Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Ryan Shaw

Three-time Grammy-nominated artist Ryan Shaw can do it all. From sharing the stage with the likes of John Legend, B.B. King, Van Halen, and Bonnie Raitt to his work in productions of Motown: The Musical and Thriller Live, Ryan has performed at some of the most iconic venues around the world. He and his music have touched the lives of listeners around the globe and left their mark on music history.

This past year, Ryan decided to take a short hiatus from theater to get his voice back out there as an artist. The result is a highly anticipated album that’s on its way! This September, Ryan gave fans a sneak peek at what’s ahead with his latest single, “Strong Men Can.”

Pop Culturalist caught up with Ryan to learn more about discovering his passion for music, his career, and “Strong Men Can.”

PC: How did you discover your passion for the arts?
Ryan: As far as my introduction, it was from singing, growing up in church. From the moment you could talk, you had to sing in the choir. We didn’t even have a choice whether or not you could sing. When you were a child and you could start speaking, you joined the choir. That’s when it started for me at age five. I just loved singing. I liked the way it made me feel. As a child, the way people respond to you when you do certain things also encourages you to keep going. The response when I was singing compared to some other people was different. It inspired me to keep going. That’s how it started.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Ryan: Professionally, other artists and their creations. Super-creative people always inspired me to do more, to be more, to open up more. That’s where creativity comes from. So growing up, it was all gospel artists like the Peasall Sisters, the Clark Sisters, Daryl Coley, and James Moore.

As I branched out and got a Walkman, I started listening to secular music without my mother knowing about it. [laughs] I found artists like the Marvin Gayes, the Stevie Wonders, the Wilson Picketts, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin—all of them.

PC: You’ve had a lot of success throughout the years. When you look back, is there a particular moment that kind of stands out to you?
Ryan: Oh, wow. The moment that stands out most to me is as a child, I used to have these visions. They weren’t really dreams because I wasn’t sleeping. I’ll be like in between sleep and awake. I have this vision of me on stage and I couldn’t see the end of the people and there was no sound. But I could see a range of emotions. People were smiling and having a good time. They were holding candles and phones and creating a light. You could see people dancing, but you couldn’t hear any sounds.

So it’s when I was playing the Montreal Jazz Festival for the second time. It’s very rare that they have an artist back two years in a row, but they had me back twice. The first year, I was in this amazing big tent and it was like thirty thousand people. The next year I came back, I was much busier and I didn’t really look at the schedule. We got to Montreal so late. By the time we got there, we literally had to go out on stage, no sound check and no line check. My manager and I didn’t know we were headlining the festival.

I was on the main stage, and I didn’t know that! They pushed me from behind the curtain. I’m in this square in Montreal and there’s like forty thousand people. There was a deafening sound of yelling when they announced my name. I was like, “Wow. I’ve never experienced this before.” After the show was done, I turned to my band and I was like, “Oh my God. This is happening.” It was crazy. When I got back to the hotel, I was showering. I realized that that night was the dream that I’ve been having since I was a kid. It was an affirming moment for me. I realized why I never heard the sound to the audio of that vision because how I was raised younger, I would have thought it had to be gospel. That’s the devil. That’s the devil trying to take me away. So I don’t think the Lord let me hear the sound so I could be in the moment.

PC: Given all the success that you’ve had already in your career, if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be and why?
Ryan: I would say trust your gut more. That would’ve helped me in my early days in this industry. I did a lot of things because of who people were and chose management teams because people thought I should, even when I had a gut feeling about a different management team. I would listen to my own gut regardless of what people say. They’ll say things like these people can do this for you, but the deeper question is will they? They can, but will they do that for you? If they do that for you, what is the cost? It’s balancing those things. When you have other people that genuinely see the plan, they may not have the artists camp, but they have enough connections to make things happen. Just trust your gut.

PC: Tell us about “Strong Men Can” and the inspiration behind the song.
Ryan: I was thinking about putting together the concept for Imagining Marvin and my mind immediately went to Valerie Simpson, who is like one of my industry parents. I know she wrote pretty much most of Marvin and Tammi Terrell’s big hits: “Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing,” “You’re All I Need To Get By”—the list goes on and on. So I called her and I told her what I was doing. I said, “I’m trying to do this new concept album called Imagining Marvin. It’s sort of like some reimagined Marvin Gaye songs that I put on that I’ve reimagined to fit me as an artist, not me just covering a Marvin Gaye song. It’s an organic song that I would have done inspired by Marvin. I created some originals that were inspired from either artists of that time and what I imagined Marvin would be doing today.

