Nina Simone, Singer and Activist HARDtalk

She has been a singing star since the 1960s, a civil rights activist

and a woman you don't mess with on or off stage. She has worked with

Martin Luther King and has sung everywhere. Once she even shot at

somebody. Still a huge star and as powerful as at all, she is a guest

today on HARDtalk. -- as powerful as ever.

# I love you, Porgy # Don't let him take me.

# Don't let them handle me. # And drive me mad.

# If you can keep me, I want to stay here with you forever, two days

after forever, # With you forever...

# 'Cause I got my man. Nina Simone, Doctor Simone, a very warm welcome

to the programme. Thank you Tim Sebastian, you have the same name as

my first love. I can't lose with that, can I? No, you can't. Tell me

about music as a political weapon. Oh, now. That is a hard one. As a

political weapon. It has helped me for 30 years defend the rights of

American blacks and third world people all over the world and to

defend them with protest songs. And it helps to change the world. When

you get up on the stage and you sing what's in your mind, just the

singing, or... No, to move the audience. To make them conscious of

what has been done to my people around the world. So, you sing from

anger? No, I sing from... Intelligence. A scene from letting

them know that I know who they are --I sing. And what they have done to

my people around the world. That's not anger. Anger, anger has its

place. Anger has fire and fire moves things! But I think from

intelligence, I don't want them to think that I don't know who they

are, darling. Who are they? They are the white people around the world

with exception of Nelson Mandela who I met this year. I went to his

marriage and anniversary in 1998. And you were disappointed? No, he is

a saint, the greatest person on the earth. How much does your success

mean to you? It means a great deal to me and my stage presence and

being on stage means a great deal to me. My music is first in my life.

And what is a second? What do you sacrifice for your music? I don't

sacrifice anything from my music but secondly, I would love to be

married, you know, I think a married the --I would marry the cameraman

over there. That is second to my music. My music, nothing takes its

place, nothing. You have been married before. Twice. Unlucky in

love? Unlucky in marriages. Not so unlucky at love. Lots of love, to

marriages. Yes. Why didn't they work out? The music got in the way in the

one where I married the crop from the United States. The music got in

the way. --. And he treated me like horse. -- horse. A non-stop,

workaholic. And the one in Tunisia, that was very hot like a volcano and

his family didn't want him to move to France and France didn't want him

because he is a North African. And the volcano didn't last? No but it

lasted long enough for me never to forget it, I will tell you that.

Among all the unforgettable things and people in your life, there was

Martin Luther King, wasn't there? Yes, well I marched with him, I knew

him, I composed a song for him, I knew his wife, all his children and

I was in the march with him and the march on Alabama at the college and

the march on Washington. I was right beside his side. We saw the public

face, the public man. What was he like in the private moments?

Darling, he was always on stage. His dedication was of such immense

proportion that he never forgot for a minute that he was there to lead

my people. He never forgot that for a minute. And when he was not on

stage, he was still on stage. He was always talking about equal rights.

You said in the past that you would have worked to try to get him the

presidency. Do you think realistically that he could ever

have had a shot? Yes, he could halve. Yet he could have, baby. It

could have. If he hadn't gotten killed and we had a little bit more

support. Do you really think America was ready for a black President?

Yes, I do. Because even black politicians in Washington these days

don't think it is the case. Not now! Jesse Johnson was no match for him.

There has not been a man since then. And his dream came true with Nelson

Mandela. Because Nelson got it done in South Africa. In South Africa. So

the same thing that was done in South Africa could have... Could

have been done in the United States, yes. I distinctly believe that. I

need a cigarette. You are making the heart. Can I have a light? Please?

Go ahead. How did you feel when he died? Oh, odd, man, I was

devastated. I wrote a song called the King of Love is dead. I think I

must have cried for two weeks. And it killed my inspiration for the

civil rights movement. I am ready. And the United States and I moved

away. You are also scared, weren't you? Because of all the killing

going on... Robert Kennedy and Jack Kennedy were killed. Do you think

they were coming after you? Not only that, the FBI was after the! They

had a file on you. In Washington. You never saw it? I was told about

it and I wrote a book called I put a cat Max Bell on You. I did --I Put A

Spell on You. I was rejected for a scholarship from university and I

was asked if I had ever been mixed up in the rebellion. He said they

never found anything that they actually went to Curtis Institute

and enquired about me. Doctor Simone, you were born in North

Carolina. Very poor, your family. Yes, very poor. A lot of love. A lot

of love. Not much to it? At times... My mother had a saying, she said

well, we don't know what we're going to get dinner tonight but I will

pray and it will come and sure enough, she prayed and it came. She

had been a minister for 57 years. She is now 97 years old. You first

sang in her church. What was that like? It was fun because I had never

studied the piano. I was a child prodigy. So when they got up and

started shouting, I started playing. Literally just sat down and started

a... Started playing. The first song I played with God be with you. I

play bad as three years old. And many went on to train as a classical

pianist. That was your love, wasn't it? I'm not over it yet. Are you

disappointed that you didn't, in the end, become what you and your

parents... Yes, yes it! The first black concert pianist. Yes, we don't

have any! All we have is Andre Watts and they don't except in very much

because he is part German. The blacks didn't accept him but they

would have accepted me. At the age of 12, you are playing in a library,

were due? A music library. Yes, my first recital. -- weren't you. Sub

-- somebody said something to your parents. They put me in a room to

watch me and I got up briefly and I said if my parents don't sit in the

front seat, I don't play. And they will put their web that -- they were

put there because they were black. It was my first encounter with

racism. My favourite record that I listen to now is Marianne Anderson

who is the first, the world's first black, I listen to her every

morning. She wakes me up and gives me inspiration to start the day. She

sings the song of the Lord, wait patiently for him and he will give

you your heart 's desire. And he will give you your heart 's desire.

