[TV static drones]
[bright tone]
This is the Home Box Office
television network.
[bright music]
[vocalizing]
[rhythmic clapping]
And we love you.
Let me hear you say, oh, yeah.
audience:
Yeah!
Let me hear you say yeah!
audience:
Yeah!
- Yeah!
- audience: Yeah!
- Yeah!
- audience: Yeah!
Yeah. Yeah!
Yeah!
[energetic music]
[scatting]
Earth, Wind & Fire
kind of said, I have joy,
and I have imagination,
and I will force that
onto the world,
whether they are
ready for it or not.
Maurice White
and Earth, Wind & Fire
really embraced that music
could have a higher purpose.
Gonna bring it down
I always thought
of Earth, Wind & Fire
as Jesus-less gospel music.
All night long
The funk was the funk,
but the chords were
jazz, classical.
Meanwhile, it's sitting
on this tribal African beat.
Maurice wanted to show
that it is not just Black.
It is not just white.
We are all one.
They were reflecting back
the joy
that we felt in our lives.
It made you feel like
anything was possible.
From 1971 through 1983,
the group Earth, Wind & Fire
sold 40 million albums,
had 30 hit singles,
and won six Grammys.
It's just like a whole world
that they created.
Astrology and numerology
and mysticism.
It was magic.
It was theater.
You're thinking
they're coming from Africa,
or they're coming
from outer space.
It was really ahead of its time.
I think it took a moment
for everyone to go,
what the heck?
What is... what is this?
Like, where did these people
come from
with this music
that sounds like this?
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Ignition, liftoff.
Liftoff.
Hey.
They got your name today
We got to get away
There's nothing like
an idea whose time has come.
Yeah, yeah, away
We've got to get away
I'm serious, man.
[laughter]
Then you're all in focus.
Okay, do you want
some direction,
or do you to just hang out,
and we'll do whatever comes up?
Direct us for a while,
then we'll just hang out.
Let's do it all.
Okay. Get tighter.
[ethereal music]
Maybe put a mic on Maurice.
I think Earth, Wind & Fire
came out of a need,
a dual need, a need
for myself as an individual
to realize my total potential
in a sense of speaking.
And also, from another sense,
it came from a part of me
wanting to render itself
to humanity.
Maurice was very driven,
very committed to the music
and the concept of this group.
Maurice, he was the visionary.
And the power belongs
to the visionary.
[chatter, laughter]
We'll take a break,
and we'll do another one.
People can't lead themselves.
They've gotta have somebody
to lead them
to the promised land.
That's what it's all about,
reaching for new things,
you know?
Life was about discovery for me.
I was always
in search of myself.
[blues guitar music]
I was born
in Memphis, Tennessee.
I was raised
in Memphis, Tennessee.
It was a good beginning for me
because it gave me
an opportunity
to understand the balance
between good and bad.
There was a lot
of separation in town.
His birth mother, Edna,
was his only family.
She was a wonderful mother,
but a young mother.
I think she had Maurice at 17.
My mother was a singer,
singing around the house
and all that.
She was very encouraging
in the sense of pushing me.
In Memphis, there was
not enough opportunity
for Black women, and his mother
could not make enough money
for both of them to live.
[soft music]
When Maurice was
not more than five years old,
his mother sits him down
and says,
look, I wanna make
a better life for you.
The best I can do here is
to scrub white folks' floors.
So she left Maurice
to go to Chicago
in order to survive.
To not have a mother at that
age, it's just so difficult.
There was a large void there.
That scar that his mom
did like that,
that did a number on him.
He ended up staying with
this lady named Big Mama.
She wasn't family,
but she took him in.
He owed her everything.
It was just
her and I, basically,
as I coming up
in the ghetto, you know.
They did what they had
to do in Memphis to get by.
Maurice started
a newspaper route
in white Memphis in the morning.
Way across town in a white area.
One day, white policemen
stopped him and harassed him
for so long
and so much
and beat him up so badly.
He was so hurt and so alienated.
He was terrified
from that point on.
There was a lot
of limitations at that time.
I was alone,
but music saved me.
[energetic percussive rhythm]
Into Memphis to the tempo
of "Beale Street Blues."
Memphis has
such a rich musical heritage.
I was influenced by the blues
and gospel and jazz.
[scatting]
And I loved every bit of it.
When I was 11 years old, there
was a drum and bugle corps
that came
through the neighborhood.
And they had
these shiny suits on,
and I wanted me
a shiny suit at school.
I've always been really
fascinated by the beat,
and I got
so enthusiastic about it.
[energetic snare drum rhythm]
Good God, he must have practiced
five hours a day, that guy.
Music was his first love.
It was his everything.
It was his safe space, bro.
Like, it was the one where
that could not leave, period.
When I graduated
from high school in Memphis,
finally, my mother came
and got me and said,
you're going to Chicago.
Ten years later, she had
reached a place in her life
where she wanted Maurice
back with her.
[mellow music]
But she had started
a new family,
so that's a whole
different dynamic.
Maurice's siblings
were really, really excited
that our big brother was there.
I just remember looking at him
because I'm thinking,
wow, he really does exist.
It was great because
I was spending the day
with my big brother.
We had
eight brothers and sisters.
Our mother was a teacher's aide,
housewife, school teacher.
Father was a doctor.
Maurice was very much aware
that this wasn't his family.
It was the family
that he never had.
I think he thought, in some
way, he was forgotten...
issues of abandonment.
Maurice had some guard up.
He felt like if you let people
get too close, they leave you.
[gentle music]
It was during
the time moving to Chicago,
I enrolled in the conservatory.
Eventually, I found
that I had talent,
and so I went after
pursuing it, you know.
[Marlena Shaw's
"California Soul"]
As a result of me
trying to find my way
and having faith
in what I was doing,
I got a job at Chess
as a studio drummer.
Like a sound you hear
that lingers in your ear
But you can't...
Chess records was one
of the most successful
record labels for
Black America in the 1960s.
You hear it everywhere
No matter what you do
It's gonna grab
a hold on you
It played
on everybody's record...
Fontella Bass,
Etta James, Chuck Berry,
Howlin' Wolf,
Muddy Waters, Billy Stewart,
some of the great.
666 on drums
and 666r on the bass drum.
Charles Stepney,
he had constantly
been a teacher of mine.
His approach to production
was really unique,
taught me how to feel the
music and get inside the song,
how to produce records.
It was like Chess University
to me.
Those things that
I learned from Charles,
I'll never forget.
I started doing things
I couldn't believe.
From that point on,
I met Ramsey Lewis at Chess.
The man who had
the ninth most popular hit
of the past year,
Mr. Ramsey Lewis.
[energetic jazz music]
[applause]
Ramsey Lewis, he was huge.
They were like rock stars.
He had one of the first
million-selling records
for a jazz trio.
Ramsey brought jazz
to the forefront
for the masses.
Eventually, he asked me
to join the band.
I'd get really close
to the radio
and try to listen for him.
I knew if I was hearing it,
other people
were hearing it too.
Ramsey exposed me
to a wider universe.
But I was very shy.
He would set his cymbals
up like this, flat,
so they would cover his face.
And he was kind
of hiding behind there,
playing his drums.
And Ramsey told him, hey, man,
the crowd has to see your face.
Ramsey was a role model for me,
and he taught me presentation.
Maurice became
the great drummer live.
[mellow percussion
and piano duet]
The first time I met
Maurice White was actually
at a Ramsey Lewis performance.
And I was impressed
with the drumming,
and Maurice gave me drumsticks.
I may have played
some sessions with him.
I was playing so hard,
I broke the sticks, okay?
I did.
[applause]
During the period of time
where I was working
with Ramsey...
all:
We are the people!
As a peace officer,
I hereby command you...
There was a pain
that I felt in the community.
It all kind of converged
at the same time,
the assassinations
of our leaders.
It was just
all around us in Chicago.
In December, police raided
Black Panther headquarters
in Chicago.
They have m*rder*d Fred Hampton.
They are out to m*rder me.
It's like they'll m*rder anybody
that's Black in this country.
Maurice was part of a generation
born into deprivation,
discrimination.
The world is sending you a
message that you don't count.
But you have to remember one
thing, and that's be strong.
We spend more time...
Black advancement
was under fire.
But even in the midst of all
of that, it fired Blacks up.
For the quick solution.
On the South Side of Chicago,
there was a Black Arts
Movement using Afrocentricity,
reimagining Blackness through
a connection to Africa,
defining Blackness
on its own terms.
It kind of inspired me
to get a bead
on my own African evolution.
[soft kalimba notes]
I got exposed to the kalimba,
or I just started fooling
around with it.
