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Taj StansberryAs Tank gears up for the September release of his eighth studio album, Savage, and a forthcoming tour to support the project, he remembers being “hired” by the late Aaliyah to join her, Ginuwine, Dru Hill, Mary J. Blige and Bone Thugs and Harmony on his first major tour as a young artist in 1997.
“I got a call that said, ‘Man, we’re gonna send you on the road to sing backgrounds with Ginuwine.’ I was like, ‘What?'”
“So, I went straight from choir rehearsal to get on a plane to LA. A place I had been once, like kinda been through, but hadn’t been been.”
Tank adds, “And I’m in L.A. This little church kid, you know. ‘I don’t come from much. I definitely don’t come from this.'”
That 1997 tour, called the Budweiser Super Fest, Tank says, truly opened his eyes to the real world. “I learned more about myself in those three months than I’d learned in the past 20, 21 years I had been on this earth,” he explains.
“And being around Ginuwine, being around Aaliyah and being able to absorb the lessons that they were constantly teaching me…it was always a lesson.”
Seventeen years later and with a highly-successful career, Tank wants to pay it forward to up-and-coming artists looking for their big break.
He’s put out an open call on Instagram for R&B acts in several cities to audition for him. The best artists will be chosen to open for Tank on his upcoming Savage tour.
“There’s somebody really dope somewhere that just hasn’t had the opportunity. All you have to do is audition right here on Instagram. Show me what you got,” he says.
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