It’s tough when you’re in a scenario like that, and all memories start flashing through your mind, and you don’t get a chance to grieve, because you’re in the middle of having to do something else. Most people can turn life off, go breathe, but because we’re entertainers, we’re not always able to do that. We haven’t been programmed that way. The same guy we love and care about who’s not here anymore, he would’ve never done that either. He would’ve pushed through and figured it out until it was done.
What was your response when you heard the plan to perform with Alicia Keys?
We were in the dressing room rehearsing the actual song we had come to the Grammys to perform. The show wasn’t too far from starting, and we got the call asking if we wanted to do “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.” We always try to be ready vocally, but I mean, when you care about somebody in this manner, you can be vocally ready, but you may not be mentally ready. We sat around and tried to figure it out. Alicia wanted to sing it with us, so we went to her dressing room and created a little something in like 10 minutes.
We came in our street clothes. We didn’t have anything else to wear. I saw some comments online of people complaining about us coming out in street clothes. I was like, uh, okay. I didn’t even realize it in the moment. Kobe deserved a hell of a lot more than what we were able to give him. We just gave him what we had. It came from our hearts, and that’s all we could do.
Could you tell how the crowd was reacting to you?
Honestly, no. I was focused on nailing the notes. It’s important when you’re singing something of that nature, as a tribute to someone of that magnitude, there can’t be any room for mistakes. I pretty much zoned out the audience. Nothing else mattered at that moment.
Your manager told me you were getting texts about it afterwards that were congratulating you, but some of them rubbed you the wrong way.
Kinda, yeah. Sometimes in the gravity of the moment, people just don’t know what to do. Music is that universal language that tends to bring people together. God has given us the ability to use it, and that’s what our focus was. Congratulations are great, but we wanted to share in a moment and try to bring everybody together on one accord.
Some people tried to make it seem like it was a great opportunity for us to take advantage of, and that’s not even close to what it was. Kobe is from Philly. I know him, I played games with him years ago. Him and I have really good friends in common. He used to come by and hang out with us at the studio. Even before he got drafted, when he was 16 or 17, we used to do celebrity basketball games in Philly and on the East Coast, and we bonded then. There’s a deeper connection there than us just jumping up on stage and grabbing an opportunity. If there was anybody that could’ve sang that song, or given a tribute to that guy from Philly, it would be us.
Did you have any time to process what just happened on the plane to Las Vegas afterwards?
Not really. Things like this put life into perspective. We knew we had to hurry up and get back to an audience in Vegas that we were going to be late for. We loaded up on the private plane and instantly, for some reason, the pilot was saying that something or other was malfunctioning. Everybody freaked out. You get panicked in scenarios like that. Eventually we took off safely, but it was a really emotional time. I’m not a stressed-out guy, but it was stressful getting from one point to another and getting through a whole show knowing that the world is in mourning. Our job as musicians is always to bring people’s lives into focus, lift them up and not bring them down. We had to fall into Kobe Mode. At the end of the day, the game has to go on. I have to make the shots I need to make. That’s how we felt.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
