LOS ANGELES, USA – A week after she was shockingly eliminated from American Song Contest, an NBC reality TV show/competition, Macy Gray showed up on my laptop screen for a Zoom interview, calm and confident.

Macy, who was one of the major stars to join the competition show hosted by Kelly Clarkson and Snoop Dogg, has an opportunity to return as a “redemption” artist towards the end of the series’ season.

In the meantime, the Grammy best pop vocal performance winner for her biggest hit, “I Try,” has a new album, her eleventh, The Reset, with the first single, “Every Night.” The singer-songwriter has sold over 25 million albums globally.

In a statement, Macy explained the title of the album, which she made in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic: “God is telling us to rethink the things that we are doing…how we’re livin’. Like Pandora’s box, a lot of things have sprung out that people had stopped paying attention to. The world is having a reset.”

“Whether it’s a good one or a bad one, we’ll find out. I used to believe everything happens for a reason. Now…I just don’t know.”

The album marks Macy’s songwriting collaboration debut with her band, The California Jet Club – Tamir Barzilay (drums), Billy Wes (keyboards), and Alex Kyhn (bass).

Born Natalie Renee McIntyre in Canton, Ohio, Macy was a shy, awkward kid who was teased for her raspy voice. Moving to Los Angeles to study screenwriting at the University of Southern California, Macy – who was initially not confident about her hoarse singing voice – ended up with a debut album, On How Life Is. That produced “I Try,” which was a monster hit in 1999.

In a 2022 interview on The Real, Macy admitted that she did not want “I Try” to be released: “Actually, I fought with my label not to put it out. I was like, ‘That’s so sappy.’ I wanted to be a rebel, you know? I wanted to be Lil’ Kim, you know?”

As a result of that song’s success, the singer went on to become one of music’s biggest stars, even becoming an actress with credits, including Training Day, Spider-Man, and For Colored Girls. Encompassing R&B, soul, jazz, rap, and more, Macy’s music has won numerous awards aside from the Grammy.

A socially responsible artist, Macy, who overcame struggles with mental health, is vocal about racism and marginalization. She founded the non-profit organization My Good to assist families impacted by gun violence and police brutality.

In June last year, Macy wrote an op-ed for MarketWatch that ignited controversy: “…The American flag has been hijacked as code for a specific belief. God bless those believers; they can have it. Like the Confederate, it is tattered, dated, divisive, and incorrect.”

“It no longer represents democracy and freedom. It no longer represents ALL of us. It’s not fair to be forced to honor it. It’s time for a new flag.”

“Incorrect? Let’s look to the stars. There are 50, where there should be 52. DC and Puerto Rico have been lobbying for statehood for decades. Both have been denied, since statehood would allow each territory’s elected officials seats in the house.”

In our chat, she addressed the ensuing furor: “…When I wrote the op-ed, people told me I was going to get backlash. But I didn’t think it would be to that extent. I really thought people would be like, yeah, let’s do this, let’s get a new flag.”

“And there’s nothing wrong with the one we have. I just feel like it’s a new day. We have new priorities as a country. We are different than we were in the 1800s and why not celebrate that?”

The 54-year-old has three children with Tracy Hinds, from whom she is divorced.

Below are excerpts of our video conversation with Macy, who called from Los Angeles.

People are used to not paying for music. How has that affected you as an artist?

It’s a shame what has happened to the record business. It’s nice that the fans don’t have to spend as much money on albums as they used to. It’s hard as an artist to say we want you to go back to spending $12 for an album.

But it has really crushed a lot of artists financially. It puts the artists in a position where they have to tour a lot more. I don’t know if anybody has noticed, but touring is really saturated now.

You have to go out and people are more open to doing endorsements and other things because it’s difficult to make money. Of course, if you do a billion streams, you get $80,000. That’s a lot of money right?

But you don’t want to sell. Who wants to sell a billion of something and make $80,000? So it’s difficult and it has definitely made every artist figure out other things that they can do and other ways they can promote themselves.

But ultimately, it does affect the fan because tickets are way up. You can’t go see a show for $40 anymore. God forbid you get good seats – that’s $300. So I do think it was a mistake to completely sell everybody’s music over to these platforms, and they did it without asking any of us.

And I don’t know how we will get out of that but that has definitely devastated the music business on all sides from the way I see it.

Where does Natalie Renee McIntyre end and Macy Gray take over? What happens when you go into your creative spot?

As far as Natalie Hinds and Macy Gray, basically I am myself, but when I get on stage, I turn into a superpower.

Like Wonder Woman?

Yeah, her too (laughs). When you are up there, you are like Jesus. Everybody is screaming your name and you say, “Put your hands up.” And they put their hands up. You can’t help but turn into somebody that you think is bigger than you.

It has been 21 years since your film acting debut in Training Day. Will you do more acting gigs?

I have been lucky to get some interesting parts. I am actually thinking about doing a movie this fall that’s pretty good. It really fell in my lap, and it was Antoine Fuqua. He came to me when they were making Training Day.

He thought I could do that role and I thought he was crazy. I was like, who is this dude? I have never acted before. What’s he talking about?

I was in the middle of making another album so he was actually bothering me. Like, what do you want? He took me to Mr. Chow’s. He said, “You know Denzel is starring in this movie?”

I was like, whoa, because I didn’t know that. I took the movie just because I wanted to meet Denzel and I wanted to get a picture for my mom. And then other offers followed.

But the last few years, I have really been doing a lot of touring and had to turn down a couple of stuff. But I am going to do that movie this fall. I like the challenge of it, and I like the study of acting.

