Stand by Your Truth by Rickey Smiley

Author:Rickey Smiley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books

* * *

WITHOUT STEVE HARVEY, there probably wouldn’t be a Rickey Smiley Morning Show. I was already doing really well. I had appeared on Showtime at the Apollo; I had hosted Comic View in 2000, and I would again in 2004, bringing my exposure to a whole new level. I’d appeared in Friday After Next with Ice Cube, Mike Epps, and Terry Crews, playing a character called Santa Claus.

My reputation and celebrity had grown to the point that I was making great money doing shows on the road. I had a beautiful home in an exclusive suburb of Birmingham with a pool and lake in the back. But The Rickey Smiley Morning Show enabled me to reach millions of people all over this country every day, to mix in messages about social justice, compassion, and God with my jokes and hip-hop. And Steve played a key role in my being able to do that by recommending that I take his place on KBFB 97.9 in Dallas. The success of that show got me a syndication deal. And now I am in about eighty radio markets, from Texas to Mississippi.

So I knew what I had to do the day that I got a call from the manager of a top hip-hop station in Orlando. He said that he wanted to take The Steve Harvey Morning Show off the air and replace it with mine.

“The Rickey Smiley Morning Show is growing,” he said. “We want you here.”

I told him that I needed to call him back. I immediately jumped in my car and drove down Peachtree Avenue to the Atlanta Civic Center, where Steve happened to be taping Family Feud. I told him that we needed to talk.

We went into a room. “Listen,” I said. “They’re going to take your show off in Orlando. And they’re going to put my show on. How would you like me to handle this? Because I’m riding with you. Do you want me to quit this job and come be on your morning show?” I asked him. “What do you need for me to do, because I’ll give it all up if you say so.”

I meant every word. And Steve actually started crying. That room was so quiet, you could have heard an ant crawling across the floor. I didn’t know what had triggered Steve’s tears. Was he that upset about the idea of being off the air in Orlando? Did he feel stabbed in the back by the guy who ran that radio station?

Finally, Steve pulled it together enough to speak. He told me that I was one of the most loyal people that he’d met in his life, and he said that he considered me his best friend. “You take that job in Orlando,” he said. “And you give it your all. Because what God has for me is for me. And what God has for you is for you.” And he hugged me tightly.

I am always going to choose Steve. His ex-wife Mary has made some terrible allegations against him, including saying that he was unfaithful to her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.