It has been an exciting 12 months for several recording artists, especially Grammy, Stellar, and Soul Train Award nominee Tye Tribbett. Since he and his group – Greater Anointing – debuted in ’04 with album Life, Tribbett and company have consistently ascended the peak of gospel music. 2010 offered a return trip to the top.
Current LP Fresh (released in October) entered Billboard Gospel Charts at #1. This gave a joyful Tribett and Soul Train plenty to talk, and laugh, about during our interview.
Soul Train: When Fresh debuted #1 on Billboard Gospel Charts what part of you experienced the most excitement – your ego or your gratitude?
Tye Tribbett: [Laughs] Definitely the gratitude, the ego is not too much. I’m in a different place now as it pertains to the industry. My priorities are way different, I’m more focused on home and what’s really, really important.
Soul Train: When you got the news what was your initial reaction?
Tye Tribbett: For the most part I was just grateful, like ‘Wow’. I’m grateful for another chance to have my music be heard, and people are really accepting it.
Soul Train: With this new album, what part of you are you trying to portray?
Tye Tribbett: My heart. I think before it was about the hype, but I want my heart to be heard. People really get a sense of where I’ve been, where I am, and where I’m going with this album. It’s really a journey, and they’re hearing my heart. Even though there is hype on there, it’s not about it. It’s about the heart not the hype.
Soul Train: At this point in your career do you feel like “the best”? I don’t say this meaning you’re better than anyone else, but are you the best you?
Tye Tribbett: I feel like I’m beginning to be the best me. I feel like this is the beginning to me being the best me. That’s what Fresh is all about; it’s about the beginning of a better me.
Soul Train: That brings us to my next question: When you recorded “You Can Change” were you delivering a message to your listeners, or were you self-reflecting?
Tye Tribbett: When I was doing that song my cousin was on my mind. We grew up together, in church and all that. By the time I wrote that song he was on my mind, and so was a friend of my wife and I that she grew up with and went to school with. She became a stripper, and I was like, ‘There’s a better way.’ You don’t have to smoke weed, you don’t have to drink, you don’t have to… [Pauses] I was saying this to them verbally, but I wrote the song to try and convey the same message to people who are like my cousin and like our friend.
Soul Train: Sounds like it really hit home, but was it ever a message meant for you as well?
Tye Tribbett: Later on in life the song came back to me. I needed change as well. So it also became an inspiration to me. I’m never beyond any song I put out. Ever!
Soul Train: How has your personality changed from Life to Fresh?
Tye Tribbett: [Laughs] Hopefully I’ve grown up! I’d like to think I’ve matured a lot! I believe now I’m way more compassionate. Before when someone would go through things, and they’d fall and they’d mess up, and they’d feel broken and humbled for making a mistake you wouldn’t necessarily make; at first there would be agitation, like “Come on, why can’t you get it together?!” When you’re in that place, you’re like “I get it, I understand!” God loves all of us, so I’m way more compassionate now in my personality. I still like to have a lot of fun…I’m still goofy! Compassion is my heart beat now; compassion and love – for everybody.
Soul Train: So is the meaning behind your recent hit single “Eulogy” persons laying their old selves to rest?
Tye Tribbett: Yes sir! That is the #1 intent for the song! I became very frustrated with my habits, and my ways, and my thought patterns, and said it’s time to have a funeral for the old me. I’ve had people call me talking about their girlfriends, and their friends; I wasn’t talking about them, but maybe there are certain relationships you should say goodbye to. Embrace the fresh you. But I was talking about myself.
Soul Train: Over the course your career – from the beginning to your current status – how many people have you encountered, or been close to, who wrote their eulogy?
Tye Tribbett: Umm…for the better, right? [Laughs]
Soul Train: Yes, for the better [Laughs]! I don’t mean they’re literally dead!
Tye Tribbett: I was about to say… [Laughs] You’re going to have me tearing up like an Oprah interview! Wow… I’ve seen change in a countless number of people I’ve had conversations with; from people in the mall to people who’ve heard the albums, to people at concerts. I’ve seen that type of drastic, eulogizing change in countless amounts of people, especially younger people who really don’t know another way than how they’re living.
Soul Train: Tye, when I saw the album cover for Fresh with the graffiti lettering on the wall, I didn’t think of change. I thought of Turbo from the “Breakin’” movies.
