TBT: The War and Treaty

Throwback Thursday Tanya and Michael Trotter—better known as The War and Treaty—join us to share their powerful story, from humble beginnings in Cleveland to the spotlight of country music stardom. This unstoppable duo opens up about their journey through hardship, including homelessness and PTSD, and the fateful moment Michael saw Tanya in Sister Act 2 and instantly knew she was the one. They reflect on the honor and impact of becoming the first African American husband-and-wife duo nominated for a GRAMMY in the Best New Artist category, and what that milestone means for the future of the genre as they continue forging their own path in music. Watch Full Episodes & More: www.dumbblondeunrated.com https://www.dumbblondeunrated.com/ The War and Treaty: Website https://www.thewarandtreaty.com/ | IG https://www.instagram.com/thewarandtreaty/

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:44Bunnie XO?

  Hey guys, I need to ask you a question. I want to know, why in the hell are you not on Patreon? I don't think you guys even realize how much content we have on Patreon. Let me break it down for you. We have the Bunny XO Show, we have Meet the Deportes, we have Popaganda, we have more shows that we're adding, and, not to mention, we have the visuals of the podcast. Not only that, we have four tiers that caters to everybody's budget and everybody gets the podcast. There's no more excuses. Head over to www.patreon.com/dumblonpodcast and sign up. Stop missing out. We have built a huge community over there, guys. I'm talking about hundreds of thousands of people over there. We even have live chats.

• 1:28Bunnie XO?

  Live chats that I actually am talking in every single night. Last but not least, we give away gifts every frickin' month. I'm talking like signed stuff from Jay and I Lives. You just never know what kind of surprise you're gonna get. It's like a Cracker Jack box. I love the community that we've built over there at Patreon. If you are already a Patreon member, I frickin' love you, dude. Thank you so much. You guys are my babies for life, my writers. If I could, I would literally make out with each and every one of you. I love you guys so much, and that's a lot of kisses, actually. Gotta go bye.

• 2:24Bunnie XO?

  Is this thing on? What's up, you sexy motherfuckers? Welcome to another episode of Tom Blonde. Today, I have my friends here and I am so excited. Tanya and Michael Trotter, AKA The Warren Treaty.

• 2:38Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 2:38Bunnie XO?

  I am so honored to have you guys on the couch.

• 2:40Speaker 03

  Oh, you have no idea.

• 2:42Speaker 02

  I've been waiting to get on this couch.

• 2:43Speaker 03

  I know.

• 2:45Speaker 02

  You interviewed my favorite person of all time and she didn't even know. And people who know me would probably not believe who I'm gonna say.

• 2:53Bunnie XO?

  Who, who, who?

• 2:54Speaker 02

  Renee.

• 2:55Bunnie XO?

  Graziano? Oh, she is the best human in the world.

• 3:00Speaker 02

  I was like, well, I was like.

• 3:01Bunnie XO?

  She would love you guys. I gotta introduce you guys. She has a podcast.

• 3:05Speaker 02

  I'm in love.

• 3:05Bunnie XO?

  I'm gonna hook you guys up with her.

• 3:06Speaker 02

  I'm in love with her. I'm like, I don't care.

• 3:08Speaker 03

  Wait a minute now. He said I'm in love three times.

• 3:11Bunnie XO?

  I know. I was just about to say.

• 3:12Speaker 03

  See how we got our name.

• 3:13Bunnie XO?

  I heard you have a thing for older women, because Tanya is older than you, correct?

• 3:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:17Bunnie XO?

  And your hall pass, I heard, was Martha Stewart?

• 3:20Speaker 02

  Oh, I have many hall passes.

• 3:21Speaker 03

  Yes, you does. I mean.

• 3:23Speaker 02

  You don't wanna go there.

• 3:24Bunnie XO?

  I do. Let's open it up. Let's open it up.

• 3:27Speaker 03

  I have a short list. He has a long list.

• 3:29Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 3:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 3:30Bunnie XO?

  All right, Tanya, Tanya, who are your hall passes and then we'll get into his?

• 3:33Speaker 03

  Well, I have one guy. He's the guy who was the lead in Tutors.

• 3:37Bunnie XO?

  I don't know who that is.

• 3:38Speaker 03

  John Rhymes.

• 3:38Bunnie XO?

  Tom Rhymes?

• 3:40Speaker 03

  John Rhymes.

• 3:42Bunnie XO?

  Give it a goog. I need a goog.

• 3:43Speaker 03

  I think his name is Reese is a John Reese, whatever.

• 3:46Speaker 02

  Wait, wait. You ever seen August Rush? That movie, August Rush?

• 3:49Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 3:49Speaker 02

  You ever, okay, I'm trying to think of what else he would be.

• 3:52Speaker 03

  Johnny Depp.

• 3:52Bunnie XO?

  Oh, of course.

• 3:53Speaker 03

  That's my guy.

• 3:54Bunnie XO?

  Jay Depp. I mean, 21 Jump Street, Johnny Depp is, you can't even touch him.

• 3:58Speaker 02

  Johnny Depp's my hall pass, too.

• 3:59Speaker 03

  No, no, no.

• 4:00Bunnie XO?

  I actually love Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp, too, because he has makeup on.

• 4:05Speaker 03

  I love, he's dark, you know, he has to have that dark energy. And then I like Idris. Idris is my guy.

• 4:10Bunnie XO?

  I don't know who Idris is.

• 4:11Speaker 02

  Idris Elba?

• 4:12Speaker 03

  Idris Elba.

• 4:13Bunnie XO?

  I need to see both of her.

• 4:14Speaker 03

  He's a British kid. British man.

• 4:15Bunnie XO?

  I love it. And does he have that dark mystique, too?

• 4:18Speaker 03

  He does.

• 4:18Bunnie XO?

  Do you think because you're such a light and like, you almost give me like an empathic?

• 4:22Speaker 03

  I am, yep. I'm an empath.

• 4:24Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, because I'm drawn to dark men, too. My husband, believe it or not, when we first got together, was very, he's always been very light, but he had so many demons that he was battling. And I was like. Let me fix you.

• 4:35Speaker 03

  That's Michael is a dark, he's, he's a Pisces, so.

• 4:38Bunnie XO?

  Oh, he's very emotional.

• 4:40Speaker 03

  Very emotional. He likes to keep everything dark. He doesn't like the lights on. I'm like, what is this? We need to have light. I like everything.

• 4:46Speaker 02

  I'm wearing light colors now.

• 4:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, yesterday.

• 4:48Bunnie XO?

  You, I actually like this, it complements everything.

• 4:50Speaker 03

  They look good.

• 4:51Speaker 02

  I'm trying, I'm trying to do my thing.

• 4:53Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, you guys look so good together. I'm actually a Pisces Venus, so I love my, uh, my love language is of a Pisces. So I get it. We are very deep, um, escapists.

• 5:03Speaker 02

  Come on. It's nothing wrong with that.

• 5:05Speaker 03

  Highly emotional.

• 5:06Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 5:07Speaker 02

  But we're very romantic.

• 5:08Speaker 03

  Very romantic.

• 5:09Bunnie XO?

  We're like, um, hopeless romantics too.

• 5:12Speaker 03

  Yes. And I'm a Libra, so.

• 5:14Bunnie XO?

  Oh, I love that.

• 5:14Speaker 03

  You know, we're the, we're the sign of love, you know, everything. Love, love, love.

• 5:17Bunnie XO?

  And balance.

• 5:18Speaker 03

  And the balance, yeah.

• 5:19Bunnie XO?

  You keep him balanced. I love that.

• 5:21Speaker 02

  Oh, you keep me balanced.

• 5:22Speaker 03

  I do. You know I do.

• 5:23Speaker 02

  This is gonna be a long podcast.

• 5:25Speaker 03

  Say that I don't.

• 5:26Bunnie XO?

  Listen, I watched your TED Talk, okay? She keeps you balanced, sir.

• 5:29Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 5:31Bunnie XO?

  Don't try to backtrack now.

• 5:32Speaker 03

  That's it, that's it. She has footage.

• 5:34Bunnie XO?

  I do. I did my research and I try, and I, listen, I tried to dig for some dirt on y'all, so I expect, I want all the gossip.

• 5:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, I got dirt.

• 5:43Bunnie XO?

  But let's get into your Hall Pass list. So Martha Stewart, so you have a thing for older women. Where do you think this comes from?

• 5:49Speaker 02

  Uh, I think my mom.

• 5:53Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 5:53Speaker 02

  My mother. I mean, like, the values and, and, and just what I was allowed to watch, like what I grew up watching on TV, you know? And so my first ever Hall Pass was Felicia Rashad.

• 6:05Bunnie XO?

  Oh, yeah, I know. Miss Claire Huxtable, yeah.

• 6:08Speaker 02

  God, I mean, like, even right now, I was like, you're Claire.

• 6:11Speaker 03

  He's obsessed. He rolls over in the bed, he's like, look at this. It's like some 90 year old woman. I'm like, great, she's fine.

• 6:17Speaker 02

  I eat Jell pudding in hopes that one day.

• 6:22Bunnie XO?

  She's gonna, she's gonna appear like a snow.

• 6:24Speaker 02

  She's gonna magically appear.

• 6:25Speaker 03

  Absolutely not.

• 6:26Speaker 02

  And I'm like, Claire, you put the Jell pudding into me, you know? Like Claire Huxtable's one. It's gonna be some weird, this is, this, this is gonna be a weird, like, I'm about to snitch on myself.

• 6:36Bunnie XO?

  I love it, I love it.

• 6:37Speaker 02

  Annette Bening.

• 6:39Bunnie XO?

  Oh, Annette Bening is hot, though. That was, wasn't she with, um, Warren Beatty? She was with Warren Beatty for a long time.

• 6:45Speaker 02

  Yes, yes, she was. Uh, her, um.

• 6:50Speaker 02

  Renee?

• 6:51Bunnie XO?

  Renee Graziano, baby. Renee. Renee's coming for you, baby. I'm hooking you guys up.

• 6:57Speaker 02

  Who did you just say? You said?

• 6:58Bunnie XO?

  You know what? Let me see if I could FaceTime Renee really quick.

• 7:01Speaker 03

  Oh, my God.

• 7:01Speaker 02

  How you trying to end my marriage?

• 7:06Bunnie XO?

  Is that okay? Can I FaceTime her? Okay, let me FaceTime. I don't know if she'll answer because she's gonna be like, what in the hell is Bunny FaceTiming Renee for?

• 7:13Speaker 02

  I have no music industry. What do you call it? Crashes?

• 7:18Speaker 03

  You didn't say Doris Day.

• 7:19Bunnie XO?

  Doris Day is hot, man.

• 7:21Speaker 02

  Doris Day is the number two.

• 7:24Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 7:24Bunnie XO?

  Let's see. Let's see if Renee answers. Hopefully she will. If not, I'll text her and tell her to call. Just so you guys.

• 7:30Speaker 02

  Oh, my God.

• 7:32Bunnie XO?

  Hello, beautiful.

• 7:35Speaker 04

  I swear on everything holy, you just ran through my brain today.

• 7:39Bunnie XO?

  Oh. So, we are taught, you're live on the podcast right now. My friends, the Warren Treaty are here, so it's Tanya and Michael Trotter. He's in love with you. You're his hall pass.

• 7:53Speaker 03

  He is.

• 7:54Bunnie XO?

  You are his hall pass. So I was like, you know what?

• 7:58Bunnie XO?

  I was like, Renee has a podcast. We gotta hook you guys up.

• 8:02Speaker 04

  Say, let's do it.

• 8:03Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 8:04Speaker 03

  Just promise me you won't take my husband when we come.

• 8:07Speaker 02

  This is me hugging you right now. All this man is hugging you.

• 8:10Bunnie XO?

  Can you see them?

• 8:12Speaker 02

  She's laughing.

• 8:13Speaker 04

  My grandson's standing behind me going, who's this?

• 8:17Bunnie XO?

  I love it. I'm gonna plug, hi, baby. Hi. Oh, what a cutie pie. All right, I'm gonna plug you guys in.

• 8:23Speaker 03

  That is, that just happened.

• 8:25Speaker 02

  That's why we're here.

• 8:26Bunnie XO?

  I'm gonna plug you guys in. I'm gonna give him your information so you guys can talk about a podcast. All right, bye, baby. I love you so much. I love you. Bye.

• 8:35Speaker 02

  I told you this day was for me.

• 8:36Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 8:37Speaker 03

  It is for you.

• 8:37Speaker 02

  This is why we're here.

• 8:38Speaker 03

  But it's, I called her, so I did this for you. What do I get in return?

• 8:42Speaker 02

  No, no, no.

• 8:43Bunnie XO?

  A menage.

• 8:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, a menage. Do it.

• 8:45Speaker 02

  The universe is working through you.

• 8:47Speaker 03

  I don't like older women, though.

• 8:48Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 8:50Speaker 03

  We gotta have a different kinda.

• 8:53Bunnie XO?

  Tanya said, I don't like older women, though.

• 8:56Speaker 03

  It's not for me. This was, I would just watch.

• 8:58Speaker 02

  But she, okay, so, so I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you the real.

• 9:01Bunnie XO?

  Okay, okay.

• 9:02Speaker 02

  When my mom came home in 95? Was it 95? Okay, so 95, mom came home with this movie and she was like, we're gonna have family movie night. We had never had family movie night, like, ever. I mean, we don't do that. That's not in our family. So my mom put this movie on, my brother, my sister and I were sitting down. And it's Sister Act 2. So I'm like, okay. You know, I'm a big fan of Sister Act, Whoopi Goldberg, you know, the whole nine. I was like, yeah, that's, that's the movie. So 2, I had, I hadn't known that there was a 2. And it was kids, you know, I saw Lauryn Hill, I saw Ryan Tobe, Jennifer Love Hewitt.

• 9:43Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 9:43Speaker 02

  You know, Yo-Yo is in there. I mean, like, everything, like, all the kids. And then this angel came across the screen. And I lie to you not, it was Tanya. And I told my mom and dad, I was like, oh, that's my wife.

• 9:59Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 10:00Speaker 02

  I was nine years old.

• 10:02Bunnie XO?

  I love that.

• 10:03Speaker 02

  And I was like, yeah.

• 10:04Bunnie XO?

  So let me get this right, because I, I did, I, I knew this about you guys, and I thought it was like, the coolest story ever. Just like the, what do they call it? The, um, string theory?

• 10:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:14Bunnie XO?

  Where it's like, you, you see somebody, but you don't know them, and then later on in life, you guys end up together, like.

• 10:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:20Bunnie XO?

  Um, so you were in Sister Act 2.

• 10:23Speaker 03

  I was, yep.

• 10:24Bunnie XO?

  How did you, okay, so you grew up singing, you started, you grew up in, take me on this journey really quick. Let's dive into this, and then we'll, we'll connect it all together.

• 10:32Speaker 03

  Church, you know, grew up in a Baptist church in Washington DC, grew up singing, always singing around in, in the town. Um, always wanting to do music. I can't, since I was eight years old, I can't remember.

• 10:42Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 10:43Speaker 03

  Outside of when I got in college, ever not wanting to do music. It was either that or become an entertainment lawyer.

• 10:48Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 10:48Speaker 03

  Either, either or, you know?

• 10:49Bunnie XO?

  Your father was a police officer, correct?

• 10:51Speaker 03

  My father was a police officer, and he was in the army. He went to the army as well, as Michael did. And I just wanted to do that. My mother was a singer. She sang classical music in Panama, I'm half Latina. And so I grew up hearing all kinds of stuff. And so, um, just moving around DC, and then I met Michael. I did Sister Act, whoa, no, let me just go back. So I did a bunch of performing arts stuff. Get it right to my back. Get it right to the good stuff. And went and auditioned in L.A. for Sister Agmae, got the movie.

• 11:20Bunnie XO?

  How old were you?

• 11:21Speaker 03

  I was seventeen.

• 11:22Bunnie XO?

  Okay, so you were in your teen years already.

• 11:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, I was seventeen and he liked me at eight, so that wouldn't work out, you know? But I went and did that.

• 11:31Bunnie XO?

  Cause you're nine years older than him.

• 11:33Speaker 03

  I'm nine years older than him.

• 11:33Bunnie XO?

  Gotcha.

• 11:34Speaker 03

  This is weird. Yeah, it was real weird. It just seems weird now, you know, you think about it.

• 11:38Bunnie XO?

  I'm almost five years older than Jay, so I get it. Yeah.

• 11:41Speaker 03

  But it's cool, you know? And so I did a record with Island Records when I was seventeen, right after we did the movie.

• 11:47Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 11:47Speaker 03

  And did the whole R&B thing for a couple of years. And that was really fun and cool and was signed to, I don't know if I should say his name, but I was with Diddy for a couple of years.

• 11:56Bunnie XO?

  Really?

• 11:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, I was over there with him and...

• 11:59Bunnie XO?

  All right, so were you signed? So let's rewind it back.

• 12:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:02Bunnie XO?

  So you grew up in Washington, D.C. with your family, so you kind of grew up in the suburbs. We're just painting a picture for everybody here, cause I know that you had a completely different upbringing, right? So you grew up in the suburbs, you know, you were singing, you were doing acting, doing movies. What were you, what was it like with your family growing up? Like, were you guys a close knit family?

• 12:22Speaker 03

  We were. My mom and dad divorced when I was like eight, so it wasn't like the perfect picture, painted picture. But I spent a lot of time in New Bern, North Carolina with my grandparents and my cousins and stuff like that. So the family was very tight.

• 12:35Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 12:35Speaker 03

  You know, my friends, I didn't have friends outside of my neighbor next door because all my friends were my cousins, you know? And that's how, I thought it was summer camp, but it wasn't summer camp. It was hanging out with my cousins and, you know, my grandparents. So I had that lifestyle and went to public schools, went to Catholic schools and everything. And it was just, it was just great, you know? And my parents, when they divorced, I was kind of like, you know, as a kid, you know, I'd really use music to be that thing that kind of carried me through that pain, you know? Because every child, they go through a divorce. You see a happy family and then it ends up being not a happy family.

• 13:12Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 13:12Speaker 03

  You go through that transition. So I had that transition happen for me and but again, music was always that thing that kept me and I would always find a talent show or something to do, you know, that had me busy.

• 13:25Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 13:25Speaker 03

  It was modeling, it was in pageants, whatever. I was doing the thing.

• 13:29Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 13:29Speaker 03

  Just to keep me busy from what was going on in my own house.

• 13:32Bunnie XO?

  Did you always have that voice? Cause you have a very powerful voice.

• 13:36Speaker 03

  Oh, thank you.

• 13:37Bunnie XO?

  It's so good.

• 13:38Speaker 03

  Since I was eight.

• 13:39Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 13:40Speaker 03

  I think um, how I figured out I could sing was crazy because my brother was the singer of the family. He was the famous one, you know, in churches, there's always the famous.

• 13:48Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 13:50Speaker 03

  There's the one everybody goes to. And so there was this one Sunday morning, I had to be about maybe seven. And I, we're four years apart, um, and my brother was thirteen or fourteen and I remember him just lighting the church up. Like people were falling out, they were like rolling around on the ground, you know, typical Baptist church thing. And I was like, man, whatever he's doing to make people feel like that, I want to do that. So I remember going home that weekend, I said to him, you know, how do you do what you do? You know, can you show me how to do it? And he was working some little job in the city and went out and got me Whitney Houston's record.

• 14:26Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 14:27Speaker 03

  And Jennifer Holliday, who was a singer in the eighties, and he was like, now, if you want to do this, he was like, I want to hear you sing something that sounds like her or something that like sounds like this. If you can't sing any of those songs, you need to forget about being a singer. I was like, really? Just that kind of drop.

• 14:43Bunnie XO?

  No pressure, no pressure, bro.

• 14:45Speaker 03

  So I went on the path, you know, of just studying with my little vinyl downstairs in the basement and singing at the top of my lungs, you know, to hit those notes. And my brother was the one that kind of like pushed me into wanting to do it. And I always knew, um, once that voice came, I was like, this is it. And I found it just by looking at him saying, I want to do that, you know?

• 15:06Bunnie XO?

  Oh, what's your favorite Whitney Houston song?

• 15:08Speaker 03

  Oh, my God, it's so many.

• 15:10Bunnie XO?

  I know. I mean, how can you pick just one? What's your favorite Whitney Houston song to sing?

