Ne-Yo is what the entertainment industry calls a triple threat. He’s one of the most sought-after songwriters in music, as a recording artist he’s hard at work on his third album, and as an actor, he’s starred in Stomp the Yard. Find out his plans to change the R&B game in the May issue of 944 magazine, but check out what he had to say about working with other artists, that driving incident and his first big purchase with that first music industry check.
THAT’S MY JAM: OK. Last year, I believe you were in Stomp the Yard, and I was wondering if you had any other acting projects in the works.
NE-YO: There are a few things in the works, nothing set in stone just yet. There’s a movie that I’m doing with Foster Thomas, which has yet to be titled. The title they’re running with now is Summer Romance, but they’re not going to use that because that sucks, well, I mean — yeah it does. That is basically going to be a movie, I’m kind of going to, it’s going to be my Purple Rain a little bit, you know, to where it’ll be an aspiring singer, well, I’m not going to be the main person, the movie will be based on a young lady, and her movement from one city to another and she runs into me and she [inaudible], I mean it’s a little more complicated than I’m putting it, I just don’t want to give it away, so there’s that. There’s a movie called Legion that I was reading for not too long ago. I don’t know if I’m going to do that or not. I mean we’re looking around, it has to make sense. I can’t do one great movie and then flop, you know what I mean? So we’re definitely looking around. Look out for something maybe next year sometime.
OK. Now are there any types of roles that you prefer when you’re doing your acting?
No, not really, I mean I know what I don’t want to do. This movie with Foster Thomas is music based, and it’s cool to do one like that, but I don’t want that to be my whole acting career if I’m going to have an acting career. I don’t want every movie to be based around dancing or music or whatever. If I’m going to act, I’m going to act. I wanna be the bad guy in a movie. I wanna be the guy that comes on the screen and everybody hates him. I wanna be that dude. Give me a challenge, give me a stretch, something that you wouldn’t picture Ne-Yo doing.
OK. Now, besides your own album, do you have any other music projects in the works?
Oh yeah, always, always. OK, let me think: Janet’s out already, Celine is out already, Mary’s out already, be looking for John Legend coming soon, Robin Thicke coming soon, LeToya Luckett coming soon, Ciara, Pleasure from Pretty Ricky is doing a solo project. Do not think what you’re thinking, OK, he’s coming with some stuff, trust me, it’s going to be worth it. Let me see, who else? Lindsay Lohan, I just did a record with Lindsay Lohan, believe it or not.
How did that go?
Well, I wasn’t there when she recorded it, but the guys that were there said it came out pretty darn good, so I’m anxious to hear what that sounds like, too. The name of the record is “Bossy,” I don’t know if there’s going to be a single yet, I don’t know yet. I’m about to do some stuff for Anastacia, an overseas artists, she’s incredible, hugest voice on the planet. Let’s see, who else? Oh crap, I think that’s about it. And my third album, I’m working on that as we speak, it’ll be out middle of June, maybe early July, somewhere in there.
OK. Do you have any guest appearances on your album this time?
Well, I’m nowhere near finished. I’ve really got about five songs that I love right now, so, everything is in talks right now. I’ve talked to John Mayer about doing some stuff, Natasha Bedingfield, I spoke to Akon about getting together on something, I spoke to T-Pain about getting together on something, me and [Fabolous] were talking about getting together. It’s just right now the thing I keep running into is scheduling, you know? Everybody’s schedule is all over the place, that it’s hard to get everybody into one room at one time, but we’re going to make it happen, we’re definitely going to make it happen.
OK. Do you have anything you want to say or maybe even address about some of the recent drama that’s been surrounding you lately with some of the driving incidents and the R. Kelly song — the R. Kelly song, what’s the R. Kelly song about?
You know what, I can’t even say that R. Kelly song is about me because he ain’t said my name. If you’re going to talk about me, I’m going to need you to say my name so that I know that you’re talking about me. I’m not going to assume that somebody’s talking about me, so yeah, I’m not worried about R. Kelly. If R. Kelly has something to say to me, say Ne-Yo in the next song.
OK.
As far as the driving thing, ah, man, I did not know this was going to get so big. OK. For one, I was not drunk, I don’t know where that came from. I heard all kinds of crazy stuff – I was drunk, I had a gun in the car, I’m like, “Come on, I do R&B, what are you talking about?” What happened was I have a few artists that I signed to my label and one of them used to stay at the house. I’m here at home probably three months out of the year, so there’s nobody watching the house and he didn’t have a place to stay, so I let him stay here. He just recently got his own place, but he left a lot of his stuff here, including a wallet with some very important stuff that he needed the next day. Now, he does not have a car, but he’s only three exits away from the house, so he called me up, it’s 5 o’clock in the morning, he was, like, “Yo, you remember that gray wallet I left in that drawer? Could you bring it to me?” I’m like, “Dawg, it’s 5 o’clock in the morning,” and he’s like, “I know, but I need it for tomorrow, please bring it.” So me trying to be a damn nice guy, I get in my car and I’m trying to drive over to where he is to give him the wallet. Now I’m doing 105 on the freeway, switching lanes, no signal, I’m just trying to get over there, give him his wallet, then go home and get back to sleep. As I’m getting off the exit, I get pulled over by the police. They pulled me over, pulled me out of the car, because 105, switching lanes, no signal — that’s not speeding, that’s reckless endangerment. So they pulled me out of the car, put the cuffs on me, put me in the back of their car. I’m terrified! This is the first time I’ve ever been in handcuffs ever, for anything, so I was scared out of my damn mind. They didn’t know who I was, but when I got to jail and every guy in the holding tank knew who I was. “Hey, Ne-Yo!” Oh my God, everybody’s drunk and people stink, it was bad. A lot of the female cops knew who I was, so I’m signing autographs in jail. Mind you, it was just the weirdest experience that I’ve ever experienced. I was only there for a couple hours, my security guard came and got me and it was what it was, but yeah, that was a night I’ll never forget, I’ll tell you that much.
Anything you’d like to add?
Nope, I think we’ve covered it all. The Internet loves me for whatever reason, and I love ’em back, so keep talking about me. I love ya’!
Look for Ne-Yo's article in the May issue of 944 magazine, which hits the streets of Phoenix, San Diego, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orange County and Miami next week, otherwise, visit www.944.com to read "Stone Cold Gentleman."
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