Hi, I’m Ciara and this is my last meal. [Heavy Metal Intro Music] Every person has exactly two things in common. We all gotta eat and we’re all gonna die. Today’s guest is an entrepreneur, singer, dancer, and Grammy winning recording artist whose new album Cece is out this summer. She’s also the reason I got my highest ever midterm grade in college. Ciara, welcome to the show. I love that. What the world, how? How did I help you do that? I will tell you, I once wrote a 10 page paper on your Ride music video and how it subverted tropes of the male gaze to exemplify subjectification as opposed to objectification. Oh. It was maybe the only a I ever got in college. Oh my gosh. So thank you for the rich source material. Subjectification versus objectification. Mm-hmm. That is really good. I, I really wanna go deeper into that, but I know we have other things to focus on today, so I don’t know if we can talk more about it. We can talk more about it later. I would love that. Just shout out to Dr. Maray Miller Young from uc, Santa Barbara. You can email her because she taught a whole lecture. Oh my gosh. Yeah. That, and then get your freak on by Missy Elliot, were the two that she had, that she taught. Two great records. Well, thank you so much for joining me here today. Uh, have you thought about your last meal before? I don’t think about it like that, but I have been asked about it. Did you surprise yourself with any of your picks on today’s meal? No. ’cause I love to eat. Mm-hmm. I’m from the south. We do, um, all my food has extra seasoning in it. Too much to be honest. There was this, um, soul food. Buffet restaurant that we used to go to. It was called Hodges. I mean, we would eat pigs when I was young, like all kind of stuff. I’m offended. You didn’t have chitlins on your meal today? I did not put it on there because I don’t eat chitlins anymore. Sometimes you know, you leave so you don’t have to eat chitlins. You know, you know the chitlins were fire. Will I eat them? Yes. Yeah. Okay. But that’s not a part of my last meal. That’s what it’s, it’s not the last meal. I’m not putting chitterlings on my last meal. Uh, how often do you think about death in general? Oh my gosh. I know when you open up in the beginning, you talk about the two things that we know must happen in life. It’s, it’s, it’s heavy for me. Yeah. Um, like even when you say that sentence to me, um, ’cause anybody who knows me knows I love to live. I love life. I love the joy, you know, the joys of life. I love laughter. I love being a mom. Like I could cry thinking about it. Yeah. Oh, I love my husband. I’m so grateful. So. When I think about that part of life, it’s like, eh, sure. But we have to think about it, right? Mm-hmm. I’m also a spiritual person, so I just hope that, you know, when it’s all said and done, that God says, well done. I’m pleased ,you did well. Yeah. So, you know, that’s my ultimate goal in my life, but I don’t like, I’m like, I’m gonna live time. I’m a hundred years old. But it crosses my mind. I’m human, but I don’t like thinking about it. Yeah, I don’t. I think this all has made me feel better is just thinking about all these joys that we have in life, including the connections that we have with people, that they sort of only have context and mean something, because one day it won’t, which of course nobody wants that, but without that, the joy wouldn’t be there. Let me tell you what’s amazing. I was walking in and I was looking back at my team, see, I wanna cry. Why I’m getting emotional? What the heck? We haven’t even had the appetite. No, we had no food yet. We need the food. So I can not be doing this. Okay. But I was looking back at my team, man, I really wanna cry and there’s some faces that have been with me for so long in my career. Why am I like, what the heck, dude, you’re starting me off like this. And the people that you spend your life with is so important. Yeah. And I’ve had faces that have been with for like at least 20 years, right. And these people, they really help fill my cup because I see them every day. Yeah. Okay. So you gotta see same people every day. What is that like to you? Right? So like, who are you spending your time with? Like, even though it’s work, it matters because. I know, like what I feel when I see them, I get excited, but I genuinely get excited to come to work because one, I love what I do, but they’re part of that experience. Mm-hmm. So I think about it from their perspective. I’ve been in their life for that long too. Yeah. And they’ve been hanging on, you know, dealing with me, um, you know, and loving me. That is so significant. Well, I’m incredibly grateful that you’re taking some of that time that you’ll never get back to eat this meal with me today. Yeah, it’s gonna be good. Ciara, for the first course of your final meal, we have the shrimp fried rice. We have the pork egg rolls, the crab rangoons. We have the chips and guacamole. And then we have buffalo wings, two ways. We got the original buffalo and then the lemon pepper side of ranch, and then a daiquiri with a salted rim made with 10 to one rum. I don’t know if you know this, but it’s the fastest growing, most awarded rum. This category. Ciara, I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it. Facts, come on. Someone’s on their job, I mean, I did hear about that actually, Josh. First of all, I’m gonna take my jacket off because. We about to eat. I’m, and I’m gonna tell you this food right now, baby. Okay. Listen, you gotta be ready to, exactly. Do some stretchin’. Ready to Mm. Shoulders warmed up trying to go at it. Get