Exclusive: Director & Executive Producer J. Kevin Swain On Putting Together A&E’s Biography: Bobby Brown
Airing tonight on A & E is Biography: Bobby Brown, a two-night event airing Monday, May 30 and Tuesday, May 31 at 8pm ET/PT.
A&E Network gives viewers VIP access to music icon and Grammy Award-winner Bobby Brown and his family with a new definitive Biography event and docuseries launching this summer. With more than 20 million records sold worldwide with New Edition, a solo career selling in excess of 12 million records, five gold singles, three No. 1 R&B hits, a Top 100 No. 1 hit, the New York Times best-selling author and one of Billboard Magazine’s Top 60 Male Artists of All Time details his transformation from Bad Boy artist to a responsible husband and father. Through exclusive access and interviews, the definitive documentary“Biography: Bobby Brown” gives fans an up-close and personal look at theAmerican Music Award winner’s journey to superstardom and the fallout from his personal struggles with sobriety and the tragic deaths of his two children and first wife, Whitney Houston.
From growing up in the housing projects of Roxbury, Massachusetts, through his rise to fame with New Edition and beyond, Bobby Brown shares his personal journey like never before in “Biography: Bobby Brown.”In exclusive interviews, the R&B icon unveils his struggles with substance abuse, his marriage to Whitney Houston, the devastating loss of Houston and his two children and his life as a devoted father and husband to Alicia Etheredge-Brown. Confronting his very personal yet very public struggles, Brown recounts what it was like to become a music phenomenon at such a young age in this tell-all documentary. In an effort to come to terms with his tumultuous past, Bobby, for the very first time, visits the gravesite of Whitney Houston and daughter Bobbi Kristina and holds a deeply moving tribute in honor of Bobby Junior. The documentary includes interviews with Usher,Jermaine Dupri, Keith Sweat, Babyface,New Edition’s Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie DeVoe and Johnny Gill, as well as his family, friends and those who experienced this journey with him. Over the course of two nights, viewers will get to hear never-before-heard stories as they reflect on Bobby’s life both on and off stage.
“Biography: Bobby Brown” is produced for A&E Network by Brown Ribbon Entertainment, Entertainment One (eOne)and Creature Films. Bobby Brown and Alicia Etheredge-Brown serve as executive producers for Brown Ribbon Entertainment.Tara Long, J. Kevin Swain and Lauren Lazin serve as executive producers for eOne.
A celebrated contributor to the history of Hip Hop, Swain is responsible for some the most iconic images to date. Starting with Eazy-E’s “We Want Eazy!”, The infamous Source Awards (yes “The South Has Something to Say!” & “Y’all Ain’t Got No Love for Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg?”), the concert film “The Show”, The “Up in Smoke” concert DVD, most of Tupac’s Death Row Videos, Kanye West’s “Sunday Service” just to name a few.
Swain’s catalogue of work includes Quincy Jones, Outkast, Snoop, Tyler The Creator, Dr Dre, Steve Aoki, Robert Glasper, Aretha Franklin, D-Smoke, Chaka Khan, Kanye West, Wynton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Patti LaBelle, George Benson, Biggie Smalls, Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu, Queen Latifah, Stevie Wonder and many others. Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, his travels have taken him throughout Europe, South America, The Caribbean, and Africa.
Blackfilmandtv.com caught up with Swain as he spoke putting together this documentary on a living legend.
We’ve seen a lot about Bobby Brown in the last few years. BET did two amazing series with The New Edition Story and The Bobby Brown Story, that captured who this man is. But you actually got the real life person telling his own story. How did it come about?
J. Kevin Swain: My relationship with Bobby Brown goes back to his previous series and we kept in tough; and his wife Alicia and I worked on a music video, The Rainforest of St. Lucia. So, we kept in touch. We have lunch and chill, and next thing you know, we’re like “Let’s do something together.” That’s really how it came about. It’s just a matter of staying in touch. The right time and place and let’s face it, divine intervention.
Besides getting Bobby himself to go on camera, you were able to get members of New Edition on board, Usher and other well known celebrities. How long did it take to put this together? From getting access to footage to gathering celebrities?
