UB Interview: Legendary Miki Howard Tells UB Why She “Chooses to Be Happy”

Miki Howard represents passionate vocal artistry wrapped in adiminutive package of beauty, sass and candor. Grammy-nominated Howard already has a stunning catalog of music wide ranging in style – from the breezy “Come Share My Love” and the steamy funk of “Ain’t Nobody Like You” to her soul-stirring signature “Love Under New Management,” the jazzy “Imagination” and the inferno that is “That’s What Love Is” (her duet with the late, great Gerald Levert). Miki has recorded eight albums but none quite like her new 5-song EP,I Choose To Be Happy. She considers this CD of live and studio material the first in a forthcoming series of mini albums: Miki Howard Reality Music Record Series #1. The proud veteran states, “I’m making music for the soundtrack of the times we are living in now.”

The lead single is “Panther,” an affirmative declaration on the power of maturity and wisdom set to a raw Primal Funk of hand drum percussion, horns and chants co-produced by Miki with Jon Nettlesbey.

Miki was born Alicia Michelle Howard in Chicago, Illinois on September 30, 1960 – the daughter of gospel singers Clay Graham (Pilgrim Jubiliees) and Josephine Howard (Caravans). During her childhood in Chicago and Detroit, Miki met some of the best singers of the day. Early influences included family friends Dinah Washington and Aretha Franklin. Her first musical instrument was the harmonica her grandfather gave her. After her mother moved the family to Los Angeles, 15 year-old Miki received her first break when Augie Johnson, leader of the flashy vocal outfit Side Effect, spotted her in a beauty pageant and invited her to join his guys and gals group in `78. Also joining Crusaders trombonist Wayne Henderson’s At Home Productions, Miki sang backup for jazz greats Roy Ayers and Grover Washington, Jr., as well as Earth Wind & Fire’s Philip Bailey, Charlie Wilson and the Gap Band, among others.

Miki Howard was signed as a solo artist to Atlantic Records in the mid-`80s and recorded her first solo album, Come Share My Love, in 1986 featuring the R&B Top 5 title track and earning her a Soul Train Music Award for Best New Artist. Following 1988’s Love Confessions(f/ “Baby Be Mine”), her third album, Miki Howard(1989), featured her first R&B #1 single “Ain’t Nuthin’ in the World” (penned and produced by Jon Nettlesbey & Terry Coffey). A move to Giant Records in 1991 earned Miki her second R&B #1 with “Ain’t Nobody Like You” from her CD Femme Fatale which also featured a smoky rendition of Billie Holiday’s “Good Morning Heartache.” Casting director Robi Reed saw Miki perform Holiday tunes at Radio City Music Hall and offered her the chance to portray the legend in a nightclub scene for Spike Lee’s 1992 epic, “Malcolm X.”In 2001, Miki recorded an album for Peak/Concord entitled Three Wishes receiving a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional R&B Recording.

Today, Miki Howard is the proud single mother of three: sons Nicholas (a Head Chef) and Brandon (an entertainer), and daughter Kaitlen (also an entertainer). The grandmother of four (nickname: “G-Ma”) has also been profiled on the popular Black Music documentary TV series “Unsung.” Miki confidently reports, “In this internet age, your phone is your radio. And I found my life with social networking. It’s like sitting at a round table with people from all over the world.So don’t call this a ‘comeback!’ Welcome to Miki’s Forward March.”

Miki spoke with Aries from UrbanBridgez.com about her new EP “I Choose to Be Happy,” her thoughts on her classic “Love Under A New Management,” being blackballed, her son B. Howard, her love for real singing divas and much more!

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UrbanBridgez.com: How did you hook up with Too $hort for the remix of your new single “Panther”?
Miki Howard: The idea came when me and the writer were in the studio, we thought it would be hot. I’ve known him for a number of years and I ran into him and said you got to get on this record! He was like (imitates Too $hort) okay Miki, anything for you Miki (laughs). Then he came and did it, it was really cool.

UrbanBridgez.com: I love the title of your upcoming release “I Choose to Be Happy.”
Miki Howard: Yessir!

UrbanBridgez.com: Why did you decide to name it that?
Miki Howard: Well you know, I’m 1,000 years old and 999 of them was f*cked up (laughs). So you know you have to make a choice, I mean good things and bad things are going to happen and we can’t control them really. I mean some of them, but not really. So you have to make a choice no matter what, you have the choice of God and love in your heart.

UrbanBridgez.com: What can longtime fans expect from the new album?
Miki Howard: Wow, we got something old on there, we’re singing Come and Share My Love, but it’s an older version. I’m older now, so I’m not really talking about come and share my love. You know, not like I did when I was 25. Then we just re-visited some of the fun songs that I enjoy singing like Love Won’t Let Me Wait and Marvin Gaye’s Soon I’ll Be Loving You Again. They were considered really forward for a woman to be singing. Now that we old and panthers we can just be like come here baby (laughs). The album is live, we have various musicians who contributed to it. Some people are like oh my god your voice sounds like this and sounds like that. Well my voice sounds 30 years older, but I love it though. I love it, it has so much life. I like to call it reality music. Like one night my voice was just really tired, you know from singing. But I loved the way the heart sounded coming through, so I kept it. We could of cleaned up these vocals and did a lot of stuff and in some instances we did. We added my son B. Howard, he’s singing on one and helped produced. We had David Ruffin Jr. come in and he sang on some stuff. It’s really exciting and a really good record, I think!

UrbanBridgez.com: There’s a line in the new song where you say I’m no diva, I’m a solider.
Miki Howard: It’s being more of a leader, my diva days are over. You know how the divas are, they have to have everything done and clothed. I’m not the one, there are times where she don’t feel like putting on all that (laughs). My mic ain’t got to have no diamonds in it, it just has to work (both laugh).

