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[0:00] Robert Bannon: Everybody, this is Robert Bannon, and before I hit the theme song and introduce the show, I want to tell you about some exciting Roundtable news. The Roundtable has a brand new website. You can go to robertbannon.com, find out all about me, find out all about the show. Brand new and now up and running with brand new Roundtable merchandise. Go to robertbannon.com, follow me on Instagram, and make sure you're subscribing to us wherever you listen to podcasts or on YouTube. Now let's do a show. Are you ready? It's the Roundtable with me, Robert Bannon.

[0:33] Robert Bannon: Well everybody, I am a Jersey boy, okay? So if you're a Jersey boy, I was born in 1983. I have been to the club. I remember when KTU started. I remember the first day it was on the radio. I have beat stocked my life. I have listened to our next guest, all of my friends who were little club rats. I've told them that Miss Torres was coming on the show. They gave me at least eight or nine songs that they've danced and lived their best lives to. She has been on the radio for decades. She has been on the charts for decades. And now she's telling her story in the most personal, beautiful book that you need to check out. You need to buy. Even if you've never heard one second of any of her music, this is a book for everybody that they can start over, be stronger than they were, and live the life they've always wanted to live. It's such an honor. Welcome to the show, Judy Torres.

[1:23] Judy Torres: Man, thank you, Robert. That was beautiful. Thank you so much. I'm trying to take your job. I'm ready for Sundays, me and you. Let's go.

[1:30] Robert Bannon: Let's go. Let's go. When you look back now at your first album, it's almost, I don't know, it's going to be almost 40 years old, 37, 30 something. How does it feel to be in this game for, and singing and still selling?

[1:48] Judy Torres: In 39 years, I've been performing, 39 years, yeah, it feels, I mean, there's so many words I could use to describe it, but I think it feels humbling. You know, you think in your mind, I know before I would perform, I always pray. And I used to be like, God, if you could just give me five more years, please. And here we are year 39. So it's just, it's kind of mind-blowing. It feels great. I love the fact that now some of the people in the audience are our fans' kids and our fans' grandkids. So that's something new. No, it's very humbling. It's wonderful to know that the music has lasted this long and it continues to entertain people. So that's what is important. That's what music is here for, to make people feel really good, bring people joy.

[2:43] Robert Bannon: And as soon as you hear a song, you're instantly transported to that memory, right?

[2:47] Judy Torres: Yes.

[2:48] Robert Bannon: And freestyle and the music you sell out shows all around the world, you're probably on the road a lot. I mean, there's not a dance night or, I'm old, there's no roller skating rink that was not-

[3:00] Judy Torres: You're not old.

[3:01] Robert Bannon: Did you say you were born in 83?

[3:02] Judy Torres: Well, you know, I'm-

[3:03] Robert Bannon: And you're not old. I graduated high school in 85.

[3:06] Judy Torres: Well, you look 20 years younger than me. So I hate it. It's not fair.

[3:10] Robert Bannon: That's how old I am. That is, songs like No Reason to Cry, Come Into My Arms, which you can hear, I mean, it will live at the clubs and at parties and weddings everywhere. What's it like when you walk around and you hear your music or you go to a party or a club and they play your music or a sold out crowd that sings your music back to you? It has to be incredible.

[3:32] Judy Torres: When the crowd sings a song back to you is the biggest compliment. And when they sing it so loud that you can't hear yourself, you have no choice but to stop and just let them go with it. It's an incredible feeling. I think it's the biggest compliment to an artist when someone, you know, sings your stuff and it's just, you think, okay, yeah, this is good.

[3:55] Robert Bannon: And with your voice, your voice, the reinvention of your sound in the music, if it's Faithfully, which if you haven't heard that, I mean, the vocals are gorgeous. If you have not heard the litany of music, you have to deep dive, go stream Judy Torres and her music. It goes really well with the book because you could hear the music that you talk about in the book and kind of have a little reading party and then a little dance party. It's perfect. It's the perfect weekend.

[4:20] Robert Bannon: So for you, why this is, people write books, celebrities write books and they tell their little stories and they kiki it up. You didn't tell just a little story. You told the story. Why? How did you get the courage? What made you say this was the time?

