies. You know, two trucks of equipment, you know.

Yeah.

It got really complicated after a while.

Staying in better hotels.

Yeah, same hotels, you know, same. It was like, you know, each town look the same because, you know, you. You pull into a hotel.

Yeah.

Different. And then you put, you know, the backstage of a. Of an auditorium, they don't look that different. It's almost like you're playing the same gig every.

Every. Every day, almost.

Yeah.

It's funny when I meet musicians and you say, oh, yeah. When you played in this gig at this. And this year, they're polite enough to say, oh, yeah, yeah.

But it's tough to remember all the details and specifics on that.

Right.

But it's a good experience, you know, you get the audience's reaction to, yeah, yeah. You know, it's like. And sometimes that can. Sometimes that. That gave me other ideas, you know, for.

For the next album, you know, because I remember after a gig. Well, no, before a gig, because we had a guy who tuned our guitars. He would come in, okay, sure. Everybody's guitar was in tune.

And even if we were on stage, if they went out of tune, he could hand them. Hand you another one, you know. You know, if you broke a string, you know, he was there with another one, you know.

But I was sitting in there, you know, just with the guitar, and came up with showdown, you know. Came up with the showdown, you know, right there in the dressing room.

And I was like, okay, this is something we can work on when we get back, you know, go back home. But, you know, playing live, you can get ideas, you know, because you can play riffs that maybe you didn't play on the record.

But, you know, hey, that sounded pretty good. Maybe Maybe you can build on that, you know.

Which other big bands did the Isaac Brothers tour with during. During the 73 to 83?

Just about everybody. Brothers Johnson, Risa Franklin, you know, especially when we did those. Those Budweiser tours.

Yeah, yeah, right.

I remember going to them, the jazz festivals, right. Funkadelics, you know, you name it, they were all there, you know, and. But you. But because of the. The length of the show.

Right.

You know, and you didn't get much time to really socialize, you know.

Oh, okay, right.

Okay. We got 10 acts, so we got, you know.

Yeah.

Three, four, you know, and after. After it was over, you end up wanting to maybe get something to eat and go. Go to the next gig, you know.

Did you prefer going on earlier in the. The bill or later in the bill?

We kind of learned after a while it's better to go on like a little bit earlier instead of later because, you know, people get tired and they will.

Yeah, yeah.

After nine acts, you know.

Yeah.

Like Almost all night, you know, people want to go home and, you know, and so it's better to get in there, like maybe if it's 10x, maybe 7, you know, and then. Because then the whole crowd is still there, you know.

Right. Yeah.

I remember seeing. I don't know if you guys were on the bill. I doubt it, but it was Luther Vandross and I think Patti LaBelle was at Madison Square Garden.

But I think that was a little bit after you guys did Budweiser. Superfast.

Yeah, yeah, the soup. I think the superfest was over with Iji. When we did the Caravan of Love. We too. We lose a banchos. A whole national tour. When. Oh, okay, great.

It was great.

Great musicians in his band.

Right.

Yogi Horton standing up every night. Both acts, you know, we. We would have standing on the. Luther would go on. You get Stanley know.

Wow.

You know, it was a great, great experience, you know, because Luther. Luther is, you know, he. He came to all the sound checks, you know.

Wow.

Everybody was singing, you know, the right parts and the musicians playing the right parts, you know, and. Yeah, he had a tight show.

It was Marcus Miller playing with him back then.

I'm not sure.

Right.

But I know it was a very tight show and. Yeah, you just.

Right.

Yeah, he's definitely missing. Sad how he passed away.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So the songs, I mean, the catalog, we know the hits Fight the Power and, you know. No, you know, did you know writing between the sheets, how impactful it would be? Do you say that this is going to Be.

This is going to be on all the late night songs, the jams out in New York and all the big cities.

I knew it was going to be good, you know, but it turned out to be even better than I thought because, you know, it's. It's basically a keyboard song if you listen to the music.

Right. Yeah.

