The Gorillaz song that almost killed Bobby Womack
By 2010, Bobby Womack was a certified legend in the music business. Through his work with everyone from Sam Cooke to The Rolling Stones, Womack was a pioneering singer, songwriter, and frontman who helped bring soul and R&B to the masses. For his work, Womack would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. But before that honour, he was feeling out of step with the modern music industry, so much so that he almost turned down one of his most famous collaborations.
When Damon Albarn was putting together the Gorillaz’s third album Plastic Beach, he envisioned Womack freestyling over the pulsating electronica track ‘Stylo’. Womack was available, but he wasn’t sure that he was the right man for the job. It was only thanks to his daughter that Womack agreed to appear on the song.
“They called me from London and said, ‘Man, we want to do something with you,'” Womack told Rolling Stones about the collaboration. “In the days when I would get loaded, I would have thought this was great. Now that I’m straight, I think I’m too square to know where they’re at. I kept listening and thought, ‘Damn, why do they want me?’ It’s all new to me. The only thing that convinced me was my daughter said, ‘Dad, you got to do this. They’re awesome.’ I said, ‘You’re hip to them?'”
“I thought she was talking about a real gorilla. I said, ‘I worked with a lot of people, but I never worked with a gorilla,'” Womack said about his initial impression of the project. “I just called them back and said, ‘I want to be a help and bring something to the table. I gotta be honest though, I don’t know why you want me.’ They said, ‘It’s about a plastic ocean. Just imagine yourself in a plastic ocean. Just get on there. Do what you wanna do. It’ll work out.’ It should be interesting.”
When Womack arrived, Albarn instructed him to simply sing anything that he wanted over the basic track of the song. “I was in there for an hour going crazy about love and politics, getting it off my chest,” Womack told Q Magazine in 2010. Toward the end of his sessions, Womack began to feel light-headed after giving the song his all.
“I’m diabetic, and after an hour I could feel myself passing out,” Womack added. “Last thing I remember is thinking, ‘Lord, don’t let this happen to me.’ They walked me to the couch and gave me a banana. In two or three minutes I woke up and said, ‘Let’s go again.’ They said, ‘No, we got it on tape.’ I know it musta freaked them out because it freaked me out. Murdoc kept a straight face. He said, ‘I’m telling you, man, you’re my idol.’ I said, ‘Well don’t kill your idol.'”
Check out ‘Stylo’ down below.
