Love and Go-Go: Scooby and Aleisha

Frank “Scooby” Marshall is a singer, songwriter, producer, realtor, fixer-upper, cook, conspiracy theorist (he and his father think white people come from Mars), former hee-haw contest winner, cake decorator and hair stylist.  Just kidding about the last two; just wanted to see if you were paying attention. He started the singing group Smooth and Subtle with some high school friends, played with OP Trybe, turned Smooth and Subtle into the Lissen Band, split with Lissen and formed Lissen Da Grewp, was abandoned by Da Grewp and worked with Familiar Faces before reuniting with Lissen and played with Lissen until they broke up for good, at which point he joined Donnell Floyd for the re-launch of Familiar Faces.  You confused yet? In between all that, he managed to launch his solo career as Frank Sirius and to settle down with Aleisha Hanes, who he’s been with for five years.  He and Hanes are raising Jaden, 9, Marshall’s son from a previous relationship, and who Hines treats as if he is her own, and the newest member of the family, one-year old son Jai, who Marshall wanted to name Jai’nt (pronounced Giant).  Shout out to Aleisha for putting the brakes on that.  LOL, sorry Scoob.

Jai, Aleisha and Jaden

Bobbie’s Beat:  How did you meet?

Scooby: Rasheed introduced us.  (Rasheed Allen is Scooby’s former manager.)

Aleisha: Rasheed was dating my cousin at the time.

BB: Have you all had to deal with outside forces trying to come between you?

Aleisha: Not really.  Scooby tries to keep his private life private.  Or I should say he tries to intercept the forces by not letting me know what was going on, so I didn’t know of any.

Scooby: I keep my home life and my professional life separate. 

BB: Aleisha, when did you know that Scooby was the one?

Aleisha: I was having a conversation with somebody and they were asking me all the stuff that I liked about him. What do you like about him?  And then the question came up, “What do you not like about him?” And then I think at that point I kind of realized all the stuff that I absolutely don’t like about him, that irritates me, I actually loved in him.  That’s when I was like, “You know what?  He might be the one.”

BB: Scooby, when did you realize that Leisha was the one?

Scooby:  It took a while.  She was chasing me, and I wasn’t trying to get into a relationship back then. She pursued me, but to answer your question about three or four years ago, she was persistent and didn’t bother me much.

BB: When you say persistent, do you mean she didn’t give up, but she didn’t sweat you either?

Scooby: Nah, she ain’t sweat me.  Men just want to be fed and put to bed, so to speak. If a woman can do that and shut up most of the time, then we good.

BB: Aleisha, you ain’t got no comment on that?

(Aleisha is too busy laughing in the background to respond.)

Aleisha: This man is going to say what he wants to out of his mouth.

Scooby: That’s a good quality to have.

Aleisha: (still laughing) I’m not good at my comebacks.

BB: Well you know that after doing the radio show, I done heard some stuff from him.

(Aleisha is still laughing)

BB: How are you guys able to make family time with your busy schedules and how are you able to make alone time?

Aleisha: I mean it’s hard. I work during the day and he works at night so a lot of time our alone time is at three o’clock in the morning when he finishes at the club and our family time is just those 2-3 hours in the afternoon when I get off work and I come home and he has the boys and right before he leaves to go to band practice or go to his shows. So, it’s usually just whenever you can steal something.  And then sometimes there had to be moments when you have to say, “Something is important, but I’mma have to cancel it because I need to be with my family at this point in time.” So we just try to get it in whenever we can.

Jaden and Jai

BB: Scooby, same question.

Scooby: We have a lot of family time on the weekends.  My family is big and we do a lot of cookouts and every holiday we gonna find a reason to cook out.  So, we got that family time and alone time. We got good parents so they take the kids a lot on the weekends. We find time to hit the movies, lay around and watch the movies and stuff like that.

BB: Which one of you is most romantic?

Scooby: Most definitely me. I’m the romantic. I watched a lot of Denzel movies and stuff when I was coming up. I cook the dinner and my cousin dressed up like a butler…

BB: Did you say you dressed up as a butler?!

Scooby: Yeah, like a maitre d’.

Aleisha: He had his cousin dress up like a maitre d’.

Scooby: I cooked the dinner and then I had him serve it to us at the house.  It was candle light. It was wine and everything.  That was pretty romantic and then I like long walks downtown by the Capitol and the Monument.  I do stuff like that.

BB: That leads us to the next question.  Aleisha, what’s the most romantic thing he’s ever done for you?

Aleisha: Some of our most romantic moments would be during the summer months when we would get on the scooter and ride downtown at night time.  Both of us would be on the scooter.  He’d put me on the back.  And it’s like the wind in your hair and we’d get off the scooter at various spots downtown and look at the stars.  We’d go down to Georgetown down by where the water is and we’d sit on the side of the dock or whatever that is down there and just hang out.  Those are some of the most romantic things we’d do; when he’d just come home after he’s been at practice or been in the studio and just do that at like one o’clock in the morning.

Scooby: It’s a scooter, but don’t say scooter, say motorcycle.

BB: It’s a motorcycle?

Scooby: Technically it’s a scooter, but…

Aleisha: He wants you to say motorcycle Bobbie to make it sound more romantic.

Editor’s note: Sorry to sell you out Scoob, but a scooter actually sounds like more fun.

BB: Anyway Scooby, what’s the most romantic thing she’s ever done for you?

