 And I'm being joined now by R&B star and I'm talking about real R&B Kenny Lattimore joining me right now. Kenny, thanks so much for joining me. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Absolutely. Absolutely. Now you continue to work. You have a collaboration out right now with Boney James. How did that collaboration come together? Wow. You know, we've been friends for maybe 20 years. We talked about doing this 20 years ago. And it's interesting when you're doing, you know, traveling all over the world and doing shows and all that sort of stuff, you run into each other maybe in an award shows or maybe on a festival and you remind yourself, wait a minute, we haven't done that collaboration yet. Well, 20 years later, here we are. We originally met at, I think, a Soul Train Awards years ago. And he is a dynamic live performer as well. And I was like, man, I've got to do some work with him. It was great that it came at this time. It was great that it was this song. I just thought it was the beautiful track. It lent itself for me to just kind of float over it and just be me. You know, so I was happy about that. Because sometimes people try different things in collaborations too. You might get a song that is like too contemporary or in a different direction than you're going, but he just sent me the perfect track. You know, there's so much going on. I want to know, what have things been like for you immediately after the entering of The Last Dance in that particular episode? Wow. Immediately, my phone completely blew up as soon as Michael Jordan said my name. So I have to go backwards and say that I knew that the song was going to be in The Last Dance because it was licensed. I wrote Days Like This with a gentleman named Tim Modser and Vidal Davis. And I still was in a position where I didn't know when it was going to come on. I never saw the clip of Michael Jordan. So I kind of watched it with the rest of the world. So as soon as he finished and he did the, oh, I can get that, you know, that's my friend. I can get that. I knew it was like something explosive was about to happen. So the first explosion was my cell phone. It blew up and people were just calling. I was trying to figure out how they were even dialing me so fast, you know, and from there, of course, the next thing that happens because of the power of the MJ brand is people are rediscovering this music and they look at it really like it's new, which is interesting because that clip was from 22 years ago. I knew he was a big fan. You know, I'd done functions for him and hung out with him and all that. But I never really talked about it. That was always a question because some of my friends were going, I didn't know that you knew him or anything. And I don't know why I never really talked about that. I knew he was a private person and we had some great encounters, but I just never, you know, I wasn't like going over to his house and just hanging out. That wasn't it either. I was on tour. I mean, all over the world. Obviously, he was doing his thing because he was the champ, you know, at the height of his career in basketball. So again, I didn't know what he was going to say. Me watching it for the first time, too, and when Michael Jordan mentions, oh, it's not even out yet and all, I was like, oh my God, I forgot that I had, you know, we have sent him this. And when I say we, it was a Columbia Records. At the time I had just finished this beautiful package for the music industry and generally copies that were advanced were only going out to the music industry. But James Andrews, who was my marketing executive at the time, he was a great connector as well. And he did the actual mailing. I went back and I had to ask some questions of, you know, of the people around me because I was like, I'm doing some interviews. Am I telling this story correctly? It was all on, you know, but he confirmed, yeah, that we decided to send it to him because I signed, you know, did my little autograph things and wrote letters to everybody thanking them for their support. So Michael Jordan was the only athlete on that list, similar to me being the only musician mentioned in the last dance. So Kenny, how did you to me? Well, I guess the long story would be that Michael Trun was, I found that he was a fan of my music in 96, I believe, with my first single, Never Too Busy, when it first came out. And what ended up happening was I was asked to have Never Too Busy in his television commercials for his cologne that was coming. But because I didn't write the song, I didn't have the ability to just approve it. When it went through the process of approval, it actually did not work out. I think it has something to do with the fact that, you know, Michael Jordan was also synonymous with millions of dollars. That means people want a lot from him. You know, they think they can see a payday or something. So after that, I was completely disappointed. New artist. This would have been huge for my career right out the gate. But I was very fortunate to get a call not too long after that to come and sing for the brand Jordan launch when he, you know, decided to do multiple shoes and clothing and all of that. And it was a really