These days, the term ‘legend’ is used a little too loosely for my liking, a ‘legend’ to some might be a mate who gets a round in at the bar, is a designated driver on a stag night or someone who books the annual Club 18-30 holiday to Benidorm but to me, a ‘legend’ is someone who has made a real impact in their chosen field, a sports personality, an inventor or maybe a member of a world famous group called Sister Sledge who found their fame in the 70s and became pin-ups of the disco movement. Imagine my surprise when I get a call from a friend who runs a PR company, asking if I’d like to interview Kathy Sledge, the primary vocalist of Sister Sledge……believe me, after I wound my jaw back up, I was keen as mustard to make this happen. A call was set up with Kathy, me in my son’s bedroom, her on a settee in her fine looking home in Pennsylvania and armed with a bunch of questions, I went to work.
As a founding member of Sister Sledge and having achieved so much over the years, I was keen to ask Kathy what she was most proud of, “I think I am most proud of the song ‘We Are Family’ because it really was a portrait of us and was written about us, the (then) record company president Jerry Greenberg was describing these four girls from Philadelphia to Nile Rodgers and the late Bernard Edwards (they owed the record company a favour and the label asked them to produce a track for The Rolling Stones). Nile and Bernard said that if they did that, it would become an instant hit and because The Stones were such a big band already, nobody would know that it was them behind the track and therefore they wouldn’t get the recognition for it, they were keen to make a mark on the scene as very strong producers so they asked Jerry to give them an obscure act that nobody knew about at the time (that was us). We were known in other countries as we had some hits outside of the USA at the time but we weren’t heard of within the States. Jerry then started to describe us to Nile and Bernard, saying that we are four sisters that flock together like birds of a feather and before long, Nile and Bernard are scribbling notes about us and unbeknown to us, these rough notes would be shaped into what would become the lyrics to the song! The song covers the closeness that we as sisters exuded at the time.”
Kathy had been singing for a long time (since the age of 11) and was a busy person who was much in demand in the early days, she recalls, “I had just finished recording with the Fly, Robin, Fly people and then they wanted me to do something with the Yowsah Yowsah Yowsah people and at the time, I really didn’t know if I even wanted to do it, I was a budding athlete and all I wanted to do was practise track and field so that was a tough call at the time….then, after we recorded ‘We Are Family’, everything changed and the rest is history!”
Working with both Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards resulted in their career blasting off and their songs reaching all four corners of the earth, I was keen to ask Kathy about what she had learned from working with them….”At the time, I was well used to working with producers and even being the ’signature voice’ from a really young age, I think what I really learned from both of them was their visionary aspect, I mean both Nile and Bernard were so busy back then, they would literally be writing ‘Thinking of You’ while I was recording ‘The Greatest Dancer’. They worked to such tight timelines. I remember learning the words for ‘The Greatest Dancer’ and I was never allowed to hear the track until it was time to do my vocals and the way they taught me was that the would go through each line and have me sing it the way I thought it should be sung and then they would make changes to what they had envisioned and also changes to the way that I was singing it. I remember the confidence that Nile had, I would ask him (as a goofy 16 year old girl) if anyone would even play these records and Nile would tell me that these songs were going to be massive all over the world, the fact that they knew what they wanted and I trusted them, that’s a big one, trust the songwriter and the producer and overall, trust in the passion! - I will also add that both Nile and Bernard went on to become producers in their own rights, working independently of each other and created some wonderful songs for the likes of Madonna, Robert Palmer, Duran Duran, David Bowie and many more but when we were working with them, it was both of them together at the same time which was something very special that will never be repeated. When we had finished writing ‘We Are Family’, I heard that Diana Ross tracked them down and demanded that they work with her!”