[4:38] Judy Torres: I guess I feel that there's two things. The first thing, I'm in the second act of my life, right? You go to a Broadway show and you go see the first act. The first act is usually long and then there's an intermission. And then the second act comes and the second act is like done like this. So 58 years of experience, I figure, okay, the time is now, you know, I have a best friend, his name is David and he had said to me, you keep talking about writing this book for years. You've been talking about it. When are you going to do it? And he said, the time is now. And there was something about the way he said it that I had this fear like, oh my God, what if I die and I never wrote the book? I don't want to be on my deathbed going, oh, I wish I had done that, you know?

And then the second thing is when I think about the things that have happened to me, I used to cry about them. I used to get very upset or angry and feel that resentment boiling up. And now it's just like, it almost feels like it happened to a different person. So I know that in many ways I've healed from everything. And I think that it was a good place to write from. You know, if you write from a place of hurt, you just sound angry, you're complaining, you're still a victim. But if you write from a place of healing, you show people the way. And I just want people to know that they have a way that they can hang in there and not give up and that hope still lives. And that's all you have to do. All you have to do is decide to hang on and it will get better. That's the reason, no reason to cry.

[6:11] Judy Torres: No reason to cry. It's out right this very second, everyone. You have that music fan, you have that fan who loves to read, this is the perfect holiday book, this is the book club book. Your book talks about, you know, you're from the Bronx and, you know, they say, you know, Charlemagne on the radio says the craziest people in the world are from the Bronx and Florida. He might be right. It's possible. But the people from the Bronx are, they may be crazy. But the biggest thing that stands out to me about them is how hard they love. They do everything at 100%. They fight hard, they love hard, they feed you hard. They just, everything's like 100% they're all in. I love it. I've heard about tri-state people that they're gritty and, but they have family and community and we don't mess with my people because we'll come for you. So growing up, you're one of five?

[7:02] Judy Torres: One of five. I'm the oldest of five.

[7:04] Robert Bannon: Yeah. So there was a lot of pressure and responsibility. You had a busy house.

[7:07] Judy Torres: It was a busy house. It was, my mom is amazing mom. And especially when we were kids, she made things fun. She was always playing music around the house, all kinds of music. So we heard everything from Beatles, to rock, to opera, to Broadway musicals. She was always finding ways to be funny. She was reading books backwards to us, it drove me crazy. And she was just a lot of fun. And at the same time, there was a lot of bad things going on in the house. It was dysfunction. My father was abusive to my mom. She finally left him when I was seven. And then about a year and a half later, a year later, she met another gentleman who became my stepfather, and he was abusive to her. So being the oldest, I felt a huge responsibility, not to just my siblings, but to my mom.

I felt like I did notice, for example, that if I stayed awake, and I hung around her, it delayed the abuse. So I try to stick around at two o'clock in the morning falling asleep, but trying to stay up so that just nothing would happen to her. So it's things like that. And then when you're the oldest, I think you are the observer of the family. When you're the oldest, you're like, hmm. You see the dysfunction going on, and I just felt like, am I the only one who sees this? Because it was going on in a lot of families around me. I was like, why is this okay with everybody? So I'd like to think that, I hope that as the oldest, I'm here to disrupt the pattern. I'm here to say, this is not going to happen anymore.

This is not going to happen to me. This is not going to happen to my sisters or my brother anymore. And I think I looked out for them because of that. But yeah, it was rough. It was a rough time. It was a rough time. And music was the thing that saved me. And that's why music was so important to me.

[9:00] Robert Bannon: As the oldest, I mean, I don't have five, but I was the oldest too. I think we are. I think we become very hypervigilant. We're ready to protect ourselves and our family, and we're always on the lookout. And I related to that part of the book so much. When music came along at the right time and with the right voice and the right moment, when did you discover you could sing?

[9:18] Judy Torres: Well, I couldn't really sing. Now, this is the truth of a lot of people think I was just born like that. No, excuse me. I could carry a tune. I could be in choir with the other kids. And if you read the book, you discover that my mom, she played the Wizard of Oz every year. And I thought the Wizard of Oz was live. I didn't know it was recorded. So I was wondering why she was so perfect every year, you know? I was like, wow, how does she do that? And when I found out her name was Judy, I was like, oh my God, oh my God, mom, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to be a singer. Because her name is Judy. My name is Judy. I'm going to sing with Judy. And my mom had to let me know that she had died.

