Al Green

Time Out New York: Hello, Al?
Al Green: [Screams] Sorry, you just came right out of the phone.

Wow, that was a great scream. This is Sophie from Time Out.
Hey, Sophie, how you doing? I like the idea of time out, that’s what I like. [Laughs] Time out! Like, take the day off.

You’re at the church?
I’m actually at the studio. Well, the church and the studio are right next to one another. It’s all right here together. The studio is here, the parsonage is there, and the church is there. So, yeah, I’m at the studio office just looking at all of these platinum records and gold records and stuff, that I hope I have. I don’t know if I have them or not, but they’ve got my name on them, so I guess they’re mine.

I love that the church and studio are right next to each other. I feel like that’s so perfect for you.
Well, I mean I kind of run into one little rat hole, and then into another little rat hole, and then double back around into another rat hole, then do a few interviews, and then I double back to the studio to see if we can’t put out this track on the organ.

Yeah, so the tour is like 100 dates?
Well, we usually do like 130 or 140 dates.

How do you do it?
I have no idea. It’s really like running. The office, from ministerial business, that’s the tabernacle, or it’s the tour, we’re leaving tomorrow morning at eight o’clock. Please. And then I do bible class on Wednesdays. So I really don’t know how I do all that. I can’t think about it, I just do it.

Al, do you ever have nonjoyful days?
Yeah, a lot of days like that. You’re leaving out of the house, and you’re telling James to lock the door, and then I’m out the door and I’m gone. I’m backing out of the garage. It’s like running. Bam bam bam bam all day.

What exactly do your ministerial duties entail?
Well, I christened a baby two Sundays ago. And that’s having the mother and the dad, and the progenitor of the dad to give the baby back to the dad, and the dad has to give the baby back to his son, then the son has to give the baby back to the mother, and the mother gives it to the pastor! And then I anoint the baby and hold it up and present it to the Lord. And, you know, sometimes the mother has a tear and it’s so beautiful. The baby had a little halo around her little head and she was just so beautiful. And everybody stood up and clapped. It was nice.

You’re a reverend; are people ever put off by you doing christenings because of your sexy reputation?
It’s reversed! I have people hunting me down to get me to do it. Yeah, like, “Marry me!” There’s a thousand judges and a thousand ministers that could marry you. I am like, “Oh, get somebody else to do it.” [One couple] said, “We came all the way from Tokyo because we want you to do it!” I mean, man. But I did it. I married them. They were Japanese and bowing and shaking my hand with two hands and saying, “Thank you, Reverend,” and he kisses the bride. Aw, please, don’t give me all the mushy stuff. [Laughs]

Do you feel responsible for millions of unplanned pregnancies because your music is so sexy?
Do you know, the radio jock just asked me that. He said, “I think there’s a lot of kids that came along during the time of your music,” and I’m going, “Okay, well don’t tell me no more.” [Laughs] I mean, a little romance there and a little “Simply Beautiful,” and [Sings] let’s stay togetheerrr…whether times are good or bad… Come on, man, the fire, the white wine, of course! He said, “So you admit it!” I said, “Of course I do.” I mean, I’m guilty.

You’re talking about the old records there. But “Lay It Down” [from Green’s latest album] is pretty lethal too…
I guarantee you, but what do you think lay it down means? I wrote it because of the long tour duration and, like, in January going to Australia and New Zealand and then back to L.A. It’s kinda like unbelievable because we never thought we would ever do any of this stuff. We just were singing because we enjoyed the entertainment part of it, we didn’t actually know that it involved all this other touring and all this stuff. People have been so faithful to us over the years, honey, until we can’t say no to them and Australia was saying, “Al, you’ve never been to Australia and it’s time for you to come.”

