Article at http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/entertainment/2016/12/24/brianmcknight-celebrating-new-joy-love/95819348/ Brian McKnight is a legend of R&B whose music has helped couples around the world fall in love and get married. Back at One in particular is a wedding favorite. He s also known for such hits as The Only One for Me, Anytime, Crazy Love, Love of My Life, Rest of My Life, Still, Find Myself in You, and many more. And yet it took him more than four decades to find his true love, Leilani Malia Mendoza, who he s been with for three years. McKnight s not complaining. He s celebrating the new joy of love that was worth the wait. We haven t gotten married yet, said McKnight. But we re more married than any married couple I know. McKnight, a New York native who has earned 16 Grammy nominations, spoke with the Montgomery Advertiser ahead of his January 21 concert at Wind Creek Wetumpka Casino. "I m just grateful and thankful, said McKnight. "Next year is the 25th anniversary of my first album. And not once in this journey did I think that we d be here 25 years later and people would still be coming to see me and we d be singing these songs. McKnight said when he s standing there in front of the crowd these days, he can t help but be struck by the fan reactions. They re standing and they re cheering. After all this time, they re still wanting an encore, said McKnight. "It s just that realization that the music that you ve created has meant something to people and they continue to support you. They don t have to. They have lots of options. They have lots of other things that they could be doing. They re choosing to spend their time, their effort and their money on you. I m just thankful. I m really, really thankful. McKnight took the time to answer a few questions recently about his life, his music, and how he recently crashed a bunch of weddings in Las Vegas.
R&B singer Brian McKnight will perform at Wind Creek Wetumpka on Jan. 21hotos Brian McKnight at Wind Creek Wetumpka Jan. 21 You and I are both children of the '70s. When you were a kid in Buffalo, what music were you listening to? "You know like I know that back then music wasn t compartmentalized. You heard everything on every station, because there were probably only one or two stations in town at the time anyway. So I got a real good idea of all the music that was available because they d pay Earth Wind and Fire, and then they d play Willie Nelson right after. I think if they did that now, it would be like, Oh, my God. What are they doing? But it was normal, so we got to listen to just about everything. All the sappy love songs of the 70s, and all the disco of the Bee Gees, and the Gloria Gaynors." I ve read that you play eight instruments. "Well, nine." Nine, wow. I understand a lot of the instruments you play are brass. Is having the lung power to do that one of the reasons for your singing range? "Not really, because although I do play those brass instruments, I play them mostly in theory. I can play them, but I don t really play them unless I absolutely have to. My
trumpet s sitting here. I ll toot it every now and then I think that my singing range... some of it s hereditary, and the rest of it is just making sure that I stay in the kind of shape that will allow me to breathe and to bring those notes." R&B music is obviously a form of music you love, but you ve previously had some concerns about the overall direction of R&B has taken over the past few years. This question is one of those funny questions. The question we have to ask ourselves is, Is there actually an R&B in contemporary music? The answer to that question is no. I don t think that s necessarily a bad thing. When we were 16, our parents didn t understand our music. When my children were 16, and they started listening to the music they listen to, I didn t understand that either. I think that what we expected was that the next generation was just going to do what we did. And that s when we decided to get all up in arms about it. Quite frankly, the next generation every time has done something that s their own. It s funny. David Foster said something to me last year. I can t remember where we were, but he said, You never want to be old guy in the room who doesn t like anything new. So I ve actually changed my thinking on a lot of today s music, because these kids have only grown up on itunes. They ve only grown up with today s music. There s very few of them that have gone back to listen to, and have the experience of, the music that we grew up listening to. Far be it from myself to be the guy that s like, oh well, I have to be concerned about it. We had our heyday, man. We had it. And it was a great heyday. And now these kids have it, and whatever they do with it is yet to be seen." After working for years with labels like Mercury and Motown, what was it like to have your own label for your album Better this year? I think that in theory, when you start doing things on your own, you think that that s sort of the best way to go until you really understand the politics behind the music business. Those are things that have always been, and will always be. If you re not at a major, or at least being distributed by a major, you have a long, hard road that you re going to be on. Otherwise, everyone would do it. Everyone would find a way. People with huge followings, you would imagine that if Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber decided, You know what, I don t need a label anymore, and they decided to do it on their own, I doubt they d be as successful. Because the system just really isn t set up to beat that system. (Laughing) It just isn t. You start thinking, I ve got 100,000 people over here, I ve got a million on Facebook. I can do this. But it really just doesn t work that way, unfortunately. So guess what? Now I m back being distributed by a major label."
R&B singer Brian McKnight will perform at Wind Creek Wetumpka on Jan. 21. (Photo: Contributed) You re also put out a live album this year "An Evening with Brian McKnight" with Sono Recording Group. With Sono, and distributed through Universal." Is this your first live album? It s my first live album with my full production. I have another live album that was just me solo. So this is the first one, and the first actual live DVD that goes along with it." Check out songs from "An Evening with Brian McKnight" here on itunes Talk to me about your new single Everything. What went into it. What inspired it. Well, there s this woman who lives with me, and has been living with me for three years (Leilani Malia Mendoza). She is a constant source of inspiration. Every song I ve written since we ve been together has been about the idea that I ve been writing love songs my whole life, but really didn t think that this kind of love existed. And now that I have it, It s like I want to tell everyone. You know what, I know we may all be going through things and you may not believe in this anymore, but if someone like me can find it, it is possible for anyone.
R&B singer Brian McKnight will perform at Wind Creek Wetumpka on Jan. 21. (Photo: Contributed) How s everything been going with you two? Everything s great. If and when you find that person that has everything you ever wanted in another person, then that s when you know. That s cliche and that s what you always hear. But I think we re all too quick to go with the next best thing. The thing that s close enough. And that s when it doesn t work out. Of course, you may be chasing her for two years before she even let me kiss her. I never thought I d do anything like that, but hey. Look where we are now, you know? Everything that your parents told you and your grandparents told you about love is true." I ve seen the video for Everything." Is that all from other people s actual weddings? Yeah. What I did was, I asked my fans. I wanted to use something a little different. I said, if you have some HD footage from your wedding, I d love to cut it up and put it into my next video. We got overwhelmed with responses. Everybody wants to be on TV or in a music video, so they all sent something. My editor put that together, and I thought it was really great. It just showed how many people out here that are still believing in love and getting married and are happy, at least at that moment."
Speaking of other people s weddings, I saw the video where you crashed several weddings in Vegas singing Back at One. It was awesome I think the brides didn t know. The husbands knew. Just to show up at that moment and be able to do that, we didn t know what to expect. It s like one guy said. How many people can say that they had Brian McKnight come and sing at their wedding? And they didn t have to pay him. *** McKnight performed Jan. 21 at 8 p.m. at Wind Creek Wetumpka's Entertainment Center. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets available at ticketmaster.com. To charge by phone, call 800-745-3000. Also available at Essentials inside the casino. Follow McKnight s tour online at mcknight360.com. Shannon Heupel, Montgomery Advertiser Published 11:45 p.m. CT Dec. 23, 2016 Updated 1:07 p.m. CT Jan. 12, 2017