[indistinct chatter]
[cameraman] Rolling.
-[David] Helen? -[Helen] Yes?
-[David] Hi. -[woman] Hi. Wow!
[David] This is nuts, isn't it?
[beeping]
Well, what is it?
All right. So, we're gonna set. Let's get ready for Dave's entrance.
One more sip for the anxiety.
[beeping]
[director] So, Dave, she's coming out now.
-[Lizzo] We can't touch each other. -I don't know.
Holy shit.
-[director] You all right? -[Lizzo] Yeah.
Damn, I am fine.
[chuckling]
[theme music playing]
Making her network television debut with us tonight, we couldn't be happier.
Her album is entitled, what else? Lizzobangers.
[audience laughing]
Please, welcome Lizzo, ladies and gentlemen.
[audience cheering, clapping]
That was my first televised performance.
-Really? -[Lizzo] Yeah.
Ever. And I was so excited. And I thought,
"They're gonna kick us off when someone cool…"
Like, I remember my manager at the time was like,
"Well, you know, Neil Young could call, and then it's just over for you."
Or something like that. And I was like, "Wait, what?" Like…
So, I was always like, "This isn't gonna happen."
Then it finally happened.
I can't count the number of times, at the last minute,
I would get call from Neil Young.
-[laughs] -[David] We'd have to bump somebody.
-He just was a pig. -[Lizzo] Yeah.
All he wanted to do was be on TV.
[laughing]
There was-- You were wearing a shirt, a T-shirt.
-Yes, I wanted to bring the shirt out. -Where is it?
It's in my closet. I saved it.
I wore a shirt that said, "I feel you, André."
-[David] What was that a reference to? -André 3000.
I was like, "I'm gonna be on TV. You know, maybe he gonna see this."
He did see it.
And the fact that you and André 3000 knew I existed,
I was like, "I made it. I'm a star. It's over."
Yeah. Well, my favorite part of the show was the music.
And I've said this for years.
There's nothing more exciting than live performances right there.
And I was sitting really close.
When did you last work in front of an audience?
[gasps]
-Yeah. -Long time.
Yeah, me too.
And you get that instant response. But here, we don't have an audience.
-Yeah. [chuckles] -We're in the middle of a pandemic.
[Lizzo] Mm-hm.
I just would like to reassure you about a couple of things.
I've been tested.
-You've been tested. -Same. Multiple times.
-I'm tested every half hour. -How's your nose hole feeling?
This is not my nose anymore.
[laughing]
But, Moe, our cameraman,
anytime something important or funny is referenced,
Moe will put down the camera and applaud.
-Oh, well, thank you, Moe. [chuckles] -Yeah.
So, we're gonna try that now. Um…
What's important and funny?
No, I'm gonna try for something important here.
[chuckles] Okay.
I-- I certainly will be glad when the pandemic is over.
[clapping]
[Lizzo] Yeah. Wow.
I said I will be glad when the pandemic is over.
-Yeah, all right! -[Lizzo] Yeah.
[chuckling]
Thank you, Moe.
I'm not really trained for this.
[Lizzo] There's a reason he's the camera operator.
[David] None of us are trained.
I saw you recently.
Uh, I think it was a repeat of a performance.
-Oh, yeah. -Wow.
-Yeah? You liked it? -Yeah.
Oh, man.
I think that was before the Grammys, maybe?
Congratulations. How many do you own now?
Three. Yes, three beautiful, blushing baby Grammys.
It's crazy, isn't it?
I always look and be like, "Damn, they right there."
And then, this is the other thing,
Time Magazine 2019 Entertainer of the Year.
-[Lizzo] Yeah. -Come on!
[chuckles]
-[David] Really? Whoa. -Isn't that crazy? It's weird.
But even to this day, I'm-- They like, you know,
"Letterman wanna talk to you." I said, "What's his angle? Why me?"
"What does he want?" Like, you know, like, you have--
You can choose anyone to talk to.
-[David] These pictures are great. -[Lizzo] Which ones?
[David] Well, Lizzo, the platinum, gold record pictures.
They're beautiful.
Thank you. I'm really proud of them, and it makes it all very real.
[David] Look at that.
-Right here? -[David] Yeah.
Yeah, I was so excited. I'm just always just happy to be present.
[chuckles]
I think that when things aren't guaranteed,
when you don't know what's gonna happen the next day,
and you're genuinely afraid, and you're trying to survive,
when you get to a place where you're thriving,
I think I'm just genuinely grateful every single day.
When you get there,
are you worried somebody will tap you on the shoulder, and say,
"Okay, that's plenty. Thank you. You can go back to Detroit now?"
I definitely, um, felt that when I did Letterman.
-[chuckles] -[David] Yeah!
I was like, "Yeah, this isn't real, right?"
You're gonna take this away from me. And then, here we are.
They took it away from me, those bastards.
-[Lizzo] Aww. -[both laughing]
I'm so sorry.