And that was devastating to me. And then that was it. After that, I was like, I was like, so certain, like, I want to be a singer. But every time I had an opportunity to sing in front of people, I would sound like a sheep, a wounded sheep, because I was so scared. My voice would tremble. And I didn't know, I couldn't afford voice lessons. So I couldn't learn how to practice. I didn't know how to do scales. I didn't know vibrato. I didn't know things like that. So I would listen to, I would rent records from the public library. And I would make believe I knew the musicals. And so I knew the stories behind them. I didn't know what the stories behind them. I made it up. So while all this stuff, this dysfunction was going on, I would hide in my bedroom.

And I would play these records. And I played Chorus Line, and West Side Story, and Evita. And I would get on my bed. I would make believe I was, you know, don't cry for me. I was like everything. And then finally, I was like, okay, I'm going to need voice lessons. I can't afford it. So what am I going to do? All right. I'm going to hire, I'm going to make believe, I'm going to hire Barbra Streisand to teach me how to sing high notes. And I'm going to hire Dennis DeYoung from the Rock Group Six, because I loved his vibrato. I was like, I want to learn from him. And so I would just play these people's music over and over. How my mother didn't kill me, I'll never know. And no, because I was obsessed.

I wouldn't just hear it once, no, this is all day long, same songs, over and over again, practicing and saying, how come I can't hold that note as long? I will listen to Donna Summer, MacArthur Park. Why can't I hit that note? And then when I hit the note, I can't hold it that long. So I was obsessed with it. And probably around 15, 16, 17-ish, that's when I started to say, okay, I got to take this stuff seriously. And all of a sudden, one day, I opened my mouth and the vibrato came out and I was like, I know how to do it. Oh my God. And then I overused it. And I walk around singing, sounding like Ethel Merman, because I was like, everything's coming. And it was like, but it was fun. And then I remember my music teacher, I had auditioned for a solo and I didn't get it.

I went up to him and I asked him, how come I didn't get it? So he had senior students audition us. So he said, you should go ask them. So I went over and asked them and she said, well, the vibrato is just too much, too much. So I started listening to people and I started noticing, oh, so vibrato is like a, it's like a little bit of sasson, it's like a little seasoning, a little overkill. Okay. Okay. Okay. So finally, by the time senior year came, I started to find my voice, which was interesting because right after that is when I met Mickey Garcia and I got No Reason to Cry. So I really didn't know what the hell I was doing. It was just passion. I just loved singing so much.

[13:05] Judy Torres: I was really obsessed with Stacy Lattisaw because she was 13 when she recorded "Love on a Two-Way Street." So I was telling my mother, I was crying, "Ma, you see I'm behind, look, she's 13, she already has an album." My mom was like, "Why are you in a rush? Nobody has." I was obsessed. I was so hungry. In a way, I'm so grateful to that little girl because she just wouldn't stop. She obsessed. If I met a little girl like that, I probably would tell her too, "You got to calm down. It's going to be okay. Just take your time. What are you in a rush for?" Well, it paid off because after that, right after that, I mean, you hit like superstardom and then you became a charting superstar touring. Is it scary?

Is it what you thought it was going to be? What's it like when it hits? It's good, bad, everything. I will say the best, one of the greatest memories that I have is hearing "No Reason to Cry" on the radio for the first time. It's everything that you see in movies when they show, for example, I don't know if you saw the movie "La Bamba." Yes. Okay. So when he first hears a song on the radio and you're jumping up and down, you're screaming, it was like that. And there were no cell phones back then. So I had to manually dial everybody, as many people as I could in three minutes to say, "It's on, it's on the radio, it's on the radio, hurry, turn on the radio." It was just such a great feeling. Going to shows, getting picked up in limousines and arriving at airports and people were at the airport with big signs with your names on it and people jumping up and down and chasing the limo as you're driving away.

That was actually, that was scary. But it was fun and it was like, "Wow, this is amazing." And finding out that, you know, I remember the, it doesn't sound like a big deal, but to me it was a big deal. The first time my manager said, "Hey, guess what? We got you a show." Where? Miami. No way. No way. Yep. Miami. And then you're going to do Fort Lauderdale and you're going to go to Chicago. Chicago. You know, and then it was just, it was like that. And then seeing your name on the billboard charts and it was just, it was great. It still is great, but definitely, definitely that was like so exciting, you know? And then there's a bad side to it. It's not as glamorous as you think. I remember I heard Tom Hanks on Oprah once and he had said, "There's nothing glamorous about trying to drink a glass of champagne in the limo because you're like..." You know, so there's other stuff that people don't know about.

