Meshell Ndegeocello

**Jesse Thorn** (0:00)
Hey Bullseye listeners, I am so excited that Bullseye is going to be part of a really cool film festival here in Southern California. It's called Friend of the Fest. American Cinematheque, the wonderful non-profit film organization here in LA, is putting it on. It is basically a podcast film festival where podcasters choose a film to present to the public. And I am really excited to be sharing with you probably my favorite movie of all time, the Best Picture Nominee, A Thousand Clowns starring Jason Robards, and I promise no clowns. It is the story of a comedy writer who is trying to figure out how to be a grown up, and his nephew who is trying to figure out how to be a kid.
It is beautiful and hilarious, and like I said, Best Picture Nominee, also a Best Play Tony Nominee, and also a film that changed the course of film editing. It's just such a wonderful film. I'm so excited to share it with you. It is like the comedy fan's comedy film, or the comedy, honestly, the comedy maker's comedy film. The number of comedy writers out there for whom this is a secret fave is uncounted.
It's the afternoon of August 21st, that's a Friday, at the Los Feliz Three in LA. You can get your tickets now at bit.ly slash 1000Clowns Bullseye. That's bit.ly slash 1000Clowns Bullseye. Or just go to the events page at maximumfun.org. I will be there to introduce the film. I'm so excited to do it, and I'm so excited to share the film with you. I'll see you there.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:42)
Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of maximumfun.org and is distributed by NPR.

**Jesse Thorn** (2:03)
It's Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorn. Meshell Ndegeocello lives in a house that is full of instruments. Guitars, keyboards, electric piano, a recorder, a flute. But the instrument that Meshell Ndegeocello holds closest to her is the bass. Now, Meshell is a solo artist, a very successful one. She's got three Grammys. You might remember her single Wild Nights, the duet with John Mellencamp, that was a huge hit.
She's got radio records, critical acclaim. She's a generational talent, huge voice, big personality, and also a bass player. A bass player who is glad to sing lead, but truthfully, if it's all the same to you would be just as happy laying back in the cut, holding down the bottom end. Not too long ago, Meshell got an interesting assignment. To listen to an album recorded by BB King, the blues guitar icon, called Lucille Talks Back. This record came out 50 years ago.
And then after listening to it, reinvent it completely. With a huge list of amazing collaborators, Ndegeocello produced and re-recorded Lucille Talks Back, 50th anniversary.
Here's the first song also titled Lucille Talks Back.
Meshell Ndegeocello, welcome back to Bullseye. It's nice to see you again after I just counted 17 years. Wow.

**Meshell Ndegeocello** (4:08)
Thanks for having me. I'm very grateful to be here.

**Jesse Thorn** (4:11)
Congratulations on winning some Grammys in the meantime. I'm going to take full credit for that.

**Meshell Ndegeocello** (4:19)
Take it.

**Jesse Thorn** (4:21)
It's funny, I feel like you, as your career has matured, have receded more and more to the side and back of the stage, even in your own records.
Do you think that's true? Am I making that up?

**Meshell Ndegeocello** (4:38)
I don't really think about it, but okay, to step to the back of the stage.
I mean, I definitely have a hand in writing the material. I usually definitely play one or two things on the songs. I help shape and color it. I'm always in there. I'm everywhere.

**Jesse Thorn** (4:54)
But at the same time, you're much less often singing all the vocals. You're less often writing the songs. You've had more records of interpreting other songs.

**Meshell Ndegeocello** (5:06)
Oh, yeah. Just, yeah. Well, yeah.

**Jesse Thorn** (5:08)
You know, those are the front person things.

**Meshell Ndegeocello** (5:10)
Huh.
Front person. Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, everyone, when you win the Super Bowl, the offensive coach doesn't get a lot of shine. And that's kind of how I see myself. But I know I'm the one putting in the real work.

**Jesse Thorn** (5:27)
That's fair. Why did you want to work on this BB King record?

**Meshell Ndegeocello** (5:31)
I was just telling your colleagues.
Came to me through my agent for a documentary. Would I make an accompanying record to go along with a documentary about BB King and this particular record that he made 50 years ago? And so I do think I strive, I do well at rearranging songs that already exist. I think it's something that comes from my time in DC. A lot of go-go music is taking covers that people love, and fitting them into that feel, and bringing something fresh to it. I really enjoy doing that. I think there's a great skill in that too, even if I didn't write it or didn't sing it all. And so it just sounded like something I could do well, and we had a discussion. I think I talked to the producers of the documentary twice.