{"id":2444920,"date":"2019-06-03T13:55:17","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T19:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=843800"},"modified":"2019-06-03T13:55:17","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T19:55:17","slug":"the-first-time-rb-singer-mario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/the-first-time-rb-singer-mario\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Time: R&B Singer Mario"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The first album R&B star Mario<\/a> ever bought was Destiny\u2019s Child\u2019s The Writing\u2019s on the Wall<\/em>, but prior to purchasing the group\u2019s 1999 smash, he would regularly raid his mother\u2019s CD collection, put the discs into a karaoke machine and practice his singing. In the latest installment of Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2019s \u201cThe First Time,\u201d Mario remembers regularly taking his mom\u2019s Stevie Wonder CDs without her permission, though one day he made the fatal mistake of taking the CD, keeping it in his pocket all day and thinking he was home and dry when he slipped the disc back into its case later that night.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom comes home, \u2018Mario! Bring your ass in the kitchen right now,\u2019\u201d Mario recalls. \u201cI had scratched her whole CD! Back in the day, CDs, you scratch them and they\u2019re skipping everything. So that was my first time getting my butt whooped because of Stevie Wonder. Thank you, Stevie, love you still though. You still the GOAT.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mario also remembers the first time he actually met Wonder, which was at Clive Davis\u2019 annual pre-Grammys party. Mario was performing Wonder\u2019s song \u201cKnocks Me Off My Feet\u201d that night, and unbeknownst to him, Davis had plotted to get Wonder on stage to help him perform the second half of the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a regular piano player playing, and I turn around and it\u2019s Stevie Wonder,\u201d Mario says. \u201cI literally stop singing, I drop the mic. I just went over to the piano and stared at him like a crazy person. It was amazing, that was my first time meeting Stevie, it gives me chills just thinking about that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the episode, Mario talks about performing live at neighborhood block parties and school talent shows, meeting personal heroes like Ray Lewis and Usher, and launching his Do Right Foundation. He also talks about his first tattoo \u2014 a piece on his back that reads \u201cSoul Truth\u201d \u2014 and the frequent misreadings it prompts, but also its humble origins.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time a girl sees it she\u2019s like, \u2018Does that say Soul Fruit?\u2019\u201d Mario cracks, before admitting. \u201cThe \u2018T\u2019 does look like an \u2018F.’\u201d He adds that the phrase was inspired by his grandmother who passed away, saying, \u201cShe told me, \u2018Be true to yourself and you\u2019ll always find me in your heart and in your soul.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first album R&B star Mario ever bought was Destiny\u2019s Child\u2019s The Writing\u2019s on the Wall, but prior to purchasing the group\u2019s 1999 smash, he would regularly raid his mother\u2019s CD collection, put the discs into a karaoke machine and practice his singing. In the latest installment of Rolling Stone\u2019s \u201cThe First Time,\u201d Mario remembers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2444920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 05:58:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2444920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2444920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2444920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2444920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}