The kalimba is the thumb piano
used by some African poets,
storytellers,
keepers of history
for meaningful connections
in the universe.
[applause]
[playing gently]
One night,
when I was with Ramsey Lewis,
I picked up the kalimba
and started to play,
and they liked it.
[playing energetically]
That was amazing
because it brought me closer
to knowing more about
what I was so curious about.
And that was Africa.
Say, I'm gonna
teach you some very
important words in Swahili.
I want you to repeat after me.
Me and Maurice,
we were a songwriting team.
We got aware that you could
make money with jingles.
Love is upendo.
all: Love is upendo.
Pride is kiburi.
all: Pride is kiburi.
Watu wazuri.
all: Use Afro Sheen, Afro
Sheen, Afro Sheen, Afro Sheen.
Watu wazuri
use Afro Sheen
You do the watu wazuri,
use Afro Sheen commercials?
Yeah.
Oh, I'm sorry, yo.
I got super... wait a minute.
[chuckles]
Watu wazuri
use Afro Sheen
The watu wazuri
means beautiful people.
Watu wazuri,
use Afro Sheen
The message that
Black is beautiful...
all:
Black is beautiful
And our beautiful
Black African history.
- Isn't it beautiful?
- Yes.
All right.
We had not heard
anything like that before.
You know, we are somebody.
We can feel good
about ourselves.
It was feeding
into little souls like mine.
It was Black positivity.
[drumming]
For brothers and sisters,
it was a revolution.
It was just time to shine.
[upbeat funk music]
Hey, on a solo.
So I started having visions
of this group
and create this music to see
ourselves in a different way.
I was inspired by reading a book
called "Laws of Success"
by Napoleon Hill.
It introduced me
to a new form of awareness,
positive thinking.
Whatever the mind can
conceive and believe,
it can achieve.
You're capable
of doing anything.
Napoleon Hill said,
when you want
to manifest something
into reality,
there is a process for it.
Write it out clearly.
Tell the mind what you want
over and over and over again.
It's like this thing kept
on formulating in my mind.
[muted upbeat music]
I wanted to reach
a universal audience.
To evolve consciousness
through the music.
And change the world.
I finally drew a picture
of my vision of this group.
[music swells]
And that's what I set out to do.
So he decided
to leave Ramsey Lewis.
To give up
the height of success,
touring around the world,
for the harebrained idea
of achieving an artistic dream
is almost unthinkable.
You have to follow your heart
and follow what's
important for you.
And don't be afraid
to do that, to take chances.
[upbeat funk music]
Maurice said, I wanna go out
to California to start a band.
Are you interested?
I said, hell, yeah.
California
was a whole different thing.
I played tennis.
I'd ride horses,
go out driving in my Jeep.
[laughs]
In the early '70s,
Black people are really
stretching out and growing.
There are countercultures.
There are Black hippies now.
Mostly new-age consciousness
and eating right
and living right.
There was a health store,
so we used to
go there and eat all the time...
Organicville.
One day, Maurice White came in,
and we locked eyes.
[ethereal music]
And all of a sudden,
I heard music.
And I got chills.
And he flashed me his smile,
and it was over.
I told my mom, I met someone.
She says, yeah?
Is he Jewish?
And I laughed.
I said, no, Mom,
he is not Jewish.
We were interested in learning,
continuously learning.
Yeah, I was doing a lot of study
about metaphysics,
outer space, and inner space.
[deep, steady breathing]
Maurice was learning
that the universe
is this one powerful force.
But instead of looking up,
look in.
We are the vehicle in which
the power comes through.
We exist now, on this plane,
which is called
a physical plane.
But if you tune in
to the universe,
you can more or less
elevate yourself consciously.
[deep, steady breathing]
He told me he wanted to bring
that mysticism into his band.
I said, cool.
Do you have a name
for your band?
I was into astrology real heavy.
And I was looking
at my astrological chart.
I started to put
the elements together.
And I had Earth in my chart,
fire in my chart, and air.
And I changed air to wind,
and the rest is history.
[Earth, Wind & Fire's
"Help Somebody"]
Earth, Wind & Fire is basically
that of the true elements
of the universe.
It just had a ring to it.
[rhythmic clapping]
So I had three songwriters
who worked with me all the time,
Don Whitehead,
Wade Flemons, Sherry Scott.
And this is who
I formed the group with.
No man should have to face
his problems all alone
Alone, alone, oh, no
Reach out and help
the weak man
And make him strong,
strong, strong
Now, now, now I wanna
help somebody
I'd like to help you,
you, you
Now, don't that make you
wanna help somebody
Too, too, too
The love...
We flowed so effortlessly.
No one had the upper hand.
We were all good at what our
particular contribution was.
Helping hand will
make you a better man
Doo wah doo way
Let love prevail
Verdine, I invited him
to come out
and join the band
because he started
to soar as a bass player after
I bought him his first bass.
In high school, I would be
the classical bass player,
you know, jazz,
lugging it around on the bus.
It just spoke to me.
[scatting]
When I got to California,
I was not well-traveled.
I had never been on a plane.
Maurice looked at me.
I looked like a country bumpkin.
He said, we gotta go
get you some clothes.
Reach out your hand
and help somebody
And don't forget, now,
I'm 18, 19.
The band, they were older.
They knew so much.
I didn't wanna blow it,
or Reese might get
another bass player.
[laughs]
Help somebody today
[static crackles]
As we float through time
as energy...
We were, like,
preoccupied with innovating
new sounds, trying new things,
Filling all space...
The vibe was just
experimental jazz,
wasn't designed
to be commercial.
We would just go
wherever the spirit led us.
Breathing air filled with prana.
Awaiting the timeless
times of nirvana.
Maurice was doing the hustling,
pushing us out there.
Eventually, we got a contract
with Warner Brothers.
We call on you because we
love you.
We were playing Black colleges.
We were a college group first.
At the time, I was in the
band called Friends & Love.
We opened for
Earth, Wind & Fire.
I had never heard
no Black people
playing no music like that.
[chuckles]
Dressed like little
jazz geek kids, you know,
looked up to him because it
was harmonically complex
and exciting and orchestrated.
And it was just banging.
[energetic funk music]
We were a niche band,
but we weren't connecting
with the wider audience
that Maurice wanted.
We didn't sell very well.
The record companies
didn't know what to do with us
because we wasn't your usual
R&B Black band.
We struggled
for about 18 months,
trying to get it together.
There was some resentment
being built.
When we gonna get
some more work,
so we can make some money?
Some of the guys were much
older with the attitude,
well, look, I know as much
as you do, business-wise.
I don't think they wanted
Maurice to be the leader.
I think that was
a problem amongst them.
They all wanted to be
the leader, you know.
But it was Maurice's group.
We were called into a meeting,
and everything was up in smoke.
What I noticed,
Verdine wasn't there,
and Maurice wasn't there.
Maurice did not
like confrontation.
He did not like
uncomfortable conversations.
He...
He was chickenshit.
You know, that's just the truth.
We heard we were no longer
a member of this group.
Well, I couldn't think
straight because, I mean,
this is my brother.
Man, what kind of nonsense
is that, you know?
Reese is gonna get rid
of all of us.
He would say to me things like,
people are in your life
for a season,
and when it's over, it's...
[reverberation]
[inhalation]
[exhalation]
Start by focusing in your heart.
Breathe in the energy
of the universe,
the shakti of the universe.
The first band didn't
come together, you know.
But I wasn't ready to give up.
Let it fill your whole body.
He believed in his dream.
He would visualize,
visualize, visualize...
[ethereal music]
Writing down affirmations
up until 1:00, 2:00
in the morning.
I just wanted
a younger approach,
more commercial approach,
a new sound, a new energy.
Verdine was the first person.
We solidified, I'm keeping
this dude in the group.
I got Ralph,
hired him as a drummer.
They had seen me play at a club
called Maverick's Flat.
When the opportunity
comes about, man,
you walk into something that
totally changes your life.
I just put it together,
piece by piece.
[upbeat funk music]
This is Phil Bailey.
- What sign are you, brother?
- I'm a Taurus.
Taurus, the bull. Right on.
It was divine destiny
to join a group
that I already admired.
Maurice White is
the leader of the group,
so like the pilot of our ship.
Being a leader,
you have to be able to, like,
keep it on a good level.
I always try to be an example.
Reese was
ten years older than us.
We were learning so many things
because we're, like,
21 years old.
It's our first rodeo.
Incense for $1, 25 of them.
[indistinct chatter]
We were anxious to see where
Maurice was gonna take this.
[soft music]
There was a circuit that
the artists would travel...
the Regal, the Howard,
the Apollo, the Uptown.
