Over time I was really just less and less willing to constantly be told that I was replaceable, that anyone can do what I did and brought to the group and I didn’t buy into that. When I look back at it now…in my mind it was a spiritual test: Which way was I going to go? Women generally are…especially in the music business, the first to be marginalized, but…I obviously wasn’t buying into the brainwashing mentality that I wasn’t of value. I knew that I was of value and as much as Dick Griffey tried to make me think that I wasn’t valuable, even at that age, I definitely knew that I had value…I think that the only way people give up their power is believing they don’t have any and we all have power.

Um, it was kind of a pimp mentality to me, I’m not saying he was a pimp, but it was that kind of pimp mentality

On what Dick Griffey told Jody when she wanted to buy a house:
There was the issue with [me being able to buy] a house, which was something that was important to me and again [I was young, but one thing my Mom would always say was I should] buy a house. The hits were coming in and we were touring all the time, but I didn’t have enough money to put a down payment on a house. When I went to him [Dick Griffey] he kind of marginalized the whole concept of buying a house and he told me “Well you know Watley, you can always come out to my ranch and ride my horses” and I remember thinking ‘I don’t want to ride your horses, I want to have my own horses…if that’s what I wanted to do…LOL.” Um, it was kind of a pimp mentality to me, I’m not saying he was a pimp, but it was that kind of pimp mentality of ‘Just bring me my money and you can come and share in what I have going on and you just go out and work for me’ and again (laughs) [I just had a] bigger picture for me.

 

When it became clear that Shalamar was all about making Howard Hewett a star and no one else…
Before we went in to record The Look [album], I recall having a meeting with Dick Griffey and it was made real clear that Shalamar was going to be a vehicle for Howard Hewett, much like I guess a Diana Ross and The Supremes, where it was a definitive shift from just being a group. So that would mean that the few duets that I was [previously] able to sing would be even less than that. I definitely wasn’t happy about that and it definitely wasn’t so much about ‘Oh I wanna sing, I wanna sing’ it was really about the way it was done. When you have a group situation and it starts out one way, and everybody has their roles, but then as time goes on it starts shifting even more. [That’s why] I was definitely surprised when [years later in a public interview] Howard expressed that after we were gone and Micki Free was in the group, that it was difficult for him because [before that] I remember that he was very inclined to get us out of the there…LOL.

Jeffrey Daniel started letting the fame go to his head:

Jeffrey [eventually stated in a public interview] that he cried to a journalist [when the group was over] but I was like ‘But you were the first one to quit…LOL.”

Another thing is that after Jeffrey did the performance in London on “Top of the Pops” performing “A Night To Remember,” the aftermath of that with his popularity…contributed a bit more to the declining chemistry of the group. My recollection is Jeffrey’s increased popularity didn’t really sit well with Howard, as the lead vocalist of the group. Because when the [UK] music media would do interviews or we’d be on the covers of magazines, there were a few instances where it was Jeffrey that was the person they wanted to feature on the cover as Shalamar. Jeffrey started getting a lot of other opportunities and my recollection and my perspective of it was that it went to his head. Subsequently he didn’t want to come back to America. We were about to record The Look, which was our final album and Jeffrey wanted to quit Shalamar. He wanted to pursue his solo career and so he [only] came back to sing on [the song] “Dead Giveaway” and then went on to work on a [project] with Paul McCartney.

Jody on the misconception that’s been reported in the media about…

Shalamar’s breakup:
“It left me to think that it seemed that they were trying to create this sadness of this sympathy that Jeffrey and Howard were so devastated that things fell apart. And so again it was disingenuous to make it seem like everything was still great and then all of a sudden we broke up…that wasn’t the case. The group was already on the verge of breaking up.”

Clash of the titans:
“It’s self explanatory: Two very strong personalities butting heads from time to time and that was basically my working experience with Howard. From the very beginning I guess you could say I didn’t really like Howard at first (laughs) because he came into the group and was very arrogant. I thought he was obnoxious and he had hit on me (flirted) and so right away, the way that he did that and I just didn’t like him. It fluctuated, sometimes we were cool and sometimes it got really ugly. He dropped the “B” word here and there, “Jody stop being such a bitch” and stuff like that, and of course this was something unique to my journey because I was the only girl in the group. That’s something that the fans definitely wouldn’t know because the fans would just see us on stage and it would look like all fun.”

The final straw that ended it all: (Jody said it wasn’t just about this one incident but rather about the sum of all things that had been happening prior to this.)