a little wine. Mm. Um, 10 to one rum, um, is I’m a proud, uh, co-founder and investor. And, uh, honestly, I do believe we’re the best in the world. We say to any other spirit, anything you can do, rum can do better. But I’ve always been a rum lover. Um, my partner, Mark Ferrell, beautifully crafted this. I was like, I. I have to join ’em on the journey. So, um, it’s been really fun. I’ve been drinking more than I’ve ever drank in my life, um, since I’ve been into wine. That’s great for you. I fully support it. But it’s so good. And it makes the meal hit, so right. Should we try it? Yes, we should. We gotta cheers. Uh, cheers, truly. Salud. And this is the classic daiquiri. It’s divine, isn’t it? I could drink 10 of those. What’s the strategy here? This is your last meal. I’m gonna start on the egg roll. Do it. Let’s do it. You wanna get one? Dip the arm in the guac in course one. That’s how you know it’s gonna be good. Mm-hmm. It’s just pork, right? Mm-hmm. Fire. Oh, it so hot. It’s so good. You know, dip it in the sauce too. Hold on. Mm-hmm. The daiquiri cools down the egg roll. Mm-hmm. It’s a pro move for me. Mm-hmm. It’s a Burbank style. I see. I see. We’re in no hurry, but. This is exciting. If people have empty plates in front of them, I got nervous. It’s the inner grandmother in me. Let’s do it. I know. I’m just kind of doing everything a la carte. There was one Atlanta staple that was missing from your last meal, and I know you have a special connection to it because your husband, Russell Wilson. Rented out an entire waffle house for your birthday a couple years ago. Yes. The chicken melt. Which seems like the best party of all time. What’s your go-to Waffle House order? I do chicken melt with onions, no bacon, and then I also do double hash brown. Um, covered with cheese. Like a covered, so covered is cheese. Yeah. You have smothered. Smothered is like with onions and the cheese, but covered, covered with cheese. Mm. There’s like covered smothered, chunked capped. Yeah. Mm. This is really good. The chips and guac. This is just, just a favorite. Lemme tell you, I, I love Mexican food. Hmm. Like, I’m obsessed with it. I’m obsessed with everything about like the Latino culture, the family. The food, the love, the passion. Mm-hmm. Is similar to al Italian as well. Yeah. You know, when you see like families in the Latino community, it’s kind of like we, all we got mentality. Mm-hmm. And I’m an only child. Yeah. My family’s really small. Right? So my dad has four sisters. None of them have kids. My mom has. Two brothers, one of her brothers are resting in heaven. One of my fav, my favorite uncle. Mm-hmm. One of my favorites, only two, love you Uncle Tony. Um, but Uncle Bobo’s resting in heaven and um, he had two kids and then it stops there. Yeah. So I think that’s why, for me, and I’m an only child, so I grew up like wanting siblings. So now you’re repopulating the lineage. I mean, basically we are adding two, you know. It’s not like you have anything else on your plate though, to do, you know? No, there’s a lot going on. It’s a lot going on. Truly. But, you know, honestly, I just, I don’t know. I, I love, I do love being a mom. Yeah. It’s my favorite job on earth. Um, of all jobs. Um, yeah. And it’s just fun. It’s like more love. It makes, it makes life like, like quadruple crazy with four kids. But that much better. I love how much you seem like you’ve– oh, eat the wings. Eat the wings. Yes. I, I’m just, I’ll yap at you. You gotta eat the ‘whangs’. Oh, okay. We gotta eat wings. The ‘whangs’. Okay. Mm. Do you have a, do you have a technique? Take it off the bone. Mm-hmm. Right out, right out. Right out. Now we only got one dipping sauce, so who’s gonna take it? I know. I just went, I put it on my plate. Take the ranch. How about this? Like we can get real gross with it. Okay. We not gonna get crazy. You dip it on in that sauce like that right there? Yes ma’am. I get real southern when I start eating in general, but when I’m eating my ‘whangs’. So you dip it in that sauce. I didn’t see you pull the bone. I thought you ate the bone. No, I did not ate the bone. Thought you ate the bone. I got so scared. We killed Ciara. No, no. The prophecy of the show has gone too far. Listen, I’m a professional wing Eater. I want take you all the way back to when you were 14 and decided that you were going to start a career as a singer and entertainer. You made a list of goals. What was on that list of goals? Was sitting at a lunch table with my friends and we were all talking about what our goals were post school. And I was like, I wanna be a singer. And I had this epiphany moment one day I stayed home from from school, I was sick or something. And I remember seeing, like I was watching a performance on TV and I was like, I’m gonna do that. It’s like, that’s what I’m gonna do. Once I knew what I wanted to do, it’s like, okay, now I gotta figure out how to get it done. Like, you know, I always say that in life when you wanna get somewhere, you, you can’t get there with just like throwing things in the dark. You have to have a compass. So like what’s your compass? Yeah. So I was like, what’s gonna be my game plan? Three goals on my paper. First goal was to get discovered and I said, once I get discovered, I said, I wrote on how I was gonna get discovered. I’m gonna put myself in talent shows. Sing the national anthem. I volunteer for the national anthem right away. I cracked in the middle of the rockets red glare, and I was like, sorry. And I kept singing, but I was like, I’m gonna do whatever, you know. Fail early if you’re gonna