VIBE: You’ve talked about your controversy so much over the last month, let’s put it to bed for a sec and talk about what else is new with you. You've started season 2 of your reality show and there are some big changes this season. What can viewers expect?
Fantasia: "You’ll see on this season of the show that most of my family has moved out. My mom and her husband got their own place, Teeny got his own place, he’s paying his own bills, it’s getting to be a whole lot better. Everybody is not relying on me for everything. Of course I still have to help out with some things, but that’s okay because the burden has been lifted on the family part."
VIBE: Witnessing some of the family issues you had in the first season I always wondered why you did the reality show.
Fantasia: "My main reason for doing the show was I wanted my family to see themselves. A lot of time you can talk and talk and it goes into one ear and out the other, but we caught it [our problems] all on camera and everybody was really to sit back and see themselves, it was like, 'Oh okay, I get it.' I was a little scared, because I didn’t want it to bring confusion between us or for them to to think I was trying to put them out there, but it went the way I needed it to go. We would watch the shows together when they aired"
VIBE: And did you always want to financially support your whole family?
Fantasia: "In the beginning I wanted to support everyone, because we’re such a tight family and we all started singing gospel together. And when I got blessed I wanted to bless them. That’s what happens with a lot of people who make it. When you’re coming from a family that don’t have nothing and struggle to get what they've got, you’re like I’m gonna bless my brother, my mother… And what happened was I created that monster. Once you start giving, giving, giving people just kick their feet up and say, ‘I know you got it.’ I had to put a stop to that, because I was standing in the way of their destinies."
VIBE: And now members of your family are independent financially and have their own careers...
Fantasia: "Teeny has an album coming out. He’s kind of crazy [laughs] but his ideas are really good. Now Rico is singing with T.I. and I’m very proud of all of them because back when we were kids these were all of the things we said we were gonna do. I want to do a gospel album with my whole family soon."
VIBE: Your third and latest album, Back To Me did very well its debut week on the charts. What are some of your favorite songs?
Fantasia: " I love all of them. 'Even Angels,' 'I’m Here' from The Color Purple—I don’t listen to it too much because it makes me cry. 'Bittersweet' is my baby too, but I really love all of them, I really do. Some of the songs on the album were recorded before I went thru this stuff. That’s when it got spiritual for me. Listening to 'Even Angels' coming out of the hospital and listening to the words, it was just spiritual. We took three years to do this album and it turned about to be a reflection of all I went thru. 'Teach Me' reminds me of Tina Turner, because I love Tina Turner. I liked how they recorded her albums. So for 'Move On Me' and 'Teach Me'— we recorded them live in the studio with the background singers and it gave me such a rush, I loved it."
VIBE: But you do realize with the timing of everything there are still people who think this was a trumped up publicity stunt to get publicity for your side of the scandal, sell records or get more viewers for your show.
Fantasia: "I almost messed my kidneys up with my O.D. I had to have all these needles and IVs and now I have to go to the doctors regularly to check on my kidneys. I had to go to a home and meet with a lifecoach. And I have to continue with the lifecoach and speak with to him everyday on the road. I was on suicide watch at the hospital. [For those who think this was all a publicity stunt] the best way to answer that is that I was already getting publicity for the other situation [the alleged affair]. I was on Nancy Grace, CNN, every gospel station, every newspaper, every magazine, every newspaper. At the time I wanted to be away from all of the noise."
VIBE: And people also wonder after going thru all of that why didn’t you just take some time off.
Fantasia: "Guess what? I couldn’t afford to stay out of work right now even if I wanted to. My life right now is fighting my way out of debt that I’ve been in. But music is exactly what I need— it’s the place I go to let go of everything. A lot of people say when I perform I go someplace else and give it my all. And I tell them that’s where I release everything I go thru. When I get on the stage that’s where I let everything go."
I met Fantasia a few months ago and she was truly very humble and a pleasure to sit down and talk with. I want the very best for her and her career & I know that she will take everything that she has been through and turn it into something positive which she calls music.
