WT Greer, Award-Winning Dallas Entertainer & Acclaimed Vocalist | The Jeff Crilley Show

On this episode of The Jeff Crilley Show, Jeff sits down with award-winning entertainer and acclaimed vocalist WT Greer to reflect on a career that has spanned more than four decades. Greer shares stories of performing for six U.S. presidents, royalty, and global audiences, including a memorable duet with Mary Wilson of The Supremes that led to a private meeting with Nelson Mandela....

Show Notes

What does it take to build a 40-year music career—and still love the stage? WT Greer has performed for presidents, royalty, and packed arenas, but his journey started with a dare, a tuxedo, and four songs.

On this episode of The Jeff Crilley Show, Jeff talks with WT Greer, an award-winning Dallas entertainer and acclaimed vocalist who has traveled the world and sung for six U.S. presidents. Known for his powerful voice and commanding stage presence, Greer reflects on the moments that shaped his career and the choices that defined it.

In this episode, you’ll hear:
- The story behind his duet with Mary Wilson of The Supremes—and the note he received from Nelson Mandela
- How a pre-med student signed a life-changing music contract and walked onstage in front of 20,000 people
- What it’s like to perform for presidents and global leaders
- Why he turned down the chance to replace Lionel Richie in The Commodores

Learn more about WT Greer at: https://wtgreer.com

If you care about craft, longevity, and doing meaningful work, you’ll appreciate this conversation.

What is The Jeff Crilley Show?

Jeff Crilley is a former news reporter, who spent more than 25 years in newsrooms across the country. He’s an Emmy Award winning journalist, who decided to make the jump from news in 2008, when he founded his own PR Firm, Real News Public Relations.

Today, the firm has more than 100 clients, and Jeff continues to tell the stories of interesting people he meets along the way.

These are those stories.