Melissa Viviane Jefferson.
[chuckles]
-Melissa Viviane Jefferson. -Yes!
-That's a name, buddy. -You like it?
Well, yeah, yeah.
It always seemed so, like, ordinary.
Melissa Viviane Jefferson?
-That is not ordinary. -[Lizzo] MVJ.
My dad dreamed about my name before I was born.
Is that right? That's sweet.
-The family started in Detroit, right? -[Lizzo] Yeah.
[David] Was your mother musical? Was your father himself musical?
[Lizzo] My mom is very musical.
She played piano in church. She sang in church.
My dad was musical too, but he loved rock music.
He would always be playing, like, Elton John or, like, Billy Joel.
Um, Queen.
So, I had a very eclectic musical upbringing.
Like gospel, and rock, and…
Um, so, yeah, very musical family. He wanted a family band.
We almost could have had a family band.
We still can. [chuckles] Could put my brother on the drums.
Then, they moved to Houston. Why the move to Houston?
For… a better life. [chuckles]
-To get out of Detroit. I see. -[Lizzo] To get out of Detroit.
I love Detroit. My family still lives there.
But you gotta leave when you say you're gonna leave.
It's gotta be, "I'm moving." And the next day you're moving.
Because Detroit is one of those places that can keep you for a long time.
So, I remember they were like, "We're moving to Texas."
And I was like, "I don't wanna be around cowboys and horses."
The next day, we were just there. And I saw horses and people on them.
Did people like you? Were you bullied? Were you--
Did you have a tough life in school?
-Um, I was teased in middle school. -Teased for?
For… [chuckles]
I have so many weird things about me. Like, I got made fun of for my shoes.
Like, I have wide feet, so my shoes would slope over a little bit.
-Look at these things. -Oh my God.
Now I have custom shoes, so…
Ha! Ha!
Make fun of me now!
[laughing]
[Lizzo] But, yeah. [laughs]
I got made fun of for that. I got made fun of for my hair.
Knowing stuff in class.
-Oh! Raising my hand too much. -Why is that a thing?
I don't know. And they'd be like, "Well, damn."
You were a good student. Did you get good grades?
I got really good grades
until I didn't want to be made fun of anymore.
I started trying to be cooler, then I became a class clown.
And I would be sent to sack all the time.
-I don't know what sack is. -[Lizzo] Detention.
Where bad kids go. When the teacher don't wanna deal with you no more,
they'd be like, "Get out!" My Spanish teacher, she'd be like,
"Melissa, get out!" She would make me get out of the room all the time!
I'd literally buy my Hot Cheetos
in advance because I knew I'd get sent to sack.
And I would just sit in sack and, like, crunch--
I'd suck on a Hot Cheeto till it was soft.
Then I would crunch it so I wouldn't get caught.
This is a story we hear quite a lot,
where a kid is misjudged in school and pushed aside,
and then, later, we see how the kid turns out.
And it's, "Oh, we mishandled this."
I remember my English teacher
in, like, the fourth grade, she told us to write a story.
I was like, "Yeah, I'm gonna write a story!"
And I wrote this whole book, and I bound it by hand.
It was front and back pages, and I gave it to her, and she was like,
"I said a paragraph. I don't got time to read all of this."
I was like, "You're crushing my creativity!"
I told my mom, "I have to get out of her class."
And they transferred me to the other teacher.
But I would show up late all the time. I was always late to school.
I would walk in while everyone's sitting quietly,
looking at the band director. And I would have the worst attitude
because I would be so guilty that I was late to school
that I would just, like,
"If I look mad, maybe people will believe something's wrong."
"And they won't bother me."
I remember one of the band directors pulled me aside after school.
He was like, "You have the power to change the way people feel."
"When you walk into that band hall,
and you have that dark, negative energy, it spreads."
"You are a leader."
Mind you, I didn't think that I had an ability to
change anyone's joy or lack thereof.
And, um, I remember being like, "I'm gonna take this responsibility
'cause this guy must know more than me. He's older than me."
-That helped form you. That's fantastic. -[Lizzo] Yeah.
My late teens, early 20s,
we were playing for drinks a lot of the time.
Nice places, or dumps, or both?
-Dive, hipster places. -Yep.
We started off pretty, you know, whatever.
My mom came to a show, and there was literally no one in the audience.
I think you have that in common with most every successful musician
in the world from the beginning of time.
You played places where one person shows up.
So, you got that under your belt.
I remember once we had a gig, and there was no one there.
And my drummer was like, [sighs] "I'm just gonna phone it in."
Or he said something like that. I said, "Don't you ever phone any performance in."
"We have to play every show like it's a packed house."
-Right. -I always went full-out every show.
I ended up on the floor.
'Cause you recognize that obligation.
It's an obligation I was aware of since I was young.
Because, you know, my dad was really, very tough
but, like, he wanted us to be successful.
So, whatever it was, he would, like, push you to do it.
Was he a tough father or a giving, loving father?