• 15:15Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 15:15Bunnie XO?

  Ooh.

• 15:17Speaker 05

  That's a hard one. Let me see. I, I love, didn't we almost have it all?

• 15:22Bunnie XO?

  Oh my gosh, so good. I just got goosebumps.

• 15:24Speaker 05

  Yeah, I love that one. I love, um, All The Man I Need.

• 15:29Bunnie XO?

  Well, you know, Miss Tanya, I'm gonna ask you to sing a little snippet so everybody can hear, so everybody can hear your voice.

• 15:35Speaker 05

  I'm not good with lyrics, so.

• 15:37Bunnie XO?

  Oh dude, just do whatever you can because that voice, people need to hear it. I mean, I know they got to hear it on, you know, on your records and stuff like that, but I need, we need to hear it in studio.

• 15:47Speaker 05

  Okay, oh god. Let me see.

• 15:48Bunnie XO?

  I've got to hear it at, at award shows and you guys are phenomenal.

• 15:52Speaker 05

  Oh, okay, okay.

• 15:55Speaker 05

  Just threw me on the spot. Okay, let me see, um.

• 15:58Bunnie XO?

  It's what I do, baby.

• 15:58Speaker 05

  Let me see, uh, I'm gonna do, um, what's the one we just did? Uh, I Always Love You.

• 16:05Bunnie XO?

  Okay, okay.

• 16:06Speaker 05

  I'll do just a little piece of it.

• 16:07Bunnie XO?

  Which is a Dolly Parton original.

• 16:08Speaker 05

  It's a Dolly Parton original.

• 16:08Bunnie XO?

  We love Dolly.

• 16:09Speaker 05

  Yeah, we do that.

• 16:10Speaker 03

  Why can't you do the verse to the, All The Man I Need?

• 16:13Speaker 05

  Cause I don't know if I even know all the lyrics.

• 16:16Speaker 03

  All that stuff.

• 16:17Speaker 05

  Oh, okay. No, cause I only know that part.

• 16:20Speaker 03

  Do what you want to do. Do what you do.

• 16:22Bunnie XO?

  I was so excited. I was holding my breath.

• 16:24Speaker 05

  Okay, um.

• 16:27Speaker 05

  If I should stay,

• 16:36Speaker 05

  I would only be in your way. So I'll go. But I know, I'll think of you every step of the way, the way.

• 17:15Speaker 05

  And I.

• 17:22Speaker 05

  I will always love you. Will always love you. I will always love you.

• 17:52Bunnie XO?

  Look at my arms. Look at my arms. My nipples are hard.

• 17:57Bunnie XO?

  My dog even woke up and was like, hello? Like, this is crazy. Tanya.

• 18:06Bunnie XO?

  Michael, do you make her sing you to sleep at night?

• 18:09Speaker 03

  No, I do other things.

• 18:11Bunnie XO?

  Yes, yes, I do. Yes, I do.

• 18:14Speaker 03

  I have to do other things at night.

• 18:16Bunnie XO?

  Oh, do tell.

• 18:19Speaker 02

  That's the thing in the house.

• 18:20Speaker 03

  I don't.

• 18:21Bunnie XO?

  Really? Why do you think that is?

• 18:24Speaker 03

  I don't know. I think because it's work.

• 18:26Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 18:27Speaker 03

  And because.

• 18:28Bunnie XO?

  I respect that.

• 18:29Speaker 03

  I'm like, we, you know, you know, the life, we're doing this 24/7.

• 18:33Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 18:33Speaker 03

  So when I come home and now he's taking this away from me, I'm like, I want to clean and I want to do all the household stuff and.

• 18:40Speaker 02

  Wait, I'm taking it away from me? You fucked up and you told me to get out.

• 18:45Speaker 03

  No, you know what? It's only.

• 18:47Bunnie XO?

  Listen, we have one too, and I understand where you're coming from because sometimes it's like therapeutic for us to clean. So I'll clean before the maids come over.

• 18:55Speaker 03

  That's what I did.

• 18:56Bunnie XO?

  Like last night, I cleaned the bathroom and Jay walked in, he goes, did you clean the bathroom? I go, yeah. He goes, you did better than the maids did. I don't know if we're allowed to call them maids anymore. What do we call them? Housekeepers?

• 19:05Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 19:05Bunnie XO?

  Housekeepers. Housekeepers. So, yeah, so he's like, you cleaned better than the housekeepers did, you know?

• 19:11Speaker 03

  That's what happened before we came here. I like cleaned up and then some people are pulling up. I'm like, who are these people? And our daughter's like, I think that's here to come to clean up. I'm like, I just cleaned up.

• 19:20Bunnie XO?

  It was hard for me to give into that too, in the, in the very beginning too. Like I was just like, I know, I just feel like, I feel like my womanly duties are being taken from me. But now I'm like, oh, Lord, when are they gonna be here? Tuesday, cuz I'm, you know, your schedule gets so packed and you have so much to do. And honestly, you deserve that because you guys do work so hard and you're on the road. So don't, you know, mistake someone helping you as like a weakness because it's not. We need that.

• 19:46Speaker 03

  It's so hard to accept help. You know, when you've come, because we, you know, our story is so weird, you know, crazy. We've been homeless. We went through the whole.

• 19:53Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, we're gonna get into that.

• 19:55Speaker 03

  So it's just been like really crazy to just now receive.

• 19:59Bunnie XO?

  To just be able to sit back and kind of be in a safe space. Yeah, for sure. So you said that you signed with Diddy. How old were you when you signed with Diddy? And was it Bad Boy that you signed with?

• 20:09Speaker 03

  I was with Bad Boy. I was with him for six, five years.

• 20:12Bunnie XO?

  Okay, awesome.

• 20:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 20:14Bunnie XO?

  How was that, working with him? Do you, is, was it?

• 20:17Speaker 03

  You know, I was just talking to my old manager. During the Biggie era. During the Biggie era.

• 20:21Bunnie XO?

  Oh, we were just talking about Biggie this morning.

• 20:23Speaker 03

  So, you know, Biggie and everybody that was there in the 90s, we, we all got to work together and party together and stuff like that.

• 20:30Bunnie XO?

  How was it meeting, uh, Biggie?

• 20:32Speaker 03

  Great. I mean, he was funny. He was, he was a genius on the studio with no, you know, lyrics and stuff and just rip it, you know? And so.

• 20:41Bunnie XO?

  To be able to freestyle like that is a talent.

• 20:43Speaker 03

  Crazy. And Puffy was interesting because being with him was like.

• 20:48Bunnie XO?

  To say the least.

• 20:49Speaker 03

  You know, he, he was, um, my, my manager said this, we didn't see this Puffy that people are talking about now. I never saw him drink. I never saw him smoke. Maybe he did. I don't know. But I never saw that guy. And being around him was kind of like being at school. Because you were literally learning on the job training how to market. I mean, this guy, this is a guy that would have a party and literally be on the streets with his flyers and tickets, passing them out to people. And at the end of the night, the party would be packed. And I'm like, wow, he got all these people here because he was on the streets earlier than four, three or four hours. So I think with the, everything has good and bad, you know, that comes with it. And to me, it was just a learning experience and I'm, I'm really, just really appalled at the stuff that I'm hearing about now.

• 21:34Bunnie XO?

  I feel like, um. You know, I feel like maybe before all the fame and the ego and you know, I think with a certain level of just money shit kinda gets weird for some people. And you know, like I said, this is just, you know, me saying this. I don't know Diddy personally and I can't speak for him. Uh, but I think, you know, maybe somewhere along the line, something switched, but thankfully you didn't have that experience with him.

• 21:59Speaker 03

  I never had that experience and I had protection too. I was young, but I had a manager that was like, "Oh, you're not going to that party" or "No, you need to be, you need to be in the bed," you know, that kinda thing. So I think I was protected and a lot of those, God, you know, just protecting me from whatever was happening and the people that had to experience it. I really feel, feel bad for them, you know?

• 22:18Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. So you met Michael when you were how old?

• 22:22Speaker 03

  How old was I? Thirty, thirty? We've been together 14 years, so I was thirty-six.

• 22:30Bunnie XO?

  Okay. So what we'll do is we'll, we'll go over to your upbringing and we'll kinda bring you guys in together. So you grew up in the streets of Cleveland.

• 22:39Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 22:39Bunnie XO?

  Take me on this journey because that's completely different than what baby girl over here grew up in.

• 22:45Speaker 02

  It's wild. I don't really, you know, Cleveland is not a, a thing I talk about often. So, and I don't really get asked that, but this is interesting, you know? So grew up in Cleveland. I grew up in a strict Christian household, Seventh-day Adventist household, and it was like very cultish to me, you know? Like I was telling you, Friday night sundown, all the way to Saturday night sundown, it's nothing but like God. So you can't do anything, you know, you can't watch TV. Uh, I couldn't go outside and play with friends and kids and none of that stuff. It was just church, church, church and, and um.

• 23:22Bunnie XO?

  That's heavy.

• 23:23Speaker 02

  It's, it's deep. I mean, like it, it, it, it really, uh, it, it really altered my life for a minute there, you know?

• 23:32Bunnie XO?

  Well, it makes you angry.

• 23:33Speaker 02

  It, I was very, like, on top of. It was a big contrast to what real life was.

• 23:41Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 23:42Speaker 02

  You know, I mean, Friday to Saturday is like, hallelujah, Jesus, Jesus. And then for the rest of the week, you're just living like shit. So it's like, I don't get how this is panning things out. And, um, you know, um, in the Adventist faith, when you come into the church, you say, happy Sabbath. You know, so everything is like, happy Sabbath. Everybody's putting on his painted face and saying they're happy. And, you know, the divorce rate is extremely high, you know, and the, and the drugs, the drug rate is like super high, you know, um, and even in my household. So my father was a, a alcoholic and a drug addict, but he was a school teacher as well.

• 24:23Speaker 02

  So I started rebelling heavy, you know, he and my mom were, were clashing. My mom was, you know, she puts Jesus on everything. And so she's not really, uh, being protected. I'm her protection. Um, and so, you know, I, I, I turned to the streets early, you know, and, um,

• 24:43Bunnie XO?

  Was it an abusive relationship also?

• 24:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but only when he would, would get high, you know, when the drugs happened, he's a different dude.

• 24:52Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 24:53Speaker 02

  You know, and, um,

• 24:54Bunnie XO?

  That's gotta be such, uh, for a child, that has to be such a, a mind fuck. Because it's like, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And then there's abuse, alcoholism and drug, you know, and it's just kinda, when I, I grew up in a very, we talked about this briefly before. I grew up in a very strict Pentecostal home and my dad was a womanizer, cheating and like, uh, and I would just be like, I learned about hypoc, you know, hypocriticalness, if that's even a word, about being a hypocrite very early. And it made me so angry because I'm like, everybody here is fake, you know? And it just makes you, I thi, I feel like it contributes to rebellion as a child.

• 25:30Speaker 02

  It does. And it, it, it teaches you also how to lie.

• 25:34Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 25:34Speaker 02

  You know, and, and, and in my household, I mean, like, uh, My, my, I'm the oldest of all my siblings too. And it's just, just three of us, but I'm the oldest and my mother, uh, her background, she couldn't tell the truth about what was going on, uh, to her parents and her sisters and her brother, you know, so all her friends, uh, and I became my mom's confidant, like, very early, you know, like I'm talking about, my mother would just talk to me about stuff at like four years old.

• 26:06Bunnie XO?

  That's a heavy load.

• 26:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, and I can remember every conver- like, we, we talk, I can remember every conversation I've ever had with my mom. She's my, my mom is, you know.

• 26:16Bunnie XO?

  Your best friend.

• 26:16Speaker 02

  My, my lady and, um, um, but I also learned responsibility very quick. We, we just had this family conversation about this. I had my first real job when I was five years old.

• 26:32Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 26:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, I would go to the corner store in our neighborhood, Mr. Pharaoh's Corner Store, and I asked him for a job, cause you know, I thought, I didn't know about the drugs at that age. I thought we were just poor and broke and, and dad was just stressed out and, and needing help, you know, I would always hear him talk about, he's not, he didn't have enough money. And so the job I had, I would tie the boxes from the shipments that would come in, I would zip tie the boxes and then drag them across the street to the city, um, dump. And I would do this.

• 27:12Bunnie XO?

  At five?

• 27:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, at five and I would get paid eight dollars, um, every, a day when I would go and do it. So, um, I would do that and, and then I would buy a loaf of bread, I'd buy, uh, bologna, cheese, uh, punch, and I would have like some money left over to buy like Little Debbie snack cakes for, um, me and my brother.

• 27:39Bunnie XO?

  Breaks my heart.

• 27:40Speaker 02

  My mom. Well, my mom didn't realize that I was that young, you know, we were bragging about it and she was like, yeah, cause he, he had his first job, he was, he was a young man. And I said to her, how old do you think I was? She was like, oh, he was young, he had to be about like 11 or 12. And I was like, well, mom. Remember how you you sent me to the corner store? Because you were pregnant with Deb, which is my sister, and she just wasn't, it just wasn't moving. So my mother had me buy all these Mars chocolate bars. Because when she would eat the chocolate, my sister would respond in her belly. And she was like, yes, I remember that. I was like, now, Mom, Debbie and I are six years apart. And she was like.

• 28:23Speaker 02

  And it it shocked her. All the trauma blocked her from reality. It blocked her from what really took place, you know, and my dad. But, you know, I turned to streets and Cleveland had a strong gang life. You know, it it it still does in some ways. And the gang association is called Folks in Cleveland. And I had a cousin who was very high up in the gang life in Cleveland. And so I got my little initiation and I started selling, you know, I mean, I had.

• 29:04Bunnie XO?

  How old were you whenever you got initiated in?

• 29:06Speaker 02

  I was 11.

• 29:08Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 29:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, I I got stabbed when I was 12. And I think that was the turning point. Like, I was laying in the streets of Cleveland bleeding out. And my cousin had been killed. So my mom then was like, we need to get out of Cleveland and get to DC. And she was trying to, at that time, she wanted to escape my dad. This was like the straw that broke the camel's back. Okay, my baby is like, he's gonna die if he stays here, you know.

• 29:41Bunnie XO?

  Were you in school during this or did you have dropped out?

• 29:44Speaker 02

  You know, it's crazy. I was in school, but not to be in school, you know what I'm saying?

• 29:49Bunnie XO?

  Right, just doing, going through the motions.

• 29:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, in fact, when we finally went to DC, which was 96.

• 29:59Speaker 02

  I I stayed in DC to about ninety eight before my mother sent me back to Cleveland to live with my dad because I was wilding. I mean, like.

• 30:09Bunnie XO?

  Well, I mean, you you talk, I I know you're very open about the PTSD and stuff after you had gotten out of the Iraq and which we'll talk about that. But I feel like you went in having PTSD.

• 30:20Speaker 02

  I had I had a lot of different things, but I never knew how to identify them.

• 30:27Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 30:28Speaker 02

  You know, and yeah, PTSD is.

• 30:30Bunnie XO?

  I mean, being stabbed at twelve. Yeah. That's trauma. Yeah. Like. Yeah. Emotional, physical, spiritual. Yeah. You know. You don't know who you're dealing with, you know. Yeah, I mean, you're so young to you. You're not even supposed to be able to process that kind of violence at twelve. Yeah.

• 30:46Speaker 02

  But I think I was able to identify that because I had seen it so early with my with my pop, you know, and um. But it was weird because when I came back home to live with my dad is when I finally learned my dad.

• 31:02Bunnie XO?

  How old were you?

• 31:02Speaker 02

  I was about tw- um, maybe twelve or thirteen when I went back to Cleveland.

• 31:09Bunnie XO?

  Gotcha.

• 31:09Speaker 02

  And um, my dad shared, you know, everybody's got a story. And my father finally opened up to me. He got some help a little bit at this time and uh, told me that he had been on drugs since he was like thirteen. Like every drug you can imagine, my dad had already done it like. And uh, he was hiding, trying to get some pain out of him. And my father, he comes from a uh,

• 31:39Speaker 02

  you know, he's got a big family that he comes from, uh, thirteen siblings. But not all thirteen are from his father, you know. And the first set of kids, uh, his brother, which was my uncle Andrew, uh, had actually raped my dad. And so that's what, uh, Andrew had mental, mental, mental issues, mental health problems. So that's what sent my father down that path and, and, um, but I'm, I'm happy to report even today, you know? So mom and dad had got divorced and then rekindled and got back together. And to, to look at my dad or to hear him talk or to anything, you know, you would, you would think I'm lying

• 32:24Speaker 02

  because he's so like

• 32:26Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 32:26Speaker 02

  Free, sober, clean, you know?

• 32:29Bunnie XO?

  Yay, praise Jesus though, right?

• 32:32Speaker 02

  He's dope, you know, he's the dad today, he's the father I wish I had growing up, but I need him now. So that's, that's what, you know?

• 32:42Bunnie XO?

  And to break that, that trauma and that gen- that generational trauma, it sounds like from his family, like he, he's doing it. And you know, like you're doing it too. So you guys are like the, the cycle breakers in your guys' families.

• 32:55Speaker 02

  I remember telling my father, you know, I was like, um, when I found out that my dad had went bankrupt. And then, um, we lost everything, you know, and so dad and mom, you know, section eight and all that kind of thing. And then finally rebuilding enough to like get apartments and stuff. So my father around two thousand and fifteen had rebuilt his life so much that he had just bought a house.

• 33:23Bunnie XO?

  Oh, go dad.

• 33:25Speaker 02

  And I remember finding out, like, I was like, what are y'all doing? And he was like, oh, me and your mom, I'm just moving our stuff in. I'm moving stuff in the way. He was like, oh yeah, I bought a house. I'm like, what the fuck do you mean you bought? You didn't even, and but, but I remember telling my dad that night, I was like, dad, you just broke a curse in all of our lives.

• 33:45Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 33:45Speaker 02

  Now I can make something happen with myself, cause we were like homeless from like two thousand and ten.

• 33:55Bunnie XO?

  2013. So let's, let's circle back to like, so it all comes to fruition. So you got, you saw her in Sister Act. You told your family, like, this is the woman I'm gonna marry.

• 34:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:07Bunnie XO?

  You, you know, they didn't think anything of it.

• 34:09Speaker 02

  No.

• 34:10Bunnie XO?

  You, you know, are going through your shit. She's going through her shit. Everybody's growing up and stuff like that. When, tell me about how you guys met and where you guys met.

• 34:19Speaker 02

  Well, it's crazy because um, I had, so I have to start here with my, my first daughter. You know, I had a, a baby.

• 34:31Speaker 02

  And I had dropped out of high school, you know, so high school was just done for me and I had no, no aspirations of going back or trying to do anything. So I took my GED test and they made me take this test three different times because my score was way too high to be a high school dropout. I spent like three weeks in the ninth grade and I was like, alright, I'm done. So um.

• 34:55Bunnie XO?

  I got my GED too.

• 34:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:56Bunnie XO?

  Passed it the first time.

• 34:57Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 34:57Bunnie XO?

  Look at that. I couldn't believe it. I was shocked. I was like, how did I do this? Genius.

• 35:01Speaker 02

  And it's crazy that they say it takes eight hours. It's like it's an eight hour test. I did it in like five. I mean, I was trying to get the hell up out of there.

• 35:08Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 35:09Speaker 02

  But uh, I had an option to go to college or to go to the army. And I had my, my, my baby and I was like, I refuse to raise like a bastard kid. Like, I'm not gonna put her through that. I don't care.

• 35:23Bunnie XO?

  Which is amazing considering how you grew up, that you had that dedication to be a father. But honestly, I think it's probably because your dad, you know, no matter what you guys went through, still was, you know, your dad. Yeah.

• 35:37Speaker 02

  I mean, but you're right because I remember the, the fondest memory I have of my dad, other than what we're creating now, is this. We were starving. I mean, like, we were looking in cupboards. It was like a snowstorm in Cleveland. We had absolutely nothing in the house. And my father was supposed to be bringing groceries home. Six o'clock PM comes, no dad. Eight PM, 10 PM, no dad.

• 36:12Speaker 02

  One AM. I remember my father. Literally, I, we can hear his town car, his Lincoln town car pull up. It's not tuned, so you definitely can hear everything. And I hear the fumbling of the keys and, you know, I'm like running downstairs because I mean, he's still my dad. I love dad.

