You do not want to mess with Asia
Or maybe you do …
QUEEN …
PHOTOS: CHRISTOPHER SCALZI / DISTILLED STUDIOS
Of course I fell in love with ASIA within minutes. Nearly 6’ of lusciousness — and her over-the-top storytelling made me swoon.
Glorious Broads are no strangers to restarts — and Asia’s no exception. Our first GB interview was postponed. She got hammered with COVID when people were droppin’ like flies in NYC. We rescheduled. And then ... she vanished. For weeks.
I was patient. Perplexed. But patient. When she rose from the near dead — ‘cause that’s what Asia does — she shared a horrifying medical tale of woe. Treatment mishandled. Racially profiled. Given knowingly ineffective meds. Writhing in pain. For days. Botched procedure. Two return ER visits — in the middle of a god damn pandemic. The end result? Lasting negative effects. And the worst part? Not being heard. At the same time, the streets outside her hospital windows were brimming with BLM demonstrators — also pissed off for not being heard.
Asia was with them in spirit: “With all this shit going on now: My fuck you meter is all the way up. And this was before George Floyd."
Back in the hospital, Asia was on the cover of the last V.A. Website — that kicked off her latest restart. Once she showed this to a white, male nurse — everything changed. No longer relegated by the medical staff as just another middle-aged Black female, she suddenly had value. Given the right meds she’d been begging for for days — she was released. She was heard.
And if you think that's dramatic, buckle in baby — Asia's story is as twisty as it is glorious ...
GLORIOUS PROFESSION: You know, just your run of the mill Country Star, Civil Servant, Veteran Cover Girl
GLORIOUS PERSONA: Can't Stop Won't Stop, ASIA Lands on Her Feet
GLORIOUS QUALITIES: Raconteur Extraordinaire, Truth Teller, Ready for Her Close Up, Mama Bear
GLORIOUS PHILOSOPHY:
“I’m not shutting up. Don’t shoosh me because I’m a woman ”
SO WHAT’S AN ENTERTAINER LIKE YOU DOIN’ IN THE MILITARY?
Money. My Mama didn't want the government in her business — she was not gonna fill out financial aid papers for any college. I went to the take the test for the Army as a lark — and my scores were one of the top 10 in Houston, Tx. Hey! I’m a smart girl. Then they told me they’d give me $50,000 when you complete just for being a double minority. And a college degree. Sign me up!
WHAT WAS YOUR JOB?
Military intelligence. Secret security clearance. And I was privy to … well, I can’t talk about any of that.
HOW’D YOU SURVIVE?
I was pulled out of class almost every day to sing for a General or a Colonel’s graduation ceremony and cut a record with the 18th Army Band. (laughs) So that’s how.
HOW LONG DID A SPIRIT LIKE YOURS LAST IN THE ARMY?
I left early.
The majority of my life has been full of joy, happiness and peace — but something dark appeared once in a while. And this was one of those “once in a whiles.”
I will just say: I am no victim, but those were the hardest years of my life.
NEXTING INTO NASHVILLE
OOOOO. THAT’S A LOT. BUT FOR YOUR RESTART, YOU ENDED UP IN NASHVILLE. HOW’D A BLACK EX-MILITARY WOMAN GET TO BE A COUNTRY STAR?
(Laughs) I will tell you EXACTLY how. I married military and was a stay-at-home mom … and BOOOOOORED — livin’ in Fort Knox, Kentucky. Every channel: OJ. I’m flipping trying to escape that fool when I come across Shania Twain. And grrrrrrl — I was shook! This was not the country music I grew up with. I KNEW I could do it.
So I started calling country music record companies at 5:30am: "I'm Black and I want to sing Country Music! Is there any room for me in Nashville?"
Just as bold as I want to be!
WERE YOU THE FIRST BLACK COUNTRY SINGER?
Almost! And people expected me to do “Aretha does country” — and I wouldn’t. And it freaked them the fuck out.
One Record Exec. said she saw FREE major marketing potential — the ‘first’ Black — "you can’t buy publicity like that.”
But there was a lot of racism. One promoter said – and I quote – “If I’d not have seen you sing — I would never have known that you was a colored.”
His version of a compliment.
DID YOU SIGN WITH A LABEL?
I cut an album — the best music I have ever sung in my life...
And I was super thin and gorgeous then! That helped. (laughs)
“People expected me to do “Aretha does country” — and I wouldn’t. And it freaked them the fuck out.”
The contract and negotiation to become the first Black female artist to sign with a Major Country label had begun ... and then ... the label folded ... along with about 20 other country music labels.