[LIzzo] Very tough.
My dad was really pointed about the flute in my music career.
He would say, "I want you to play the flute and sing."
And he was like, "You should sing." And I'm like, "Okay."
And I-- He-- When he was getting, like, his health was failing
for a myriad of reasons,
I remember being like, "I'm gonna be successful,
make a lot of money, so I can take care of my dad."
-[David] How old was he when he died? -[Lizzo] Fifty-seven.
-My father was 57 when he died. -[Lizzo] Really?
Yeah. I mean, 57 is nothing, for God's sakes.
And you were a kid in your young 20s?
-Yeah, I was 20. -[David] Yeah.
When I looked at my surroundings, it was very bleak.
I was like, "Who the hell do I think I am?"
What was bleak that you saw when you looked around?
[Lizzo] Oh, man. I was like,
"Everything that I've been doing prior to that was for nothing."
-Really? You-- -[Lizzo] Yeah.
I was really depressed by the feeling of knowing
that I was supposed to be doing something,
and my life not reflecting that something.
You know? I knew I was supposed to be this person my whole life.
Not a famous person, but this person.
Infectiously happy, helping people, connecting with people.
Anybody would single that out as,
"Yeah, that would cause a person to be depressed."
I deal with being anxious a lot.
I know a little something about anxiety. Anxiety and depression are best friends.
How bad do you suffer from anxiety?
It got really bad when I was a little younger.
And I would feel, sometimes, like, outside of my body.
I'd wake up, and my heart was racing. I'm like, "Oh, God."
I didn't know what it was.
And I started getting, like, acupuncture and meditating.
I realized that those symptoms started fading away.
So, the meditation helped?
-[sighs] So much. -[David] Yeah.
[flute playing]
-[David] May I touch these? -Oh, yeah.
-That is a rose quartz. -These are tactile.
-Very satisfying, aren't they? -[Lizzo] Aren't they?
My crystal collection has grown, and people have given me crystals
ever since I, like, did this thing on Instagram live.
I bought three crystals, and they were my first ones.
-It was this, this, and then… -[David] This one?
I love that one. That's amethyst. My favorite.
[David] I love amethyst. These are everywhere.
-They're in geodes. -[Lizzo] Yeah, right.
My dream was to find a geode and crack it open.
Have my own amethyst.
These three are very important to me, and they were part of a huge life change.
I would literally hold them and lay down and meditate.
And, like, sometimes, I would put, like, the rose quartz on my heart chakra,
because this is a love crystal, and it helps your love channel.
I'll put that there. Black tourmaline protects you from evil.
-Tourmaline? -[Lizzo] Black tourmaline, yeah.
It protects you from evil and anyone trying to do you wrong.
And then, of course, this is my-- Oh, you wanna hold them, don't you?
-Wow, that's beautiful -[Lizzo] Isn't it?
Is there any truth to this?
I believe that everything conducts energy, and if you truly think
that this can change your day, then it works.
Ever since I was a little kid, I've had a hunk of amethyst
that came from my grandparents' farm.
Beyond that, I don't know anything about mystical powers.
-[Lizzo] Yeah. -But, what the hell?
Anything that makes you feel good. Who cares?
And they're just beautiful.
I've been in a bad mood for 30 years. Would you--
-[Lizzo] Jesus. -Is there one that would fix that?
[Lizzo chuckles]
Did you ever have to be medicated for the anxiety?
No. I mean, well…
-I've done-- -Recreationally?
I've done mushrooms.
And I don't know what that means. I hear people who've taken mushrooms,
and there's some sort of psychedelic experience.
-You've never done mushrooms? -Well, I've had them on Swiss steak.
[laughs] So, you had the shiitakes.
But you haven't had the, you know, trip-akes, you know what I mean?
What do you do with them?
I always, like, microdose. I break off, like, the smallest possible nugget,
like a crumb, and then I eat that first,
because I don't wanna just dive in, go down the rabbit hole.
Right. Then what happens?
You just-- You get real settled.
You get happy.
You reject, like, artificial things.
Sometimes technology kind of challenges you.
And you're like, "Wait a minute, I'm-- I was here first."
"How you gonna tell me what to do?"
This is interesting.
-We all were here before the technology. -[Lizzo] Yeah.
I mean, my iPhone said, "Time to wake up."
And I was like…
[chuckling]
"Listen, buddy, I'll tell--" You know?
"I'm already awake. First of all, so you wrong."
[both laughing]
So, I was like, "How dare you?" So, I put it in a drawer.
Now, to me, this terrifies me.
The idea of mushrooms,
or like when I was a kid, it was LSD or acid.
[Lizzo] Oh, God.
That shit scares the hell out of me. I can't--
I've heard things where people were like, "Then the TV came to life.
It swallowed me, and I was inside…"
I'm like, "I'm not trying to get swallowed by nothing."
The only thing I've had in my life that seems to work routinely
is my brain and my mouth.