• 36:32Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 36:33Speaker 02

  And I remember the door opening and my father falling into the house. Groceries everywhere. And he lifts his head up. It's so cinematic. He lifts his head up and he looks me in my eyes and I'm looking at him and I'm like, this is the first time I encounter my father and realize he's high out of his fucking mind. I mean, his eyes are bloodshot red, sweat is everywhere in a snowstorm. He's sweating profusely. And he looks at me and I look at him and he's like,

• 37:11Speaker 02

  and he just shakes his head and he gets up and he crawls back out to go back on the bench. We don't see him for another week.

• 37:20Speaker 02

  And I told my mom, my mom was like, how do you feel about this? What do you, what is on your mind? And I was like, Mom, I can't believe that he cared that much. That even in the middle of his binge, he remembers like, I have to stop for this second. Like, that is a big deal for an addict, you know?

• 37:43Bunnie XO?

  Oh, absolutely.

• 37:44Speaker 02

  So for me, I hold that and I held that and that reminded me that, okay, no matter what, I cannot

• 37:54Speaker 02

  not be with my, my children, my, my daughter. So this beautiful little girl, Michaela.

• 38:01Speaker 02

  I joined the army. Now, I'm from the hood. I don't know shit about politics. I don't know nothing about anything. So I didn't realize I was joining during wartime.

• 38:13Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, one of the craziest times to join the army.

• 38:16Speaker 02

  The wildest war we've ever seen.

• 38:18Bunnie XO?

  Prior to this, was there any music in your life?

• 38:23Speaker 02

  Very, very much so. Of church, like Tanya.

• 38:26Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, okay.

• 38:27Speaker 02

  All my mom and my grandmother, my uncles, they all sing, play instruments and all, all the things. But music stopped for me around the ninth grade.

• 38:37Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 38:38Speaker 02

  You know?

• 38:40Speaker 02

  I just was like, you know what, I gotta go to the army. And that shocked everybody, you know. Took a little bit. I remember when I enlisted in the room on the bus. And I'm like riding away and trying to be hard. I'm like, what the fuck did I just do?

• 38:54Bunnie XO?

  Oh my God, I couldn't imagine. I was listening, because I have listened to a few of you guys' interviews. And I just couldn't imagine signing up and just being taken all the way to a different country. You know, and like, just having to be brave. You know, like, I just couldn't do that.

• 39:13Speaker 02

  And the things that, okay, so, and Tanya is gonna be shocked.

• 39:18Bunnie XO?

  What?

• 39:19Speaker 02

  That I'm gonna talk about this part.

• 39:22Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 39:24Bunnie XO?

  I love that she's just got your back. She's like, okay, here we go.

• 39:27Speaker 02

  I mean, she's, this is really gonna shock her, because it's, uh.

• 39:33Speaker 02

  So.

• 39:35Speaker 02

  My, um. I got my baby in my mind, you know, and before I leave for Iraq, I mean, I'm all over her. That's my, my, my daughter, and I got another one on the way.

• 39:46Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 39:46Speaker 02

  So, it's, it's all clicking to me, like, okay, this is, this is gonna be the rest of my life. But. I'm, I'm a part of 1/6 Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division. We're in Iraq.

• 40:02Bunnie XO?

  Thank you for your service, by the way.

• 40:04Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 40:06Speaker 02

  And my first encounter was with an eight-year-old Iraqi boy.

• 40:12Speaker 02

  And, uh.

• 40:15Speaker 02

  That is where the PTSD came from. It's right there.

• 40:20Speaker 02

  Because. He's eight on paper. But, he's our age in reality. And he's shooting.

• 40:32Speaker 02

  And I've got a decision to make. And either accept that or, you know, take that life. And the latter is the decision that I had to make because it's, at this point, it's between him and Michaela.

• 40:58Speaker 02

  And when those kinds of things happen, they just happen in the war. You, it's, it's a part of war. You just keep rolling. And I wasn't built like that. You know, I mean, the most things I ever did in the streets was fight. And I got, yeah, I got stabbed and, and I, I, I made it, you know, but

• 41:18Speaker 02

  when you have to take a life, it's, it's, it changes you. So it changed me. And then the rest of the fighting changed me and then realizing that um our freedoms do come at a high price. And then when you have a connection with God, you're like, God, like, keep it one hundred with me. How you, how do you really feel about this? Because that's my brother over there. I know that we don't, we don't really act like it right now. And we've got a history of fighting with each other on earth. But the truth is, we're all brothers and sisters. And so

• 41:57Speaker 02

  how do I justify my actions? And when his father and mother are doing the same thing I'm doing, you know, so.

• 42:10Bunnie XO?

  I couldn't imagine.

• 42:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I had a lot to carry into 2010, August 28th, when I met Tanya. And we met at a love festival in Laurel, Maryland.

• 42:26Bunnie XO?

  I want to rewind really quick. Because there is a really, honestly, it's a, it was a beautiful story that kind of made me gasp out loud whenever you talked about writing your first song in Saddam, on Saddam Hussein's piano.

• 42:40Speaker 02

  Yes, yeah.

• 42:42Bunnie XO?

  Like, can we talk about that? Because that's honestly, as much of a monster as he is, it's so, it's a beautiful story.

• 42:48Speaker 02

  You, you, you, you, you, you, yeah, we're definitely, so we, we think very, so, because.

• 42:56Speaker 02

  Every soldier has a profile and the profile is like the height, weight and all things, but it's also likes and quirks and, and so for me, music has always been the thing. And so, uh, when I got to Iraq, uh, I was not a squared away soldier. I was like, I, I joke about it with my union, with everybody, but I'm, I was like the fat, black Gomer Pao. Like this is just what it was. I mean, everybody was like Trotter's gonna get us killed. Like I was not.

• 43:23Bunnie XO?

  Trotter's gonna get us killed?

• 43:24Speaker 02

  I was not squared away at all. Like I, I, and, and, and I did not mind letting everyone know that I was terrified to be in the war. I mean, when we flew in, we were doggy barreling and I, you know, I, I am not ashamed to say I pissed my trousers literally.

• 43:42Bunnie XO?

  Poor baby. I would too, man.

• 43:43Speaker 02

  I mean, it ain't no joke.

• 43:45Bunnie XO?

  I'm going and saying, who needs home cooking? I'm cooking for everybody.

• 43:48Speaker 02

  Really? I was like, why did I not be a cook?

• 43:50Bunnie XO?

  What?

• 43:52Speaker 02

  And, uh, they saw that. And so one of the commanders was like, you know what? We need to find a way to connect with Trotter beyond yelling and all the things that come with the military. And he looked at my file and realized, oh, he likes music and we have Saddam's palace. And Saddam, a lot of people don't know it, but Saddam had pianos everywhere.

• 44:14Bunnie XO?

  Which I never knew. I found that fascinating when I heard you say that.

• 44:18Speaker 02

  And so they took me down in the basement of, of, of the, the Ford operating base, what we call FOB.

• 44:23Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 44:24Speaker 02

  They took us down and took me down in the basement and showed me this piano. And I was like, well, I don't play. And he was like, well, you've got nothing but time. And you know, when you want to find your way back home, come down here and find your way back home, you know, be at peace. This is your space. No one else comes down here. We use it as a chapel and they only come down here on Sundays. So I went down there and that's how I, I really just started teaching myself to play. I started with Lean On Me.

• 44:52Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 44:55Speaker 02

  It it it really helped, you know, and and but it wasn't until that guy was killed to where I really emotionally connected with the piano. And really thought like, okay, you know what? I'm gonna write my first song about this situation. And I did, and I asked my unit if I could could sing it. But there was some weird stuff happening even with that because um the guy I had to go through to get this permission was a guy named Michael Iyer, and he was our sergeant major. And he was about this tall, stocky like Popeye, and a straight up like motherfucker.

• 45:37Bunnie XO?

  Just a gangster.

• 45:38Speaker 02

  Yeah. Oh, my God.

• 45:40Bunnie XO?

  Ready for it.

• 45:41Speaker 02

  You know, like, I'd be like, he was so gang, like, like, he would be, he would be appalled to hear me say this right now, and I, that's what I'm gonna say it. Oh, yeah, we we were like this, but um Michael Iyer was a short, bald head, white male who had no problem with calling you the N word if you got in his nerves. Oh, he would go there with you, but it wasn't like, I didn't feel the ra- like ra- racist. It was like, he grew up in this part of New York, you know what I mean? So it was like one of those things to where I was like, oh, shit, I, you mean, tell me I gotta go through that guy?

• 46:24Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, to get approval for this song.

• 46:27Speaker 02

  And I have to go to him, and you know what he does? He's like, Trotter, wait a minute, can you sing? And I was like, yeah. And I asked him, I was like, but what I want to do also is I want to pray with the unit.

• 46:42Speaker 02

  Because we were, we were hurt.

• 46:46Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 46:46Speaker 02

  And I didn't, I I only knew, the only thing I knew to do in that moment is pray, that's how I was raised. And he was an atheist.

• 46:57Speaker 02

  So again, I'm being set up.

• 47:01Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, the Lord was testing you left and right.

• 47:04Speaker 02

  How about this? At this point, we had no chaplain. Our chaplain was more afraid than I, and he put in an early request to leave. He's like, I'm done. I'm out of here. When the Iraq was at that point, we were like in in a real thick mess.

• 47:22Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. I couldn't imagine living in that fear every day. That's just fight or flight all day long. Just hearing the bombs go off around you, seeing people, you know, dying, falling like flies around you. I could not imagine. So you guys need God in this.

• 47:38Speaker 02

  And we fantasized through movies. But it's nothing like what we what we the cinema that we see.

• 47:48Bunnie XO?

  I could. Yeah, I couldn't imagine.

• 47:50Speaker 02

  But he says to our commander, sir, Trotter wants to pray with the fleet. I'm new to like, no one, don't really know. I mean, I'm in a unit now about three months.

• 48:00Bunnie XO?

  Feel like the guy that peed his pants?

• 48:04Speaker 05

  We should have thrown off the helicopter.

• 48:10Speaker 02

  But I he says, sure, go ahead. And I stand up on this picnic table in Iraq. And this is just, this is a wild wrap up to to.

• 48:18Bunnie XO?

  No, you're good. I love it. I could listen to you guys talk all day.

• 48:21Speaker 02

  I'm on this picnic table and I take my helmet off. And it's 986 soldiers in our battalion and all 986 follow me. This is actually incorrect. We're at war. You don't take off your helmet.

• 48:41Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 48:42Speaker 02

  But again, how I'm raised, when you pray, you take your hat off, you know, do other things. So and then I get down on one knee and all 986 gets down on one knee.

• 48:52Bunnie XO?

  Oh, I got goosebumps.

• 48:54Speaker 02

  And then I lay my weapon down on the table. They lay their weapons down in the sand.

• 49:01Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 49:03Speaker 02

  Which again.

• 49:05Speaker 02

  Is an incorrect thing because you're going to miss fire because your weapon is dirty, blah, blah, blah. But everybody's following the guy that wants to pray. And I remember my prayer because at this point, this is the only way I knew how to pray. But I was like, uh, okay, God, uh, it's your boy. I'm here. We all here. Uh, we don't know what we're doing, but we do know we need you to protect us and to give us a clear path of what we supposed to do. Are we supposed to fight? Are we supposed to talk?

• 49:47Speaker 02

  Whatever it is, but I know we want to make you happy. I was like, and that's it. That's all I got. Amen.

• 49:58Speaker 02

  And we didn't, from that point on, we didn't lose another soldier.

• 50:03Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 50:04Speaker 02

  From that moment on. Yeah.

• 50:06Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my God. That was amazing. Isn't it crazy how we could be so mad at the religion that we were kind of forced to follow?

• 50:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 50:14Bunnie XO?

  But man, when we have that first, you know, that fear, that encounter that we just don't know what to do with, we drop to our knees and pray. Yeah. No, it's crazy. So while he's in the army, doing all this stuff, what are you doing during this time?

• 50:29Speaker 03

  I am having relationship woes. When I say going through shit, I'm like, you know, I was married. I was in abusive relationship. I was living on a farm, caring for animals and all that kind of stuff and just really trying to find myself. You know, I started music so young and, and that's all I ever wanted to do that I never really knew how to be a person.

• 50:53Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 50:54Speaker 03

  You know, I didn't know what it felt like to just be, you know? Music was it. And I think that's probably why I don't sing around the house because that was, I think, you know, you grow up and you're like, I gotta make it. I gotta make it. I gotta make it. So you're always rehearsing. You're always practicing. My mom was like a drill sergeant. I mean, you clean the windows with vinegar and water. You know, there was everything.

• 51:13Bunnie XO?

  Do the white glove.

• 51:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, with the white glove. Everything was white around the house. So, you know, I couldn't go outside and play like regular kids could because she was just that strict. And so I was just in relationship drama, you know?

• 51:25Bunnie XO?

  So when did you get out of your record deal and why? What, what made that decision?

• 51:31Speaker 03

  God, actually, I felt like.

• 51:34Bunnie XO?

  So sorry, guys.

• 51:35Speaker 03

  Let me, let me back up. I felt when I went to get my record deal, I actually went and sat down with the pastor and asked him if it was okay for me to sing secular music. So that already tells you how

• 51:45Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 51:46Speaker 03

  strict that was.

• 51:47Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 51:47Speaker 03

  So when I was in it and I was recording, because this was my second record deal. I was signed to Island first. I put out a record in London that then worked itself to the United States.

• 51:58Bunnie XO?

  Gotcha.

• 51:58Speaker 03

  And then signed with Puffy. And by that time, I was kind of over it. To be very honest, I signed the deal. Once I got in it, I was like, Biggie died three weeks after I got the record deal. And we were just recording like a hundred songs. And I'm like, I'm so over this. Like, I don't feel the passion anymore. They were trying to do the whole label thing. What kind of artist are you going to be? I didn't necessarily want to do R and B all the time. I wanted to take, and I was listening to all kinds of music. I was listening to country and rock and all kinds of music, so.

• 52:28Bunnie XO?

  And when you're signed to a label, they kind of try to put you in a box.

• 52:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, you're in a box.

• 52:31Bunnie XO?

  And half the time, it's not the box you want to be in.

• 52:33Speaker 03

  It's not the box.

• 52:34Bunnie XO?

  It's what they want you to be in.

• 52:35Speaker 03

  Yes. And, and you become this doll baby that they put on the chair and they're like, okay, you're gonna look like this. You're gonna sound like this. And I was like, nope, before I do that, I'll, I'm out, you know? So they spent a ton of money on the record and I got out of the deal. And then I just went into a really dark depression. I mean, it was really dark. I mean, suicide attempts, you know, depression. And once that happened.

• 52:58Bunnie XO?

  Why do you think that was? Why do you think you went? And I love how she skips over her trauma so fast. She's like, yeah, so this happened and I was this.

• 53:05Speaker 03

  Yes, yes, she was.

• 53:06Bunnie XO?

  I mean, I'm the same way too, though. I'll be like, I'll be like, I sawed my vagina lip off, but like, can we order pizza? And people will be like, wait.

• 53:13Speaker 03

  Wait a minute, we just talked about your vagina.

• 53:15Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 53:16Speaker 03

  Let's talk about that. I think it was, I think it's not being in tune.

• 53:22Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 53:23Speaker 03

  You know, when you're not in tune with who you are and what you were created to be, and then you put God on top of all that, you become a robot.

• 53:31Bunnie XO?

  And fearful.

• 53:32Speaker 03

  You don't become a person.

• 53:32Bunnie XO?

  You live in fear, too.

• 53:33Speaker 03

  And you don't become a person. You are open to everything because you don't know who you are. You know what you do, but you don't know who you are.

• 53:42Bunnie XO?

  And also being under your mom's thumb like that

• 53:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 53:45Bunnie XO?

  is, you know, you were never able to think for yourself.

• 53:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 53:48Bunnie XO?

  You know, so that kind of, you've probably felt squashed a lot

• 53:52Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 53:52Bunnie XO?

  because you didn't have a voice.

• 53:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, you have to have a voice, you know? And I think that was a part of the relationships I was going through. You know, the, well, I was in a relationship when I tried to commit suicide because I felt squashed. You know, I was like, I just want out, you know? Not just out from this, but out from me. Out from all this pain that I feel that you don't think you would feel if you didn't grow up with trauma, you know? So I'm creating trauma.

• 54:18Bunnie XO?

  You do have some, some trauma.

• 54:20Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. You're creating trauma as you go into these crazy relationships. Or if you don't process what your parents were through with a divorce. This is still traumatic to you. It may not be you getting stabbed, but

• 54:31Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 54:32Speaker 03

  your family being uprooted and you, your, your family going through a divorce is a huge trauma to a child.

• 54:37Bunnie XO?

  Well, even having a mom that's overbearing is traumatic. And my stepmother was the same way.

• 54:42Speaker 03

  Very, very traumatic.

• 54:43Bunnie XO?

  I mean, I had no privacy. They would take doors off the hinges.

• 54:46Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 54:46Bunnie XO?

  That stuff really affects you as you get older. And you don't realize it until you're in your darkest hour and you're like, why am I feeling like this? But it's because we've just shoved it down so deep.

• 54:56Speaker 03

  Yeah. And that was it for me. I was like, this is it. You know, I don't wanna, I don't wanna feel like this. I don't wanna be in this. I'd just rather in this after all this good outside stuff is happening. And then, you know, after that last bad relationship before I met Michael, I went to work. I literally was like, I'm getting a therapist. I was a praise and worship leader. And on Monday morning, I go to a therapist.

• 55:21Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 55:21Speaker 03

  And I realized, I was like, I don't need God in that way anymore. So I stopped being a worship leader.

• 55:28Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 55:28Speaker 03

  And I went strictly into like meditation, realizing that I was this empath kid, realizing that I was a healer, you know, in different ways than what the church kind of taught me I was. And all the stuff that made me feel spooky and weird because there was nobody around me like that. I literally just tapped into it.

• 55:45Bunnie XO?

  Oh, I love that. I feel like um, religion is religious and spirituality is spiritual.

• 55:52Speaker 03

  Completely.

• 55:53Bunnie XO?

  And you don't have to be religious to be spiritual. I preach that on this podcast all the time.

• 55:58Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 55:59Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, because I feel like religion is so fear-based, whereas spirituality is so much more fluid and loving. And I really feel like that's what Jesus and just higher beings are all about is leading with love. Not fear, not anger, not ruling with an iron fist. Jesus was a freaking Capricorn, okay? We know he smoked weed. We know he did something. He drank wine for sure.

• 56:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, he started burning bush and no one was around.

• 56:26Speaker 03

  You're walking on water, uh, hello?

• 56:29Bunnie XO?

  I mean, he was, I think he was a cool dude, you know? I don't think he was this rigid human that they are, you know, they tried, this rigid being that they tried to make him out to be.

• 56:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 56:38Bunnie XO?

  When you tried to commit suicide, thankfully that didn't work.

• 56:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 56:43Bunnie XO?

  Did you realize, did you get out of that relationship then that you were in? And then you got into another one that was?

• 56:48Speaker 03

  Another bad one.

• 56:49Bunnie XO?

  Oh, no. So can you, can you take me on that journey too? Because I feel like women need to hear your story about being a domestic violence survivor.

• 56:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, and it came in different forms, you know, um, the first one was physical. So I did my first tour on crutches. Yeah.

• 57:05Bunnie XO?

  How could you leave that out? That is crazy.

• 57:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, I did my first tour on, on crutches and, you know, left immediately after that happened. And I hid that from like, you know, my family as long as I could. I wasn't in it a long time, but the trauma was enough, you know, for it to.

• 57:21Bunnie XO?

  What, he broke your foot?

• 57:23Speaker 03

  Well, I was running, almost getting, about to get thrown off a ten-floor, ten-floor apartment building. Trying to run from him and I ran, ran, ran and hit my foot on a stairmaster. Remember the old stairmasters?

• 57:37Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my gosh, yes.

• 57:38Speaker 03

  Got caught in it and it just. So I hopped down the hallway to the elevator. It was like a movie, you know, I'm like dragging my leg trying to get out, get away. And so that happened. That was the first bad one. And

• 57:50Speaker 02

  He was coming out the cars?

