Al Green Returns to Pop Music

[DudeAsInCool]

QUESTIONS FOR AL GREEN

Soul Exception

Interview by ALEX STIMMEL

Published: November 23, 2003

You had so many hit records -- secular records -- in the early 70's but never received any awards for them. Then you became a reverend and a gospel singer, forsaking pop music, and you started winning Grammys.

Ain't that something! ''The Lord Will Make a Way,'' that was the first Grammy album. I knew I must've done something right! But I'd be onstage at my shows, and people would be screaming: ''Al! 'Let's Stay Together!' 'For the Good Times!' '' They really wanted those songs, and I saw how much they meant to people. So I started doing them again for the audience.

Your new album, ''I Can't Stop,'' is a long-awaited return to making secular music. Why now?

I paint pictures with my songs. With my first records, I started a great painting, and I realized that the canvas isn't finished yet. I've still got to do my work as a reverend, but now I have to use whatever bait I can to get as many fish as I can. The Man don't care how I caught 'em as long as I got 'em!

Aren't you afraid you'll be seen as cashing in?

I can't form people's thoughts. Many people could have seen me as drawing lines when I left soul music for gospel. I even saw it like that. But you can only do what you think is best, and I have more beautiful pictures to paint. But if you are true, and you mean what you say, everything counts.

What does it feel like to see young, mostly white hopefuls, on shows like ''American Idol,'' trying to sing like you?

It's a wonderful compliment, but it's a trip. There's a kid over in Japan right now in the Top 10, singing ''Tired of Being Alone,'' and he sounds just like me. It doesn't give me pause, though, because we tried to make some good music, so that even the youngsters in hip-hop, who sample our horn lines, would have a good foundation. I did a concert the other night with Justin Timberlake -- he's my neighbor, you know -- and it makes me feel great to have all the girls in the front singing ''I'm Still in Love With You'' -- and the song's older than they are!

How did you write your songs to give the music such emotional impact?

I would love to say that I did do that, that I had that much talent, but I'd be lying. Although I did sing 'em good, didn't I? I wrote songs about my girl, about my life, about what I was doing at the time. It just feels like those songs are a common denominator. Believe me, a lot of guys come right up and tell me, if I pull a girl up tight, put the fireplace on and pour a little wine, I just play some Al Green, and I got it made!

You probably don't hear that about your gospel recordings.

No, it's always ''For the Good Times'' or ''Let's Stay Together.'' However, I do think life itself teaches you that it's difficult to separate ''I love you'' from ''I love You.'' Both count if you really mean it. If you mean ''I love you, darling,'' it means as much as ''I love you, Lord.''

Then could you just take one of your old songs and change the meaning to a more devotional, gospel thing if you were so inclined?

Yeah, but I don't have to do that. I take ''Simply Beautiful'' and just sing it like it is. Why try to change it, try to make it something that it's not? Everything is beautiful in its own time and space. This is a beautiful country -- people are free to think what they want; we have freedom of thought, freedom of religion. I think that God is love, and I need to sing about it, even if it means doing it through the songs that people will most identify with.

It sounds as if you've reached a perfect point between the two worlds.

Oh, I'm not perfect. I still chew gum during recording sessions, or have candy in my mouth. I need to be comfortable, even if it's doing something I shouldn't be doing, like clapping my hands in the middle of a song. And I know they're gonna stop the tape, but I get so excited about the music until I can't help clapping my hands!

So no amount of professionalism can get in the way of real emotion?

Oh, I like to be professional, but by doing something that's not perfect, like trying to sing a song chewing gum. I know that that's not right, but sometimes I get away with it.

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company