There's a bunch of theaters
that's a little hostile.
And if you wasn't great,
the audience would boo you
and throw you off the stage.
I remember playing there
with the Commodores.
They're going to give you
an opportunity to present.
What they're not gonna do
is lie to you.
Only the strong's gonna survive.
One day, we get a chance
to go to Philadelphia,
and we're doing
the Uptown Theatre.
[bombastic funk music]
The revue is five doo-wop groups
and Earth, Wind & Fire.
These groups had on
tailor-made suits
cut to the nines,
everybody looking tight,
everybody looking alike.
That's what was expected
at the Uptown.
Although we were cool,
we were different.
[funky music]
Yeah, what about the...
With afros, no shirts,
wearing dashikis and Capezios.
Hey, hey
We were outsiders.
They were going to hate us.
Oh, I was scared to death,
scared out of my wits, you know?
Maurice thought,
I'm gonna defy the odds.
[apprehensive music]
He tells all of us the plan.
It's a bold move.
Acts have gone on before us.
It was time for us to go up.
We got a new group
from California,
Earth, Wind & Fire.
People's mouth open,
and then you got laughter.
[laughter]
So Maurice says,
sit down on the floor.
Sit down in the lotus position.
We got in the lotus
position, folded our legs,
man, and we just meditated.
[exhaling]
And they were just
looking at us crazy.
Minute one,
what are you thinking?
I'm too scared to think.
I'm going, okay, now,
this is either gonna work
or this is gonna be
a total disaster.
You have cups and stuff
thrown up there on the stage.
Get them guys off the stage!
Get them out of there.
Get them out of there.
We're sitting there
looking like this,
so one eye like this,
and oh, my God.
Three minutes into that mission,
what are you thinking?
Now the heart's beating fast.
The mouth is dry.
We sat there and looked
at that audience
for at least five minutes,
Six, seven, eight minutes.
Finally, it calmed down
just enough.
I guess they
got tired of heckling us,
and Maurice starts
playing the kalimba.
[soft kalimba music]
He tells me to get
on the congas.
[soft drumbeat]
Then he tells over to Ralph,
start a groove.
[soft percussive rhythm]
And then bass line.
[funky bass melody]
And then we went.
[energetic funk music]
We started hearing
people clap a little bit.
Yeah, that's the fire, the fire.
And then we proceeded to k*ll.
[laughs]
Sometimes people
are afraid of change.
Through all of that,
they won them over
with a new experience.
[cheers and applause]
Maurice said, this is
the day that we found out
that we got something.
That was an endorsement
to do what he was saying
philosophically and musically.
To lead a band
of Black guys, right,
you know, of cats,
you gotta be really tough.
And Maurice was tough.
We had something big
to accomplish, you know?
I get a call from Maurice White.
And he tells me
he's got a group.
So I go and I see
Earth, Wind & Fire.
This is good stuff.
I thought, this could be
a successful band.
Jim Brown has them, but Reese
wanted different management.
So I said,
I'd like to manage you.
Maurice brought the band
out to my house
to sign the contract.
I said to him, why did you
bring everybody?
I'm only signing you.
I believe these kids were
part of Maurice's vision
but not the cause of it,
the impetus of it.
It was him.
Then I put together a deal
with Columbia Records,
with Clive Davis.
When people like Clive Davis
comes into your life,
it's giving you the major
opportunity to, like, be big.
The first experience
of recording
that we all did together was
the "Last Days and Time,"
then "Head to the Sky."
[cheers and applause]
["Evil" playing]
Evil running
through our brain
We and evil is about
the same, oh, Lord
Well, yeah
Ooh, yeah
I was a little bit shy
in the beginning.
But after I discovered
a sound for myself,
I was a whole
different personality.
Yeah, evil
For the band, what we try to do
is to bring the nine together
as one.
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Maurice definitely had a vision,
and he let us express
ourselves very freely.
Yeah, well, well
[cheers and applause]
There was always a book to read.
We would stay up late at night
and talk about everything...
cosmic consciousness.
Spirituality, metaphysics.
Everyone else
in the group got into
transcendental meditation,
positive self-betterment.
Maurice had a lot of elixirs,
so many drops in the water,
and supplements and all of that.
We have one
of his green juice recipes.
Oh, wow.
[juicer hums]
Items... greens.
This is intense.
Sunflower seeds, pumpkin
seeds, spotted bananas,
so they gotta be ripe.
Soy lecithin granules,
brewer's yeast flakes,
bee pollen grains,
vanilla extract,
chlorella, pycnogenol.
I don't know what it is.
Very simple diet, you know.
[laughs]
[mellow music]
After a gig, we would come
into a hotel lobby.
It was very important
for us to find
a group of ladies that
could corn row our hair
while we played chess.
Chess was a thing with us.
Reese wanted to always
do either arenas or stadiums.
That's where his head was.
For us to go to the next step,
we needed to go on
as opening act.
So we finally joined up
with George Clinton
and Parliament-Funkadelic
at the Washington Armory.
[driving beat]
P-Funk... raw.
Raw.
George Clinton
just went wild and loose
and just let himself be himself.
When I passed
two guys in diapers,
I knew, okay, this is
definitely gonna be
some different kind of stuff.
Oh, my.
What a position to be in.
[applause]
We went up there, packed house,
smelling like weed everyplace.
So we go out and do our thing...
the flower children,
love, peace, and granola.
We got, you know,
polite applause.
And then, man...
[cheering]
Out came George and his guys,
followed by a cloud of smoke.
And, man,
they started this groove...
mm, da, da, da, mmm, mmm,
da, da, doo, doo, doo.
Bang a dang, boom, bum,
boom, bum, boom, bang a dang,
boom, bum, boom, bum.
This thing, that's all he did.
And all the heads
in the audience.
["Get Off Your a*s and Jam"
playing]
Y'all ready to give up the funk?
I want you to free your mind,
and your a*s
will follow tonight.
They proceeded to lay it on.
There once was
a man from Peru
Who went to sleep
in his canoe
He was dreaming of Venus
He took out his p*nis
And woke up
with a handful of goo
Put your foot on the rock
Yow.
[chuckles]
Everybody say sh*t
God damn
Get off your a*s and...
Funkadelics came on
and literally
funked us out of there.
To this day,
we remember that groove.
all: Na, na, na, doh,
dank, doh, dank, doo,
da, da, da, dun dank,
dank, dank, dank,
da, da, da, dun, dank, dank.
And for, like, about
ten years straight,
every time I'd run into George,
George would say Verdine,
remember that time
we tore y'all up, man?
And then the funk started.
[laughter]
And I was like, God...
Say God damn
I want to hear you say,
sh*t, God damn
Maurice said, okay,
this will never happen again.
But then Jessica Cleaves,
she left Earth, Wind & Fire
for P-Funk.
Yeah.
There's a switch.
We just kept going.
That Monday, we were back
in rehearsal,
full blast on more work.
And find the funk.
[funky bassline]
Al McKay was added to the band.
And his specific job
was to make us funky.
I was a rhythm guitar player,
so I kind of took the idea
of being a drummer
rhythmically to guitar.
So that's kind of been
my calling card.
We had to work on the one
to get that thing.
Making that space for the music
to breathe on the one.
When Freddie came in,
Maurice's brother,
the band got tighter.
Maurice needed a drummer
where the rhythm section
could be solidified.
I wanted to be on the stage.
I wanted to play
with my brothers.
The concept of Freddie and I
being double drummers,
you didn't know what
to expect musically,
but you knew it was gonna
be big and powerful.
I'd just start playing a groove.
And I used to hear
Maurice... man,
he'd be in the bathroom
combing his hair or something.
And he would hear it, and he'd
just start singing something.
Ah, yes, sir
Well, hey
The song just
kind of wrote itself...
I mean, no sweat.
All righty, let's check out
that "Soul Train" line now,
the "Soul Train" g*ng
to the music
of Earth, Wind & Fire
and "Mighty Mighty."
["Mighty Mighty" playing]
Yeah
That's right,
hey, hey, hey-a
Walk around
Why wear a frown?
Say little people
try to put you down
What you need
is a helping hand
That's when the funk starts.
At your command
How's your faith?
'Cause your faith...
"Mighty Mighty" was their first
legitimate hit of Black radio.
To yourself be true
We jumped,
I mean, jumped sky high.
We had never heard our songs
on the radio like that.
Oh, yes, sir
Yeah, yeah, yeah
My goal was
to get it on pop radio.
But I couldn't get it on radio
other than just Black radio.
You know, we are people
of the mighty mighty,
people of the sun...
very Afrocentric,
fist in the air.