fail. You gotta try. Second goal was once I got discovered to sell three to 4 million albums. And the third goal was to have longevity. So fast forward to like a year or so later, signed my first publishing deal when I was 15, 16 years old. I signed my first recording contract with Arista Records, which was my dream label to sign with. Incredible. So then 18 years old, I put up my first song Goodies. Now we start talking about the second goal on the list, and that was to sell three to 4 million albums and we sold four plus that project. Now we’re like five plus on that project now to date. So that happened. And then my third goal was longevity, which is really broad. Yeah. But now I sit here talking to you 21 years later since I put out my first album Goodies. For like a 14-year-old to think about longevity is so crazy to me because I was just thinking about how I could work up the courage to finally talk to a girl at the middle school dance, you know, uh, a week from now and, and nothing past that. Mm-hmm. But what gave you that amount of self-belief at 14 to think not only am I going to accomplish this, but also longevity is going to be the key. I didn’t have a lot coming up, but I have big dreams. Hmm. And I believe that’s all you really need. Like I always say, where you come from in life doesn’t determine how far you’ll go. How I came up, you know, not having much really motivated me. Because I remember looking at my dad, like at first I was like, I’m an only child to, you know, warned brothers and sisters for years. But I, I landed on being like, you know what? I like this just being me. Um, but I remember looking at my dad one day and he’s like, you know, you need to make sure you do your chores, blah, blah, blah. Him and my mom and I’m like, I’m having my own maid one day. You know, like I was that girl. Right? Only the only child syndromes are real. Like, we just think, yeah. I mean like sometimes they turn out to be Ciara, you know, and sometimes not. But you really think un, with an unlimited. Thought process. You’re like, I’m gonna do this and I’m gonna do that. I mean, ’cause you just be dreaming. You’re just like literally figuring out how to sub do all everything by yourself. And there’s no external force like a sibling to tell you that you can’t, it’s kind of incredible. I’m living within my own head. Yeah. Whatever that means, you know? So I just remember that, um, you know, just being motivated by what I didn’t have. Being naive sometimes can be so beneficial because you don’t think about what you’re up against when you walk into rooms. Yeah, right. Me being a woman, me being a woman of color, um, you know, in my industry, um, at certain points may have worked against me, but I had no idea and I was also young. So you had being young to that, like who’s this little girl think she is? And I’m like, I’m gonna do this and I’m gonna do that, and I’m gonna do that. I mean, like, that was me. Yeah. Like, I’m like, this is what I wanna do. This is how I wanna dress. Very, very headstrong. And I mean, I felt I would get resistance, but I’m like, bump your resistance. Like this is what I’m gonna do. But I always was that, wait, I think it might be the only child in me, too. I’m thinking about it. It’s like, why not? Yeah. When you go back and listen to yourself in interviews in like 2004, when you’re only 19 years old and Goodies has come out, there’s so much self-assuredness. Mm. It looks like you’re watching somebody who has had 40 years of experience in an industry. Truly, and it never comes off as as cocky or overcompensating. Was any part of you faking that, or was it all just true? I believe in myself, naivete might as well bust down the door. I believe. You believe, truly believe. I believe in day one, one, if I’m gonna bet on anybody, I’m gonna bet on myself. Mm-hmm. Okay. Like I run my own label now. I run my label, it’s called Beauty Marks Entertainment, and I do it independently and it just takes me back to that model. I’ve always been on myself, you know? So I say that when you speak, you have a chance to tell your life story. So when you speak, say great things. And this is why they’re teaching you in public universities, this is why you make the lecture. Ciara, you ready to go to course number two? Wait, wait, wait. The coke. We gotta get the Coca-cola. Tell me about the Coke. Okay. The thing is, there’s several ways to drink a Coke for me. Mm-hmm. So if we do this in a can, when you do it in a can. Like I normally do straws for like, you know, when I’m like, uh, doing glam up with, you don’t wanna drink a, a coke in the can with a straw. You lose the aromas. Yes. Mm-hmm. If you drink the coke with the straw, it needs to be in a glass with ice. Okay. A woman of culture and class. There we go. Yes. I love that you understand, so I’m so excited for this. We gotta uh, cheers. Cheers. Chug. Chug. Chug. Sorry. I went full frat mode. And let me tell you. I wanna burp, sorry. Ciara, for course number two, we have the fried plantains. We have the Jamaican beef patties. This is all scratch made, made the turmeric dough in-house. We have the Jamaican curry chicken, not chicken curry, curry chicken with potatoes and rice. Then we have the Jamaican brown stew oxtails, the mac and cheese, the green beans, the candied yams, the cornbread. A little bit of whipped honey butter. And then of course we have the island Palmer made with Ten to one Caribbean dark rum. Mm. Over there. I’m, this is so exciting. Yeah. The smells alone are so good right now. Mm. It’s just so, it’s just a lot of goodness going on right