After producing lead vocals on some of the most recognisable disco classics of all time (Lost in Music, He’s the Greatest Dancer, We Are Family) that have truly stood the test of time, I wanted to ask Kathy how she feels when she hears them played nowadays, 50 years after they were created….”Yeah, they truly have stood the test of time! I think about the delivery then as a 16 year old learning the songs and at the time of recording, I was still learning, it was fresh and new but now, I know it, it’s embedded in me, and you know what?, I never deviate from the way that it was recorded, like the way that I was learning the song was always going to be the way that it should have been delivered. What I really love these days, when I sing songs such as ‘Thinking of You’, I look back and recall that 60% of the song was ad-libbed so when I’m in a room and the audience are singing everything back to me, I know that a lot of the song came from within me (taps her hand on her heart) and that means a lot to me! - I use the hashtag #singthiswithme as I always start the songs off by saying this, encouraging everyone to sing along and when they do, I get a massive buzz which brings about a feeling of newness all over again”
I commented that Kathy is still very young but at the time of recording with Sister Sledge, she was a mere teenager, I wanted to find out if she felt that the group had robbed her of the years when, instead of recording world class disco anthems and getting an understanding of the music industry, she should have been hanging out at the local mall, swooning over teenage boys and getting up to high antics with her girlfriends…..”I would have to say both. It certainly helped me to learn and acquire a business acumen in the music industry as believe me, there’s nothing quite like being out there, living it first hand, boots on the ground! Even with things like stage presence, that’s something that you cannot be taught, it’s something you just have to pick up as you go along. As far as on a personal level, I joked about just wanting to run track and field earlier on but I wasn’t allowed to take part in after school activities. I was in middle school when I started to record with the group and had just started in high school by the time the album had been released and looking back, it was tough, I wasn’t allowed to go to school proms and that really did make all the difference. We had tutors on the road and although that bridged the education gap, you did still feel isolated from your friends and the ‘real world’. I remember when the HBCU College Tour took place at school (a sports tour of local colleges), I was never allowed to attend as I had to make sure that I had to attend a college ( Temple University) close to home (Pennsylvania) for work. I remember to this day when we were in Hawaii doing a show, it was the night of our High School Prom and I called my best friend from a phone booth (remember them?) and got all of the gossip on what had happened at the prom, which guys were wearing what and the dress that so and so wore and there I was stood in this phone booth wishing that I could have been there to see it all first hand!”
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and after the career that she has had to date, I was interested to hear about what advice Kathy would giver her younger self…..”Don’t be afraid to shine! Looking back, I was the signature voice of Sister Sledge and I remember when we toured with The Jacksons, I always wanted to ask Michael whether he ever felt the same way, guilty singing all the lead parts? Did he feel responsible? Did he feel bad that the producers are asking him to do it every time instead of your siblings who are there to provide the backing vocals for you. I recall reading an interview with Beyonce and she was saying that she can’t help it if she’s the lead singer, you should never feel you have to apologize for for that role. There’s a lot of pressure on you in the role being out front , especially of a young person. I think that I would also have told my younger self to do more solo projects a lot sooner than I did, you mustn’t be afraid to venture out and try it and don’t be afraid to shine as there’s enough shine for everyone! Freddie Mercury was never afraid to shine, I think his middle name should have been “shine” and it’s so sad that he’s no longer with us, he had such a gift and was never inhibited by it. That is something we can all learn from.”
It’s well documented that the nightclubs in the 70s were magical places, the lights, the music, the atmosphere and coupled with the birth of disco music, they were incredible places to be. I asked Kathy if she felt that they still have the sparkle that they used to have back in the day….”I think that it shifts, take what I did with Horse Meat Disco, the Glitterbox scene was new to a new audience at the time and I feel that it still has the same shine to it that it did back in the early days although some may see it differently. To me, the music still does what it used to do and will keep on doing so. I think that dance music is the most uplifting music out there and when you get on the dance floor, it doesn’t matter if it’s house or disco, it has the same effect on you as it did back in the day, it drives you! It will always drive you, who knows what they’ll call it in 20-30 years time, they’ll probably be calling it ‘retro’ by then but as long as it still moves you, it makes no difference!”
As mentioned earlier, Kathy would have told her younger self to explore solo projects a lot earlier than she did, in fact, it wasn’t until the late 80’s that she ventured out on her own to explore new possibilities, I asked Kathy if she noticed as shift from performing with Sister ledge to being a solo artist….”I think when I started to listen to Roger Sanchez and we went out and did a remake of ‘Another Star’ and of course ‘Take Me Back to Love’, I remember that when I used to perform with the sisters, I never used to talk much on stage (which is surprising as I LOVE to talk!) but when I did the solo project, at the end of the songs, I would just stand there and it soon dawned on me that I have to engage with the audience who had come to see me, that was a learning curve! I would say that the music never really changed for me, I guess it was the entertainment side which has got better over the years. I guess that as time goes by, you do change but looking back, when you’re on stage, you come alive and that is something that will always happen with me as you’re doing what you love to do.”
