This year, hip-hop legend Big Daddy Kane is profiled, as is Evelyn “Champagne” King, The Spinners, Deniece Williams – and Alexander O’Neal and Cherrelle. The latters’ combined “Unsung” features the life stories of the duet partners, who both underwent their share of professional and personal challenges. Cherrelle struggled with her newfound fame and a tumultuous personal life that included a terrible tragedy, as well as an unexpected blessing.
We caught up with the singer who had some of the catchiest hit songs of the 80’s – from “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On” to several chart-topping duets with O’Neal, including “Saturday Love.” (The O’Neal-Cherrelle episode airs on Monday, June 20th.)
BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM: It’s so great to talk to you! Your “Unsung” was great. I learned so much about you.
CHERRELLE: Everybody’s saying that, but I haven’t seen it yet! I normally don’t speak too much about myself, so I said this is going to be interesting.
It was really good, but it got very personal. Was it hard for you to tell your story?
It was very hard. It was very, very hard because I’m not a person that likes people in my business and in my life story like that.
What made you go ahead with it? They combined yours and Alexander O’Neal’s, so was it that he agreed, and you didn’t want to hold him back or were you just ready to tell your story?
It was really because of Alex. I would have never done it by myself.
I never knew that you grew up wealthy in L.A. I think most people thought you grew up in Detroit.
Yeah, that was one thing I never wanted people to know about. I never wanted to be looked at or looked upon differently.
Your father was a prominent entertainment attorney in Hollywood.
Yeah. He was an attorney, and I grew up in Beverly Hills.
So, you didn’t have to get into the entertainment business to make money.
Not at all, not at all. I never got into it with my family. I just kept it to myself. It didn’t matter to me. Sometimes when you’re getting ready to start off, the first thing people will say is, ‘She got money; she’s just doing this because her parents have money.’ I really kept my personal life away from things and just rolled with everybody else because I was already used to things.
Most people who get in the entertainment industry don’t come from much money, and when it comes to them, they don’t know how to handle it.
Exactly. I never wanted to tell anyone my life story or where I came from, but they pushed me and pushed me, and I finally said, ‘Do you really want to know?’ I’m a 90210 baby, the fridge was full. I don’t have that [poverty] story.
So, you got into music because you loved to sing.
Exactly. That’s all I did it for. My parents had a home in Detroit and a home in Los Angeles. We lived in Detroit in the summer and Los Angeles in the winter. People said I went from rags to riches. No, I didn’t go from rags to riches. I lived with my parents. I don’t have that story. But nobody knew that.
You were discovered by Michael Henderson while washing your car. Then you came …..
to the attention of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. They said such nice things about you in “Unsung” – how much fun you were and how they crafted songs around your personality.
Ahhhh, I haven’t seen it! I’m going to start crying. They were my brothers. I loved them so much. We all slept on the floor together in the beginning. I was trying to be normal, but after a little while, I was like, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ and I called my dad to get us some furniture. (Laughs)
What was it like when you first met Alexander O’Neal?
I didn’t really know him until they put us together. The connection that we had came naturally because we when we sang together, we didn’t sing at each other, we sang to each other. That was my brother. But let me tell you something, baby: We had to tell people a million and one times that we were not married, we were not lovers, and I don’t care how many times we said it, people would believe what they wanted to believe.
You were actually in love with [singer and performer] Randy Ran.
You know what? Randy was my everything. When I talked about that, it was therapy for me. I cried so much they had to cut. I appreciated the grieving that I never had. Randy was my best friend, the father of my children, my musical director and my partner. People would ask, ‘what was it about you and Randy?’ It was that we never lied to each other.
There’s a beautiful part of your story about your youngest daughter, Martinique, who was born very premature.
A lot of people don’t understand that if Martinique had not been born, I would have been dead. I would have lived, but I would have had a bankrupt soul.
What’s happening for you now?
I’m working on a new project. I’m very excited about that. What else can I say? I’m so clear now. I’m loving the body that Cherrelle is in. I love it from the inner to the outer
