LEMON DROP | Kerry Gordy on Sunday's Best & How Ed Sullivan Elevated Black Artists

The Don Lemon Show

18Hundred LLC.

News, Society & Culture

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Don sits down with Kerry Gordy, music executive, producer, and son of Motown founder Berry Gordy, for an in-depth conversation about his life, career, and the legacy of Motown. Kerry shares stories from behind the scenes of the music industry, the lessons he’s carried from his legendary family, and his perspective on where music and culture are headed today. They also dive into Kerry’s new documentary, Sunday’s Best, which explores the groundbreaking role of The Ed Sullivan Show in bringing Black artists into America’s living rooms and changing the course of music history. Gordy also gives us a break down of the six degrees of separation between Ed Sullivan and Barack Obama. It’s a candid, insightful conversation you won’t want to miss. This episode is brought to you by ZBiotics. Go to https://zbiotics.com/LEMONDROPS and use LEMONDROPS at checkout for 15% off any first time orders of ZBiotics probiotics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is presented by eBay.
0:03.7	Rob, everyone loves a deal and a bargain from time to time, don't they? Absolutely, mate. And you know where you can grab a great deal? Talk to me. Where? The eBay app. Yes, you are correct. You didn't need to talk to me. I already knew it. I love eBay. When you're buying, you can discover loads of hidden gems. there's so many items where you think I would have never found that anywhere else.
0:23.7	Then when you're buying, you can discover loads of hidden gems. There's so many items where you think I would have never found that anywhere else.
0:23.7	Then when you're selling, it's so simple and most importantly, free.
0:27.2	It's free, Rob.
0:28.2	When it's this easy to sell for free and there's great deals on things you love.
0:32.4	You can't help but say when it's eBay.
0:34.0	It excludes vehicles and business sellers.
0:50.8	Yeah. say when it's eBay. It excludes vehicles and business sellers. Welcome everyone to a very special edition of the Don Lemon show.
1:00.0	Kerry Gordy is a legendary entertainment executive and music producer.
1:14.3	He's also the executive producer of Sunday Best, which is a new Netflix documentary about how the Ed Sullivan show rewrote the rules of television by championing black entertainers when it wasn't yet cool to do so.
1:18.3	Mr. Ed Sullivan.
1:22.5	Ed Sullivan.
1:24.5	Ed Sullivan.
1:31.3	I big rock and roll music, yeah, I can twine and jerk. Yes, I can.
1:32.3	If you had to pick one person in the whole industry to represent us, it would be Ed Sullivan.
1:37.3	The greatest finger pointed in the history of television.
1:41.3	A man who pointed his finger at the biggest stars in the business.
1:49.0	We think about Ed Sullivan.
1:53.4	One of the most famous shows in television history.
1:55.7	Now, ladies and gentlemen, Elvis Presley.
2:00.4	How old were you when you saw this?
	...

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