Part 3: Speech (Arrested Development) on Why He Turned Down $1M Coke Commercial
Part 3: Speech (Arrested Development) on Why He Turned Down $1M Coke Commercial
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In this clip, Arrested Development co-founder Speech opened up about the group being signed to Chrysalis and planning to drop "Mr. Wendel" and "Natural" as their first two singles. However, after the loss of Speech's brother and grandmother, he wrote the song "Tennessee," which he reveals is the last place he was with both of them. He then explained that it's the most profound song he's ever written, adding that it's like a prayer, much like their song "Take Me to Another Place." Speech also explained that he was worried that "Tennessee" wouldn't take off, but MTV helped speed things up after playing their music video.
After "Tennessee" became a breakout hit, Speech called the feeling surreal since he was coming out of Milwaukee and Atlanta, which were cities that hadn't had a buzzing music scene. After sampling one word from Prince's "Alphabet St.," Speech revealed that Prince charged him $100k right after the song peaked. While he originally was upset at the fee, he realized later on that Prince did him a favor by not seeking ownership of the song or having it pulled off of shelves. He referred to Prince as his favorite artist and described meeting him at Paisley Park.