now. I can’t, I mean, cheers. Round two. Light it up. Yeah. Now this is what I get from my glass. Hmm. Move my plant over. Talking about rum– dig in, eat your food, but I’m gonna wax poetic about your rum. No one’s paying me to say this because. I, um, listened to an interview with your, your co-founder, uh, Mark on Ten to one, and he brought up a point that I’d never thought about, which is that so many of the popular rum brands, they kind of deal in these weird caricatures of the Caribbean. Mm-hmm. That’s either like plantations and pirates. Colonial. So you look at– yeah, it’s very colonial. Yeah. And to have an actual, like, you know, this is a, a Trinidadian rum that actually sort of pays homage and respect to it and you have like the tasting notes on it. It’s really exciting, especially ’cause rum is one of the most beautiful spirits with so much history and heritage behind it. Uh, and also geography behind it. And so, I don’t know, this is just really cool. A again, I’m not just plugging for Ciara for no reason. This is an awesome, awesome product.. That’s amazing. Yeah. You know what’s cool? There’s no additives also in the rum, and our greatest thing is we want people to reimagine rum. Yeah. Right? Because to your point, you would always see it in that way. Mm-hmm. It’s just so good. I got 20 bucks on it. Hey. Oh. 20. Bring up, bring another investor on boards here. No. You know what you gonna say? What’s that? You gonna say, I got five on it. I got five on it. I got five on it. That’s what you say. Roughly 20 years after goodies. The industry has certainly changed a lot. Mm-hmm. How have you adapted to those changes in the industry, and do you see those as an opportunity or a threat? I actually got to witness the time period of where physical sales was the only way of sales performance. Yeah. When I put out goodies, that was right around like the last season of physical sales. Mm-hmm. When I put out one, two step. Then they started to track your performance sale, your performance by way of digital performance, right? Mm-hmm. Um, and so I got to witness that and then now we live in this social media era, era that’s like a whole different animal. Everything is all about perspective. Mm-hmm. Right. And for me, running my own company and doing things independently, I feel like you have to, you know, what is always like a glass half full kind of thing, or try to find like the most, the best perspective possible to figure it all out because this world’s gonna move without you. Yeah, that’s what I have learned. I think what’s also amazing is that social media platforms have allowed so much more opportunity for many people that have never gotten it. Life is gonna change, like I say, and it’ll, it’ll change without you, you know, it’s up to you if you wanna roll with it and figure it out. But I can appreciate some of the parts of now, and some parts I can do without. You know, like the world of like comments is like. Eughhh, don’t look at those, don’t look. But you know what’s so crazy? I really don’t care. Like I, I’m not saying it to you to say it. No, I think you and I have both reached that point. I really don’t care. Because you know what they say, the greater you’re great, the more, the more they hate. Yeah. And they wouldn’t be talking about you if it wasn’t good. That was the biggest lesson that, that I had to learn because the, the all the positive praise can affect you just as much as the negative praise. To doing something that ultimately isn’t what you want to do. Yes. So at some point that belief in the self is what it comes down to. Yeah. We can’t be like waves in the sea. Yeah. I think about those that have come before me that have been so incredibly successful. Some of the best in the world. Not one person out of the list of people that I really admire and respect haven’t been talked about. Yeah. Or haven’t been told. No. So we have to have perspective. Right. So that’s how I look at it. It’s like, okay, the greater you’re great, the more they hate. It’s better to have more comments than not. And that’s a part of life. And I think a lot of people think that, you know, the modern age is a lot scarier for artists with social media and people having direct access. But there’s the other side of that, of like when you came up in the two thousands, that was like the height of paparazzi culture. Oh yeah. Crazy. Which if they decided they were gonna destroy you, then they were gonna destroy you. My Gosh, destroy you, 100% How did you, How did you deal with the pressure and looming threat of that from a young age? Oh my goodness. I think I always just believed, I’ll figure it out some kind of way. Yeah. Because again, if I live by thinking someone can singlehandedly, destroy my career, then I’m like really in for like some big trouble. I have seen many CEOs come and go. I have seen those that have been the decision maker for me come and go. So I’ve gotta know the power that I have within me. I’ve gotta know the gifts that I have within me. I’m empowered by those gifts. But just understanding that, you know, is um, is game changing. It keeps things in perspective like, you know. So yes, it was a time period where media. You know, had tremendous power and it still does, right? Sure. Um, perception is reality sometimes, but again, like it’s a little bit of a false reality because whatever it’s supposed to be for you is gonna be. Yeah, it’s the compass that you were talking about. The Compass always redirects itself to North. The compass does. You gotta recheck the compass sometimes. Shake it, hit it a little