So, if I goof up my brain, what am I left with?
-Just my dumbbell mouth. -[Lizzo] Your mouth.
[drum beats]
-All right, cool. We're gonna record that. -[David] Yeah.
They say that Jay-Z will just--
He'll do that and go in behind a microphone
and make shit up and go nuts.
That's what you're about to do. You're about to be Jay-Z.
-Yeah. -You're about-- You're D-Z. Dave-Z.
[chuckles]
[drum beats]
[woman sings note]
-Who is that? -That little…
-[David] Yeah. Who's that guy? -No idea.
-You like that? -Yeah.
I'm gonna put that in there. Here we go.
[drum beats]
-[David] What's he saying? -[Lizzo] Tight.
[David] Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
Then, we're gonna do a little keyboard. Oh my God, this is so fun.
[keyboard playing]
-[David] Is that a minor key? -That's a minor.
-Am I a genius or what? -[Lizzo] You're literally a genius.
Thank you.
[drum beats]
Here we go.
[keyboard playing]
Wow.
[Lizzo laughs]
Yeah.
So, just say whatever you want over it, you know what I'm saying?
How will I know when I'm done?
I ask myself every single day that same question.
-[David] Okay. -Here we go.
I've never done this.
Holy shit, are you serious?
No, look at me.
[Lizzo] Well, here we go.
-Go in when you hear it. -Okay.
[chuckling quietly]
It's like every hearing test I've ever had.
-[Lizzo] Was it loud enough? -I didn't hear anything.
-[Lizzo] Really? Goddammit. -Yeah.
Is it louder?
-Um, Lizzo, I'm hearing nothing. -Louder?
It-- The problem may not be the equipment.
Goddammit. [laughs]
You know…
-Let's hear what this sounds like. -Okay.
[drum beats]
[David] Uh, Lizzo, I'm hearing nothing.
It-- The problem may not be the equipment.
Whoa! [laughing]
-[David] Now, wait a minute. -Whoa, now that's fire.
That was bullshit.
[Lizzo] I'm saving that one.
The turning point for me in my life
was being forced out of morning television.
What was the turning point for you in your career?
Was it Minneapolis?
Minneapolis changed my life, yeah.
-Who do you go to Minneapolis with? -A producer. And we went to Edina.
-We lived in his-- -[David] I know where Edina is.
I was in Indianapolis doing the weather,
and I go to Edina to this KSTP station or something like that.
And it was the-- exactly the same money.
It was the same job. It was the same money. It was a lateral move.
And I can remember driving back from the airport,
and seeing these endless fences on the medians, on the interstates.
And I said to the driver, I said, "What are those fences for?"
'Cause they have mile after mile of slat fence.
And he says, "Oh, those are snow fences."
And I said, "I won't be coming back here."
-Yeah! -[David] I went back--
They were telling me how tall the fucking snow is.
Don't know why I stayed. I love Minneapolis, though.
That's how you know Minneapolis has something magnetic about it.
For me to brave that cold?
But living in Edina was so bizarre. It's so rich and so white.
And, um, it's the type of town where, like, if I have a Afro,
they'd be like, "Oh, your hair looks fun."
And I'd be like, "Bitch, what's so fun about my fucking 'fro?"
And I worked at the McCormick & Schmick,
and I remember--
I'm from Detroit, so we say "salmon" instead of "salmon."
And I remember I got corrected so many times by the customers.
They'd be like, "Salmon! Salmon!"
I was like, "I'm being-- The oppression!"
I met my DJ Sophia Eris
like a week before I literally evacuated Edina.
I was in a taxicab crying. I was like, "I don't know where to go."
I called her and was like, "Can I sleep on your couch?"
Then, I ended up in Southside Minneapolis.
[David] It seemed odd to me that,
"Oh, there's a big musical scene in Minneapolis."
And I think to myself, "No, there's not."
-Yeah. -It's Minneapolis, for God's sakes.
They got snow fences. There's not a big musical scene up there.
Prince is the musical scene in Minneapolis.
Now, you're in Minneapolis.
Was there actually a legitimate, thriving, viable musical scene?
To this day! It's really cool.
And you can have every venue in the city sold out by local artists
in the same night.
You're there how long, and what are you doing
when you, uh, cross paths with Prince?
And was that a goal? In your mind, "I gotta meet Prince."
Hell, no.
Don't nobody got that damn goal. I-- That was astronomical.
This is astronomical. You think I walk around like,
"I want David Letterman to come to my house and talk to me?"
-Yeah. -I'd never fathomed these types of things.
That's the unfathomable.
I wasn't in Minneapolis long. I will say that.
Half a year? Two years?
[Lizzo] Two years.
I was in a couple girl groups
with my DJ and musical life partner,
Sophia Eris, and, um…
Prince had been doing this thing where he was cultivating
young black women who were creatives, and he was supporting them
at, uh, Paisley Park.
[David] Paisley Park was just what he called his home?