Religion is deeply ingrained. Deeply ingrained. All religions. I don't

believe in any one religion. No, I don't believe in one religion. I

believe in Allah, I believe in the Hindu religion because I studied

yoga for years. I believe in bodies, I believe in all of them because

they are necessary for the sheep, darling. The sheep have to have

something to follow. And religion is necessary. I believe in all of them.

So when you got turned down by the Curtis School in Philadelphia, you

needed to make some money, didn't you? Yes. So you started playing in

bars and supper parties... Yes, I did. What was that like? It was

awful. But it got his money. It got me $900 a week. I gave 50 a week to

my parents. And they came to Philadelphia to be close to you.

Yes. What was your big break? Atlantic City. Playing in the supper

club. Singing the song Porgy which was given to me by Assam, as

student. --A fan. He liked Billie holiday. I can't stand her but he

liked her. And he asked if I would sing it. So because I didn't have to

practise my piano to work in Atlantic City, I learnt the song and

first sang it there in a bar. An agent heard me and took me to New

York and put it on our record. But something disappointed

you because you wrote a letter You apparently wrote a letter

to your parents saying "This is where you wanted me to play,

but I should have been playing So this was your glorious occasion,

but you were still disappointed. Well, I loved the audience,

but I wasn't playing classical music, and I wanted to be,

and so I wrote, and I quote again what you have just said, I wrote,

"Yes, I'm in Carnegie Hall, And then came "My Baby

Just Cares For Me." Years later, but it

was huge, wasn't it? It started out as a song

for it an ad, didn't it? No, it started out as a piece

of Play-Doh for children in England. It started out as a

video for children. And then it, umm, it

got bigger and bigger, and everybody started to hear it,

and it became very famous, and it is the most famous

song I have recorded. People say it turned

you from cult into legend. So, you knew after that

you are on your way. I was on my way before that because,

let's face it, I had been playing, I was playing, around

the world before then. When you left America in 1972,

you left because you couldn't... You get races and

crossing the street! It's in the very fabric

of American society. And I worked in Newark,

New Stadium, and Seattle, and they were so happy and surprised

to see me because they had not This time they were more

than happy to see me. They had not seen me in so long

they thought I was dead. But you would not go

back and live there? No way am I going to ever

go back there again. Josephine Baker went back twice,

and after her second time So you travel to

Liberia, didn't you? And that was apparently

the happiest time in your life. And, you remember that Liberia had

a liaison with America, so it was known as a place

for blacks whom they could not contain, and they were all rich,

and lived on the beach. I had house servants

and the President's daughter gave me I stayed on the beach

every damn day. I was happier there,

and what's more, I got engaged to the Foreign Minister's father,

who was at that time 70 years old. Yes, he was killed,

they killed 13 of them. Life seems to have

gone wrong for you. My music has always lifted me,

and I have had a few love affairs. No, I have no complaints

about my life. But in 1978, in England,

you told a newspaper "My personal life is a shambles, I'm black,

and I've been struggling My personal life has been a shambles

because everything has had to be But then there were reports

in the late 70s of your drug I had enough money,

I was never homeless, You also seem to have had a lot

of problems with the music industry. I still have 60 albums being pirated

in England right now! Nobody's actually

paying you for these? I have a great lawyer

from San Francisco, and he goes after as many pirates as he can,

but you cannot catch them all. I've been pirated

all over the world. When you get up on a stage now,

and they said this in 1987, when you were at Ronnie Scott's

Jazz Club in London... They said "You get the whole

Nina Simone when she's up on stage. "You get her mood, you get

the monologue, you get the music." Is this the whole

Nina Simone experience? And you keep waiting

until you're ready? Because I have to be composed,

I have to be poised, I have to remember what my first

piano teacher told me, "You do not touch that piano

until you are ready, and until they are ready

to listen to you." .from my head,

and from my instincts. And then when it's ready,

and when you're happy Is it always a buzz,

is it always a huge kick for you? Do you happen to be travelling

as much as you did? But I don't mind being

on the road for my music. You were about to say

something else weren't you? I dare say it was a record company

that stole my albums and did not pay me and they came to Switzerland

and I said where is my money, they said, we are not

going to give you any money. It wasn't a knife, and I followed

them to a restaurant and I tried I missed him and I went

back to America. So now we have advertised

that side of your life, you say that you are still

looking for a lover... People, men, are going

to be a bit nervous, They have to take me as I am

and recognise that I'm a star as well as a woman, and they have

to deal with the two. Nina Simone, Doctor Simone,

it has been a pleasure having From Malcolm X

University in Chicago. From Ambrose College

in Ambrose Massachusetts. OK, thank you for setting

the record straight. Cooler, cloudy weather

is more likely as we head There was some sunshine

around yesterday.