03-05-2025
R&B star MACY GRAY on doing vodka shots on a rollercoaster with Paris Hilton and sharing a glass with Elton John
My favourite drink as a child was grape soda. We had a lot of family barbecues in Canton, Ohio, and it was always in the refrigerator. I still drink it to this day.
My first taste of alcohol was aged 17. I'd just moved to Los Angeles and was at the University of Southern California. The second you get to college all the fraternities and sororities try to recruit you, so they throw parties on the very first weekend. That's where I learned how to put lemon on my wrist, suck it up and take a shot of vodka.
I had my first-ever date at around that time with a guy called Pete, who I still know. He took me to a 7-Eleven, we got chips and a bottle of Boone's Farm [a fruit-flavoured wine], which was a horrible, horrible drink, but when it was on offer it was 50 cents, and at that age it's just about being able to say you've been drinking. We had it in the car, made out and he took me home. Don't tell anyone.
These days I love a hot water with honey in the evening. It's really calming. When I'm touring I have it with a lemon-ginger tea bag and a shot of coffee in it as a pick-me-up.
The most memorable place I've ever had a drink was on a rollercoaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in LA in 2010. Joe Francis, founder of the adult website Girls Gone Wild, had rented the entire amusement park for a party and invited all these celebrities he didn't know: me, Paris [Hilton] and a bunch of actor dudes. Drinking shots of vodka on a rollercoaster every time we hit a dip was a big mistake because I got really sick.
Cointreau makes me feel the most stylish. It's so underrated. I drink it straight or with tea or coffee, Coca-Cola or Sprite. It's excellent in a margarita instead of tequila.
The most famous person I shared a glass with is Elton John. He was a big fan of my first album [On How Life Is, released in 1999] and so when he was in Los Angeles he invited me out for dinner. We went to Mr Chow and talked for three hours about everything under the sun. Particularly him coming out of the closet, we talked a lot about that.
I do not understand bourbon or gin. They're both bleurgh. No matter how much I try to mix them, they don't taste good. These days I'm not a shot-taker, I'm a sipper, so I'll sit and nurse my drink and I know that the point at which I'm feeling tipsy is when I have to stop.
After a few drinks I revert straight to my ghetto side. I'll make up my own rap: 'My name is Macy/ I'm not crazy/ I'm just lazy/ Take me to space-y'.
People sing my songs after a few drinks. In fact, people come up and sing my songs to me all the time. At the grocery store, when I walk past, they'll be singing 'I Try'. It happens almost every day. It's an automatic thing we all do and I get it – when I see celebrities out I start singing their songs, too. Recently I saw Usher at a basketball game and I started singing his 'Confessions' to him.
If I could have a drink with anyone it would be Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa. He's beautiful, and he'd be so uncomfortable – I'd stare at him the whole time.
The best advice anyone ever gave me over a drink was: 'Don't do anything stupid'. I'm afraid I didn't follow it.
The drink to toast me at my funeral would be Cointreau. It's all I drink. They'd all raise glasses and say, 'Here's to the sexiest woman we've ever known.'
Macy Gray is at Cheltenham Jazz Festival ( on 5 May and Ronnie Scott's on 6-8 May (
