Recently Smokey Robinson met virtually with members of the media to talk about his latest project, a Lifetime Christmas movie called “Miracle in Motor City.” The Motor City  refers to Detroit, Michigan, and in the film, Robinson plays himself. In the movie, Amber Dupont (Tia Mowry-Hardrict) has promised Robinson will be at the Christmas Pageant she is creating.

Smokey Robinson has been a mainstay in Motown and is a legend in the music industry. What might surprise his fans is that he does not play the guitar. He admitted, “I’ve tried to learn to play the guitar about three or four times. I cannot do it.”

Robinson added, “And I wanna play it so badly, but I just can’t get it. My right hand and my left hand do not coordinate on the guitar, you know. But my guitarist told me, he says, ‘Man, if you wanna learn how to play the guitar, keep it in your hands at all times.'”

The singer chuckled and said he tried that, but it just didn’t work for him. Fans will have to be content with his singing voice alone.

When the singer said he was surprised that he got through the production, his co-star Mowry-Hardrict chided him by saying, “You were fantastic. I mean, you’re a legend, you know what I mean? Come on, Smokey. You’re awesome. You’re wonderful.”

Robinson was asked how much church Christmas Pageants meant to him throughout his life, he said his mother was the one in his family that attended church the most. “She was a real lady, though. She would cuss you out in a minute but she would go to church three, four times a week.”

“The church that I went to was a Baptist church, Baptist preacher. And he’s preaching and hollering and hooping and just falling out. And the women are coming up there and they’re putting smelling salts and they’re passing out. I was afraid to death of church, man, until I got to be grown. I really was. I wasn’t really, like, a church-going person as a kid. I went if my mom made me, if she made me. So when she made me go, I went. And she would send me to Sunday school in the morning and then I’d have to go back to church with her in the afternoon. That was really a grind for me, man. But like I said, after I got to be grown and I understood a lot more spiritual things, I understood it more. And so I got to be more relaxed with it. But as far as growing up, man, I was … it was a trip for me.”

Robinson also talked about Detroit, the backdrop for the holiday movie. “And when I was growing up, the auto industry was what kept Detroit going. Detroit was the auto industry, really. So after all the auto plants moved out and the manufacturers and stuff and then we had Motown … and I’m so proud of the fact that right now, they even call Detroit Motown. So we created a lot of jobs and things like that in Detroit, also. And we left and the auto industry left, so Detroit suffered for a long time. And I’m very, very happy to see that it is kind of on the rebound.”

The music legend was quizzed about whether there were discussions prior to filming concerning the songs that were going to make it into the movie. “Not too much because I was gonna be on board — see, first of all, they sent me the script. And it’s a beautiful, warm, wonderful, warm story. …So I was on board from getting the script and finding out all that information about what was going on. And like I said, the script is beautiful. It’s a warm, wonderful, Christmas story and I was very flattered to be a part of that.

“Miracle in Motor City” premieres Monday on Lifetime.

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