And I was. I was trying a lot of things in there, especially at the end, you know, because the chorus kept going.

And I said, I think it needs an ending to the song, you know, something to change. And then that's when I added the. The ending of it, which sounds totally different from the first part of it.

Right.

It has, like two sections to the song, but it added a lot of interest, too. Some artists sampled the first part, and then I think Jay Z sampled the last part, you know, and it was like.

And then Whitney did a song that involved the chorus, you know, so people. Different parts of that song, you know, And I knew it was a lot.

I knew it was a lot of special things going on in that song, you know, the chord structure and everything else, and. But it. But it really. It really took off, you know, like. Like right away.

The program directors jumped right on, you know, but sometimes it takes a little while for, you know, your song to build, you know, and.

Right.

But that particular song took off right away.

Did your wife Margie, break it at bls?

Well, she wasn't at BLS at the time. She was just. This was after she, you know, we actually got married the day after we finished recording that album.

Oh, really? Okay.

Wow. And so, you know, she wasn't there anymore, but everybody played it, you know. Yeah, it was like one of those songs.

Everybody just, yeah, we like this and we're gonna play it, you know.

Do you have a couple favorites of artists who sampled it?

And.

Well, Biggie, he sampled it. I think his was the biggest sample, right?

I mean, a sample between sheets. A lot of rappers, you know.

Yeah.

You know, because. Because they like that. A section, you know, chord progression. And it was just amazing, the response we got from that song.

Right. Yeah.

And let me ask you a question, because is it possible for these mega groups and multiple personalities and money and everything, is. Is it inevitable that bands are going to go like this and have disagreements, or is it possible to stay together for that long?

Well, it's.

It's not inevitable, you know, that people are going to break up, but generally, sometimes what happens is sometimes it could be something just as simple as personalities, you know, people not getting along, you know. Other times. Most times it has to do with business, you know.

Right.

Some inequity in the business relationship. That's usually what causes a breakup.

Right.

You know, even with artists and labels, you know, I mean, maybe they feel the label isn't, you know, being. Being. Being fair with them, you know, and they want to leave the label. You know, a lot of times that happens, you know, but it's you.

It's usually has to do with business.

So how contentious can the like, hey, I contributed this and you contributed this, and I should be getting more it. That are those stressful times that happens.

Sometimes, you know, maybe one person is contributing, you know, most of the. The writing or whatever, and sometime the label would call us for a solo album from that person.

Right.

I think that might have happened with the Commodores, you know, Lionel Richie.

Right.

He was contributing a lot, you know, and his songwriting and, you know, he was lead and everything, you know, it happened with the Jacksons, you know.

Right.

He was. He was contributing a lot. He was a lead singer. And some. Sometimes there's. There's, like I said, there's this personality relationships that.

Yeah.

You know. You know, I mean, some people think they're more important than others, you know.

Yeah.

I remember backstage before a show with a friend, he's a blues artists out of Chicago, and we're sitting there and we were talking, and before the show, he had to spend like an hour talking with his band members to, you know, get them straight as far as maybe they were complaining or felt slighted about some. Some whatever problems were going on. It's almost like, you know, you have to get that squared away before, you know, you hit the stage and like that.

And I can imagine it's tough.

Yeah, yeah. You know, and, you know, it's. It's not a guarantee that a group is always going to stay together, you know.

Right.

But you kind of look, you kind of hope for that, you know, but if it doesn't work, you know, you have to. You have to, you know, just go up another way and, you know, that's what we did with IG Jasper Isley.

So no regrets. Steady forward.

Right.

We just, you know, it. It wasn't working and we just continued to record like we were recording before, you know, except for somebody else was doing league vocals.

Right, right, that's right. Now.

Now listen to Isley. Jasper and Isley.

Yeah.

Caravan of Love, that song, it's timeless. Today you could drop it on the radio. The lyrics, the sounds, it fits, you know, everywhere.

Right, yeah, that's. That's a song that I knew was gonna do well just because of how I felt in the studio. And, you know, the.