Scooby: Umm, I told you I was the romantic one, so I have to think real hard.  She always surprise me with cards and stuff like that and that’s pretty romantic.

BB: Scooby, have you ever written a song about Aleisha?

Scooby: Indirectly, yeah.

BB: Which one?

Scooby: When I write a song it starts out being about a different person or a different situation and then it morphs into life.

BB: I don’t mean a song called “Aleisha,” but a song inspired by you and her being together.

Scooby: Yeah, I wrote a song like that inspired by her. It’s called “I don’t know.” 

BB: Aleisha, you ever get turned on watching Scooby perform and think, “Oooh man, he’s gonna get it when we get home?”

Aleisha: Usually not. One of his all time songs that I always love it whenever he sings it is “Whip Appeal,” but most of the time I look at him on stage and it’s just the creativity or the audience that will make me excited about everything.  But, ultimately when I see him on stage I’m like, “That’s just Frank.” I don’t always look at him like he’s this big performer.

BB: So is it like, “He’s on stage, but he needs to go home and pick his clothes up off the floor”?

Aleisha: Basically. Probably something like that.

BB: Scooby, what’s the one thing Aleisha can put on that makes you think, “Damn, she’s gonna get it when we get home.”?

Aleisha off her dress and heels situation

Scooby: A skirt, dress situation that shows her legs and a little bit of panty line.  You know what? She can pretty much wear anything for real.  Like a nice pair of jeans, but definitely when she’s off her dress and her heels situation. She wear a dress and heels and she’s gonna get punished.

BB: Did you just say, “She’s gonna get punished?!”

Scooby: Yeah.

BB: Aleisha, what does Scooby do to let you know he’s in the mood for love?

Aleisha: (laughs hysterically at something Scooby is saying in the background.) The man is wild.

Scooby: I just whip it out.

Aleisha: Frank can do almost anything. He’s wild.  I can’t even put my finger on one thing that he does.  He’s just him. He’s so spontaneous.  It’s not just one thing.

BB: What advice would you give to someone dealing with someone in a band to have a successful relationship?

Aleisha: First and foremost she has to have some sort of confidence and trust. You have to trust the person and then you have to have some sort of self-esteem and confidence within yourself.  If they say that they want to be with you, you have to trust that they want to be with you.  You have to have confidence that you’re all that this person needs.  And, I think those are some of your building blocks. Other than that, of course everybody needs communication and you need some sort of patience.  It’s like a flower, like a plant that takes all of those ingredients to nourish and grow and be successful.

BB: Did you have any qualms about getting with someone in a band?

Aleisha: Yeah, I did.  When we were talking I thought, “What am I doing with myself?  Why am I sitting here? What relationship has their significant other out until three o’clock in the morning singing to a bunch of people?” But, I just had to kind of separate that.  Me and Scooby have our life and then he has his job. Its’ just like when I got to work—I’m around a bunch of patients and people that I work with, and just because he’s doing something that somebody might see as leisure or fun, he’s still at work. So, the same way I wouldn’t want him to come to my job and act a fool, I wouldn’t want to come to his job and act a fool. I have too look at it like “that’s his job.  That’s what pays the bills.”  When you look at it like that, that’s what makes it easier when he’s leaving out the house at one o’clock in the morning to perform or if he’s still out at three.

BB: Scooby, what advice would you give to a band member on how to have a successful relationship?

Scooby: Keep your business and your family separated.  You got to dare yourself to be strong.  It’s a lot of temptation and it’s a lot of devious women out here that just want to see you mess up what you have at home.  And the more you try to ignore women, the more they try to come on to you.  You got to be strong and you got to be diligent and ultimately you have to tell yourself that the pleasure of a few minutes is not worth what you planning to spend your life with. And when you done all that before.  You been out there… I’ve done it before.  At this point in my life it’s not appealing to me to try to go out there and have a lot of fun with a bunch of different women.

BB: This next question comes from Kobe and his wife announcing their divorce and you know the Drake comment about ‘she doesn’t deserve any money because she wasn’t shooting baskets.’ I think a lot of people underestimate how important it is to have a supportive mate at home to be able to go out and do what you do. I think a lot of people don’t know that a man can’t always be successful if he can’t come home to a happy, peaceful home when they’re out on the road or out doing what they do. Do you agree and how important is it to have a stable home life to be able to create and make your music and do what you do?

Scooby: While I do agree with what you are saying, I don’t agree with somebody being able to get half of what you have just because they’re not happy at home.  This is my solution to all that half stuff. If you gonna get half, let’s not do half of my total estate.  Let’s do half of the money we made since we got married. That way, all the money Kobe made before her, when she wasn’t shooting baskets, all that’s his.  Everything we acquired together, we can split when we split.

BB: Aleisha, what do you love most about Scooby?

Aleisha: I love that he’s intelligent.  I love his creativity and I love his humor.

(Scooby continues to talk in the background and has Aleisha laughing.)

BB: He is a barrel of laughs, isn’t he?

Aleisha: Yeah, and I love the fact that he is my complete opposite, so he just complements me. (Scooby continues to talk in the background.) Here he goes, “But I am smart too.”

BB: Scooby, what do you love most about Aleisha?

Scooby: I love her personality.  She’s borderline goofy. She’s always kind of bubbly.  It keeps a light mood around the house always.  That’s what I love most.

Song Dedication

Scooby to Aleisha – “If this World Were Mine” by Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lynn

Aleisha to Scooby – “Here and Now” by Luther Vandross

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