I called Valerie and told her that I was doing one of the songs that she wrote with Nick, but I’m really interested in doing a new song. I asked her, “Would you want to write a new song?” She was like, “Sure.” A couple of days later, she sent me these clips of her just at the piano. She called me and said, “Normally, I don’t send anyone me at the piano. I usually go in the studio and fix it up a bit.” But she said, “You’re a visionary. You’ll get it.”

She sent me the little voice memo and I immediately had a big smile on my face. It’s a very timely sentiment for the song. So “Strong Men Can” speaks against what the traditional society here in America has taught us. Men need to be this and don’t be emotional, and never let them see you cry, never let them see you sweat, never let them do anything that appears what they perceive as weak. But it in turn has made us less human, less empathetic, less loving, less caring, less family oriented. It’s about the show and not reality. If someone dies or something bad happens, then cry. Because that’s naturally an emotion that could happen. But we talk “Oh, don’t do that. That’ll appear weak.” I was like, “Oh, really? Is that what we’re doing?”

For some people that turns into mental health problems because they can’t express themselves and they feel they’re going to be talked about if they cry or if they feel a certain way. The song talks about allowing yourself the permission to be and live your full human experience. That includes being emotional, being sad, being weak, being strong—all of it.

PC: The single comes off your upcoming project. Tell us about Imagining Marvin and how it came to fruition.
Ryan: It’s been some time now since the pandemic. We’ve lost a year. Initially, last year it was supposed to be happening on a different time schedule. I was talking with my manager about being realistic about where my career was as far as the music industry. I had left the industry for a while. I was doing Broadway, the West End—stuff like that. I was thinking it was time for me to get my voice back out there as a recording artist.

I was the understudy for Marvin Gaye in Motown: The Musical. I played Stevie Wonder, but I was also the understudy for Marvin. So I went on many times for Marvin and jumped into those scenes where he’s with Barry Gordon fighting for his artistry. That really resonated with me. We realized last year was his eightieth birthday. So it was an honorarium to him. It would be from one specific perspective as opposed to doing a bunch of covers like my first album was—which was a great album, but they were obscure so people thought I wrote them—but to put a clean perspective on it and also have my voice heard because the whole imagining Marvin part is key because it allows me to express what I feel Marvin would be doing. The original songs are inspired by a Marvinesque period.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Ryan: My two favorite bands are Kings of Leon and Coldplay.

PC: First album you bought?
Ryan: The first album I ever bought was a gospel group. It was actually a cassette tape of a gospel group called Commissioned.

PC: First concert you attended?
Ryan: My first concert was the most epic thing ever. It was at the Theater at Madison Square Garden and it was Patti LaBelle. Because I wasn’t exposed to secular artists as a child, I knew a lot of music, but I didn’t know who the people were by their name. After Patti LaBelle did her two and a half hour, a band called Frankie Beverly and Maze came on. I sat there and did not move. My friend who got us the tickets was like, “Are you okay?”

Patti LaBelle sang for two and a half hours. I couldn’t move. I just sat in my chair, people clapping, standing up, and jumping. I was in shock at how amazing she was the whole time. She was flawless. She took us on a ridiculous journey.

PC: An album that changed your life and why?
Ryan: I would say Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. It was a pivotal time. I had bought my first car and I bought it with my own money. It was six hundred bucks. It was a classic 1979 Celica. I rebuilt parts of the engine and fixed it up. I was very ambitious as a youngster and I went to the AutoZone. I’m from Georgia, so I went to AutoZone and bought twenty cans of auto spray paint, touch-up paint, and painted my whole car blue in the driveway with spray. It only lasted about nine months and then it started to fade. The original color was gold, so you had this gold and blue. It looked crazy by the time it was done. When I had that car, I went through one of my first big breakups. I would drive around Atlanta listening to that album and cry.

PC: A venue on your bucket list to perform at?
Ryan: I actually don’t have one. It would have been Radio City, but I’ve been lucky enough to perform there twice. It would have been Carnegie Hall, which I performed at three times, or Madison Square Garden, which again, I was lucky to perform at when I opened for Van Halen. Those are the big New York venues. Maybe the Opera House in Sydney?

PC: A must-have on the road?
Ryan: Literally two bottles of wine, one white, one red, a vegetable platter, and maybe a meat tray for the rest of my band. Oh, and a bottle of whiskey. I’m a big whiskey drinker. I don’t drink a lot, but my go-to is whiskey. If I need a bit of energy, I like nut butter like almond butter.

To keep up with Ryan, follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and Spotify. Pick up or stream “Strong Men Can” today.