Amazing story
The Blind Boys of Alabama, Spreading the Gospel Through Music
By Dan Reany
The 700 Club
CBN.com
– 700 Club producer, Dan Reany recently sat down to talk with the Grammy award winning gospel group, the Blind Boys of Alabama.
They’ve performed for three presidents and won five Grammys. Then in 2007 the Blind Boys of Alabama were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of fame! But they will tell you that their success was a long time coming.
Jimmy: “My philosophy is better late than never, you know.”
Founding member Jimmy Carter first met the rest of the original group when his parents dropped him off at the Alabama School for the Negro Blind in 1939.
Jimmy: “My dad didn’t want me to go. My mom didn’t either, but the lady convinced her to take me, so one Wednesday afternoon, September 12, 1939, they drove us up there to this school. I was 7 years old. And they left me there, and I thought the world had come to an end.”
Jimmy found his niche at the school, and started singing with several other boys. They started out performing for soldiers who were training at a nearby camp.
Jimmy: “We would go and sing for the soldiers on Sunday, pick up a little money. Five or six dollars back then, was ‘Wow.’”
Joey: “Big money, huh?”
Jimmy: “Big money then.”
The group started travelling in 1944 as the Happy Land Jubilee Singers. After 10 years of relative obscurity performing gospel, they passed up the chance to cross over into mainstream music.
Jimmy: “We were at the same studio that Sam Cooke was at. When they gave him the opportunity to cross over, The Blind Boys were given the same opportunity. Sam said, ‘Yes’ and the Blind Boys said, ‘No.’”
The Blind Boys of Alabama stayed quietly on the gospel circuit for another three decades.
Jimmy: “All of us were brought up in a Christian environment and we love gospel music. So we decided that we would never deviate from that.”
Then in 1983 they performed on Broadway in The Gospel at Colonus, a Pentecostal take on the ancient Greek tragedy of Oedipus.
Immediately they found worldwide fame, and by 2001 had won their first Grammy.
Dan: “Now, does it start getting boring after you get number three, number four, number five?”
Joey and Jimmy: “I don’t think it gets boring.” “You would think so, but it didn’t.”
Dan: “It’s good every time?”
Jimmy: “Every year, it’s just the same excitement.”
Jeff: “I know when they called our name the very last time, we jumped up and screamed and hollered and ran down the aisle again.”
But the top highlight for the group came some 40 years after they played benefit concerts for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 2010, they sang ‘Free at Last’ to America’s first black president.
Jimmy: “We never thought we’d see a black president in our lifetime. But to go up there and sing for him, it was really, really awesome. The only thing I was thinking of then was I wanted the opportunity to shake his hand. And I did that, plus we took pictures with him. That’s all I was thinking about. I just wanted to see him.”
Within the group, some members like drummer Ricky McKinnie lost their sight as adults, while some, like Jimmy have been blind since birth. But they say being blind was never really a test of faith.
Jimmy: “My mom, they were Christian people, and we were taught about the Bible and about God, so she taught me how to trust Him, and that’s what I did, so it was never a challenge to me.”
Ricky: “I think people have realized that a disability doesn’t have to be a handicap. It’s not about what you can’t do that’s important. It’s about what you can do.”
On the road sighted members like guitarist Joey Williams help the other guys get acclimated to their rooms, or get to and from the restaurants and shows.
Jimmy: “We don’t just come in here and sing. There’s more to it than that.”
Dan: “And it’s a privilege, too, because you younger guys are in the presence of greatness.”
Joey: “Right. It’s a learning experience that you couldn’t buy from Julliard, or any other school in the world.”
For audiences, going to a Blind Boys show can be akin to attending a full gospel church service.
Jimmy: “That’s my life. I represent Him. So I’m gonna always talk about Him.”
They’ve performed with industry legends like Aaron Neville and Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders for their Christmas CD, and their work with Ben Harper introduced them to the next generation of listeners.
Joey: “He was like a kid in a candy store. On stage, Jimmy or somebody would do a riff and he’s just, ‘Oh!’ He would just go crazy. We started to charge him a ticket, because he was having too much fun.”
And even after 65 years of performing and thousands of shows, Jimmy still loves getting out in the crowd.
Jimmy: “That’s the highlight of my performance, when I get out there and see the response that they give me. It’s really good. I enjoy doing that.”
Jimmy and the Blind Boys play roughly 200 dates per year and say they won’t be slowing down anytime soon.
Jimmy: “I’ve been around a while now. I hope God will allow me to give Him a few more years.”
Dan: “Right now, no plans for the immediate future for you to step off that stage, right?”
Jimmy: “No, not yet.”
Joey/Ricky: “Not yet.” “He’ll be here.”
Jimmy: “I think that He still has something else for me, but if not, I hope I have served Him well.”
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