Only the Strong Survive (2002)

Roger Friedman: Self

Quotes 

• Roger Friedman : I have to tell you, nobody wears sunglasses like you. You are the best sunglass wearer.

  Isaac Hayes : Let me tell you a secret behind this. This glasses was a security blanket. There was a moment I was so shy, I was scared when I first did Dick Clark.

  Sam Moore : That's right!

  Isaac Hayes : I was scared to death! I put these shades on - it was like an ostrich with his head in a hole. I thought I was safe behind those shades.

• Joyce Moore : There it is that New York skyline. Pan to the New York skyline.

  Sam Moore : I used to stay right around the corner there, Rog.

  Roger Friedman : Yeah? Where?

  Sam Moore : Right at that hotel there.

  Roger Friedman : What hotel is that?

  Sam Moore : It belonged to the Japanese, so it had a funny name to it. But, you only paid, eh, eight dollars a night, at that time.

  Roger Friedman : Eight dollars a night? Is that when you were performing when you were in town or just when you were staying here?

  Sam Moore : No, no, I was staying there. Yeah, that's it.

  Joyce Moore : This was during the drug days.

  Roger Friedman : During the drug days?

  Sam Moore : Yeah. Right there. I got put out from across the street. Then, I went across and came over here and I stayed there for two or three days and then, eh, I got put out and, eh, I started working these streets here.

  Roger Friedman : Working them?

  Sam Moore : Yes. I was selling drugs all the way down here.

  Roger Friedman : What year was this?

  Sam Moore : Seventy-two? Seventy-three! Seventy-three, yes.

  Roger Friedman : Did people know who you were when you were doing that?

  Sam Moore : Oh, sure. They eventually found out. You know, you don't try to, you don't try and hide after...

  Joyce Moore : That's when you grew the beard isn't it?

  Sam Moore : Yeah and with the glasses and all that stuff.

  Joyce Moore : What kind of drugs did you sell?

  Sam Moore : The same as I was using, using. Heroin and cocaine. Yeah, but, I started with a full-blown heroin, at first. To cut it and mix it up and everything. This was my, yeah, this was my domain, at that time.

• Sam Moore : I be clean now.

  Joyce Moore : Since April of '82.

  Sam Moore : Of '82. Yeah.

  Roger Friedman : Hallelujah. How did you, eh, how did you finally clean up?

  Sam Moore : Ask her.

  Joyce Moore : Tricked him.

  Roger Friedman : You tricked him?

  Joyce Moore : I tricked him. I fought the devil. I realized, well, I got in a position to be in total control, literally, of his money, his drugs, his proximity, his everything. And then I had to play hardball and tough love and do all that stuff. Because I knew that it wasn't him, the person, that I was controlling, it was the demon that was controlling him and I had to, in essence, beat it.

• Roger Friedman : I've known you for awhile, but, I have never seen you do your show.

  Mary Wilson : Oh, this is your first time to see me?

  Roger Friedman : This was the first time and I was really blown away.

  Mary Wilson : I'm, I'm a well kept secret.

  Roger Friedman : You are!

  Mary Wilson : I am.

  Roger Friedman : Why are you such a well kept secret?

  Mary Wilson : Oh, well, we don't know, but that won't be for long. If I have anything to do with it, it won't be for long.

• Wilson Pickett : Diana Ross was the ugliest thing I'd ever seen in my life. And we used to ride in the station wagon with her. Turned her around, facing the cars, back in the back seat. And we had the other girls up in the front, you know, in the Falcon. We had this big station wagon. With Diana Ross in the back, facing the cars. Yeah. And, now, Diana Ross is one of the most beautiful women on the face of the earth.

  Roger Friedman : What happened?

  Wilson Pickett : How the hell would I know!

  Roger Friedman : Did you think she was going to be such a big star?

  Wilson Pickett : No, she was a natural.

  Roger Friedman : She was a natural?

  Wilson Pickett : Yeah. Nobody had a voice like Diana Ross and she knew how to use it.

• Roger Friedman : Would you say Aretha Franklin is the female Wilson Pickett?

  Wilson Pickett : No.

  Roger Friedman : No?

  Wilson Pickett : And I ain't the female Aretha Franklin either.

• Roger Friedman : So, Sam, how have you survived?

  Sam Moore : I'm one of the most luckiest - and I'm the most blessed - person that you're ever going to find. One among.

  Joyce Moore : You know what his nickname is? Ask Issac. Issac calls him Bless.

  Sam Moore : Yeah.

  Joyce Moore : Blessed.

• Roger Friedman : Do you miss Otis?

  Carla Thomas : Oh, very much. I don't know how to describe Otis Redding. He brought with him an energy - that was different. Because, it was different from Memphis. He brought that Georgia energy. That Macon, Georgia energy! That country, country, blues, folk, soul!

• Roger Friedman : What was it like growing up in Chicago at that time?

  Jerry Butler : It was an interesting neighborhood. Ramsey Lewis was raised there. Curtis Mayfield, Major Lance, my younger brother Billy. All of us wound up in music coming from within maybe a three or four block radius of each other.