Gary James' Interview With
Deniece Williams



She just happens to be one of the most famous voices in the categories of Pop and Gospel music. She's worked with some of the biggest names in the music business, including Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, Maurice Wright (Earth, Wind And Fire) and Johnny Mathis to name just a few. To her credit she has four Grammys. We are speaking of course about Deniece Williams.

Q - Deniece, you didn't start out to be a singer, did you? You actually went to college and studied nursing?

A - That's true. I wanted to be a nurse and did not think about singing at all, but this was God's plan for me and here I am!

Q - You then left college and started singing. How did you know you could sing?

A - Because I was raised up in the church. I started singing at the age of three years old in the church, so I knew that I could sing. It wasn't that I didn't know that I could sing. It was that being raised in the Church of God and Christ you were taught not to sing the devil's music. You only sang Christian music. And for me to step out and go down to this club with a girlfriend of mine and sing was a major, big, big deal in my life.

Q - Since you're from Gary, Indiana did you ever cross paths with The Jackson 5?

A - I first met The Jackson 5 with Michael. I think he was around five or six years old, singing with them. They also had their local record come out the same time I had a local record and so we knew of each other and we knew each other.

Q - How did you land this job as a background vocalist for Stevie Wonder?

A - Well, I had a cousin named John Harris. And John's grandmother and my grandmother were sisters. Around the age of 14 he started coming to Gary to visit his grandmother for a week. John lived in Detroit, Michigan. And so when he came home bragging, "Oh, yeah. I know Stevie Wonder. We're friends." I said, "John, everybody who lives in Detroit says they know Stevie Wonder. You should stop lying." He did that for about six years. After I left college, 'cause I wasn't a very good student, he said, "You know, Stevie and I are coming to Baltimore and I want you to come to the concert and I'll get you a backstage pass." Actually, this is before I left college. I said, "There you go." At it turned out, he did get me a backstage pass. I did meet Stevie and two years later, when I left school, it was John who got me an audition with Stevie and that's how I became one of his background singers.

Q - Did you got out on the road with Stevie Wonder or did you do studio work?

A - I did both. I was in the studio. I recorded "Songs In The Key Of Life" and then I toured with him.

Q - And how long did that last?

A - I was with him three and half years.

Q - You were noticed by quite a few famous people along the way. We're talking Maurice White of Earth, Wind And Fire, Johnny Mathis, Roberta Flack, Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis. You were actually famous before you became famous.

A - (laughs) Okay. Well, thank you very much. That's funny. No one has ever said that before. So, you're a first. After I left Stevie I did work for Vikki Carr for a short period and then I went and worked with Roberta Flack, which was incredible. I'm actually on one of her projects with her. And so I did get a chance to meet those people. Marilyn McCoo. I went on to record with Johnny Mathis. Certainly before Johnny I worked with Earth, Wind And Fire who produced the first couple of projects on me. So, it was on tour with Stevie Wonder that a lot of these people got to see me perform, Maurice White being one of them, and signing me to his production company as a solo artist and you know, the rest is history.

Q - You don't write your own songs, do you?

A - Yes, some of them. I would say I write at least 40% of my music.

Q - When someone wants to get a song to you, how do they do it? How does that work?

A - They now go to my management company and I have people in my management company that will listen and relay to me whether or not it should be passed to me. People over the years have sent me so many songs. I can't go through all of them. I also say to people, "You should make sure your music gets copy written before you send it to me." You can do that through the Library Of Congress to make sure there's no improprieties of any kind of anybody saying I sent this song and she's re-written it or one of her writers has re-written it. It's my song and we've got to talk to lawyers. I do not take unsolicited material, but they can certainly send it to my management company and if it is something that they hear that sounds like me or something that they feel would be a great song for me, then they'll give it to me.

Q - How did "Let's Hear It For The Boy" come to your attention?

A - My record label reached out to my manager and said, "We're doing a soundtrack for a film that's coming out and we would like to know if Deniece Williams would like to be a part. Unfortunately there's only one song left." And so they reached out to me and I was in the studio at the time with George Duke. They said, "You guys can go over and the writers would like to play you this song." And so that's what happened. We went over. They played the song for us and we went in the studio and did the song for the film. We didn't know where it was going to be. When we went to the premier it was the pay off song. It was really, really special. But, it was my record label that reached out to me for a project they were doing for the film Footloose.

Q - How did that song change your life?

A - Well, it certainly changed my life. At that moment I was pretty well known in the Pop audience with "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late". I'd had a big Pop hit. But when that song came out all of a sudden I had teenagers surrounding my car. It was harder to go places and actually me going out touring, it was a song that people wanted to hear and still is. So, that's how that came about and it certainly did change my life.

Q - Did you know that Siskel and Ebert really liked that segment of Footloose when your song was played?

A - I didn't know that. I didn't know they liked it. Boy, that's an honor. I know that when I saw it and Chris Penn learned how to dance on my song I sat there and I cried. I couldn't believe that my song had appeared in such an incredible moment. That's wonderful to know. I can put that in my things to think about and be so happy about it that they enjoyed it.

Q - Where do you perform these days Deniece?

A - It's just a mixed bag for me, which is great.

Q - State Fairs, Casinos, Theatres?

A - All of the above. On top of everything you've mentioned I also perform at churches because of my Gospel music. I have a new CD coming out this year (2019). I'm just about finished and the title of the CD is "The Melody I Sing", and it's more of a Jazz, R&B slant to it. I have a single out now with Norman Brown, Smooth Jazz artist who re-did my song "Free" and I'm on that song with him. That song is doing very well. I'm also working on a theatre piece with a friend of mine, Steve Fickinger, who is one of the producers of Dear Evan Hansen. We're writing a theatre piece together called A Magical Night With Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Pearl Bailey At The Crescendo Club. So we're working on that and hope to be touring with that theatre piece on Ella, Sarah and Pearl in the first of 2020.

Q - You've got a lot going on!

A - And that ain't all!

Q - There's more?

A - I've got two artists signed to my production company and we have a major label that is very interested in my production company and my artists, Abby EQ and Trilogy. So, there is a lot going on.

Q - Did you ever turn down a song that went to become a hit for someone else?

A - I remember turning down a song, "Saving All My Love For You", and then Whitney (Houston) got the song, sang it and had a big hit. I was never sorry for turning it down because the message was about a married man and his mistress and I did not feel comfortable singing that message. When Whitney had it and it was a great big hit, she did an incredible job. I'm not sorry for turning it down because shortly after that I have "Let's Hear It For The Boy", so I was fine with it and I'm still fine with it to this day.

© Gary James. All rights reserved.