The title, the message in there, you know, I just knew that was going to do. Do well. And it did, it know, and it was an international hit, you know.

Now. Now you. I remember watching the other day when you went on Video Soul with Donnie Simpson.

You guys are doing a promo tour, but you were under the Weather, I think was the last interview you were.

Doing on a promo. Right, yeah. Been everywhere, you know, all to LA and back, you know.

American Bandstand, too.

Yeah, yeah, American Bandstand. Right, but that was. That was on the Super Bad album I was touring on. The Super Bad out.

Okay, okay, that's right.

Yeah. Right.

When I was talking to Donnie. And your solo work. Yeah, yeah, that. That was. That was a good album, too. That was a good experience too.

And not too many artists get an Essential CD release or album release, but you have the Essential Chris, Jasper, and everything was that. I forgot. Was it Ron Rhino or CBS?

Oh, Sony.

Oh, Sony.

Okay.

Yeah.

And, you know, we kind of had a. A deal with that. Okay, but that, you know, it has a lot of songs that I did that I wrote and that I performed on. On the Essential.

Because it covers a lot of. It covers a lot of material.

Right, right.

You know, Iji to my solo work, you know, and which is a lot of songs, you know, but every song is not on there either, you know.

Yeah, yeah, they gotta edit some of it.

Right.

You know, my brother told me one day on the phone, I was talking to him and he said, you know, Chris, I think you have more songs that you did solo than you did with the group. Check that out. You know, I'm gonna check that. And I think I do.

Yeah.

I mean, seven. Seventeen albums, for sure.

Right, right, yeah.

So 17 solo records. How.

How do you stay consistent as far as, you know, people can check out the discography and see how consistent are you as far as writing and getting, you know, getting your thoughts and playing onto. Onto tape. What is it? How do you do that to stay that long doing that one thing?

I pray a lot and, you know, ask, you know, guidance and inspiration, but, you know, mechanically. I think over the years, you. You will develop your personal system.

Okay.

How you approach producing a song, you know, but you first have to have the good idea before you produce it. And the idea comes, you know, from.

Usually from practicing, you know, sometimes, you know, something just pop into my head, you know, and I have this thing where I can hear all the parts playing in my mind before I started.

Oh, okay. Wow.

I don't know where that came from. It's a gift. And I always think. I always think composing and songwriting and, you know, creating something new. It's a gift. You know, every.

Everybody, you know, even you can have some musicians that are great. You know, they're virtuosos on their instrument, but when you ask them to compose a song, that's different, you know, that's a different thing.

And sometimes they might have trouble doing it and. But they're gifted in one area, you know, where somebody else is gifted in another area. You know what I mean?

So there's all kinds of gifts, and I think composing is one. I don't know why I can hear things like that. I can hear.

I could always hear where, you know, we had to take a song, you know, and, Chris, what do you think about this? You know, sit there and listen to it for a while and then start playing it. And then, you know, like, I say this on one of the videos that I did.

Afternoon with Chris Jasper, Sony Music Lounge.

Oh, okay. Right.

I remember, yeah, a lot of the coverage. And like, hello, it's Me. It's like, you know, Ronald wanted to do hello, It's Me. He liked it. And then, you know, he. He had. He. He.

Vocally, he knew what he wanted to do in the intro, but musically there was no chords. There was no nothing, you know. And, you know, I said, well, you know, I. I heard.

I heard the first hello, It's Me, but I could hear, okay, that you could take this another direction. I can use some of these chords from the Romantic period to make it sound totally different than the original.

And that's a gift I'm blessed with, and I don't take it for granted. I always thank God for it.

And you don't have to book studio time and wait. You can go right down into your studio and start creating.

Right?

That's true. Yeah.

That's a good benefit.

Yeah.

For the studios are concerned because, you know, it used to be a Big undertaking just to get started. Before you even started recording.

They had to align the machines, you know, you know how to get the right, you know, real make sure that you have 24 track machine. If you had 24 track. Yeah.

