Patti LaBelle has been singing for six decades, earning hit records, Grammys and the nickname the “Godmother of Soul.” As she celebrates her 82nd birthday on Sunday, she said she’s “having fun living it down.”
“At 82, I am really living it down, not up. But having fun living it down. I play cards. We have card games on Saturday nights,” LaBelle said. “How easy is it to play cards and take other folks’ money? That’s what I do, and I love it.”
Just like her high notes, she has staying power. LaBelle is still professionally singing, something she said she has to do.
“Singing is my life,” she said, adding that her voice is “big. It’s loud. It’s soft. It can rap. It can do opera, on a good day.”
LaBelle spent her childhood in Philadelphia, a place she still calls home. Back then, she was a shy girl named Patsy Holt.
“My mother had to pay me to go outside. I was very, very, very shy. I would sing in my bedroom with the broom as a microphone. So I knew I had a voice and my mother and father loved my voice,” LaBelle said.
At age 10, she joined a church choir where a duet unlocked the magic of performing. She said she still remembers getting the chills the moment when everyone stood up and said, “Hallelujah.”
As a teen, she started singing with a group. A record label executive suggested she change her name to LaBelle, which means beautiful, but with that advice came a nasty assessment. He called her “quite ugly.”
“It gave me hurt, just total, total hurt, because I knew how much he loved my voice. And I knew, no matter what anyone said about me, I am who I am, I’m not gonna change. The only thing that changed was my nose. I had a huge nose, so I had it done,” she said. “And that’s all I’ve ever had done. My nose, because it was not pleasing to me.”
When Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles became simply Labelle, they changed their style to what the singer described as “outrageous crazy outfits.” They turned “Lady Marmalade,” a song about a Creole prostitute, into a classic hit.
“We were singing about the revolution and sexual things before any Black girl or White girl group sang,” LaBelle said.
“When we sang [Lady Marmalade], we didn’t know what ‘voulez-vous coucher avec moi’ meant. It means, ‘Will you sleep with me tonight?’ So we got a lotta flak from the nuns and different people. And I was saying, at that time, ‘Well, a hooker has to make money too,'” she laughed.
The group split in 1977 but stayed friends. LaBelle said she was petrified when she stepped out as a solo artist for the first time. Getting therapy “helped a whole lot,” she said.
“I learned that I’m never gonna stop singing. And if it’s with a group or alone, that’s what I’m gonna do for the rest of my life,” LaBelle said.
LaBelle’s other talent is cooking. She’s written several bestselling cookbooks and has her own line of food and houseware products, Patti’s Good Life. Her hometown is filled with fans, and even visiting a Philadelphia ShopRite to hand out pancake mix caused quite a stir.
LaBelle isn’t planning to give up singing anytime soon.
“It’s never my last show. I’ll be singing until I can’t no more,” she said.
And on her 82nd birthday, maybe the real gift is that LaBelle knows exactly who she is — a mother, grandmother, and yes, a legend.
“I love it. I should be called, ‘Legend, legend, legend, legend.’ Yes. I love it,” she laughed. “I have earned it. Yes, I have.”
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with Patti LaBelle (Video)