But Bob Cavallo
thought the message
that white stations got was
"mighty, mighty,
k*ll the whitey."
Earth, Wind & Fire
were making music with joy.
But I think it
could be perceived possibly
as being aggressive
for a lot of white
radio stations.
But Maurice wanted
his music to be appreciated
by the whole world.
He wanted a 50/50 crowd.
It wouldn't be a white crowd
or a black crowd.
It'd be both.
So I knew I had
to promote Earth, Wind & Fire
to the white audience,
who had very little
to know about them.
And that was my goal
with the next gig.
An ad appeared in
Southern California newspapers
announcing California Jam,
a 12-hour rock concert.
California Jam was
a highly anticipated,
big Woodstock-type concert
in Rancho Cucamonga.
And it was televised.
It's gonna be
the biggest rock concert
that has ever
had this press coverage
from all over the world.
It was 250,000 people.
We'd never seen that many
people in one place.
Earth, Wind & Fire was the
only Black act on the bill.
It was a whole nother
audience for us, you know.
Sometimes you have
to go against the grain,
do things that
everybody else wouldn't do.
We'd dare it, you know.
We were daring, you know.
But you gotta be that way.
Let's boogie
with Earth, Wind & Fire.
You ready to boogie?
[thunderous applause]
[whirring tone]
[ethereal music]
That was the beginning
of the theatrics
of Earth, Wind & Fire.
["Time Is On Your Side" playing]
We bring a message
from the heavens
We're talkin' 'bout
a message, hey
It's that time
is on your side
No more need in running
No more need to hide
No more need
to cry, oh, Lord
Time is on your side
Ooh
No more need in running
No more need to hide
No more need to cry
Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya
Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya
Whoo!
[cheers and applause]
We were warmly received.
It was the opportunity that
we needed to open up exposure
to Earth, Wind & Fire.
How you feel?
Every time I am able
to accomplish something
and create a reality
from an imaginary principle,
that's something
that verifies my faith.
And they put it
on ABC on a Friday night,
on national TV.
It was a great
confidence booster
that we could really cross
over into the mainstream.
For the next album, Maurice
wanted excellence in sound...
more controlled,
more orchestrated,
more symphonic, more together.
[mellow funk music]
We wanted, like, a retreat,
and away from everybody.
So we recorded at
Caribou Ranch in Colorado.
[instruments warming up]
Sig Shore was doing
a movie called
"That's the Way of the World."
So we wrote songs
around the movie.
Then I called Charles Stepney.
He had been my mentor
working at Chess.
Charles was producing records...
Rotary Connection, Minnie
Riperton, the Dells too.
Charles was a great writer,
great piano player,
great arranger.
Left channel front,
right channel front.
When we were working on
"That's the Way of the World,"
well, he's thinking about
orchestration and arrangement,
what he can do
with horns and strings.
["That's the Way of the World"
playing]
That low trumpet register thing
was a very warm kind of sound.
The elegance of the horns,
the groove of the song.
These arrangements provoked
some kind of spiritual
response in Maurice.
Hearts afire
Creates love desire
Take you higher and higher
To the world you belong
It's gospel.
It's straight gospel.
God, I can listen to it
and feel my heart chakra
just open up.
That's the way
Yow
Of the world
Yow, yeah, yeah
Plant your flower
And you grow a pearl
There is one line that
has always stood out.
"Children are born
with a heart of gold.
The way of the world
makes his heart grow cold."
That has always stuck with me.
And we've always tried
to help to make that a lie.
A child is born
A child is born
With a heart of gold
With a heart of gold
Way of the world
Way of the world
Makes his heart
Makes his heart so cold
That love,
that love, that love
That love,
that love, that love
Charles became like the coach
of our whole existence.
We wrote together.
We produced together,
played together,
the whole trip, you know.
Love desire
High and higher
[vocalizing]
Yeah, yeah
We were maturing.
You know, we were getting a
little bit more sophisticated.
And then, also, Maurice wanted
a crisp sound through mixing.
Maurice did a real deep search
to find George Massenburg.
It was the beginning
of a great relationship
because I was so particular
about everything
I did musically,
and the same with him
electronically.
A dream of better sound.
I was the geek,
the geek engineer.
I heard where I thought
Maurice was trying to go
and how I might make it better.
Caribou Ranch,
we were up in the mountains,
you know, and the stars
were so close,
like you could reach up and just
pull a star out of the sky.
That stimulated an idea to write
a song called "Shining Star."
From my recollection,
"Shining Star" started out
as a jam, actually.
["Shining Star" playing]
There was Al McKay
playing that raised 9 chord.
We just kind of took
it from there,
and things start to grow...
Yeah
Additional keyboard lines...
Huh
Synthesizers...
When you wish
upon a star
The horns...
[horns blare]
Organs,
bongos.
But when you wish
upon a dream
There were a lot of good ideas,
but it was dense
and all over the place.
So I started cleaning sh*t out,
cutting instruments out,
to keep only the essentials.
And my thought was,
let's get these vocals
bright and clean...
Shining bright to see
what you could truly be
What you could truly be
Simple, elegant ideas
clearly presented.
Band comes in,
and I play it back, my mix.
Shining like a light
on you
And the group's doing
this kind of thing.
And Al McKay is
looking at Maurice.
And that's your first glimpse
of your fight.
Maurice comes over,
he says, hey, man, turn it up.
[music warps]
And I mean, turn it...
turn it way up.
So I turned it the f*ck up.
Once you strike that first note,
there's something that happens.
- Bum, buh, bum, dunk, dunk.
- Dunk, dunk, dunk.
Guitar is coming in.
That's an Al McKay groove
all day long.
And then, all of a sudden,
it's almost like
that's the fuse being lit.
- Shh.
- And then you hear it.
- Wow.
- Bah!
[horn blares]
Oh, my God.
Yeah, hey, huh
You're a shining star
No matter who you are
Shining bright to see
What you can truly be
What you can truly be?
I had all four quad monitors
just flat-out roaring.
And the cats were dancing.
Shining star
come into view
To shine its watchful light
on you, yeah
Give you strength
to carry on, yeah
Makes your body
big and strong
Don't you hear me now?
Born a man-child
of the sun, yeah
Saw my work had just begun
The arrangements were amazing.
I just loved the way it sounded.
And so, at some point,
I was, you know,
inspired by what it did.
["I Wish" playing]
It was.
That was definitely an
influence, hearing that song.
Looking back on when I was
a little nappy-headed boy
Another thing that inspired me
was the message in that music
because it was talking about
how people, within themselves,
there's a greatness.
There's nothing they can't do.
You're a shining star,
no matter who you are,
like, you're absorbing
these affirmations
and these kind of
powerful, positive lyrics
to see ourselves as more
and to be more.
Maurice was on to something.
He was ahead of his time
in terms of understanding
the importance
of music and helping us,
as a people, set our intentions
by keeping our head to the sky.
That was
the first pop hit we had.
It was a turning point
in the group's career.
["Sing a Song" playing]
Our audiences started changing,
coming together
as one race, as one people,
as love and peace.
Fans from all around the world,
all denominations
of color and the whole...
so the music wins, eventually.
That's when things
really started to break,
and we started doing
our own concerts,
and we were the headliners.
A way, yeah
Sometimes it's hard
to care
Sing a song
It'll make your day
I'd like you all
to give yourselves a hand.
Whoo!
Thank you much.
Sing a song
It'll make a way
There was more people
outside that had tickets,
you know, couldn't get in.
Tore all the doors down...
- [laughs]
- Trying to get in.
So we just, you know,
just having a ball.
Sing a song
Sing a, sing a, sing a,
sing a, sing a song
Sing a song
Sing a, sing a, sing a,
sing a, sing a song
Sing a song
A third of record income
is from abroad.
They're a global
hot property now.
If you sing a song today
The winner
is Earth, Wind & Fire.
The first Grammy
was quite a thing, you know.
It's something
that you live for.
As we got bigger musically,
we got bigger personnel-wise.
[energetic music]
Reese wanted to get a horn
section because the sound
had expanded so much.
So we brought
the Phenix Horns...
Let's meet today
Which was Don Myrick...
He plays so beautiful,
don't you agree?
Louis Satterfield...
Yeah
Rahmlee Michael Davis
and Michael Harris...
four horns,
like a Mack truck, man.
We were having
a really good run.
There was a period there
where everything we touched
turned to gold.
[applause]
["Saturday Night" playing]
Okay, that smile. That's it.
We started recording
the next album, "Spirit."
We were doing big arrangements
on the record,
beautifully arranged
by Charles Stepney.
You know, man,
we were in it then.
Shining down
its harvest light
Music all around...
