Almost 25 years since her solo debut, the singer recalls how a gay guy made her a more fabulous girl.
By Brandon Voss
Sorry if it breaks any hearts, but Toni Braxton isn’t nearly as sad as she sounds.
The seven-time Grammy Award winner began jerking tears in the ’90s with hits like “Breathe Again,” “Un-Break My Heart,” and the aptly titled “Another Sad Love Song.” On Sex & Cigarettes, her first solo album in eight years, she continues to explore every shade of heartbreak, from longing and loneliness to anger and resilience. But didn’t she get divorced five years ago? Isn’t she happily engaged to be remarried?
Currently keeping it real on the sixth season of WE tv’s Braxton Family Values, Braxton explains why fans never want her heart truly unbroken.
NewNowNext: You look smokin’ on your new album cover, Toni. But didn’t anybody tell you that cigarettes are bad for you?
Toni Braxton: [Laughs] I know some people are upset, like, “How dare she smoke on her album cover, how dare she sing about cigarettes!” But it’s just a metaphor. It’s a throwback to when you’d smoke after great sex or just to calm your nerves.
Sex & Cigarettes is your first album with a parental advisory for explicit content. Why do you think your songs have gotten racier?
Because I’m a grown-ass woman. I’m 50 years old, and sometimes you have to say the f-word, because there’s really no substitute for it. But there aren’t really many bad words anymore. Growing up, I couldn’t even say “shoot,” and now “bitch” is a term of endearment. “Ooh, bitch, you is wearing them shoes!”
How’s 50 treating you?
It’s good! I don’t really feel 50. Age doesn’t define me — like that 80-year-old female bodybuilder. But I have Lupus, of course, so whenever I can’t get out of bed, I’m like, “Is this Lupus or because I’m 50?” Sometimes I have to remind myself that I’m 50, especially when it comes to fashion. Not that I can’t still pull off that midriff, but maybe it’s not as appropriate as when I was 20.
The title track on your new album is actually about a guy coming home smelling like sex and cigarettes. More than 25 years after “Love Shoulda Brought You Home,” thanks for reminding everyone that men can’t be trusted.
I have a lot of male friends who say their women can’t be trusted either, so it goes both ways. Listen, I’m not the type of chick who keeps tabs on a guy, because I’m too fly for that, but I do like to know what’s going on. We have to check up on our men from time to time, just like we get tune-ups on our vehicle.
Your new song “FOH” is for the men who don’t pass inspection. Sorry, can you just remind me what that stands for?
Fuck outta here! [Laughs] See? Sometimes you just have to say it. It’s about, like, “I care about you, but what are we doing? If you don’t want to be with me, just let me know.”
In “FOH” you sing, “Tell me who you think you are. I’m a motherfuckin’ star!” He better recognize, Toni.
Right? Sometimes you gotta put it out there. We have to be confident, and sometimes it’s okay to be a little cocky, too.
As the queen of heartbreak songs, do you have any good advice for getting over a failed relationship?
You know how some people say the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else? There’s some truth to that.
There’s a spirit of resilience that runs through Sex & Cigarettes, but your latest single, “Long as I Live,” is about resigning yourself to a lifetime of heartache. Are there some relationships you never get over?
Absolutely. Some people just get into your DNA and they just can’t be removed. It sucks, but you go on, and you try to find love and happiness again. But when you see that person or hear from them again, your insides still rattle.
It’s an odd time for you to be releasing a breakup record. Your divorce from Keri Lewis, father of your two teenage sons, was finalized back in 2013. You recently confirmed your engagement to rapper Birdman, whom you’ve been dating for a couple years, so I almost expected you to put out a dance album about the joys of being in love again.
Well, I started this album when I was still going through a breakup, when another chapter of my life was ending. Then I found love, yeah, but there were still remnants of that old situation, and I felt I still had to sing about it to get it all out.
Some of your biggest hits have been sad love songs. Have you embraced that your fans prefer you heartbroken?