amazing moment. I'll never forget before the regular participants could come in to the luncheon or dinner or whatever it was. Michael Jordan comes down with a modern shot and he says before we even open the doors, he wanted his own moment to just like bond with me. And to, he had a particular song he wanted to hear called Forever. Now Forever was just an album cut, you know, on my album, Kenny Vladimir. So I was like, if he knows Forever, he is really a fan. So he asked me to go into a particular room again before everybody else comes where there's a piano and perform forever. And we are joking around because he had to, of course, describe this song. He didn't just say forever right away. If I'm not mistaken, he started to sing a little bit of it. And I was like, like, whoa, Michael Jordan singing my song. Oh my God. You know, it was just really incredible. We had a really great intimate moment then. Of course, I sang for the event and everything, but he called me back to do other functions later on as well. That's amazing. That's amazing. How did you rate Jordan's bop into the music, his little dance to the album? I got to say it's a 10 because he's bopping to me. You know, it's really great. What I love is the whole expression on his face. You can just tell it's like he's just happy. You know, he doesn't have an angry game face or anything like that. He's just like, he's just balanced. You know, a lot of people asked about the song, what, he's not listening to hip hop or something, you know, a little more hard rock, a little edgier. And I was like, get that in here, man. He's listening to a smooth R&B. And it's like, it's almost like why, because I saw so many memes, which I love. I thought they were so funny. And little did I know. I didn't know I was his hype music. I didn't know that days like this is going to be hype music. So what I did think was there's a possibility that with his precision, with his excellence, maybe he needed something to just balance him. And what does that mean to you? There are people rediscovering your music, as you mentioned, and also maybe listening for the further, a younger generation may be catching and listening to those, those albums for the first time. Wow. What that means to me is that, you know, possibly I've created something that was timeless. And for an 18-year-old to be banging days like this right now, I was like, maybe it was before it's time, and, but perfect for right now, you know, it's been a really, really amazing moment in celebration. Again, I would say for R&B music. It really gives the spotlight to more than just Kenny Latimore in days like this, but it gives us a celebration of R&B music. I think just from the shock of it all, he was banging that hard to my music. Now a lot of people don't know, you know, or maybe they didn't know that I had uptempo songs as well, because I don't want to act like there's one dimension to this. I am known for the R&B ballads, for you, the wedding song, things like that. So, and never too busy, you know, cha-cha, kind of the Chicago stepping song, you know. But for people to rediscover my uptempo music, it adds more diversity to my thoughts or to people's mindset in terms of what my catalog offers as well. So it was like the greatest commercial anybody could ever have. And last thing, have you talked to Michael Jordan since that episode aired? And when you do get a chance to speak to him, what will you say? You know what, I haven't. I kept telling people that I was going to call him last week and all that, and I just haven't. Well, and of course, because our country has been in such an unrest, and I've been here with my son guiding him through what is really happening and how to be expressive and live out this time period. So one thing I was excited about was seeing Michael Jordan give a statement in solidarity to peaceful protest and the plight of our country with regard to police brutality. But I'm hoping that when I see him, that, you know, it'll probably be very light. I would just be like, thank you, you know, so much because, dude, I mean, you know, when I look back at it, when I look back, I go, did you know that it was, did you actually think that this, but I know they filmed it, you know, for so many years. They were filming this. I'm just happy that he remained authentic. He didn't take the moment and try to say, what does everybody want me to say? But he actually said what was actually happening and what was actually in his ears, because a lot of times, particularly for media and for filming, we just go, hey, what's popular right now? Oh, oh yeah, I'm banging out the so-and-so, like we start endorsing whatever we think gives us a greater platform. So one, he knew who he was. He didn't need that anyway. But at the same time, he remained authentic and I just appreciate the fact that he liked my music. It could have been anybody. And I'll go down in history as the only entertainer, you know, mentioned in this great documentary. Wow. It's just a, it's just a complete wow for me. Man, it was completely authentic. He was proud to be listening to your amazing music. Kenny, thank you so much for your time. Greatly, greatly appreciate it. Thank you. I appreciate you.