Grammy & Award-Winning Mauli Bonner (1 of 3)

As we close #BlackHistoryMonth here in February, I wanted to introduce you to an amazing Grammy Award-Winning artist and flimmaker Mauli Bonner. We'll discuss his award-winning film, "His Name is Green Flake" about the first black Mormon slave who entered the Utah Territory before even Brigham Young! Mauli is a Grammy Award-winning artist and we'll find out some of the big names he's been working with, including Katie Perry, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, and Ariana Grande to name a few. Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/0JdikyOm_9g Don’t miss our other conversations with Mauli: https://gospeltangents.com/people/mauli-bonner Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission Grammy Award Winner Mauli Bonner Interview GT  00:27  Welcome to Gospel Tangents. I'm excited to have my first Grammy Award winning artists on the show. Could you go ahead and tell us who you are, and how did you get that Grammy? Mauli  00:39  Yes, Mouli Bonner, and the Grammy came from writing on Gladys Knight's gospel album, One Voice gospel album. GT  00:47  Oh?! Mauli  00:47  Yeah. Gladys, in Vegas, was in my family's same ward growing up. GT  00:53  Oh really? Did you grew up in Vegas? Mauli  00:55  I did. I grew up in Vegas. Yeah. GT  00:56  So, Runnin’ Rebels, is that your team? Mauli  00:58  Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Running rebels, that's right. GT  01:01  Is this the Larry Johnson years? Mauli  01:03  Yes, it is, the good years. GT  01:07  They were very good years. Mauli  01:08  Yes. So yeah, I mean, so we did music later on, though, because she ended up being my manager, which is also interesting. GT  01:17  Gladys Knight was your manager. Mauli  01:18  Yes, yes, I know. I was in a man group. People say boy band, I don't do boy bands. I was in a man group. I was in a man group, and she was our manager. And that's how I ended up getting involved with her with songwriting. And so, I wrote on her gospel album. GT  01:34  I'm going to have to talk to you. I would love to get Gladys Knight on here. She's incredible. Mauli  01:39  She's incredible. She’s a legend, a living legend. GT  01:41  Oh, of course. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, very good. And it's not just Gladys Knight. You've worked with Katy Perry, Ariana Grande. Mauli  01:50  Yeah. I mean, LA was where I went after Vegas. And, you know, my mom grew up teaching voice and everything. And I learned the voice just because I grew up in the home, and she made sure all the kids learned it. So, when I moved to LA to do music for myself, artists would come up to me like, 'Hey, can you help me with this, help me with that?' And I was like, yeah, sure, just an unknown artist. Then then it became known artists, and then it became reality TV shows, so I just became the guy to develop artists. And so yeah, Katy Perry, Kesha. Then songwriting, as well with like, Gladys Knight's and Stevie Wonder, stuff like that. GT  02:31  So you've hung out with Stevie Wonder? Mauli  02:34  Yeah, yeah. We were working on his gospel album. It's great. GT  02:38  Wow, that's awesome. It's funny, we met last year. I'm trying to remember what that was. It was at BYU. Mauli  02:47  Education Week. GT  02:48  Oh, it was Education Week. Mauli  02:50  Yeah. GT  02:50  I think you're right. Yeah, that's what it was. And I just assumed, because I've seen the Bonner Unity Choir, which you're a part of, as well. Mauli  03:01  Well, it's my mom's choir. GT  03:03  Because, to me, they're so ubiquitous, I just assumed that you lived in Utah. So, I texted you a couple weeks ago. And I'm like, hey, we need to get together. We're going to talk about your movie, which we'll talk about in a minute. And then you texted me, you're like, well, I'm flying in at this time. I'm like, you don't live here? Mauli  03:27  Flying in?