E-mail a friendBeBe and CeCe Winans
airdate October 2, 2009
For BeBe and CeCe Winans, singing gospel is the family business. BeBe began his career singing background for his brothers. CeCe began hers recording with BeBe. Together, and as solo artists, they've received numerous awards and widespread industry recognition. BeBe has also produced songs and acted in film and theater. CeCe has added author, philanthropist and businesswoman to her résumé. The duo's single, "Close to You," from their new CD, "Still"—their first together in 15 years—topped the Billboard Hot Gospel Charts.
Gospel-singing siblings perform Grace from their new CD, Still. (4:17)
Full Interview (19:46)
BeBe and CeCe Winans
Tavis: Don't start, BeBe. Don't start, man.
BeBe Winans: All right, all right. It's your show.
Tavis: In Jesus' name.
CeCe Winans: (Laughter) You all behave.
Tavis: (Laughter) I've been knowing them way too long. For those of us who love gospel music, it's hard to believe that it's been 15 years since two of the biggest names in the gospel game have worked on a project together. Even harder, when you consider that they happen to be siblings.
BeBe and CeCe are out now with their first new CD in 15 years. The disc is called "Still," In just a moment, they'll perform a track from the new disc, but first here now some of the video for the song that I and you, we all love so much, "Close To You."
[Clip]
Tavis: See, I'm laughing, BeBe, thinking that this thing ain't dropped yet because I've been hearing that song for the last six months (laughter). It seems like every time -
CeCe: - well, you can get the single.
Tavis: Like every time I turn the radio on, I hear this song. We all love it; we know the lyrics to it now. This thing still ain't dropped yet.
BeBe: Hey, hey. Worth the wait.
Tavis: Golly. So for those who keep asking where is the CD -
CeCe: - we had to finish the rest of it (laughter).
Tavis: (Laughter) I knew something was up. They dropped that single, making us think the record was done and they were still in the studio trying to work it out. So October 6, they can actually get this?
BeBe: Yes, sir.
CeCe: Yes, yes. Actually, they can get it today. They can log onto iTunes and they can pre-order it. They can get it right now.
Tavis: Congratulations, first of all.
BeBe: Thank you.
CeCe: Thank you.
Tavis: I hope that you have figured out how much we missed you by the response you're already getting to the single.
CeCe: The love has been overwhelming, yes, yes. People have been asking - you know, we couldn't go nowhere without somebody asking. I think the last time I talked to you, "Okay, CeCe, when is it coming out?"
Tavis: I asked you that all the time.
CeCe: "When is it coming out?" I'm like, "We're coming; we're coming." Finally, it's done, so we're happy. We're happy with the project and we're just glad that the people still wanted to see us.
Tavis: You're part of a family of ten, the two of you. I'm from a family of ten. I got a brother I ain't talked to maybe in a couple years because of a fight we had.
BeBe: Uh-huh.
Tavis: But 15 years? That must have been a heck of a fight.
BeBe: That was a fight.
Tavis: What went down?
Bebe: Why don't you ask who won (laughter)? I'm just playing.
Tavis: I know who didn't. The people didn't win. It took you 15 years to get to this.
CeCe: Wait, wait, wait. Before you get to us, you better call your brother up, whoever it is -
Tavis: - (laughter). Now you sound like my mom.
BeBe: Exactly.
CeCe: Exactly.
Tavis: Yeah. The momma that you are.
CeCe: That's right, that's right.
Tavis: I'm just teasing. But what happened 15 years ago?
BeBe: 15 years ago, I said I had enough, you know. She looks so nice on our side, but you all don't know what I been going through (laughter).
CeCe: BeBe, don't start that. They already think - so many rumors. The rumors we've been fighting, the rumors we've been divorced. People don't even know we're still brother and sister. I'm like "We're not married; how can we be divorced?" But we never meant for this time to go by.
Tavis: Right.
CeCe: All I can say is that we started out doing solo projects, which we had signed to do early on when we did the duets contract. So we went to fulfill those obligations and time kept going. That's all I can say.