But then Maurice got
a phone call in the studio
saying that Charles
had just passed.
[somber music]
He had a heart attack.
Yeah, just out
of the blue, boom.
He was out of here.
I couldn't believe it, you know.
It was like
he was in wonderment,
like, how could this be?
I just talked to him.
And one minute he's there,
and then you're not?
It affected me
very deeply, you know.
I was very emotional.
My dad, he had triggers.
Charles dying
brought up past trauma.
[music warping]
Back then,
where he grew up in Memphis,
it was a rarity of having
a father in the house.
Maurice's father was John White.
He was absent during most
of Maurice's childhood.
He owned a nightclub and was
part of that music scene.
But he was also
this gangster figure.
From what I understand,
one day he went into
one of his establishments,
and somebody who was not
his same skin color shot him.
He is k*lled before Maurice
is five years old.
When he talked
about his life as a child,
his knee would go... tschoo...
like that.
After Charles passed,
it was hard for him to accept.
But the world doesn't care
who's gone and who is not gone.
It just keeps on rolling.
Maurice learned almost
everything from Charles.
Maurice was like, oh, my God.
Now what do I do?
[inhalation]
[exhalation]
I started studying Egyptology.
I went into the pyramids
just to meditate.
It gave me new energy,
and I was able to evolve
into a different person.
It seemed like I was getting
help from the other side.
I was just fascinated
with the whole thing,
the artistic value of Egypt,
the contributions
that they made to society.
Look at how the pyramids
were built,
with the science
and the technology.
They are humanity at its finest.
Maurice begins learning
about Afrofuturism,
the idea that these ancient
civilizations are not
just symbols of
Black people's past,
they are also the future
and the infinite possibilities
that exist throughout
the universe,
the concept of space travel,
the existence of beings
on other planets.
The whole space concept, aliens,
just opened up a door for me.
My dad talked to me sometimes
about astral projections.
He was like,
there was one time I felt
like I was out of my body.
He would come back to the studio
with these outrageous stories
of being
picked up and taken in a
spaceship to another planet...
[lively funk music]
And meeting with
extraterrestrials.
And we didn't know
how to deal with this.
We just, you know, hey,
man, that sounds cool.
I saw "Close Encounters
of the Third Kind."
And I had a vision to write
the song "Fantasies."
And then all the words
started to come.
Every man has a place
In his heart,
there's a space
And the world can't erase
this fantasy
Take a ride in the sky
On our ship, fantasize
All your dreams will
come true miles away
Our voices
will ring forever
Until the 12th of never
We all will live, love
forever
As one
Everything that I had studied,
I was trying to share it
with the public,
so maybe it could help
to find themselves.
That's why,
on the album, "All 'N All,"
it has a lot of symbols.
[ethereal music]
Through their album artwork,
I think he was shining a light
on our history and our future
and how it's related.
He's inviting you
into this world.
We had a lot of costumes
that were influenced
by Africa and space.
The real statement
wasn't really made
until Bill Whitten stepped in...
very elaborate.
We changed our whole look.
We decided to expand the show.
We wanted to more or less
emulate theater
in order to get your attention.
[energetic music]
Maurice wasn't afraid
to spend the bread
and contact whoever was
on the A list of entertainment
to help Earth, Wind & Fire.
And the winner is
George Faison for "The Wiz."
[cheers and applause]
Having choreographed "The Wiz,"
it was otherworldly for me.
We had a black Dorothy.
That gave us another
kind of sense of pride.
Maurice and I went to
New York to meet with George,
and George had all
these great ideas.
They asked me to stage them
for their next tour,
"All 'N All."
When it came on,
we were great musicians,
but we wasn't organized
in our presentation.
So could you tell me,
can all Black people dance?
No.
No.
And that's very true.
[laughter]
You trying to tell me
the funkiest band
might have had
a lot of left feet?
They all could move to a degree,
but they were kind
of raggedy country,
and they weren't as polished
and theatrical
as I could make them.
Because I wanted
them to be great.
I saw the greatness.
This is everybody.
Here we go.
One day, George is looking
at the front of the stage.
And he says, hey, Ralph,
come off the drums.
Stand here next to Maurice.
Take this microphone,
and start singing.
It was geometry and symmetry
and stuff like that.
We didn't really
need two drummers,
and Freddie could go deeper.
That's how I got out front.
It's about evolution, you know?
I always had a lot of ideas.
We had started
to investigate, like, magic.
The magic of Doug Henning.
[cheers and applause]
Doug Henning, at that time,
was the biggest
magician in the world.
He had a show on NBC.
[energetic music]
So Maurice calls him.
Everyone wondered, Maurice,
are you that crazy?
It was so out of the box.
Magic, music, dance.
That was
a choreographic nightmare.
Somebody could have got
k*lled not doing things right.
[expl*si*n]
We rehearsed every day
for six months.
It was really
the first production
that an African American group
had really done,
putting all of those ideas
into one show.
We didn't know
what kind of effect
it would have on the people.
There's always a bit of fear
when you face the unknown.
[chatter, laughter]
[ominous music]
Dressing rooms are this way.
The stage is this way.
I wanted to go see them,
just to see if they
could pull that off.
Back in that day,
there were certain concerts
you had to go to.
That show sold out.
It was must-see.
I was there to photograph.
Reese would let me crawl in...
[laughs]
To be
as unobtrusive as possible.
You had the anticipation...
20,000 people.
And then, you know,
the lights go out.
Folks rush to their seats.
[chaotic noise]
Presenting
the mighty elders
of the universe,
Earth, Wind & Fire.
[gong reverberates]
It was one of the first
concerts I ever went to.
These guys came out,
and you're thinking,
what the heck?
[otherworldly whooshing]
And I was like, oh, sh*t.
[energetic music]
[singing indistinctly]
I remember
just looking around the arena.
It wasn't even a show.
It was just musical theater.
It was just spectacular.
Oh, oh
It was almost like a sermon.
Verdine is intense.
The look in his eyes
when he's playing...
like, Verdine would have been
a great punk rocker, man.
He uses the whole instrument,
and just a deep groove.
I love Verdine.
You now, he's...
what a dude, man.
Wait a minute.
When you have the magic,
you've gotta get
the crowd in your hands.
[cheering]
So the whole place
is mesmerized,
having Verdine levitate
as he's playing.
And brother did not
miss a note, okay?
He playing sideways.
Okay, now he's got you.
You know,
there's people that can
pull a rabbit out of a hat,
but they can't make
an elephant disappear.
[cheers and applause]
He was making the elephant fly.
Was there ever a fear
that a cord might break
or something fatal might happen?
No.
I probably would think
like that now, but...
but not then.
["Serpentine Fire" playing]
Hey!
[vocalizing]
Yeah, yeah
When I see your face
Like the morning sun
You spark me to shine
Tell all the world
My need is fulfilled
And that's a new design
As long as you're near
There is no fear
of a victory
But when I'm away
Influences stray
my mind to disagree
I wanna see your face
In the morning sun
Ignite my energy
The cause and effect
of you
Has brought new meaning
In my life to me
Gonna tell the story
of the morning glory
All about
the serpentine fire
Surely as life begun
You will as one
Battle with
the serpentine fire
Oh, oh, yeah, oh, yeah
Yeah!
Oh, yeah,
oh, yeah, oh, yeah
Here were these Black men
up there
doing something
as celestial and elegant
and as beautiful as that.
It was just another
kind of example for us.
[expl*si*n]
[cheers and applause]
I'm a Black kid in Hawaii.
You don't have a lot
of people who look like you
and are achieving.
And I'm saying to myself, well,
if they can do that,
what can I do?
[cheers and applause]
They were trendsetters
at that particular time.
[mellow music]
Prince, Michael Jackson,
all them guys,
they were down there
taking notes, man.
Michael really
wanted to be Earth, Wind.
That's why he's coming to
the shows as early as '77
with a big yellow legal pad.
Prince confesses
to me later that, Jesus,
I saw that show,
and I almost quit.
I don't know if I can compete.
I loved it. I was a fan.
I felt the sound and the spirit
of celebrating the past
but looking forward
to the future
and what's possible
in this world.
There are songs that
make you feel every emotion.
They make you wanna cry.
They make you wanna dance,
make you wanna fall in love.
Like this one.
["Reasons" playing]
[cheers and applause]
A lot of my memories are
high school gym dances.
I mean, "Reasons,"
that song lasted a long time.
Oh, it did.
So if you walked all
the way across the gym
for that slow dance
and she said yes,
you were locked in for about...
Well, on the flip side,
if you said yes to a dude
that was a little too sweaty
and a little too...
you were stuck.
You were stuck.