• 57:51Speaker 03

  Oh, the car, oh, the cars. He stole, he took my car. I was trying to get away. I'm in the car driving and runs it into a wall. You know, I was able to call my sister and say, come get me, you know, this fool is crazy. She comes to get me. He runs up because we, we called the police by that time and then, but they can't find him. Goes to my mom's house down the street and once they're gone, he shows up there. You know, so it was just very dark. And

• 58:18Speaker 05

  Not the kind of dark we like.

• 58:19Speaker 03

  Not the

• 58:20Speaker 05

  Not the Johnny Depp dark.

• 58:21Speaker 03

  Kind of dark. But, but I learned, you know, every situation you learn what you saw in them and you're like, okay, well, the next one I'm not gonna, I see that sign. But then you go to the next one and you don't see the rest of the signs. So the other one was more like a friend. You know, almost like you're running from a, a, a, a bad situation. It was a friend. And then I had a son. And so I had, and he wasn't abusive at all. He was my friend and we're still friends to this day. And I have a, my son, Tony, Antonio, who was the light of my life and, you know, and he's bea-, he's a beautiful, beautiful son right. He is so great. And Both of them are beautiful. But still didn't get the work done. Yeah, he's a great, he's Tony's a great dad.

• 59:06Speaker 03

  Still didn't do the work, you know, had a baby and still didn't do the psychological work that needed to be done. So of course you would have been another bad relationship, you know, and that was bad, didn't work out. And right before I met Michael, I was in another one that was bad. And right after that one, I was like, that's it.

• 59:27Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 59:28Speaker 03

  And here we go. Therapy is, now I'm pulling it back into the worship part. And I went, got off the farm, left him, left everything and I was homeless. I left everything. And stayed with my mom and across the street from her house was this therapist. I didn't have a car, so I would walk across the street, go to my therapy sessions three or four times a week.

• 59:50Speaker 05

  Hey, but you were doing it.

• 59:51Speaker 03

  You know, I was doing it, living off my little residual checks, you know, from movies and doing a movie and, and music. And I met Michael.

• 1:00:02Speaker 05

  Sorry, he's over here snoring.

• 1:00:03Speaker 03

  I love it.

• 1:00:05Bunnie XO?

  So you and Michael have an interesting story of when you guys met each other. You were with somebody else.

• 1:00:11Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:00:12Bunnie XO?

  And you guys were at a love fest.

• 1:00:14Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:00:15Bunnie XO?

  Not a swingers fest, right?

• 1:00:16Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:00:17Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 1:00:17Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:00:18Bunnie XO?

  All right. Just wanted to clarify.

• 1:00:20Speaker 03

  It was a festival.

• 1:00:21Bunnie XO?

  Because now that I know you guys, you guys might be a little freaky.

• 1:00:23Speaker 03

  Yeah, no.

• 1:00:24Bunnie XO?

  Martha Stewart and shit.

• 1:00:26Speaker 03

  We're a little freaky. Yeah, we have, we have different names.

• 1:00:33Speaker 03

  But we met, it was a love festival I was doing out in Laurel, Maryland. And giving school, you know, school supplies back to kids and stuff like that. And the lady I was working with, she hired Michael to come. And I, um, met him after I saw him perform. He was killing it. He was with this guitar player who had to be in his seventies. It was nine hundred degrees outside. And he had on a sweater and.

• 1:00:59Speaker 02

  And I was doing, I was doing hip hop.

• 1:01:01Speaker 03

  He was doing hip hop.

• 1:01:02Bunnie XO?

  With an eighty year old guitar player?

• 1:01:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was weird. It was a weird little, it was like a BOB kind of thing.

• 1:01:08Bunnie XO?

  Oh, I love that.

• 1:01:09Speaker 03

  It was so dope. And I'm, I'm listening because at this time I'm broken. I'm, you know, going through therapy. I'm still trying to find my way. And I see this guy out here and out there, it's like maybe forty people on this big field. Imagine a big festival and we, it's forty people out there. And he's performing like.

• 1:01:32Bunnie XO?

  Just getting it.

• 1:01:33Speaker 03

  It's thousands of people. And I remember, I'm like, dang, I used to have that passion to do it like that. And I'm looking at him like, this is so cool. And so when he got off the stage, I rushed across into heels to meet him.

• 1:01:47Speaker 02

  Do we gotta talk about this?

• 1:01:48Speaker 03

  And he shows up with his girlfriend. So, you know, I buy like nine CDs from him because he had these little.

• 1:01:59Speaker 03

  They were like homemade CDs they had.

• 1:02:01Bunnie XO?

  You were out here hustling.

• 1:02:03Speaker 03

  He had his burner CDs. I bought them. And I'm like, did you write all these songs? He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, gosh, you're amazing. So I'm like, you know, can I get his number? And I think I gave my number to your girlfriend. Did I give it to you?

• 1:02:18Speaker 02

  You gave it to me, definitely.

• 1:02:19Speaker 03

  Okay, now I'm thinking about it. You may have thrown away because you're together. But anyway. So I gave him my phone number.

• 1:02:23Speaker 02

  Wait, wait, wait, wait. I have to clear this up.

• 1:02:25Speaker 03

  What?

• 1:02:26Speaker 02

  She was actually not my girlfriend.

• 1:02:28Speaker 03

  Oh, she was.

• 1:02:29Speaker 02

  I will be honest.

• 1:02:30Speaker 03

  When is she not become your girlfriend?

• 1:02:32Speaker 02

  She wasn't my girlfriend.

• 1:02:33Bunnie XO?

  I've heard you say in other interviews, she was your girlfriend.

• 1:02:35Speaker 02

  Well, she wasn't my girlfriend. Like, we...

• 1:02:40Speaker 03

  Did you kiss her?

• 1:02:42Bunnie XO?

  Did you guys, did you guys bone?

• 1:02:44Speaker 02

  Yeah. Okay, that's your girlfriend. So she was my jump off. I mean, I was her jump off too. I mean, this one it is. I'm keeping it up, like, you know, like...

• 1:02:51Speaker 03

  I hope she's not watching this. No, you...

• 1:02:53Speaker 02

  She will be. But this is the truth, like...

• 1:02:55Speaker 03

  You're gonna call her jump off?

• 1:02:57Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no. That's...

• 1:02:58Bunnie XO?

  She sounds like a sweet jump off, though.

• 1:02:59Speaker 03

  She's a sweet girl.

• 1:03:00Bunnie XO?

  Because what she ends up saying to you.

• 1:03:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:03:03Speaker 02

  Yes. That's why I wanted to clear it up.

• 1:03:05Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:06Speaker 02

  She, uh, she recognized it.

• 1:03:08Bunnie XO?

  Pretty crazy that a girlfriend would say that. So I kind of understand where you're coming from, too.

• 1:03:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. Like, she recognized the fact that... And I was adamant about us not being boyfriend and girlfriend because of Michaela and Courtney. I had been through too many of the rebound moments because I was married to their mom.

• 1:03:25Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 1:03:26Speaker 02

  We were married. Like, we were, um, we got together when we were young, you know, and had our kids. But we were married and we divorced. And I went on like a... Every girlfriend was like a fiance. You know, like, I never, I, I, I was just like trying to rebound heavily.

• 1:03:44Bunnie XO?

  Well, you're a Pisces.

• 1:03:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:03:45Bunnie XO?

  Everything, you guys, you consume.

• 1:03:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:03:47Speaker 02

  And I had a lot of, like, let me tell you this because I don't talk about this either. When I went to the army, I weighed one hundred and ninety-one pounds.

• 1:03:56Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 1:03:56Speaker 02

  When I came out, I was literally four-ten.

• 1:04:00Bunnie XO?

  Oh, it's emotional.

• 1:04:02Speaker 02

  I had a lot going on. Like, I, I, I had a lot of insecurities, low self-esteem. I mean, I didn't, I didn't recognize me physically, mentally, in any shape, way, shape or form. So... Um, but for some reason, when I met Tanya, um...

• 1:04:22Speaker 02

  That that day when we met, I was I was smitten and I didn't care who knew it. And she, the young lady I was with, saw that.

• 1:04:32Speaker 03

  But I didn't see it. I didn't see that he was smitten right away. No, I didn't.

• 1:04:37Bunnie XO?

  I I, the same thing happened with Jay and I.

• 1:04:39Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:04:39Bunnie XO?

  Like, he, not to interject our story, but he was interested in me, but every time he would come around or try to hang out with me, he would bring other bitches. One time I left him on the roof, because I was like, if this isn't about me, I'm not hanging out with you. I am the main attraction here, okay?

• 1:04:59Bunnie XO?

  And I think he caught on to that after a while, you know?

• 1:05:01Speaker 03

  Girl number six.

• 1:05:03Bunnie XO?

  Exactly. So, no, I understand how you feel. You're like, wait, what?

• 1:05:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, but he was, we we connected on friendship immediately.

• 1:05:12Bunnie XO?

  But you threw her number out.

• 1:05:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:05:14Speaker 02

  Yes. See, she likes to belly through things.

• 1:05:17Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I need I need a small detail.

• 1:05:19Speaker 02

  Yes, I know this.

• 1:05:20Speaker 03

  That's spicy life.

• 1:05:22Speaker 02

  She gives me her, I mean, I, I, I, again, when I was nine years old, I said, that was gonna be my wife. That's Tanya Blunt to me. And we, when I get to the festival, Diane Gray was like, do you want to meet Tanya? And I was like, oh shit, yes, I want to meet her.

• 1:05:40Bunnie XO?

  Did you recognize then that that was her? You knew her name and everything?

• 1:05:44Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, like, when we, I got booked for the thing, I was like.

• 1:05:48Bunnie XO?

  And brought his girlfriend.

• 1:05:49Speaker 02

  So, yes, not my girlfriend, but we meet. And, uh, Tanya just is like, hi, I'm Tanya Blunt. She's all light and I'm like, oh.

• 1:06:00Bunnie XO?

  I was in therapy.

• 1:06:01Speaker 02

  I'm like, I thought she was high. I didn't know what the hell was going on. I was like, oh, this is.

• 1:06:06Speaker 03

  I probably was high, but not that day.

• 1:06:08Speaker 02

  This is gonna be it, like, okay.

• 1:06:11Bunnie XO?

  I'm telling, I'm telling, I'm saying that to people from now on. I was in therapy.

• 1:06:16Speaker 02

  So, you know, when she came over after I performed and was telling me, like, she wanted me to be there. I'm like, listen, you're Tanya Blunt. I already knew she was sign a bad boy. I'm like, you could work with anybody in, who's actually in the industry. I'm not in the industry. I am trying to survive.

• 1:06:33Bunnie XO?

  You were self sabotaging.

• 1:06:34Speaker 02

  I was like, listen, this is bullshit. This ain't even a real number. She just being nice. I tossed the shit in the trash and kept it moving and thought nothing else of it.

• 1:06:45Bunnie XO?

  But the ex or the, I don't want to call her a jump off, the ex.

• 1:06:48Speaker 02

  No, she wasn't jumping. Let me do it. She's not. She actually told me that that's what we were.

• 1:06:54Bunnie XO?

  The friend, yes.

• 1:06:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:06:56Bunnie XO?

  The friend said to you, like, hey, you guys have like chemistry.

• 1:07:01Speaker 02

  Well, she was like, you, you, you like her, don't you? We were in the car and I was like, no. And I was like.

• 1:07:08Bunnie XO?

  Whatever a man answers like that, it's automatically yes.

• 1:07:11Speaker 03

  No, look at her legs. Soon as they start saying stuff like that.

• 1:07:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:07:14Speaker 03

  You've noticed her legs, okay.

• 1:07:15Speaker 02

  And she was like, you know what's so crazy about this other one? She was like, I can see this. Like y'all would be so amazing together. And she was like, and I'm, I'm in the way of that.

• 1:07:26Bunnie XO?

  That's a woman right there though. That's a, that's a cool woman.

• 1:07:29Speaker 02

  She's married now with a kid. I'm like, she, they, they doing they thing, you know, and she was right. And, and, and I was like, I looked at her and I was like, for real? She was like, yeah. And I was like, okay. You know, I dropped her off.

• 1:07:43Bunnie XO?

  You're like, relieve your purse.

• 1:07:44Speaker 02

  I was like, this is it.

• 1:07:45Bunnie XO?

  That's my chance. But you threw her number out. But you threw her number out.

• 1:07:50Speaker 02

  I did.

• 1:07:50Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:50Speaker 02

  You know, I didn't think nothing of it. I, I, I just was like, you know, chilling. And the next day was a Sunday, so I was, um, going to church and everything and to, to try to make a little, I was getting paid like a hundred and twenty-five bucks to go play at a church. I, I was out of military by then and.

• 1:08:06Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:07Speaker 02

  Struggling and everything. And my little, track phone.

• 1:08:15Speaker 02

  Started ringing. And my homie, you know, my boy Chris was with me and, and I was like, I don't know this number.

• 1:08:21Bunnie XO?

  So you called the next day?

• 1:08:23Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. I found his number. I tracked it down.

• 1:08:25Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, tell that part of the story because I think it's hilarious.

• 1:08:27Speaker 03

  My dad is a detective. You're not gonna not call me. I'm not gonna find your number, dude.

• 1:08:32Speaker 02

  I was a little scared.

• 1:08:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:08:34Bunnie XO?

  That's hot, though. That's hot.

• 1:08:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:08:37Bunnie XO?

  She, a woman who knows what she wants.

• 1:08:39Speaker 03

  I mean, I was in, again, I was in therapy. I figured it out now, you know? I'm like, okay, I want, I want what I want, you know? So I call him and I'm like, okay, we're gonna, he was cute. He was really, he was really cute. I thought he was.

• 1:08:51Speaker 02

  No, she calls me and I'm like, hello? And she's like, hi, can I speak to Michael? I was like, oh, this is he? And she's like, hi, Michael, this is Tanya. I was like, Tanya? Tanya who? And she was like, Tanya blunt? And I was like.

• 1:09:08Speaker 02

  Hold on one second. I'm like, stop the car. Pull over. He's like, what's wrong? I was like, Tony, Tony Blunt is on the phone. He was like.

• 1:09:17Speaker 03

  I mean, it's a long time too. I'm like on hold. I'm like, what is happening?

• 1:09:20Speaker 02

  I'm trying to get it together. I'm trying to get everybody in the car to shut the fuck up.

• 1:09:24Bunnie XO?

  He's trying not to pee his pants.

• 1:09:27Speaker 02

  Maybe.

• 1:09:29Speaker 02

  I don't know. I think I wanted to pee my pants.

• 1:09:33Speaker 02

  But I put the deep voice on me. Hello, hello.

• 1:09:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm trying to make a different person.

• 1:09:38Speaker 02

  I'm like, oh, this is my shot. Okay. Uh, what's up? No, I think I said, I was like, what, what, what you need? What's going on?

• 1:09:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, what's going on?

• 1:09:47Bunnie XO?

  What you need?

• 1:09:48Speaker 03

  What you need?

• 1:09:49Bunnie XO?

  She's like, excuse me, sir.

• 1:09:52Speaker 02

  Oh, the rest was history from there.

• 1:09:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, the rest was history.

• 1:09:54Bunnie XO?

  So take me on the first date. I've never heard you guys talk about your first date.

• 1:09:58Speaker 03

  Oh, my God.

• 1:10:00Speaker 02

  Wait a minute.

• 1:10:01Bunnie XO?

  I need to hear about this.

• 1:10:02Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:10:02Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:10:03Speaker 02

  Her birthday is September 30th.

• 1:10:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:10:06Speaker 02

  She, the DC is throwing her like this.

• 1:10:08Speaker 03

  I love big parties.

• 1:10:09Speaker 02

  Oh, my God.

• 1:10:10Speaker 03

  So I, when I do have a party, it's like a thousand people I don't know there.

• 1:10:13Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:14Speaker 03

  I tell everybody, bring a hundred people that you know to the party. So it's like.

• 1:10:17Bunnie XO?

  My kind of girl.

• 1:10:18Speaker 03

  It's like, I lose so many people at this party.

• 1:10:20Speaker 02

  But we're talking up until this point. So I'm, I'm like.

• 1:10:24Bunnie XO?

  You guys haven't seen each other?

• 1:10:26Speaker 02

  No, we, we, we, we, we like on the phone.

• 1:10:29Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:29Speaker 02

  Doing the thing.

• 1:10:30Bunnie XO?

  Falling asleep.

• 1:10:31Speaker 02

  Long, I, I'm like.

• 1:10:32Bunnie XO?

  Romance in the phone.

• 1:10:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, romance.

• 1:10:33Speaker 02

  So I'm like, I think, I think she's starting to dig on me. Like, okay, I think, I think. So I tell her straight up, hey, uh, before her party, I'm like, don't fall for me. I'm not a catch. Cause I, I know her story. I, we, we know each other's story. I'm like, I, I have nothing going on in my life. Like, I don't have a car. I'm sleeping from couch to couch. And I got two little girls that I haven't told her about just yet. Like, so I'm like, don't fall for me. I'm not, and I'm, I'm, I feel you're starting to dig on me. And I just tell her my story. I'm like, listen, I'm nothing.

• 1:11:14Speaker 02

  I got nothing. And I was like, um, I know I'm supposed to be something in life.

• 1:11:21Speaker 02

  And I don't know how to get there. Um, but I know how to love and that's not enough. So don't fall for me.

• 1:11:28Speaker 03

  But that was what I was looking. That is enough. That was more than that because I had the things. You know, I had the liars and the things and all that stuff that comes with it. And I was like, I never had anyone be honest with me.

• 1:11:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:11:40Speaker 03

  And so his honesty, I was like, I could. That's what made me fall in love with him because he was, I could tell he was honest. By the time I really knew who I was and all that stuff, I was like, I felt him. You know what I mean? I was connected with.

• 1:11:53Speaker 02

  But I hadn't been honest.

• 1:11:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:11:55Speaker 02

  To anyone.

• 1:11:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:11:56Speaker 02

  So again, when I, when I said earlier about the being trained to lie. I was trained to lie about what I like, how I feel. You know, my first marriage, um, you know, we were, we were friends first. And we should have never crossed that line. But, uh, I was trained to lie. So she was the first person I wanted. I was desperate to tell the truth to. I was like, here we go. I'm not the dude. I'm not what, whatever it is you're building in your head. I'm gonna save you the drama. No, it's not me.

• 1:12:39Speaker 02

  And, and Tanya then says, okay. Um, I heard what you said. Now let me tell you what I see. She's like, I see a king. You just need the right kind of queen in your life.

• 1:12:52Speaker 03

  That's right, babe.

• 1:12:53Speaker 02

  And I'm looking at her and she's looking at me and I'm like.

• 1:12:56Speaker 03

  He starts crying.

• 1:12:58Speaker 02

  Pee out the eyes.

• 1:13:03Speaker 02

  I was like, I'm done. And so, um, she then tells me, here's where it gets.

• 1:13:11Speaker 03

  Did the first thing.

• 1:13:12Speaker 02

  She says. I'm having a birthday party. I want you there. Um, the lip, what she says, the limo picks me up at. So now I'm like, oh, here come that Hollywood shit. I mean, I, I'm, I'm, I'm keeping in the bug with you. I'm like, nah, we've never had this pop up, she's in a limo and I'm, I'm really like low key, like, I don't do shit. Like, Tyra, I, I, I am like,

• 1:13:37Speaker 03

  He does,

• 1:13:37Speaker 02

  A western,

• 1:13:38Speaker 03

  Westerns. He does movies and me.

• 1:13:40Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 1:13:41Speaker 03

  That's it. Well, no food. He can cook his tail off. I'll tell you that about that.

• 1:13:46Speaker 02

  Oh, I ain't gonna tell you about my plot to um, get jelly and, and me and him do a duo. And he be Jelly Roll and I be Belly Roll.

• 1:13:53Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 1:13:54Speaker 02

  And then that's it, baby. We can do the hottest duo ever. You know, and we just, we sing and eat.

• 1:13:59Bunnie XO?

  My husband loves you. He would probably do whatever you want, okay?

• 1:14:03Speaker 02

  And then we sing and eat. And, and I've already started, cause every performance we've done so far outside, I sing and play with a hot dog in my hand.

• 1:14:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, he's like this.

• 1:14:14Speaker 02

  But it's not digress till I die later.

