Soul to sparkle by

Interview, Nov, 1998 by Gini Sikes

Ever since word got out about the existence of Sparkle, there has been speculation that Kelly is to Sparkle what Rex Harrison was to Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady - her Pygmalion. Sparkle herself kept mum. Now, however, as she gets ready for her first concert tour (with Kelly), the twenty-three-year-old deacon's daughter from Chicago breaks her silence.

GINI SIKES: It's highly unusual not to promote a debut album, yet you've remained tight-lipped until now. Why?

SPARKLE: I've been working hard to get my show together. I feel everything is on point now and I can meet the press correctly. It's all about timing and doing it right. I was not hiding.

GS: Without being able to speak with you, the press has speculated about what role you play in R. Kelly's work, and he in yours. One review even suggested your singing persona was a kind of mother figure for him.

S: [laughing] I'm not his mother. She was a beautiful lady. She passed away recently. The media create what they want until they can get to you. It made me laugh a lot, all those articles. Yes, I am a protegee of Kelly's. But he's not saying what 1 can and cannot do.

GS: What about your parents? Are they supportive?

S: My dad inspired me. He started me singing at the age of four. I grew up in church singing gospel; that's my backbone. At first I didn't want to - I was a tomboy. For me to start singing, my dad would have to say, "Get up there and be the loudest or you'll get a whupping? But it became a joy to sing. Gospel music, there's nothing like it.

GS: So how did the rapper meet the deacon's daughter?

S: One night when I was seventeen a girlfriend of mine who knew Kelly asked me if I wanted to go to the studio to bring him some food. When we got there my girlfriend told him I could sing. I didn't want to sing for him - I didn't want to look like I was throwing myself at him. But the next time we visited, I sang. He put me on Aaliyah's first CD [1994] doing background vocals. That led to my album and my being the first artist on Kelly's label Rockland.

GS: Did you have any Input musically or lyrically?

S: He does it all. He's a great writer-producer; for me to say I won't do this or that would be crazy. The first time I heard the lyrics, I was in the studio at the mike and he fed me the words, line by line. I don't know how common that is - I think you usually get a demo of the songs first - but that's how he works. I didn't write any songs on the album, but him knowing the heartaches and pains I've had, lyrically he told my life story. Hopefully, though, on the next album you'll hear my writing ability. I've kept a daily journal since 1990. I've gotten in trouble with that journal with snoopy boyfriends but I look back on certain pages and think, That could be a song.

GS: Did you tell your stories to R. Kelly to suggest songs?

S: I didn't sit down with him and tell my story. He can just take a moment or two from something you say and create a song for you.

GS: Are you and he romantically involved?

S: Kelly and I are very close, and we can talk about anything, but we have never been romantically involved. He's like a girlfriend you can tell secrets to.

GS: "Be Careful" is sort of your musical "he says, she says" with R. Kelly. At the end of the video a message appears about how there is no such thing as a no-good woman, that any no-good woman was made so by a no-good man. Is that your sentiment or R. Kelly's?

S: He wrote the line, but it is so true. I love men, but they can work your nerves.