Urban Thought Collective

Soul crooner Eric Benet discusses his new album, Halle and his daughter India.
Presented by Electronic Urban Report.

Singer/songwriter Eric Benet’s life has been filled with heartache and controversy for quite sometime. From the unfortunate demise of the mother of his teenaged daughter India, to the public spectacle that ensued with his marriage and divorce to actress Halle Berry.

Recently EUR’s Lee Bailey had the chance to speak with Benet regarding his recent CD release “Love and Life.” Benet says he’s pleased with the album and his current standing as well.

“I’m in a good place man, I’m in a good place,” said Benet. “The title is appropriate because I’m enjoying both of those things immensely right now. Its part maturity, part wisdom, part enjoying dancing and singing and loving the fruits of life. That’s really where I’m at and it feels good.”

Some believe that simply being a celebrity makes one’s existence charmed for the rest of his or her days, but Benet says he had to dig deep for this one. Of course the obvious question is whether or not Halle Berry provided any inspirational material for the release.

“I think everything that happens in my life I drew from,” Benet continued. “People like to always concentrate on what’s been made public. But my well of experiences is deep. I pull from everything that I write. The whole Halle thing, that was a painful time and there were a lot of mistakes made on my part. The good thing about making mistakes is, if you leave yourself open, you’re able to learn and grow from the process. From that growth comes the wisdom that I was talking about before. My happy days are more frequent now and I’m able to maneuver through life better. I’m happy because of my life lessons.”

Because of the artist’s prior marital situation, listeners may imagine the album’s lead single “You’re the Only One” is inspired by his world famous ex-wife, but Benet, again, stands vehemently against such an assumption.

“Unfortunately people concentrate on what they know and unfortunately the representation that I have in the press is that experience,” Benet told our Lee Bailey of the lead single’s inspiration.

“Like I said before, my well of experiences is deep. That song is not about Halle. It started as a conversation between my partner Dimonte, my partner George Rass and myself. We were having a conversation about songs and about how, back in the day, songs were crafted with real arrangements and how the level of making music was on a whole nutha stratosphere compared to the way things are now. Talking about groups like the O’Jays, The Stylistics, Blue Magic and that kind of stuff. That conversation just turned into a good jam.”

And that good jam and the album itself isn’t doing bad either. It’s currently at number 11 on the Billboard 200 after being released on September 9. But Benet isn’t limiting himself to CDs. These days online video is all the rage. Recently one surfaced in which he and his daughter India…

TO FINISH THE INTERVIEW, CLICK TO VISIT OUR PARTNERS AT ELECTRONIC URBAN REPORT: www.eurweb.com/story/eur47244.cfm