Understanding a personâs start is sometimes more valuable than understanding their ending â especially someone who has reached iconic status. âYoung Hearts Run Freeâ made Candi Staton a global icon. Hits such as âYou Got the Loveâ and âStand by Your Manâ further enhanced her status in the music world. However, the start of her career was not as glamorous as her current status would lead you to believe. Like those of many African American entertainers in the â60s, her career would begin on what was known as the Chitlinâ Circuit.
The Chitlinâ Circuit provided a platform for African American entertainers, particularly Southern-rooted ones, to perform in front of segregated audiences. Many greats such as Count Basie, Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown, Chubby Checker and many more got their start on this circuit. Candi Staton describes her time on the Chitlinâ Circuit as both good and bad.
While the exposure was nice, and performing in front of mixed crowds broadened its audience, the circuit became littered with shady promoters, poor traveling and dressing-room conditions and several unpaid performances. For Candi, what doesnât kill you only makes you stronger. The four-time Grammy nominee credits the Chitlinâ Circuit for making her an entertainer. It toughened her up for the roller-coaster ride that is the music industry.
Zenger News caught up with the music icon to discuss the highs and lows of the Chitlinâ Circuit, why she feels itâs important for a movie to be made about the circuit before itâs too late and much more!
Percy Crawford interviewed Candi Staton for Zenger News.
Zenger News: So, you have apparently discovered the fountain of youth. Do you care to share?Â
Candi Staton: (Laughing). My youth comes from the fountain itself. Yes Lord. I got the same fountain Moses had when he was 130. Thank you so much!
Zenger: You are very welcome. How are you doing these days?
Staton: Iâm doing good considering what all of us in this whole wide world are going through right now. This whole COVID mess. Trying to stay safe, Percy. Staying in the house, trying to eat the right stuff, trying to take the right vitamins, praying a lot and praying for the world and people. Iâm so sick of seeing the news, everybody is dying and stuff. People that I know have passed away, entertainers and stuff. So, my heart is just ⊠Iâm glad I donât have it and I pray that I never will. Iâm just trying to deal with whatâs going on in the world around me.
Weâve had a whole year of this. It actually started in January. And you know what, Percy, I think Iâve had it. I was in Memphis with my husband for New Yearâs. We came up here for Christmas and I rode back with him for New Yearâs. And on the way back home, he started getting hoarse. I said, âI can barely hear you. Are you okay? You need me to drive?â He said he was all right, but he was hoarse. We were about 100 miles from Memphis. When we got to his house, he was really sick and coughing; he had shortness of breath. We went down there for the New Yearâs Eve party at his church. They always have a nice dress up thing for New Yearâs Eve, and we couldnât even make it.
He was too sick to make it. And we couldnât do the New Yearâs Day church service. And then about three days in, I was coughing. I was coughing so bad I couldnât even talk. I talked to my daughter and she said, âMomma, call the ambulance and go to the hospital. Finally, I broke down, and his granddaughter picked me up and took me to the Methodist hospital in Memphis. I thought I had bronchitis. She gave me the Z-Pak and three other things to take, some cough medicine and something else. I took two of those Z-Paks; my cough went away immediately. It just cleared my lungs up. I believe I had it.
Zenger: Mrs. Candi, I wanted to let you talk about the Chitlinâ Circuit because there were so many talented people who got their start there, and it just doesnât get enough shine, mentions or attention. What was the Chitlinâ Circuit like?
Staton: Oh my God, the Chitlinâ Circuit was one of the ⊠the Chitlinâ Circuit, Lord. You know what, Percy, I wish somebody would make a movie. They need to make a movie out of this. They really do. The Chitlinâ Circuit has its good and it has its bad. The Chitlinâ Circuit was amazing. It was an amazing circuit. My God I tell you, you got good days; you got bad days; you got days you donât get paid sometimes; you go hundreds of miles to get to the gig. At that time, we were doing two shows a night. If you didnât catch him after the first show, you didnât see the promoter after the second show was over because he would take all the money and go. It was bad. Yeah! The Chitlinâ Circuit was a community. Itâs like a community. Itâs like any other genre of music. You have that inside circle. I would be out there with Tyrone Davis, Johnnie Taylor and B.B. King, Albert King, Millie Jackson. She was out there with us. So many⊠Denise LaSalle, Bobby Womack. We did the whole circuit. It was horrible at times.
Now, when I was out there, gas was like 29 cents a gallon. They had gas wars. Twenty-nine cents would be on this side, and 27 cents would be on the other side. We would go over to the cheapest side, and then he would bring his down to try and beat the other side. And they were all closed on Sunday. So, you couldnât get gas on Sunday. So, a lot of times we would get stuck where we were. If we didnât gas up the night before, if we had to go more than 300 miles, we just stayed another day in the hotel. You better believe weâre a long way away from 29-cent gas.
And segregation was horrible. Sometimes they didnât want you to go to the bathroom. You couldnât go in the bathrooms at all. Thatâs when segregation ⊠it was bad. On the road, it was not convenient to travel. You would get to the gig and you would have to unload, put everything together. The band would have to put all the stuff together and make sure everything worked. We would go to the hotel and eat dinner, come back and do a show at 10 minutes to 2 was the time we went. Sometimes they didnât have nothing in the dressing room, not even a mirror. Sometimes I would have to get on top of the commode to put my gown on. At that time, we did gowns, long pretty gowns. I remember one time the toilet had overflowed. It was wet on the floor; it was just so ugh. It was horrible.
And then there were good ones. They had good ones. They all werenât like that. There were some great promoters, promoters you could trust. You didnât even have to ask them for your money; they would just come back there and give it to you. And then there were promoters you had to chase all night. You had to carry a pistol. And then there were fights in the club. So, like I said, it was good and bad, but people loved you and they would heckle you. It was really trying times. It made me tough. It made an entertainer out of me. You see âAmerican Idolâ; these kids have no clue how to sing soul music.
We sang soul music because we had soul to go through the rough times. Our mind, will and emotions were messed up. Thatâs what soul is all about. They living good and they trying to sing blues. You ainât got the blues, how you gonna sing something you donât have? Ainât been blue a day in your life. Your boyfriend mightâve left you, thatâs about it. Or your husband mightâve cheated on you, thatâs about it. But you didnât have to go through what we went through. We went through hell. Cops stopping you on the road and making you get out the car and all that crazy stuff. We need a movie with the Chitlinâ Circuit.
Zenger: There really should be a movie or a very detailed documentary on the Chitlinâ Circuit.
Staton: I really hope we can find somebody that wanna get me to talk in depth with the Chitlinâ Circuit before I pass on. There really should be a movie or a documentary like you said because so many people got their start there. So many talented entertainers and musicians got their start there. So many of us have gone. I wanted to get Billy Paul. I talked to Billy Paul when he was alive, Percy Sledge when he was alive. I talked to Martha Reeves and I said, âMartha, we need everybody to give their rendition of the Chitlinâ Circuit and put it on tape before we pass away.â But they are already gone. Percy is gone; Billy is gone. Billy was willing to do it because we were on a bus together in Europe doing a tour and he was willing to do it. But we didnât get around to it. A lot of the older people that know about it ⊠see after a while, nobody is going to be left to know about it. I would be willing to do it, so if you come up with something, give me a call.
(Edited by Stan Chrapowicki and Alex Patrick)
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