And if you want to use more than that, you know, you had to lock them up to get 48 tracks machines up and you know, they had to make. Oh, it was a big. It was a big thing.

You know, I remember when I first got started in radio, we had the reel to reel and we would cut it and have to mark it and splice it with a razor blade and tape it together. Oh, that was.

That was tough. Yeah, man.

Yeah.

I mean for music even tougher.

It was totally different. Now now, you know, can edit, doing cut and paste. You know what I mean?

Right, right.

Much easier at the editing process.

Yeah.

But what's not easier is coming up with a good idea.

Yeah.

Now, now I start. I saw the TV special you're doing with the local TV host who came to your house a couple times and I saw some of the keyboards in your studio.

How many keyboards do you. Do you have and how many usually.

Work with.

Just because they're, you know, the classics, you know, like profit 5 and you know this classic keyboards. I don't even use that one anymore. But because. And the reason for that is a lot of sounds, you know, you can get from different programs.

Right.

Computer, you can get the exact sound you can get from a keyboard from a program. You know. So I'll always go with what's best for the song.

If it's best for the song for me to use a keyboard that's outside of the program, I'll do that. But if I can get a sound from the program that's, you know, matches the sound that I want, I'll use that, you know, I'll use whatever works.

Right.

You know.

Now, now speaking of what works, you've got a great new single called B number one. There's a video out you can purchase I'm sure from the various music distributor.

You can go to goldcityrecords.com we'll have the link right down in the description here on YouTube and GoldCityRecords.com be number one. Another positive song and. And tell us about writing the song. It's got a lot of funking and a lot of soul and and the video also.

Yeah. I said I started the song because I wanted to write a funk song for the funk album that's coming out.

Okay.

Next month.

Okay.

Compilation of the funk songs I've done in my solo career. Not all of them, but a lot, so. But I wanted to write something new, right. So I knew it had to be funky. So I started from that.

From that concept of just being funky. But then usually when I do funk songs, there's some kind of message in it, you know, And.

And the message that I wanted to get across was the message that I. That I put in this song is that, like, believe in yourself. Believe that you can achieve things. You know, that.

That you've been thinking about, maybe you had goals that you wanted to reach. You know, you have to stick to it because, you know, like. Like I wrote in the song, there's a.

Sometimes there's people that, you know, tell you you're not going to do anything. You know, I don't believe. I don't believe you can do it.

Yeah. Right.

But then there's got to be something inside of you, you know, And I use the phrase, well, there was power in my soul, you know, I. I believe that I could achieve something if I stuck with it. And. And. And that's what. That's what's common in all the people that we put in. In the. In the little video that's in it that the song has. We.

We did a video for the song, and we had a lot of people that have achieved great things with obstacles in front of them. I mean, huge obstacles in front of them, but the. The thing they have in common is that belief that I can get. I can get through this. I can.

I can achieve. I can overcome these obstacles. And that's. That's what that song is about.

How do you and Margie and your family do with the pandemic? What was that like for you guys?

It wasn't too different. I mean, we stayed. We stayed home a lot, you know, but, you know, we do our work from here.

Right, right.

And I record. I recorded an album during the pandemic, you know.

Right.

It was a. It was an album of coverage, you know, it was called for the Love of you because I covered that song.

Right.

There's a song by Sam Cooke, you know, but was a. It was. It was kind of strange, though, because, you know, you.

You turn on the news and you hear what's going on, you know, and especially when it first happened.

Yeah. Yeah.

In New York.

Yeah.

Nobody knew what was going on and, you know, people were dying all over the place and. But it was. It was just a strange thing to go through, you know. I'm glad we all came out of. Out of it okay, you know.

Right.

Yeah, it was definitely changing for just about everybody involved, you know, in a lot of ways.

Yeah.

So, hey, let me ask you. I touched base on all the illustrious awards you've received. I gotta ask you. Right behind you is like the clear.

Glass, the Pointed Songwriters hall of Fame.