-A big-- -But it was more than that. It was like…
incredible.
-You know? It was like a studio-- -[David] And you--
You would go there once a week, twice a week, every night, what?
Not every night. I wish.
My relationship with Prince was like…
Charlie, and we were the Angels.
It was kind of like that. [chuckles]
Um, I remember the first time we went to Paisley Park, we recorded…
Um…
And he was on, like, a speaker.
Ah.
Yeah. And I remember we were just like, "Does he like it?"
Like, he listened to us. It was so in there. "He likes it."
[chuckles] You know what I mean? And, um…
for me, I was like. "You know what?"
"Your-- The mysticism is real. It's true. I'm not gonna argue with it."
"I'm not gonna…
[sighs] try to force anything."
Were you still in Minneapolis when he died?
-I had just moved to LA. -Just moved to LA.
And then, um, I got a text, and it was like, "You know, he's gone."
And I flew to Minneapolis that night, and I went straight to First Avenue,
and I sang "The Beautiful Ones" by Prince.
The last time I saw Prince was-- I went to Paisley Park,
and he played "Purple Rain" on the piano.
And he started crying while playing it.
It was the most beautiful sound you've ever heard, like…
The piano just had, like, strings and violins.
And I was like, "Whoa. Where are these sounds coming from?"
And his voice was so beautiful. And then he wept,
and it was so beautiful. Then he was like… [sniffles]
[smacks lips]
"I really gotta work on my set list." [laughs]
Because he was like, "I can't put that so early in the set."
But "Purple Rain" moved him so much.
But I didn't think anything was wrong.
I just-- I'd never seen so much emotion from him.
There's nothing better than to just get a true artist,
like, raw and in the flesh,
and the whole world bleeds for this person.
Like, the whole world was purple.
So, then, um, you move to LA because you're getting big?
LA did that thing where, suddenly, you look up, and you're in LA.
[chuckles]
'Cause I was like, "No, I'm never leaving. I love the Twin Cities. I'm staying here."
And I found myself flying back and forth.
It went from, "We're gonna put you up in a hotel."
And then, "Let's get you a little apartment."
-And then all of a sudden-- -This is all--
A music producer is financing this for you?
It's, like, I moved to LA because I had a job with MTV,
and I got signed to Atlantic Records.
But if I could've done all that from Minneapolis, I would've.
Now you could do it anywhere you want. You don't need to be in LA.
You can be in Linton, Indiana.
-Oh, don't tempt me. [chuckles] -[David] Yeah.
♪ Hey, world ♪
♪ What's up? ♪
♪ You know what's up? ♪
♪ Do you know what time it is? Do you know what time it is? ♪
♪ Do you know what time it is? Do you know what-- ♪
♪ It's time to vote ♪
-Through all of this, you write music. -I'm writing like crazy.
Overwriting, actually. I learned how to under-write, thank God.
I don't know what that means.
Overwriting was-- I was extremely wordy.
I wrote, like, really intricate rhythms.
If you listen to, like… [blows air]
"Batches & Cookies" is "I remember that gooey gooey. You took and said 'ooh wee.'"
"I need two of these for my baby boo-ee." Why am I rapping so fast?
You know? And I realized to connect with people en masse, simplify.
There's a line, uh, "Why do men--"
"Why are men great till they gotta be great?"
I thought that was…
beautiful.
It's so succinct and true.
Wow.
I just found a video of me crying in the studio
the day I recorded "Truth Hurts."
What experience led you to that?
An entire bottle of wine
led to that experience.
At the time, I traveled with two dancers, my DJ, myself,
my creative director, my tour manager, all women.
We had a bottle of wine to ourselves in the green room.
We were like, "Holy shit, let's go."
[soda can opening sound] That's not the sound, but it's fine.
And I was very sad over a really traumatic experience.
Love relationships don't have to be dramatic to be traumatic.
And it's just one of those things that kind of slipped out in conversation.
"Why are men great till they gotta be great?"
And I wrote it down
and just put it in the-- You know, I was like, "I don't wanna forget that."
And then, when we were making "Truth Hurts,"
I went back to that.
To me, what it means is…
we put men in positions of power all the time,
especially with love, because we trust them, you know?
We trust them to take care of us.
And when it's time,
they often let us down.
That's what men want to be thought of.
As great, you know?
They will, myself included, any opportunity,
"Let me tell you something about me."
But when push comes to shove, it's, "Geez, where's the fire extinguisher?"
"I-- Oh, crap, where did it--" You know, it's like that.
Next time you call me talented, put "multi" in front of it.
[flute playing]
Suck my dick!
[chuckling]
Playing the flute, to me, is-- That's honestly-- That's why I'm here.
[laughing]
-Just-- Yeah. -Now, there it is.
[David] There it is, exactly.
So, I mean, who the heck--
Was it in a classroom-- Somebody just said, "Come over here, kid?"
I could've been a clarinet player, twerking and playing the clarinet.
