Hitting not once but twice (1991 and 1997) with her seminal gospel house anthem "You've Got The Love", veteran R&B-star-turned-gospel-diva CANDI STATON made a fleeting visit to the UK recently. Martin Purnell spoke to her.

Candi Staton

The last time Cross Rhythms interviewed Candi Staton was in 1991. "You Got The Love" by The Source Featuring Candi Staton had only months before been high in the British pop charts. Here in 1997 nothing's changed. "You Got The Love" by The Source Featuring Candi Staton with some mighty new mixes courtesy of New Voyager, the Rhythms Masters and Farley and Heller was, a few months back, high in the British pop charts. As I prepare to meet the great lady I ponder how in the years ahead CCM trivia freaks will, no doubt, delight in endless "You Got The Love' brain teasers (What CCM/gospel act had 1997's first pop chart breakthrough hit? No, it wasn't Delirious?). And the story behind Candi's double-hit will no doubt become a standard entry in Pop Encyclopaedias recounting how Candi originally recorded "You Got The Love" for, of all things, a weight loss video extolling the virtues of something called the Bohemian Diet. How the song, with a light disco backing one side and an acapella version on the flip, was released. How it didn't sell, the video was never issued and how that could/should have been that. How a hot club DJ, Errin Abdullah, stuck Candi's acapella "You Got The Love" over a big underground club hit "Your Love" by Jamie Principle. And how a bootleg of the two-records-made-one began to circulate in house circles to become a floor filler in the hip London clubs. And how John Truelove, boss of Truelove Records, heard the bootleg, sniffed a bit and moved in to make it official. Incredibly The Source Featuring Candi Staton was number eight in the British Pop Charts before Ms Staton heard it! Now, thanks to the remixer's art, it's a hit all over again (I wonder what number it was in the charts this time before Candi heard it!).

As it turns out, all my musings over dizzying fax'n'info (courtesy of Greybeard Cummings) doesn't give me the opportunity of impressing Candi. When we meet during a break in rehearsals at Manchester's Palace Theatre where Candi was being recorded by the BBC as one of the participants to its new Deniece Williams Show, it's Word For Today, the daily devotional I've brought along to show her something of the work of United Christian Broadcasters, which is a classic icebreaker. It seems Candi and Bob Gass - the Belfast-born Bible teacher now living in Atlanta who writes Word For Today - are old friends.

"Bob Gass used to have a breakfast show in Atlanta" explains Candi. "I've done the show in the early '80s. All these Christians coming for breakfast with Bob, coffee, sweet rolls, guests, singing, it was wonderful. I've always loved his teaching. Bob's a brilliant teacher. We've known each other for a long, long time. I did the show several times with Bob."

I ask Candi to reminisce a bit about her upbringing. "Well, as I've said so many times, I was born in the influence of a Christian home. My mom used to sing me lullabies - 'Oh How I Love Jesus'. When I was five years old I sang to my first audience. I sang 'The Lord Will Make A Way Somehow' (Candi breaks off from her interview to burst into soulful song...). You know, those black Baptist churches, they are emotional. People would start screaming. I was not used to that. I would jump off my chair and run to my mama. I didn't understand the shouting. But I grew up with it and I learnt a lot."

In the early '50s while still little more than a tot the precociously talented Canzetta Staton (her real name) made her first recordings as part of the Jewel Gospel Singers. "I went to school in Nashville, TN, to the Jac Academy Christian Seminary. Jewel was the name of the bishop. She asked would I sing with the group. I never started knowing that this was going to be the beginning of a career for me. This was the beginning of my launching into the gospel field. I got down. After school we sang acapella where we got together and harmonised. Sitting on the back steps of the chapel, they would give us a little song to sing. And when we sang together the kids would be screaming. They loved it. They started to request us for a Sunday night. So we got more songs together and then Bishop Jewel said, 'Well, I'm taking these girls on the road with me.' She was a bishop with 50 churches. She got us together, dressed us in look-alike clothes and we sang with a four piece band, a bass, drums, guitar and steel guitar. If you've never heard a gospel steel guitar, you've not lived! These guys could make guitars sing! You would think there's another voice because they can make all the notes sing. We'd sing and people would be on the floor, jumping, shouting and dancing. 'Let these girls make records!', they said." As part of the Jewel Gospel Singers Candi recorded two singles for Aladdin but it was their five singles for Nashboro from 1953 to 1958, which established the Jewel Gospel Trio as favourites of the gospel programmes. "We were number one, like the Jackson Five of the '50s. I was eight. Things weren't right in the group. I was big enough to know that there was money being made and that we all were being exploited... and I wouldn't take it any longer. I went home to mom when I was 10. Being such a country town I wasn't used to that anymore. I'd grown out of that. I wasn't used to the people being so country and so laidback. Nothing was exciting.l started running around with guys, staying out late, got pregnant. I got married - that was a mistake. But my kids weren't - four kids with my first husband."

