When you were on LaFace, were there any kind of marketing issues that came up with Babyface's solo releases, since you have a similar vibe?
It's funny. I've had to deal with this issue plenty of times [laughing]. Kenny and I don't have a similar vibe. We have a similar tone of voice. Our approach to music is totally different. Kenny always had an authentic, classic R&B approach. He's really one of the great songwriters. There were different combinations of things. People said "Nobody Knows" was written by me and Babyface recorded it. Some said Babyface wrote the song and produced it on me. Here's what happened. "Nobody Knows" was written in 1992.
"When Can I See You" came out in 1993. What it was is that "Nobody Knows" and "When Can I See You" sound alike. What happened was that record came out and this record came out and I was on LaFace. I never met Kenny at that point. I spoke to him on the phone once. People assumed that I was on the label so Kenny must be the producer… no, no, no. "Nobody Knows" was written in 1992, written by my brother Joe Rich and one of his songwriter/partners, Don DuBose. The first time I heard the demo of the song with Don doing the demo was in 1993. I told my brother Joe, "When I get to do my record, I'm going to do the song," because I thought it'd be a great song.
I had one song on the Boyz II Men record. They went 13 times platinum. I made money. So I figured "Man, you play on my record. We sell a million records and you make some money by the song being on the record. That'll be cool." That's how it was. I didn't know it was going to be a single. I produced the song. My brother played keys on it. I played keys on it. I had my guy come in play acoustic guitar. L.A. Reid comes in to hear the song "This is a smash." Six months before that he didn't think it was a smash because of the difference in production. So I filled all the background. It says Tony Rich, written by Joe Rich/Don DuBose, instruments Tony Rich/Joe Rich, all background vocals, lead vocals. Where can you gather in your mind that Babyface had anything to do with that record? I did understand this: okay I'm on LaFace, same second tenor vocal range, both of those songs had acoustic guitar in it – that's where it came from. And it's okay. I was signed at LaFace which was co-owned by L.A. Reid and Babyface but I've never had the pleasure of working with Kenny. Kenny and I talked about it one time but we never got a chance to. We didn't get that opportunity. There's always been a mutual respect but we didn't do it.
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