That`s why I also got him on there with me singing 'Don`t Break Your Promise'. Just like Rod Stewart and I have always had strong ties. You know, I wrote `It`s All Over Now`, the first song that introduced them to The States, back in `64. That`s why The Rolling Stones are playing on some of the tracks. `Cause you KNOW how much we respect your music`. I said `You got a label?`â€¦ And he said `I got one if I got YOU! Continuum Records is the company and I can guarantee you`ll be treated better than ever. That happened when I was doing a gospel album before 'Resurrection'â€¦ And nobody wanted it `cause they thought that I`d do an Al Green and never go back to singing rock and roll again!', he laughs: â€œThat was when Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones called me and said `Bobby, they ain`t gonna take the gospel album `cause they don`t want you preachin` to `em for the rest of your life! But would you be interested in signing to my new label?`. Stories circulating of a poverty-stricken Bobby having recorded `Resurrection` 'on spec' in a California studio during the early hours when the building normally shut down are however denied by Womack himself. Just to prove that the Bobby Womack of old had made the quietest exit ever, and that the new one was here doing all the right things!'

And, when that happened, I decided to call the album` Resurrection`. So I said `I just wanna get the best album I can possibly give `em, and show people that I can be straight and that everybody can change`. But then you get to a point where you just don`t wanna fool people any more. And, once I started to do that, my music came back! You know, my music had long left, I was shadow-boxing on five or six albums, everybody was writing songs that SOUNDED like Bobby Womack and I was singing `em. I just decided to start afresh today saying `OK this is the NEW Bobby Womack`. And so when I finally realised `OK, I`ve done enough damage, what is the best thing I can do now?`. I was like `Man, is there anybody around that I can recognise?`. I mean, man, I was trying to get through life and I COULDN`T! `Cause I had nothing to DRAW from!', he continues: 'My family had split up so bad, there was all kinda craziness! Womack & Womack had decided to change their name to Zackariyas and moved to Africa my son committed suicide my 20-year-old marriage had broke up. 'You know, I didn`t want people to think I was just some stoned-out druggie. And it`s just nice to be normal! You know, today I smoke very little cigarett-es, I drink only occasionally, and I`m walking on the ground!' Because, at this point in my life, I don`t really give a damn!', he begins bluntly: 'But then I DO give a damn about the mistakes I made along the way! So today I`ve put all the drugs and booze behind me - I can see straight I can think straight. 'It represents my life over the last 30 years! I really came to grips with myself and tried to be as honest as I could be, without always thinking about what somebody else might think.

Womack, whose rasping, downhome voice is even more gritty in person than on record - enthuses about his new album and speaks honest-ly about the troubled and frequently-sad personal circumstances that gave rise to many of its songs. With traditional soul values becoming virtually extinct in the hip hop-dominated, youth-oriented R&B arena of the Mid-Nineties, Bobby Womack - one of the most enduring and legendary figures in black music - has this month delighted soul music fans the world over with the release of his first album for the Nineties, the appro-priately titled 'Resurrection'.Īccompanying me on a car journey that took us from his Holland Park hotel through the West End and over the river to The South Bank`s television studios, a fast-talking and outspoken Mr. The title of his 1987 MCA album The Last Soul Man' has never seemed more prophetic and apt.

Bobby womack last soul man