• 1:14:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:14:16Speaker 02

  But um, I just was like, okay, you know what, um, she doing that Hollywood shit. I knew it. And I saw, I was like, nah, I'm not gonna come. So she sends her, she has her assistant call me and was like,

• 1:14:30Speaker 02

  um, you, you need to be at the house. You could ride in the limo. I was like, I'm not Hollywood. I don't do the flash. Nah. So then she hits her back and was like, well, tell him he can use my car. And he can drive himself there.

• 1:14:46Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 1:14:46Speaker 02

  Now I'm insulted because I'm like,

• 1:14:49Speaker 03

  I know you don't have a car, you ain't gonna get there.

• 1:14:52Speaker 02

  I'm like, wait a minute.

• 1:14:53Bunnie XO?

  There's no making you happy, Michael.

• 1:14:54Speaker 02

  No, because I'm, I'm like this, I'm never, like, I'm, I'm one of those, like, Tyra knows, I'm one of those guys. I'm not a scrub. So I'm like, I'm not about to fucking show up and drive your fucking car. Like, hell no. So I was like,

• 1:15:09Bunnie XO?

  But I won't get in the limo.

• 1:15:10Speaker 02

  But I won't get in.

• 1:15:11Bunnie XO?

  So I'm just gonna walk in.

• 1:15:12Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well then, the next call I get is her.

• 1:15:17Speaker 02

  So she's like, hey, I was like, hey. You know, so I'm like trying to play it.

• 1:15:20Speaker 03

  You softened up.

• 1:15:21Speaker 02

  She's like, um, the limo leaves at seven, you need to be here at six thirty. Okay, bye bye.

• 1:15:26Bunnie XO?

  Oh, I love that. My mom was like, look, chop chop.

• 1:15:29Speaker 02

  And we ain't dating or nothing. So I show up, cause I'm like, okay, now you didn't, you didn't like sun me. So I'm, I'm show up now and um, me and my homeboy, Chris, Chris New Day. So we, we pop up. He drives me there. I'm like, I need, I need your wheels. So we show up and um, we do the DC party and everything. And then she says, I'm having an after party at the place I'm staying at.

• 1:15:51Speaker 03

  Karaoke. You gotta have a party after a party, right?

• 1:15:54Bunnie XO?

  We love karaoke.

• 1:15:55Speaker 02

  So we get back to the house and she's like, you wanna go with me? I need to go get ice for the party. So this was perfect for me cause I'm, I got her a gift. So I know that she, her favorite artist is Aretha Franklin.

• 1:16:06Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 1:16:07Speaker 02

  And so I found like this in CVS, I found like the, the greatest history there for five bucks. It had all the right songs on it. So I was like, good. And then I also wrote her a song.

• 1:16:17Bunnie XO?

  He did.

• 1:16:17Speaker 02

  Recorded it at my, my boy Chris New Days and, and, and um, I, I, I, uh, I got it for her. And I was like, um, I'm going to give you my gift now. So we're in the car. And I gave her the Aretha Franklin thing and she's like wigging out and then I, I put in the CD. And I play her the song and she's listening to it. And I'm used to like, you know, women love male singers. So I'm like, oh, I'm about to wrap it up. She's like, oh, that's so sweet. Come on, let's go get the ice. I was like, what the fuck? Like, did you just shit on my gift? Like in my head, I'm like, oh my God, I'm nothing. I told you, I was like, I told you.

• 1:16:59Bunnie XO?

  Tanya's a gangster. One thing I've learned about Tanya, she's a G.

• 1:17:02Speaker 02

  Straight up G. As if that wasn't bad. I, I get ready to leave this party and I tell my, my, my guy, I was like, yo, I think I'm gonna let her know how I feel. So we're driving and he's like, bruh, that's Tanya Blunt, bro.

• 1:17:20Speaker 02

  You've got nothing, everything. He's like, don't do it.

• 1:17:23Speaker 03

  What a hater.

• 1:17:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, he's like, bro, don't do it, bro. Like, we, we, in fact, the reason why we were kicking is because she wanted me to write music for her and her brother. And be the producer and they was gonna pay me and all this stuff. So my friend, who was my partner at the time, like, we do music together.

• 1:17:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:17:41Speaker 02

  He's like, bruh, this is just a payday.

• 1:17:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:17:43Speaker 02

  Like chill, man, like, like, so I'm like, no, I'm on to tell her, bro. So we're texting, me and her, and she says, Michael, you left your sweater. What else will you leave? Because I'm always leaving things at her house. So she's like laughing. And so I was like, I'm not doing it, bro. He's like, don't do it. I was like, it's about to go down. So I take that. What else am I gonna leave? My heart.

• 1:18:08Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 1:18:10Speaker 02

  And you know what she said back?

• 1:18:11Speaker 03

  And I was, I was.

• 1:18:12Speaker 02

  No, no.

• 1:18:13Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:18:13Speaker 02

  Do you know what she said back? Not a damn.

• 1:18:17Speaker 03

  I didn't, no, but it was because I was drunk. I've been drinking all night and my phone died. So when I got up.

• 1:18:25Bunnie XO?

  Oh shit.

• 1:18:26Speaker 02

  When I tell you.

• 1:18:27Bunnie XO?

  Not the phone dying at the wrong time.

• 1:18:31Speaker 02

  It was like 12 a.m.

• 1:18:33Bunnie XO?

  My butthole is puckered for you.

• 1:18:36Speaker 02

  When I tell you all night, I was texting her, I'm so sorry. I was, I read the room wrong. I'm like, I'm like, I'm sorry, Ms. Blunt, I didn't call her Ms. Blunt. I was like, ma'am, I'm sorry, I was like, I read the room wrong. I was like.

• 1:18:51Bunnie XO?

  And your friends over there like, told you.

• 1:18:53Speaker 03

  Told you.

• 1:18:53Speaker 02

  He's like, you fucking idiot. He's like, you just lost our job, bro. I'm like, he was like.

• 1:19:01Speaker 02

  He was like, yo, you can't sleep on my couch at night, bro. Bro, you gotta, I was like, dude, all night, I did not sleep. I'm texting her. All night. Do you know when I found her, Taya, was 12 p.m. the next day?

• 1:19:16Speaker 03

  That's when I got up.

• 1:19:18Bunnie XO?

  You poor baby. What, what did you think of the song that he wrote you?

• 1:19:21Speaker 03

  I loved the song. It was called The Beauty in You. It was so sweet. It was really, really sweet.

• 1:19:26Bunnie XO?

  You just probably weren't used to receiving love in that way. So you didn't know how to react.

• 1:19:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, I didn't know how to receive it, you know, I just, it was beautiful and it was thoughtful. And for him to even think about getting like the Aretha Franklin CD and writing his own song. I was like, this is.

• 1:19:40Speaker 02

  But October 1st. Two thousand and ten.

• 1:19:43Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 1:19:44Speaker 02

  That next day was the first day.

• 1:19:45Speaker 03

  That was our first date. So it was like a forty eight hour.

• 1:19:48Speaker 02

  And she calls me from a whole nother phone, so I don't know it's her. And I was like, this phone keeps calling me. And so I answer.

• 1:19:54Speaker 03

  I'm like blowing him up.

• 1:19:55Speaker 02

  And she's laughing. She was like, oh, hi. And I'm like, hello. She's like.

• 1:20:00Bunnie XO?

  That was my next question. How did you feel when you read that text message?

• 1:20:03Speaker 03

  I was laughing. I was like, oh, my God. It's like twenty messages. That's what I said when I answered the phone. Like, oh, my God, you like called me twenty times. What's wrong?

• 1:20:11Bunnie XO?

  Way to humble the man, okay?

• 1:20:14Speaker 02

  I knew from that point on.

• 1:20:16Bunnie XO?

  She keeps you humble.

• 1:20:17Speaker 02

  Oh, my word.

• 1:20:20Speaker 02

  We go to our first date at this Thai restaurant in Tiesa.

• 1:20:23Speaker 03

  Yeah, I asked him to go to a restaurant.

• 1:20:26Bunnie XO?

  Were you ready? Were you ready for love with him? Or were you more kind of just scared?

• 1:20:31Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. Go ahead and tell us.

• 1:20:32Speaker 03

  I wasn't ready for love. I was ready. I was ready to have sex. I mean, I had done the whole, you know, I'm gonna wait. I'm in church. I'm a church girl. I'm like, I'm ready. Let's go.

• 1:20:44Bunnie XO?

  She's like, dick me down, baby.

• 1:20:46Speaker 03

  And not him. Not this guy right here.

• 1:20:49Bunnie XO?

  Lover boy. He's a lover boy.

• 1:20:50Speaker 03

  Oh, he was not a lover boy then. He was like, I'm waiting.

• 1:20:53Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 1:20:54Speaker 03

  I wanna, this is bad.

• 1:20:55Speaker 02

  My mama told me. This is so embarrassing.

• 1:20:58Bunnie XO?

  That was just amazing.

• 1:20:59Speaker 03

  And he's like, I'm waiting. I don't wanna have sex 'cause it's gonna mess things up. I'm like.

• 1:21:03Bunnie XO?

  That was like my husband. My husband tried not to have sex with me.

• 1:21:06Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:21:06Bunnie XO?

  The first night. It's because you guys, it's because you guys saw something more in us.

• 1:21:11Speaker 03

  That's true.

• 1:21:12Bunnie XO?

  Like, I was ready to just hump and send him on his way.

• 1:21:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:21:16Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, and literally, my husband made me sit down, not sit down, lay down in bed with him the night that we decided to have sex and make a five-year plan with him. A five-year plan. Nothing puts you in the mood.

• 1:21:30Speaker 03

  This guy. This guy.

• 1:21:32Speaker 02

  Don't tell her, please don't.

• 1:21:34Bunnie XO?

  Please do. No, tell me.

• 1:21:34Speaker 03

  You have the pleasure of saying this around.

• 1:21:38Speaker 02

  I am worse. I did not know he did that.

• 1:21:41Speaker 03

  No, he did.

• 1:21:42Speaker 02

  Oh, my God.

• 1:21:43Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, he did.

• 1:21:44Speaker 02

  I told her. I said, my mother said.

• 1:21:47Speaker 03

  Yep. He did. His mother.

• 1:21:50Speaker 02

  I said, my mother said the sex complicates things and.

• 1:21:54Speaker 03

  He sits me down before. I'm like trying to, you know, get it out.

• 1:21:56Speaker 02

  I said, my last situation.

• 1:21:59Speaker 03

  And he's like, stop, stop.

• 1:22:00Bunnie XO?

  That's what my husband did to me.

• 1:22:02Speaker 03

  I'm like, no. I'm like, dude.

• 1:22:03Speaker 02

  No, I smacked her hand.

• 1:22:06Speaker 02

  I was like, no. I said, and.

• 1:22:08Speaker 03

  No, let's go back. Let's go back. So, let's go back. So, after this movie happens, I come back.

• 1:22:14Speaker 02

  Well, you didn't tell her. We went to the movies.

• 1:22:16Speaker 03

  We went to the movies.

• 1:22:18Speaker 02

  October 1st, 2010.

• 1:22:21Speaker 03

  We went and got Taifu and then went to the movies and we left the movie early because it was terrible.

• 1:22:24Speaker 02

  Horrible. We don't even know what movie it was.

• 1:22:26Bunnie XO?

  Probably Nacho Libre. I walked out of it.

• 1:22:28Speaker 03

  It was horrible. So, I get to the house. I go upstairs and put on my nice little lingerie.

• 1:22:34Speaker 02

  No, I tell you. I said, I have a movie.

• 1:22:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:22:37Speaker 02

  That I, I, at, at home, at, at where I'm staying. I said, you wanna watch a real movie? I wanna get this movie. Cause at the house you were staying at, there was a movie theater in the basement.

• 1:22:46Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:22:47Speaker 02

  So, I was like, we're gonna go get some popcorn, get some grape juice, and we're gonna watch this movie that I have. And I'm like, I'll tell you what it is. I said, it's a real movie. Let's go.

• 1:22:56Speaker 03

  And I'm like, this is perfect. So, I go upstairs. I get smell goods on and I get ready.

• 1:23:00Bunnie XO?

  I love that you did the lingerie too, cause I did too.

• 1:23:03Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. I was ready. I was so ready. And I come downstairs. I'm like, you know, he likes Doris Day. So, I'm, you know, I'm giving, giving it. And I'm, and my lingerie. And he stands up in front of the TV like this, there's a television in it, and he stands up in front of it. He was like.

• 1:23:16Speaker 02

  All cool points about it.

• 1:23:17Speaker 03

  You are going to love. He was like, you're gonna love this movie. And I'm giving him the eye and I'm like, getting moist and, you know, I'm ready to tear him up, right? And he, he's, the TV comes on and he starts.

• 1:23:33Speaker 03

  That's my face.

• 1:23:36Speaker 03

  And I'm like this.

• 1:23:36Speaker 02

  I was proud of Mary.

• 1:23:37Speaker 03

  I'm like this. I'm watching this happen. And then this man walks on the scene, in the screen, and it's Cecil B. DeMille. And he starts giving a oratory, whatever this is, speech about the movie. So, the whole time I'm looking, I'm like, okay. And Michael's smiling just like this. He's so happy.

• 1:23:57Speaker 02

  And I'm reciting everything. Cause I wanna show her. I know the whole movie.

• 1:23:59Speaker 03

  So, he starts, every, when the guy's talking, he's talking. And it comes up and it says, the ten commandments.

• 1:24:06Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 1:24:08Speaker 03

  Charlton Heston.

• 1:24:09Speaker 02

  John, listen, that movie has so many, uh, Yul Brynner, Charlton Heston, and Baxter, who's another hall pass, if she was alive.

• 1:24:17Bunnie XO?

  Oh, but.

• 1:24:19Speaker 03

  I'm in lingerie.

• 1:24:20Bunnie XO?

  The Ten Commandments. In your mind, you were like, this is gonna really get her going?

• 1:24:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, because she's so, she's the most fashionable person I ever met in colors. And I saw all the women in that movie with all the colors and fashion.

• 1:24:34Speaker 03

  He told me all this, so I went and got, he was like, you're gonna love it. It's your kind of movie. The women are beautiful, the clothes, everything is great. So I let this-

• 1:24:42Speaker 02

  It's my favorite movie.

• 1:24:43Speaker 03

  It's his favorite movie. All the time. So it comes on-

• 1:24:49Bunnie XO?

  We get in the middle- Oh, millions of people are about to know.

• 1:24:51Speaker 03

  So it is. So by this, by this time, I'm like, okay, how do I get out of this?

• 1:24:59Bunnie XO?

  Oh, no.

• 1:25:00Speaker 03

  And Moses comes in the water.

• 1:25:02Speaker 02

  I'm standing up reciting the entire-

• 1:25:04Speaker 03

  And he burst into tears. Oh, I'm like, what is happening? He's crying because Moses is rolling down the way. He's like, this is the part. And I'm like, no.

• 1:25:18Speaker 02

  Oh, gosh.

• 1:25:18Speaker 03

  So I said, I'll be back. I go upstairs.

• 1:25:22Speaker 02

  Is he gonna wait, pause it?

• 1:25:24Speaker 03

  She's like, oh, no. I was like, no, keep it going. We've been two hours now. The movie's three and a half hours long.

• 1:25:30Bunnie XO?

  He didn't try to make a move on you this whole time?

• 1:25:32Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:25:33Bunnie XO?

  He's just putting on the, he's Moses.

• 1:25:35Speaker 03

  He's standing up.

• 1:25:36Speaker 02

  Smashing that popcorn.

• 1:25:37Speaker 03

  He's standing up for two hours watching the movie. Saying, and I'm just sitting there, I'm like, I'm trying to be nice, like, this is going to stop at any moment.

• 1:25:45Bunnie XO?

  Were you scared?

• 1:25:47Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:25:48Bunnie XO?

  You just really couldn't read the room?

• 1:25:50Speaker 02

  I'm a nerd. I mean, like, I, I, I am horrible. Like, my, my father, it's so bad when my, my father and mother heard this story. My dad looked at me, he was like, oh, we're gonna go wrong with you. I was like, I, I just, I, I don't know, I, I, I, I wanted to show her this movie.

• 1:26:08Speaker 02

  It gets worse because when it was over, I looked at her, I was like, all right, the next film I have.

• 1:26:14Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my God, a three and a half hour film?

• 1:26:16Speaker 02

  It was the greatest story ever told about Jesus.

• 1:26:19Speaker 03

  I'm doing everything. I'm trying to feed him grapes. I'm doing, I'm like, this is-

• 1:26:23Speaker 02

  I'll take the grape out of her hand.

• 1:26:24Speaker 03

  He takes the grape out of my hand and eats the grape. I'm like, what am I?

• 1:26:29Bunnie XO?

  He is so uncultured over here. He's like, no.

• 1:26:32Speaker 02

  And then the next day is the first day we ever did it.

• 1:26:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, I waited twenty-four hours.

• 1:26:39Bunnie XO?

  Damn, doing the lingerie.

• 1:26:42Speaker 03

  No, forget that.

• 1:26:44Speaker 02

  And she, and she, I will say, I tried to fight her off then. I was like, no, I was like, stop it. I was like, okay, all right, keep going.

• 1:26:52Speaker 03

  I feel like.

• 1:26:53Speaker 02

  I'm like, nevermind, we're doing this.

• 1:26:57Bunnie XO?

  Finally.

• 1:26:59Speaker 03

  Finally.

• 1:27:00Bunnie XO?

  She sat through your movie-thon.

• 1:27:02Speaker 03

  I know. Reward me, please.

• 1:27:04Bunnie XO?

  Listen, she loved you. She loved you from the start.

• 1:27:07Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh.

• 1:27:08Bunnie XO?

  Because I'm not sitting through the Ten Commandments when I'm in lingerie. I would have had to turn that shit off and be like, we will, this will be to be continued.

• 1:27:16Speaker 02

  I kept waking her up. I was like, oh, wait a minute, I was about to miss the best part. She was like, okay.

• 1:27:22Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my goodness. That is so funny, you guys. Oh, my God. I thought me and my husband had a crazy first night story, but that takes the kids.

• 1:27:32Speaker 02

  I'm so embarrassed.

• 1:27:33Bunnie XO?

  No, don't be. That's hilarious.

• 1:27:35Speaker 03

  I did, fourteen years.

• 1:27:36Bunnie XO?

  So fourteen years. I mean, you guys have gone through a lot. So you guys finally, you know, have sex. And you guys are together. Just from that moment on, you guys are like, you know, together. When did you guys decide to get married? Like, take me on this journey after we got through the Ten Commandments.

• 1:27:53Speaker 03

  Oh, we got married six months, five months later.

• 1:27:55Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 1:27:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:27:56Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:57Speaker 03

  It was, it was, it was great. We were together.

• 1:27:59Speaker 02

  I mean, I did know at age nine.

• 1:28:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. No, you did. The day we met, we never separated from that day. We had never been apart.

• 1:28:06Speaker 02

  One time.

• 1:28:07Speaker 03

  When, when was that?

• 1:28:08Speaker 02

  When you went to, um.

• 1:28:10Speaker 03

  That was when we were married, though.

• 1:28:11Speaker 02

  But we got sick, remember?

• 1:28:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, we got sick.

• 1:28:13Speaker 02

  And that's when we knew the legend was coming.

• 1:28:16Speaker 03

  I couldn't have another son for fourteen years after I had my oldest. They told me I would never have kids again. So I had surgeries and went through the whole thing. And I wanted a baby. It was so sad. And but when I met Michael, I told him, I said, I'm gonna have your son. And I didn't, I knew I couldn't have kids, you know, because the doctor told me that. So, but I believed in it. And so.

• 1:28:35Speaker 02

  And I didn't think I could have boys, because I had two girls.

• 1:28:39Speaker 02

  And they were kicking my ass.

• 1:28:41Speaker 03

  We got pregnant.

• 1:28:42Bunnie XO?

  Oh, right away?

• 1:28:43Speaker 03

  Like, what, I was eight months? We were together eight months?

• 1:28:47Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 1:28:47Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:28:48Speaker 03

  No?

• 1:28:48Speaker 02

  Remember, November.

• 1:28:51Speaker 03

  November of the following year. November, you're right, because he was born in July.

• 1:28:55Speaker 02

  Cause remember granddaddy, my grandfather.

• 1:28:57Speaker 03

  Three months later.

• 1:28:58Speaker 02

  The same day I found out my grandfather had passed, the same phone call, like, my sister was like, hey, granddaddy died, and then Tanya was coming out the bathroom with a pregnancy test.

