"Who You Gonna Call?" - The Ray Parker Jr. Story (Trailer)

Ray Parker Jr. describes a brutal encounter with the police in this excerpt from "The Ray Parker Jr. Story."

Video Transcript

RAY PARKER JR.: Yeah, man, Detroit, I love the city of Detroit. Lot of opportunities. But I do recall the summer of '67, Detroit riots. The brutality and just the racial thing at the time and the police, you know, is wow. That was an experience to me.

I remember the riots were centered on Woodward Avenue and Virginia Park, Virginia Park being the main street. I grew up on Virginia Park, that exact same street. Four or five policemen came out, drew their guns, and they were saying stop. And I'm thinking, oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh, somebody's in trouble.

So you know, you're looking around. I was just about to get on the bus. I'm looking around to see what's happening. And they were actually pointing guns at me.

And so they dragged me to the alley, and they were just beating on me, these four big guys. Some are holding me up like this, and they're just punching me with their fists, punching me in my ribs, punching me on my back. I'm trying to figure out, why are they doing this? And I'm asking them, what did I do? And oh, you got the wrong guy.

I guess I never will know. I never will know why they selected me. I just got a beat down just because I was there at the bus stop going to school. And so I don't know. Playing the guitar, that was my ticket out.

[REMIXED "GHOSTBUSTERS" THEME]

A lot of y'all know me from "Ghostbusters." I got it. Who you going to call. I ain't afraid of no ghost. (SINGING) Bustin' makes me feel good. I got all that.

But you know, it's interesting to me. Do you really think that I just woke up one morning, and they just happened to call me and I wrote the song, and then I went back to sleep? I mean, I read so many things, and I think it's just funny. Like, people think that's the only thing I've ever done or I never did anything.

- How many instruments do you play?

RAY PARKER JR.: Four altogether.

- How old are you?

RAY PARKER JR.: 23.

- When did you start playing an instrument?

RAY PARKER JR.: About when I was eight years old.

- What's the first instrument you ever played?

RAY PARKER JR.: The clarinet.

- Where were you on the night of July 4, 13 nights-- [LAUGHS]

You've played with everybody in the world, have you not at this point, practically?

RAY PARKER JR.: Yeah, just about.

- Like, name drop. Quickly, just roll off 15 names.

RAY PARKER JR.: Diana Ross, Seals and Crofts, Barry White, Stevie Wonder, you know, the Rolling Stones.

- Stop, stop.

RAY PARKER JR.: Well, let me just tell you this. I've got about 29 or 30 really big records. Chaka Khan I wrote for, Barry White, big hits on Diana Ross, Patti Labelle, New Addition, my own band, Radio, Ray Parker Jr. If you checked us out, we got a lot of hits.

But the main thing I do is play the guitar. And I'm musically trained, played with lots and lots of artists. But I just think it's really, really funny that people look at ghosts, they go, who you going to call, and they think that, I don't know, I just woke up that afternoon and just wrote the song and went back to sleep. And by the way, why do you think they called me to write that song in the first place?

So I love music. Music is my life. I've been playing the guitar since almost-- I can't remember anything before that. So of course, there's more to it than just, who you going to call.

[REMIXED "GHOSTBUSTERS" THEME]