But if you look at my life now,
it was the most miraculous thing because, first of all,
the Youngblood Intermediate School Band was the baddest band in the land.
We was a bunch of fifth and sixth graders turning the concerts out in the gym.
My band director, Mr. James Browden,
would transpose songs from the radio.
Then we would just play them, and he would make us dance,
and it made us really love music.
But it's funny 'cause I was afraid of the jazz and the rock flute,
but the classical flute, "The Man with the Golden Flute--"
-James Galway. -[Lizzo] James Galway, who I love.
I was like, "Let's go!"
I would listen to his CDs
and try to sightread and play along with him.
-[David] Have you met him or played-- -No.
He's got a platinum flute. I was like, "What a baller."
-You know what I mean? -[laughs]
Some people got platinum chains, but he has a platinum flute.
To refer to a guy who is the master
of the symphonic orchestral flute as a baller,
that's pretty good.
He a baller, man. [laughs]
Moe, that-- that-- could've laughed at that.
[laughing]
-He's a terrible actress. -Awful.
-So, you have flutes here? I mean-- -[Lizzo] I have so many flutes.
Are flutes expensive?
When I had nothing, I had Sasha Flute.
And she was the most expensive thing in my possession.
No car, no house, nothing. And I guarded the flute with my life.
-Do you mind if I look at it? -Take a look.
-She identifies as her. -[David] That's remarkable.
You are so fascinated by the fucking flute.
No, I really am, and why wouldn't you be?
I guess so. I'm so used to it.
-Let me clean her up for you. -[David] Yeah.
She's greasy because I play her, and I don't clean her up.
The Muramatsu flute, made in Tokorozawa, Japan.
These are pretty special. I have, like, an extremely rare flute.
Where did you get it?
My father, um, got me this flute
when I was maybe a junior or a senior in high school,
and I've had her since then.
-Look at that. -[David] It's like jewelry, isn't it?
-[Lizzo] You can touch her. -I don't wanna touch her.
I mean, honestly, I-- If you weren't here, I'd try it.
-[Lizzo] You would? -Yeah.
I have so many flutes. You can literally-- This is an ocarina. This is a toot.
That's like a recorder for kids.
Yeah, except it's played flute style. It's to the side.
Yeah, I don't know.
Um, I have so many flutes.
I want you to try one that's not so expensive.
Oh, we can get Blue Ivy.
This is Blue Ivy.
-She's controversial. -Because of the color?
Yeah. They were like, "That's not a flute. It's a toy."
-So, um… -[chuckles]
People can be so ugly talking about flutes.
I hate it!
You put your hand here, and then you put-- Like this.
Oh my God, this is so cool. You are a natural.
People don't do it that good the first time.
Where do I blow?
Ha! Well…
-All right. Childish. -Oh, stop that!
You blow right in that hole.
[laughing]
Gonna have to ask you to leave.
You got this.
Geez, I'm winded.
-[Lizzo] Well, welcome to my world. -[chuckling]
Imagine. Doing this and singing?
[blowing]
-Let me hear you. -Okay.
-[flute playing] -Oh!
Are you blowing hard or blowing soft?
It's really the embouchure, which is your mouth.
-Yeah. -You just have to kind of--
-[gasps] -[flute playing]
No one can really do this.
-Here. You hold this. -[Lizzo] Yeah.
Let's try something like this.
[whistling]
Oh!
Wait, no.
There's gotta be something in there. How'd you do that?
[chuckling]
Wait, how were you doing that?
-[whistling] -Is that like a bird call?
-Here, can you accompany me on Sasha? -[Lizzo] On the flute?
Okay. What note is that?
-[flute playing] -[whistling]
-Oh, that's "Jingle Bells." [chuckles] -I'm out of gas.
[playing "Jingle Bells" on flute]
[whistling]
You could have had a symphonic flute career.
-I wanted that so bad. -What happened there?
I dropped out of college.
-This is when your father died? -[Lizzo] Mm-hm.
-[David] How far into college were you? -I was a year and a half in.
Not shit.
[chuckling]
You were doing well musically with the flute.
Yeah, I was doing well.
I was smoking them hos in the master class.
Smoking them hos.
And then-- So, the master class, for people who don't know,
is a class where all the flutes come together,
and you get up and play your piece.
Then the teacher, you know, critiques you.
Just to make sure we have this on the record,
you were smoking the hos.
[laughing]
-I just-- Have I got that right? -I was smoking them hos. [laughs]
[David] Oh, smoking them hos. Okay.
-I had style, man. -[David] Yeah.
As your music horizon evolved and widened and broadened,
and you pursued other kinds of music,
people were discouraging you to bring the flute.
-"Don't bring that here." -Yeah.
And I'm thinking, "You're crazy."
"This flute is a moneymaker, for God's sake."
I had a lot of, like, band-nerd, um, guilt.
When they were like, "That's nerdy. Don't do that,"
I wasn't like, "No, it's not. It's cool."