• 1:29:09Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:29:09Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 1:29:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:29:11Bunnie XO?

  That's amazing. That's meant to be.

• 1:29:13Speaker 03

  It was meant to be.

• 1:29:14Bunnie XO?

  You guys were meant to be.

• 1:29:15Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:29:16Bunnie XO?

  And so, take me on this journey. You guys have babies. When, what happened whenever you guys were homeless? Cause I've heard you guys mention that before, like, what, what happened?

• 1:29:24Speaker 02

  That's the wildest thing. We met homeless.

• 1:29:26Speaker 03

  We sure did.

• 1:29:27Speaker 02

  She was staying with a friend, and her, she was, Tanya was coming out of her recovery period.

• 1:29:32Speaker 03

  I was with my mom, and then I went and stayed with my girlfriend.

• 1:29:35Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 1:29:36Speaker 03

  And.

• 1:29:37Speaker 02

  I was a homeless vet. So I, I just couldn't, when I came out of the military, I was still married, but when we got divorced, um, that's when I went away and, and just was couch to couch.

• 1:29:49Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:29:50Speaker 02

  Um.

• 1:29:51Bunnie XO?

  Which is crazy to me to ever hear the word homeless vet.

• 1:29:53Speaker 03

  Vet.

• 1:29:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:29:54Bunnie XO?

  I feel like when you go and you go through what you guys go through over there, and for our country, we, you guys should never be homeless.

• 1:30:02Speaker 03

  Ever.

• 1:30:03Speaker 02

  And I will say, I just didn't know what it meant to be a veteran. I didn't know what was out there for me. I, I knew nothing. You know, I just knew that was from it.

• 1:30:10Speaker 03

  Well, you didn't, I didn't know he was even in the military when we met. I didn't find that out for three years.

• 1:30:16Bunnie XO?

  Why didn't you tell her?

• 1:30:18Speaker 02

  Because I was embarrassed. So, when I came home from the war, um, we were being protested against.

• 1:30:25Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 1:30:26Speaker 02

  So when I got in the airport, I was in my uniform, I'm all proud, I'm like, I survived, I didn't get killed, you know what I mean? I'm, I'm like, really happy to get home, and, um, in Baltimore, there was like protesters, and they were throwing things at us, and they were just like, you're killers, and they were protesting the war, Bush babies, and all the thing, and I was like, oh, so this is how my country feels about us?

• 1:30:51Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 1:30:51Speaker 02

  Okay, and then.

• 1:30:53Bunnie XO?

  That's terrible.

• 1:30:54Speaker 02

  And then I couldn't get a job. In fact, I remember sitting on the couch, and, um, me and this other guy who was just released from prison, uh, we were going for the same job, and he was like, oh, bro, he was like, man, I might as well pack up and go home. I was like, no, man, I said, um, you know, eh, eh, we, maybe we both get hired. And, uh, they hired him over me. And I remember trying to figure out like, why does this keep happening like? But in their mind, they will rather hire an ex-con because their ex-con knows that he can't mess up. Versus a military guy who has just come on from war. And if he flips the fuck out, he can blame it on the war.

• 1:31:40Speaker 02

  And they're, they're, you know what I'm saying? So in, in their mind, the incentive was to hire. So I just could not get a job. Also, I'll say this on this podcast, it's also a plan of our countries. Um, this isn't a conspiracy theory. The military is under strength in a real way. The army, Marines, they are under strength. The Navy and the Air Force is over strength.

• 1:32:06Bunnie XO?

  What does that mean? What does under strength, over strength mean?

• 1:32:08Speaker 02

  Which means their numbers. So, um, they, they need people to join.

• 1:32:14Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 1:32:15Speaker 02

  And nobody's joining in war. Like, hell no. So what was happening for, um, during my time is, well, let's make it so hard for the war veterans to get jobs to where they have to go back into the military. So that we don't have to implement a draft.

• 1:32:36Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 1:32:37Speaker 02

  So, um, that's what was going on. And so I made up in my mind, well, you know what? Maybe I shouldn't tell anyone about my service. Maybe I should just be quiet and just say I'm trying to get ahead and, um, and that meant anything because even my friendships that I had left and tried to return to, um, didn't last because they were holding me to the old Mikey. And I'm not that guy anymore. You know, I'm not laughing and joking and smiling. And who you see even today is a complete one eighty from what they got to see coming home. I was very serious. I was very like short, you know, um.

• 1:33:19Bunnie XO?

  Well, you had been through a lot.

• 1:33:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, I didn't have any time for it. And the stuff they was laughing at, I was still thinking about. The killings and the deaths and that kind of thing. So, uh, we just, I just was like, you know what? I'm going to be quiet about it.

• 1:33:35Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 1:33:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:33:37Bunnie XO?

  But to hide it from the woman you love? Like, and did you notice in him any PTSD, anxiety, stuff like that? Cause I'm sure there was things that, you know, had to have presented themselves.

• 1:33:49Speaker 03

  I noticed maybe once Legend was born and he kind of wouldn't want to, you know, want to hold him. Um, kind of the noise. Um, then he got to the point where he was maybe like one and a half, two. He, you know, little kids like balls. So Michael would see a ball and kind of just stare at it for like minutes at a time. And then the big boom was a boom. It was July fourth and

• 1:34:13Speaker 02

  Detroit.

• 1:34:14Speaker 03

  Detroit, Michigan and fireworks were going off.

• 1:34:17Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 1:34:17Speaker 03

  And he has this episode, he's like diving up under.

• 1:34:20Speaker 02

  Well, when does fireworks in Detroit?

• 1:34:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, it, it

• 1:34:24Speaker 02

  They had some shit on there to sound real close.

• 1:34:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:34:28Speaker 02

  Well, like a third's for

• 1:34:30Bunnie XO?

  Don't come, don't come to our July fourth party then.

• 1:34:32Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:34:33Speaker 02

  What's going on?

• 1:34:35Speaker 03

  And he's freaking out, you know, he's up under the bed and I'm like, but I kind of saw signs and I'm like, this time I'm gonna, we just gotta talk about it. I don't know what's going on.

• 1:34:44Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:44Speaker 03

  But this isn't normal. And he's just like, get down, get down. I'm like, get down? What are you talking about? And then he kind of just starts telling me, you know, I went to war. And I'm like, you went to what? You know? You in, you in the military? He was like, yeah, I went to the military and I was in, went to war.

• 1:35:01Speaker 02

  Twice.

• 1:35:01Speaker 03

  Twice. And I'm like, okay. And you're homeless and we're figuring this out. And I'm like, you need to go to the VA. To one, figure out what's going on with you and two, see how they can help you.

• 1:35:16Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:17Speaker 03

  And it was an angel, as always, when you go to places and God's with you. Angel inside the VA.

• 1:35:22Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 1:35:22Speaker 03

  And he walks up to us randomly, you're at like a regular doctor's appointment. And he's like, are you guys getting your benefits like that? And I'm like, benefits?

• 1:35:31Speaker 02

  Jamal.

• 1:35:32Speaker 03

  Jamal.

• 1:35:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:35:33Speaker 03

  And I'm like, no, I don't, I don't know anything about it. And he educates us about it. And it's not moving as fast as we want it to move. And he's like, well, maybe you can take it up a notch. And the next thing I'm thinking is let's go to the government, you know, to see what they can do. So I write the Senator, Barbara Mikowski, and I'm like, we're homeless, we don't have anything. My husband's served two tours in Iraq. Is there anything you all can do for us?

• 1:35:56Speaker 02

  And they looked at my file and realized that all the stuff that was written up in my file

• 1:36:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:36:01Speaker 02

  about me and what I had done out there.

• 1:36:03Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 1:36:03Speaker 02

  And I remember her saying, how did we let you slip?

• 1:36:08Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 1:36:08Speaker 02

  Through the cracks. She was very like charismatic and very like.

• 1:36:12Speaker 03

  Very compassionate too.

• 1:36:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, she felt it. You know, it made me feel like um someone actually cared.

• 1:36:19Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:36:20Speaker 02

  What was popping off other than Tanya, because Tanya saved my life. I mean, like, we talk about legend, but even before that, you know, I came to her with two little girls. And uh my little girls were my, and still are in my world, you know, and uh but I was, I was, I was lost, you know, and uh and when I met Tanya, I felt hope. Like even before we were dating, you know, I felt like I think my life is about to change. And I remember my, my daughters, my, my baby girl Courtney, she was like, uh Courtney was like, how old?

• 1:37:00Speaker 03

  Six.

• 1:37:01Speaker 02

  She looked at me and uh and um she was like, don't you mess this up for us, mister?

• 1:37:07Speaker 03

  Ah.

• 1:37:08Speaker 02

  And Courtney is wow. Courtney is not a people person. Like she does not, like she did not, as a baby, I used to have to tell people, she's not trying to be rude. She's just straightforward, you know?

• 1:37:21Speaker 03

  I love her.

• 1:37:22Speaker 02

  But they took both of them. Michaela, um Michaela introduced herself to Tanya. She was like, hi, I'm Michaela Tanish Trotter. Oh, can I have your autograph and your number?

• 1:37:32Speaker 03

  And your phone number?

• 1:37:33Speaker 02

  And I was like, what?

• 1:37:35Speaker 03

  You fell in love with her.

• 1:37:36Speaker 02

  Who are these little girls?

• 1:37:37Speaker 03

  They had better game than you. I, I know.

• 1:37:39Speaker 02

  They, they chastised me about that game.

• 1:37:43Speaker 03

  I love them so much. Those are my babies.

• 1:37:47Speaker 02

  That was a wild period. I mean, but to the homeless point, um when we realized, when we felt, when we, when we started dating and stuff, um we, I just, we just never separated. And I was over that house October 2nd until we would leave. Like I, I never left. I didn't leave, like we were, we would wake up, eat, watch TV.

• 1:38:19Speaker 02

  Fuck.

• 1:38:20Speaker 03

  That was our life.

• 1:38:21Speaker 02

  It was, it was bad.

• 1:38:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:38:23Bunnie XO?

  No, that's how the beginning of passionate relationships are.

• 1:38:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:38:26Speaker 02

  It was all day, and, and then one day, the people were like, okay, y'all gotta go.

• 1:38:32Speaker 03

  It's too much noise in here. You all need to go.

• 1:38:34Speaker 02

  Here's a fact. We counted this.

• 1:38:36Speaker 03

  Get your own house.

• 1:38:38Speaker 02

  Our first year.

• 1:38:39Bunnie XO?

  I love it. They're like, you're making us look bad, right? You're making my husband have to step his game up.

• 1:38:44Speaker 02

  Well, our first year, we counted this.

• 1:38:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:38:47Speaker 02

  We stayed in twenty different houses.

• 1:38:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:38:51Bunnie XO?

  Wow. Just like rentals?

• 1:38:53Speaker 03

  No, people would let us stay and then two weeks later, kick us out.

• 1:38:57Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 1:38:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:38:59Speaker 02

  And we found one guy, um, who was a ex-military himself.

• 1:39:03Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 1:39:04Speaker 02

  And he, he and his wife, I got into a spat with the first lady of a church I was working for in Virginia.

• 1:39:11Speaker 03

  In Richmond, yeah.

• 1:39:12Speaker 02

  They were having us stay in one of their members' homes. He had a duplex. And Legend was about...

• 1:39:22Speaker 03

  It was two and a half, three.

• 1:39:25Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:39:25Speaker 03

  Was he walking?

• 1:39:26Speaker 02

  Mm-mm. Remember, we was holding him. He, he, remember, she would hold him and he'd freak out.

• 1:39:30Speaker 03

  Because he, he was about a year. He probably just turned a year.

• 1:39:33Speaker 02

  Um, this lady had very bad energy and Legend, whenever she would hold him, he would scream and, and claw and, and, and she was like, he's got a demon in him and then...

• 1:39:46Bunnie XO?

  No, you got a demon in you, lady.

• 1:39:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, crazy lady.

• 1:39:49Speaker 02

  Well, um, we got into a little, little disagreement about, you know, they hired me to be the music director.

• 1:39:56Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 1:39:56Speaker 02

  But she wanted all the solos. And I was like, lady, y'all hired me to do a job. Um, so I put in a, a, a plan that if you're late, you can't sing on Sunday, no matter who you are. Cause we have rehearsals and stuff. And so, um, she...

• 1:40:18Speaker 02

  Was late. And wanted to say, I'm sorry, that can't happen. So we got into it. And um. I was like, all right, you know what, I can't, I can't do this. And shit, they were like, well, if you're not gonna be doing it, then guess what? Y'all need to move out. Right now.

• 1:40:35Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:40:35Speaker 02

  We had nowhere to go, like with a little baby, like they kicked us out of this little apartment. And um. This, this, this guy. Uh, James Cooper. He said, why don't y'all come? On Sunday, uh, come, come up to our, our church, they had a little house church. And um, I was like, man, we gotta go on faith time, cause we, I got, I got literally eight bucks to my name. And uh.

• 1:41:04Speaker 02

  Without any hesitation, they take up this offering for us. And then they open this door and show us this room in their house. And they were like, this is your room, this is your house, y'all stay with us.

• 1:41:17Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 1:41:18Speaker 02

  Rent free as long as you need. No strings attached.

• 1:41:24Speaker 02

  We went back to Richmond, got our things and drove back up there, cause they had given us enough money from an offering.

• 1:41:32Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 1:41:33Speaker 02

  And we were there, we would be there from two thousand and twelve.

• 1:41:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:41:38Speaker 02

  Um, two thousand and eleven. We would be there from two thousand and eleven all the way to two thousand and sixteen.

• 1:41:44Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 1:41:46Speaker 02

  Rent free, no, I mean, like, we would give them. Things um, in two thousand and sixteen.

• 1:41:55Speaker 03

  That's when your pension.

• 1:41:56Speaker 02

  That's when my, the military finally finished processing all the things for me.

• 1:42:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:42:01Speaker 02

  Um, they sent me a check for five thousand six hundred and seventy-five. As a holdover, they were like, listen. We're almost done processing your claim. But until then, here's five grand.

• 1:42:17Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 1:42:18Speaker 02

  And then um. Tanya's mom, this was in November twenty fifteen is when I got that, then Tanya's mom had passed away.

• 1:42:26Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:42:27Speaker 02

  And um, we were war entreaty by then, we became war entreaty in two thousand and fourteen.

• 1:42:32Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:42:33Speaker 02

  Um. And we had a little tour planned and Tanya quit, Tanya was like, I'm done.

• 1:42:38Speaker 03

  I remember my mom, she was, I was devastated.

• 1:42:40Speaker 02

  Oh, my God.

• 1:42:41Speaker 03

  I mean, I could, I just couldn't, she wasn't sick and three weeks later, she just died, I was like.

• 1:42:47Bunnie XO?

  What happened?

• 1:42:48Speaker 03

  She got, she had a little fire in her house and it raised her blood pressure up and

• 1:42:55Speaker 02

  Triggered that?

• 1:42:56Speaker 03

  Triggered like vascular dementia.

• 1:42:58Bunnie XO?

  Oh my goodness.

• 1:42:59Speaker 03

  So when your blood pressure gets high, you, your memory leaves and she ended up going to a hospital and it was just one thing after the other, one thing after the other. Two weeks later, they were like, we're gonna have to put her in hospice and we're like, hospice? She was just, she just had, but she kept having a series of strokes. And the vascular dementia just kept getting worse. But I, we, we now that we look back, we knew, she knew she was gonna die.

• 1:43:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:43:23Speaker 03

  Her entire house was clean. She had all her paperwork together. So, you know, she knew something was gonna happen and then she passed away.

• 1:43:30Speaker 02

  But Tanya had quit and I never forget this moment.

• 1:43:36Speaker 02

  We, we were, we were, we were done. Like we had nothing and we were still living in their home. But Tanya was like, she was starting to get that, I need my own, I'm, I'm ready to get out of here. You know, that kind of thing.

• 1:43:52Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, a woman wants her own space.

• 1:43:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, we were on WIC, we had food stamps, we were like living.

• 1:43:57Speaker 02

  We were, we were, we were in it, man.

• 1:43:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, we were.

• 1:44:00Bunnie XO?

  I mean, you hung in there a really long time together doing just, you know, pick the couch or anything.

• 1:44:05Speaker 02

  But we were happy. Like, that's the thing, like, I had, um, Tanya was getting her residuals and each year, this is how bad it was, each year Tanya could rely on one main check. They'll pay her like 10 grand to come to Switzerland and, and do like a Christmas thing with this one church. I was making literally a hundred and twenty-five dollars a Sunday to play. That was the only work I could actually find. But it was two hours away.

• 1:44:34Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 1:44:35Speaker 02

  And I would be driving, there's still two hours to go and do that and then driving back. And finally, I looked at my wife and I was like in tears because I knew that I was done. I was like, Tanya, I, I, I'm dying. I can't physically do this anymore.

• 1:44:53Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 1:44:53Speaker 02

  And I don't know what we're gonna do. And she was like, baby? It's okay. And then I was, I was really at the height of my depression with PTSD.

• 1:45:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:45:06Speaker 02

  And, and I would be in the basement in the dark and Tanya would be showing me different like videos of like certain bands like Mumford and Sons, Civil Wars, Long Bello. Like she was just showing me all these artists and she was like, yeah.

• 1:45:22Speaker 03

  You know, to this, I'm seeing other people doing what we may be able to do, you know, that's, that's considerate. I don't know what it's called, but I sure like how it feels, you know, it looks good.

• 1:45:32Speaker 02

  There's something to say in my life, because this was the first suicide moment I was having in twenty thirteen. And Tanya was in the shower and it just, depression just came in like a Mack truck. And I was like, I'm going, I'm going to end this. And two artists came on this, my, my TV in that living room. Um, the first one was Lee Bryce and he had a song called I Drive Your Truck.

• 1:46:05Speaker 02

  And it was like military dog tags swinging it and the lyrics and I was just like, and I was just like stuck, like what, what's going on? Like what's happening? And then the second cat was a artist named Brantley Gilbert.

• 1:46:20Bunnie XO?

  We love Brantley.

• 1:46:21Speaker 02

  And he's got this song at this time called That's One Hell of a Name Man.

• 1:46:26Speaker 02

  And that was it. The dam just cracked in half and I was just like yelling and bawling and I couldn't take it anymore. And Tanya came in there and I was like, I don't know how, I don't know what I'm gonna do, but somehow I need to be doing that, what they're doing. And then, um, so we, in twenty fourteen, we became a duo though.

• 1:46:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:46:49Speaker 02

  Because. We recognize something that, you know, Taya is immaculate alone, like by herself. Her voice is just, her stage presence, Taya is a superstar. Me alone, I can make it. I can fare, you know, I can get along.

• 1:47:06Speaker 03

  No, he's.

• 1:47:07Bunnie XO?

  You guys together is so special.

• 1:47:09Speaker 02

  But when we, we started doing something, rehearsing together, songs that I wrote for Brother, and a mutual friend was like, oh, hell no, that is what y'all are.

• 1:47:21Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:47:22Speaker 02

  So 2016 comes and.

• 1:47:24Bunnie XO?

  So let's pause right there really quick. Tell everybody how you guys came up with the name Warren Treaty, because that's such a, that is such a, like, just distinct name. The first time, I remember the first time I saw you guys perform, I was like, who are these people? I was so excited. And Jay's like, that's the Warren Treaty. And he's like, he's like, I'll tell it, like, he was happy that I didn't know who you guys were. And you got to, like, fill me in, yeah.

• 1:47:46Speaker 03

  We were fighting.

• 1:47:47Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:47:48Speaker 03

  We got into one hell of a fight. We were fighting because Michael.

• 1:47:52Bunnie XO?

  She said, we were not in therapy.

• 1:47:53Speaker 03

  We were not in therapy. That was, I needed therapy at that time, you know, but we were fighting. We had changed the name like nine times, well, Michael changed the name nine times. And I'm like the steady Libra, you know, I'm like, if that skill starts going, you know, off, I'm like, it freaks me out. So I'm like, we're not changing the name again.

• 1:48:11Speaker 02

  Yes, we are.

• 1:48:11Speaker 03

  And I'm like, yes, we are. And I'm like, we're not doing it again.

• 1:48:14Speaker 02

  Yes, we are.

• 1:48:14Speaker 03

  I'm like, we're not, it's not happening.

