Candi’s still got the love for music after 30 albums
HER songs have played at a million celebrations and weddings all over the world.
But Young Hearts Run Free singer Candi Staton spent much of her life suffering domestic abuse and alcoholism.
Now 78, the Alabama-born legend is loving life as she brings out her 30th album – titled Unstoppable.
“Am I unstoppable? You could call it that!” she said.
Candi began singing in a gospel group with her sisters as a teenager and toured with Mahalia Jackson and a young Sam Cooke.
But the champagne on offer at showbiz parties led to an alcohol addiction that lasted 10 years.
She recollects the day in the 70s she decided never to touch another drop.
“I got so drunk one night,” said Candi.
“I had lost it. It was in August and it was hot. I was in Alabama.
“I started crying. I said, ‘This is not like me, I don’t know what I’m doing with my life’. My kids were worried.
“I said, ‘This has got to stop but I don’t know how’. It was though I could hear my mother’s voice. She said, ‘You need to fast. Fasting breaks things’.
“I’ve not had another drink since.”
Candi survived a string of abusive relationships and difficult divorces.
But she is happily married BY ANDREW ARTHUR to her sixth husband now. It’s an unusual set-up
She said: “We have a good relationship. We see each other once or twice a month. He works in Memphis, while I’m based in Madison, Georgia.
“I’m not giving up my house, and he’s not giving up his. I go home for two or three weeks, he comes to Madison for a while, then goes back. He understands all that.”
Candi’s career resurgence began in 1991 when London DJ The Source released a remix of You Got The Love and it became a huge hit.
She couldn’t even rememeber the song, which she had recorded for a diet advert.
Candi added: “I got a call from a DJ asking me to talk about You Got The Love. “And then it clicked. ‘Oh that song I did in Chicago in 86 for that diet thing.’
“When I heard it, I didn’t recognise it. I’m a straightforward R&B and soul singer. So it was kind of like, ‘OK, but I’m not going to do this stuff’. But I did!”
The song has been covered many times.
I asked Candi whose reworking she likes the best.
“Florence + the Machine did a good job,” she said.
“We did it at Glastonbury and she recorded it on her phone. I was going to do it like that on stage, but she beat me to it!” ● Candi Staton’s new album Unstoppable is out now.
I got so drunk one night.. I said this has got to stop