bit. Yeah. ’cause sometimes you have a vision of what you wanna do, and then that vision evolves as you start to go through things. Of course. Like, you know what no one tells you when you’re like this little girl dreaming big. That this beautiful dream that I see is like gonna come with some ugly stuff. And that’s the reality is that the beautiful dreams that we have is gonna be ugly sometimes to get there. We dig, dig into the, I think I’m gonna gonna start here first. Actually, this patty, the patties, my gosh, my stomach is starting to get so full. No, you gotta eat faster. That’s the trick. Ah-huh. This is a delayed response to your body where it doesn’t know it’s full yet. Mm-hmm. You can keep going. Mm-hmm. This is, this is, that’s good. Are manifestation and prayer the same to you, or is there something different when you manifest something, you’re putting it into the universe right. Of what you see to happen? When I pray the greatest difference that I’m connecting it to God in Jesus. Mm-hmm. It’s a spiritual thing, right? Yeah. So I’m praying about the things that I wanna manifest. Mm. I’m speaking life into it, but through a spiritual way. So I’m cementing the concept of what I’m trying to cement on, on earth. Yeah. Because I think the, the way that I’ve always looked at manifestation, you know, I, I grew up in like a relatively secular household. You know, so the way that I’ve always viewed administration is when you speak something outward, You’re then more likely to actually pursue it. Mm-hmm. And do the actions and do the work. Mm-hmm. And obviously you’ve put in so, so much work to actually get there. Do you think that people sometimes miss that step in manifestation where they’ll speak something into existence but then never actually try and achieve it. Um, you gotta do the work, right? You can’t say, I wanna have this and then sit on a couch. It’s like, not gonna come. You, you go to sit on the couch and watch it happen on TV with somebody else. So that’s why we also say, when you do what you love, you never work a day in your life. So you have to make sure you’re doing what you love doing, right? Mm-hmm. Me and Russ were saying the other day, I said to him, it’s kinda really been a big mantra for me lately, is I said, babe, I just feel like so overwhelmed. You know, I was like, man, he’s like, what do you feel stressed out? And I said, no. I mean, stressed out is kind of a negative thing to say. He said, oh no, you ain’t stressed out. You blessed out. And I said, yeah, blessed out. But when he said that to me, it was like the world got lighter. Right? Yeah. Because perspective again. Right. So that’s how I try to like live my life. You know, um, as best as possible. That makes a lot of sense. Please eat some plantains. My fingers are too greasy to pick up the plate. I think we got it. Eat some plantains. Really? Is this honey butter? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Whipped honey butter. Yes, sir. That’s how you do that. I, I dip my plantains in the butter, Ciara. I don’t know what’s going on. Mm. Does your do that? It’s so good. Wait, did you mean to do that? It’s so good. Yes, I did. Oh, that was your first time doing that? That that was my first time doing that. Oh my gosh. Why not? You watch people perform on TV when you were 14, Said, I can do that. I watch people eat on tv and what? Why not me? Why not? Let’s go Ciara. For course number three, we have the miso glazed black cod. We have the spicy tuna, crispy rice, a little bit of fresh serrano on there. We have the Peking duck with the pancakes, all the accoutrement. We have the general tsao’s chicken, and then of course some pad see ew. Mm-hmm. Welcome to the continent of Asia. We are here. We finally figured it out. I love Asian food. Yeah, so I could not have a last meal without something from that part of the world. Mm-hmm. From that region. Where do we start? Can I, can I dish you up some, some of the, you know what, put that on there. But I’m gonna do my classic start with the crispy rice tuna, because, you know, that’s how I normally start off my appetizers, the appetizer. You, you can say fire, or you can say ‘fahh’. Well, I say it slaps. Slaps, and that’s food slaps. Stop. You know what, come on man. Josh, my guy. Slaps, hitting. Hitting. Okay, so now we’re gonna do wanna do me so, okay, absolutely, please. Occasionally bangs. I say bangs this, bangs. Come on now. This miso cod bangs, it is a culinary term. Let find out. Josh, you’d be in the mix. You said something once where you talked about how. You don’t want to glorify anything that’s toxic or harmful in your music. Mm. How have you lived that through your experience maturing through your life? You know, what we feed ourselves is real. Like it goes back to the same concept, like the things that we speak and say. Um, and so I’ve just been a big believer in like, sometimes I do feed my soul in my mind with crap stuff. I’m not gonna lie. Like, you know, the stuff that you’re feeding yourself like. I don’t, I’m like, I don’t even know like that. I actually like the song Clean. I’m not saying that’s the way, like it’s okay. I, I love all kinds of music, however it comes, like I have explicit music myself. Mm-hmm. Um, but again, I do think too much of anything can be too much. Yeah. And especially too much of the, the not so good stuff can be way too much. You were talking about manifestation earlier, you said that you manifested your husband, Russell Wilson, and a lot of people, they’ve been asking for your exact prayer. I know you put out a song about it. I want