When the original lineup of the legendary R&B band Tony! Toni! Toné! reunited for a tour last year, co-founder and key creative force Raphael Saadiq had high hopes of recording what would have been the band’s first new album since 1996. But now that the tour is over, Saadiq says the new album has been canceled. “We just got overzealous a little bit,” Saadiq says in the new episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast. “The tour was amazing. We had a beautiful time … We’re just at that point where we all don’t feel the same when it comes to working on an album. I’m probably the only one who really wanted to work on records.”
As for the prospect of another reunion in the future: “I don’t think so,” says Saadiq. “I think that was it.” Elsewhere in the episode, Saadiq discusses his work on Beyoncé‘s Renaissance and Cowboy Carter, his collaborations with D’Angelo, and much more. To hear the whole episode, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play above. Here are some highlights from the conversation.
The Cowboy Carter single “Texas Hold ‘Em” actually dates back to the Renaissance sessions. “When any artist is working on a record,” says Saadiq, “you’d have an idea about what you want to work on, but sometimes you don’t know what sort of album you’re going to go with.”
Another Cowboy Carter standout, “Bodyguard,” started as a potential Saadiq solo track.
“That little bass line, it feels like Fleetwood Mac,” says Saadiq. “Because I love those eras of music.” Beyoncé first heard the track when Saadiq was playing her some songs from his Dropbox. “‘Bodyguard’ came up for a second — like the intro — and I went to the next one, and she was like ‘Go back, go back!’ And then what she added vocally was bars up from what I did. She sounded like Reba McEntire, felt like Aretha. She took what I did and completed it.”
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Since the pandemic, Saadiq — already a gifted bassist, guitarist, and drummer — has been taking piano lessons.
“Just really being a student and studying music,” he says. “Trying to sight read, learning theory, just basic stuff. Then when I do start writing, I have an arsenal.”
Saadiq wants to create a huge, Earth, Wind, and Fire-type band as one of his next projects.
“I still want to create an 11-piece band,” he says. “I know economically it’s not even doable, but I think I could make it work.” He’s mostly not sure exactly who would be in the band, but says fellow D’Angelo collaborator Isaiah Sharkey is a lock on guitar.
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Prince loved Saadiq’s classic 2011 solo album Stone Rollin’ — particularly the title track — and Saadiq is still fond of that one himself.
As Saadiq played that song at a festival, he heard the crowd go crazy. “So I’m like, I must be really killing it,” he recalls. “But then I look behind me, like maybe it’s 10 seconds later and seeing Prince behind me dancing. … [Stone Rollin’ ] was me playing dress up and doing different things. I love it. I sort of missed the era that I should have been in … I feel like I should have been born in the Thirties or something, been rocking with the cats in the Sixties. But since it didn’t happen like that, I still have to live those dreams out and have to play dress up.”
Solange Knowles’ “Crane in the Sky” was almost never recorded — because Saadiq lost the session files.
In the end, Knowles had to record her vocals over an already-mixed version of the song’s instrumental, pulled off a CD Saadiq happened to have given to a friend.
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