Pebbles' southern hideaway: in upscale Atlanta suburb, singer enjoys multiple roles of wife, mother and star performer

Ebony, April, 1991 by Lynn Norment

PEBBLES' SOUTHERN HIDEAWAY

PERFORMING on the Arsenio Hall Show, Pebbles was ravishing in a black leather miniskirt and jacket, both emblazoned with a bold white W-I-L-D. A week later, when she hosted Friday Night Videos, she again was attired in black leather, as she was on the hot new Party Machine With Nia Peeples.

But that was Pebbles, the successful recording artist. At her home in an Atlanta suburb, Pebbles--the wife, mother and lady of the house--is still beautiful, and black is still her color of choice, but there's no sexy, glitzy attire or attitude here. Her shapely legs are covered by jeans and thigh-high boots a T-shirt and sweater hide the seductive form that performs in her videos.

"When I'm at home, I like to be me, and this is the real me," she says while showing visitors around the spacious three-level home she shares with her husband, record producer Antonio (L.A.) Reid, and their two children.

The real Pebbles is also warm, friendly and down to earth. At age 26, she is a caring mother (who adores her children--Ashley, 8, and Aaron, 15 months--and refuses to travel without them) an affectionate wife (who loves her husband but admits that they indeed have spats, mostly in the recording studio) the lady of the house (who has a laid-back, casual working relationship with the nanny, housekeeper, chef and personal assistant).

She is also a woman who loves to shop--for herself, husband, children, anybody. "I'm a shopper and I'm going to remain a shopper, and I'm not going to carry 50 people around with me to shop," she declares, adding that the ease of shopping is a major reason she loves Atlanta. "I can just jump into the car and drive to the mall and shop," she says. "I don't want to get to a point where I can't do that."

But even when shopping, Pebbles often is interrupted by fans who congratulate her on the success of Always, her second consecutive platinum album. "Everybody thought I'd be a one-hit Suzie," she says, adding that many attributed the success of the first album to the studio wizardry of L.A. and his partner, Kenny (Babyface) Edmonds. "This album is about changing everybody's doubt. But the payoff is bigger than I ever imagined. It's a great feeling!"

Sweetening the success is the fact that Peebles is credited as lyricist for three songs and co-producer of the album. It is the first time L.A. and Babyface have shared production credit with anyone else. "Pebbs just kind of took the project in her own hands," says L.A. "When Face and I hit a cold spot, she had the heat. So she didn't get credit just because she is my wife."

Pebbles first met L.A. and Babyface at a Los Angeles studio, where she was producing her own debut LP for MCA Records. L.A. admits at first he assumed Pebbles was just another "cute and smart" but marginally talented singer. However, after watching her work the controls in the studio that night, he realized that the young woman was "serious." In addition, the chemistry was just right and the three cemented a friendship instantly.

Pebbles herself wrote the hit "Mercedes Boy" on that first album, and L.A. and Babyface contributed the second hit, "Girlfriend." The album went platinum and established Pebbles as a not-to-be-ignored force in the music industry.

But L.A. says it wasn't until they were working on the follow-up LP, Always, that he realized he was in love with the attractive, assertive, recently divorce single mother. "I'd say to myself, 'Wow, I haven't talked to her in two days,' and it would bother me," he recalls. "That's when I [started asking myself] 'What is this I'm feeling?'"

In the summer of 1989, they were married in a small ceremony in Las Vegas. That same week, they also move from an apartment in Los Angeles to their upscale suburban Atlanta neighborhood where mansion-like houses range from $1 million to $7 million. The couple didn't want their children "totally influenced by the Hollywood lifestyle" and selected Atlanta because it was a "Black city with strong Black politicians."

Even though it was not for sale at the time, Pebbles fell in love on sight with the grand grey stucco house with curved drive that eventually became her home. And she and L.A. took pleasure in decorating the house themselves. In the black Italian marbled, two-storied entrance hall, the sense of arrival is pervasive. Straight ahead are decorative white columns that set off the family room with fireplace. The entire abode--walls, furnishings, drapes, carpets, bleached oak floors--is an elegant monochromatic white with earth-tone accents.

Also on the main floor are the master bedroom suite, living room, a spacious dining room, and a huge kitchen/breakfast/sitting area. Just outside the kitchen door is a three-level guest house with two bedrooms and a hightech 48-track recording studio. The rear of the house is washed in sunlight from expansive windows that overlook several decks, the swimming pool and Jacuzzi. From the entrance hall, a sweeping staircase leads to three additional bedrooms upstairs, where the children and nanny reside.