For a guy as popular as he is, R. Kelly is awfully inscrutable. He's a guy who has always had one part of his mind on the corporeal ("I Like the Crotch on You") and another on salvation (the entirety of Happy People/U Saved Me). He has scored a number of huge hits despite the fact that legal trouble (and his complicated relationship with women) have followed him everywhere. He spent years crafting "Trapped in the Closet" but also just released what is essentially a Sam Cooke tribute album in Love Letter. And though his life is theoretically an open book (just listen to his lyrics, or read his Twitter), he doesn't grant that many interviews.
That's one of the many reasons why his sit-down in the new issue of Interview is so special. Another reason? The interviewer is none other than Will Oldham, the indie folk artist otherwise known as Bonnie "Prince" Billy. Oldham has covered R. Kelly songs during live concerts, and they are both singularities who are considered complicated conundrums.
So it's enough that the interview even exists, but of course it's full of amazing moments. It's worth reading the whole thing, but here are the five greatest bits.
R. Kelly Knows the Baldwins
The interview was conducted while Kelly was doing his two-night guest spot on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" back in December, and Oldham opens the interview asking Kelly if he watches "30 Rock" (which also tapes in the same building). He doesn't, but he does know who star Alec Baldwin is. "Alec Baldwin? Yeah! Don't he have a brother and they all kind of look alike?"
R. Kelly Live at the Copa
When explaining where the idea to create Love Letter began, Kelly talks about a party at his house. "I invited, like, 1,000 people out to my house, and everybody had to be dressed like it was the '60s," he explained. "People had the long-stem cigarettes and the zoot suits and all that stuff, man."
R. Kelly Can Travel Through Time
When talking about tapping into the spirit of Cooke for the album, he discussed a special show that he had that also had a profound effect on him. "I think I was bitten that night, like Peter Parker being bit by the spider. I had this feeling that we really tapped in spiritually to that time. We did go back in time that night. And when I came back to the present, if you will, I'd brought back some goodies." When asked what time he likes to record, his answer was "Fifty o'clock."
R. Kelly Will Never Run Out Of Concepts
While discussing Love Letter, Kelly notes that he abandoned an album called Zodiac in order to make it. According to Kelly, Zodiac was "all bump 'n' grinds," and will now be known as The Return of 12 Play: Night of the Living Dead, which he envisions as "an R&B-like thriller album."
R. Kelly Got His Start Making Fake Commercial Jingles
In the interview's most revealing section, Kelly talks about his early days as a performer in Chicago, where he would perform on the street as a child. He performed other people's songs but sometimes made up tunes on the spot. "When a lady would come down up under the L, she would have a McDonald's bag in her hand and everything like that, so I said, 'I should write a McDonald's song, because everybody always comes down from the L with McDonalds.' So I wrote a song that was like, 'McDonald's is the place for you/ When the day is through/ You can go to McDonald's and get yourself a Big Mac/ Big Mac/ Order a fries, icy Coke and a apple pie/ No one does it like McDonald's/ Dooh-ooh, McDonald's and you."
What's your favorite part of the R. Kelly interview? Let us know in the comments!
Tags R.-Kelly, will-oldham