to talk about the pressures that you guys might face from being sort of held up as this, like paragon of a beautiful, stable, loving couple. Mm. You know, that, that definitely is a part of life. Yeah. Um, but I, I don’t think we can live life that way. Right? Mm-hmm. Thinking or worrying about that. We just have to live life as us, one that we do get to share, you know, some of our beautiful love that God has. You know, so beautifully crafted. ’cause we give it all to him, to be honest with you. Yeah. Um, I thought I was gonna be single for like for years before he came into my life and he, no, he, yeah and he said like 10, I think it was for him. Um, but obviously we plan and God laughs. Um, you know, so I think there’s something beautiful and powerful, um, to how God can work things out in your life and the way that he has for us. Um. And, you know, listen, we love giving love. You know, I always love, um, Russ’s philosophy. You know, he talks about attitude of servitude, um, and loving big. And so it’s kind of the only way for us, and I think that what’s also amazing is through our love. We get to one again, do life together, do everything together. We get to impact together. Yeah. Um, you know, I don’t think we wanna think about like that part of like think of life that way. Sure. But we do know, you know, the world will definitely have things to say, but again, it comes with it. Right? Yeah. Of course. As long as we know we’re loving as best as we can and. Um, you know, giving our best and loving the right way, and as we say, doing it, um, we always say Jesus at the center like everything else will take care of itself. Both you and Russ are really good with like quotes and quips and sayings, and he claims he won you over when you saw his busted wallet. Do you know the busted wallet theory? Oh, I know that. What, well, tell me the theory though. What’s the theory? So what I’ve heard is that you saw his busted wallet sitting on the table, okay? And you said, what are you doing with that busted wallet you’re losing? And he said, first of all, when you with me. You ain’t ne, you, you ain’t never losing. I was like, Ooh. Okay. Talk that talk then, um, no, but honestly, um, yeah, that’s, that was really cute. But he did have a really janky wallet. That wallet was like, it had been through some things and it was a Bible covering over his phone case. And I’m like, that’s, that ain’t matching the face. The face is like, but the wallet ain’t matching the whole vibe, you know? Um, really cute. Gucci face, Target wallet. Sometimes it happens, you know. Listen, high, low, high, low. Ciara, the first ever shot of the first ever cooking video on this show. Was supposed to be me dancing to, uh, uh, myself, acapella ride. And I’d like to show you, oh my gosh, this uncovered footage that nobody has ever seen. Are you kidding me? You guys like Ciara? He love the way I ride– Oh my gosh, you are kidding me. This was, I was waiting for mac and cheese to bake. Oh my. And I had, you know, I was in the sweatpants because my laundry didn’t dry from the day before. It was our first day ever shooting more than five years ago. Oh my gosh. And I just thought of this silhouette that again, I wrote a 10 page paper on, and I was like, what if I tried to hit it right now in front of the camera? You didn’t, that did not, I, I was just trying to make our crew laugh. Oh God. And then our editor put that as the first ever shot, and we were like. Guys, I don’t think legally we have the right to that do that. And we don’t think Ciara would want you sullying her dance moves like that in the kitchen. But now I have you in front of me to ultimately give me your blessing to do that whenever I’d like on camera. Lemme tell you, first of all, Josh, you are a real one. Okay. You are real ones. You are a real one. And you can definitely do that dance in the kitchen. I guess. Now she’s signaling to our team, no, Ciara. For the final course, final meal, we have fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and then the scratch made peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream on top. Mm-hmm. Wow. When the ice cream just like forms the sauce. Oh, this is insane. This is like really good. It genuinely shows so much about you as a person that like some of your first words to me were, my team can try the food, right? Oh yeah. And I was like, that’s our favorite part. Mm. Like truly. And so you have so much love. No. And care for others. Look at your life. Like I, I think of that line from Hamilton, like, why do you write like you’re running out of time? Like you’re really living life, like you’re running out of time. And in a sense, we all are, but do you actively think about that? Like I gotta accomplish all these things. I gotta live as hard and possible because this is one day gonna go away. I just, I think I really appreciate the joys of life. I just appreciate life in general. Like it’s such a gift to wake up and have breath in your lungs. Yeah. We gotta live life to the fullest. Like why not? Like why not live out your dreams as best as possible? Mm-hmm. And eat all the good food that the world has to offer. Something my dad said to me, we weren’t like a big quote family. It ain’t that profound. He said something to me that really kind of framed the way that I viewed life, which is just that. You can play it safe and still fail, might as well take the risk, because even if you fail, it could have happened if you played it safe too. That’s exactly it. It’s almost like the odds are just in your favor to take that shot. You’re gonna take risk and you’re not gonna always get it right, but you gotta take the risk. The risk is what? Is it worth the reward, kind of concept. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think that’s really like the perspective, right? Um, trying to find a, a, a prophetic way to say it, but it’s just you have to No, it’s not. So sometimes it’s the, the prophetic thing is the feeling inside yourself, and I think it comes out in actions as opposed to words. Mm-hmm. Which you can clearly see with, you know, the way you live in your career and your family. A prophetic quote that I heard you say at first was, was it Matthew 1626? Mm. Uh, what good is it for a man to gain the world but lose his soul? Yes. That thing hit me pretty hard because so many people, even if they take the risk, even if they make it, even if they satisfy goal one and two on the sheet, they end up completely losing themselves in the sauce and losing their soul in the process. Yeah. So first of all, I always say that when it comes to music and doing this as an artist, I’ve realized along the way that I love something so much that will never love me back how I love it, and that’s outta my control. Um, but I do feel like oftentimes and not I see people that I’ve admired, you know, um, give everything up to get to the top, but to get there. And then unfortunately lose it all right. Whether it’s through the mind. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, going bad, right. Whether it’s through, you know, whatever may happen in their world. And that’s a scary place to be in. I think sometimes you look at humans and you’re like, oh my gosh, like I see them and I wanna be that. You have no idea what someone is. Or what is going on. Mm-hmm. You know, in their world, uh, my greatest fear I have is that I get to a point that I’ve always jumped up getting to, and then in the end I have nothing. Like, in the end, I lose my mind, I lose myself. Like for me, getting through this industry and what we do and how hard it is for me, it’s important to know who I am in the end and so much that. Can even, I think, be traced back to like 14-year-old you goal number three, right? Think about longevity. Longevity. Don’t think about the short term. It was actually Russ who said something in an interview about manifesting his relationship with you. Mm. Where he said, I wanted someone who would give me the kind of love that my mom gave to my dad on my deathbed. Mm-hmm. Which. My wife and I actually had almost an identical conversation the day before, so it was a little spooky for me. Oh my gosh. Because so many people, they, they pick a partner, they pick a path in life based on what’s going to fulfill them in the short term, what they think will fulfill them. But then to ultimately think about at the end of your life, who are you going to look back on? What are you going to look back on and be proud of? Mm-hmm. And to have that. Is incredible. It sounds like you’ve almost built your life in a way to where you’re going to reflect back, may it be 130 years in the future. And you’ve already accomplished so much, but you’ve said that you haven’t accomplished everything you want. Yeah. What’s one thing you still want to accomplish before you die? You know? I just believe. Now, listen, I have spoken a lot of things. I was just doing an interview the day and I said this there, but I don’t want it to be so much about the focus on the monetary piece of it all. Mm-hmm. But I do hope to become a billionaire one day. And the reason why– You’re turning my $5 into your rum into a billion. Amen. People do that, you know? That’s true. It goes back to what my ultimate goal is, and that’s the impact. Yeah. I just love, um. You know, we get to see a taste of it with what we do in our Y and youth foundation, right? Understanding the power of raising money for research, understanding the opportunity to help save lives, um, you know, understanding the importance of my platform and our platforms. And so, um, you know, why did God choose me outta the billions of girls in the world to do what I do? That’s very deep. Like there’s billions of girls in this world that can sing and dance. Mm-hmm. But for some reason, I got, you know, this, this, this really unique opportunity to do it. I got chosen. Out of the many girls in the world to have my platform and to do what I do. Like it can’t just be for the cute stuff we talk about building, like, youth know, why not youth centers and you know, the less fortunate communities like, I wanna be able to do that. Right. Yeah. You know, so there’s those things like I just wanna have a couple of zeroes so I can, you know, do all that good stuff. Yeah. You know, so that’s really a big part of it. And then of course you just don’t wanna have to ever worry about certain things in life, so. Sure. Ultimately, what do you think happens when you die? I pray that I go to heaven. Yeah. I am gonna go, okay, I’m speak life. ’cause Lord, you know what I know. And we know what we know. We gonna go, I’m gonna see you Lord. Um, no. But now gimme like a 30, 70 shot and I’m fine. No, we don’t want that. We want a hundred. I’ll take a hundred. There we go. Come on now. Um, yeah, I do believe that, um, you know, you go to two places, you know? Mm-hmm. Um, there’s two choices I think in my book. Yeah. You know, there’s this thing they talk about, like, do you come back as something different? I don’t know. I don’t know what I don’t know, but I do believe, and what I think I know, um, and what I do know, um, is that, you know, my hopes is that I go up, you know, I, I thank God