Now I'm craving
your body
Is this real?
Temperature's rising
I don't wanna feel
I'm in the wrong place
to be real
I thought "Reasons"
was going down the list
of all the reasons
that he loved this person.
When you have
a falsetto like Philip,
he could say anything,
and you're gonna be like,
this is so beautiful, and it's
so romantic, you know?
Love
How can people think that
this song is a love song?
I'm longing to love you
Let's talk about "Reasons."
There was a sister
that was fine as hell.
She came to the hotel,
got to my room.
Bam, bam.
I feel like...
[imitates knuckles cracking]
You know, I'm just
the champion. [laughs]
So early that morning,
I hear her...
yes, honey?
She's talking to her dude.
And in the morning
when I rise
No longer feeling
hypnotized
For no reason, our reasons
Our reasons had no pride
After all our reasons why
All our reasons were a lie
All of our reasons
were a lie
It's just a sex call.
That's it, you know?
So if you played it
at your wedding, I'm sorry.
[laughs]
My whole child...
everything is a lie, I guess.
It's just... well, it's crazy.
I think I like it
even better now.
Only you
Give your love to beautiful
sound of Mr. Philip Bailey.
[cheers and applause]
Maurice felt
that he's living his dream.
I felt so proud and so good.
One day, Maurice said,
come here.
He said, I love you,
but I don't wanna get married.
I said, I feel that I want you
to be my life partner forever.
He said, okay.
So we're in it for life,
right, no matter what happens?
I said, yes, right.
And that was, to me,
our marriage ceremony.
In the morning light,
yeah
He was just
not the marrying kind.
I don't think he could
make that level of commitment
or emotional connection,
I don't believe.
And I told Maurice, I said,
we're gonna have a baby.
He said, are you... really?
Kahbran looked just
like him as an infant.
He became a father
but an absentee father.
Oh
Maurice was on the road.
I remember, as a kid,
it was hard for him
to give hugs at first.
But then I remember,
once we started hugging,
he'd be the one to hold on.
It felt like he'd be like...
[exhales sharply]
He didn't know how
to be a dad, right?
Earth, Wind & Fire
was the most important
thing to him all the time.
Yeah, I stayed
in the studio 12, 14 hours.
I think I'm too much
of a perfectionist,
to a great extent.
'Cause the things I hear,
don't nobody be hearing them,
man, be saying, what's wrong
with you, you know?
Man, I don't know.
It just bug me till
I get it right, you know?
Yeah.
[mellow music]
Maurice wanted to be the best,
and he was always
wanting to outdo
anybody else that came along.
And we all kind of
adapted that attitude.
Maurice always said,
don't ever take success
for granted.
Don't do it.
Don't get comfortable.
After a while, I was inspired
to expand my musical horizon,
create another side
of my career.
White has invested
in an entertainment
complex in Los Angeles.
Welcome to The Complex.
What is The Complex all about?
It's a concept
of bringing together
creativity under one roof.
We have two recording studios,
a sound stage
for video and film.
We have rehearsal facilities
for any and everybody.
Maurice bought a studio
and opened a record company.
And they had a party.
And we were not invited.
It was a slap in the face.
I was constantly busy.
I was also producing
a lot of different acts...
Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond,
Jennifer Holliday,
Deniece Williams.
And I had The Emotions.
[The Emotions'
"Best of My Love"]
The Emotions
was with my two sisters.
We were signed out
of Maurice's production.
We had, of course,
"Best of My Love."
Whoa, whoa
You got the best
of my love
Whoa, whoa
You got the best
of my love
He's the best producer
ever because Maurice,
you know, he goes
for everything big.
Whoa, whoa
Oh, you've got
the best of my love
Goin' in and out
of changes
Maurice took on a lot.
You know, sometimes
it was a gamble.
It didn't look like it
to the public,
but everything
operated at a deficit.
Running The Complex
was expensive.
In addition, the tours
were a boondoggle
around Maurice's neck.
So they had
the magic, theatrics,
the four Phenix Horns,
three female background
singers, and the band...
60, 70 on the road.
It was like the Mardi Gras
at hotels.
It was just too many
damn people.
My mom, she was one
of the costume designers.
I believe she spent
almost $1 million
on fabric and other supplies
in one year.
Maurice told me that,
from '77 on,
he came off the road
at the minimum
of $1/2 million in debt
for every major tour they did.
He had a huge cash flow problem.
It's not all glory
and lights up here, you know.
- It's a whole nother trip.
- A lot of work.
A lot of things
they don't know about.
A lot of heavy pressures.
That's right.
He couldn't not invest
in not giving the best.
He believed in his vision, man.
Maurice was
under a lot of pressure
and had to make a record,
I think for the advance.
["Boogie Wonderland" playing]
I figured,
okay, the disco is here.
It's not gonna go away.
Let me do a real good
disco record.
Dance
Called The Emotions in
to sing it with us.
Boogie Wonderland
Ha, ha, dance
Boogie wonderland
Midnight creeps so slowly
into hearts of men
Who need more
than they get
Daylight...
"Boogie Wonderland,"
it became such a big thing.
Who has laid
too many debts
The mirror...
That is our one
and only offering
to the disco music scene.
Says, baby, uh,
uh, it don't work
You say your prayers
though you don't care
You dance
and shake the hat
"Dance."
It just... you know, it
wasn't that I didn't like it,
but it didn't go into my soul.
It didn't go into my core
like their music did.
Yeah
All the records
are playing
And my heart keeps saying
Boogie Wonderland
There was a pressure
kind of over your head
that you had to try to sell
as many albums every time,
just like before, you know?
My other guest, David Foster,
he has done session work
for Rod Stewart,
Dolly Parton, George Harrison.
I was just starting
as a record producer.
I'd had a couple of hits.
It was a goal of mine to reach
and work with
Earth, Wind & Fire.
["In the Stone" playing]
Maurice did ask me
to come up to his house
and write with him.
We'd sit at the piano.
And I was trying to get
a hit every time out.
That was my mission.
Maurice and I
were totally inspired,
and we worked from
7:00 p.m. till 7:00 a.m.
And in those 12 hours,
we wrote the genesis
of almost every song
on the "I Am" album.
I found that love
provides the key
He brought a new life
to Earth, Wind & Fire,
like his applications
are on top, okay?
So it gave us a new
sound, a new energy.
"I Am" did really well...
double-platinum status.
Is written in the stone
Written in the stone
In the studio
with the guys in the band,
I was a control freak.
I never hesitated
to tell anybody
to try something different
or to play this,
or you're playing a wrong chord.
Like, the fan thing went
out the window the minute
the red light went on.
You know, it's good.
We get a kick out of working
with different people,
and they get a kick
out of working with us.
David Foster coming in the
band was hard on the band.
They said, man, we should be
in there writing them songs,
not that white boy.
But David Foster happened
to bring the goods.
It became more complicated
because Maurice
was bringing this person for
that or that person for that.
Every person he brought in
was to make Earth, Wind & Fire
superlative.
We played lesser
and lesser roles.
And then Maurice started
producing records
without our involvement.
We were definitely like
a session musician.
You just come in
and do your part.
Sing on this, sing on that.
Oh, do, do be us
You should be behind.
As far as the rules
of what we had to do,
Maurice made them.
We followed them. Simple.
The idea of a democracy
is an illusion in a band.
I felt unappreciated
and betrayed.
[cheers and applause]
["After the Love Has Gone"
playing]
Everybody in good spirits?
[cheering]
All right.
You know, uh...
love is a subject that
always seems to come around.
It's always...
Okay, let me tell you something.
Yes?
Maurice was not exactly
the most faithful person.
He had other women on the road.
For a while, to love
was all we could do
We were young and we knew
And our eyes were alive
Deep inside,
we knew our love was true
For a while
Maurice, in fact,
got someone pregnant
while he was on the road.
I didn't find out until maybe
a few years after she was born.
Everyone but me knew.
Begin the dance, yeah
Something happened
along the way
And yesterday
was all we had, oh
And then he had
another son from someone else.
And yesterday
was all we had
I'm Maurice's youngest son,
that we know about.
[laughter]
After the love is gone
Oh, yeah, yeah
Around the time when
my mom was making costuming,
my dad pursued her,
and they had a connection.
Oh, yeah
He and my mom had a pretty
tumultuous relationship.
He was continually pulling back.
By the time I was born,
they'd been seeing each other
for, I believe,
around 20 years at that point.
I said, how can you do that?
And he said, I'm a star.
It was like, I can do
whatever the f*ck I want.
Love, love has gone
And I said, you know what?
That makes me feel unworthy.
I am not unworthy.
After the love has gone
And I moved out.