• 1:48:15Speaker 02

  We are changing.

• 1:48:16Speaker 03

  And we're going, and this is happening for like 15 minutes, right? And I'm asking him, why does he want to change it? He's explaining.

• 1:48:21Speaker 02

  It doesn't make sense.

• 1:48:22Speaker 03

  Yeah. And I'm like, no, it's not gonna happen. And so I say, listen, this is not.

• 1:48:27Speaker 02

  But we're getting loud. I mean, we're like, we're like.

• 1:48:29Speaker 03

  We're fighting, you know.

• 1:48:30Speaker 02

  We argue and you would think, okay, everybody getting divorced.

• 1:48:34Speaker 02

  I'm like, what?

• 1:48:35Bunnie XO?

  But you guys are both passionate people.

• 1:48:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, we're both passionate. Respectfully passionate. That's why I tell our son, like, you know, we're having a. We're having a respectful debate. It's just loud.

• 1:48:47Speaker 02

  All right, here they go.

• 1:48:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, everybody just walks out of the room, all right. And then, you know, but he finally gives in. I say, Michael, this is not a war. We have to find a treaty here, some peace. And he's like, and I'm, I'm gone, gone, gone.

• 1:49:01Speaker 02

  I said, you just did. That's the name. She's like, what? I was like, the Warren Treaty.

• 1:49:05Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:49:06Speaker 03

  And that's it.

• 1:49:06Speaker 02

  The natural tug and pull of life.

• 1:49:08Bunnie XO?

  But it actually kind of applies to both of you because you have the war and the war inside of you that's been going on. And you're kind of like the peacemaker and the treaty and like the balance of the relationship.

• 1:49:18Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:49:19Bunnie XO?

  So it really does fit both of you guys.

• 1:49:21Speaker 02

  I saw it immediately.

• 1:49:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:49:23Speaker 02

  When she said it, I was like, oh, this is our life. Like, this is, you know, that settles it for me. And she was like, it's too long.

• 1:49:38Bunnie XO?

  Typical woman.

• 1:49:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, uh huh. It's too long. What does it mean?

• 1:49:40Speaker 02

  I was like, sure.

• 1:49:42Bunnie XO?

  What does it mean?

• 1:49:42Speaker 03

  What does it mean? After I said it, it wasn't me. It was your idea.

• 1:49:47Bunnie XO?

  I love it. So how did you guys finally decide to keep it, though? Like, how did you convince her that it wasn't too long?

• 1:49:53Speaker 02

  I just told her what it meant to me. I was like, you know what, Tony? I said, to be honest with you, you have been my peace in every single war. That's it. I was like.

• 1:50:04Bunnie XO?

  That's a great wife.

• 1:50:06Speaker 02

  I was like, I don't know what other name we could come up with that would represent our time together here on earth. And I hope to be that same thing back to the struggles and the wars you have inside of you that I have yet to see. And she was just like, oh, okay, I'm in. That's it. That's what it is. I was like, all right, back.

• 1:50:29Bunnie XO?

  So take me on this journey because now you guys are making music. I mean, how did you guys get your foot in the door, especially in country? Because it is not an easy avenue.

• 1:50:41Speaker 03

  Wow. Um, it's weird because. I can't pinpoint the win, can you? Mm-hmm. You can? I can't.

• 1:50:49Bunnie XO?

  This man knows dates. You're like my husband. That's how Jay is. He'll tell you dates, times. I don't know. I never know.

• 1:50:56Speaker 03

  I don't know. I mean, we were just...

• 1:50:57Bunnie XO?

  I don't even know what day it is. You know, ever.

• 1:50:59Speaker 03

  I'm like that too. I'm like, okay, where's the phone?

• 1:51:01Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:51:03Speaker 03

  I don't know. I mean, we were recording music and we did a record with Emmylou Harris. We did, well, we did EP first.

• 1:51:09Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 1:51:09Speaker 03

  In Albion, Michigan. You know, after my mom passed, I wasn't doing music and I kind of fell in love with it again in Albion. And put it out and Michael didn't want it out initially. So I kind of snuck it to this lady on Twitter.

• 1:51:23Speaker 02

  No, that's "Haho," the song, the single, yeah.

• 1:51:25Speaker 03

  And it was kind of folky, you know, wasn't a mainstream country sounding, you know, record. And it kind of took, you know, to certain parts of the country, that we call the heartland.

• 1:51:38Speaker 02

  Well, country wasn't in the cards.

• 1:51:39Speaker 03

  No, at all.

• 1:51:40Speaker 02

  We had no, no, no desire.

• 1:51:41Bunnie XO?

  No aspirations to be in country.

• 1:51:43Speaker 02

  Because to me and Tanya, that meant something else at the time.

• 1:51:48Bunnie XO?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:51:48Speaker 02

  Like, keeping it one hundred. I mean, the things I knew of country music, as it pertains to people that look like us, I was like, "No, we, we, we don't be over here."

• 1:51:58Bunnie XO?

  There's not room for us, is how you felt.

• 1:52:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:52:01Speaker 02

  That's how I felt. And, um, but, um, and also, I didn't want to be in the industry at all.

• 1:52:10Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:52:10Speaker 02

  I had a problem with selling the music and doing all, because remember now, I got into writing music. I think that's where I skipped over to tell you. When I wrote that song about the fallen comrade, my, my Colonel saw how it affected our battalion. And he changed my job. I became the songwriter for our unit. So I had to go to every memorial, every, every death and learn about the soldier if I didn't know them, and write the song and turn around and perform it that afternoon at the memorials. So I had gotten to a rhythm of literally writing songs about a life. And not really trying to be clever and not trying to be cool.

• 1:52:53Speaker 02

  I was literally writing about one individual who was living and is now no longer with us. So when, when Tanya presented the idea of, you know, sending the songs to the radio and all this stuff... My famous saying is like, they go to Hollywood shit again. Hell, no, I ain't in.

• 1:53:11Speaker 03

  I'm like, I just bought some bootleg CDs from you. But it wasn't, but even that album was more his story, kind of, now that I think about it, it was him letting it out.

• 1:53:21Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 1:53:22Speaker 03

  It was whatever he had gone through, it was letting it out in that, that I purchased. So we never, I don't think, again, I can't remember the when. You, you have the dates and you know when, but I don't think.

• 1:53:33Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, I know exactly what, what took place. Um, we got to go back to a guy named Peter Cooper. Peter Cooper is a Nashville staple at the Country Music Hall of Fame. They were inducting in 2018, the late, great Dottie West into the Country Music Hall of Fame. And somebody had caught wind of an interview of me and Tanya on NPR, talking about our story and talking about the homelessness and the military and all that stuff. And, um, Peter was like, you know what?

• 1:54:08Speaker 02

  Dottie West would have loved the war and treaty because of her character and because of the stories of, of her. I mean, she would just let people stay on her couch for days, months at a time, you know? And, and she kind of lost her, her, her marriage a little bit to that, amongst other things, what they, what he was doing. But nonetheless, um, they were like, we, we want to present the war and treaty to the family. And the family was like, oh, let's do this. Let's, let's get them to sing. And so our first moment was we sang Lessons in Leaven at the Country Music Hall of Fame for the induction.

• 1:54:48Speaker 02

  And it was from that point on to where we, we just, um, country music grabbed hold to us. We, we didn't grab it, it grabbed us.

• 1:54:56Bunnie XO?

  Isn't it crazy? And I tell everybody this, like, whenever I talk about it on the podcast, because. My husband and I thought it was gonna be so hard for him to get into country too. And once they grab ahold of you, they love you.

• 1:55:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:55:08Bunnie XO?

  And they really just try to like bring you in. And like, it's the most, you know, cause my, my husband was in hip hop before this and country rapper, if that's even a thing anymore. But it's like, it was just so different. You know, everybody, nobody had each other's backs. Everybody was fighting, it's fueled by drama. And then you come to the country circle and it's just like, everybody loves everybody. And like, everybody wants to help everybody. And I don't know if that's you guys' experience. But that's what it's been for us. And it's been so beautiful to watch. And we're like, we feel so fortunate to be a part of the family, you know? That's how we got to meet you guys and see you guys. And just, it's been amazing.

• 1:55:46Speaker 02

  It's been amazing to see what country music allows to represent itself as well. I remember, um, we were, we were laughing with your husband because it was like, the day the Grammy started, um, announcing the nominations. It was a wild thing because every year we get prepared for it by our teams at the time. And, um, it never happens for us. And so this particular year, I was just like, ah, I'm not interested. You know, we're in the airport.

• 1:56:18Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, watching it.

• 1:56:19Speaker 02

  And, um, so we get a nomination for best new artist. And when you understand the, the inner makings of how that happens, certain genres have certain slots that they'll slate you in as the future of the genre, right? And so I didn't, I didn't know that. I was just like oblivious to that. Like, okay, I'm just like, hell yeah, we nominated one. You know, like, yeah. I didn't realize that that nomination, it's not so much about the win. It's more about the nomination and what it means to a genre.

• 1:57:00Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:57:01Speaker 02

  And so Jelly, I'll never forget.

• 1:57:06Speaker 02

  Here's the crazy thing. I go into my inbox and do a video because I'm like, I'm gonna send Jelly Roll. Now that I know what this means, I'm like, okay. Jelly Roll and the Warren Treaty are actually representing in this genre, country music, the future and the present of country music. So I'm about to send him a message, failing to realize, he has beat me to this. He's like, my good time, Warren Treaty, you know, doing the thing. He's like, can you believe that we?

• 1:57:39Speaker 02

  And honestly, no, I cannot. Because, I mean, when you look at Jelly Roll, and when you look at Warren Treaty, and you put them face to face against what has represented this genre for years, starting with Johnny Cash, starting with Loretta Lynn, and all the things, and as you travel with Garth, and Randy Travis, and you look at that, and then you look in today's industry, there are artists who, on the outside, they want to reflect that. You know, I mean, even me, my stylist had me trapped for a while into believing that I had to reflect this in order to be accepted

• 1:58:24Speaker 02

  as a country artist versus realizing my talent was already putting me in the room, right? But then when you look at the stories, and you look at the outer makings, like, when you look at Jelly Roll, it's like, you cannot ignore and miss the fact that authenticity is what Bubba is thirsting for. Because, I mean, like, people shit on this genre a lot. Especially the genre itself, because they'll say things like-

• 1:59:04Bunnie XO?

  Country music fans are crazy.

• 1:59:07Speaker 02

  Well, they'll say stuff like, well, you know, we gotta make music for Bubba, and Bubba is not that bright, is what they say, but they don't realize something. I just had this conversation the other day with someone, I said, do you understand what's happening? Like, we just left Iowa State Fair.

• 1:59:26Bunnie XO?

  Oh, you guys were there with Daddy?

• 1:59:27Speaker 02

  Yeah. We were there.

• 1:59:29Bunnie XO?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, that's right.

• 1:59:30Speaker 02

  Twenty-one thousand plus.

• 1:59:34Bunnie XO?

  Crazy, right?

• 1:59:35Speaker 02

  And you cannot go anywhere without hearing on the aircom, oh Jelly just pulled up, or to hear what a fan says about Jelly, or to realize people wearing these shirts and people are really connected. And, and people are, you know, the, those who are, there's maybe 25% or 50% of the audience is connected to the music. But people who look like me, who are showing up, they're connected to the speech. That's different. Like people, people think it's a joke and they think it's cool that someone will put organs behind his acceptance speech. And I'm like, y'all don't understand what that means.

• 2:00:20Speaker 02

  That means he's preaching to them. And he's touching a part that makes them feel like somebody's hearing them. Or they feel better. I remember for me, I, I just kept listening to, I only talk to God when I need a savior. Because that's how I felt in Iraq. I felt, at first I felt real shitty about that. I felt like, man, I've been hearing about you all my life and this is what it comes to? Like I gotta get on my knees and talk to you now because I'm fucking scared.

• 2:00:49Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:50Speaker 02

  I'm terrified about what, what the guy is gonna do over there. But then I started listening to what God was telling me. It was like, it's okay if that's how you wanna come at me. And that's, that, because I understand you more than anybody.

• 2:01:07Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 2:01:08Speaker 02

  So that is to represent country music. And then you got the war and tree. And let's just be honest, you got a black husband and wife representing country music.

• 2:01:24Bunnie XO?

  I don't know. When I saw you guys the first time, I was fascinated. I was like, you were like just Jessica Rabbit up on the stage, looking all gorgeous. And then we have, you know, your hunk of a husband. And then, but when you guys open your mouths, you guys already have such a presence. You know, so when people see you, they're like, what is, what's going on? You know, when you guys start singing, it is like so angelic, dude. It is just, oh, it's amazing. And I just remember looking at my husband and I'm like, who are these people? And he was just so stoked for you guys, you know? Cause he just loves you guys so much and he just filled me in on you guys. Ever since then, I've just been watching you guys' journey unfold and I get to see you guys at all the award shows. We got to sit together at the Grammys.

• 2:02:04Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:02:04Bunnie XO?

  I was wearing a diaper. It was really uncomfortable. It was the worst day of my life, but we fucking got through. Oh, girl, my period started the day of the Grammys.

• 2:02:14Speaker 03

  Oh, I hate that.

• 2:02:15Bunnie XO?

  They sewed me into a diaper in my dress and I like had to keep asking Gracie Abrams right next to me. I'm like, do you see blood on me?

• 2:02:24Bunnie XO?

  Every time we stood up, I was just, it was horrific, but I was so thankful for all of us to be able to share that moment together and sitting at the table. And then I think you and my husband are a meme.

• 2:02:33Speaker 03

  Oh my, they are a meme. They were jamming, watching Tracy Chapman.

• 2:02:37Speaker 02

  Wait, did y'all hear about Tracy today?

• 2:02:40Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 2:02:41Speaker 02

  This is going to freak y'all out. So earlier in the year, it was just released that Stevie Wonder and the Jacksons, like Michael and Janet are actually cousins, like blood cousins.

• 2:02:52Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 2:02:53Speaker 02

  Well, Janet just said, well, I mean, now we're talking about it. So Samuel L. Jackson is their cousin, but Tracy Chapman too.

• 2:03:01Bunnie XO?

  Really? Really? Crazy.

• 2:03:04Speaker 02

  Sorry.

• 2:03:04Bunnie XO?

  What a, what a crazy musical family.

• 2:03:08Speaker 03

  That's insane.

• 2:03:08Bunnie XO?

  Like that's, that's insane.

• 2:03:10Speaker 03

  That's insane.

• 2:03:11Speaker 02

  But that's why we were freaking out. I mean, like, we were freaking out because that moment was so, like, I forgot while I was there. I mean, like.

• 2:03:17Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 2:03:18Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:03:18Bunnie XO?

  No, it was a beautiful moment.

• 2:03:20Speaker 03

  It really was beautiful.

• 2:03:21Bunnie XO?

  Like you had to have been there to actually like really get to feel like, I'm sure it conveyed on TV to everybody too, but being in that moment, getting to see Tracy Chapman on stage with Luke Combs, who's, who's an amazing performer.

• 2:03:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:03:31Bunnie XO?

  It was just a moment and it was like, it's kind of took us all back to our childhoods. Cause I know, I don't know how old you guys were whenever that song came out, but I just remember that song when I was younger. So it was like, everybody just had a moment of their childhood, you know?

• 2:03:45Speaker 03

  It was so, it was so wonderful.

• 2:03:46Speaker 02

  I was telling you, go ahead, baby.

• 2:03:47Speaker 03

  And to be able to see Luke in that moment, you know, I sent him a message afterwards and he responded back to see him. You could see how he was, he said, I was so nervous. This is the most nervous I've ever been, but you saw one of our giants just become so small in that moment. And I go, you know, humble, just standing next to her.

• 2:04:07Speaker 02

  Happy to be there.

• 2:04:08Speaker 03

  It was beautiful. It was so beautiful to see.

• 2:04:10Speaker 02

  A part of creating that moment.

• 2:04:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:04:12Speaker 02

  I think that people, so when I said, you know, um, to be black and representing this particular genre, um, I think people are afraid to acknowledge, um,

• 2:04:27Speaker 02

  The history, but in a pure way, right?

• 2:04:31Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 2:04:32Speaker 02

  You know, Tanya and I, when we got our nomination in the ACMs and the CMAs, we are the first African American husband wife duo to ever get nominated, period.

• 2:04:43Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 2:04:44Speaker 02

  Like, people didn't know that, like.

• 2:04:45Bunnie XO?

  I did not know that.

• 2:04:46Speaker 02

  It was a big deal, the fact that we were even nominated. It was like, whoa.

• 2:04:53Bunnie XO?

  How does that feel, though? Coming from the streets of Cleveland, coming from your upbringing, to the struggle that you guys have had to face together, to now being at these shows and being nominated, the first people to be nominated like that?

• 2:05:08Speaker 03

  I cry all the time. I cry all of the time. I'm, I'm driving down the street sometimes, I'm just like bursting in tears.

• 2:05:14Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 2:05:14Speaker 03

  You know what I mean? Because it's, you can't dream this up. You couldn't put it down as a marketing plan, but just the thought of it now even brings me to, you know, wakes my eyes, just make me wanna cry because I'm like,

• 2:05:27Speaker 03

  so many people had this dream, you know, and for it to happen for us, you know? It's just, it's mind blowing.

• 2:05:34Speaker 02

  And on the other side of it, it, it, it, it changed my, my, me personally, it changed my, my life. And, and people will say, well, of course, yeah, you could, it's got nothing to do with music. It's got nothing to do with getting shows or, or fan base or nothing. I've actually got healed at the CMAs from fireworks and from the 4th of July situation.

• 2:05:59Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 2:05:59Speaker 02

  Um, and I, I wrote a post about this, but I, I'll briefly tell you. Um, our manager at the time was like, Michael, I need to talk to you. Um, Miranda and Carrie both have, um, pyro in their performances. And you're sitting very close to the stage, so, um, we're gonna pull you at a certain time so that, you know, we got headphones in the back so you don't hear it. And I'm like, man, I don't feel like making a scene. You know, I didn't want people to be worrying about that. And I didn't want me and Tanya to be overshadowed by that.

• 2:06:37Speaker 03

  We couldn't go watch fireworks. Legend has never watched fireworks with us. We've never, and when we do festivals, we have to find a place to put Michael where he can be calm and I'm soothing him because it's a trigger.

• 2:06:50Speaker 02

  Especially if you're on 4th of July like North Carolina.

• 2:06:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, like North Carolina, you know, we did a festival and he's like freaking out in the back of the stage, like shaking and everything, so.

• 2:06:58Speaker 02

  Well, we had the CMAs and Miranda's performance and Carrie's performance happens and they don't pull me at all. And I'm just sitting there with Tanya and I'm staring because Tanya's in like this bad motherfucking dress.

• 2:07:14Bunnie XO?

  She always looks so damn good.

• 2:07:16Speaker 02

  I am like OMG, like this is, but then it, and then I heard a still small voice say, you made it. And I was like, and I just started bawling because I realized I sat through those two performances that had to pyro. And from that moment on, I've been able to do fireworks.

• 2:07:39Bunnie XO?

  You felt safe for once.

• 2:07:41Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:07:41Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 2:07:42Speaker 02

  I felt safe and I felt in charge.

• 2:07:45Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 2:07:46Speaker 02

  I didn't let them pull me.

• 2:07:48Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. I tell everybody that because I suffer from OCD and like severe anxiety too. And the way I've gotten through it was my husband came to me, I told them this the other day, or I forget who I was talking to, but my husband came to me about two years ago and he said, Bunny, I love you, you haven't left the house. You are reminding me of my mom and it's very triggering to me. And he's like, if you don't leave this house, we're going to have to think, rethink our relationship, you know, because that's how bad my OCD had gotten me to where I couldn't barely even go to the store, like do anything. And so my way of. Curing that was like, okay, I'm just gonna hop on tour with my husband.

• 2:08:27Speaker 03

  Wow. You jumped right in.

• 2:08:28Bunnie XO?

  The last tour, I got my own bus and I got, people don't realize, they're like, why does she have to have her own bus? Blah, blah, blah. Well, because I'm conquering fears, motherfuckers. I'm paying for it, so don't ask questions. I got on that bus, my crew hopped on with me and I conquered every fear I've ever had. And now I fucking am like, it's crazy. You have to go through it to get through it. And especially when you're conquering fears like that.

