Many people will argue that Patti LaBelle is an icon. While the current generation may only know her for her famous Patti Pies, the two-time Grammy-winning singer has been regarded as one of the Top 100 singers of all time.
But one thing everyone knows is that Auntie Patti will put you in your place when needed.
The 80-year-old singer, who cut her teeth touring in the ’60s and ’70s, appeared this week on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” and shared one of the oddest stories that ever happened to her while she was on tour.
“You know, when I do ‘Lady Marmalade,’ I bring men … I bring people up, and nobody’s planned. People always say, ‘She planned that guy,’ never do I plan who’s coming up,” LaBelle said in telling the epic story.
The Philadelphia songbird continued, “Yeah, so this guy came up and he was all cute and sweet and everything… and he came close to me and he turned around and pulled his pants down… GIRLFRIEEEENDDDD!”
“And mooned you?” said a shocked Clarkson.
“Yeah, I kicked his butt!” the platinum-selling recording artist replied, as she demonstrated with her designer shoe just how she did it.
The “American Idol” winner wasn’t the only one shocked. The show posted the excerpt on its Instagram with the caption, “Not on Ms. Patti’s stage!!” Some of its 2.5 million fans chimed— first tossing flowers for a great interview and then weighing in on the wacko who mooned Patti LaBelle.
“Don’t moon Patti,” one person replied, while another individual wrote, “Get um Patti” with the foot and laughing emoji.
Another added, “Patti LaBelle…QUEEN Y’ALL; QUEEN! But…hey nobody moons Lady Marmalade while she’s doing her thing.”
Folks ought to know by now that Miss Patti is not to be played with. During a 2008 appearance on “The Tyra Banks Show,” she had to check Dan Schneider’s wife, cupcake chef Lisa Lillien, for inferring that she would eat the paper on the pastry.
The two joined an episode of Banks’ talk show for a cooking segment. The “New Attitude” singer showed the audience how to pick up the cupcake by only touching the paper on the bottom.
“This has paper on it,” a clueless Lillien said before double-backing, “Yeah, you can’t eat the paper.”
LaBelle responded, “Nope, but you can touch ’em with your hands,” before visibly rolling her eyes and mumbling under her breath.
Making the connection that Dan Schneider’s wife is the same one who tried Patti Labelle about “paper bad, cupcake good” on Tyra’s show makes so much sense to me.
— Shauntell (@ShayLanise) March 22, 2024
I’m so glad Patti checked her in real time. pic.twitter.com/P4qmPb8SkS
The former super model could tell something was going on and asked what LaBelle was saying. But before Banks could reply, Lillien uttered, “She’s causing trouble.”
LaBelle had had it at that point, blasting, “What makes you think I think you can eat the paper, boo?”
“Because you can’t eat the paper. No paper, paper bad; cake good. You’re the one that asked me to eat the paper,” the chef said again.
LaBelle then stopped and turned to the crowd to ask, “What’s wrong with her?”
It seems that this moment stuck with the “A Different World” actress for years. During a February interview with Jennifer Hudson on her self-titled talk show, LaBelle still was miffed about the incident almost 15 years later.
She told Hudson, “The girl thought I was gonna eat the paper on the cupcake. The way I wanted to slap that heifer so hard. She said, ‘Miss LaBelle, don’t eat the paper. I said, ‘What’s wrong with you, boo? I don’t eat paper.’”
While Lillien was spared the physical bruising, the fellow that mooned Miss Patti on stage was not.
LaBelle told Clarkson, and her millions of viewers, that her “security” handled it for her.
“They took him in the back,” she said, “And they did what they had to do.”
Folks better stop trying the queen.