TIME FOR NEXT?
I was scrambling. Warner Brothers Nashville ... Sony ... they were too scared to touch me. They call it ... "The Day Music Row died." And my love for a country music career died with it.
HOW DID YOU SUPPORT YOURSELF AND YOUR KIDS THROUGH THESE UPS AND DOWNS?
Corporate temping. Which I hated. And I was bringing up my precious baby without helping hands from her father. But I got trophies and cash from various competitions so — we got by.
And it was funnnnn …
WHY DO YOU THINK YOU WEREN’T SIGNED?
I was told by a very famous country music producer, “Asia, if you didn’t look the way you look — you’d already be signed.” I thought, "You have more money than God, (Bitch.) You could put your arm around me and walk me right into that room and say: “You’re gonna sign this girl." But he didn’t have the stones.
NEXT - A PEEK INTO POLICE
AND YOU PICK YOURSELF UP AND DO ANOTHER RESTART. DOES THIS TAKE YOU FROM COUNTRY STAR TO … THE POLICE?
I was still working corporate gigs — but that gets old. So I put in for civil service jobs. Let me say this: I don't have anything necessarily “against” police. I dated police. LOTS of police. Working there was like being a kid in a candy store. (laughs)
I was in personnel — my job was to choose police for outside, extra jobs — like the cop at the mall or grocery store. I would go through their files — anybody flagged or with a red ticket in their file — they couldn't be sent out.
Let me tell you, there’s a lot of motherfucking red flags in that damn file. There's a lot of crazy motherfuckers out there with a badge and a gun. I was literally seeing it from the inside.
In other countries, it takes years to get a badge. Here, a few months and a physical, you are handed a gun.
CRAZY
I am not sayin’ there are no good cops. But there has been an infiltration. It is infested from the top to the mother fuckin’ bottom with race soldiers. They are like termites. Tent the house out!
And that is why we are in the fuckin’ mess we are in now.
OVERHAUL, PLEASE!
How do they justify victims like Breonna Taylor? Why aren’t they in jail? But the problem is further — and I saw it by being there. They are trained. But not enough.
And when they see people of color — training goes right out the window.
And that is why James Baldwin is my bible …
I DO THINK IT’S A GOOD THING TO HAVE THESE DISCUSSIONS. AWKWARD BUT NECESSARY.
White people have to use their whiteness as a tool to help us. I’ve seen it in action. It works! If you see a Black person being treated wrong in a place you frequent, go up there and get all your mother fuckin’ friends and say: “We will never come to this place again.” Call them on it.
SO — YOU WERE THERE, SCHEDULING POLICE ...
It had its advantages. First: Dating. (laughs)
And having a job with the Police Department was the best scenario for custody court dealings. It didn’t pay well but the prestige made up for it. And I knew how important that was as a Black woman.
But the hours were not working for being a single mom, so I took a better paying corporate job. NEXT…
WHAT’S IT LIKE RAISING A SON IN THIS SYSTEM?
It’s scary as hell. My job is to teach my child to make it home. "Yes, sir. Ok, sir." Make it home baby and we will sue the shit out of them. Just make it home.
IS THERE A PLACE THAT YOU THINK YOU CAN RAISE HIM SAFELY? THAT YOU CAN FEEL THAT YOU BELONG? WELL, THERE’S FRANCE. LIKE JAMES BALDWIN …
No. I don’t think so girl. That was a while ago. They don’t like Black folks there either. You know what happened to Oprah. If they are closing a door in Oprah’s face they are certainly not gonna let my Black ass in. (laughing)
It may just have to be Iceland. Environmentally, they are so far ahead of the curve. But if I move to Iceland, I gotta get a nice little Icelandic man.
Like James Baldwin said: “A negro with any amount of cognitive understanding is in a state of anger 24 hours a day.”
“I no longer struggle with the word NO. My fuck you flag is flying!”
THEN WHAT BRINGS YOU THE JOY? ‘CAUSE I SEE IT …
My talent. It took me out of the ghetto. I was raised in a shotgun house on cinder blocks in the fifth Ward in Houston, Tx. My mother had traveled the country as a jazz singer. Raised in Arkansas … she was a real farm girl. My dad was a jazz musician but wasn’t there to see me into the world. We had very little. But mama had ambition.
I wanted to play the violin when I was seven and the moment I told my mother, she had me in music school the next year. Most of the time, I was the only Black child in the program. And then there was the piano …
I left piano ‘cause Miss Booker used to hit our fingers with a ruler if you played the wrong note. I told my mother that — the next day I was gone. Choral music next, that's when I began to sing. Seeing the opera singer, Leontyne Price and meeting Jessye Norman at age 10 changed my world.
