Brian McKnight

All right, J here, hanging out at the Young Hollywood studio with the legendary Brian McKnight.

What's up?

So you've been doing the singing thing for a little bit, right?

Uh, it's been many it's two I'm into my third decade. So it's been two.

How crazy is that? Did you ever when you were a kid think, wow, my third decade and I'd still be going strong?

No, you know, I didn't really think in those terms. When I was a kid, I thought I was going to be an athlete. So, you know, my family all sings. So it wasn't something that it was like, oh, if you're the one kid in the family that can sing, then they're like, oh, you should do this, you should do that. They're like, no, go to church and sing and then he'll figure out what you're going to do later on. And then, you know, I started writing songs. I was about 15 or 16. And when my brother and his group, they I was watching them on the Grammy's my soft my freshman year college. I was like, okay, this is probably possible. Since he if he can do it. Right. I'm way better than him. I was like, a little competition there. Just a little bit. Not really that much.

So we have some little McKnights that are that are having music careers going on there.

They're they're not little anymore. Right. 21 and 18 now and uh they are truly amazing. They both play, they both sing, they both produce, they both, you know, they're they're my engineers when I'm when I'm recording, you know, they're in there, you know, making sure that my sound is is correct.

Do you think it makes it easier or tougher to work with them considering they are your kids? I mean, are they like, oh, dad, you don't know what you're talking about, let us do our thing or

I don't interfere. Really? I let them be them. Um because again, if what I heard was like marginal, I'd be like, well, maybe you guys should go to college.

Now, let's talk about all, you know, all the other things you get into, you know, radio show, TV shows, like, you got a little empire going on there. It's not just Brian McKnight the singer anymore.

No, I wanted to, listen, these things come across the desk and you say either I'm going to do them or I'm not. Right. And you make a decision based on on what those opportunities are. And over the last three or four years, I've I've sort of branched out. I had two radio shows. Last year, I had two radio shows and a TV show and was still doing concerts at the same time. And uh it just got to be a lot. So I've let a couple of those things go. I've gotten back on the road and I'm seeing now that people still love me and still want to come see me and that's, you know, truly gratifying as well. And I'm very grateful for that. And I have time to devote to my golf game again. So, that's a good thing.

That's the most important thing. That's what it's all about. You do this so you can play golf, right? Everyone works me know, hey look, he's going to have to have time for golf. And then the tour, you got a bunch of bunch of tour dates that are going to be coming up.

I I've already sort of exhausted most of the US cities this year. And then I go to Europe. So we're going to Norway, Belgium, uh the UK. We're going to Slovenia.

Oh, wow. So I don't know, man. What are you getting in Slovenia? Who knows what you expect? I don't know. Hopefully something that can be cured. But the but the but the thing that's cool is that we're getting to you know, a ton of people out there trying to make it in the music industry. You know, they do the YouTube video and they do this. I'm sure people are always asking you for advice. How do you have a sustainable career that you can go in your third decade and people still want to talk to you and people still listen to your music and people still know you?

You know what? You you have to decide what you want. You want to be famous? Anybody can be famous. If you want a career, you have to work. You have to work and get better every day and figure out what's going to going to separate you from everyone else so that people can focus on you. Um, remember, oh, who do you want to be like? You want to be the next Stevie Wonder? No, I want to be the first Brian McKnight. That's always been. That kind of sounds like Stevie. That kind of sounds like this, kind of sounds like that, but ultimately, when you hear me say, I think the people know us. That's Brian McKnight.