Soul singer Kelly Price returns with a new CD 'priceless and tells how she balances music and motherhood

Jet, June 2, 2003 by Clarence Waldron

Hot soul singer Kelly Price has found a way to have it all. She has found a way to balance the joys and challenges of motherhood and marriage with the grueling demands of show business. But she admits that it is quite a juggling act. "Sometimes it is like juggling with broken glass because both things are very sensitive and have to be handled with care. I can't let the career be neglected and I can't let my family and children be neglected either," she says.

Kelly, whose latest CD Priceless featuring the love song He Proposed is racing up the charts, is married to her childhood sweetheart Jeffrey Rolle, who is also her manager. They have two children, Jeffrey, Jr., 10, and Jonia, 9. She and her husband share custody of her stepdaughter, Kyazia Rolle, 11, along with the child's mother.

When JET caught up with the busy songstress, she had just returned from a three-month tour in support of the new Priceless album. During that time, she only saw her children five times.

"I talk to them a lot when I am gone. I speak to them throughout the day. I call them to make sure their homework is done. Technology is a good thing," she laughs.

When they are out of school, she often takes them on the road with her. "They are 'industry babies.' This is what they know. They are very much used to it. They understand backstage protocol, on-stage protocol. They know how to act. They don't touch anything."

Her kids are very disciplined, she says, and understand the demands of her job as a recording artist. They also know that she will get home in a hurry to discipline them, if she has to. "If something is going wrong, I am a plane ride away. It's good that they know that. They have to maintain the same standard of discipline and everything, whether I am here or not." She says when she is at home, "It's a lot of extra attention. I take them to school. I pick them up. I go to the school plays. I am just another parent. I might have a rag tied around my head, but I get out there," she laughs. "I am just another mother. They keep me normal; they keep me in the flow of reality."

She also balances parenting with a group of friends who help her with the children. "They help me out a whole lot. If something comes up at the last minute, they make it possible for me to do that. They keep my kids grounded."

She points out, "It's not easy. I really pray very hard. I have to do it. It keeps me grounded." She also reads from the book of Proverbs in the Bible for guidance as well as books on "how to stay balanced, to keep my sanity," she laughs.

She is rearing her children the way she was reared--with a deep spiritual foundation. "The best mothering I can give them is the mothering I received, a good sense of Godliness, spirituality and make sure they understand growing up that they are no different from anyone else. I have them go to school every day with other children from all walks of life."

Kelly arrived on the music scene with the 1998 breakthrough platinum album Soul of A Woman with the big hit Friend Of Mine, followed by 2000's Mirror Mirror with You Should've Told Me and As We Lay, a remake of the Shirley Murdock's tune. Along the way, she and Faith Evans joined Whitney Houston on the big hit Heartbreak Hotel.

Now, she is winning an even bigger following with Priceless. "This album is everything that has been in my life plus everything that it's never been. I've gone through every possible emotion that a woman can go through from the start of this album to the finish, so the material is a lot more diversified. My music has always been personal stories, but I'm really enjoying the fact that my story is a lot better to tell this time."

Kelly, the daughter of two preachers, teams up with the gospel group the Clark Sisters on a remake of the group's contemporary gospel tune, You Brought The Sunshine.

Music friend Faith Evans joins her on Sister and label mate Keith Murray is featured on Take It To The Head.

Other highlights on Priceless include Back In The Day, which Kelly produced and samples Frankie Beverly featuring Maze. "It's a tribute to the fun things about my childhood. I have a lot more happy songs this time, and it's not some contrived attempt to have me do up tempo tracks. It's just what I was feeling."

Priceless also features her children singing on the tune, Back in The Day. Including them in projects helps her balance motherhood and career, she notes.

She sends out a love message to her husband and manager Jeffrey Ro]le on Strong Man (Jeff in C Minor). "I wrote that song for my husband. At the end of the day, I am Mrs. Jeffrey Rolle; that's the reason why I wrote the song. I may be Kelly Price to the world, but at the end of the day, I am Mrs. Jeffrey Rolle." She says she was prompted to write the tune because of that "aura of(Rolle) being treated like he is Mr. Kelly Price. He is his own man. It takes a whole lot of man to have to stand down because your wife is the one people want to migrate to, and they ignore him. It takes a very strong person to deal with that."