Okay, so that's the latest one.

Yeah, that's somewhere in this hall of fame. The Grammy, a lifetime achievement war that's under that one. And the Hulk over there. I don't know.

Oh, yeah, let me see.

There's. There's a Hall of Fame.

Okay. Wow. Yeah.

So, yeah, that's got to be gratifying for all that. I mean, that. That says a lot.

It does. It's. But, like, it's funny starting out, you don't think of that stuff, you know, you don't think of awards. You know, you just think of, can I.

Can I produce something at least at the same level as the thing I just produced before? At least maintain some consistency, you know? And that's. That's. That's the main thing that I was thinking about it. I always think about when I'm.

When I'm doing something new. I said, you know, it's got to be something that someone might hear, maybe at our peak, when we were at our peak, and say, hey, that's good, you know.

Well, I know a lot of the COVID bands, a lot of the funk R B bands still play Fight the Power, and it just fills the dance floor.

I mean.

Yeah, yeah. Just trying to maintain a level of excellence. Trying to. You're just trying to kind of do your best, you know, Just like.

Just like anybody who's an athlete, they always, you know, just try to do the best. Every. Every time. Every time. When.

When's the official release of this new record? The funk record?

The official release? It was just released on July 1st. That's. That's when it, you know, YouTube and every hit. YouTube and. And a lot of other places.

No, the full record.

Oh, the. No, the album.

The album. Yeah.

Is mid August.

Oh, mid August.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, that's. That's when that was gonna hit. And it's. It's called Chris Jasper Delivers the Funk.

Oh, yeah, that. That's guaranteed you never stopped.

Funk song. So.

Right.

I haven't done that before.

Right, right.

Because I released some ballads, a lot of ballads. Together, But I've never released a lot of funk songs.

That.

That's the kind of record that when. When we were buying records to be. They release records on Tuesday, but you make friends with the shop owner.

You go Monday, and he'd open up the box and give you. And sell you the record a day ahead of time. That's record. Like, at least for me.

Yeah, yeah.

Those were great times.

Yeah, yeah. The record stores.

Yeah. Yeah.

Let me ask you about your co producer, Michael Jasper. How's he doing?

Oh, Michael's fine. Michael's fine. He's, you know, he's. He's a, you know, he's a lawyer.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, he works at this firm and doing, you know, promotions and things. He's very creative. He's very creative, Mark.

Yeah.

But he. But he also, you know, when I start. When I start a song, I like to get his opinion on the rhythm tracks, you know.

Right.

Because he's got. He's got a knack for that, you know, maybe to make him make it sound a little bit more, you know, modern, for example, you know, but he's got a good.

Got good feel for rhythm. And I'll say, okay, rhythm track's done. Okay, now let me get stuff.

What kind of law is he doing?

Well, he was doing real estate, and he was doing just, you know, general. General practitioner.

Okay. Yeah.

But he's doing a lot of marketing now for this other firm.

Oh, okay.

They like to have attorneys.

Right, right.

In their firm. So he's fitting in really good, you know, really smart guy.

Yeah, yeah.

Good, good.

Good guy. I was gonna say good kid because I met him when he was a kid.

He was a good. Yeah, he was. He was still on the Fairfield.

That's right.

Yeah.

He.

Actually, I met him before. He was at fair. He was in high school, I think, still playing high school ball.

He came by the studio with the.

Right.

With. With the cd. He was.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah.

And.

And you wrote a song for his wedding, I believe.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So your lovely wife has made appearances on your record. And is she on the new record?

Not this record. The one. Let's see, the one before she was on.

Right.

The. The single before. But not this. This one. This one, it was a kind. This one's kind of a macho, you know.

She understands.

Right.

Yeah, yeah.

And you got married on Valentine's Day, right?

That's right.

Yeah.

I still remember.

Yep.

So we finished between the sheets on February 13th. Wow. Got married the next day.

It was scheduled for that. Or you just say, we're in the mood.