BeBe: Amazing. I mean, we would say, "Okay, we're gonna do this. We're gonna get started." Started collecting songs, you know, because that really takes the most time, but at the end of, you know, finishing and producing all that, we're like 15 years? It was seven years.
CeCe: Where does that go (laughter)? No, we were not seven.
BeBe: Almost. 17.
Tavis: We're all getting older and I guess that beats the alternative, you know. Better to be getting older than - my mother says all the time, "The only way that you live to get old is that you die young," so I appreciate being alive.
But to your point now, seriously, does it give you a new perspective, BeBe, on time? We all talk about time. "No time like the present," "You can't make up for lost time." We all have these witticisms about the notion of time. When you look up and realize that 15 years have passed, what's it say to you about this thing we call time?
BeBe: Well, that it does not wait on anyone, and I think that's the truth. But 15 years have gone by without me and CeCe singing on a CD, but we see each other all the time, you know. We're brother and sister and she lives five or six minutes away from me and we, you know, go to dinner and church and all these other things. So we fellowship, we see each other maybe too much, you know.
CeCe: I don't think so.
BeBe: Maybe not too much. Maybe too much. That's a whole other program. But the fact is, you know, when we went back in the studio and we had the songs, it went like that. You know, it was just like we never stopped singing together. But for 15 years, what happened?
Tavis: You know, I was looking for - not looking for, listening for CeCe more than anything else. For those who are true fans of yours, as I am, I wanted to know how the signature sound that I've come to expect from BeBe and CeCe, how that sound changed. I don't want to give you my assessment until after I hear yours. What's your sense of how the sound that we were used to 15 years ago has changed or not?
CeCe: That's so unfair because I want your opinion first (laughter), but it's your show.
Tavis: (Laughter) I want to hear yours first. I'll give you mine, oh, yeah.
CeCe: You know what? I don't think it has. You know, when you think about 15 years, to us, it was like, "My God, it's been that long?" The thing that you get nervous about, it's like, okay, wait a minute. It's another whole generation out here who's never heard of BeBe and CeCe.
But then we have fans who've been waiting on BeBe and CeCe, so we just went in and, Tavis, we were just ourselves. To me, it sounds just like BeBe and CeCe, but it's current. You know, when I listen to our old stuff, when you pull it out, it's still current. So to me, it wasn't a big change. It wasn't a big change.
BeBe: Which has a lot to do with songs. I think we really do put a lot of emphasis on songs. Make sure there's a message there; make sure that there is a production that can live through the test of time. So we gathered some of the people we worked with in the past and other people we just met and really just had a great time.
Tavis: My assessment is the same as yours. When I heard it, it sounded just like BeBe and CeCe and I was so glad because I love the stuff that you do and I was hoping - because people come back 15 years later and they struggle trying to find a way to reconnect, trying to be something they ain't, trying to be teeny boppers, you know. They go all out the way and all we really want is what you gave us the first time. So I'm glad that you all didn't try something crazy and whacked.
The question, though, is how do you know after 15 years - I can give you a whole bunch of examples of people who've tried this, come back 15 or 20 years later and it didn't work. How do you know 15 years later that your sound is going to work? In hip-hop, you couldn't do this. You couldn't come back 15 years later in hip-hop, to your point, stuff changes so fast. How do you know it's gonna work 15 years later?
BeBe: Okay, honest?
Tavis: Yeah.
BeBe: You want honesty, right?
Tavis: Well, lie to me, lie to me (laughter).
BeBe: Well, I always bounced every song off of Dolores Amelia Winans, my mother. If my momma liked it, I was sitting good, I was sitting good. And if it said something to me. If it doesn't say anything to me, then I don't think it could say anything to anyone else, and I think that's important. I sing what I believe.
So the first single - I wrote that 12 years ago and I put it aside saying, "When BeBe go in the studio and CeCe go in the studio, this is the first song."
Tavis: You wrote "Closer to You" 12 years ago? It's been sitting for 12 years?
BeBe: For 12 years.
Tavis: Wow (laughter).
