The star Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s Robbie Montgomery dished on her life in an exclusive interview with Black Enterprise magazine recently, and Ms. Montgomery had a few surprises.
Most people know Montgomery from her successful St. Louis soul food joint Sweetie’s Pie Restaurant, which she opened in 1998 after the tragic shooting death of her son, Andre Montgomery Sr. She became world-famous after she and her family got their own reality show Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s on OWN in 2011.
Born in Columbus, Mississippi, Montgomery’s family moved to St. Louis when she was six, and she was soon singing in talent shows and the church choir. In 1969, she became a backup singer for Ike and Tina Turner and sang backup as a member of the Ikettes until 1968.
The former Ikette also sang backup for Earl Hooker, Dr. John, the Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra and the Beattles. The singer also had two bands, Robbie’s Dangerous Curves and Robbie Special Kinds.
Ms. Montgomery, whose stage name is Miss Robbie, has now released her first single, “Ain’t My Stuff Good Enough.” The single is available to stream on Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube.
“Singing is my first love, chicken is my second,” she said. “So now at this point in my life I can do what I want to do. I always loved singing. I backgrounded everybody in the world but I never had my own hit song so that was my inspiration. I was like it’s not too late. I’m not too old. And it turned out pretty good so I’m impressed by it.”
Miss Robbie said that her friend wrote the song four decades ago, but the song was deemed too dirty and was banned. She noted that the song could be about many things, not just sex.
“Now today it’s not dirty enough,” she laughed. “You can apply it to sex, but if you’re at your job and you do a great job every time and everyone passes you and you don’t get promoted you want to know ‘Aint My Stuff Good Enough?’ It covers a lot of things. It could be anything.”
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The singer has suffered many tragedies in her life, and she touched on them during her interview. Her son, Timothy Norman was charged with the death of her 20-year-old grandson, Andre Montgomery, in St. Louis back in 2016. Andre is the son of her first-born son, Andre Sr. Both were killed by gun violence, as was Miss Robbie’s nephew.
When asked about the status of her son’s case, she said that she didn’t know much because everything had been on hold because of the pandemic, including the court system.
“Everything is at a standstill. I really don’t know a lot about it that’s why I don’t talk about it. We’re just waiting. Everything is kind of at a standstill because of COVID. So the courts are behind. But we’re just waiting and praying for a miracle. After all, everyone has to realize he hasn’t been found guilty. That’s what he’s accused of so we don’t know what happened,” she said.
“That’s my son. I mean it’s like a marriage – ‘til death do us part,” she continued. “I can’t give him back. When kids get in trouble, they’re still your kids. No matter what happens, I’m still his mom and he’s got support and I’m praying my child gets out of this because like I say he hasn’t been found guilty but the world beat him up. This could happen to you. It happened to me. It could happen to anybody’s family.”
She said her faith in God gets her through, and Miss Robbie is already working on her second single. While discussing her music video for “Ain’t My Stuff Good Enough,” Miss Robbie hilariously shared that the video is about a cheating man.
“Actually in the video I had to keep in mind that I’m 81, so I couldn’t have my hooters or my tooters hanging out. So I just stayed true to my age and got some young people to show their hooters and it was just a real life situation.”
Miss Robbie ended the interview by thanking everyone for their support. She also hopes that enough people stream her song so she can go to the Grammy Award’s Show.
“I just want to thank everybody for all the support and take Ms. Robbie to the Grammy’s. I’m trying to be the oldest female there. Ya’ll can do it so look out for me.”