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Tye Tribbett: [Laughs really hard] Yes, sir!
Soul Train: I can’t really picture you with a Jheri Curl, pop-locking up a wall, but is breakdancing and B-boying a part of your past?
Tye Tribbett: Only breakdancing I did was at church on somebody’s communion table before they kicked me out! I wasn’t laying any cardboard down, but I was affected by that culture – of course, everybody was. And that was definitely one of my inspirations. When I thought “fresh”, it came from a scripture in the Bible. The Lord was speaking and he said, “Remember not the former things, don’t even consider your past because I’m doing a new thing.” From that I got “fresh”, but not only the new thing God was doing in me, but I thought of that whole time with graffiti and breaking when everything was fresh! So I tried to incorporate both, but I was never really a breakdancer. I loved the movies though!
Soul Train: What’s next for you and G.A.?
Tye Tribbett: The Fresh Tour next year, end of first quarter. It’s going to be great. Our audience is expanding. I was very intentional in my presentation so I could get the ear of other ethnicities and other cultures. It will be a very diverse audience, and I’m very excited about that. I have The Fresh Spring Break coming March 4, 5, and 6 in Myrtle Beach (South Carolina) at Myrtle Beach Convention Center. It’s my alternative to other Spring Break activities. We’re going to have concerts, date sessions, parties, beach parties, just a fun good time! It’s faith-based but it’s going to be crazy and fun! I’m also working on an exercise DVD, [Laughs] everybody loves my energy so I gotta do that. And I’m trying to get into television and movies.
Soul Train: Since you’re doing a fitness DVD and you’re trying to get into television, would you ever guest host World Wrestling Entertainment’s Monday Night Raw and get in the ring with a WWE Superstar?
Tye Tribbett: [Laughs really hard again] YES I WILL! They can call me, and I’d do it! And it would be fun! I just hope I don’t have to fight anybody.
Soul Train: You wouldn’t want to face off with a guy like Big Show?
Tye Tribbett: I wouldn’t want to, but I’d have to see what it looks like in the contract. See how much I get banged up!
Soul Train: Hey, Jeremy Piven jumped off a top rope, so I think you could do it too!
Tye Tribbett: I’d try it! As long as I can come home to my family in one piece, I’ll do anything!
Soul Train: With continuing to do music, how do you follow Fresh?
Tye Tribbett: Refresh! [Laughs] I had like 30 songs for this project but could only put 16 on the album. So I already have material for the next album. I’m prepared. I’m ready to expand and do something even crazier for the next one. I always want to push the envelope, I always want to have something new and progressive, yet grounded that people can understand and grab a hold to.
Soul Train: Do you set aside time to intentionally sit and make new music, or does crating material happen organically for you?
Tye Tribbett: Sometimes when you’re signed to a label they put deadlines on you, and you have to come up with something. This one happened very organically, it just came to me. Where I was in life, it just kind of happened. I like it better that way. It’s more heartfelt than just put together. I like for it to happen organically because what comes from the heart touches the heart.
Soul Train: So when your next album – Code name: Refresh – is released, given where you are in your life now, if it also debuts at #1 how do you think you’ll respond?
Tye Tribbett: I think from here on out it will be with gratitude. I’ll never think I’m the best. Because, first of all, it debuts at #1; next week it will be somebody else. If I stay #1 for a year, next year it will be somebody else. If I do Jay Leno tonight, tomorrow night it’s somebody else. It’ll never go to my head. I’ll forever be grounded, I’ll forever be humbled, but I’ll be grateful. I’m just grateful for this time and this opportunity, and the time I’m given.
Check out Tye Tribbett’s single “Keep Me,” visit him online at TyeTribbett.com, TyeTribbettWorldwide.com, Facebook.com/TyeTribbett and follow him on Twitter @TyeTribbett.
– Mr. Joe Walker
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Mr. Joe Walker is an acclaimed journalist published over 2,000 times in more than 30 different regional, national, international and online entertainment and news publications. He’s likely writing something as you’re reading this. While also Editor In Chief/Creative Director of The Ultimate Interactive Magazine (TheUIM.com), he contributes to Hear/Say Now, Muskegon Tribune, Kalamazoo Gazette, and SoulTrain.com. Follow him on Twitter @mrjoewalker.
