Mikey Spice goes country on ‘Money Talk’
Published:Monday | November 18, 2024 | 12:09 AMAnthony Turner/Gleaner Writer
Singer Mikey Spice is exploring the country and western genre with Money Talk, a reggae adaptation of country single Forever in Blue Jeans, by Grammy Award winning singer Neil Diamond.
“I don’t just choose songs randomly. I choose songs out of the vault that have some impact,” said Spice, who rose to prominence with a scintillating rendition of Barry White’s hit single Practice What You Preach.
Forever in Blue Jeans, which was released by Columbia Records in 1979 climbed to #2 on the Easy Listening chart and peaked at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
“If anyone should check the history of Mikey Spice, in all the covers I have done it would be obvious that there has to be some significant reason why I cover a song,” the singer shared. “It has to speak not just to me, but to others as well.”
Spice confessed that for many years, he performed Money Talk when he was a cabaret singer on the north coast in Jamaica.
“It was one of those songs that I remember what it used to do for me in the white community for tourists. I feel black people need to get an idea of what it feels like to interpret a strange song, from a strange land, in our genre,” he said.
Reflecting on his country music roots, Spice shared, “There are so many names that I could call that have influenced my love for country music. I just hope that my rendition of Money Talk will create an impact, to show the versatility of taking an international song and making it my own.”
Born Michael Theophilus Johnson, Spice was raised in the Church of God, in Kingston, where his father served as bishop. Inspired by international singers Lou Rawls, Barry White and Teddy Prendergast, he took up residency on Jamaica’s north coast in 1984, and quickly established himself as a leading vocalist on the cabaret circuit.
He is a multi-instrumentalist, learning to play the guitar, bass, drums, trumpet, piano, saxophone, flute, harp and clarinet before he reached age 13 years old. A scintillating performance at Reggae Sunsplash in 1993 gave birth to a long relationship with Indy Ras Records. While he was signed to Ras Records, he released albums Happiness, Born Again, Jah Lifted Me and Harder Than Before.