Like sometimes there's no dressing room. Sometimes we're sitting in the kitchen and I got to walk through the kitchen in heels on a greasy floor before I go out on stage and pray I don't fall, you know? There's all sorts of things that are quote unquote not necessarily glamorous, but I think I didn't do it. I think at the beginning I did it thinking I want to win a Grammy one day. So I was really after that. And I think there was a part of me that did want to be famous. And now that I look at it, I'm so glad. Like I still don't think I'm famous. I think I'm like, I call myself pleasantly popular because famous is like dropping me off in a helicopter, like putting me in a parachute and I land in the middle of Africa somewhere and they go, "Oh, Judy Torres." Or I go to Oklahoma, "Oh my God, it's Judy Torres." That's famous. They don't know me over there. So to me, it's like pleasantly popular. I can live with that.

[16:40] Robert Bannon: Well, we are very grateful because your music is music that we listen to and love and have memories with. People grew up and listened to weddings and parties and celebrations and like it's music that has lived on. And what inspires me about your career in particular is that you have rolled with the punches. I know that business is hard. So it's up and down and around and you have become a chameleon. If you need to write a one-woman show and put that off-Broadway, you do it. If you need to go on the radio, you do it. If you need to write a book, you do it. If you want to be on a TV show and act, you do it. You adjust, you've changed, and your career has blossomed and grown since when it first started.

[17:19] Judy Torres: Thank you. I feel like, I feel, my mom used to say that I was always very curious. And so she compared me once, she said, "It's like you see a star, you go, 'Mom, look at that star. It's so beautiful. I wonder what it looks like.'" And she goes, "You reach for it and you grab the star and you're like, 'Oh, wait a minute. There's another star.'" And it's not that I don't appreciate the first star. I just feel like life is really short and I'm acutely aware now more than ever that it really is short. And I'm actually loving life now more than I ever did in my whole entire life. And I feel like I don't want to waste time on anything. So what else can I do? What else can I do? Let me see. Maybe I could, you know, the one-woman show, I was turning 50.

I just want to do something to celebrate that. Do something out of the box. Get scared. You know, and I was terrified when I was like, "What the hell am I doing?" It was supposed to be one weekend and it turned into four months sold out. You know, "Okay, what else can I do?" The acting thing I always wanted to do because when I was in high school, I was in all the musicals. I loved a lot of musical theater. So that's where I thought my direction was going to go. But God will tell God your plans and he will change them on you and he'll laugh, you know. So, but it's been pretty phenomenal.

[18:38] Robert Bannon: It is incredible. Get the book. The whole journey is in the book and you got to check it out. And for you and the people that you have grew up with, I say, or worked with or shared the charts with or do shows with that community, this the freestyle community, the dance community, the people like you and Lisa, Lisa and George. And I don't know who else. Something I'm going to blank out on all the A.K.A. and all of the Brenda K. Starr and all of them. You guys do a lot of shows with people. I'm imagining that you might have been in competition back in the day, but you guys are a family now, like you're on the road together. People lump you together. They sing your music together. What's it feel like to be a part of the genre of music that has been so important to people?

[19:20] Judy Torres: It's a really good feeling of pride. It feels like we're part of a phenomenon that was created from people who, you know, was born in the streets. And many of us didn't have any money, not just the artists, the producers included. Not everybody had anything. We just had an idea and we were passionate about it. And to see something that you're so passionate about come to life, you know, it's special. And so when everyone started when freestyle first got on the air and people started saying, "What is this music? What is this?" You know, a lot of us didn't have our pictures on the albums because we were all like independent artists, not all of us, but a lot of us. And so no one knew what everybody looked like.

So you go to the club to see the show and be like, "Oh my God." People are like, "Oh my God, they look like they're from my hood. They look just like me." And there was an excitement and a pride. But then it escalated and it just grew throughout the entire country. So I'm very proud to be part of it and especially proud of the fact that although freestyle never got a Grammy or VMA or whatever, the people are behind it a thousand percent. Many of the people who come to these concerts have seen us more than once, more than ten times, and they still come. So thank you, God. Thank you. And they're going to keep coming. And once they hear that, do, do, do, do, once they hear those sounds, that's like it's they're so devoted to the music. So we have to be so devoted to them.

