She had to make her voice heard!

Icon, Singer, Actor and TV host, Dionne Warwick joins +Talk with her son Damon Elliott to discuss how she became an HIV/AIDS activist. Her new music can be found here

The following is a transcript of the conversation between Karl, Dionne, and Damon.

DIONNE
We are losing too many people. Don’t you want to help?

KARL
Welcome to Plus Talk on Plus Life. Today I’m talking to an icon, Dionne Warwick and her son Damon join me. Hello to you both.

DIONNE
Thank you. Nice seeing you too.

DAMON
Good to see you too.

KARL
Tell us about your fantastic work in HIV. I know that you lost your ballet to an AIDS related illness. Is that for you was that the moment that really lit, lit the flame I guess, when it came to HIV?

DIONNE
Not only losing Marvin at that point in in my life, first of all, not knowing what it was that they passed on, nobody knew what AIDS was until it get received a name once a face was put to it. And that face was Rock Hudson. My interest was a little selfish at that point ’cause we started losing a lot of my industry. You know, our lighting people, our sound people, our dancers, our singers, I mean, they were just leaving. I lost my, it’s my ballet. I lost my hairdresser, you know and it got to the point where I said, “Wait a minute, something’s gotta be done about this. What is this thing?” And I became curious enough to reach out to CDC, Dr. Fauci and I became his nemesis. He still calls me that. And I was appointed the ambassador of health for the United States, the only one that hasn’t been once since me by President Reagan. And I took it upon myself to run around the world. So that was how it all began out of curiosity more than anything else but then became something that meant something to me. We were losing too many people.

KARL
What kind of, if at all, pushback did you get from colleagues or friends in the industry who are like You’ve gone on record saying, “Ask any of my friends. They’ll tell you I’m crazy.”

DIONNE
Yeah.

KARL
They must have been telling you that you were crazy. Why are you doing this?

DIONNE
Yeah.

KARL
This could kill your career.

DIONNE
They did. They they did. They all said, “Dionne, please, you don’t leave alone. You know, you gotta be insane.” No, I’m not. I care, you know? We are losing too many people. Don’t you want to help, you know? In some way, however you can. If nothing but talking about it or learning about it you know? You might be saving your own life. You never know. And you don’t know how this thing is contracted until somebody tells you, succinctly a doctor or a researcher. This is how you contract it. Okay, now you know, that’s knowledge. You gotta know what you’re fighting before you can fight it. And I’m believe in that in every aspect of life.

KARL
Yeah and Damon, for you growing up in this period as a young boy becoming a young man in, you know, this was scary. What did, what did you learn from the way your mother stood up to people and stood up to this unknown?

DAMON
I learned at a very young age how mom took stuff on like right away and was not afraid. She taught me and my older brother to not fear. I mean, when people were running out of the hospitals mom was running into the hospital, like literally, when people were not wanting to touch their own children or seeing kids affected was really what was hard on me. You know, children being born with this, and then mom holding them. When even doctors were like, “Whoa.” You know, that to me showed me that, her courage and her belief and her faith, you know, she knew that we would, you know, if with the fight goes on you educate yourself and you find the cure, you know or you find the solution. And that’s something I learned at a very young age.

KARL
And a momentous moment, you know? Ronald Reagan is famous for not saying the word AIDS. And who was, who is the person that got him to say it? And what was that moment like?

DIONNE
I thought he was gonna kill me. I did. If his eyes had been dagger, I’d be dead, okay? But he had no choice. He had to, you know? He appointed me as the ambassador of health for United States, and I’m gonna do my job. I have to have the person that appointed me do their job.

KARL
Yeah.

DIONNE
And so I said, “Well, you gotta come on now. What’s this word? Why are you so afraid to say the word AIDS? It’s an absolute what it is. And people have got to believe you too. So in order for them to believe me, you got to come home.” And I finally embarrassed him to the point where he had no choice.

KARL
Is that one of your proudest moments?

DIONNE
One of them, yes.

KARL
One of them, exactly. I’ve gotta imagine, “That’s what friends are for,” is also a proud moment. How did that come about? You’ve donated the royalties for that song to amfAR I was doing some digging yesterday and we are now talking million and millions and millions of dollars in royalties that you just have given to to amfAR.