BeBe: And I said this would be first single and this will do just what "Heaven" and "Lost without You"did.
Tavis: So just between the two of us, how stupid do you feel? When something's been sitting for 12 years, that's 12 years of money that you didn't have.
CeCe: (Laughter)
BeBe: Well, I got people like you I can call and borrow some if I need the money (laughter).
Tavis: He's your brother and you know his talent and he knows yours, obviously. But is that amazing to you to hear that he wrote this 12 years ago and it's just been sitting waiting on you all to get to it?
CeCe: It's amazing, but, no. Because it's been things that I've heard, even some things that he recorded by himself that he should have waited on me and him, but he didn't. He went ahead and did it like "In the Mist of the Rain." Oh, that's my song.
Tavis: He should have waited on you for that, huh?
CeCe: He should have waited on me for that one, but I'll give him another chance. We might do it over again. But it is amazing that, you know, I don't know. I just think it's so important that you just be true to who you are and, even though we were out 15 years ago, we're still musicians. If anything, we've grown. Hopefully, we've gotten better over the years. So you just go with what you feel, what's in your heart, what's in your soul.
Like BeBe says, we share our experiences through our music and, if it comes from the heart, it's gonna connect to the heart, you know. It's so important - and I tell young people this when they start out and when they ask for advice - be who you are. Don't try to fit into this one or fit into that or fit into this time and that time because then I think that's when you lose it, you know.
Tavis: You all have done, obviously, you said earlier, solo projects in the 15 years that you haven't been together doing this kind of stuff.
BeBe: I did movies too.
CeCe: Oh, yeah. He's a movie star.
BeBe: I did one.
Tavis: Thank you. Thank you very much. Talk about a shameless plug, one that I was involved in (laughter). We'll come back to that later.
BeBe: Okay, okay.
Tavis: But you got 15 years here. You've both done solo projects, still gospel even on those solo projects. Talk to me - you first, BeBe - about your faith journey during that 15 years. I mean, when you came back 15 years later, you didn't have to get back together, number one, and you didn't have to get back together on a gospel project. I know your rules, but talk to me about what your faith journey has been during that 15-year period.
BeBe: Well, some of the songs really say a lot - talks about that journey. Within those 15 years, we lost our brother, Ronald. We lost my father and one of the songs entitled "Never Thought," which speaks about being happy, getting in that place even in the midst of a storm, even through trials and through down times, that God can give you joy in the midst of it. So I've grown through the experiences of losing my father and losing my brother, and it's your faith that upholds you in those moments and in those times.
So when it relates to music, I can't help but sing songs that's going to do for me for other people. That's important to me. When I open up my mouth, this song is going to find someone that's going maybe through the same thing or even worse than I've gone through and it's going to bring them through, it's gonna help them through. So that's why I choose to sing what I sing.
Tavis: And your journey -
CeCe: - God is just faithful, you know, through the journey and my faith has gotten stronger. When you're young - and we're still young. We're relatively young. We're not kids.
BeBe: Older young.
CeCe: We're older young (laughter). We'll talk about that later.
Tavis: Can I use that in Scrabble? Older young?
CeCe: No. They're gonna pull it right off the board (laughter). But God has proven Himself through every stage of my life, you know. My kids are grown, you know, adults now. We've been married 25 years, you know. You just go through regular life stuff and God -
Tavis: - you been married 25 years?
CeCe: Yeah.
Tavis: You got married, what, at 12 or 13? 25 years?
BeBe: Come on, I thought you were gonna be honest.
CeCe: No, no (laughter).
BeBe: Let's be honest on this show.
Tavis: 25 years?
CeCe: Yes. So God has just been faithful, you know, through that journey, through the ups, through the downs. It's a great thing to put it through your music, whether it's gospel or whether it's just positive music, you know. Music is very powerful and we should use it to uplift people opposed to tearing them down. So God has just been faithful through the years.
Tavis: When you first came on the scene, and I can remember now the friend who turned me on to the two of you.
CeCe: Okay.