[20:54] Robert Bannon: So people out here who are listening, who when they read this book, they see depression, abuse, the hard times, the childhood, the things that you talk about in great detail and are feeling the same way. They may be going through something. They may feel hopeless. They may be turning to music. They may have bought the book because they love you or they heard what you are telling in the book. They need help. What advice do you give to people? What got you through? I mean, you're so secure, grounded and have rolled with some really incredible things in your life.

[21:26] Judy Torres: It's God. It's therapy. It's family. What is it? All three. All three. God, family therapy, lots of therapy, probably more than I really needed, but I started to enjoy it. I started to appreciate being able to talk to someone about what happened that week and having somebody listen makes the world of a difference. I would say if you're feeling really in despair, depressed, the biggest thing that will get you through it is that you have to choose that you don't want to feel this way anymore. You just got to choose that. And people might say, "Oh, Judy, but I'm depressed and you don't know how I feel." I do know how you feel. I have been there. I have been there. So I was so down that I attempted suicide.

That's how down I was. So I get it, you know, but my life turned around when I finally said this isn't working. Everything I'm doing, everything I've done is not working. I have to admit that I no longer have the answer and I can't do this by myself. I need help. And once I made that decision, the universe opened up and people came forward. Better friends, therapists, my mom, I definitely dived into my faith a lot more, believing in something bigger than you is important. I don't care what you call it, but believe in something. Believe in something good. That's important. Remove yourself from the environment because being at home, depressed, sulking, crying, being with your own thoughts can get worse and worse and worse and you go down this abyss.

Hard to talk yourself out of that. So I would say get up, get out, walk around, be in nature. It's not easy for everybody. Go to a park, go hug a freaking tree. Take your feet, take your shoes off, hug a tree, stand there, cry for like 30 seconds. Watch what happens. I'm just saying. And talk to someone. Even if it's not a therapist, talk to a friend. You've got to talk about it. You have to talk about it. But don't stay home by yourself doing nothing. That won't get you anywhere.

[23:51] Judy Torres: Yeah, there's no shame in telling your story and talking about it. There is no shame. None.

[23:56] Robert Bannon: Well, your homework, everybody, is go right now where books are sold. Go to your bookstore, go to Amazon, go to Judy's website, go somewhere, buy the book. You're going to love it. I guarantee you. It's the book club pick of the month here at the Roundtable. Secondly, I'm coming home. I'm in Detroit right now. I'm coming home this weekend. Go to KTU 103.5. WKTU is where, how many years have you been with them?

[24:15] Judy Torres: 27.

[24:16] Robert Bannon: If I'm 42, I could be 15 in high school. John Moutafis told me there's a new dance radio station. It's called 103.5. We were going to see the Nets play at the Brendan Byrne Arena. At that time, I think it was Continental Airlines Arena. He told me there was a new station, and we listened to it all night long, and I remember it like yesterday. It was fun.

[24:34] Judy Torres: Yeah.

[24:35] Robert Bannon: 27 years. Freestyle Free For All has been, was like the number one show, is the number one show. You have to listen to Judy Torres. And then listen to the music. Go to the website. See the dates. You'll be on the road. You're always on the road.

[24:43] Judy Torres: Yep. I'm always on the road. Pretty much, pretty much performing just about every weekend. So, yeah.

[24:50] Robert Bannon: Yep. It's all good. Radio, music, check it out. The incredible Judy Torres, the legendary Judy Torres. Thank you for, you're a host that, you make me feel like you're talking to me when I listen to you on the radio. And it inspires me to do this show, and it inspires me as an artist. So it's an honor to be here with you.

[25:08] Judy Torres: Thank you so much for the honor and pleasure to talk to you today.

[25:11] Robert Bannon: Likewise. And the book, I'm halfway done. I'm going to text you. Are you ready? I'm going to send you a message when I'm finished. I'm going to send you a message on Instagram. I'm going to DM you. I'm ready.

[25:20] Judy Torres: Okay.

[25:21] Robert Bannon: For the grand, beautiful ending.

[25:23] Judy Torres: No, it, it, it, this is a dream that I had since 1994. It took me that long to get the guts to finish writing it. So I finally did. And just to see it physically in my hand is like a dream come true. And then to find out that people are reading it, and that they're enjoying it, and that they're inspired by it, that, that's, that's a good thing.

[25:45] Robert Bannon: Oh yeah. That's what I'm here for.

[25:47] Judy Torres: It is. It is going to inspire everybody out here. There's a story for everybody in it. So thank you so much. Have the most amazing day. Thanks for being here.

[25:53] Judy Torres: You too. Mwah.