Previously Unheard Interview Celebrates Supremes’ Mary Wilson

A previously unheard interview with Mary Wilson is now available, featuring the much-missed founding member of The Supremes. In the recording, she shares secrets of her early life, her first musical heroine, the group’s arrival at Motown, and her memories of her fellow stars – including the day Little Stevie Wonder arrived at the company, and how the girls lined up to teach Marvin Gaye to dance.
Released in conjunction with the arrival of the expanded edition of Mary Wilson’s 1979 solo debut album, the interview took place in 2017 with two associates of her label, Harry Weinger and Andy Skurow. It’s introduced personally by Turkessa Babich, Mary Wilson’s daughter. In the discussion, Mary shares a full scrapbook of stories of her unique life and times. It paints a picture of an artist who knew exactly who she wanted to be even in high school, and who walked a path from unknown hopeful to global recognition.

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'I Would Wake Up Singing': Unheard Interview Celebrates Mary Wilson [[udiscovermusic.com)

Listen to the interview:
https://youtu.be/HFJ-NlBSCx4

This was such an interesting interview. It was a little deeper than the usual questions that we as fans could answer at this point since we’ve heard them so much.

I agree, Kpitt! Very interesting interview!

This is one of the best interviews, if not the best interview, Mary ever did. The fact that Andy, and I suspect Harry, were fans probably has a lot to do with it. Most of Mary's interviews over the years have been done by people with only a passing interest in the group, and Mary herself. This is often accompanied by the main event being Mary and Diana's relationship. Those interviews get old real quick, but it's what a lot of the general public care about. To me this interview is by fans for fans of the Supremes and of Mary, which I wish had happened more often. The questions offer Mary a chance to go deeper than she usually would. These are interviews I prefer. Fingers crossed that Andy is ever able to talk Diana into doing a similar sit down where he gets to pick her brain about the early days, about the music, etc.

Just a couple things that stood out to me:

-Mary talking about how it felt when Diana's time with the group was ending and no one ever asked Mary what she wanted to do going forward. Very interesting insight into her emotion at the time.

-Mary talking about the Lupine days and confirming what I already "knew" to be true, which is that the Primettes sang backup for a bunch of people at Lupine at the time. The one thing I wish Andy and Harry had asked her is if the Primettes ever had an actual contract with Lupine or not.

-Mary talking about the group's confidence in themselves, from Flo's high opinion of the group and low opinion of Gordy since he wasn't "jumping" at the chance to sign them originally, to how they ended up at Motown anyway through sheer determination. People like to make the argument that the Supremes story would've turned out the exact same way with Diana and any other two girls. I've always begged to differ. That kind of determination isn't always common and for all three girls to have it, that was a blessing. Had any one of them decided that it was all too much in those early years, the entire thing may have fallen apart.

I hope the lack of posts in this thread is because people have missed it due to the slew of recent Diana threads. IMO this is an interview not to be missed, even if you have to listen in increments. Very interesting stuff. A couple other things that stood out:

-Mary addresses why Flo seems to be absent on "Where Did Our Love Go".

-Mary addresses the absurdity that the lead singer has the hardest part of the job. When she describes why this is a ridiculous notion, it was something I had never quite thought about before.

I hope others will chime in with their thoughts on this interview. Much love and thanks to Harry and Andy and Turkessa for bringing it to us.

I thought the interview was great! Mary talks about things I’ve not heard her address before. It’s not the same old interview where she has to answer the same questions and tell the same stories she’s answered and told over and over before. I also feel like she sounds more engaged, like she’s also enjoying talking about some different topics for a change.

That was a great interview! I agree it's well worth listening to, not the same old same old. It was interesting hearing Mary's take on how she was treated during the last year of DRATS and it helps me understand why she felt the way she did and I can't really say that I blame her. Luckily she had the initiative to go out and do things herself like take vocal lessons, etc. while Diana had the luxury of those things being handed to her by Motown. I'm not putting any blame on Diana but I get why Mary felt the way she did. I don't think too many of us here would have handled that well either. I also liked hearing the story of all the girls on the early Motown Revue tour trying to teach Marvin how to dance.