"My production manager is this guy named Brian French, and Brian had tried to get me to switch to ear monitors for probably eight years," Robinson says. "I went to see Luther Vandross - who was a really good friend of mine - and he was at the Hollywood Bowl. Afterwards I went backstage, and he said, 'Smoke, let me tell you, the ear monitors, they are really what's happening. It's like singing to yourself in the studio. When you saw me, when I came on, I was barely singing, because I could hear myself. I don't have to strain; I don't have to do anything.'
"Later I told Brian, 'I saw Luther and he was telling me...' Brian said, 'Great man! I'm gonna have the lady come down to the studio and fit you.' I said, 'OK, fine.' So they fitted me and the first concert that I used them on I could hear myself great, better than I ever could. It was a godsend. It doesn't matter where you're playing. It doesn't matter what the acoustics are. It doesn't matter if you're outside or inside. It doesn't matter if the wind is blowing. It doesn't matter, whatever is happening, you can hear yourself.
(Jim Evans)
