Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr

What made you decide to release Silly Love Songs as one

today? Billy: One of the things – we didn’t want the first song to reveal everything about the project. It’s a civil rights matter and it’s a little bit on the heavier side – so we thought we would start with Silly Love Songs as a tribute to the wonderful vibes of life. We wanted to bring up something that was a part of life that we all go through – even when we’re in the middle of protests and those things, we never lose the other part of our lives – we still have to have birthdays and weddings and celebrations – that’s all a part of love…

Marilyn: And silliness and the joy that we feel in our lives. And this song is a wonderful reminder of those times in our lives and the memories that cannot be destroyed.

Billy: And not only that, but one of the great things about Silly Love Songs – especially during this particular time – is that a lot of people are calling us now and saying “Oh how refreshing! We needed that!” Since we’re in the middle of a pandemic, protest and all the struggles that are going on – and here you come with Silly Love Songs to remind people that there’s something else to life besides all that. We’re all lovers. We are all loved.

Marilyn: And it made us feel like, “Okay, maybe that was a good idea!”

Have you ever met any of the Beatles, and if so, what were they like? Marilyn: We met Ringo at a social event one time, but we really didn’t spend much time with him – so we really couldn’t tell you personally what the Beatles were like because we really hadn’t spent any time with them. kind of energy. We’re released some music before, but it was just during a period where everyone was releasing their own albums. But we’ve never had a major company like this to get behind us and want us to record for them in three decades.

Marilyn: But you know, what really has been interesting is to see how much the recording process has changed over the years and the new technology that’s being used. We’re impressed with the knowledge that the young people that we’re working with come in with. They have so much understanding of the new technology, and it’s wonderful to get certain effects accomplished that used to take many hours to do in the studio way back when. So, it’s refreshing – it’s a wonderful experience, but it doesn’t feel like it’s been 30 years – no.

Tell me about the album cover for Blackbird and the inspiration behind it. Billy: I tell you, that cover, which I think is beautiful, was really between the record company and the rest of our management team. It was the subject matter that we were singing about, and it felt like it would be the perfect time to honor these people.

Marilyn: The cover gives an overall picture of what the project is trying to say. We cover a lot of issues with that cover and mention the important people who have been involved with the struggle of the Human Rights movement in our country.

This is going to be your first studio album together in 3 decades. Does it feel like it’s been that long since you’ve both released new music together? Billy: It feels that it’s been that long since we’ve had this Let’s talk about the producer Nic Mendoza. What was it like working with him in the studio and what did he bring to the overall project? Marilyn: He brought a freshness and an understanding of the new technology. We worked with Bones Howe for many years with the 5th Dimension, and that was a wonderful experience – and Bones was at the top of his game when we were working with him back in the 5th Dimension days – which we’re talking like the late 60’s going into the early 70’s. So, the whole experience was new.

Billy: But not only that, Nic wanted the project to fall into an up-to-date sound. Which had that feel, changing the other beats and things like that – which made us sing the songs a little different. The things that he had to offer were just fantastic. Just working with him and being a producer myself, and just to see him doing what he was doing – I learned a lot – and it was beautiful to work with him.

Looking back on your hit song You Don’t Have To Be A Star (To Be In My Show), what do you think of that song in retrospect? Actually, I think it came out the same year as Silly Love Songs… Marilyn: Isn’t that amazing? As a matter fact, I think they bumped us out of the number one position on the charts. (Much laughter) So we did Silly Love Songs as a tribute.

Billy: It kind of gives is a personal connection with Linda and Paul. They did bump us out of the number one spot. We feel kind of close to them because they were married – we were married. They left the Beatles, and we left the 5th Dimension. And they answered a very beautiful question about life and hope – that’s what love is all about – Silly Love Songs. That’s why our marriage has lasted so long. We still sing love songs to one another – we’re silly – we laugh! If you lose that, we lose everything!

Marilyn: You know what I love about it is that we’re still singing about love songs. And You Don’t Have To Be A Star (To Be In My Show) was the way we were saying it back then. But we’re still singing about love

Billy: And I like the last statement (Paul McCartney) put on the end – “And what’s wrong with that?”

What do you hope the rest of 2021 brings for you, for music in general, and maybe for the rest of the world? Billy: I hope that ’21 will open up the places for all of us to gather and be able to perform – and put some of our music people and all these people back to work. Ever since the pandemic, all of the people that do entertainment have been basically out of work and they’ve lost a lot. And I’m praying ‘21 will start to bring that back.