In the '60s, Candi Staton, like countless other singers, switched over from gospel to R&B. With one of the most soulfully affecting voices ever the singer came to the attention of producer Rick Hall who signed Candi to his Fame Records. Over the next few years there were hits for Candi like "I'd Rather Be An Old Man's Sweetheart (Than A Young Man's Slave)" (1969), "Stand By Your Man" (1976), "As Long As He Takes Care Of Home" (1974) and her huge disco hit of 1976 "Young Hearts Run Free". Stardom didn't bring her happiness however. "Well, after 14 years of a secular career I started drinking and I couldn't cope with the crowd. It was so different from gospel music. Gospel music is nice, you're singing about somebody you love. But now I was singing about love while going home to an abusive man with whom I'd often fight 'til the night was over. I had to drink to cover a lot of my true feelings and I got into this thing. I was just disgusted and bored. The music was wonderful but the lyrics were depressing. Things got so bad after my third husband, who was a pimp, that's a story itself and you've got no time to go into that, I was at breaking pojnt. Sometimes God uses things to drive us back home; sometimes he allows a lot of these things to push us to Him. That's exactly what he did. I said, 'Lord, if you just get me out of this I will come back. I'll come back to church.' But I didn't. I kept doing other things. Once we got divorced my alcoholism got real bad. Then I just threw my hands up one day and said, 'God, if you're real and I know you're real, please help me.' That was in 1982 when I gave my heart to the Lord. I've been growing stronger ever since."

After her return to God and the dramatic conversion of John Susswell, the one time session drummer and today her husband, manager, record producer and partner in Beracah Records, Candi's life took a monumental 360 degree turn. Taking any and every opportunity to minister the Gospel, Candi and John established a powerful ministry. The sales and the production budgets for Candi's gospel albums on Beracah weren't on a par with her R&B albums but recordings like 'Make Me An Instrument' (1983), 'Stand Up And Be A Witness' (1989) and 'Standing On The Promises' (1993) did well in gospel circles. It's Candi's new album with CGI/Intersound, which is causing her particular excitement however. "I just finished an album. It's called 'Cover Me'. It's cover versions of R&B songs changing them to gospel songs. I do 'Hold On I'm Coming', 'Tears That Mama Cried', I even covered myself on one of my old records, 'Your're Face Is The First Face I Want To See'. That's a duet with Joe Ligon of the Mighty Clouds Of Joy. 'Cover Me' is really a hit at home, it's jumped into the Billboard charts with a bullet after one week. We're selling like 5000 copies a day. It's got a great sound, we did the track live. Real musicians, no midi. That's incredible in this day. No midi believe it or not. Everybody is live. We felt each other praise God and we shouted to the Lord, we were praising God the whole time."

So whether it's computer-only music of house or the alive immediacy of '60's soul, Candi's voice is still the same glorious instrument it ever was, having had more comebacks than a box of boomerangs. Clearly God is looking after the gospel veteran. "I pray constantly. The Bible says pray without ceasing and that's exactly what I do. Wherever I go I have a prayer in my heart. So I'll never lose my relationship with Jesus ever again. Highlights - Watching my children come to Christ, watching my family and grandchildren stand up on Easter Sunday and say little speeches, like we used to say. They're just loving Jesus and their hands are up in the air, praising the Lord. That's the highlight of my life. What better legacy could I leave than that?

"I think gospel music in America is going to the top. It's been kind of simmering roundabout. My husband is good at promotion, and doing quite well right now. He's general manager and vice president of CGI Records. They've got 70 artists and have just merged with Intersound Records. They have just got lots and lots of artists - Mighty Clouds Of Joy, Vicky Winans, Fred Hammond, etc. I see gospel music being number one. I see it being at the top of everything. Even stars are going to come in and sing gospel music because it's where the life is. They ran out of everything else, they've taken their clothes off, they've said everything, every bad word, they've done it all, cursed us out. But now God is getting ready to make a statement. I think everybody's going to bow to gospel music. I mean, it's about time. This is the last round, I believe, before he comes back. I believe everybody's going to have a chance to know who Jesus is."