It was boot camp for the young musicians and Bobby still talks fondly of the lessons he was taught by the more seasoned Brown. There’s a story that they called Cooke and he wired them the money to pay for the gas so they could get out to California.Ĭooke produced and arranged the group’s first hit single, “ Looking for a Love”, which sold over two million copies and helped land the group a spot on James Brown’s Revue.

He suggested they change their name to The Valentinos and encouraged them to record secular music, which caused their father to throw them out of his house.

After Cooke left The Soul Stirrers and became a crossover pop artist, he started his own label SAR Records and The Womack Brothers were one of the first artists he signed. The Womack Brothers released several gospel records through the 1950’s and toured the gospel circuit, where they met Sam Cooke who promised to help them when he could. Not to be used without permissionīobby Womack’s first recorded release was in 1954 when he was ten years old, singing gospel with his brothers under the tutelage of their singing preacher father. We had an interesting conversation before parting ways outside.īobby Womack in NYC with Art on stage and Anaida in his hotel room © Andrzej Liguz/. Once we were finished, his very cool butler/valet/assistant Art kindly took the time to walk me out of the hotel to make sure I didn’t get lost. I was deeply touched and honored when he told me he thought my work is really original and asked if I’d like to come out to LA to shoot his upcoming album cover. I have to express gratitude to Sonya Kolowrat from XL Recordings, Bobby’s manager Regina Womack and her assistant Anaida Chalikian for making the portraits session happen. I got the phone call from Anaida just after lunch on Sunday telling me to be in the lobby of his hotel at 4pm.īobby was very sweet and accommodating and loved the pictures when I showed them to him after the shoot on my computer. The live shots in this blog were taken on the first night and the portraits were shot in his hotel suite on Sunday afternoon. As I’ve been inspired by his music for close to thirty years, I really wanted to do a shoot with him whilst he was in town and requested ten minutes of his time at some point over the weekend. etc.) and Richard Russell (Owner of XL Recordings / Producer etc.) it made critics swoon and sold in far more respectable numbers than anybody could have reasonably expected considering the time lapse since his last release.īobby Womack watching his daughter GinaRe performing at City Winery in NYC © Andrzej Liguz/. Produced by Damon Albarn ( Blur / Gorillaz / aka Hardest Working Man in Music etc. His first album of original music in twenty years, ‘ The Bravest Man In The Universe’, was winner of the UK’s Q Award for Best Album of 2012. He stood at the crossroads of so many important musical moments from the last fifty years that in many ways he could be seen as the Forrest Gump of music. And he knew Marvin, Otis and just about every other musician of note from that era. He’s worked with Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin, Sly Stone, Wilson Pickett and toured with James Brown and Jimi Hendrix amongst countless others. Sixty-nine year old Bobby Womack is one of the genuine Originators and although he has never been as well known as some of his contemporaries, his influence and impact on the music we listen to is embedded in stone. Despite recent serious health issues, he is still kicking. With one of the greatest voices of all time, 30 million records sold over a sixty year career and a back catalogue so deep one could drown in it, Bobby Womack has risen above more twists, tragedy and pain than a man should have to endure.

Bobby womack last soul man