Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Five Minutes, Five Questions
Mary J. Blige
Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Mary J. Blige makes her debut at the Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion on Saturday. Blige is touring in support of her 14th studio album, “Strength of a Woman,” released April 28, but she took the time to answer some questions for What’s Up!
Q. What were your inspirations for this new album and how was the creative process different from your previous projects?
A. My inspiration for this album has been life and just how things, they don’t go well and you don’t always get what you want. Just life and how real it is. It’s not so much about the trial, but it’s about how we get through it, and that’s where the strength comes from — just remembering how many trials I’ve had to come through and looking at how much of my life has been public and how I had to kind of live it out in front of the whole world. And I think the blessing is to get through it and to help someone else as you’re getting through it. I think people relate to your strength and how you deal with things so that’s the inspiration, just knowing that I’ve gotten through these things — good, bad, ugly — that’s the inspiration.
Q. How do you reconcile sharing so much personal growth/struggle through your music while still keeping enough just for yourself?
A. The thing is, what I don’t want people to know, they don’t know. And what I do want them to know, I let them know. The things that come out that are on the news — like the divorce and the taxes and the Burger King commercial and all this foolishness — these are trials and these are heavy things, and I just elaborate on what you know already. I’m not afraid of truth. I’m not afraid to speak it in order to heal myself because sometimes you have to talk. And it’s not always about a shrink. In my case, it’s about putting it into a sound, singing it, writing it. It’s mine. I’m not afraid of anyone or anything, and no one can threaten me with anything because I’m not afraid to speak about it first, anyway.
Q. Speaking to that personal strength, in a time when empowerment for women and people of color is more potent and topical than ever, what does it mean to you to be a symbol of both strength and artistic expression for those groups of people?
A. It means a lot. It’s definitely responsibility to myself — I’m not always going to get it right. And I’m not going to be perfect; I’m not trying to be perfect. But the beauty of it all is we get a chance to see just how important we are. We are beautiful. We are strong. And just to be a representation of how beautiful and strong we are — I’m not talking about physical beauty because that’s whatever. But I’m talking about to be able deal with my own issues and still respect my fans and still respect myself. Although I [might] feel like dying, I have to get up and live. Although I feel like crying, I have to smile. It’s painful because you have to get through some things, or you have to become some things, before you can become something else. You have to live the ugly to know what beauty is. But it’s beautiful to represent how beautiful we are, inside and out. It’s a beautiful thing.
Q. How have you seen the music industry develop and change during the course of your career?
A. When you make your music and you make an album, you want people to see the entire thing and not go and be able to take pieces, but this is where we live today. Streaming is a big deal. But if you make a quality album, people will buy it. So I think as artists, it’s up to us to be truthful to ourselves and give people real products and not just give them [something] thrown together. Give them what you love, and people will support it. Streaming’s not a bad thing; it is what it is. It’s a part of how we sell records today so I’m not mad at it, it’s just a different world, a different music business.
Q. How have you developed over your career? Are there things that are important to you now that differ from what was important early in your career?
A. Of course. Everything’s important to me now. Nothing really was important to me early in my career. I was a tornado — I was crazy. But now, everything matters because what I realized is at the end of the day, it’s all me. It’s my name, it’s my face, it’s my voice going out there to be a communication to someone. So I have to be careful — be the people. I’m a people, and I love people and I don’t want to hurt or offend anyone, but I can’t save anybody’s life either. So I have to try to save myself.