ROCK Actress forgoes films for metal band Wicked Wisdom
Jada Pinkett Smith's group toured with Ozzfest 2005.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
It shouldn't come as a surprise to learn the lovable Jada Pinkett Smith, successful Hollywood actress and wife to Will Smith, has taken her talents from the silver screen to the recording studio.
Many actresses, from Jennifer Lopez to Jennifer Love Hewitt, have crossed over with varying degrees of success. The former is a multi-platinum star while the latter, um, has a loyal following in Japan.
However, Smith's digression is anything but typical. One would assume her style would be pop, R & amp;B or even adult alternative but this 34-year-old singer is tackling rock, which is more aggro and less classic, with such verve and passion that her movie career is on hold. The band is Wicked Wisdom and the style is metal.
"It's a hard thing to reconcile," said Smith, calling from a tour stop in Tallahassee. "It's a hard thing to say, 'This person we know as Jada Pinkett Smith, who we see as Professor Carla Putty in 'The Nutty Professor,' is fronting a heavy rock band? What the heck is going on? You have to see it to get your own reality on it."
Movies on hold
Seeing it is what Ozzfest 2005 fans got to do up close, as the quintet toured this past summer on the second stage. Talk about a wakeup call. Smith, who said she was raised on '80s MTV metal acts like Guns N' Roses and Metallica, went from Beverly Hills to a tour bus.
"I'm always going to do movies, I just don't know when because right now it's all about the music," said Smith, who admitted animated film "Madagascar 2" is on the distant horizon. "This is where my heart is."
Can you imagine that agent meeting where Smith divulged she'd be passing up big-money Hollywood scripts for peanuts on the road, touring with a band that at that time didn't even have an album out? As far as the record is concerned, Wicked Wisdom's self-titled debut hits theaters, err, record stores Feb. 21.
The record has been a long time coming with varying styles of music that can best be explained as perfect for the closing credits for any of "The Matrix" movies (she co-starred in the last two of the trilogy). From the Evanescence-esque (only harder) "Suffering" to the Static-X sounding "One," fans of metal will get to hear a side of Smith that few knew existed.
Surprising
"I think just kind of the genre we're in takes people by surprise," said Wicked Wisdom Bassist Rio Lawrence. "One of the biggest responses is, 'We didn't expect that.'"
Considering Ozzfest 2005 didn't have a northeast Ohio date, metal fans will get their first look at Wicked Wisdom when the band opens for Sevendust Jan. 31 at the House of Blues. Road-tested and ready, Smith promises an energetic show that will leave audiences wanting more.
"We basically got thrown into the fire, probably a little early but we survived," said Ozzfest survivor Smith.
"That's the best way to do it because you know right there, either this is something you're supposed to do or you're not. We realized we're going to either have to swim or sink ... and we swam."