 She has a voice so powerful it spans five decades, hair that single-handedly destroyed the ozone layer and a body of work that inspired a generation of diva wannabes. So as two-time Grammy Award-winner Patti LaBelle returns to New York to play at Radio City Music Hall on May 4, she wants to make one thing clear: “I’m the original drag queen,” Ms. LaBelle says triumphantly. “I used to wear all of that fierce drag and hair, so I’m like the original queen.”
Let’s hope Aretha Franklin isn’t reading this! One thing that no one can dispute is LaBelle’s influence on the gay community. “I have a large gay following,” she says. “Thank God. I don’t know why I have it, but I’m glad I do.”
On May 4 she’ll share the billing with Chaka Khan, Diana Ross and Gladys Knight for a charity concert called Divas with Heart, a benefit for the Masonic Medical Research Laboratory. Is she worried about getting lost in all that hair?
“I’m just going to be myself,” she says. “No dancers, no props, just give me a carpet and a place to throw my shoes!”
Anyone who has seen LaBelle perform knows that when she sinks her teeth into a song, shoes fly and Miss Patti just stops, drops and rolls. Sometimes the diva even surprises herself. “I’m a Gemini, so that means I’m very spontaneous,” she laughs. “I know what I’m supposed to do when I get on stage, but I never know what it’s going to end up being!”
Born Patricia Louise Holte, the Philadelphia native, who turns 64 this month, is no stranger to the New York stage. In October 1974, the group LaBelle, which included Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash, performed at the Metropolitan Opera. They were the first African-American contemporary act to do so. That same year the group recorded a song about a prostitute, “Lady Marmalade,” that put them on the map. Patti LaBelle never looked back.
She hasn’t slowed down much either. This fall a live recording that was made 35 years ago at D.C.’s Constitutional Hall is finally going to see the light of day. She’s also in the studio working on a new CD that she hopes will make another dream of hers come true. “I still dream of getting triple, triple platinum, and I don’t think that’s out of reach,” she says as if it’s as simple as making her famous egg salad. “I’m gonna get it.”
Though she’s recorded some timeless love songs, LaBelle admits that when it comes to love, she’s still learning like the rest of us. “Right now I’m trying to love me more. I always give everyone else love, but I’ve never loved me,” she says.
LaBelle says she’d like to get married again. Her first marriage of 30 years, to L. Armistead Edwards who was also her manager, ended in 2000. The divorce taught her a lot about the heart. “When your heart beats really hard, follow it. If it’s not beating, look away. And if it’s not beating after 32 or 35 years, then walk away,” she says.
LaBelle has never walked away from her first love—performing—and while “chillin’ in Phill,” as she puts it, she watches the newbies on American Idol. “Sometimes I hate to see those kids get their faces crushed, but somebody’s got to tell them. I ain’t mad at Simon!” she exclaims.
But she is mad at herself and ain’t always feeling good from her head to her shoes when she looks back on some of her crimes of fashion. “I say, ‘Girl, what were you thinking?’” she laughs, adding she doesn’t need a stylist because she knows what to wear, at least most of the the time.
“That Patti girl—the other one—came in and said, ‘Wear this, girl,’” she jokes about the devil that’s sometimes on her shoulder. “Then I see myself in the worst-dressed page and I say, ‘I knew I shouldn’t have listened to that Patti. That was the wrong Patti to listen to!’” N
Divas with Heart will be singing a song on Sunday, May 4, at 2:30 pm and 7:30pm at Radio City Music Hall (1260 Sixth Ave, 212-247-4777). Visit RadioCity.com for more info.
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