Welcome back to hot takes and deep dives and I am here with a man responsible for some of the most influential, formative pieces of art

that modern day pop stars, I mean, it's clear that everything you have created is their number

one influence, whether they are aware or not. Like, you are the blueprint. I am with Vincent

Patterson, your book icons and instincts. I absolutely love.

You are the subject of the documentary, The Man Behind the Throne. Vincent Patterson, hi.

Hi. Hi. Thank you so much for inviting me to chat today. I'm really, and thank you for those

kind words about my book. It was, it took a while to come out. I'm really, and thank you for those kind words about my book.

It was, it took a while to come out. I was nervous about it, but my co-writer is the one who pushed me

into doing it, and I'm really, really glad I did. Good. I mean, we just got like a whole bit of

travel advice. I love, we're really, we're getting a lot done. So I want to really focus the conversation

around your work with Michael Jackson and Madonna, but I'm also very interested in your film

and Broadway work. So I want to kind of cover all of that. But before we do so, I think it's your, your story is remarkable because you did not

start dancing until you were, what is relatively late for a dancer. The age of 24 years old,

that's actually, you know, my, my former partner was a professional dancer. and that's around the age that she was like,

well, I need to find something that I can make a living. And that is when she actually transitioned

into the next chapter of her career. So she sort of retired at 24. So like what got you into dance?

Into dance in general. You know, I grew up in the 60s and Motown was popular and, you know,

and I loved to dance and do that, the high school dances and things, but I never had any formal

training. And as you read in my book, I came from a very, very lower middle class background around oil refineries.

And there were no studios that taught dance. If there were, I was certainly unaware of them.

But my dad was a social dance teacher. So when I was a little kid, I picked up things really easy. So I was like four and five, and there's home movies of me,

like doing the cha-cha in the front yard and stuff like that.

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