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 Oprah’s Opening Monologue
At just sixteen, a beautiful talented Brooklyn native, Tisha Jackson began performing at night clubs singing for talent scouts. At seventeen she was accepted to the prestigious New York University on a full scholarship as music major. However weeks prior she was appointed a recording contract. Faced with an ultimatum Tisha decided to follow her heart, and sign the record deal that would establish her as the force she is today.
Cut to almost seven years later Tisha Jackson has become one of the greatest selling female artists of all time. With hits like “Hallelujah”, “Fiercest one In Town” and her most recent, “Firecracker”, Tisha is an edgy pop-princess with the world at her feet. At twenty three years old she is one of the world’s most powerful women, controlling an entire empire of everything “Tisha Jackson” and most recently starting her own production company, owning all rights to her name and her work.
With all that success however, the last year was one which many including Jackson herself, called an “Roller-coaster”. For the first time, Jackson will talk about the events that lead her into checking herself into a rehabilitation center, the frantic call made by her mother, which lead her to be hospitalized preceding her check into rehab, her nasty break-up with ex-boyfriend, R&B star, Dominic Brown. Tonight she finally breaks her silence, with one of the most revealing, liberating, honest interviews I’ve done in years. WITH NO TOPIC OFF LIMITS!
Today, Tisha Jackson is coming back swinging in full force. With a new album already receiving critical acclaim. Jackson is now prepping the release of her seventh studio album, ‘The Highway To Redemption’. It has become evident that within the last year the girl we once knew as Tisha Jackson, Pop-Princess, has evolved into a grown woman. One who will admit her mistakes, and learn from them. Miss Jackson is pushing the limits, and her edges are growing sharper. Without a doubt Tisha is a superstar, living life on her own terms.
Tonight, I travel to Tisha’s favorite place on Earth. Her hometown of which she resides in of Brooklyn, NY. Where the locals call her by hr nickname, “TiTi”.
Tisha is in her living room when the doorbell rings. She walks to her door, dressed in a bright sky blue dress, her hair down to her back. She walks smiling as a camera man follows her. She smiles saying “I wonder who that is?” sarcastically. “Aaaahhhh who is it?” Tisha says excitingly. A voice replies, “Oprah Winfrey!” Tisha opens the door, “There you are! Come on in.” Tisha hugs Oprah tightly embracing for a while.
Oprah: So this is where you live?
Tisha: Yes this is where I live, modest Brooklyn Brownstone. I actually grew up about twenty, thirty minutes away from here.
Oprah: I can’t believe this, I am truly honored that you have opened your doors and let me in.
Tisha: Of course! I’ve been waiting for this day to come since I was thirteen. Oprah is in my living room. I would’ve never dreamed.
Oprah: Thank you [She puts her arm around Tisha’s shoulder as they walked to the couch]
Tisha: Oprah, I cooked for you!
Oprah: You did?! What you make?
Tisha: Some Guacamole salad, we’ll have some later?
Oprah: Of course! Tisha Jackson cooked for me!
[They both laugh and sit on the sofa of the living room]
Oprah: Okay, we are sitting here, in your New York City brownstone looking at the view of the Brooklyn Bridge and the sky line to Manhattan. Did you dream this big?
Tisha: For the most part I did. I just didn’t think it would happen so fast you know. I prayed on it a lot and I just wanted to be able to do what I love but growing up you do say to yourself, when I grow up, I’m gonna be rich, and do this and that for my family, and move my mom out of what some may say is the “ghetto”. But you don’t know how you are going to get there. So I will say that I dreamt, I just ever thought in my mind I would surpass many of my dreams.
Oprah: So let’s rewind back to 2007.
Tisha: Yes.
Oprah: You are seventeen. Just graduated out of High school that summer. And that fall you were scheduled to attend the ivy league New York University, on a music scholarship. Then you are approached by Eventual records to sign a two million dollar contract. What was going on in your mind? How did you make that decision because, most people would be torn.
Tisha: And I was. I was very torn. There was a week when I just went to bed crying because I didn’t know what to do. I would ask my mom, and she would tell me to follow my heart and do whatever I felt would make me happy. And at seventeen, that is a lot to decide. Quite naturally I am sure in her mind she was like, “Girl you better sign that contract”, but she really wanted me to be happy. Education was always first because my mom was the first person to go to and graduate from college in our family so, that was always instilled in me. However, the artist in me wouldn’t allow that, and I remember one night, I just prayed to God for an resolution. I said, “God I need you to guide me in the best direction.” And that morning, I just felt in the air when I woke up, it was clarity. And by the afternoon, I had signed the contract with Eventual appointed to me by its head at that time, Lino. And here we are.
Oprah: And here we are. Do you ever regret not going to NYU?
Tisha: No, not at all. NYU will always be there, and I am glad with the path God has given me. I have nothing to complain about. I stand by my decision.