Tavis: As a matter of fact, when you all do the concert thing, I'm gonna have to call here even though she's married with kids now and ask her husband if I can take her - we're friends. She called me and she said, "You have got to hear this group, BeBe and CeCe." I knew the brothers, of course, got the CD, fell in love with you all immediately and came to see you all when you all did your first rocking at the Wiltern.
CeCe: Right.
Tavis: Remember this from years ago?
CeCe: Yes, yes.
Tavis: I was there for the first night you guys were there. When you came out, this BeBe and CeCe thing was cute because you were younger then. BeBe and CeCe.
BeBe: BeBe and CeCe.
Tavis: I have a friend who's watching right now, I'm sure, back in Indiana where I grew up and his wife will lose what Holy Ghost she does have if I call him Junebug - oops. We've been friends since we were kids, but she won't let his friends who've known him longer than she's known him call him Junebug. Are you forever BeBe and CeCe?
BeBe: Yes.
Tavis: Will you never be Benjamin and Priscilla?
CeCe: No, never again. We never meant for BeBe and CeCe to get out. It got out. It's always been our nicknames.
BeBe: We're used to it. Yeah, we're used to it. We went to our senior reunion -
CeCe: - and other people have worse nicknames, you know, in our family. I made a mistake and let my brother's nickname out over -
BeBe: - Marvin.
CeCe: - the other week and I'm in trouble for it (laughter).
Tavis: Did Marvin lose his Holy Ghost (laughter)? Pastor Winans.
CeCe: He called me and said, "What?" I said, "I'm so sorry."
BeBe: First of all, I was dogging him saying, "I mean, come on. You're not gonna be nominated for an Oscar at all for this movie." We stretched a little bit, you preach and -
Tavis: - teach us how to pray project.
BeBe: Yeah.
Tavis: So all of you all are getting in the movie business.
CeCe: He did a great job, but BeBe said he did awful.
BeBe: He was horrible.
Tavis: Hate, hate, hate.
BeBe: Hater.
Tavis: Hater, hater, hater.
CeCe: (Laughter) Well, yeah, we're stuck with it.
BeBe: And don't mind it.
CeCe: It's okay.
Tavis: What's this Oprah thing that I heard about?
BeBe: Hey, you know what I'm saying? Things are happening. It's music; it's karaoke. I may even invite you on the show.
CeCe: You like karaoke?
BeBe: You like karaoke?
Tavis: I like karaoke.
BeBe: You like karaoke, see? And we found it out -
Tavis: - it can be intimidating.
BeBe: You know what? Most of the time -
CeCe: - people are very bold.
BeBe: People are very bold and we found that out, so we're doing it on the show and it's been very interesting.
CeCe: What's it called? Karaoke -
BeBe: - Real karaoke. It's not just karaoke.
CeCe: Karaoke with BeBe Winans.
BeBe: Real Karaoke with BeBe Winans.
Tavis: So give me the concept.
BeBe: The concept is simply we're going around the country. She's sending me around the country and I'm finding the best karaoke - karaokers.
CeCe: But they have karaoke championships. This is serious.
BeBe: And there's gonna be a championship on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
CeCe: But they have them all over the world.
BeBe: But they have them all over the world. I went to one place and 100,000 and some people. It's amazing, the foundation that karaoke has and the following.
Tavis: As an artist who is obviously accomplished and a multiple Grammy winner, how do you keep a straight face when you hear somebody -
CeCe: - he doesn't. He's very mean.
Tavis: - who thinks they're getting down?
BeBe: I don't.
Tavis: (Laughter)
CeCe: He's very mean.
BeBe: I enjoy. I laugh.
Tavis: Worse than Simon, huh?
BeBe: (Laughter) A little bit, a little bit, but honest with people. But is has been absolutely incredible, the love that people have. They're doctors by day and they're karaoke singers by night. It's unbelievable.
Tavis: Some folks take it way too seriously, don't they?
BeBe: Way too seriously. It's good.
Tavis: All right. We'll look forward to seeing that.
BeBe: Thank you, Tavis.