I can do music in my sleep, like I can literally lay down, sleep, and write a song.  And doing movies is a lot more of a challenge. I am not sure I am even that great yet. So I am still studying and working towards being really good at it.

What propelled you to make your new album, The Reset?

The first song was written during everybody’s year off, 2020. There was a lot of opinions going on and everybody was very emotional during that time. So it was the perfect time to make an album.

It was actually easy because everybody was emotional and so we had a lot of ideas and things to say. The future was so unsure for everybody that we went in and we didn’t care about pleasing everybody or coming up with something.

We weren’t focused on making it commercial.  And it turned out that they’re probably the catchiest songs we have ever written because we didn’t try.  And it’s cool. It’s hard to describe music but you have to hear it. It’s pretty awesome, a great album.

What was your inspiration behind the first single, “Every Night?”

“Every Night” is so far everybody’s favorite on the album. It features Maino. And it was written specifically to just lift everybody up and get everybody dancing again. It’s the perfect song for the summer.

And so, the tag is, (singing) “every night I pray.” So it’s like, you do your fun, you do what you do all day, you have your ups and downs, you break down and cry, whatever you are going to do that day, you go to work.

But at the end of the day, you sit with yourself, and you talk to whoever you believe in and you try to get your shit together mentally. But on the surface, it’s a fun song to party to. It’s actually taking off on TikTok, which I thought I would never say because that sounds so crazy to me. But it is (laughs).

How have TikTok, social media, and the other new platforms help you get your music out?

Yes, that’s why I finally surrendered to TikTok. That’s like the number one needle mover for music. Like it used to be you had to get on the Letterman Show. Now, it’s TikTok, which is so bizarre.

I am not the best at it and I have people helping me. I hear a lot of stuff on those platforms that I wouldn’t hear if it weren’t for those. So it helps in that way.

It’s just, financially, it does not look out for the artists. I just feel like, even though shows, like you see the Super Bowl, the biggest show in the world and the artist doesn’t get paid, they have to pay for it.

Or if you go on Ellen, you have to pay for your production. You don’t pay her but you have to pay for all your expenses. I just don’t get why they don’t think that artists have to be treated fairly when it comes to finances.

That’s a weird complaint because there’s a lot of artists who do really well and have a whole lot of money. But still, you can’t say that the way the money is distributed is fair.

What concerns you about the working class, the people who buy your albums, tickets to your concerts?

I think that class has become way too important in our society, what you have and what you don’t have, almost more than race. I see a lot of pointing the finger about race issues but you don’t see minorities who have money getting criticized; you don’t see people who have money getting shot by the police.

To me, it’s turning into just a more of a classist country, which, especially with the whole crypto thing, where they are talking about getting rid of cash altogether, and while that is cool progressively, that’s going to be a problem for a lot of people.

It’s just getting a lot about money and what you have and that’s pretty scary. In LA, everybody knows South Central, and it’s being totally gentrified and remodeled. Gentrified is always a bad word and there’s nothing wrong with making things new.

But when you are moving people out because they can’t afford to stay in the places they grew up in, then you have to pay attention to that stuff. To me, I just think we are getting too deep into what, who has this, and who doesn’t have that.

It must be rewarding to go on a road tour, perform, and interact with your fans. But how hard is it to go on a tour?

Oh, touring is brutal. There’s a lot of flights, a lot of traveling, a lot of sleeping on buses, checking into hotels. Every day is no fun, and packing. And then you start getting on everybody’s nerves and they get on your nerves.

Then you don’t know where to eat and someone eats something and gets sick. Somebody meets some girl and she wants to get on the bus. It’s a lot.

And then the shows and keeping your voice in shape every night. There’s nothing sexy about touring. But getting on stage is totally different. It’s like I said, you get up there and you feel like this is what it must be like to be Jesus.

You are there and everybody knows the words to your songs. It’s just you get an hour and half to get up there and just totally be yourself. Just be like a superpower, like a superhero.

You get up there and you feel like you can fly or something. That’s why people do it. But touring itself is awful. I know some artists have jets and stuff but even they will tell you it sucks. But you go through all that just to get on stage because that’s how good it is.

What’s your health routine when you are on tour?

Mine is not an example. I try to really get in shape before I go; that way I can have my leeway to do whatever I want on tour (laughs), because when I first started out, I was like, I am going to get up every morning and I am going to run. I am only going to eat vegetables.

Some days, I would not eat before my show because I didn’t want to get on stage and feel full and sluggish. Sometimes food makes you feel that way. So on show days, I would not eat. I would go for three days without eating.

But, yeah, I got over that (laughs) because that was no fun. I try to really get in shape and now I am doing this strict thing because we are only a month away. That way, when I go on tour, I can just do whatever I want because my body is already prepped.

I know I am not going to work out and that we are probably going to eat pizza almost every day because you don’t know. Sometimes they will refer you, like the promoters will tell you where to go eat. But most of the time, you don’t know if the food is good so you just get pizza, burgers, or something like that. It’s really unhealthy.

Where are you at this point in your life?

I’m in a really good place.  I have been really prolific. I’ve got a lot of things going on and like I said, when I went in to make my album, it was easy, everything just flowed out of me.

I have a tour coming up in Europe that I am excited about so that’s good because I remember when I first started out, I met someone who was very legendary.

I don’t want to say his name but I remember having a long conversation with him. I went away really excited having met him but I also told myself, I don’t ever want to be like that.

Because he was really jaded and wasn’t interested in stuff. He would have an idea but he would say, yeah, but the music business is shit. And he hated the music business.

I never wanted to feel like that. So when I have stuff coming up and I am excited, I always think of him. I get really happy that I am excited about it. – Rappler.com