Marilyn: Yes, I think we’re all ready for a change. I think people have been really struggling to try and figure out “how do we live our lives with all of this going on?” This is something of course we’ve never experienced before. So, it’s like “Okay, we’ve had enough of that. Let’s get back to the way it used to be.” So, we’re really looking forward to it and we think that people are ready for it. We’re very excited about the vaccines, and we’re really hoping that it’s going to make a positive change in our lives – because we are in sore need of it – all of us. We’re just really hoping and expecting that it’s going to make a big change.

Do you have any messages for your fans who are reading this right now? Billy: We would like to tell them that this project is something that we’re very fond of. We hope that they like it – we hope that they enjoy the music. We hope most of all that they understand the message that we’re trying to put out there. Marilyn: This is about all of us really connecting and understanding one another – and knowing that the experiences that we have in life are the same. When we lose our loved ones, like so many people have been lost during this pandemic – and I mean everybody hurts when you lose your loved ones – whether it’s through the pandemic – whether it’s through violence or whatever way we lose them, we all hurt. So, we need to know that we’re all so much alike – we’re not different…

Billy: We’re more alike than we are different.

Marilyn: Absolutely. We have missed being out on the road and working. We are looking forward to getting out there and seeing our friends and seeing the people who have been coming to see us for so many years – and we’re excited for them to hear our new music, because we feel so strongly about it. We think it’s come off very well, and we’re very excited about it.

Interview by Ken Morton

Paul Sabu is a legend in the hard rock/AOR genre, whose work with Kidd Glove, Only Child, as well his solo endeavors have set the gold standard with music fans all over the world and the recording industry. He’s worked with iconic artists such as David Bowie and Alice Cooper among his many production credits. At the commencement of 2021, Paul Sabu finds two of his album being released almost simultaneously through Perris Records. The Best Of Paul Sabu by AOR features his amazing work with the prolific Frédéric Slama throughout the years. Corporate Control is a new project founded by Marcus Boletz featuring Paul Sabu on lead vocals. In this interview, Paul Sabu discusses his participation within the ranks of AOR and Corporate Control, his classic Only Child and Kidd Glove albums, working with the likes of David Bowie, and more!

How did you become involved with Corporate Control and what made you decide to take on this project? Hey Ken, A pleasure!

I was to eventually meet Marcus Boeltz through the Voices of Rock II CD that was co-produced by Chris Lausman. Chris was working on another project with Marcus around the same time period and played him the VOR II project. As fate would have it, I was one of his favorite singers from the album. Marcus originally contacted me to do some songs he had put together using various “crem de la crem” players. The songs I was to work on were some unique cover songs and when finished, sounded amazing.

I think it was then Marcus decided it was time for him to write and produce a new CD to be released. He asked me if we could do some of his original songs he had written. Yes of course...I thought I’d be listening to some demos but they were in fact some great sounding pop songs with a killer female singer… Sandra Belloguet.

I picked out one to see how it would sound in a more aggressive rock genre. It actually translated seamlessly and Marcus and I were both taken aback with the outcome. I mentioned to him that it would be very cool if we could get my buddy Barry Sparks in on this as well… make it more band like. They took to each other right off so the album began.

Is there any overall story or concept behind the CD title Whatever It Takes? I chimed in Marcus for these next couple: No, Whatever It Takes is not a concept album, rather every song stands for itself and has its own little story to tell.

Select two songs from Whatever It Takes and what inspired the lyrics. Corporate Control is not a political or religious band and we’re not taking ourselves all too seriously. Rock´n´Roll should be about escaping everyday life for a bit rather than dwelling in it. For example, Can’t Kill A Dead Man is inspired by Breaking Bad´s Walter White and the cool badass vibe that comes with it. And come on folks! Does Walter White deserve a fn Rock Song or what? And also Waiting For The Roar are similar fictional “thru the eyes of a badass gunslinger” lyrics. With Leaving It Behind we tried to bring in rather poem-like lyrics into the world of Rock´n´Roll.

(And now back to Paul) You have another album with AOR that has just been released called The Best of Paul Sabu. How did you initially become involved with AOR and Frédéric Slama? Frédéric Slama was royalty as a rockstar journalist in the 80’s. He reviewed many of my albums like Kidd Glove or Only Child. Our first encounter was in 2012 when he recorded and produced the 1st Chasing Violets album. I think his heart is really in LA. You could always find him around the