Do you get romantic items thrown at you onstage?Oh, man. Some of these other girls are throwing these little Victoria’s Secret–type… [Laughs] Some of these guys in the band are going, “Right on, right on.” And I’m going, “These are panties.” In Salt Lake City some girl jumped on the stage—and I think it was just like, I’ve been loving you for so long and I have to make a bold statement and make it fast, so... I mean, that girl was strong. I couldn’t get her off and the other two police officers, they couldn’t get her off, so it had to be two more guys coming out on the stage. We finally pried her loose, but she kept hollering in my ear, “You don’t understand, I’ve been loving you ever since I was a kid”—and she was trying to talk and the police pulling on her and the band is playing. I can’t understand what she’s saying!

Wow. I love how you take it in your stride, though. Did the romantic gestures stop when you became a reverend?
?It should have stopped. No, no, no, no, Sophie, it should have stopped when I became a reverend. People still say, “How am I supposed to forget ‘How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?’_” I’m going, “Well, get over it, will ya?” And the people say, “Al, this was part of my upbringing. I mean, I met this girl when I was in college to your stuff.”

Who was the most surprised, when you decided to take a spiritual path? Or did people kind of know that it was coming?
No, I don’t think they knew it was coming. I don’t think Al knew it was coming. I awoke from sleeping totally emerged and submerged in this aura of ecstasy and feeling of renewal that was just unbelievable—I’ve never experienced anything like it since.And that to me was very good. I went seven years without doing any of the pop music, R&B music because I was kind of trying to figure out, trying to sort things out. I mean, you gave me all these songs—I’m talking to the man upstairs now—and you go and convert me. Now what am I supposed to do with L-O-V-E love? Everyone is complaining about you being a reverend. How are you going to stand up here and sing “Love and Happiness?” “But I want you to sing it,” and I’m going, like, “You want me to sing it?’ “Yeah! ’Cause if it hadn’t have been for love and happiness, how’d we all get here?” I said, “Oh my God, I had never thought of such a thing.” “Yeah, but if somebody’s hadn’t fell in love, Al, if somebody hadn’t thought it was so wonderful to cherish his children, they wouldn’t be here.” So love and happiness…
I mean, once I started getting these answers, I started singing it with some boldness because I said, “This is me, this is where I belong, and I feel justified in doing what I do because it was given to me to do.” Duke called me, come back home.

How did you feel about going back to singing secular songs? Did you feel like you’d got a message saying it was okay to go back, or did you feel like were sneaking back to it?
No, I felt like I said: ratified. Like, “I gave you this special ministry, don’t nobody else have it. I gave it to you, Al Green, I gave it to you, that love; L-O-V-E love. That’s a signature for you to be able to cause families to grow, husbands and wives to come back together, to give children a chance to blossom.” I said, “Whoa.”

That’s amazing. I was thinking, I just saw a clip of you singing “Jesus is Waiting” on Soul Train in ’74, and you have your arm in a sling. What happened there?
Well, I broke a bone in my hand. That’s why I had my arm in a sling. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or something. I had to continue doing the tour on pain medication, because you jump around trying to do the show with a broken hand, and it’s very painful. And, amazingly enough, Al Green is singing “Jesus is Waiting” on Don Cornelius’s Soul Train.

And then you had the whole grits thing later that year, where you were burned with hot grits by your girlfriend and found God. That sounds like a pretty bizarre time.
Well, absolutely. I mean, I was so angry with her for doing that. And the reason I was angry was because she left me. I loved this girl, and I still love her. And I feel like she was sneaking out the back door or something, like, “I’m gonna get out of this the easy way.” And then I was like, “Well, what am I supposed to do?” That’s why I was just in tatters about that. Because I loved Mary so. I don’t know what to say, other than she left me, and I didn’t understand it. And I was out for three months, stripped down, courage-wise, the whole thing. You’re trying to understand. I didn’t know about the husband, or the family. I didn’t know about any of these things. But it brings you to a reality, but you have to be careful. You don’t who these people are. They could be in another relationship and you’re just sitting there enjoying life, and there’s someone standing at the back of your brain with a semi-automatic. They came to a concert, Al, when you were singing at a New York State prison, or something. I was doing a benefit concert, and I met these people in the audience, and I don’t know, man. Yeah.—Interviewed by Sophie Harris

Green plays B.B. King’s Fri 16 and Sat 17.

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