I was like, "You're right," because that's all I knew.
What happened was I posted a video on Instagram
where I was playing the flute, and people loved it.
And I was like, "Oh, y'all like this? Okay."
And I did it onstage, and it just took a life of its own.
-What was their problem with the flute? -Well, rappers didn't play flutes, and--
I know, but that's cool. All of a sudden, put them together and bingo.
[playing flute]
The sound of that…
[Lizzo] Yeah. It's healing.
It's a beautiful frequency.
That's-- When you listen to meditation music, it's normally flutes.
Is that right? It's delightful.
-[Lizzo] Thank you. -Yeah.
This is what I would do for my encore.
-I would come out with the flute. -Now people go crazy.
-They're screaming. -Yeah.
She's very popular. She doesn't leave the house for more than 20K.
-[laughs] -[Lizzo] She doesn't.
So, we come out, and it's a guessing game. I'm like, "Do you guys know this?"
[flute playing]
And everyone's like, "I don't know."
[flute playing resumes]
Play with them a bit and they're like, "What is this song?"
[flute playing]
♪ Ooh, baby ♪
At that point, they know. They're like, "Oh, okay."
[flute playing]
["Juice" playing by Lizzo]
♪ Don't say it 'cause I know I'm cute Oh, baby ♪
♪ Louis down to my drawers ♪
♪ LV all on my shoes Oh, baby ♪
♪ It ain't my fault that I'm out here gettin' loose ♪
♪ Gotta blame it on the Goose ♪
♪ Gotta blame it on my juice ♪
♪ Ya-ya-ee ♪
♪ Ya-ya-ee Ya-ya-ee ♪
♪ Blame it on my juice ♪
[playing "Juice" on flute]
♪ Ya-ya-ee ♪
[David] Yeah.
♪ Ya-ya-ee ♪
-Oh my God. Oh my God. -[laughing]
That's amazing, to be standing this close to that sound.
Thank you. It's been a minute since I played.
-You seem rusty to me. -I'm a little rusty.
-What happened to Little Rusty? -[chuckles]
[Lizzo] I've been working out consistently for the last five years,
and it may come as a surprise to some of y'all
that I'm not working out to have your ideal body type.
I'm working out to have my ideal body type.
And you know what type that is? None of your fucking business.
You know, there's quite a lot written about your body.
Oh, yeah.
The only thing anybody has ever said to me about my body is,
"You feel all right?"
[laughing]
Is it because,
"We don't think you have the right body to be doing what you are doing?"
Is it just an opinion?
It bothered me for a long time,
that all people could talk about or think about was my size.
I didn't like when people condemned me for it,
and it also kind of rubbed me the wrong way when I was praised.
Like, "You're so brave!"
Is this all via social media, or is it--
Social media, articles, like, to my face, you know?
'Cause they thought they were complimenting me
by saying that I was unapologetic.
I'm like, "What do I have to apologize for?"
In 2014, when I was wearing a leotard onstage
and saying I love myself with two big girls also in leotards.
I think people were like, "How dare she? How dare she love herself?"
"How could she?"
I'm sick of being an activist just because I'm fat and Black.
I want to be an activist because I'm intelligent,
because I care about issues,
because my music is good, because I wanna help the world.
How many protests have you been involved in?
My first protest I went to…
um… [chuckles]
There was a church group that was coming in,
and they were protesting, you know, legalizing gay marriage.
So, we did an anti-protest, I think that was like 2012 or something.
And I've been actively going since then.
So, is it mixed?
Fifty-fifty inspiration, and others, resentment?
-You know, I only focus on the positive. -[David] There you go.
Of course, the negative, occasional comment comes in.
Like, the jokes.
Is there a factor of envy in this?
You know these hos is jealous of me. [laughing]
[laughing] But you know what I mean? Like…
I think when people see somebody who is free,
they like to label them, um, as an other,
or they like to label them as an outcast.
Or even if it's a-- Not even a negative outcast,
but they're just like, "That is just unattainable."
Like, "She's one of a kind, and no one can be like that."
Um, and there is a little bit of "I wish I could be that way."
Especially the people who hate.
That doesn't really break my heart. Like…
I'm fine. I know that I'm beautiful, and I know that I'm a fucking bad bitch.
I'm successful, poppin' and healthy.
I know I could outrun any of these bitches in any way, every way,
whether it's physical, mental, spiritual, financial, bitch.
I'll run around your motherfucking bank account.
You wanna see me run, bitch?
[both laughing]
You wanna see me run?
[both laughing]
[David] We have this pandemic.
And then we have another virus that's been with us for 400 years.
There was a lynching, is what that was.
To me, it looked like this goon
was happy to behave the way he behaved
while being videotaped.
And then, you realize,
"Oh, yeah, this is the way of the world."
[smacks lips]
As a Black citizen of this country,
I've been heartbroken by the way that we've been treated and seen
my entire life.
I remember there was a murder of a young Black person,
unarmed, in Minneapolis, down the street from my house.
