Minutes before Earth, Wind & Fire’s soundcheck in Rosemont, Illinois, Philip Bailey was still handling interviews. He’d spent a great part of the day with the media generating awareness about his nonprofit, Music Is Unity Foundation, which advocates for youth in foster care through its music programs. At the time, the organization’s “Backstage Soundcheck Program” was hosting a group who were invited to witness the painstaking, behind-the-scenes work that goes into stage production. Rather than sounding exhausted and disengaged, Bailey seemed excited as if he were one of the patrons.
“What we do is we bring some young folks to our soundcheck—like we’re doing one today—right now,” Bailey says. “It’s prior to the show and we introduce them to the different facets of the touring industry—from the truckers, to the catering, to the wardrobe, to sound and lights and all the different aspects—because people don’t know all that it takes to actually put together a tour on the road so just in case any of them have any inclinations and wanting to do anything in those fields, just exposing them to it. They stay with us that evening, come to catering, and then watch the show, and then they may have some questions at the end of the show, but it’s a fun experience and one that I think is rewarding.”
The Music Is Unity Foundation partnered with the Hamilton County Youth Advisory Board to find foster youth who will get the backstage experience during Earth, Wind & Fire and Chicago’s “Heart & Soul” show tonight, July 19, at Riverbend Music Center.
More than a decade ago, he and his daughter Trinity founded MIU to serve foster youth transitioning into adulthood. The foundation is partnered with the National Foster Youth Action Network and channels its efforts into providing grants to non-profit, community-based organizations and agencies. According to MIU, the funds raised support more than 23,000 children leaving the foster care each year.
“I wanted to start a foundation to benefit emancipated foster care youth because the cause was so underserved and under-advertised, you know, made aware of,” Bailey explains. “I have seven children and seven grandchildren, and I can’t imagine myself or them being in the world without anyone to turn to for support, or anything.”
In his 2014 book, Shining Star, the Denver, Colorado, native describes how after foster children turn 18, they are no longer eligible for government and private social aid programs, and subsequently, many face unemployment, homelessness, jail, or turn to prostitution or dumpster diving as means to survive.
“I found out that there’s so many young folk that age out of the system every year, and many of them fall through the cracks of society, simply for no reason than they have no support or no place to turn,” Bailey emphasizes. “And all the stories are not horrific, but [there’s] too many of them to be ignored. A portion of our proceeds, ticket proceeds, go to our foundations, and then we fund organizations who are helping these people.”
As far as success stories, Bailey recalled a young musician and singer-songwriter named Dreion. An Omaha native and former American Idol contestant, Dreion continues to make music and advocates as a foster care survivor through his vlog, Foster Care Chronicles, where he is seen interviewing Bailey and Trinity about their work with MIU.
“[Dreion] and I and the band have become close, and their band actually opened several shows for us on a couple tours,” Bailey shares. “And so, he’s one of the success stories of just how this foundation and some foster youth who are actually making a difference lives’ intersected.”
Reflecting on his own career and the way EWF’s music has resonated to generations of listeners, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee says EWF always strived to make music that was a positive force in people’s lives.
He remembers he came up with MIU’s name during EWF’s first co-headlining tour with legendary rock band, Chicago. After seeing strangers embracing and enjoying both bands’ 70s and 80s classics, it became clearer to him that music is a unifying connector among people.
He also recalls his early days working with EWF visionary and bandleader, Maurice White, who he says mentored him early in his career. The two spent hours perfecting vocals looking for a specific blend. While most fans recognize how Bailey’s voice can sprint up and down the scales and soar into a spine-tingling falsetto, he says so could White’s.
“Interestingly enough, Maurice had the same range that I do that, you know, the falsetto range, not as high as me, and then the baritone,” Bailey says. “We created that Earth, Wind, & Fire sound—meaning him and I—by just doubling and tripling tracks of lows and highs.”
When asked of his memories of the late Sheldon Reynolds, a Cincinnati born guitarist and former Commodores’ member who joined EWF as its lead guitarist and co-vocalist around 1987, Bailey recalls he came aboard after Parkinson’s Disease began to wear on White’s health. ‘Man, I got this guy from Cincinnati, and I want you to meet him,’ Bailey recalls White telling him.
“He says, ‘He’s a nice-looking guy and can play his ass off and can sing really well and is a great writer,’” Bailey reminisces. “He just fit like a glove, and it was something, you know, he could mimic, sing just like me and Maurice. Just a talented individual and a very, very sweet brother.”
Bailey’s bit of advice for young people wanting to enter the music business? “Study the craft as much as you possibly can,” he stresses. “Study those that come before you; study the business. And then, try your best to make music that resonates with your heart and soul, and your own originality.”
Visit the Music Is Unity Foundation for more information about its programs.
Philip Bailey/Earth, Wind & Fire Facts:
- When Black Entertainment Television joined the cable airwaves in June 1981, Earth, Wind & Fire’s song, “Let’s Groove” was the first to be played on Video Soul.
- Philip Bailey and Phil Collins met through their association with The Phenix Horns, who were playing for Collins in Los Angeles during their off time from EWF. About Bailey’s and Collins’ collaboration and video for “Easy Lover,” Bailey says: “I met him and then one thing led to another, and he ended up producing my second solo project in London. I got a good dose of the English experience, staying over there and recording with him, and what it looked like [in the video] was actually happening. We had a great time doing that project and he’s just a sweet person, multi-talented, and [we] just had a lot of fun.”
- About his signature falsetto: “I didn’t know it was a falsetto until I was doing a show in a club as a young man, and a music teacher mentioned that I had a really nice falsetto, because I was just mimicking singers that I loved, and a lot of them happened to be female vocal singers, like Nancy Wilson and Dionne Warwick and Sarah Vaughn and all the people, and just singing the songs, mimicking their songs. I think I developed it just by singing.”
- In 2019, Philip Bailey released the Robert Glasper produced jazz album, Love Will Find a Way.
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