Patti LaBelle: nearly 60 & no signs of slowing down

Jet, April 19, 2004 by Nicole Walker

Six decades? That's how old I'll be? 'Damn, you old, Miss Patti,'" declares Patti LaBelle, as if she can't believe it herself. Not that anyone would dare call the 59-and-counting singer "old." After all, she's too busy living to let something as trivial as time cramp her style. And the way Miss Patti tells it, she's been living life to the limit.

"I don't think I would change anything," LaBel]e tells JET. "I've had 60 years of ups and downs, and all of the downs that I've had, I'm happy that I've had them because it's taught me to appreciate all the ups. 'Cause see, it happened to a woman who can take it. I can take all of that and then some."

The score of LaBelle's life is certain]y marked with high and low notes, from leading her neophyte group Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles to a million-selling hit in 1961 with the tune I Sold My Heart To The Junkman, winning two Grammys later as a solo artist in the '90s and earning a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to discovering that she had Type 2 diabetes, ending her 32-year marriage to L. Armstead Edwards and losing her mother to diabetes, her father to Alzheimer's disease and all three of her sisters to cancer.

Fortunately, LaBelle is playing more high notes as present. And she hits her highest. the big 6-0, on May 24. Her birthday wish is simple: a quiet evening at home with 60 very special guests. "My ideal celebration would be sitting in the middle of the floor with a T-shirt on and a bushel of Baltimore crabs, extra jumbo male, gettin' my crab on," LaBelle says, laughing. "So if anybody wants to get me something, get me 60 crabs--one for each year. I don't want no diamonds, I don't want no shoes, I don't want no party. I want some crabs. Thank you."

The singer 'also plans to celebrate another big event in May, the debut of the aptly titled Patti Labelle: Timeless Journey, her 20th solo album and first on the Def Jam Classics label. "This album made sense to Patti LaBelle," the songstress says. "This time I did something that wasn't stupid--I recorded the songs, and after I lived with them for awhile, I left them behind if I didn't love them. That's not easy because out of 40 songs, you gotta pick 12 or 13. I took my time, saved money and ended up with songs that I love."

Indeed, it has been a timeless journey for LaBelle. Her music career spans more than 40 years, from singing with her high school friends in her Philadelphia hometown and changing the Bluebelles into the sexy '70s trio LaBelle, which made music history with the racy song Lady Marmalade, to embarking on a successful solo career with a string of hits like If Only You Knew, New Attitude, the duet On My Own with Michael McDonald, Somebody Loves You Baby, When You've Been Blessed, The Right Kind Of Lover and When You Talk About Love. It's a journey the star never imagined she would take.

"I thought that I would just be a homebody, married with children with a picket fence," reveals LaBelle, whose birth name is Patricia Louise Holte. "I was a shy kid with a broom handle that I pretended was a microphone. I never thought I would be singing for the world."

Yet it's a journey the star relishes, and she has remained steadfast on that path by remaining true to herself. "I just sing the stuff that makes me smile, makes me feel like I didn't sell myself out," LaBelle says of her longevity. "I can't do some of the songs that younger girls like Mary J. Blige and Beyonce are doing. They have their own place and I have my own place. I try to stay in my place when I record and I hope I'm gonna please you in the long run."

LaBelle's latest travels on that timeless journey find her in New York at the time of her Jet interview, taping a television special for the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem's 70th anniversary, set to air in June. But before she can let loose with those powerful pipes for her Apollo tribute, LaBelle has to rush to yet another interview, then after the tribute, kick it with Janet "Damita Jo" Jackson Big-Apple style at her New York album release party. The very next day, the style maven has to appear on Home Shopping Network (HSN) for the spring launch of her clothing line, the Patti LaBelle Collection.

"You know I'm a clothes girl, so I thought it made sense to have a Patti LaBelle Collection," says LaBelle, who debuted her stylish, yet wallet-friendly apparel line last fall on HSN. "Because when I go out, a lot of people say, 'Ooh, I like that top.' Now I have that top for you--but you can afford it."

Soon after her HSN appearance, LaBelle will jet-set to Sin City to rehearse for the upcoming "VH1 Divas 2004" with Gladys Knight, Cyndi Lauper, Jessica Simpson, Debbie Harry of Blondie, Kylie Minogue and Joss Stone, taking a brief break during rehearsals to do another gig before rejoining her fellow divas in time to perform live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on April 18 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

And if that's not enough to make anyone's head spin, the tireless LaBelle, who displayed her acting chops on the sitcoms "Out All Night" and "A Different World," also returned to the small screen this season as host of the cable lifestyle show "Living It Up" on TV One, not to mention she is author of four books: her autobiography Don't Block the Blessings; an inspirational book, Patti's Pearls; and two cookbooks, LaBelle Cuisine: Recipes To Sing About and Patti LaBelle's Lite Cuisine.