I said, “What do you expect?” He said, “Maybe 500 people. So he put up all of the money, plane and everything, to get us out to those people over there. He started the album there, and he told those people that he was going to come back. When we played Beirut, he didn’t know what was going to happen. He sees it so clear that I hope it happens for him. They’re like an old soul that’s been out there a long time. It’s the same way with the bookings: me, Mos Def, Snoop Dogg, the old school, the new school, the school that’s going to come in the future. They’re spaced they’re out there, but I don't hear one song that reminds you of the one you just heard. OTR: When you first heard the Gorillaz, what did you think of it? What did you make of it?īW: I was just curious. All of a sudden my manager comes in and asked if I would be interested in working with this band.
Forty percent of my life was the music, the other 60 I was getting high, and I was not happy. After I started doing this tour, I said, “It's actually the beginning of the road.” But I never thought it was coming back. I thought maybe that’s the end of the road. If you had an artist like Stevie Wonder they would put him in the old-school section. The older artists aren’t getting airplay anymore because it’s the old school. That was important for me, especially with these electronic artists. I know Damon hears things a lot different. If he didn’t like something you’re doing, he said, “Man, I think that you can beat that.” We don’t pull no punches. Everything was clean, and he was straight up honest. Everything that they’ve said and predicted, happened. They’re hearing you for the first time.” He told me that between the days when we’re done touring, we’re going to do some writing and then go into the studio and cut, so there’s no way you can say no.
This audience that you’re playing to now is a young audience. So now I’m on the tour and Damon kept saying, “I would love to write and record with you on your next album.” He said, “I see you differently than when you were with Muscle Shoals. You know where it’s going to take you and where it’s going to drop you off, but these guys, I watched them work and got more inspired. Sometimes you can do it for so long to where it's like turning a trick. I feel like I’m part of the family, for real. I started to be hungry for what I love with a passion. Everything started to open up to me again. He goes from one country to another just to record a couple of lines of a group singing. I’ve seen too many people go, friends of mine. The thing that I noticed right away was that it was a very spiritual and clean environment, with no smoking, no drinking, no drugs around. When I got into the studio, it just took off.
So they sent me the songs that they wanted me to do. What if I came in a wheelchair?” They started laughing and said just to come. That makes a big difference.” I was joking with them, but I said, “I wouldn’t want to disappoint you. We think you were way ahead of your time.” They had everything I had ever cut. They said, “Man, we love your music, we love everything that you do. I was trying to find that, and it just wasn’t coming to me. I didn’t have the urge that I knew I had to have to compete. Off the Record: So how did you get involved with the Gorillaz?īobby Womack: The Gorillaz called my manger in Europe and asked if I would record with them on this album, Plastic Beach. He's the oft-forgotten survivor of soul music, the only link between Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, and Damon Albarn's animated supergroup the Gorillaz, who bring Plastic Beach to the Frank Erwin Center on Friday. I never get used to it.”Īt 66, Womack's seen it all. You have think about things that take you up, not bring you down, but losing anyone is depressing. “I just did something with Rolling Stone on Solomon Burke,” opens Bobby Womack, without prompting.
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