His name was Jamar Clark.
I wrote this song called "My Skin." I was very, like,
"We gotta make a change."
People were camping out in front of the precinct.
We were getting shot at, you know, um, by God knows who.
It was scary. It was dark times.
And then, Tamir Rice, who was 12 years old,
who was playing at a park,
got shot within seconds by a police officer.
Within seconds.
Young, Black 12-year-old boy.
And no-- And people politicized it.
How can you politicize the murder of a child?
And I…
was so numb
that I lost all hope for any type of change in this country.
Four hundred years, and this is what-- where we are now.
But yeah. You mean, change is painful,
and I think you have to sign yourself up for that.
This time, I saw something different.
I saw the sudden allyship
of young white people…
which I'd never seen.
And I also saw people in the news
realize that it's more than just like a hashtag and a moment,
and a movement, and, oh, us complaining, and that it's a real systemic poison.
And that got me, for the first time, a little hopeful.
You are hopeful?
[Lizzo] I-- I mean,
I-- I can't-- I mean, I can't help but to be optimistic and hopeful.
[crowds cheering]
I'm an artist that makes music that makes people feel good.
I'm a big Black girl. I grew up in Houston, Texas.
[crowds cheering]
Back then, the world told me
I wasn't gonna be able to do shit with my life,
and now look, the whole world fell in love with my big beautiful ass.
[cheering]
I say this every night onstage.
"You see this feeling you feel now,
this smile you have on your face, the joy that you're feeling?"
"I don't want this to end when you leave this building."
I want you to know, if you can love me, you can love your goddamn self.
[crowd cheering]
And if you don't mind, I'd like to do a little mantra with you.
Can everybody take a deep breath with me? [inhales]
[exhales]
[David] I know what you're talking about. When you're onstage, you are transcendent.
I was taken by how infectious your happiness was.
[crowd cheering]
I want you to look at the person next to you
and say, "I love you!"
I love you!
You are beautiful!
[crowd] You are beautiful!
And you can do anything!
You can do anything!
And say, "I love you, Lizzo!"
I love you, Lizzo!
You are beautiful, girl!
And you can do anything, bitch!
You can do anything, bitch!
[crowd cheering, clapping]
'Cause negative self-speak is common. It's normalized.
Like, "Oh, stupid. I fucked up again. I'm so dumb. Ah."
Or, "I don't look good in this."
But I never say, "I look good in this. I'm intelligent."
And when you have positive experiences with others,
that spreads.
And that makes a difference.
People like you who can go out and perform
and make people feel better about themselves,
that's invaluable.
People who get that are very lucky.
Because that's an energy that most people don't experience.
-I miss it. I wanna play a show. -Yeah.
[chuckles]
[Lizzo] Let me know how the beat sounds too, if it's loud.
Let me just hear a little, and then we'll go.
[Lizzo] Here we go.
[clears throat rhythmically]
♪ I'm hot I'm hot ♪
♪ I'm ugly ♪
[clears throat rhythmically]
♪ I sweat ♪
♪ I'm wet ♪
♪ I'm old ♪
All right, wait. Hold on.
This song is-- It's almost good, but it's--
To make it a Lizzo song, you gotta be positive.
You can't say, "I'm ugly."
If you do say, "I'm ugly," you gotta say, "I'm ugly, but I like it."
I thought we really had tied into something there.
That's as positive as you're gonna get. [chuckles]
Where do you want this to go?
If I come back, three years, what would you be doing? Five years?
Do you want this to go on the rest of your life?
You know, Entertainer of the Year is great.
I don't entertain. I'm entertaining.
I'm always gonna be entertaining because of that.
-Mm-hm. -You know, I don't really aim to please.
-More films, fewer films, more live-- -The empire begins.
-[David] Yeah. -[chuckles]
'Cause I'm multifaceted. I'm extremely talented, and I have ideas.
Music will always be the focus, you think, or the main corridor of this?
I can't help but to create music.
I'm a very musical person. It's my destiny. Do you know what I mean?
Well, I must say that my experience here with you has proven
to be everything I thought it might.
-You're a lovely woman. God bless. -Thank you.
Aw, appreciate you too.
-[crowd clapping] -[David] How you doing?
-How you doing? -Come here.
-Oh, that was lovely. -Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Lizzo, ladies and gentlemen!
Thank you very much.
Here we go.
[drum beats]
[David] ♪ I'm old. I'm hot. I'm sweaty ♪
♪ I'm old. I'm ugly ♪
♪ I'm sweaty ♪
[clears throat]
-[Lizzo] Mixtape dropping. -Yes, it's already dropped.
-Something dropped in me. -[laughing]
I'm saving this, and I'm gonna make a song out of it.
Yeah, you will, and then, "Whatever happened to Lizzo?"
[chuckles] I know. I'm gonna skyrocket your career.
There's gonna be plaques with your face all over it. [laughs]
[theme music playing]