‘Our home was full of music,we rich in different
KATHY SLEDGE was a schoolgirl when she found fame with iconic 70s disco band Sister Sledge. “I was 13 when we first came to England and 14 when we went to Japan for an award,” she tells me in a voice as soft and sweet as molasses. “We’d go to these countries and be treated like superstars, then I’d come home and get the bus to school.
“I learned quickly never to talk about it at school and never let it go to my head. If I’d said I’d been singing on stage with the Commodores, nobody was going to believe me anyway.”
The act grew organically. “We didn’t even have a name until an MC asked us for one,” recalls Kathy, now 63. “My sister Kim shrugged and said ‘Sledge Sisters’.”
Then, at a New Jersey club, an MC who’d had one too many bourbons mixed his words up.
“Instead of Sledge Sisters he introduced us as Sister Sledge. My eldest sister Carol said, ‘That’s kinda cool’, and we kept it. It wasn’t planned.”
Kathy was 11 when they performed their first ever gig. “My mum was paid,” she says. “We sang everywhere for six years unpaid. I didn’t have a lot of say in it… We have business acumen now ; it was more a learning experience back then.”
The girls had their first hit in the UK with the funky Philadelphia soul hit Mama Never Told Me in 1973, five years before they breached the US Billboard Top Ten.
The following year Sister Sledge performed at the historic Rumble In The Jungle boxing bout, when Ali fought George Foreman in Zaire.
The build-up included a music festival, with James Brown and BB King.
“Everything happened in the middle of the stadium,” Kathy recalls.
“We had 80,000 people watching us when the power went out. So we started doing Spirit In The Dark by Aretha Franklin with an Africaninfluenced dance until the power came back.
“That’s only from learning how to be entertainers over the previous years. It was a scary moment, but it taught me that your passion comes through.”
Meeting Ali and Foreman was the cherry on top. “I came up to their belt buckles,” she laughs.
The sisters had flown over with Godfather of Soul James Brown, and because Zaire was French-speaking, her late sister Joni taught Brown to say “I am home” in French – “Je suis chez moi” – which went down like George in round eight.
“Chez moi” for young Kathy was a humble house in south west Philadelphia.
“It was very small. We were sharing bedrooms. Back then, my aunts and uncles all lived under one roof. The dinner table was always full of laughter.
“I woke up every day to the smell of breakfast cooking,” she adds, smiling warmly. “Our home was always full of music. I remember dancing in the mirror, singing the latest hits, hearing the old songs, my grandmother teaching us the piano.”
Father Edwin was a Broadway tap-dancer, mum Florez an actress and grandmother Viola a retired opera singer, who gave the girls vocal training.
Kathy adds: “We weren’t rich in money but we were rich in different ways. The best things in life aren’t things you buy. These are priceless memories. They shaped us.”
Things changed when they moved to an all-white neighbourhood.
The sisters encountered brutal bigotry ranging from racial taunts to cross burnings. “We had to have police protection in school,” she says. But hatred made the sororal bond tighter. “We found what we needed in each other.”
Their backstory inspired Chic co-founders Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards to write and produce Sister Sledge’s biggest hit, 1979’s platinum-selling We Are Family – the album of the same name sold more than a million copies.
With Kathy on uplifting lead vocals, the classic song became an anthem of female empowerment,
and the alliance spawned other hits, notably Lost In Music and He’s The Greatest Dancer.
Sister Sledge topped the UK charts with Frankie in 1985 after going Top 5 with Rodgers’s remix of Lost In Music. B-side, Thinking Of You, also charted high.
In the US they went Top 30 with a cover of Mary Wells’s My Guy – “a song I used to sing using my hairbrush as a mic growing up,” Kathy laughs.
Fans were largely friendly, but she recalls: “We had someone following us around on tour, hiding in the laundry bins in the hotels to get close to us.
“He had a massive crush on us and one time he ended up in the limo. The security thought he was with the group!
“That was the craziest time. Someone also turned up at my grandmother’s house in Philly with an engagement ring for me.
“She didn’t know, she invited him in! They had a long conversation. It was a little eerie.”
Kathy married classically-trained musician Philip Lightfoot (AKA Jupiter Beyond) in 1981.
The couple have two grown-up children, Kristen and Philip Jnr. She launched a solo project in 1989,
topping the US dance charts with 1992’s Take Me Back To Love Again. But it caused rancour with some of her sisters and lawsuits ensued.
“Being ousted from the band was a huge strain and quite a cathartic time for me,” Kathy says softly. “I was given an ultimatum and put out of the band when I decided to do a solo project.
“My sister Kim is my neighbour, and just before the pandemic she knocked on my door and apologised for my other sisters.
“She also voted back my rights to have a managerial voice in our company. Everything has now come full circle. For years I had to fight for the right to sing. I was voted out of using our band name. But passion for my music kept me going.”
Kathy has been approached by US networks to turn their story into a documentary film.
Multi-talented, she produces concerts and productions, including The Brighter Side Of Day about the legendary Billie Holiday. “I’ve always had a passion for Billie. As a little girl, I remember my aunt had loads of Billie Holiday records. I realised I could do her voice quite well. My mother said,
‘We should add that in the Vegas act’.”
IN THE 70s, when the Sisters opened for comedians in Vegas, her impressions got standing ovations. Gladys Knight, Mavis Staples and Stevie Wonder were Kathy’s other big influences – along with Freddie Mercury. “I love him. As a performer he was totally uninhibited. I’ve always been a big fan of Queen. I read once that they open with one of their biggest hits. I have since incorporated that in our production, opening with Lost In Music. Learn from the best!”
Performing with Prince, at Essence Festival in New Orleans in 2014, was her personal epic high.
“He asked me to be the surprise guest,” she recalls. “I was supposed to surprise the audience by coming on to perform We Are Family with Nile Rodgers, but the surprise was on me.
“The audience reaction blew me away. I saw a wave effect go to the top of the stadium. It was the most electric on-stage experience I’ve ever had.”
Since then, Kathy has collaborated with a host of her favourite producers, ranging from Robert Miles to London-based Horse Meat Disco.
During lockdown she performed virtual concerts, including the presidential inauguration, from home and launched Family Room as a mother-daughter talk show on Instagram Live.
She continues to tour frequently and has learnt how to find life balance. “When I’m off-stage, I’m off-stage – and that’s my precious personal time.”
Kathy performs here next month. “My heart is huge for my English fans,” she says. “I grew up with the music over there. I love your support for authenticity. I can’t wait to be back.”