J. Kevin Swain: It’s amazing when everything that’s supposed to happen, does happen. It’s one of those things that when you look up, and everyone says “I’ll do it.”You call up, Usher, Babyface, Bobby’s childhood friends, and they all said yes. They understand the importance of Bobby’s story and now they want to talk about it. So it wasn’t very difficult. The difficult part was finding old footage of Bobby when he was really young. The cooperation was amazing. With Alicia making phone calls, no one tells Alicia Etheridge Brown no. So things happened. It wasn’t difficult and it wasn’t long.
With documentaries, the MVP is the editor. With so much that you shot and when add in the footage, something’s got to give when it comes to the edit. How long did it take to piece it together? Was Bobby in the room helping decide what stays in or not?
J. Kevin Swain: It was a team effort. There are notes to what’s important. There are small things that are important and there are big things that are important. The small details that the editor would not understand because they may not be from the same block. This is important. It's Roxbury. It’s Orchard Park. Well, this is Brooklyn, this is Harlem, small things. We have an editor who knows how to make it happen. It’s a joint effort. Bobby and Alicia have a say to what works and what doesn’t. How important was it to have Jermaine Dupri? Very important. How important was it to have a viewpoint of Atlanta in this piece? Very important because he's from Boston, but Atlanta is equally important because that's where he cut his record. Atlanta has a growing Black Entertainment mecca. Bobby was there before Babyface. You have all these important notes that everyone has to make it valid. This is a very valid documentary.
You start off the documentary as a montage of Bobby’s life from his days in New Edition to his solo career and then his history with Whitney Houston, before showing his progress from the beginning. Why did you go in that route?
J. Kevin Swain: It’s one of those artistic decisions. There's no single right or wrong way. But you want to tell a story that's engaging. Otherwise, you can do it all in an hour and it’s done. What’s beautiful about our documentary is that you have two parts, which is really four hours. So we have the ability to stretch it and let it breathe. We let Bobby speak for himself, like everyone else, we have Alicia in there, we have his brother Tommy in there, we got a lot of people to help tell the story rather than just a third person narrator to get to equipment.This isn't a puff piece. This is truth.
Is there anything new audiences are going to get from watching this?
J. Kevin Swain: No spoilers here, of course. There's tons of information you don’t know about Bobby Brown. MTV had a tagline that said, “You Just Don’t Know.” It’s the same thing here. You just didn’t know that Bobby Brown is a great father, a great brother, and that he's actually very talented. You can look and see him dancing but you don’t know what's in his mind and creating this music. The fact that people say he was ousted from New Edition, I say he left. So it's already a different interpretation. Bobby needed to do something different. He wanted to be a solo act and he did it. And let's face it, lead singers always want some different. It’s nothing new. It happened with The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Supremes, but that's just how it goes. It's a great progression. Rarely does somebody leave a group and it doesn't work.
Was it challenging going over the drug aspect of his life, the death of his children or death for Whitney Helston? You knew you'd have to tackle it at some point. Was that a sensitive subject? Since he's talked about it at different times, Is he more comfortable now going over it or is it still a sensitive subject?
J. Kevin Swain: It’s very sensitive, but Bobby would say that’s it's therapeutic. The best thing you can do is talk about it because if you keep it bottled up, and then it comes out in all kinds of ways. I think he's very clear. That's part of the generosity of his spirit. He wanted to share that pain with someone else to not have to live that pain. He's very clear that that lifestyle doesn't work well, that the Rock and Roll rat lifestyle, just live the highest of highs, it just doesn't work. It never ends well. And I think anyone looking with empathy, will understand that. That’s why the documentary exists. Every third person accounts always make Bobby the villain. That's not the case, Anyone with a critical eye can see that he's not the bad guy. He's not a saint, but he's not the one who made Whitney what Whitney was.
How much did you learn in the process in both roles as a director and as executive producer?
J. Kevin Swain: It’s interesting because I’m wearing different hats. As a director, I’m helping to shape the narrative along with the team of other EPs, and Bobby and Alicia. It’s our vision. It’s cooperative. As an EP, it’s more of a team because we have to agree to what we’re doing.
What do you want people from watching this documentary?
J. Kevin Swain: A long time ago, I told Bobby that his story should be told simply because he is still here. Too often we write off our stars. This man is still creating but most importantly, he is an attentive father and a loving husband. That’s what’s important here. You’re going to live your life. You’re going to do your thing, but where is your legacy. What have you left behind that is lasting, that is loving and it’s true. That’s Bobby Brown. A one hour documentary won’t give you that. Ours is expansive. This is worth seeing and embracing.