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W ra p p e d A r o u n d L o v e
By Ruth Adkins Robinson
low slung sports car suddenly pulled out of Los Angeles traffic and over to the curb; comedian actor/song-
writer Tommy Davidson bounded out of the car. His target was a young man walking down the street.
“Eric, man hold up!” Eric Benét was soon enveloped in Davidson’s high energy and laughing at the
comedian’s take on life in general. Then Davidson turned serious: “I just wanted to tell you, man
that I just heard the single and I can’t wait for the album. I don’t know if people know how deep
and extra talented you are. I can’t wait to hear the whole thing.”

A few hilarious moments later Davidson was back in his car and off, but the point had been made that
Davidson, like so many of the cadre of his fans, appreciates Benét’s serious, solid, career-deep talent.
He attracts attention, even on an innocent walk down the street. The stares of the women passing
reinforce Benét’s much-appreciated chiseled looks and sex appeal. He smiles back, well manned
and gracious always. But believe it, this man has always been way more than just another pretty
face singing pretty tunes. He’s always been an artist on the cutting edge of contemporary R&B
and Urban Soul.
He has done it again, with the new product from Warner Bros/Reprise, entitled Love & Life
(which by the way Tommy D, hits the streets on September 9). In it Benét provides a multi-
layered look into his own identity.
This has been an ongoing theme in all of Benét’s work. If you string his entire recorded
product together, or examine them individually, you are going to know where he is in his
life’s journey. He spills it all out there, wrapped sometimes in the sweet tendrils of love.
At times, however, life has not been quite so sweet. A picture emerges of a man tested a
great deal –in Life, in Love and in Music.
The musical part of the equation began back in his hometown of Milwaukee. His
police detective dad loved classical music and fostered his children’s interest in
music. Young Eric got into Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Sly Stone and Marvin Gaye.
His mother would also sing around the house. Eric would sing at church and in
school plays or musicals. There were several group incarnations, including one
comprised of the then teenage singer, his sister and cousin. The group signed
with Capitol and released Benét in 1992, but the album was largely unnoticed.

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He then pushed on into the music as a solo artist and released
his debut album True to Myself in the fall of 1996. His breakout
album came with A Day in the Life 1999 and its first single, a cover
of Toto’s “Georgy Porgy,” did pretty well at radio, but things really
blew up with the album’s second single “Spend My Life With You”
(featuring Tamia) which became a chart smash. “Spend My Life
With You” went to number one on the R&B charts and was certified
gold.
A Day In the Life went on to earn a Soul Train Music Award for
“Best R&B/Soul Album Male” and also was nominated for a 2000
Grammy Award for “Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group.”
During this time, Benét headed into the studio to work on Earth,
Wind & Fire’s 30th anniversary, which was very much like a dream
for him since he’d been a fan since childhood.
Five years later came Hurricane, which broke new stylistic ground
for the artist, and also tapped deeper into his ongoing theme of
exploring his own humanity. At the time, Benét was creating music
capturing “different stages of a long and difficult journey,” Benét
explains. “Along the way, I felt all kinds of things – hope and
despair, anger and remorse – and it’s that range that I’ve tried to
capture on this album. But, in the end, it’s about more than just me.
It’s about the human condition, about how we all find ourselves in
dark times and about how we can find our way out again.”
Overall, Benét felt it was a great experience, as he got a chance
to work with the talented ultra-Grammy winning producer David
Foster who produced a lot of the album tracks and also Tim
Blixseth, who ultimately signed Benét to his label, Friday Records.
His solid relationship with Foster created an interesting incident
recently. Benét was attending a Foster concert and there was,
as usual, a long list of superstar singers participating. Suddenly
Foster announced to the crowd that Benét was in the audience;
that announcement was complete with all the praise Foster feels
about Benét’s talent. At Foster’s urging, Benét got up and sang just
a bit of one of the songs from the new album. It’s one of the cuts
destined to be a smash single called “Chocolate Legs.” Understand
now, it was barely the refrain of the song that was performed, but to
Benét’s utter astonishment, Foster continued to play his song and
the audience continued to sing along. According to his official bio
“Chocolate Legs” is “a telling homage to the power that a woman
provides for her man by simply wrapping herself around him.” But
that audience reaction proved to Benét that “whatever the color
of your legs,” people get it. It’s a fun song to sing and clearly a fun
song to sing with.
“Chocolate Legs” is evidence that Benét seems on the other side
of the stormy weather that clouded his life and music for a while.
On Love & Life he lays out a man’s responses to life’s situations.
Sometimes those reactions are visceral, sometimes emotional, often
physical, but for Benét, always a true depiction of what he’s been
through in his own life. Right now he seems a happy man, he’s more
relaxed and perhaps more intent on letting the world know he wants
them to understand. Overall, Love & Life reflects his confidence
and approach to happy living. “There’s an energy and feeling that
you get from the whole record. The journey is mine, but there’s no
one who can’t relate.”
For this album, he again joined forces with his long time
production partner Demonte Posey and writer/producer/cousin
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George Nash, Jr., writing on all 12 of the cuts. The first
single-heard and enthusiastically appreciated by Tommy D--
is “You’re the Only One.” His message here is that time will
determine whether a love is meant to be or not.
Most of the other elements on the album are insights
into his current feelings about…well…Life and Love.
“Iminluvwichoo” is a dance jam filled with energy and
features Hungarian vocalist Linda Kiraly. This song is
about how much fun it can be to be in love. There’s a bit of
an 80’s feel to this groove. Another decade is captured in
“Don’t Let Go,” with its 90’s R&B flow. This cut encourages
a look at what love can become if the two hold on and
explore what might happen. But, Eric being Eric, there
has to be the sexual groove happening. It’s there on “The
Hunger,” and it’s clear what hunger is fueling the appetite.
Benét describes it as “that physical attraction where you
just can’t get enough of their essence, their body. I cannot
be satiated. I just want more. That part where you can’t go
home yet, the straight, raw hunger.”
Benét might get into a tad of trouble with his title of
“Spanish Fly” but hastens to explain this is “not about a
chemical aphrodisiac, it’s all about some Latin pimp trying
to talk his way in.” The conversation is fueled by the Latin
rhythms and horns.
As far as Life’s tests for Benét, there has been birth,
death, divorce and triumph.
In any conversation with Eric, the subject is eventually
going to come around to his daughter, India, born in ’92, to
Eric and his girlfriend Tami Stauff. Sadly in ’95, Tami was
killed in an automobile accident, and Benét became a single
father. “He relishes his role and delighted in being a dad
from the very moment his daughter was born. One of the
songs on the album was written when India was born. “One
More Tomorrow” is a tribute to her birth and the way he
feels about her today. “If I had only one day left on earth,
there is no one else on earth I’d rather spend it with than
India.”
He credits her as a stabilizing force in his life. “There
are so many things that I’ve done where I was thinking
let me do what’s best for her, and, had she had not been
there, I may have taken the wrong path on many occasions.
As a single parent, there was no other way than to keep it
together for India.” Benét says he’s kind of a dork around
her and is constantly learning from her. “We’ve been
through so much together and it’s made us both stronger.
As much as anything, this music is a gift, an expression of
my love for her and my respect for who she’s becoming.”
Who she’s becoming these days is an accomplished singer.
She has even sung ‘a little’ with her father. No doubt there’s
more to come.
There are new avenues for Benét as well. He’s made a few
forays into acting and is very seriously working on a film
script. He loves it! The passion about it all comes through
in his voice. There seems to be no doubt –from “Chocolate
Legs” to film complexities, Eric Benét seems wrapped
around love.
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