What Happened, Miss Simone? Page #3

but it felt like it was velvet.

So I'd always run my hands, like,

over the walls, because it was textured.

And my mom,

she had her cold storage

where she kept

her fur coats and her costumes.

So I was always in there.

These were the good, sweet days.

We were building and growing together.

I had an overall plan

to develop and create her as an artist.

I had set up an office

at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street.

I had a publicist.

I had a guy who was a record-promotion man

that I got from Atlantic Records.

I had another fellow who did

the college radio station promotion,

and a photographer.

Dad was the original Puff Daddy.

I mean, he really had a vision,

and he was a very astute businessman.

And of course, she was burning

to get on to Carnegie Hall.

She had trained as a classical pianist

with the one thought in mind

of being the first

black female classical pianist

to appear in Carnegie Hall.

That was her prime objective.

However, none of

the New York City promoters

would undertake this project.

So, I took my own money

to promote the appearance.

She was ecstatic. I mean,

she was out of her mind with joy.

You apparently wrote

a letter to your parents saying,

"This is where you wanted me to play,

- but I should have been playing Bach."

- "Playing Bach."

So this was your glory 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,

"Yes, I'm in Carnegie Hall, finally,

but I'm not playing Bach."

After Carnegie Hall,

she was getting airplay

all over the country,

magazine pictures and stories.

She became highly successful

and recognized.

- Oh! Thank you very much!

- Meeting in Japan.

A young woman who's made

a very emphatic name for herself...

An accomplished pianist

and distinctive...

who's now become

a rather famous artist.

A remarkable blues-soul sound.

For the first time

on British television,

The High Priestess of Soul...

- Nina Simone.

- Nina Simone.

The great Nina Simone.

Miss Simone brings to her music

a kind of technique and discipline

we generally associate

with classical music.

She has introduced fugue and counterpoint

into the freewheeling spontaneity

of the jazz world.

Nina, do you think that

now that you are successful

as a popular artist

that you'd like to do any classical?

Yes, but I don't have time

to think about it too much.

But you have to realize that when

I'm most satisfied with my music,

I call upon all of the things

that I have learned in classical music.

She wanted everything

that money and success could buy.

So I promised her that

she was going to be a rich black b*tch.

We had a blackboard

and he used to put on there,

"I'll be a rich black b*tch

by this such-and-such date,"

and he said, "Then you could quit,"

and I always believed him,

but I never could quit

because he worked me too hard.

Andy said, "Nina, it's hard work.

You wanna make the money,

you have to work."

And she resented that.

Then Lisa was born,

and she resented being torn away,

having to go on the road.

I didn't realize

what my mom did for a living.

I just know that Mom

was always traveling.

My mother often told me that

I had 13 nannies in seven years.

So, while she was trying to maintain

some sense of a schedule for me

and normalcy for me,

she was out there doing

what she was doing.

Can I have five more minutes?

It's very frustrating...

When we were on the road,

there were times we had to be careful.

She could get angry

and start arguments with people.

Y'all pushing!

You're pushing!

Don't put nothin' in it!

Let's do it again.

If anyone were talking

in the audience, she would just sit,

and at first, she would say, "Please..."

and she said,

"I'm not continuing."

She'd get up, walk out,

and the gig was over.

I just want them

to listen to the music

like they did in the classical world.

I thought they needed teaching.

If they couldn't listen, f*** it!

She got into Carnegie Hall,

and she got the big house in the country,

but she began questioning herself.

She'd get into moods of depression

about the whole business,

the personal relationship,

cursing and smashing things,

and this worsened

as the time went by.

All I did was work, work, work.

I was always tired.

I was always tired.

I could never sleep.

You see, music always

goes through my head,

which means the more I played,

the less I could relax.

I kept thinking Andy

would let me rest.

He never did.

She felt she was being

handled like a racehorse,

and she was always

fighting, fighting, fighting it.

Andy would say,

"Nina, we've got a career here.

That's not going to continue

if you don't nurture it."

So, she came to resent Andy...

but she was afraid of Andy.

Andrew protected me

against everybody but himself.

He wrapped himself around me like a snake.

I worked like a dog,

and I was scared of him...

and Andrew beat me up.

But I've never talked to you about this.

But he beat me up.

I was deathly scared of Andrew.

One time, early in the morning,

like 4:
00, 5:00 in the morning, uh...

the phone rings. It's Nina,

and she needed to hide out.

I had gone

to a discotheque with Andrew...

and a fan came up to me

and gave me a note,

and he saw me take this note

and put it in my pocket.

She thought nothing of it.

I mean, she related this to me.

And Andy came back

and grabbed her arm

and took her out from the place

and beat her up.

And when I got out on the street,

he started raining blows on me.

Bloody blows.

He beat me all the way home,

up the stairs, in the elevator,

in my room, put a gun to my head.

Then he tied me up and raped me.

She came to my place and...

and she was beat up.

And I, you know, put her to bed, and...

and she, you know,

rested for a couple of days.

He didn't find me for two weeks.

My eyes, I couldn't see.

And he said,

"Who beat you up like that?"

And I said, "You did!"

He said, "No, I didn't.

I've been looking for you for two weeks."

I said, "You're insane!"

He was brutal...

but I... I loved him

and I guess I just believed

he wouldn't do it anymore.

My mother always said,

till the day she died,

Dad was the best manager

that she ever had.

But on top of being charismatic,

he could be a bully

and he could be very mean,

and she was on

the receiving end of that...

more times than, you know,

she should have been,

which should have been never.

Mom would allude to, you know,

"He's rammed my head

into a concrete wall."

She said that

he punched her in the stomach

when she was pregnant with me.

As a child, I remember

sitting in the car between them

and they were arguing about something,

and I remember my father

reaching across me,

so it was like this,

and backhanding her.

We're going home in the car,

I'm driving, and I slapped her.

Blood spurted...

right over this eyebrow.

She had, like, a one-inch cut

from my ring, you know.

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