Jet Cover Story: 2003

[Emerald City]

Gladys Knight - Interview - Cover Story
Jet, March 3, 2003 by Aldore Collier

* HAVING THE NO. 1 SHOW IN LAS VEGAS

* HEALING AFTER HER SON'S DEATH

* BEING MARRIED TO A YOUNGER MAN

* 50 YEARS IN SHOW BUSINESS

Gladys Knight has been performing for more than 50 years and is just as hot now as when she first burst on the scene all those decades ago.

Hers is the top-rated show in competitive Las Vegas, she has a two-year marriage to a younger man she loves and she's celebrating 50 years in show business and has her own record label.

Sure, the 58-year-old Atlanta native has been on stage most of her life and has performed on the Las Vegas Strip many times. But recently, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the city's leading paper, voted hers the best of all the shows in the supercompetitive entertainment center with all its megahotels and casinos.

She has a four-year contract to do five shows a week at the huge Flamingo Hotel on the strip. Hotel officials said Knight has really boosted attendance in the main showroom, bringing in fans of all races and ages. She does her signature Heard it Through the Grapevine and Midnight Train to Georgia and throws in medleys of Motown artists, gospel, comedy routines with brother Bubba, fun encounters with the Flamingo crowds and her background singers.

And there's a tribute to one of her biggest mentors, Sammy Davis Jr. "They didn't want me to have Sammy in my show since so many others were doing Sammy," she told JET during an interview at her spacious Las Vegas home. "But Sammy taught me so much."

Being stationary in Las Vegas, her home for more than 25 years, makes it easier for Knight to help tend to her business affairs managed by daughter Kenya. Her company is called Shakeji, named after all three of her children, Shanga, Kenya and deceased Jimmy, her oldest who died in his sleep in 1999 at the age of 36.

Jimmy was his mother's manager and helped her launch her own record label, Many Different Roads. "Jimmy knew how to wheel and deal," she said. "Jimmy took me to another level from where the Pips and I were. He had been the road manager for Gladys Knight and the Pips before I decided to go solo and when I did go solo, he became my manager. Jimmy had five kids (Kenya has six and Shanga none). We definitely came together as a family. Rishawn, Jimmy's oldest, was most devastated. He had gone into a shell. William (her husband) and he sort of embraced each other. William never had a father, and he and Rishawn came together. Rishawn just cried. My faith (as a Mormon) and my family brought me through his death."

She recalled that Kenya was pregnant when her brother died but managed to have another healthy child. Knight stressed that her large and extended family embraced one another, pointing out that such trauma could either pull the family apart or bring them together. "We really pulled together."

Following Jimmy's death, Kenya immediately stepped in and began to manage her mother's business affairs. "She stepped right up to the plate," Knight proudly boasted. "She was kind of co-manager with Jimmy. She has really done well." Shanga lives in Atlanta and manages Knight's restaurant there.

Being stationary for an extended period for the first time in her life also gives Knight a chance to give her undivided attention to William McDowell, her fourth husband. Even though she is 58 and he's 45 and she hadn't had much success in the matrimonial arena, she said this is the happiest she has been as an adult.

[Emerald City]

Age was never a major issue because the two had known each other for almost seven years before a relationship evolved. Knight used to go alone to the elegant La Costa Spa near San Diego for pampering massages and relaxation. McDowell was one of the administrators of the spa. "We were just friends but there was something special about him and I always felt that from day one, the first time I met him. I just said, `What a nice young man.' He had a son to raise and I was just coming out of a marriage, so to speak (referring to her union with motivational speaker Les Brown)."

When asked about the failed union with Brown, she said, "During and after that it really made me realize what kind of man I didn't want. It really was a lesson. I don't regret it. I don't regret any decisions I've made in my life."

McDowell is different, she said. "First of all, I wanted a man with his own connection with the Lord. I can follow him anywhere." She is 100 per cent certain that this is finally the right one. "This is it without a doubt! He is everything I've prayed for. I knew what I needed in a relationship this time. I think I finally grew up."

She quickly admitted that it is not Cinderella and Prince Charming, but the two realize the importance of constantly communicating. "When I get busy or he gets busy and we find ourselves getting a little irritable, we'll come into our den, close the door and work everything out. Sometimes we'll pick a night and go down to a hotel and then spend the night there."

One of the biggest feathers in McDowell's cap was the fact that he was immediately loved by her children, 11 grandchildren and extended family. "They took to him right away and that's important to me." McDowell works in real estate and also helps out at her company. And he writes poetry for her. In fact he helped her pen the music she sang during last year's Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

McDowell is one of her anchors. The other is her brother Bubba. "It's just me and Bubba," she pointed out. The other Pips are happy and healthy, but she and her brother are still onstage together. "As hurt as Bubba was when we first broke up, he was the one who came when Bally's wanted the Pips to present me. The others were hurt. He was hurt, but he's always been there for me."

Reflecting on her amazing career that goes back 50 years to the time when she first appeared on TV on the "Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour," she said, "After a while you don't think about it, you just do. I think Nike stole that slogan `Just Do It' from me. I never got caught up in anything, I just sang. In the beginning I was never comfortable with all the attention I got because I sang. I'm just me. I'm still kind of like that today."

In the early days, before she became a household name in 1967 with the release of I Heard it Through the Grapevine, she said she and the Pips traveled around the country, cooked for themselves and just loved singing, dancing and interacting with fans. "It's been quite an adventure," she said.

Now, she wants to reach out to others who want to get into the music business. Her Many Different Roads label produced an inspirational album for her, but she said any upcoming artists who sing pop, R&B, or any other genre are welcome to contact her as long as there is no profanity in the music. That is her only requirement--no offensive language. "We didn't do that in the '70s, '60s or '50s. And people don't have to do it now," she explained.

Career-wise, she said the only arena she hasn't conquered yet is the Broadway stage. "I really want to do a play, a good play. I enjoyed doing Smokey Joe's Cafe, but that was a musical revue and there aren't any speaking parts. The challenge would be to do something noteworthy in that arena."

Right now she's content enjoying her 11 grandchildren, trying to help others get into the music business and, above all, finally being excited and happy about a relationship.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group