Last year, beloved singer/songwriter Vince Gill got candid with Vulture in an in-depth interview. Gill gushed about everything from his songwriting evolution to his favorite duets to the hardest songs he ever had to sing. Vince Gill also dished on his most intimidating collaborator: the incomparable Gladys Knight.
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Anybody would be intimidated by the prospect of working with Knight. She’s known as the Empress of Soul Music and has won 10 Grammy Awards throughout her career. Knight delivered hit after hit from the 1960s to the 1980s, and she’s known for her no. 1 hits “Midnight Train To Georgia” and “That’s What Friends Are For”. Naturally, Vince Gill was a little freaked out; and Knight was allegedly apprehensive about working with him.
“I remember singing with Gladys Knight,” Gill mused during his interview with Vulture. “We were the first ones to sign on to do a duet for this record called Rhythm, Country and Blues. It took R&B artists and put them with country artists.”
Vince Gill Was Quite Intimidated By His Collaborator, Gladys Knight
Gill went on to say that while he was nervous, Knight’s apprehension was noticeable and made his nervousness even worse. However, the ever-professional Knight would never outright say she didn’t want to work with him. Luckily, all Gill had to do was sing, and Knight realized pretty quickly that she was working with a pro.
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“I felt her apprehension, I could see it in her face,” Gill said of his first meeting with Knight. “She didn’t have a clue who I was. We went in to rehearse the tune in the studio, and she sang and was the great Gladys Knight; then I started singing and she just lit up. She started smiling and I go, ‘Okay, we’re good. I just passed the test.’”
Despite being intimidated by Gladys Knight initially, Vince Gill went on to say that the collaboration was not only a treat for the duo, but it also gave him some brag-worthy “street cred.”
“We hit it off, and had the best time,” Gill continued. “And because of that collaboration, I wound up being the first white guy on the cover of Jet magazine. Pretty cool street cred minute for me. I learned as much from black music as I did any kind of music. Creative people, people that do what I do, we don’t care where it comes from. It’s what Duke Ellington said: ‘There are two kinds of music, good and bad.’”
Yet again, Vince Gill proves that he’s one of the most likable people in the industry.
Photo by Jason Kempin
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