When the global pandemic set in caused by the spread of Coronavirus, Kathy could have simply isolated at home and let it take it’s natural path but being Kathy, she wasn’t going to let that happen. Instead, she and her daughter Kristen set up ‘Family Room’, a twice weekly show hosted by them both where people join conversations of love and encouragement, viewers from around the world visit them at home on IG Live for conversation and personal connection. Since launching in spring 2020, ‘Family Room’ has become a place of solace and celebration, powered by the unique, “ride or die” bond between a mother and daughter that defines what family is all about. I asked Kathy if she had plans to carry ‘Family Room’ on even now that things have started to get back to normal…..”Not only is it still going, we are now talking with much bigger platforms. My daughter Kristen is a powerhouse and what we did was to revisit the whole ethos around what ‘We Are Family’ stands for and originally, it was pitched as a mother/daughter talk show before the pandemic took hold, so like everyone else, we made amends and ended up setting up the camera in our home. When the world started to open up once again, it was odd because we thought that we’d take a break from it because we didn’t want people to think that we were still isolating on our couch! What we did notice is that we started to get messages from people asking when it was coming back? We chatted to networks and more so, online networks and we feel that with it, we did our bit to help to pull the world together. It was also a support network and I get letters from people to this day thanking us for what Family Room has done for them, allowing them to meet so many people who almost feel like family to them and to me, it feels like an extension to the whole ‘We Are Family’ song which has always been so important to me.”
Kathy will be playing a show at the O2 Indigo Club on 14th May, I asked her what her army of loyal fans can expect from the show….”Let me tell you this, by the end of the evening, they’ll be on the stage with me! Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to produce live concerts and festivals and doing that has allowed me to engage with a much younger demographic and looking at how they react, the music has always done what it always did, it stayed relevant and that’s how I plan my performance, if I go to see Chaka Khan, I want to hear every ad lib of ‘Sweet Thing’, I feel like that when I sing any of our classics. I think that visually, I have created an ‘experience’, Sister Sledge were the first group to incorporate dancing into their stage show and we opened up the floodgates for other “ girl bands” to dance full on. Before us, it was The Supremes and The Three Degrees who performed but there was never a dance element to their performance. My show will allow people to embrace the music and to also see what we bought to the industry all those years ago. Thinking about an article I read about Queen, they used to open their shows with a massive song like ‘We Will Rock You’, we took that idea and decided that we’re going to open with ‘Lost in Music’ which really sets the scene and this is the energy that I want to put out there and that’s what we’re going to do!”
I added that it takes a very confident act to open up with a track such as ‘Lost in Music’ and I asked Kathy if she feels that this might be bringing out the ‘big guns’ a little too early in the show?…..”What you have to remember is that by the time I’ve sung ‘Lost in Music’ and ’Thinking of You’, the fans will still have ‘He’s the Greatest Dancer’ and ‘We Are Family’ to look forward to! By the time they leave, they’ll be hugging whoever is stood next to them!”
I thought I’d up the ante somewhat by throwing in a few quick fire questions for Kathy to tackle…..
Beach or Pool? Beach
Champagne or Cocktails - Champagne
New York in the 70s or present day? 70s (purely for the nightclubs!)
‘We are Family’ or ‘He’s the Greatest Dancer’? - Greatest Dancer
Nile Rodgers or Bernard Edwards - Don’t do this to me, I’ll have to say Nile Edwards….or Bernard Rodgers as I cannot decide!
Prior to finishing our chat, I asked Kathy what advice she had for the millions of bands, acts and artists out there to keep them going?…..”Follow your passion, don’t do it for money, do it for the integrity of the music, do what you love. With some artists, I have to know that they have another hit record before you spend money on the ticket for their show and there are other artists that, as soon as I know they’re coming to town, I will go and buy that ticket, no questions asked! Be that act…..and don’t deviate too much from who you are, be yourself, don’t let anybody change that because that is YOU.”
With literally 1 minute left on the clock, I asked Kathy to tell me something that not many people would know and she hit the jackpot with this……”Here’s something that people may not know about Nile Rodgers, he was notorious for calling you up if you were in town and inviting you to his studio in the middle of the night to put some background vocals on a track he was working on at the time and it may surprise you to know that the backing vocals on Madonna’s track ‘Material Girl’ is Sister Sledge! You won’t see us credited for it but it’s us! Nile called me, asked me to come down and we ended up singing backing vocals for the track, You have to remember that we got Luther (Vandross) to sing backing vocals on ‘We Are Family’ - So there you go, a couple of nuggets that you may not have been aware of!”