for my career, that I’ve, you know, even at this point, had some pretty cool songs that continue to stand the test of time that those songs will live on. You know, I hope people still dancein to those songs. Um, you know, um, when all has happened. Um, but yeah, it’s just a deep thought, man. Yeah, no, it is. Well, I want you to know that I will keep your legacy alive. One academic paper. And also my wife yelling at me, please stop doing the dance from ride. You’re embarrassing yourself as I do it while I’m cleaning the kitchen. So, oh my God. There’s that legacy. You are gonna say, she went to heaven riding, Hey, well not riding like that. No, not like that. That was, I wasn’t, I don’t do that part. No, no, no. Mostly ’cause our floor is dirty. Uh, you know what, Josh? It gets the pants. I, I’m not gonna deal with you right now, Josh. Are you ready to go into the lightning round? Uh, yeah, I’m ready. Let’s do it. Who’s the one person dead or alive you’d want to share your actual last meal with? Well, my husband. Yeah, but I was gonna say, Aw, I say.You can pick any You can pick any year of your husband too. Husband’s father. Husband’s father. Was not planning to cry. I’m so sorry. No, it’s okay. You left me tissue. Yeah. Oh my gosh. But I do. My husband’s father. Yeah. I just wanna know the man behind that man. Sorry. You never got to meet him. No. Yeah, sorry. No, not at all. No, it’s, it’s– Should I eat this cookie to bring me some smiles? God darn it, Josh. What the heck? Cookies are kinda like– Oh, I never thought I’d be crying. Like, well maybe it’s ’cause it’s called last meal. You’re gonna be crying. I’m sorry. Do people cry on this show like that? Occasionally. Okay. Some, but that doesn’t make your emotions any more or less valid. Oh my gosh, that was a really sweet moment. Sorry. Oh my gosh. You have nothing to apologize for genuinely. Ooh, let’s go. Okay. What’s the next question? Make it funny. Um, did any snack company approach you in 2004 asking if you would make a product called Ciara’s Goodies? No, they did not. Bullshit. That sucks. They did not, but they should have. Frito-Lay Ciara’s goodies. Come on. You got ’em in lemon pepper for you. Oreos, chip ahoy. All the ones I like. Okay. If you could collaborate with one person that you’ve already collaborated with again, how would it be? Oh, bring back one collab. Missy Elliot. Got it. Man. I’m just gonna be teary eye this whole freaking tie. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, it’s gonna get that again. What song do you want to be played at your funeral? I’m gonna go make it Energy. Mm-hmm. Okay. Um hmm. All my people say stah, everybody say stah. Promise the funk, the whole funk. Nothing but the funk. It ain’t over. You gotta bring the tempo. Yeah, a hundred percent. I need the tempo at my funeral. I want people dancing at my funeral. Who’s your dream eulogize at your funeral? My best friend is almost like. 20 years older than me, so she might not be able to do, I was like, she’s in the back. Whoa. Because the hopes is that she lives all the way to her potential. Right. And by that point, you see what I’m saying? Yeah. You get the math. It’s a tough math here. I’m speaking life into her. Yeah. You understand? Oh, I get it. Beautiful. Because if she’s speaking for me, then that means Do you understand? Yeah. That she has an outlived So she has lived to like 160, 170. That’s what I’m saying, the math ain’t, but I, because I think she gives the best speeches. Yeah. So that’s why I brought her up. But I, if that happens, then that’s not a good thing. ’cause she’s almost 20 years older than me. You got more than a hundred years to write this speech. I love you Yolie. Yeah. You know the point is she gives. The point is, is that she gives the best speeches. Uh, this is a question just for me. With two weeks of training, how far do you think you could triple jump? Gimme a good metric. Uh, Olympic champions right around 15 meters. 30 or 50 feet. So how much training? You said two weeks of training. Y’all know? I, I live with a Why not you attitude? So, and like you’re sleeping in the hyperbaric chamber. You know, you got all Russ’s body. I’m getting the whole everything. Yeah. Yeah. 43, 44. I’m gonna keep it, keep it modest. ’cause we really know I’m gonna go 50, you know what I’m saying? Like 3, 3, 2 weeks from me. I’m going all the way. What’s your biggest fear? It’s not being prepared and going to jail. I don’t wanna go jail. Uh, what’s your greatest regret? Regret, man? I kind of live life without regrets. ’cause I, I think that when you have regrets, like you kind of, that, that can leave a gap in your soul. Finally, Ciara, are you happy? Oh, yeah. You seem happy. I am. I’m happy too. I’m very happy you joined me. Truly. If you wanna deliver your last words to that camera right there. Mm. I would say give big, serve big and love big. Those are my three. Ciara, everybody give it up. Give it up for yourselves. Everyone. Check out her new album, Cece. It’s out. What is it? August 11th. August 22nd. August 22nd. Uh, incredible. 10 to one rum. Truly, it’s a fantastic product. Yay, you’re awesome. This rules so hard. This was fun. Truly. Thanks for making me like laugh and cry and eat good food. This is my favorite thing. I love good food, like I’m so happy. Laugh, cry. Eat good food. I think if you’re doing those often, you’re living a good life. You’re living a good life. My soul is full. Now I can go to bed. Goodnight. Yo, I need a nap. The perfect way to elevate all of your meals. The last Meals bar set is available now at mythical.com.