Coming up next on the Jeff Crilley Show, you're gonna meet the great WT Greer. He's an award winning entertainer, acclaimed vocalist, my friend. His incredible journey is just ahead. Many are predicting that the worst is yet to come, which is unfortunate, said one person here. Until now, they've enjoyed the reputation of being the nation's icebox. Watched a burglar in his home this morning by webcam. As a journalist of over twenty five years, stories are what make my world turn. Reporting live from The Dallas News from tonight, Jeff Crilley, Fox four news. But in 2008, I took the jump from my familiar life and started a PR firm from my home. We're talking about anyone with a camcorder like the one I'm using becomes a television network. We started slowly growing the company, and we now have over a 100 clients. And we've branched into the world of live digital broadcasting. I now own eight different TV studios and have a huge team. And the stories that I now get to share are sometimes the most important of my life. Life has a funny way of coming around full circle. This is The Jeff Crilley Show. Well, I love people who just make a mark on the planet, and my next guest can say that he has truly already left a legacy, but he has he's still a young man. He's got many years to go to to make more accomplishments, but in the studio right now, WT Greer, is the award winning entertainer, acclaimed vocalist. We have a mutual friend JP Piccinini, shout out. That's exactly right. Because you lead his whole music program at La Stella. I do. To the show. Thank you Jeff, it's a pleasure to be here. Alright, so I'm gonna ask you to like give me the Wikipedia view of your life. Like I I mentioned to you earlier, I actually put in my name on chat g g p t and said, is WT Greer the third? And so and it came back with a whole list of things that I didn't even know. I did that? Oh, did I oh, did I get paid for that? Alright. We're gonna show a we're gonna show a clip, and then we'll come back, and we'll we'll talk some more with WT. Let's go ahead and roll back. Singer songwriter WT Greer is here to sing the national anthem. Never follow children or animals to the podium. I'm gonna add the name WT Greer. Was he incredible? Mister WT Greer. Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to WT Greer. One of our favorite performing artists in this area, and I think just about anywhere, with anyone who's heard him, WT Greer, performing Everyone Should Have a Chance Good morning. Some of us came by plane, some of us came by bus, train. These are the ways that we arrived. But this is not what brought us here. No. Far from it. It is the spirit of the journey that we all share together. Because we know that together, we can make it happen. Say hello to the great WT Greer. Thank you. Thank you. I've been alone with you inside my mind. Alright, I'm kind of speechless, mean when you look at that, what haven't you done? I know it's not like you wake up every morning and watch that sizzle reel, so as you were watching it for probably the first time in years, what were some of your reflections? I was just thinking that to answer your first question, it's not what haven't I done, it's what haven't I seen. Having done this for over forty years, I literally have seen it all and some legal and some not legal. But I was was sitting and watching and thinking I really have had some amazing moments. My favorite moments are in this video, like singing for the presidents and royalty, the different people that I have met. People always ask me who is my favorite president. And I was mention I was talking to you earlier, I was saying that when you meet very, very famous or public figures, they have this air about them. They know they're famous. They're also very careful about what they say. Mhmm. And so but every once in a while, you meet someone who is just not affected by it. Nelson Mandela was one. Wow. Just completely unaffected by that. I was singing for the, I wrote a duet for the Coleman Foundation for Breast Cancer. The song was called Embrace the Dream, it's about the cure will be achieved and so Mary Wilson from The Supremes and I did this as a duet at the halftime show for the Dallas Cowboys got back to the suite and there was a note from Nelson Mandela, I would like to meet you. And so I want I said to Mary, would you she goes, I met him, you go ahead. It's it's you're not easily starstruck, but you were telling us a story before the show about Diana Ross. Oh gosh, yeah. I went to Elton John's party, Academy Awards party in LA and everybody's there, even Quincy Jones, Mary Wilson was there Wow. And Diana Ross. Okay. So I I don't know anybody who grew up in the seventies, sixties, seventies who doesn't think, okay, miss Ross. And so I see her and I just out, my wife is on my arm, I said, okay, we've got to go. I mean so many people are here, so I walked over to her and I said oh miss Ross, so embarrassed, I'm just horribly embarrassed to even to say these things out loud, miss Ross I remember when I was a little kid, I mean I was probably five or six and my wife was like you don't talk about a woman's age, you don't do that. And I was like, oh, I am so sorry. That's right, Paula. She goes, don't worry about it, baby, I know I look good. That's so perfect. Let me introduce you to my son. I mean, she just went walked right across it. But that's she's she was very much unaffected. Nelson Mandela, to meet him, you have the voice of an angel. Mhmm. And I'm like, it is a pleasure to meet him like I mean, do you ever get you ever get nervous when you're singing when you're singing for presidents? Do you get nervous? You know, I don't get nervous when I sing. And I'll tell you why. Because I I grew up in Plano first of all. Cool. And I did not grow up around, I mean, there were six black people in my high school class. I mean, in the whole school in Plano's. Wow. So, when I got to college, I was asked, when I did finally decide to start singing, I was probably 19 years old and I got invited to sing for a talent show. Mhmm. And I'm on my way down to this, my first job, I thought I'll stop through and I'll just go in and sing. I've got stormy weather and summer time as a medley. Yes. And I thought, okay cool, I mean that's it's beautifully done, it's newly produced, so I walk, I'm in tuxedo and tails, okay, to go to this other job, this my first that's a whole another story, but anyway, I I got the job and I only knew how to play four songs and that was I did it on a dare, you know. Wow. Anyway, I walk out on stage and backstage, you don't see what's happening. I walk out and it's 20,000 black people. Wow. And I froze. I thought, this is like the Apollo. I am they're gonna boot look at I'm in Tails. I'm gonna sing Summertime. Oh god, please. And I I I walked out and I and this and these ladies on the front were, I know you're fixing the same dress like that, baby. And I thought, oh God, let me just turn and I'll fall on the ground, carry me out, God I'll swear I'll never do this again. And when I turned my back, this the one lady says, oh no, that's right. And I don't know what happened, but it killed any fear. I could have made this circle and went straight to the microphone, sang and won the talent show. Unbelievable. It was one of those things where you don't know, I mean you literally had just gotten the job four weeks before, they gave me three weeks to prepare and I was just getting ready to go in to sing like my first week at this place and I'm gonna walk out on stage and had no, why wouldn't I have looked, Who doesn't look at the audience? Someone who doesn't know, right? You have no idea what you're walking into. Yes. And so within a month, I go from a from pre med to singing live in a venue playing a piano in a tuxedo and tails. Wow. But in all fairness, when they when I walked in for the audition, I sang half the song and he said, okay, you're good. I'm tired. You're hired. I just want there's a line of people, and they carry these giant legal sized boxes of of music, sheet music and I'm thinking, what am I I need to go back and study for my physics final. What am I doing? But I walked in and he turned the contract around to me all the time, I was saying, you know what, but wait, wait, wait, and he showed it to me and I saw the contract and it was more money in a night than I was making in two weeks working my other job. And I was singing four five nights a week. Wow. I was immediately an adult. Immediately. And I signed that contract and got involved with myself a piano and put it in my apartment and sat down and learned how to play every song. See what I have is this ability to hear music and if I like it, it goes in there and stays. And so to sit down and play the chords Yes. Because it's not about that, it's about the voice. And that's how I've always approached it. Now, my piano playing has gotten a little better over the years. That was some rough. Alright. I don't I don't wanna put you on the spot. That's okay. We talked before the show that you might perform something for us and I know there's no band behind you. Well, no. That was your idea. Help me, Jesus. I did sing a lot of radio and TV. When I first got to Dallas, I got hired by Otis Connor. Mhmm. He was in the restaurant where I was actually performing that night with NBC. Oh, wow. And they asked me they said, I want his voice to sing our commercial. That's how I got started. Wow. And so but in Dallas, I've sung everything. Might be the most The Oasis? Yes. Woah. $1.00 7.5. The Oasis. Awesome. How much Not enough. How much do you get paid for that? Not enough. Because they used it for years. Listen, they used it. They they had me do I had I did one version because they wanted to replace what is it? Algerow. Yeah. And so they wanted a version like that, so I did that. And then they wanted Luther Vandross. Yes. So, then they were finally replaced me with Aldro came back and took the contract. No But that's okay, because I had my little window. Alright, I want you to look into the camera on the left, as we run out of time talk to the up and coming musician artists who really wants to find their way in the world. Oh, you know, it's it's worth the work. Don't do not believe your press. Get in there and do the work. And I when I first started singing, I found a a scripture, Psalm 89, and that is my voice scripture. And my prayer is always that the spirit of God rise in my voice into the hearts of men and women where they can't hide. They know it's him and not me. And so find another reason to sing then because you need the audience. Give and not take because that's what's most important. And at the end of it all, like I've been doing this now for about forty years, and I think I never did anything that I wasn't proud of. And I I almost did. I almost did. And that's not that it would have been a bad thing. I I was asked to when Lionel Ritchie left The Commodores, they asked me one night if I would be interested in like taking this place and I Wow. I had a I didn't have peace about that. I thought, you know, what's because I had just done a show with them for the Crystal charity. Right. And and I got home and my wife said, you know, I just can't see you in spandex. And that is just the truth. Almost did that. But there's nothing about saying all this in spandex that's ever gonna work for anybody. I think that's a great way to that's a great way to close out this show. You just gave us a visual. Does that work for you? We're gonna end with the website, which is wtgreer.com, the great WT Greer. Thank you so much for Thank coming on the you, Jeff. You're welcome. A pleasure. That's that's it for now. We'll see you next time.