At 16, I was already really into my band. Kool & The Gang started, with a different name, in Jersey City, New Jersey when I was 14. We were called the Jazziacs at the time, and this was 1964. So it’s been 60 years this year. My brother was into John Coltrane; George Brown, my drummer, was into ‘Philly’ Joe Jones; Dennis Thomas, another original member, was into Cannonball Adderley; Ricky Westfield was into Herbie Hancock. We used to rehearse in a church hall with a little stage room. People like Pharoah Sanders and McCoy Tyner would come over for Sunday jams.
My father had wanted me to be a boxer. He had me in the ring when I was only nine and we would do three rounds. And my grandfather wanted me to be a mechanic – when I was two years old, he used to have me under the car with