Oprah: Explain what the ride has been like. How has it been since debuting, seven years ago, to now. How was the ride which many deem “the wave of fame” to now?
Tisha: I would say, it started off very innocently. You know, your seventeen, you have this dream, and I wasn’t afraid at all. And I can say now, today, that I was in way over my head. I had to gradually work harder and harder, and raise the bar, because my first album did nothing you know. It was confusing because they had an idea of what they wanted me to be and I wanted something different, so that caused a lot of tension between the label and I back in ’07. And then I went through this phase when I wanted to people please everyone! I wanted to please the public, the media, and even my contemporizes. And I got to this point when I just realized, I wasn’t satisfying myself and being the best person to myself always wondering what this one or that one is saying. It was an very unhealthy mind frame to be in. So it took a lot of growing and I had to get confidence in myself to say no, I wont do this or that, I’m gonna do it this way, be damned of what “Tommy, Joesph, and Ashley” say [figuratively].
Oprah: When you look at other women in the business, do you feel like it’s a competition?
Tisha: No, I never have. I’ve always thought of myself as my own competition. I wanna constantly raise the bar and set the standard higher for myself and for others. But I do feel, and this is just after interaction with many women in the business, that there is a lack of if any comradery between us women. There is so much of I have to get her and release this then, and so much negativity, it is quite scary. I’ve met some women in the business who would never collaborate with other females because there ego is too big, or they think that person may upstage them, or they think that person is beneath them. If you can’t collaborate, and respect someone who is doing their thing, then why even be an artist. Because that means you’re in it for the wrong reasons. An artist is supposed to have an open mind and heart, and anyone who doesn’t is probably just in it for the money. And I cannot imagine that feeling. It has to be the most chlostephobic unsatisfying feeling in the world. I think there could be more comradery.
Oprah: 2012 was much of a roller coaster ride for you. You had a series of highs and lows. You had the best-selling female album last year; ‘Reveal’ sold ten million copies worldwide. How was it having that success but having so much of your personal life ravishing in the front of our eyes between selling ten million albums and checking into rehab?
Tisha: It was definitely confusing. It was a very confusing time where I felt kind of lost. I wanted to take my life a different route, but I had so many things in my career that just would not allow to do so, to the point when it eventually drove me crazy. I really lost it for a minute. The label I was signed to was giving me trouble [Junction Records]. I was out promoting this album touring, and in court fighting with the label the next. And I just felt like I had lost a since of me, outside of being Tisha Jackson. I lost myself. Now that I can look back on that point in my life, I thank God I was able to get through that because I was all ver the damn place. I wasn’t content. I just had people tugging at me, between business and personal, and it eventually all blew up in my face.
Oprah: Do you still have issues with alcohol abuse?
Tisha: No, I don’t. And I can look back and say, that was a part of the unraveling of events.
Oprah: You said in a recent interview with ‘Esquire’ magazine that “You did not need rehab.” Do you feel like it was an unnecessary thing?
Tisha: Yes, very much so. Now that I look back, I actually regret going because it was a waste of my time. I had a problem, and I admitted it. It wasn’t like I was addicted to alcohol and was hiding it, in every interview I did I admitted to it when asked about, on a personal level, in every family intervention, I admitted to it. It was never something I hid. I didn’t care what anyone else thought because that was my way of dealing with things. And even though it was the wrong way, I didn’t feel a need to hide it. I just felt that people take rehab very seriously, and I wasn’t able to communicate, interact, and connect with my counselors and the fellow patients there because my heart wasn’t in it. I would have much rather been home with my family, going cold turkey, and writing through the pain. That’s how I would have preferred to release it. But I couldn’t because I was forced to go.
Oprah: Yes, you told my producers, your mother got a court junction?
Tisha: Yes, she did, she got a court junction saying that I needed to be in rehab. And it was granted by a judge because I was hospitalized for having a physical and mental breakdown that week prior. But I will say, that I am not mad at my mother for doing what she did, but she did have a lot of people in her ear feeding her lies about me, and my drinking. She was feed lies.
Oprah: You mention the breakdown, let’s rewind back to October 2012. Your mother made call to 911, saying you locked yourself in the room, and began throwing merchandise at the door, and your legs were severely bleeding because of glasses you had broken in the house. What happened?
Tisha: Well, I was having a glass of wine. And I had just got to New York, to visit my family. And my mom came to me and took the drink away from me, and she just began to chastise me physically and verbally with words, calling me an “alcoholic” and that didn’t bother me, because they media made it sound like she attacked me, in which she did hit me, but I wasn’t attacked, she wanted to help me I guess, and like I told you, my then boyfriend and I had many mutual friends who put bugs in her ear, and most of them were not true. And I got to a point when I got so angry with her and everyone else, my boyfriend included, I locked myself in a room for about half an hour and I just was throwing things at the wall and that was my way of lashing out. And eventually the fire department was called and they broke down the door, and the ambulance came to my assistance. But I had to be admitted to the hospital because my body was almost going into convulsions, because I was shaking uncontrollably. I needed rest, and my nerves were shot.
