The disco diva and singer-songwriter, 82, on forming her first gospel trio, her five husbands and correspondence with Elvis
I was born in Alabama. My mother was displeased with my father’s behaviour. We called him “the weekend alcoholic”. He’d work all week, but on the weekend he’d take all his money, get drunk and gamble it away.
When I was 10, my mother took my younger brother, my older sister and me on the bus to Cleveland, where we met Bishop Mattie Lou Jewell, a very rich, very tall Black woman who oversaw 30 churches and ran a school. To entertain ourselves, my sister and I would harmonise little songs. Bishop Jewell overheard us and said: “My church has a contest every Tuesday night.” We tore the place up.
