9 Quick Questions for Macy Gray

Who were your musical inspirations?

When you’re a musician, you kind of end up listening to everything, but the ones who really taught me were probably Billie Holiday, Prince. Biggie Smalls — I learned a lot from him. The way he raps. Robert Plant — I love his voice. Édith Piaf. There’s a ton of them. I could go on forever, because I really studied different singers.

Did you have a backup plan if your music career didn’t work out?

Nope. My mom is a teacher, and I remember when I didn’t think [my music career] was gonna happen, and I moved back to my mom’s house and she said, “I can help you get a teacher’s certificate.” So, I’d probably, maybe, do that, or I don’t know. [Music is] really the only thing that I do well, honestly.

That might be true professionally, but I bet you have some other talents we don’t know about.

My steak is amazing. I have mastered steak making. I just put a little bit of coconut oil on top. On the grill — I know some people put a little bit of butter — but I just use coconut oil and you can just taste a little bit of coconut oil and it’s delicious.

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Any other talents?

I’m a really good backgammon player. I learned how to play backgammon as a kid, when I was about 8. There’s actually a huge backgammon culture: There’s tournaments; there’s backgammon champions; there’s people that make a living at backgammon. In L.A., you can find games. Every once in a while [I go]. Those guys are really good. That’s their whole life, but I’ve won a couple of rounds. They play for real money. It’s really a trip. I didn’t know about it until one of my friends told me about it.

What would you tell someone who did want to make their living as an artist, like you?

Practice. Whatever you do, you should [practice]. Practice as much as you can. It really does make a difference in how big you get. I do believe, you know, that people who are really good at what they do have a chance to really thrive in life, but you have to get good at it first. My mom used to make me practice piano every day for half an hour. Every day. No excuses. That was kind of my introduction to rehearsing. Every Saturday [starting at age 7] I had lessons, and I had to practice every day, and we had recitals once a month. I hated it, but it paid off, I guess.