Mary J. Blige on Her Documentary Mary J. Blige’s My Life & Why it Was Such a Painful Album for Her
20From acclaimed filmmaker Vanessa Roth, the documentary Mary J. Blige’s My Life, which is available to stream at Amazon Prime Video, celebrates and reflects on the 25th anniversary of the trailblazing 1994 My Life album from recording artist Mary J. Blige. The incomparable singer, producer and actress with multi-platinum albums, Grammy Awards and Academy Award nominations, deserves the icon status and “Queen of Hip Hop Soul” title that she’s achieved, but her road to success also included battles with abuse, depression and addiction, and her personal story has connected with millions of fans around the world.
During this virtual 1-on-1 interview with Collider, which you can both watch and read, Blige talked about why the My Life album is so important to her, the deep connection she has with her fans, learning that she has to be responsible for her own life path, and always searching for the most challenging thing in her career.
Collider: Out of all of your albums, you talk in this film about how your second album, My Life, is the most important because of everything you had going on then. When did you realize how important that specific album is, what it means to you, and what it means to other people, and what made you decide that you wanted to get deep and make a documentary about all of it?
MARY J. BLIGE: Well, it was really later in life that I realized it was such an important album. I knew it before two years ago, but it was later in life, after 1994. And two years ago, the world was celebrating the 25th anniversary of the My Life album, I was celebrating the 25th anniversary of the My Life album, Billboard magazine and Time magazine were celebrating the 25th anniversary. It was just going crazy, and so were the fans. So, I said, “This is the perfect time to have the cameras follow me around, get testimonies, and do a documentary on the My Life album while we’re all celebrating. It was extremely important to go back and talk about where that pain came from. It was such a painful, dark album for me, but it healed a lot of people. Four millions fans went out and bought that album, but when I went to write the album, I wasn’t coming from a place where I wanted everybody to see how vulnerable I am. I was dying and going through hell, and I just wanted to be happy. I just wanted to be free from all this pain. And then, four million people responded and were like, “Well, Mary, we’re suffering too.” It was a pivotal point in my life, where the fans actually helped me to see subconsciously that, “Wow, I can’t just kill myself now because I’m responsible for a whole bunch of lives right now.” So, I had to go back and let people see where the pain came from and just how much pain there’s been since then. It just was painful.
I’m also a concert photographer and I’ve photographed you on concert, so I’ve seen firsthand that connection that you have with your fans, in that sense. What’s it like to hear so many of those stories, over the years of your career, and to hear about so many people whose lives you’ve helped? Does it feel like both a beautiful blessing and the heaviest burden to hear the pain that all of these other people have gone through, but how you’ve helped uplift them?
BLIGE: It’s definitely a beautiful blessing, but it’s a responsibility now. It’s like, “Wow.” But at the same time, what I love about my fans is that they know that my life isn’t perfect as well and I’m not gonna always get it right, but they respect the fact that I respect that this is a responsibility. They have children now that I have to look out for. So, it’s a beautiful thing, but it’s a huge responsibility.
Read the full story on Collider here: https://collider.com/mary-j-blige-interview-my-life-documentary/
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