A dear friend once told me, “Toni, when you sing these sad love songs, it makes us feel like we’re not alone.” From the beginning, working with L.A. Reid and Babyface, they told me the tone of my voice lends itself to heartache. I didn’t know how to take that at 23, but as I’ve gotten older, I understand it better. I guess my voice has a richness, a milky texture, that just makes you want to cry and eat ice cream. In my 20s, though, I didn’t really know what I was singing about. When I sing about heartbreak now, I really feel it, because I’ve really experienced it.
So when you first sang “Un-Break My Heart,” you were just faking it?
Well, my high school sweetheart broke up with me when he wanted to take another girl to the prom, and I was devastated. A guy in college, a med student, also broke up with me, and then he broke up with me again after we got back together. So I do remember thinking about those experiences when I was singing “Un-Break My Heart.”
You’ll be touring again this spring. When you’re in a happy place, is it ever challenging to channel heartache into your performances?
No, because I look at it as acting. I’m narrating a story through music. Besides, even though I’m happily engaged, sometimes he still gets on my nerves and drives me to drink. My mom always reminds me, “That’s his job, Toni. He’s just doing his job.”
To celebrate 25 years since your debut album release, you should bring back the diamond-encrusted Million Dollar Microphone you used in your Las Vegas residency.
Oh, that’s actually a really good idea! Thank you for reminding me of that thing.
You reteamed with gay director Bille Woodruff, your longtime collaborator, on the video for “Deadwood,” the lead single off Sex & Cigarettes. Why does that relationship work?
Because he’s my real bestie, and that just carries over to a great professional experience. I was on the phone with him the other night until 2 in the morning. He’s my buddy forever.
And with him directing, you know you’re guaranteed to have sexy men in your videos.
Always. I tease him about that. He’s like, “We have to have something for the guys and the girls. We have to get it from both sides!”
You were raised in a strict religious household with a family of pastors and clergymen. What was your introduction to the gay community?
It was when I began working on my first album. My stylist was a fabulous gay guy, Bernard, and I just fell in love with him. We were dear friends and worked together for a long time. He was so stylish, and he introduced me to the world of fashion and fabulousness. I remember I was holding my purse like a church purse, and he was like, “We are not in church, Ms. Braxton. Carry that purse like you’ve got a penis in your hand.” [Laughs] It sounds weird, but he actually taught me how to be a better girl.
Growing up, though, you sang in your church choir. No gay guys there?
I’m sure they were there, but maybe I was too young to notice. Although, looking back now, there was this one boy, one of my good friends, who was pretty fabulous. Man, he could play the hell out of that tambourine. Oh, I just remembered something! We used to switch shoes! I’d wear his Buster Browns and he’d wear my Thom McAns!
Why do you think the LGBT audience connected to your music from the beginning?
Well, heartbreak is universal. But I’ll never forget when L.A. Reid told me that Elton John loved me. Elton said, “Tell Toni I’m a huge fan. I love his work.” L.A. said, “I will tell her.” My voice is androgynous, and my look can be androgynous, too.
A few years ago you mentioned wanting to play a lesbian on Orange Is the New Black.
That’s still on my bucket list. I know people look at me side-eyed when I say it, but I don’t want to play a lipstick lesbian — I want to be butch, like, “Yeah, wassup?” People in the business just can’t see it, I guess. I’m probably doing to have to produce something myself if I want that to happen.
You’ve performed on Broadway in Aida, Beauty and the Beast, and After Midnight. Are there any dream shows that could bring you back to Broadway?
Broadway might be a little taxing on my body at this point, but I could see myself doing something like Kiss of the Spider Woman, where you sort of come out for a bit, then go back for a while, then come out again. Remember when Vanessa Williams did Kiss of the Spider Woman? She was maybe on stage a total of 20 minutes.
You were famously discovered by a record producer at a Maryland gas station. Do you still pump your own gas?
Everything’s self-serve now, so sometimes I don’t have a choice.
But these days I’ll bet you pump gas while serving cuter looks.
When I’m pumping gas, sometimes I look fabulous, sometimes I look like a soccer mom. Well, a soccer mom with a Chanel bag.
NewNowNext, April 2018.
Photo: Steven Gomillion