Tavis: Back to this CD. We've talked about your lives. Let me talk about the project itself. Tell me what's on here. I mean, what you decided that you wanted to put on here 15 years ago in terms of the music.
CeCe: Wow. BeBe did the majority of the writing, which he has always done the majority of writing for BeBe and CeCe. I think we really have some really good stuff on here. "Grace" is one of my favorites.
Tavis: Mine too.
CeCe: It's a song that just, you know, everybody can relate with. Without grace, we wouldn't be here. Thank God for His favor.
Tavis: In my case, I need grace and mercy, but that's another issue (laughter).
BeBe: All the day.
Tavis: All day long, yeah.
CeCe: Let me see. My son wrote a song on here called "Change My World."
Tavis: For the kids, this continues to happen. Mario, your nephew, your kids.
BeBe: Speaking of nicknames, I call him Pookie and he keeps on saying, "Uncle BeBe, it's Alvin."
CeCe: Yeah, he's 24 now.
BeBe: Yeah, he gets upset. He gets so upset.
Tavis: Alvin is into songwriting.
CeCe: Yeah, great songwriter.
BeBe: Incredible songwriter.
CeCe: Merv Warren produced that particular song. Mary Mary's on here with us. They did a little singing on "Let It Be." Boy, they can sing. And then Pastor Marvin, his own things. He came in and just took over the song things. But we got some great, great stuff on there.
BeBe: I think some stuff that people will relate to, which is so important. I mean, there's nothing wrong with things, you know, cars and all those things. But if you're living for it and you're caught up in those things, you know, that's when life takes another turn.
Tavis: What's the process for you of being able to write a song that speaks to those who are believers and speaks to those who aren't believers? You have a real gift for that. Some people have criticized you for that, saying that it's not specific enough. How do you do that?
BeBe: I think it had everything to do with my personal relationships. I approach a song like I approach a personal relationship. I can be friends with someone who doesn't live a great life and then someone who lives a great life, someone who's a president and someone who's a gang member.
I approach people the same way as people, you know. Because of that, my songs have that same transparency that people feel when I meet them. I don't judge and I simply love people. I love people and I think that comes through my songs and relationships with people.
Tavis: CeCe, we'll give you the last word. I don't care what BeBe says.
CeCe: (Laughter) Give me the last word.
BeBe: See, our relationship -
Tavis: - stop. Just won't behave, will he?
CeCe: Never.
Tavis: On TV and he still can't behave himself.
CeCe: Never, ever.
Tavis: We're gonna give CeCe the last word here.
CeCe: Okay.
Tavis: So how does it feel 15 years later and is it gonna be another 15 years?
CeCe: It will not be another 15 years before you get another one.
Tavis: Is that on tape?
CeCe: That's for sure.
Tavis: You all got that on tape? All right.
CeCe: If one is coming, it will not happen 15 years from now.
BeBe: Because you know how old I am?
CeCe: BeBe's already threatening to do a matinee tour. He said to come have lunch with BeBe and see him. He goes to bed at 8:00 now.
BeBe: I can't get up.
CeCe: But, no, it won't be. It's great to be back after 15 years. We're excited to see the people; we're excited to go out and do the tour and have a lot of fun. Again, we just want to say thank you to everybody. Thank you for what you've done to support us and how you've waited patiently for this.
Tavis: I don't know how patiently I waited (laughter), but I waited and I will see you on the road in a number of stops. I'll be the guy in the third row heckling BeBe. That'd be me.
CeCe: Okay. That'll work, please, so come do that.
Tavis: We've waited a long time for this and this is long enough. So now what you've been really wanting to see, a performance from BeBe and CeCe, 15 years later. The new CD is called "Still." I'm glad you're still here. BeBe, I love you. CeCe, I love you as well.
CeCe: We love you too.
BeBe: Thank you, sir.
Tavis: Here we go. Stay tuned.
From their critically-acclaimed new CD, "Still," here are BeBe and CeCe Winans performing "Grace." Enjoy, goodnight from Los Angeles and keep the faith.
[Performance]
Back to October 2, 2009