DIONNE
Yes.

KARL
How did the song come about? And famously what did Clive Davis say to you about that?

DIONNE
Yes, so isles that probably the biggest reckon I’ll ever have in my lifetime, which is fine. I was watching the film, “Night Shift,” and I heard the song being sung by Rod Stewart. I was in the, I was doing some work with Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager. And they had played several songs for me. And after hearing this song watching the role of the credits, I saw that Beth and Carol had written the song, and so they show me this song. I fell in love with it. It was saying all the right stuff you know, friendships mean an awful lot to me. And I asked, and I said, “Well, why aren’t we recording this?” And I said, “Well, if you wanna record it, fine.” In turns I called all three of those people that you see represented with me, Stevie, Elton and Gladys and hence wanna be a part of this as friends. And they agreed, Elizabeth Till happened to be in the studio while we were recording it. And she made the request that we give this on to her foundation because she’s getting ready. She’s just starting amfAR. And we felt because of the amount of people that we each within our group had unfortunately thought making transitions because of AIDS, we felt, “Well, why not? You know, if a talent’s gonna do something to stem this everything, let’s get rid of it.” And we gave it to amfAR. And subsequently, every single dime from every entity, the recording studio the tape, the engineers, the videographer the record company publishing every dime that was raised during the first part and continuously now goes directly to amfAR.

KARL
Oh, I get chills just thinking about it. This is one of those songs that just goes whack. It hits you where, it hits you where it needs to hit you in such a powerful but beautiful way. How much do you think this kind of music helps heal people? Let’s say people who are living with HIV, even hearing it now, I find that song incredibly comforting as someone who lives with HIV.

DIONNE
Yes, it is comforting. It is because it’s a positive approach to anything. You know, the beauty of the song not only does it sufficiently do things as you said, “Comfort you.” It’s being used for graduations. It’s used at births of babies. It’s used at weddings. It’s used like all different kinds of occasions. You know, I have friends who are leaving and going away for a long period of time. You know, parties, this song has taken on another genre altogether. It’s just, it’s across the board and that and still doing wonders for the HIV community.

KARL
Yeah. You have referred to yourself as a messenger, you know I know you don’t, I know you don’t like the term icon although the rest of us like it and it is appropriate for you. But you’ve called your primary purpose as what for what you do as a messenger. What is your message to people now in this day and age who still have an issue with people like me who are afraid of HIV, who are afraid to get tested who are afraid to talk about it?

DIONNE
It’s a case of basically, like I said, you have to understand what you’re fighting or why you’re fearing in order to combat both the fight and the fear. And it takes time to learn. You know, all you have to just learn ask somebody who know and that’s me or anybody else that has been in this fight along with me. I can’t do it by myself. You know, I never thought I could do it by myself. Although I started that way. Everybody was afraid, “I don’t wanna be a part of it, no.” Yes you do, you know? And after explaining to them and giving them data on the issue, it all became clear to them. And it was like, “Oh, okay, now I know.” Of course now, you know that’s how it’s the only way you’re going to become involved is with knowledge.

KARL
We say it all the time. Knowledge is power. You’re also a goodwill ambassador for the Global Authority on HIV and Aging. You know, we don’t talk enough about aging and HIV, you have a great slogan I that I read, “Age is not a condom.” Tell us about that one.

DIONNE
I don’t see any reason why someone over the age of 25 can enjoy life and that basically what that meant.

You know, there are people who still are enjoying very healthy, especially healthy sex life. And they still need to know the parameters. So, you know, there is no age limit on it, none whatsoever.

KARL
Yeah, I think you’re right. You know, a lot of people think, “Oh, we have them a certain age, I don’t need to worry about HIV or other STIs because I’ve been there and done that. But you’re right.

DIONNE
Exactly.

KARL
Age is not a condom. Both of you, thank you so much for making the time. Dionne, thank you for everything you’ve done for my community and the world. You guys, it’s been a real pleasure.

DIONNE
Thank you.

DAMON
Thank you.

KARL
That’s gonna do it for this episode of Plus Talk. If you want more information about what we’ve talked about or just to check out Plus Life in general go to the website pluslifemedia.com and you can follow us across social media platforms. We are at @pluslifemedia. Until next time, remember, that’s what friends are for. Bye-bye.