Valerie Simpson: No, not really. Actually, everybody thinks it started on Saturday Night Live and it really didn't. It started six months before in California at a concert we were doing. We were singing "Solid" and when I threw the microphone out to these three ladies in front, I'm wanting them to say, "Solid as a rock" as a breakdown. They said, "Solid as Barack," and it caught on with the rest of the people. The next thing you know there's 3,000 people hollering at us, "Solid as Barack," you know? We just went with it because it just felt natural. Then we came back to New York and we would tell that story in our show and how that had happened. The audience always picked up on it and this guy, Stephen Holden, who writes for the New York Times, wrote about it. Then when we turned on the TV, Saturday Night Live did it as a parody. Then Nick said, "Maybe I should do a tricky lyric even though they tried to make fun of it." So he wrote a whole new set of lyrics. That's kind of how that happened.
During the 2008 election, a lot of music artists come out and voice their support for Obama. How involved were you in the process?
Valerie Simpson: Once we realized this thing looked like it really could happen, I was like a foot soldier. Even though I've never spoken from the stage about anything political, I felt moved to do that for him. I felt that we were all doing that in our lives, trying to make this thing happen, like a collective consciousness at work. I think that's how he got in there because everybody went to work. There were foot soldiers all over the place, knocking on doors, doing something they'd never do. Every time I encountered my white neighbors across the street, I had to talk to them and reassure them and make them see the possibility.
On a more personal level, you have allowed many aspiring artists similar opportunities to make their dreams become reality. In fact, in 1996, you opened a lounge in New York City called the Sugar Bar, which has an open mic session on Thursday nights.
Nickolas Ashford: Yeah. We have such great talent coming through the Sugar Bar, and some artists have gone on to further their careers, like Elisabeth Withers. When The Color Purple opened on Broadway, Quincy Jones asked us if we knew anyone that could play Shug Avery and she was the first person that we thought of. She went out, auditioned…
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