THAT MOTHER OF YOURS IS A GOD DAMN LIONESS
Oh yeah. Mama insisted we sit up straight, talk proper and represent every Black person the moment you walk out that door. Let me tell you, that can be a burden. I was just a kid …
WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOUR TEENAGE SELF?
You are worth the moon and the stars, worth everything. Don’t let anybody — and don't let any man — take you off your trajectory. Have a true understanding of the woman that you might grow to be.
TELL ME ABOUT YOUR “ON THE ROAD” DAYS — HAIRSPRAY AND ALL THAT …
Oh, I had a bunch of great gigs while I was in Nashville & Houston from around 2009 to 2012. I won awards, had a lot of success. It was fun, but I missed my kids. So when I booked HAIRSPRAY, I told them I wouldn’t go without them. They said: Bring ‘em — we’ll put them in the show. (laughs)
YOU MAY BE MY RESTART QUEEN. BUT WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS YOUR BIGGEST RESTART?
My divorce from my son’s father. The deceit.
I won $500,000 on a game show. A week after we got the money, he filed for divorce, took my money, cheated on me before that — left me with the kids. And no child support.
It wasn't really the divorce. Fuck him. But winning that money was something I did on my own. He thought he should have it all? Wha? There goes my “nest egg.”
That was the biggest restart for me.
And coming to New York the first time — that was another big one.
WELL, YOU KNOW I HAVE TO KNOW ABOUT NEW YORK THE FIRST TIME …
I was coming off a tour and we decided to stay in New York instead of going back to Nashville. Wrong! You cannot just come to New York on a whim. Lesson learned.
DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A FEMINIST?
What does feminism even mean now?
WHAT DO YOU MEAN?
In the '60s and '70s, it was about our voices being heard. Like the Black movement: Listen to us, God dammit. Yeah, we're not just here to cook your goddamn dinner, you know, the burning of the bras and all that. I don’t know what being a feminist means any more.
I’m for female empowerment.
WELL, THAT’S FEMINIST.
My thing is: I’m not shutting up. Don't shoosh me because I’m a woman.
AND equal pay.
PAY ME!
MEN: When you see this shit going on, blow the fucking whistle. If you see a man and a woman — if we got here at the same time, and he's making 90,000 and I'm making 50,000 and you know, good and goddamn well, we are doing the same job. Blow that whistle. And this is the same thing I would say to white people about racism.
Stop letting this shit happen. Stop turning a blind eye. Stand up!
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY WAS THE BEST TIME IN YOUR LIFE — SO FAR?
When I was a child. I was just blissfully ignorant and loved it.
I had a lot of “best times” …
But now — this moment, is the very best time in my life. Covid or not. I am coming into a new season — reaching for dreams I had to defer. My focus is me now.
NEXT: MAMA GETS SOME BOUNDARIES
YOU ARE SUCH A GLORIOUS BROAD. WHAT DOES GLORIOUS MEAN TO YOU?
I get plenty from glorious but I especially love broad. It's always had such a negative connotation and it's like taking it back and making it like, fucking awesome. Glorious for me is to be happy in my own skin. And I finally am.
WHY “FINALLY”
I no longer struggle with the word No. I can say fuck you to anything that I think is even attempting to denigrate me.
Channeling Mahalia during our shoot — daaaaaamn!
NEXT: THE RESTART QUEEN MEETS THE QUEEN OF GOSPEL
YOU ARE LIKE PHOENIX RISING, QUEEN. SO, WHEN DID MAHALIA JACKSON COME INTO YOUR LIFE?
I always associated Mahalia with my Grandmother and Sundays. The grits are cooking – and Mahalia is there. So initially that’s what drew me in. I knew her.
And then, I got an audition to play Mahalia and had to learn songs I didn’t recognize. I mimic well. So I sang exactly what I heard. And they were like. Whoa. You sound just like her. So. That got me the role.
BUT IT GOT DEEPER
Oh yeah. I did research, read every book, every interview. I knew I had to sing “Go Tell It On the Mountain” and at least 20 other songs. I listened to her 24-7 for like 3 weeks.
And she is so much like me — a cussin’ Christian. Everybody saw her as an angel. No no no.
And she had relationships with men who didn’t understand her. Didn’t appreciate her. I started to understand that too. (Laughs)
“How do I find joy in life? How do I find sunshine in the clouds? That’s what Black people have to do every day”
She was a leader and gave thousands of dollars in bail – she would pull money out of her bra — and say — go get those people out of jail. She was an activist. Like me. But people only know her as the big voice.