Never forget. That was. That was just what happened. I mean, I think when we were mixing and, you know, finalizing that album, I think I stayed up for two days.

Wow.

Doing that.

And back then, we could.

Right, yeah, that's right. Can't do it now, but back then. Yeah. You know, just, you know, grab something to eat, get some coffee, and get back. Right back in there.

Right, right.

And it would, like, towards the end, it'd be like, you know, you do a gig, you're lugging the equipment, it would take you, like, two days to physically recover. But in the old days, It'd be like three gigs within 24 hours on different parts of town.

But you get older, no problem.

Yeah.

Exactly. So, Chris, man, it's great to reacquaint with you after a few years.

I mean, I know you were very supportive of our show, making the drive from New York down to Connecticut, and then we moved upstate to New York. So we're. We're a fellow New Yorker now.

All right. All right.

Yeah, I guess they call it downstate where you are, and I'm upstate.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we'll reunite in person.

What was that?

I said we'll. We'll connect in person.

Oh, yeah, yeah. We'll connect again. Yeah, absolutely.

And I like your spread of your house. You're. I mean, I saw the outside look really nice. Real peaceful.

Yeah, it's a. It's a lot changed since then, too, Since. Since that interview. I mean, this. This place is crazy. Margie said, you know, you. Because I like.

I like architecture because I went to school for AR Architecture, too.

Oh, really? Okay.

I was gonna. I was gonna go to school. College for architecture, but I. I had all this experience in music, so I went to Juilliard.

Okay.

Decision which way to go. So, you know. But I like architectural design and, you know, landscaping and design. It's like a botanical garden outside.

Yeah, it's like you got, like, a little Japanese garden feel to it.

It's real.

Looks real nice.

That part that showed on an interview is like a small little segment of the. The property.

Okay.

It's like. It's crazy. I can't believe it when I walk up there. I said, I put. Because there was nothing on this.

It was really nothing on the property when we moved here.

Wow.

There's so much now. It's like. It's crazy.

So you put Your roots.

I can't do it by myself anymore. I have to have people come in.

Yeah, you don't cut the grasses.

Have somebody do it for me.

Right, yeah, that's it.

It's too big. It's too, it's too much stuff out there.

Yeah.

When we moved up, when we moved up here, like, you know, when we moved past, you know, you get involved, moving the stuff physically. My wife said, now you're at the age right now, we're going to pay somebody to move all the way up here, the whole thing.

So, yeah.

It'S worth it. So. So remind our viewers and listeners in August.

August 30, you said about middle of August, maybe, like, you know, I, I don't have my calendar now, but right in the middle there. 15 or something like that.

Gold City Records, Chris Jasper. And the title again is Chris Jasper Delivers the Phone.

All right.

Chris Jasper delivers a phone.

Be number one.

Yeah, be number one out there right now. You can, you can purchase it, you can watch the video, you can listen to it.

We've been playing it here and we'll also be having on our mixed class show with this interview as well. So. Hey, Chris, brother man, thanks for, for stopping by again. I know this is. We're close to double digits for your parents.

I know. Yeah, we've done quite a few interviews, but it's always nice, you know.

Yeah.

Good guy, man.

Yeah.

You've always been helpful for us.

Yeah.

And a lot of musicians, trust me, they, they watch when you come on. They're always interested. I. Because I talk to them and they're, you know, you're well respected and influential within the music business.

Well, that's good, that's good. I mean, anything I can do to help, you know. Yeah, I like to give advice sometimes, you know, but that's also.

I like to put positive messages in my songs. Right. Maybe somebody who, you know, they might need to hear that message, you know.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So give our love to Margie and Jasper, rest of your. Margie and Michael and the rest of your family.

I certainly will.

Yeah.

We got a tornado warning here tonight, so. So I thought it was going to be more exciting than having you on where you're going to have a tornado crashing through.

Don't say.

But it didn't. So. Hey, thanks, Chris. Thank you. All right, take care.

Take care, buddy.