Fire We Make

Album: Girl On Fire (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • This steamy duet with R&B singer Maxwell features a solo from bluesy-rock guitarist Gary Clark Jr. The pair first performed together at the Keep a Child Alive Black Ball benefit in 2011. "It was originally just a one-time gig," Clark Jr. told MTV News. "She was doing a benefit for Keep A Child Alive here in [New York City]. She was asking if someone could play some guitar on George Harrison's 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps.'"
    "She liked my playing," he continued, "and wanted to hear more of it and she called me up and asked me if I wanted to lay down some guitar on her album. I was like, 'yeah.'"
  • When it came down to laying down his contribution, Clark has nothing but praise for Keys. "She's just sweet, genuine, people. I mean, she's Alicia Keys. I've been a fan for a minute. She's very professional. I went in and I was like, 'What do you want me to do?' and she was like, 'This is the song. You just do what you do, and we'll see what happens.' It was one of the best studio experiences I've ever had."
  • The raunchy video is set in the late 1950s and finds Keys falling in love with Maxwell in a New Orleans hotel that is located in the heart of the city's French Quarter.
  • This song topped Billboard's Adult R&B chart. It was Key's tenth #1 on the chart, making her the first artist to record ten chart-toppers since the launch of the listing on September 18, 2013. The song was also Maxwell's sixth to reach the Adult R&B summit.
  • The duo met years earlier when Keys was an opening act for Maxwell on a US tour in 2001, just a few months before she embarked on her own headlining tour to promote her debut album, Songs In A Minor.

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