• 2:08:53Speaker 03

  You really do.

• 2:08:54Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. And now I'm like, I'm ready to go on tour. I can't wait. We leave in three weeks. And like, I go places now and I don't have panic attacks and like, it's just a work in progress. And I, I always tell everybody, if you're dealing with any sort of anxiety, OCD, be in charge.

• 2:09:11Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 2:09:11Bunnie XO?

  Be the, the captain of your ship and don't let it fucking own you, dude. And that is so cool that you got through the fireworks, man. That's huge.

• 2:09:20Speaker 03

  That's the CMA.

• 2:09:21Bunnie XO?

  That's the CMA.

• 2:09:22Speaker 03

  That's so awesome.

• 2:09:23Bunnie XO?

  Miranda's coming on the podcast tomorrow, actually.

• 2:09:25Speaker 03

  Oh, she is? That's our girl.

• 2:09:26Bunnie XO?

  I can't believe I landed her.

• 2:09:28Speaker 03

  That's my girl.

• 2:09:30Bunnie XO?

  I love her.

• 2:09:30Speaker 03

  And kudos to you. Oh, everybody loves you. Everybody loves you.

• 2:09:37Bunnie XO?

  I love you.

• 2:09:38Speaker 03

  I, I actually experienced that. We opened up for the Rolling Stones. And the last time I had that kind of anxiety was, I missed my mother's funeral. That's how bad my anxiety is. And it gave me a really bad heart condition because. I almost died. I almost died. That's how she missed it. Yeah, my anxiety is that bad. And I thought I had it under control. I was like, okay, I'm touring. This is great. I'm in front of people all the time. But now that you're talking, I'm realizing that I have kind of like isolate, I don't go out as much. You know, Michael wanted to go dancing and I was like, no, I don't want to go.

• 2:10:08Bunnie XO?

  I used to do that too.

• 2:10:09Speaker 03

  Uh huh. And so then, this was like, what, seven weeks ago, eight weeks ago, when we opened up, when they rolled the stones?

• 2:10:17Speaker 03

  I was like a ball of, I was a mess, like getting on Michael's nerves, just whatever. And I think it was because I was.

• 2:10:23Speaker 02

  I'm so glad you admit that.

• 2:10:25Speaker 03

  I was really getting on his nerves because it was irritating me that one, I, I felt like something was happening, but I didn't know what it was, you know? And so when I got out and it was time to um do the sound check, I felt it. I was like, okay, this is, I don't know if I could do this. And I felt myself just like getting smaller and smaller and smaller. And then I just, I don't think we talked the whole day. You were like sitting across the room and I was like, we were in the same space and I said nothing to him for like hours.

• 2:10:55Bunnie XO?

  Cause you're just so anxiety ridden.

• 2:10:56Speaker 03

  I was so just trapped and I realized that I was like, oh, this is what it is. And it just showed up after nine, 10 years.

• 2:11:06Bunnie XO?

  That's trauma, baby.

• 2:11:07Speaker 03

  Never had done before and it's the trauma.

• 2:11:08Bunnie XO?

  It's trauma.

• 2:11:09Speaker 03

  When you just said that, it just reminded me that, you know.

• 2:11:12Bunnie XO?

  But you're not alone.

• 2:11:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, not alone, yeah.

• 2:11:14Bunnie XO?

  And everybody is going through something and there's just different levels. I, when I was going through all my trauma, I was like, I've never had anxiety. I've never had, or I'm sorry, I've never had depression. I always had anxiety. I never had depression. I've never been suicidal, blah, blah, blah. When I turned 40 years old, I'm telling you, my suicidal ideation hit me so hard that I didn't think I was gonna make it to 50 years old. You know, I was like, just the thought of living that long was like, this is exhausting. I can't do it, you know? And you're gonna go through levels like that with your anxiety. But the best thing I could ever tell you, and if you need to text me, text me anytime, do not let it control you. Because when you let it control you, you're giving in. You have to fight back and you know, do it on your own time and when you can and it'll happen when you can.

• 2:11:59Bunnie XO?

  But do something different that you would never do before. Like next time Michael asks you to go dancing.

• 2:12:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:12:05Bunnie XO?

  Go dance with him, but say, you know what, baby? I'm gonna go dance with you, but I'm gonna go for an hour.

• 2:12:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:12:09Bunnie XO?

  And that's what I used to tell myself, okay, I'm gonna go do this. Remember I would give myself time limits, guys?

• 2:12:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:12:13Bunnie XO?

  And like I would show up to Jay's shows and I would be out like before halfway through his show. But I started to learn how to trust and feel safer more and more and more. And it's a process, but you'll get through it, I promise.

• 2:12:26Speaker 02

  That's, that's amazing that you said that because that's actually why the house keepings were hired. Because um, see, my wife is the kind of person, I just wrote this in a post the other day. Tanya does everything for everybody. And.

• 2:12:45Speaker 02

  Um, I realized that's also

• 2:12:48Speaker 03

  A part of it.

• 2:12:48Speaker 02

  A part of her super strength, her superpower. But it's also a part of the thing, right? And so I know how long to let it go. And then I'm like, well, hey, Tanya, I need to be involved. I need to know what's my role. What do I, what can I do? What do I? And so, you know, finally she's like, okay, you need to pay this bill. You need to hire this, that, that. And so I did. And because, and it makes me feel like, you know what? I'm doing something for her, even though it's for us.

• 2:13:23Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 2:13:24Speaker 02

  You know?

• 2:13:24Bunnie XO?

  Well, it's taking the load off.

• 2:13:25Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 2:13:26Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. My husband had to do the same thing for me because I, I was just like Tanya. When, people don't know this, but when Jay and I first got together, I used to kind of quote, unquote, manage him and I would do everything.

• 2:13:37Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 2:13:37Bunnie XO?

  And it got to a point where it was just crazy. Now I don't have, I don't know anything that's going on with his business at all, but it's like.

• 2:13:44Speaker 02

  Is your name Tanya?

• 2:13:45Speaker 03

  I used to manage Michael. His, his, his country name was Trotter Michaels. But I managed him.

• 2:13:51Speaker 02

  You forgot this one.

• 2:13:52Bunnie XO?

  We need Trotter Michaels.

• 2:13:55Speaker 02

  I've tried everything. My R and B name was Mike Ivory. That was R and B about, and she managed me.

• 2:14:01Speaker 03

  I managed him. It was so funny.

• 2:14:03Bunnie XO?

  I love it. You got, Jay was a totem pole roll.

• 2:14:06Speaker 03

  Oh, I can't.

• 2:14:08Bunnie XO?

  Follow totem pole roll. He will love you forever. He'll be like, oh my God. Cause that's like his, his, uh, antonym that everybody follows.

• 2:14:15Speaker 02

  Do you want to know some of our duo names before?

• 2:14:19Bunnie XO?

  I would love to know some of your duo names.

• 2:14:21Speaker 02

  Okay. So here's, here's a classic one.

• 2:14:22Speaker 03

  You go back and forth.

• 2:14:23Speaker 02

  So we were first called N Y A, which stood for nine years apart.

• 2:14:28Bunnie XO?

  Nine years apart.

• 2:14:29Speaker 03

  And then it was, uh, Empty Earth.

• 2:14:31Speaker 02

  Empty Earth.

• 2:14:32Bunnie XO?

  I actually kind of like Empty Earth.

• 2:14:34Speaker 03

  It's a rock band.

• 2:14:36Speaker 02

  That was our rocker phase.

• 2:14:37Speaker 03

  That was our rocker phase.

• 2:14:38Speaker 02

  We had Beyonce. We had phases.

• 2:14:40Speaker 03

  There were eras. We had eras before they were eras.

• 2:14:42Bunnie XO?

  I love it. I love it.

• 2:14:43Speaker 02

  Oh, never put no music out.

• 2:14:45Speaker 03

  Never.

• 2:14:45Bunnie XO?

  I love Empty Earth though. I do love Empty Earth.

• 2:14:48Speaker 02

  Empty Earth, and we were playing on things. I was like, oh, empty, like M T?

• 2:14:52Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 2:14:52Speaker 02

  Earth, you know? She's like, no, no.

• 2:14:54Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 2:14:55Speaker 02

  And then we were, um, Dear Martha.

• 2:14:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:14:58Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 2:14:59Speaker 03

  And then we were Mike and Tanya.

• 2:15:00Bunnie XO?

  Dear Martha, does that have to do with Martha Stewart?

• 2:15:03Speaker 03

  Um, now that I think about it.

• 2:15:05Speaker 02

  Buddy.

• 2:15:05Speaker 03

  You know what? I didn't think about that.

• 2:15:08Speaker 02

  Stop using your gift now.

• 2:15:09Speaker 03

  I'm, that needs to be in my house. You have done blah, that needs to be here. I'm like, that's the name? Now that I think about it.

• 2:15:15Speaker 02

  No, um, it was, uh, so my military, uh, buddy, uh, who was killed, his wife was Martha and we have a song called Dear Martha.

• 2:15:24Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 2:15:25Speaker 02

  So we were trying to do that. And then we were called, I'm not your sister.

• 2:15:29Speaker 03

  Uh, I ain't your sister.

• 2:15:31Speaker 02

  I ain't your sister.

• 2:15:31Bunnie XO?

  What phase was this?

• 2:15:33Speaker 03

  This was.

• 2:15:34Speaker 02

  The folky.

• 2:15:34Speaker 03

  The folky, yeah. Then it was Mike and Tanya. He's trying to change the name now.

• 2:15:40Speaker 02

  It was never Mike and Tanya. That's what I wanted.

• 2:15:42Speaker 03

  You wanted to change.

• 2:15:43Speaker 02

  I want to change it again to Mike and Tanya. No, I don't want that.

• 2:15:47Bunnie XO?

  No, the Warren Treaty, the Warren Treaty is so good.

• 2:15:50Speaker 02

  We're solid now.

• 2:15:50Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. So, can we dive in really quick? Um, and I'll, I'll let you guys go because I have had you guys for over two and a half hours.

• 2:15:57Speaker 03

  Oh, I love it.

• 2:15:57Bunnie XO?

  This has been amazing. This has been amazing. Um, I just want to let you guys know, hey, driver, my daughter, our daughter, played that song over and over again. It's her daughter's favorite song.

• 2:16:12Speaker 03

  Oh, my God.

• 2:16:13Bunnie XO?

  How did you guys connect with Zach Bryan? And ta- take me on that journey with you guys? Because I know it's a huge hit on TikTok and I want everybody to know the story behind it.

• 2:16:22Speaker 03

  It was at the ACM. We were doing the ACMs and Zach, it's time to leave, you know, behind stage, everybody's leaving. And he runs back there.

• 2:16:31Speaker 02

  No, we.

• 2:16:32Speaker 03

  Yeah?

• 2:16:32Speaker 02

  We weren't going to meet him.

• 2:16:33Speaker 03

  We weren't going to meet him.

• 2:16:35Speaker 02

  No, we were going to, to, to.

• 2:16:36Speaker 03

  Talked to, was it Nate?

• 2:16:37Speaker 02

  Nate.

• 2:16:38Speaker 03

  Nate, Nate, yeah, Nate Smith. Uh huh. We're going to meet Nate and Zach runs back there as we're talking, finishing talking to Nate. And he's like, guys, he's like, I'm sitting next to my dad.

• 2:16:50Speaker 03

  Got chills. My dad grabs my leg. He's like, what is happening to me? He's like, I don't know what's happening to me. Aww. And so he says, we gotta exchange numbers. He was like, do you understand? I don't think people understand what just happened to us in there. He said, but they will. And so we exchanged numbers and not even a week later, he sends Michael the song. No, it was the next day. Was it the next day, right? Yeah. And maybe a couple of days. We, no, the next day and we sent him a voice memo. He's like, I just want to hear whatever you guys want to do. Like, here's the song. Send me a voice memo back. Yeah. And so we send the voice memo back to him and he puts it up on his. Here's my new songs. He puts it up in a Zach Bryan kind of way. And I love that about him though.

• 2:17:35Speaker 03

  I love, I love that he doesn't give a shit. He knew what he wanted. He knew what he wanted. He knew what he wanted. Wait, his classic line was, wait, are y'all signed? Yeah. I was like, what the fuck you think, bro? Take that down. We gonna get in trouble. Yeah. So we had to do the whole industry thing and, you know, get the paperwork together. Who were you guys signed with? We were at Universal Nashville. Gotcha, okay. So with them and he flew us to Philadelphia and we, and we're in the studio. And if you hear on the record Zach Bryan say that the song is Michael's. This is your song, Mike. It's his song because Michael goes to the bathroom and I like start talking to Zach. I'm like, yeah, Zach gets on his guitar. I'm like, you know, Michael plays the piano like that. He's, oh, he does?

• 2:18:19Speaker 03

  I say, yeah, I said, he would sound really good on this record with you. And he's like, he would? He said, you think he'd play? I said, hell yeah, he'd play. Now, Michael doesn't like to play the piano, just like exposed. Right. You know, by himself. So he gets back from the bathroom and Zach's like, yeah, Michael. Well, yeah, yeah. And, um.

• 2:18:41Speaker 03

  He's like, he's like, yeah, yeah, Michael, his piano right here, man.

• 2:18:45Speaker 02

  I was like, what?

• 2:18:46Speaker 03

  He was like.

• 2:18:47Speaker 02

  What are we doing that?

• 2:18:48Speaker 03

  He's like, what are we doing? He's like, come on, I'm doing this, you know, you start playing. So Michael starts playing, he starts playing. And then Zach leaves out and goes on the other side because he's recording out there and we're recording in the booth. And Michael's kind of apprehensive, like not playing the song the way he was doing it with Zach. So Zach says, come on, man. He says, it's your song, Mike.

• 2:19:07Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 2:19:08Speaker 03

  And it's, we just go all the way down and start.

• 2:19:11Speaker 02

  And I got the stupid ass Ned Flanders laugh in The Simpsons. I'm like, okay, I hate that part. It's your song, Mike.

• 2:19:19Speaker 03

  He laughing? And that's how the song happened. It was, yeah.

• 2:19:23Bunnie XO?

  I love it.

• 2:19:24Speaker 03

  Ned Flanders.

• 2:19:25Bunnie XO?

  I love it.

• 2:19:26Speaker 03

  It was so, it was so natural, it was so organic and who knew?

• 2:19:32Speaker 02

  It's a few people in, in our business and this industry that you, you, you just want to stay connected with, you know? I mean, Jelly is one, Zach is another one, Dirk Spentley.

• 2:19:47Bunnie XO?

  Hmm, yeah. Miranda.

• 2:19:48Speaker 02

  Miranda.

• 2:19:49Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, Miranda's my little spicy taco.

• 2:19:51Speaker 02

  We got so fucked, okay, nevermind, nevermind. I gotta tell you, that's what I'm talking about.

• 2:19:56Bunnie XO?

  Who was it, who was it about?

• 2:19:57Speaker 02

  Oh, my God, we, we, we did all right. And I think we, we got so fucked up in that, right?

• 2:20:03Bunnie XO?

  Oh, with Miranda?

• 2:20:04Speaker 02

  See, people think me and Ty are so like conservative and so not.

• 2:20:09Bunnie XO?

  Honestly, that's kind of what the, the idea that I had, just watching you guys' interviews. Because you guys are so proper, but then the minute you guys sat down, I was like, oh, this is, it's game on.

• 2:20:19Speaker 03

  We're, we're like, I mean, we're, you know?

• 2:20:21Speaker 02

  It's bad.

• 2:20:22Bunnie XO?

  No, but you guys, you know what? You guys are real.

• 2:20:25Speaker 02

  Miranda was like, wait, are we doing this? I was like.

• 2:20:27Bunnie XO?

  Oh, yeah, Miranda gets saucy, she don't play.

• 2:20:29Speaker 03

  I love her.

• 2:20:30Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, she's amazing.

• 2:20:31Speaker 03

  And she's brilliant in the studio.

• 2:20:33Bunnie XO?

  Brilliant.

• 2:20:34Speaker 03

  Brilliant, I mean.

• 2:20:36Bunnie XO?

  She is, I, and I know I'm going to get some heat for this, but besides Dolly and which, to me, I, Dolly's the queen of country for other reasons. Miranda's the queen of country.

• 2:20:45Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 2:20:45Bunnie XO?

  Because she is just.

• 2:20:46Speaker 03

  She's the truth.

• 2:20:47Bunnie XO?

  No, she, she for real.

• 2:20:48Speaker 02

  I love that you said that. Because it's hard because of the history of Miranda and not, not.

• 2:20:55Speaker 02

  Um, it's, it's when you are married in the industry. You know, things overshadow, you know, like, and then when both of you are like powerhouses like, I mean, Blake is a G, you know, Miranda is a real G.

• 2:21:11Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, no, Miranda's the G.

• 2:21:12Speaker 03

  She's the truth.

• 2:21:13Speaker 02

  Like, straight up.

• 2:21:14Bunnie XO?

  She's like, street country. And I feel like Blake is like, you know.

• 2:21:18Speaker 02

  He's that, he's that post, so he's that thing we're talking about.

• 2:21:20Bunnie XO?

  Poster child. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:21:21Speaker 02

  But you know Miranda is, okay, so you, I could say this to you and you'd be like, damn, I, I get that. You know, in church, people, the preachers used to say, uh, if you don't praise them, the rocks will cry out.

• 2:21:36Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 2:21:37Speaker 02

  Well, this is the rock moment. These are the rocks. We are the rocks.

• 2:21:43Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 2:21:44Speaker 02

  And the rocks is the real thing. It's like,

• 2:21:46Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 2:21:47Speaker 02

  That over there, you've abused this gift of spirituality for so long. By creating this poster picture of what it is and them trying to force people to live up to that. And then now it's like, okay, now we unchained.

• 2:22:03Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 2:22:04Speaker 02

  We're unchained. We are like,

• 2:22:06Bunnie XO?

  Everybody's making their own path.

• 2:22:07Speaker 03

  Everybody is.

• 2:22:08Speaker 02

  This is what it is.

• 2:22:08Bunnie XO?

  My husband, you guys, I mean, like,

• 2:22:11Speaker 03

  You?

• 2:22:11Bunnie XO?

  Uh, yeah, thank you.

• 2:22:13Speaker 02

  Hell, yeah.

• 2:22:14Bunnie XO?

  I appreciate you guys.

• 2:22:15Speaker 03

  You got a fire torch, she's burning that path up.

• 2:22:17Bunnie XO?

  After six years, I'm fucking, I'm, I'm just glad to be here.

• 2:22:21Speaker 03

  I love it. I love it.

• 2:22:23Bunnie XO?

  I love you guys and I appreciate you guys so much. Thank you for sitting down with me. And whenever you guys want to come back, if you guys have new projects, anything, you guys always have a seat on my couch.

• 2:22:33Speaker 03

  We would love to. Thank you. Thank you so much.

• 2:22:36Bunnie XO?

  I know. I'm so excited to have you guys. I'm so excited for the world to get to hear this and just love and embrace you guys. Like, I'm really stoked about it.

• 2:22:43Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 2:22:43Bunnie XO?

  More than they already have.

• 2:22:47Bunnie XO?

  What are you, so let, shout out your socia's and then like, let me know of any projects you guys have coming up.

• 2:22:53Speaker 03

  We actually, while we're touring,

• 2:22:55Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 2:22:55Speaker 03

  We have the record coming out next year and they can reach us on thewarandtreaty.com, the war treaty on all socia's. Except X. Is it X now? Twitter, X, whatever.

• 2:23:05Bunnie XO?

  I don't even, that, that place scares me over there.

• 2:23:07Speaker 03

  War and Treaty. Yeah, yeah.

• 2:23:10Bunnie XO?

  It is scary over there. Is there anything else you guys want to shout out? Your tour dates, like, anything like that?

• 2:23:18Speaker 02

  We're badass. Yeah, we're gonna be somewhere.

• 2:23:22Bunnie XO?

  Just look at Warren Tree.com.

• 2:23:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, just look at Warren Tree.com. There you go. There it is.

• 2:23:25Bunnie XO?

  I appreciate you guys so much. Thank you for coming.

• 2:23:28Speaker 02

  Thank you. Thank you.

• 2:23:29Bunnie XO?

  Thank you guys for tuning into another episode of Dumb Blonde. I will see you guys next week. Bye.