Club owners would beg her: Sing something else besides gospel. Here’s 10K a night. Please. But she wouldn’t. Her commitment to singing only for the Lord was a promise to God she made good on.
HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU TOOK ON THIS ROLE?
The first one was in 2014 so …
OH. YOU WERE A GROWN UP.
On yeah. A grown ass woman.
My fierceness to her comes from the reaction that I got from the audience. I mean — I had grown men crying buckets in my weave. (laughs)
The Houston Press Theater Association nominated me for best actress for 2017. My review read that he had not heard anyone who brought this woman to life like she did. So all this kept me in it.
But then…
NEXT: THE HURRICANE CAME, DEVASTATION REIGNED
Oh I am good at a re-start. But that Hurricane...
I had just moved into my apartment and Hurricane Harvey struck on the 10th day.
When that storm tore through Houston— my hopes were dashed. Didn’t get to go to the swell Gala from being nominated — no introductions to better opportunities — nowhere to wear my fuckin’ fabulous gown, now under 4’ of water. I had to accept that it wasn’t going to happen for me … in Houston that is…
‘Cause I was STILL on fire for Mahalia. I wanted the world to meet her. I focused on that. How to make this show international. All the while raising my baby — and holding down a full time corporate job.
OMG. I’M EXHAUSTED HEARING THIS TALE! SO YOU WERE OVER WITH HOUSTON…
After this production of Mahalia, I got tours in Mid Tier Theaters — but they pay peanuts. Selling out shows every night and you pay me nothing?
Higher Tier Theaters won’t hire me or people who look like me.
So another fuck you flag was on its way.
Until you pay me what I am worth — I am not doing it. And they still call me to this day. I’m in New York now. Bye Bye (Bitch.)
NEXT: NEW YORK DONE RIGHT!
I packed up with my daugther and son and said — we are gonna do New York right this time. I was not just a musical person looking for a break any more. Now I had Mahalia. I had a mission.
IS THERE A NEW INCARNATION FOR MAHALIA?
I am producing a one-woman show on her life — not what I did before. Now I’m writing it. You cannot tell a Black woman’s story like a Black woman can.
So that’s why I am so tied in…
Another one of the things that brought me here: On Oct 1, 1950 Mahalia had a sold-out gospel show at Carnegie Hall. I wanted to work with them to create a 70-year memorial concert. I called the CEO the moment I arrived. No shame in my game! My goal was to get in touch with the right people and start the ball rolling in the beginning of the year. And then …
NEXT: CORONA QUARANTINE
OH GOD …
YOU ARE A FIERCE MOTHER AND A FIERCE ENTERTAINER. BUT YOU MADE THE DECISION THAT MOTHERHOOD WOULD COME FIRST. DID THAT COST YOU?
I don’t look at it that way. Putting my children first was then and will always be the right thing to do for me.
If I had been without them — oh — I probably would have gotten into a lot MORE trouble. (laughs) Everybody has to draw a line. What you’re gonna do. And what you ain’t gonna do. Like Mahalia — offered 10k a night to sing secular music. And she wouldn’t.
AMEN SISTER.
WHAT WAS DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS LAST VISIT TO NEW YORK?
My first time, I was auditioning scared. People feel that. This time, there’s no fear. I will do an audition, but baby I’m not scared of you no more. Those three minutes are my time. And I’m gonna give it all I got, leave It right there on the floor. And if you want me. I’m here. But pay me what I am worth. If not. Bye! Cause I got me an apartment on the upper west side. I’m good.
I would say we are “Gucci” now. But I don’t say that anymore. I hate Gucci. Did you see those blackface ads? Gucci could not pay me 100 billion fucking dollars to put their stuff on.
Fuck Gucci. Glorious Broads not sponsored by Gucci.
THIS IS SO GLORIOUS.
I am just gonna keep rollin’. The coronavirus just — ummmm — it took the wind out of my sails – but I still got the sails. (laughs)
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE REMEMBERED FOR?
Being a loving, protective, supportive mother.
Being a super successful Entertainer.
A kick-ass business woman.
And being funny.
All the shit dumped on my fucking head — I still find a way to make a joke.
Can you say RESILIENT? Drop everything and go follow Asia's Insta @garnetgirlproductions or on AsiaKaleem.com. This Glorious Broad has been booking gigs with no help since arriving in NYC. Paging Asia's Dream Team already...