Verdine White is laying it all out on his first-ever solo music venture.
In honor of what would have been the late, great Earth, Wind & Fire founder Maurice White’s 83rd birthday on Thursday, Dec. 19, his brother and bandmate is sharing his feelings on the iconic musician’s impact via a touching tribute track titled “Superman.”
“Isn’t that crazy? Isn’t it?” Verdine jokes about going over five decades without releasing any solo work, despite his efforts as a member of EW&F having earned him nine Grammys and induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
It’s precisely those accolades that kept the musician away from solo work for so long, as he says, “What kept becoming a reality was all those other records we did… all those great records that we did over the years.”
“At this juncture, we are Earth, Wind & Fire, so we have more room and we can try different things, tribute things, all that stuff. Bringing [wife Shelly Clark] in to help me. She’s a great singer, and she’s a leader of Honey Cone, and we can work together,” he says of collaborating with his critically-lauded Motown singer wife.
What better way to kick off a solo music endeavor than with a touching tribute to the man who, as Verdine says, helped him “get through and navigate things” throughout his life and career up until his death from Parkinson’s disease in 2016.
“[‘Superman’] was the brainchild of Janie Bradford, who’s my wife’s godmother,” Verdine shares. “Shelly produced the track and just really a lot of fun to do, and some of the musicians we had on it [are] John Paris, Earth, Wind & Fire’s drummer, and Carnel Harrell. The Honey Cone, Shelly’s group, and so it’s all of us together.”
The bassist adds, “We did it over a two to three-day period, and Shelly sat right there with me and did background [vocals] and went over lyrics. It was really great.”
The songs sees Verdine with Shelly and her bandmates harmonizing and delivering powerful affirmations of Maurice’s impact over a smooth, disco-infused beat. Throughout its nearly 3-minute runtime, the artist reflects on his late brother making “the impossible, possible,” further highlighting that he “made my dreams come true” and calling him “my hero.”
Ultimately, it was Bradford and Clark who compelled Verdine to actually record the song, he says, “Shelly and Janie thought it would be a great tribute to Maurice, and that’s what I did. So I was scared, scared and crazy. You know what I mean?”
Despite his hesitations to go solo, Verdine shares that “everybody seemed to like what I did” once the song was completed and released.
As for the track’s title, he says it also came from Bradford: “Maurice was a Superman. When you really look at his discography and what ‘Rice did as a writer, producer, leader … he was my mentor and brought me into the business. What he did in the business, I would say that’s a Superman.”
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