Yeah
He couldn't believe
I did it, and I did it.
Oh, oh
Oh
It was really tough for me
to want to pursue
a relationship with him.
Even as a child, I was
questioning my mother.
You know, I'd ask,
why is he so distant?
And she explained it
to me in what I think
is a beautiful way, and it's how
I articulate it to this day.
Everybody has a door
in their heart
they let love in and out of.
And he had enough trauma
when he was younger
that it closed the door for him,
and he could only
get it open so far.
But when he was in his bag
and making music,
that door would open
as wide as it could.
[electronic warbling]
[energetic synth music]
The '80s was really
kind of strange
because music
was changing a lot.
We are in an evolving stage
right now.
I think it's all evolving
around the changing technology.
Bands were kind of navigating
the transitions that were
taking place sonically.
Now you're in the drum machine
era and the synthesizer era.
But Earth, Wind & Fire was known
for their big horn sections
and amazing arrangements.
Maurice needed a whole
different-sounding record.
Maurice and I got together
through my wife,
Wanda, of The Emotions.
Maurice was digging
some of the things
that I was playing with
The Brothers Johnson.
Maurice came over to me,
and he said, hey, Wayne,
you got any tunes for the Fire?
Reese and I were going for hits.
So I gave him four songs,
and he decided
to cut three of them,
one being "Let's Groove."
Let's groove tonight
Share the spice of life
"Let's Groove" wasn't a true
Earth, Wind & Fire song,
that metaphysical kind of vibe.
It was just one tune to bridge
them over into the '80s.
It's all right,
all right
"Let's Groove" was a hit record
that we needed at the time.
We were relieved
because we said,
we made it in
on the 1-yard line, you know.
Gonna tell you what
you can do with our love
All right
Let you know, girl
You're trying to stay relevant,
but, I mean, there were
some badass bands out there.
All right
You will find
peace of mind
Each decade brings
new music, new artists,
new superstars.
Mike hit the home run
with "Thriller."
Lionel hit the home run
and, of course, Prince.
We can boogie
on down now
Boogie on down
We were vying for our place.
Where are we
in the scheme of things?
We boogie
on down, on down
That magic, that combo,
it's very hard to keep
something like that going.
Maurice was a private guy.
He didn't let me
see him sweat, but
he had a lot of things
going on at one time.
To the outside world,
there was this positive
love image presented.
But to us, it was
totally different.
Maurice was always
separated from everyone.
There was only certain people
that could do an interview.
If you take a picture,
you must stand here,
just definite positions.
And there were things that
were done intentionally
to just make you feel small.
[instruments playing]
Gotta do it differently.
For one thing, we knew
we weren't getting paid right.
Yes, things were expensive,
but we were generating
millions of dollars
and only making $2,500 a week.
I think it was less than
some of the roadies.
For the first eight years.
Maurice took
everybody's publishing.
My first royalty check,
Maurice handed it to me.
He said, here's
your royalties for the record.
And I looked at Maurice.
It was like, what's this?
[laughs]
Maurice was very slow to give up
any kind of credit to anybody.
The whole damn band
should have gotten
co-production credit,
but he had to be perceived
as the single champion
of the sound.
Some of the other guys
thought we deserved
better than that,
and I'm inclined to agree.
There's no reason to go through
that kind of a treatment
without being paid.
If you're not making any money,
why be there
and be treated that way?
[somber music]
I never came back.
The Phenix Horns left
to work with Phil Collins.
It was just bad blood.
And then him and Al
fell out, and Al quit.
The party's gotta
end sometime, you know.
It was a big blow
because, after that,
the band's sound changed.
["Magnetic" playing]
The thing is is trying
to keep a band together
and stay commercial
but yet artistic.
It's a very hard thing to do.
No self control
A chain reaction
as my body lets go
A strange kind of light
The tempo takes me
and the circuit excites
Magnetic
The rhythm
of a dangerous...
The Earth, Wind & Fire
brand shifted.
With all my heart,
I think that "Faces"
was the last great record.
The rest of the stuff
is suspect.
What is it about
"Raise!," "Powerlight,"
and "Electric Universe"
that has you feeling
that it's not up to par?
Maybe it's because
we had very little to do
with any of those records.
A new kind of beat
I found them unlistenable.
Seemed to me to be Maurice
reaching for an audience.
But it didn't have that groove.
Suck you in
You'll never last
Step in the light tonight
Come make
the sparks ignite
Step in the light
That time had Maurice searching.
You know, success
has many fathers,
but failure is an orphan.
I think the stress of all of
it was starting to get to him.
Beyond anything else,
he was fatigued.
Constantly touring all the time
and then doing all
the other work, too,
I was always the one
who had to carry the load.
He had decades
of emotional blockage.
You push your feelings
down for only so long.
They have to go somewhere.
And if you don't let them out,
man, some sh*t can happen.
[melancholy music]
[whirring]
[phone rings]
We were called
to a meeting at The Complex.
We all gathered.
Maurice came down.
He said, guys, you know,
I've been thinking.
I wanna go my own way.
And I think that
I'm gonna put Earth, Wind
& Fire on the back burner.
Are you kidding?
My heart sunk down to my toes.
I was like, Jesus.
He said that, as of today,
we're going to stop employment.
And we have to get our
wardrobe out of the lockers
because they were gonna be sold.
We were pretty much
in shock at that point.
I was upset
about the way it was done.
You can't call a meeting
and say, okay, it's over
with no warning at all.
I don't think anybody
was as close
as Maurice and I were,
so it was definitely a shaker.
But it was over.
Everybody just
kind of went their own way.
We were all estranged.
My credit card bounced.
Me and my wife, at that time,
panicked, sold the property,
and moved to Denver.
I was on a construction site.
I also was working
at a Federated stereo
on Sunset and La Brea,
selling stereo.
That was a tough period.
So yeah.
I'm sure it was devastating
to some of them.
But I had to let it go
at that point.
I needed a break,
and I took a break, you know.
Yeah, I needed it.
These guys were
that family that he created.
And he essentially did to them
what was done to him
when he was a child.
He left them before
they could leave him.
He'd call me.
And I said to him, you're
still holding on to the...
[exhales sharply]
Non-forgiveness of what
your mother did to you.
You've got to release
in order for you
to be free
of what happened to you.
And he couldn't do that.
Breathe out
all of the separateness,
all of the feelings
of unworthiness,
all of the attachment
to your pain,
whether it's physical
or psychological.
Let the breath be
the transformation.
[inhalation]
[exhalation]
[clears throat]
Testing one, two.
Testing one, two.
- I'm good, right?
- Yeah, we're great.
You ready?
Hi, this is Maurice White
in Los Angeles.
Hope you enjoy
my new... do it again.
Hi, this is Maurice White
in Los Angeles.
Hope you enjoy my first
solo effort, "Stand By Me."
When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon
is the only light we see
Maurice put a lot
into that record.
No, I won't be afraid
But it didn't work.
And I think the failure
really stung.
[Philip Bailey and Phil
Collins' "Easy Lover"]
Philip Bailey
embarked on a solo career
without his former colleague.
It was time to do something else
and get a chance
to find out who I was.
My solo career gave me
that autonomy
to play with
different musicians.
I chose Phil Collins to work
with because the Phenix Horns
were working with him.
Easy lover
And I had a across-the-board hit
with a song called
"Easy Lover."
Like no other
Before you know it,
you'll be on your knees
"Easy Lover" was a pop smash.
Nobody called me to wish me
success or happiness.
What did you think
of Philip, the solo artist?
- I thought he was very good.
- Yeah?
I expected him to be successful.
He should have been
because he came out
of Earth, Wind & Fire school.
What did you think
of Maurice the solo artist?
I always saw Maurice
as being a solo artist.
[laughter]
Well, there's some truth there.
[soft piano music]
Years later,
following the success
of my solo career, the record
label came up to me and said,
y'all need to talk about putting
Earth, Wind & Fire
back together.
I said, well, I'm not opposed
to speaking with Maurice.
We sat down many times
and talked and cry
and put it all out there,
you know.
I said that I would work
with him, not for him.
Verdine and Maurice
were not speaking.
And I said to Shelly,
Verdine's wife,
this is ridiculous.
They're brothers.
So Shelly and I had to bring
the two of them together.
It was good.
We had a chance to talk.
And he did say he never
should have done that,
that he should have
thought it through.
That was his personal regret.
I waited.
And sure enough, the phone rang.
With all that had gone on,
you had to come back into this
situation with a clean slate.
And that's what we did.
After that, we were ready
to put it back together.
["System of Survival" playing]
We tried
to get all nine guys back.
We got five of them back,
five of the original guys.