Oprah: So from there a court order was made.
Tisha: Yes, not for alcoholism though, it was made because of the breakdown. And that’s why it was granted.
Oprah: Oh I see! So all along people thought you were in rehab for alcohol, but it was because of the hospitalization.
Tisha: Yes.
Oprah: I got it. Where do you stand with your mother now?
Tisha: We have always been on good terms. It just that she had people tugging at her as well. And that did cause a conflict between us because she was listening to all the people putting a bug in her ear. But I love my mother. That’s my girl!
Oprah: Was one of those people putting a bug in her ear, Dominic Brown?
Tisha: No.
Oprah: You and him have feuded recently over accusations you made about him cheating on you. Where do you stand with him today?
Tisha: We are on good terms. I love Dominic. Even though we are not as close as we once were. He was my best friend when I needed him. And that’s where I feel we messed up at. He was an amazing friend, but a terrible, boyfriend, and he could’ve been there more as a boyfriend. But it isn’t his entire fault because we shouldn't have crossed that line. But he did not cheat on me.
Oprah: When is the last time you spoke to him?
Tisha: About a month ago he came to my house. This house. And sat on that couch your sitting at [Tisha laughs] and we just had the biggest therapeutic session, and laid out all our issues on the table, and not one issue was left unresolved. He and I are cool.
Oprah: Do you still love him?
Tisha: God, yes. But I am not in love with him. I will always love him and he will always love me. We will always be great friends.
Oprah: Many people sent their get well wishes when you were hospitalized and in rehab. But the one that surprised me the most was Stephanie Fierce. Did it surprise you?
Tisha: Yeah it did. That was real woman of her I thought.
Oprah: Can we clear this up. Many of the public believes you guys are arch enemies, do you hate Stephanie Fierce?
Tisha: No I do not. I don’t hate her or any other person for that matter. I think that if you allow hate to consume your heart you just are allowing a bunch of negative energy into your life. I don’t have any ill will or feelings towards her. In order for me to be of God, I have to love her. We fight but it was never hate. I wish her well.
Oprah: I think that was woman of you. Moving along, are you still concerned with pleasing the people?
Tisha: No. I can’t live my life for others. I have to live for me, and I don’t see how people care so much. I just can’t live my life that way. I’m an artist; you can’t call yourself an artist and be trapped under the constraints of other people. It’s just not possible.
Oprah: And I feel that freedom evokes on ‘The Highway To Redemption’.
Tisha: It does.
Oprah: Why did you name it that title?
Tisha: You know, we keep talking about the last year, but there are a lot of events in my life that lead up to that. And I had this album title, and the idea for this album since 2011. So for two years I had this bottle inside of me. And I just feel that the album is me going through the journey of becoming a woman who is LEARNING to understand and lover herself more, and I just feel like I am on an natural high. You know creatively and personally I’ve never been this happy before. It is the “AAHHHAAA” moment of my life I feel.
Oprah: On this album, you chose not to work with long time collaborators, GirlSpice, why not?
Tisha: Well I love working with GirlSpice, but there isn’t anyone else I’ve worked with besides X-ROCKA. And that’s just because I chose to write and compose the entire album alone because only I know the true story about what I’ve been through, so it would only be appropriate to tell it through my view.
Oprah: Many critics are calling this your best album yet. Do you feel the same?
Tisha: Yes, this album is an labor of love. And you feel that. I care about my fans. I know what they want, and as long as I have them behind me and routing for me I got them. This album is not only for them but for myself. It’s just a love letter to myself in which I can look at in the future and say, “Oh okay, this is where I was at in this point in my life, and that is the reason why I am the woman today.” I want this album to speak to everyone and I think it will because it was love, honesty, rawness, and humility behind it. And at the end of the day, that will always prevail.
Oprah: You are very young and I know you probably aren’t thinking about this and I wouldn’t want you to be right now. But do you want to be a mother one day?
Tisha: For sure! Of course! One day. When I meet the right man to settle down with. I always said I wanted to wait to have children in my thirties because I want my twenties to be for me. But if the right man comes along now, I wouldn’t be opposed to it. You never know.
Oprah: Where do you see yourself ten years from now? Do you still see yourself doing entertainment?
Tisha: Ten years from now I hope to continue to still do music and to continue to be an entertainer. I plan on entertaining until the day I die. That is where my heart is. Hopefully I am someone’s wife and mother by then. And I just want to continue to be happy and free, growing and evolving you know. Edited by user 30 April 2013 11:33:41(UTC)
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