5 takeaways from Eric Benet’s tell-all streaming interview
Eric Benet fans know about the hits, the Grammy nominations, the tragedy that left him a single father, and his marriages to Halle Berry and second wife Manuela Testolini.
But even superfans of the Milwaukee-born R&B star are bound to learn some new things from the latest episode of streaming service ALLBLK’s “A Closer Look” music documentary series. It’s arguably the most extensive look at Benet’s life and career, with the star, some siblings and other in his orbit offering candid comments in the hourlong episode.
Here are five of the biggest takeaways.
He still gets choked up thinking about his late father’s approval
Being able to impress girls in school with his singing was a key motivation to pursue music, but Benet credits his family with igniting his passion. He learned his sense of harmony singing with his siblings; he was so nervous performing for the first time without them he went on stage barefoot to feel “grounded,” a practice that became a frequent live-show signature. His mother sang and played piano and was a big supporter, and Benet would engross himself in his detective father’s extensive classical music collection.
But despite the family’s love of music, his father especially was wary about Benet pursuing it for a career. Benet’s parents, born in the 1930s, faced horrific racism growing up in Mobile, Alabama, and pushed their kids to get a higher education to have a better life.
“The last thing I wanted to do was disappoint my dad,” Benet said. “For my dad to give up a compliment, that (expletive) had to be dope.”
In “A Closer Look,” Benet holds back tears recalling the time his father praised one of his songs as a teenager.
“He was like, ‘I never heard you sound like that. I never knew you could write like that,’ ” Benet said. “In that moment, he understood. That was a good feeling.”
Family comes first, and got him through his darkest days
Beyond helping him nurture his musical gifts, Benet credits his family for helping him through “the worst part of my life,” after his girlfriend Tami, the mother of their daughter India, died in a car accident.
“Immediately after losing Tami, the idea of trying to go out and be a recording artist wasn’t paramount on my mind,” Benet says in “A Closer Look.” He got a couple of other jobs to provide for his daughter, including one with UPS, and his siblings and his mother helped with taking care of India.
“It seemed like it softened him,” Benet’s sister Lisa Weathers says of Benet becoming a single father. And ultimately, “it also gave him more drive to do well musically so he could provide everything to his daughter.”
And while Benet goes into a lot of detail about the making of his bestknown songs and albums, it’s clear from “A Closer Look” that family is still his primary focus. Besides India, he also has two daughters, Lucia and Luna, with his wife Manuela Testolini.
“As much as I’m flattered you want to talk to me, this doesn’t do anything for my spirit,” Benet says during one of the “Closer Look” interviews. “Being at home with my wife and kids … it puts everything into perspective. It gives everything more meaning. It gives every day more depth.”
Being in the spotlight was a strain on his marriage with Halle Berry
Benet doesn’t go into a lot of specifics about his divorce with Berry in 2005 after four years of marriage — she told Oprah Winfrey in 2004 that Benet confessed to being unfaithful — but he suggests in “A Closer Look” that the scrutiny of being in a celebrity relationship took its toll.
“For me, I’m in a relationship with this artistic person who is in a lot of ways weird like me,” he says. “No one can prepare what happens when trying to still figure out how to deal with each other and maneuver through your relationship when you’re living in this fishbowl with this huge spotlight.”
Benet didn’t know Manuela Testolini had been married to Prince when they were dating
Benet says in “A Closer Look” that he has “never really been overimpressed with the celebrity of somebody, or even being a celebrity.” Proof of point: When he started dating Testolini, he knew she was in the middle of finalizing her divorce, but he had no clue for about a month and a half that her husband at the time was Prince.
“It was so easy and so familiar and welcoming,” Benet said of dating Testolini. “I wasn’t used to feeling this good this fast (in a relationship).”
Snoop Dogg comforted Benet when he learned his mother died
Benet was performing in the cast of the play “Redemption of a Dogg” with rapper Snoop Dogg when he learned that his mother, who had been ill, had died. “I will never forget he sat in the dressing room with me and cried with me and embraced me, letting me know that, ‘I am here for you,’ ” Benet says in “A Closer Look.” “He truly became my brother in that moment.”
You can find the full “A Closer Look” at allblk.tv.
Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
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