Photography: Piper Ferguson
Rebecca Crews is looking to blaze her own path with her newest release “Destiny”. In addition to her role as a devoted mother and wife, she can also be seen on her own reality show, “The Family Crews”. Rebecca Crews is stepping into her own spotlight away from her husband Terry Crews. Rebecca discusses her journey from being a loving mother to commanding the stage as a solo performer.
Editor in Chief: How did you come up with your stage name Regina Madre? What was the reason behind the name?
Rebecca Crews: I came up with the name because I was looking for something that number 1, still used the first letter ‘R’. Secondly, I needed a name that has meaning for me. Regina means Queen and Madre means mother. I toyed around with several words that I could pair her with Queen. I thought about how my kids, who take Spanish, call me Madre all the time. It just oddly all came together. So, I thought ‘Regina Madre’. I like the meaning. It's universal because my songs really speak to women and to the parts of them that nurture other people. The reason I use the pseudo-name was because I want my music to be judged on its own merits. I didn't want to do a lot of press as Terry Crew’s wife. I didn't want to get into all the other questions interviewers ask you when you are connected to someone that is already famous. My PR team said, “We could get a lot more press if we use your name ‘Rebecca’” so, Regina came out of the closet.
EIC: What inspired you to start pursuing a singing career?
Crews: Music has been a very integral part of my life since I was very young. My dad was a musician. He played six instruments. My mother was a singer. My mother and father was a pastor. I started piano at 9. I started writing my own songs at 11 years old. I started my own choir at 13. I started it with my friends. I had a group all through high school and we sung all over Northwest Indiana in Chicago area. I went to college for musical theater. I think I was 20 when I got pregnant with my oldest kid. I kind-of made the quality decision that I was going to raise my daughter myself and that I will probably have to wait to see if I could go to Broadway or pursue music. There was something about her in the love that I really felt for her that made me feel that being her mom was a higher calling. I was a choir director at a church in LA. I did that for several years. I felt something tell me that I had to go do my own music. I was 40 years old. I kept filling the nudge to go back to acting and to go back to music.
EIC: You’re a mother of 5 kids. How are you able to balance your singing career with motherhood and being a wife as well?
Crews: I don’t do a lot of road work right now. It doesn't mean I won’t because my kids are bigger now. My youngest two kids Isaiah and Winnie who were on ‘The Family Crews’ as babies at the time. They are 13 and 15 years old. I am about five years out from an empty nest. So mommy is going out more. I have a studio in my home. I travel probably twice a month. I measure out the length of time I'm away from home right now. My family is still my priority.
EIC: Your newest single ‘Destiny’ is a heart felt Ballad. How did you come to make a song with Strong emotional lyrics?
Crews: When you are birthing a song, you often aren't aware why are you are going through what you are going through? You are kind-of in the tunnel of blackness and darkness. Suddenly, you are finding yourself aware of these emotions that you are having. That is how the song came to me. I was laying on the bed one day and having a flashback of when I got pregnant with my daughter. I said to myself, “Why am thinking about this?” That was a depressing summer. I’m sleeping under a fan near an open window. I'm sweating and I'm throwing up wondering what I am going to do with my life. I'm remembering this time 20 years ago that was of great sorrow to me. I was a Christian kid, straight A student, and a merit scholar. But I was pregnant. I could not escape the hood factor. I couldn't escape the dilemma of the unwed mother who derailed her life. I was so ashamed. I had a vision in the months leading up to the pregnancy about getting pregnant. That's why I say in the song, “I fell down the mountain I saw it in a vision”. I wrote about the premonition and the sorrow I felt.
EIC: Your husband, Terry Crews, was named TIME Person of the year silence breakers in 2017. You're the wife of a man, who's among very few men that have came forward in the #MeToo movement. How does that make you feel? Do you think it will affect your career?
Crews: I think I played a part in why my husband’s career went the way it did. Especially in regards to the way he handled the situation. I'm very proud to say that we stood up to something that has been a pariah in this town. In every industry sexual corrosion and harassment is not new. It has reached a time limit. Like they say: “Time’s Up. People have had enough. All it took was one person collecting the stories of so many victims. Ronan Farrow was the person who broke the story. He published this story 5 years ago and no one would print it. Many times it takes just one man or woman to say we have to blow the whistle off this horrible can of worms that we all live under. My husband was just the unfortunate victim of someone. I just praise God he didn't break the guy’s face, for the story would have ended differently. I praised him for his restraint. I said, “Honey, you won a mighty battle here.” I have nothing but pride for my husband. This is a subject worth fighting over. We spent a lot of our own money to fight. Which we got back. I won in a way too. I got to see my husband fight for his rights in a town where he had to put up with a lot of stuff to work. It was a great moral victory.
EIC: What artist would you like to work with on your album?
Crews: Musiq SoulChild is one of my favorite singers. That would be a wish. I love Leon Bridges, he is a great vocalist. I really love Lenny Kravitz. He fuses Soul and Rock. Lenny has impressed me how he has merged being a biracial kid, which I am as well, and utilizing music that came from all genres as well.