UrbanBridgez.com: “Love Under A New Management” is and will always be a classic. Did you have any idea what type of anthem you were making when you recorded it?
Miki Howard: Really I just loved the song and I was excited to record it. I wanted to be like Aretha [Franklin] and those people, so I was looking for material. My record company at that time Atlantic Records/Sylvia Rhone hooked that song up. Gabriel and Annette Hardeman actually wrote it as a gospel tune. So we were looking for material that could measure up to people that we had looked up to. Since that song I’ve been in love under a new management, over new management, between (laughs). That’s actually how I Choose to Be Happy came about, in the end of me singing Love Under A New Management I talk about that at the end of the day you have to be happy with yourself. You have to be able to look in the mirror and manage what you have going on. That’s when you make that choice to be happy, no matter what it is. And if you ain’t happy, get happy!

UrbanBridgez.com: Your Unsung was superb and so eye opening, for those that didn’t see it, briefly tell us about the whole blackballed situation and how it effected your career?
Miki Howard: It was the most dreadful thing that could happen to anybody. People perpetuate rumors and they don’t even know why they’re doing it. So it’s was like, I’m not going to work with Miki, that bitch is so and so. It got so bad, that there were instances where I thought I had locked in a tour and they came back and said we don’t want you because so and so said this or that. My records had stopped being played, it was just really hard because I had three children. That’s why I say I’m a solider, because you solider through that. With my faith in God and the talent that he gave me and you just make it work. But like I say, you can’t be upset because at the end of the day I’m still here. I’m enjoying my life, my kids are grown. I feel bad for the people who perpetuated the mess, because I don’t know one of them that is doing like well or even happy. Some of them are not even here anymore.

UrbanBridgez.com: Karma!
Miki Howard: Right, you do reap what you sow! That’s what people don’t realize that we’re all connected. You hurt me, you hurt yourself.

UrbanBridgez.com: Your son has been in the news lately, I know you are unable to discuss the actual situation but with Brandon getting all this media attention how have you prepared him to handle it and what advice have you given him?
Miki Howard: I got a big strong grown man that could probably do more than most people even know. People say kids in the hood go through certain things, but kids in the wood as in Hollywood go through other things. He’s made up of some good sh*t. That’s the thing that people are not understanding, that’s my son. So with all of this going on, my son may be going through something. So the last thing on my mind is someone talking to me about something dumb when I been making records for 35 years. Then people say where you been and I say where you been? Google me, because every 3-4 years I put out a record. I hate when people say this is a publicity stunt. I could of did a lot of things, I don’t stunt! I’m an artist, I don’t have to do that (laughs).

UrbanBridgez.com: Off the top of your head, your top 3 favorite songs in your catalog?
Miki Howard: I love Ain’t Nobody Like You, Come Share My Love still makes me cry today. I don’t know after that, let’s see…I love Soon I’ll Be Loving You [Marvin Gaye] on the new CD. I really love that song!

UrbanBridgez.com: You have such an amazing on screen personality as well that I love like in Poetic Justice, would you ever do a reality show or any plans to?
Miki Howard: Thank you! Yeah, my whole life is a reality show. These people are just now getting cameras on them, cameras have been on me since I was a kid. In my mind anyway (laughs).

UrbanBridgez.com: We need the ones recording on you now (laughs).
Miki Howard: So many have tried, but they have to get the right stuff you know.

UrbanBridgez.com: You’ve always paid homage to Billie Holiday in such amazing ways, what was it about Billie that inspired you the most as a singer?
Miki Howard: I’m going to tell you and it may be weird. But I always liked the persona of Billie Holiday, I was a real small kid and didn’t really understand her type of singing. But I liked how she looked and just the type of woman she was. I wanted to be that type of woman. Where I come from like with my mom and everyone, they were those type of women. Just independent, beautiful, she was just everything. And she could sing, I was like yes! So then when I grew up and understood her type of singing, I wanted to bring that same thing to music if I could. I learned a lot from her.

UrbanBridgez.com: What’s the biggest misconception about Miki Howard?
Miki Howard: It use to be that I was mean and I was a bitch. Now it’s that I’m crazy, let the media tell it (laughs). I’m so happy, but people keep coming up to me like somebody died and hugging and kissing me telling me they love me. I’m like okay, but I’m good, I’m good. I didn’t read the stuff that people said about me, maybe one or two things. But I don’t care, I don’t give a sh*t. If I start talking about you, you might fold your tent and go home. So we don’t do that, it’s ugly. We just pray and play honey.

UrbanBridgez.com: Who are some current female artists that have came after you, that you’re a fan of?
Miki Howard: I’m everybody’s fan. I’ve loved everybody at some time or another. I love Rihanna, I love Beyonce’, who else is it?

UrbanBridgez.com: Umm Coko of SWV.
Miki Howard: Chile I love Coko, oh okay you talking about people like them too because they’re grown (laughs)! I love Coko, oh my god she can sing! Kelly Price, oh my lord she can sing. I just sit there and listen when she is on like God how can somebody sing like that? They are singing baby, I mean really singing. Ledisi, Jennifer Hudson, they’re singing for the gods! I’m telling you, they are really singing.

UrbanBridgez.com: I would like to see like a BET Special with you and some of those artists singing on one stage.
Miki Howard: It would be a lot of hollering, to see who can hit the highest note. I’ll tell you now, it wouldn’t be me (both laugh).

UrbanBridgez.com: Anything you want to leave with your fans?
Miki Howard: I love everybody and I’m so grateful for the support. Let’s all move on in, to a better life! I like Tamar who says go get yo life, I’m like I’m going girl. I’m packing right now (both laugh).