America has a wealth of talented musical artists who have achieved great popularity as entertainers.
What often goes unmentioned, however, is the fact that faith plays a significant role in the personal and professional lives of many of these performers.
Singer, songwriter and percussionist Steve Arrington is among many artists who can testify to how much faith has made a difference in their lives.
Arrington is best known as former lead singer of the ‘70s R&B/funk band Slave, and was featured on classics such as “Just a Touch of Love,” “Watching You” and “Party Lights.” He later had a successful solo career in the 1980s with hits like “Weak at the Knees” and “Dancing in the Key of Life.”
Arrington performed in Indianapolis for an event benefiting children with juvenile diabetes in January.
He spoke with the Recorder about the day he became a Christian. He remembers walking downtown in New York City 28 years ago, and seeing a man wearing and holding a sign that said, “The end is near, Jesus is coming soon.”
Fascinated, Arrington stopped on the busy street and spoke with him.
“He just took me through the Bible and showed me what God has to say about salvation,” Arrington said. “It was then that I knew there was something more to life. I got saved by a guy on the street who maybe looked silly to the average person, but had enough love for Christ and for people to show them salvation.”
In 1990, Arrington left secular music, went into the ministry and became the pastor of Amazing Full Love Gospel Church in his native Ohio. After producing various gospel projects, he returned with a new solo album, “Pure Thing,” in 2009 and will release “Love, Peace and Funk Beats” this year.
“My mission now is to bring good music back to the streets, and bring the good news of God’s love, beauty and peace,” Arrington said. “A good love song is a very important thing in the climate we have today, where so much music has become graphic and narcissistic.”
Another example of faith’s impact on a major recording artist can be found in R&B/pop band Kool and the Gang, who performed in Indianapolis last week with the hard rock group Van Halen at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
In an exclusive interview with the Recorder, Kool and the Gang founder Robert “Kool” Bell discussed the Islamic faith that has long been cherished by him and his brother Ronald (also known as Khalis Bayyan).
“In our early days around Jersey City and New York we played for a lot of Islamic events called bazaars,” Bell said. “Through our travels around the world we were also influenced from different countries like Turkey, where we sought and found a clear understanding of what Islam is all about.”
In his book The Honorable Elijah Muhammad: The Man Behind the Men, Mikal Saahir, imam (minister) of Nur-Allah Islamic Center of Indianapolis, noted that the Bell brothers were among several artists like Joe Tex and Leon Huff who embraced Islam.
“Some musicians with Kool and the Gang were active members of the pre-1975 National of Islam,” Saahir noted. “When we look at early songs like ‘Whiting H&G,’ ‘Higher Plane’ and ‘Hereafter’ we see compositions that were a virtual salute to the many positive contributions of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam upon Black America.”
Kool and the Gang scored its first major hits in the 1970s with songs such as “Hollywood Swinging,” “Jungle Boogie” and “Ladies Night.”
The group reached its peak in the 1980s, topping both the R&B and pop charts with classics like “Celebration,” “Get Down on It,” “Joanna” and “Fresh.” Kool and the Gang became arguably the most popular African-American band in the world, playing sold out arenas with lead singer James “J.T.” Taylor.
In 2006, the group made a surprise comeback with the Top 10 R&B track “Steppin’ Into Love,” and have a full list of concert dates booked each year. After being impressed by one of their recent shows, Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth asked Kool and the Gang to tour with his group this year.
Bell credits Kool and the Gang’s favor and success not only to good musicianship, but to divine guidance and intervention.
“Faith has actually played a very important part in our lives,” Bell said. “Our faith is very strong because we have been blessed to be in an industry like this for over 40 years.”
Bell said he believes “God and the powers that be” have watched over the band since its beginning.
“Look at all the travel that we do and all the work we have had in a business where you can make it one day and be gone the next day,” he added. “We’re very thankful and have faith that God has allowed us to be successful for so many years.”
In addition to transforming his life, Arrington’s Christian faith has also helped him cope with loss, including the deaths of his former Slave band mates. Slave’s original guitarist, Mark “Drac” Hicks, and bass player Mark Adams, both died last year.
“We never had a feud, but just went in different musical directions, so I was in contact with them until the end,” Arrington said. “Fortunately, I had a chance to pray with both of my brothers and talk to them about the Lord.”
Another prominent artist who discovered renewed faith later in life is Gladys Knight, who is scheduled to perform during Indiana Black Expo’s Summer Celebration in July. Known as “The Empress of Soul,” Knight, along with The Pips created numerous classics between the 1960s and early ‘90s, including “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “If I Were Your Woman,” “Midnight Train to Georgia” and “Neither One of Us.”
By the mid-1990s, however, three divorces and a gambling addiction had left Knight emotionally and spiritually bankrupt. Although she grew up in a Baptist church, she began to look for ways to nourish her damaged spiritual health.
She discovered that her oldest son, Jimmy Newman III, along with his sister Kenya, had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as LDS and the Mormons). Reassured by the denomination’s doctrine, Knight followed her children into the faith in 1997.
“Since I joined the church, I desire to be more and more obedient to God,” Knight said in an interview with Why I Believe, an official program of LDS that highlights recently baptized members. “As I do, many people say to me, ‘I see a light in you more than ever before. What is it?’ I tell them that I became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
In addition to performing her classics around the world, Knight also directs a Mormon ensemble, the Saints Unified Voices, or SUV, as she likes to call it. The choir won a Grammy Award in 2005 for their first album “One Voice.”
Sadly, Newman, who led Knight to the faith, died suddenly in 1999.
“He brought me to my church and I just grew immensely from his example,” Knight said. “I am happy in my spirit because I know for sure where he is. I’ll see him again.”
Popular musicians
and their adopted faith
Baha’I
Dizzy Gillespie
Buddhism
Me’shell Ndegeocello
Tina Turner
Christianity
Cheryl “Coko” Gamble-Clemons (SWV)
Al Green
MC Hammer (Stanley Burrell)
Howard Hewitt
Chris Jasper (The Isley Brothers)
Rudolph Isley (The Isley Brothers)
Thomas McClary (The Commodores)
Mase (Mason Betha)
Shirley Murdock
Kelly Price
Woody Rock (Dru Hill)
Stephanie Mills
Smokey Robinson
Joseph Simmons (Run/DMC)
Freddie Stone (Sly and the Family Stone)
Vanity (Denise Matthews)
Denise Williams
Michelle Williams (Destiny’s Child)
Ronnie Wilson (The Gap Band)
Islam
Jermaine Jackson
Richard Taylor (The Manhattans)
Joe Tex (Islamic name Yusuf Hazziez)
Wu-Tang Clan (some members)
Jehovah’s Witness
Larry Graham
Prince
Judaism
Sammy Davis Jr.
The Flamingos
Scientology
Isaac Hayes