System of survival
You told me that part of
the deal of coming back was,
Maurice was gonna start
sharing responsibility,
sharing authority.
- Has that happened?
- Sharing the money.
[laughter]
The soul super group
announced plans
to take it on the road.
The 11-month tour that will
take Earth, Wind & Fire
to 80 cities cost over
$1 million to produce.
Says life is filled
with give and take
We went out
on the road thinking,
this is gonna be
the second coming.
System of survival
We're gonna
get right back to it.
System of survival
We had these arenas booked.
Here we go.
[cheers and applause]
Then the band takes the stage.
There would be nobody out there.
[melancholy music]
Crickets.
We found
that people had moved on.
A lot of the houses,
we had to cancel.
We lost so much money.
We were in no-man's land.
We're clearly not
playing stadiums anymore.
So now we have to reconfigure.
We had to do small venues,
you know.
So now we're back
where we began.
Stage production
had to get smaller.
It took some adjusting.
We soldiered on.
We were able to lean on
each other and go to work.
And we started to gain traction.
It was gradual.
It was a gradual thing.
We started doing arenas
and stadiums again.
[cheers and applause]
And then the music started
being played on commercials.
["Shining Star" playing]
On television.
[canned laughter]
Your dream will
take you very far, yeah
And in films.
You're a shining star
No matter who you are
Shining bright to see
What you could truly be
You're a shining star
No matter who you are
And then a lot of hip-hop
will be sampled, right?
When I was in high school,
I heard "Shining Star"
with ODB on it.
Shining Star
for you to see
Yeah, know what
I'm saying?
This is what you call
This was making
history right here
Know what I'm saying,
the fifth element
Earth, Wind, Fire,
Sunz of Man
My dad was not
just inspirational
but recycled by these groups.
I think that was one
of the moments where
it sort of clicked how
much of an influence
he'd had on the world.
[upbeat funk music]
They influenced a whole new
generation of people.
Even with myself, the earliest
memories I have of music
is listening to Earth, Wind
& Fire on long road trips.
My dad taught me how to play
"Shining Star" on the bass
when I was eight years old.
And I feel like
it really kind of shaped me.
The first concert that I went to
was Earth, Wind & Fire
at Caesars Palace
in Las Vegas.
It was a sound so big
and lush, I wanted to do it.
That victory lap in the '80s
that we didn't get a chance
to do...
We took them in the '90s.
And we've been taking
them ever since.
And that's a testimony
to Reese's vision.
Reese, thank you
for taking the chances
that no one else will take.
And thank you
for being a visionary.
Thank you.
Reese's vision to do music
that helps humanity...
Reach a universal audience,
evolve consciousness,
and change the world.
[ethereal music]
He made it happen.
[cheers and applause]
The music lives, you know.
It's ageless, everlasting.
For Earth, Wind & Fire!
Yeah!
Is this a stage or what?
[cheers and applause]
Give it up for Earth,
Wind & Fire, everybody!
[cheers and applause]
During that whole time period,
it was clear that Maurice
wasn't as strong
as he was in the past.
And that was when I recognized
that, oh, wait a minute.
Something's going on.
[melancholy music]
I noticed that he would always
put his hand under his thigh.
It's like, what?
And my thought is,
what's he hiding from me?
We found out that he has, uh,
Parkinson's disease,
and there's no cure.
In the '90s,
I decided to stay home.
It's interesting, watching it.
It's almost like
something's missing.
And it's me.
There was a peace,
an opportunity
for self-reflection,
that came during
that period of his life.
Because he didn't have a father,
he didn't want to
continue this cycle.
I think that my pops felt like
he was gonna
make up for lost time,
almost in a redemption arc
kind of way,
to lend some greater part
of himself to being a father.
My dad and I got really
close when I was 21.
He, to the world, was this
very like... he has to live
a healthy life kind of guy.
But Jack in the Box
spicy crispy chicken sandwich
on sourdough with
extra cheese, he loved that.
We would just do it together...
and Dr. Pepper.
The way we connected
was over music.
Every Sunday, he would have me
play him stuff
that I was listening to.
And that's how we did it,
literally
until the day he died.
My brother called me.
He was like, Dad is gone.
That was tough.
That was really tough, you know,
because we'd been with him
all our adult lives.
I met Maurice White
when I was 17 years old.
I was just a baby.
Maurice was much more
than a mentor to me.
He was a father.
As for me, there is
no question that, by far,
he has been the single greatest
male influence in virtually
every aspect of my life,
across the board.
He wasn't perfect,
and I won't be able to say that
he didn't do maybe
some dastardly stuff
sometimes because he's human.
But I've accepted what happened.
He was my brother,
and I'm gonna focus
on the good times
that I had with him.
You know, Maurice
is like those beings
from the pyramids.
They only come along
once in a lifetime.
[contemplative music]
My dad believed in metaphysics.
[inhalation]
He told me, it's all energy.
[exhalation]
There's more to life than this.
You are eternal.
He was like, you know,
I'm not gonna be here,
but I'm not gonna be gone.
Maurice... ooh,
I just got chills.
I feel you, baby.
He left us all of this
wonderful, wonderful music.
And if we miss him,
all we have to do is
put on one of these records,
and...
and we all know that joy again.
Ba-dee-ya, ee-ya, ee-ya
[cheering]
When we went in,
we wanted to bring
all of America
into the White House
in every event that we did
to really make it
the people's house.
The Governors Ball was one
of the first big events
that we hosted.
And the question was,
how do we shake this up?
How do we take the first
big black-tie event
and turn it into us
and make it our house?
Well, Earth, Wind & Fire.
So suddenly,
you have all these folks
- in formal wear and...
- Getting up.
Earth, Wind & Fire's jamming,
and suddenly,
you're looking around,
and everybody's dancing.
Everybody's moving.
When "September" comes on,
you go dancing.
["September" playing]
Hands go up,
fingers get to snapping,
you know what I'm saying?
Feet get to moving,
you know what I'm saying?
Hey, kick drum, come in.
Like uh-huh.
[horns blare]
It's a celebratory song.
It's like everybody
knows that record.
When I was pregnant,
and I told Maurice
our son, Kahbran,
was due around September 21st...
He said September 21st, huh?
I said, yeah, September 21st.
Do you remember
The 21st night
of September?
Love was changing
the minds of pretenders
While chasing
the clouds away
That song would resonate
with every single kind
of audience.
It's jubilant. It's happy.
You feel good
celebrating that spirit.
When he turned the
microphone to the audience,
they knew exactly what to sing.
Hey, hey, hey
Ba-dee-ya
Tell me about
the genesis of ba-dee-ya.
[chuckles]
The genesis of ba-dee-ya.
Ba-dee-ya
What does ba-dee-ya mean?
It's whatever you want it to be.
Ba-dee-ya, ba-dee-ya,
ba-dee-ya, ba-dee-ya
Ba-dee-ya, ba-dee-ya,
ba-dee-ya, ba-dee-ya
Ba-dee-ya,
ba-dee-ya, ba-dee-ya
When I hear "September,"
I just think
people of all ages, all
backgrounds, dancing together.
It felt like family
and having barbecues
and seeing my family
do electric slide.
It's gatherings.
It's birthdays.
It's wedding receptions.
Now December found the
love we shared in September
That's what it's about.
Music is for everybody.
And very few bands
transcended those boundaries.
Hey
Ba-dee-ya, say,
do you remember
Earth, Wind & Fire
had that capacity
to reimagine and reset limits.
Was ringing, oh, oh
They just decided,
you know what?
We're going up to the sky.
Do you remember
never a cloudy day?
And we'll say
ba-dee-ya dee-ya dee-ya
Ba-dee-ya, dee-ya, dee-ya
[music fades]
[inhalation]
[exhalation]
["Fantasy" playing]
I have a day to live.
What am I gonna do?
I'm gonna write me a song.
[laughs]
Quick.
[laughter]
Hey, hey, hey.
Let me play now.
In his heart
there's a space
And the world can't erase
his fantasies
Take a ride in the sky...
Okay, don't say anything
for about three minutes.
Awesome.
[all grunting, humming]
Hey, he's pulling my finger.
Look at the lens.
Look at the lens.
Our voices will ring
forever
As one
Every thought is a dream
Rushing by in a stream
Bringing life
to the kingdom of doing
Take a ride in the sky
On our ship, fantasize
All your dreams will
come true miles away
Our voices
will ring together
Until the 12th of never
We all will live,
love forever
As one
Come to see victory
In a land called fantasy
Loving life, a new degree
Bring your mind
to everlasting liberty
[bright tone]
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Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs. That's the Weight of the World) (2026)
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