Born in Canton, Ohio in 1967, Macy Gray’s 1999 debut “On How Life Is”, became her best-selling album to date. Featuring the Grammy-winning, global chart-topping single “I Try”, it catapulted her to worldwide success. She has since released ten albums, sold more than 25 million records and has also appeared in several Hollywood blockbusters including Spider-Man and Training Day. Divorced and currently single, she has three adult children from her marriage to Tracey Hinds and lives in Los Angeles.
Here she looks back on the moments that changed her perspective on work, love, family, money and health.
Love is different now because I see bullshit a mile away. I’m not in love at the moment but I like being in love and I’m still very excited about it. When you’re younger, you meet somebody, and you don’t know what you know. My radar for bad behaviour works better now and that kind of sucks.
I can’t really go on dating apps. Three of my friends got married off of a dating app, so I’m like, “maybe I should go on a date now,” but that would be so awkward for everybody. People talk about Raya but that’s all bulls***. We’ll see what happens.
My parents were very critical of me, and so I’ve always been critical of myself. When I do well, I don’t always know it. My parents weren’t big on compliments – or making me feel confident. They didn’t tell me, “Oh, my God, that was great” and give me a hug. They just weren’t like that and I’ve gotten over blaming them for that. They’re just people, but it has definitely affected the moves that I make in my life.
My grandson is one of the best things has ever happened to me. He’s eight months old and my hero. I look at him and he’s not hung up on anything. He’s not mad at anybody. He doesn’t have anywhere to be. He doesn’t have any bills. He doesn’t have to clean up anything. He doesn’t have to apologise. I admire him more than anybody in the whole world and I dread the day that any of that is taken away from him.
I’m the only person in the world who had a bad reaction to Ozempic. I’m so pissed off. All my friends are 30 pounds smaller, and I just got sick. But I’m doing well health-wise. I’m 57 and I haven’t really started to feel anything going bad.
My attention span is declining. I’m having a really hard time. I’ll get up to go the kitchen to get milk, get distracted by something stupid, and then two hours will go by, and I never made it to the kitchen. I’m trying to figure out what to do about that. That’s probably my biggest thing that I’m dealing with. Focus.
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Having money changed my life more than anything. It gives you different kind of access to things you can buy, things you can do, and that pretty much dictates how your day goes. What you’re able to do. Then not having it, and then getting some of it back, and then losing it. There are ups and downs. I challenge anybody to try to make a living off of singing.
At one point, I had five very expensive cars at the same time, and I didn’t even drive them. I just ended up wrecking them. I got a bit carried away with bespoke shoes. I used to get everything custom made and that got really expensive. Suddenly I couldn’t go to the store and buy normal shoes. I had to go to a cobbler. And that’s $3,000 a pop. I had a lot of jewellery. I did a lot of stupid s*** to my house too. I spent half a million dollars on landscaping. Trees and plants, basically. Was it worth it? No. They died.
I’ve never been good with money – and I’m not really any better with it now. I’m not good at saving or planning with it. It’s something you have to learn to be good at because, honestly, anybody can make money. You can win the lottery. You can be smart and make decisions. You can save. You can rob somebody. There are all kind of ways to get money, but keeping it is a whole other planet. You have to know what you’re doing, or it will go away.
I’m still very proud of “I Try”, and I’ll never forget it, because I sing it all the time. It’s a great song and I think it deserves everything that has happened to it, but I do just wish – because I feel like I have so many great songs – I just wish I wasn’t known for one song. That still bothers me, but I’ll never not be proud of that song for what it has done for me and my family.
You don’t have to be a genius to write a song. I could write a song about a tree. I wrote a song about sailing. There are political songs, of course, there’s songs about money. You can look around for inspiration. I could write you a song right now about the clock on my wall. There’s always inspiration. As you get older, the things that you’re inspired by don’t connect with the majority of people who are consuming music, who tend to be between the ages of 14 and 25.
50,000 people screaming your name feels liberating. It feels good because then my mind and body is just free to just do whatever feels nice. If I f*** it up, it won’t be the first time.
I love everything about music; it’s like a marriage. You’re with someone. They’re not perfect, they don’t always treat you right, but you just love them. I love the ups and downs. I love making music. As much as industry certainly changed, and not for the better, I still just love it. It’s my last thought before I got to bed and my first one when I wake up.
Macy Gray performs at this year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival on 5 May 5 and at Ronnie Scott’s from 6-8 May
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