Post by Admin on Jun 25, 2014 17:05:40 GMT -4
As humble as he is handsome, Maxwell still struggles to comprehend his sex-symbol status. "I appreciate it, but I don't completely understand it," he says. "I don't feel that way about myself, maybe because the way I came into the world was so dramatic and a little scandalous--not in terms of my career, but in terms of how I was born. I don't presume myself to be as great as that reaction."
Though he's fiercely protective of his privacy, choosing to remain tight-lipped about his personal life, today Maxwell feels compelled to open up. Silting on a plush leather seat in his tour bus's dining nook, digging into a salad, he speaks freely during the 45-minute ride from Chicago to Hammond.
Maxwell, originally his middle name, was horn in Brooklyn on May 23, 1973. His Pentecostal father was raised in Vieques, the island municipality located less than 10 miles east of tin; mainland of Puerto Rico. His mother grew up in a devout Baptist household in Haiti.
When his parents' relationship came to light, they faced harsh criticism from their respective families, both because of their strict religious backgrounds and because of the cross-cultural, interracial nature of the liaison. Subsequently, Maxwell's conception was a bit of a cause celebre. "It wasn't a planned pregnancy," he says. "[My mother's family] flew out' to New York while she was pregnant, and she had me out in Brooklyn so that no one would know, because there was shame in having me."
The tumult surrounding his entry into the world haunted Maxwell as a child. Because the subject wasn't often discussed, he internalized his feelings about the situation, letting them boil in his consciousness. "I fell guilty for being born and being alive," he intimates. "I fell like I kept my mother from her life. Looking back, I can definitely see how hard it was on my mom. It's tough for a black woman out here, and for her to have been left with a child."
Maxwell's mom looked to her own mother for assistance, and so Maxwell grew up mainly with his grandmother ("an angel sent from God") and his eight uncles. His father died in a plane crash when Maxwell was three.
"When one of the parents isn't around, it does something to the kids. Not having a dad growing up, I think I might [turn out to] be a better dad than I would have if I'd had a different situation," he says.
In the same way that not having a father figure colored how Maxwell views the manner in which he hopes to parent, watching his mother's interact ions with men over the years informed his own views on male-female dynamics. "I'm sure my mom fell like she lost out on something [by having me] and, in some ways, probably overcompensated with the men that she got involved with because maybe she was trying to catch up or something,"' he reflects.
As Maxwell describes his relationship with his mother, his grandmother's resolve, and the way both women were disappointed and mistreated by men, his song lyrics with their gallantry, tenderness and appreciation for women- take on a new significance. In a way, Maxwell's songs lay the blueprint for how women should be treated and, moreover, for how women like his mother and grandmother should have been treated.
in the music business, seven years is a lifetime. Many artists' entire careers don't last that long, so choosing to take such an extensive hiatus was a risky move for Maxwell, and yet it's a move he doesn't regret for a second.
"I remember feeling like life had slipped out. of my fingers."' Maxwell says about his decision to step out of the limelight. "What happens is, you have your dream and then the infrastructure that allows you to live out your dream ends up bleeding the life out of you."
Being surrounded by people with ulterior motives, meeting women who were interested in the public persona rather than the human being offstage and watching people in the industry behave in devious and calculating ways had jaded him.
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