Jill Scott returns with new CD 'Beautifully Human' and talks about her marriage & making music

Jet, Sept 6, 2004 by Clarence Waldron

There's something about Jill Scott you can't help but love.

Yes, there's something about her. That soothing voice, that bright, easy smile that sets you at ease and those soulful songs that speak the truth.

There's something about how she can walk onstage with that laid-back, woman-next-door charm and take control of an audience. No elaborate costume changes, no glitz, no larger-than-life glamour. Just pure Jill and her music.

And it's also something in the way she carries herself off stage-so earthy, so real, so comfortable.

For instance, right before this JET interview at Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, she kicked her shoes off, curled up on the couch and folded her legs like a schoolgirl and said, "OK, let's talk."

She talked about everything from her new album Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2 which comes out this week (August 31), her happy marriage to Lyzel Williams, who inspired her big hit He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat) from her double-platinum debut album Who Is Jill Scott?--Words and Sounds Vol. 1, her thoughts about starting a family, how she writes her music and why she is reaching out to young people through her Blue Babe Foundation, named after her grand mother.

On Beautifully Human, she says fans will hear Jill Scott--an artist who "continues to grow and learn."

"I am very 'people positive.' The album is called Beautifully Human because I feel that we are beautiful even in flaw, even in error, even in trouble. That we are beautiful and that each and every part of us is there for a reason. Now it's just about trying to figure out why it is there. I think that is the journey of life."

The first single and video is the upbeat, feel-good Golden, which has become an instant hit.

"After taking time off, I felt like I was just living my life like it was golden--it was as if I could polish it, like I could walk past a mirror and just marvel at it," she explains. "So when I heard the track for the first time, the words just came to me and all I could do was just write them down."

She explains why it's been nearly three years since her debut studio album Who Is Jill Scott?, featuring the sassy Gettin' In the Way, A Long Walk and The Way.

"I can only write or sing when it is time, and I don't decide when it is time," she says. "I'm not that kind of artist. I needed to live. I've grown, gone away to figure it out. I've been blessed that way that I can back away from something and say, 'mmmm, this is what happened.'"

While away from the limelight, she got a chance to spend quality time with her husband, Lyzel, who served as co-executive producer of the CD. "I write about what I'm living, and I knew that I couldn't create without having some time at home. Otherwise, this album would have been about being on the road," she laughs. "It was important for me to calm my spirit because it was so active and excited. I needed to go grocery shopping, paint a room in my house and even get a manicure and pedicure without having to rush to an appointment."

She enthuses, "Married life is really good, it's a beautiful thing. I enjoy spending my life with this man--I like him, I like his personality, I like the way he treats his friends. When I'm talking about love, I'm talking about him." She reveals that Lyzel was the inspiration for the tune Whatever.

She continues, "I love married life. Monogamy is awesome--having one person you know you can trust, having that one person who will completely and totally support you and make you feel so good," she gushes. "It's work. It is work. But everything is work, whether it is tending the garden or making a cup of tea. You have to put your energy into it to make it come out good."

As far as starting a family, she reveals, "Some days I feel like 'Oh, it would be so great to have babies' and the other days I feel like 'mmmmm, it's OK without.' It's still open. And it's really not my decision, is it?"

She says she needed time away from the bright lights to reflect on her newfound fame and find ways to understand it and grow into it.

"I think that I go into a bit of a cocoon. But the next time when I come back out, I'm ready, I let things go. I am more at ease. I'm comfortable. Fame was difficult. That was strange. I asked for love--I guess you've got to be careful what you ask for," she laughs. "When I asked for it, it was so abundant it was almost scary. I didn't think it was going to be like that. How could I have possibly known? So now I get it. And I appreciate it so much more."

She shares how she selected songs for the CD: "I listen to the music. Some of the songs are strong, some of them are not so strong, some of them are more confused, some of them are passionate and sweet. And I just find all of those beautiful. And I see so many of us fixing ourselves up trying to look like somebody else when we all are as we should be. Meaning that nose is your family nose and those lips are your family lips. It makes me cautious when people try to strive away from their plan. Because that means a loss of culture, it means a loss of identity and those things in my opinion are very important."