You have been an active contributor to an astounding canon of music. What was the essential ingredient that made it all happen? eamonmcc
The first word that comes to mind is passion – for the music, for what I do. If you get to be the voice of a song like We Are Family, which is here for generations to come – to me, it’s more than a song, it’s a statement – it just blows my mind. We were the group that brought the world together as a family through a song.
I reckon if you put a rocker, a pop fan, a metalhead, a hip-hop nut, a techno obsessive and a classical devotee into a room and put on Lost in Music, everybody would get down. What’s your own relationship with the song? DeJongandtherestless
The song we’re known for is We Are Family, but we’re really Lost in Music. That should be the theme song for Sister Sledge. I’ve been doing this since I was 11 years old, but in order to survive the industry there has to be a balance. There were times, especially in the early days, where we toured so much that we couldn’t come up for air, and that, if anything, makes me relate to those lyrics.
Can you share any recollections of the period with Chic’s Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards [who produced Sister Sledge’s 1979 album We Are Family]? Were there moments when you had different creative visions? andrehendrik
Whenever you work with a producer, it’s like leaning into a director as an actor. I feel like they had a vision, the endgame of how this production was going to be, so you lean in and you listen. The word that comes to mind more than anything is trust. Nile and Bernard would always say: “Trust me, trust us, trust.” They believed in spontaneity. I couldn’t hear the songs before it was time to sing them; they didn’t want it to sound over-rehearsed. And I think to this day, that’s one reason why our songs keep having this resurgence, because there was a newness when I recorded [them].
At the time, I was 15 going on 16. I’m a songwriter, but we weren’t allowed to write anything. It was more frustrating to some of the sisters than me. Debbie, for instance, would always like to do the harmony, whereas these guys, in some cases, already had some of the background laid down by some of the Chic singers and Luther Vandross. But they had delivered huge hits. In fact, they were offered the Rolling Stones, but they chose to produce us instead. They said: the world is watching us, give us some obscure act that no one knows, because we need to make this a hit, and it has to be because of who we are to this project, not because [they’re] a massive star already.
Did you see disco culture as carrying a kind of political or social defiance – especially in the aftermath of the Stonewall riots, with the new freedom for men to dance openly with other men? Dmitry_S
It was definitely political. The whole thing with the burning of the disco records in Chicago [1979’s Disco Demolition event], all of it was political, but behind all of that, it was about money. Because at the time here in the United States, music was segregated: there were the R&B and the pop charts. Until disco came out, the No 1 song was Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand’s You Don’t Send Me Flowers. And then here comes Le Freak by Chic and it knocked it right off the top spot. That freaked the whole industry out. That’s what, I believe, Disco Demolition was about – it started changing the pocketbooks in the industry.
What is the biggest untruth a journalist has written about you? WeirdDug
I never left the group, that’s the biggest myth. I got kicked out. I got offered a solo project that I wanted to do, but I asked: can I do this and stay? And they’re like: “No, you gotta go.” They voted me out. [In a 2024 interview, Debbie Sledge said Kathy “wanted her own career, and that was fine”.]
I was crushed. I was a lead singer that liked being in a band. When I got offered a solo project to work with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, I really did want to do it, but I was given the ultimatum: you do this or you don’t. It was weird, because everyone else was doing solo projects: Phil Collins, Michael [Jackson]. But I was the signature voice and there probably was this idea of: if you go and do this, what can happen? Like a Diana Ross/Supremes kind of thing. They made sure that I wasn’t allowed to say I was from Sister Sledge and that became very frustrating. It would be like Kool & the Gang trying to get a gig, but you can’t say “& the Gang”. [In 2024, Debbie claimed: “When she did leave, she started another group. We were like: what are you doing? We couldn’t reach her and she didn’t answer any of our calls.”]
Then, of course, I was allowed to use the brand again, we were all allowed to use our brand, and from that I got the idea of this amazing show [Kathy tours as Sister Sledge ft Kathy Sledge, while Debbie tours as Sister Sledge ft Sledgendary]. Stay resilient and know your worth: that’s what keeps me going.
The band rarely wore skirts on stage. Were trousers and jumpsuits actually better for bustin’ the moves? staggerstag
Always. It wasn’t a statement, it was about being able to perform our best. That’s what we were comfortable in. I have to move on stage. Before us, there was Labelle and the Supremes, but we were one of the first girl groups to actually come out there and dance full on. We kept it classy but there’s lots of movement. Years ago we won an award, and Destiny’s Child gave this award, and in the speech they said we were the first girl band to ever dance full on and encouraged them. I feel like we opened the pathway for the Spice Girls and the En Vogues.
All American Girls was such an amazingly strong record. Why do you think it didn’t achieve greater chart success? LovePorto2023
That was challenging. All American Girls was exactly what the lyrics are about: we’re all American girls and we love the life that we live. It was that simple. But from the R&B market, or the Black market, we would catch: “What do you mean, you’re all American? Are you trying to be white?” And then maybe it was too pop for some people. There was a little bit of pushback with “all American” – we were an all Black group of sisters that the pop market might have felt some reservation about. And then we had another dynamic that we had to deal with. It was around the time of women’s rights and there were some lines we changed. There was one line in there, like, “you drive your trucks all day”, something like that, and we’re like: let’s take that out, this is not about a man [versus] woman thing. Now it’s a tricky time to sing that song, because America is not really in the best place.
You and your sisters always looked like you enjoyed stardom. True? pconl
Yeah, we did. We kept each other in line. We would do exciting tours, like the Rick James tour – that was fun because he was wild, but we never knew it. I swear, we didn’t even know he got high. We were protected – our grandmother toured with us, so he always had the utmost respect. We were like the Waltons. He was a ball of fire! But then we would do the same kind of tour with someone like Engelbert Humperdinck or Tom Jones. Joni [Sledge] was so gorgeous, we’d always tell her to stay in the dressing room because they would all have crushes on her.
Who is He’s the Greatest Dancer about? 1Love1Heart
There was no real greatest dancer, but there are a gazillion greatest dancers. “Greatest dancer” is the alter ego of everyone because everyone thinks they’re the greatest dancer!
How do we get funk and bass guitar lines back into the forefront of dance culture again? I see so many youngsters who just don’t shake their thang! yogainspain
I need the answer to that one! The industry has changed so much: everybody and their grandmother has a record out now, everybody has access, but there are some great writers that surface. I love Bad Bunny and someone sent me a mashup of him and We Are Family – [Sister Sledge] will always be there for new artists to learn from and to remix. Hopefully that will help us to keep shaking our groove thang.
Did Frankie ever remember you? mattyjj
No, to this day! Frankie [a UK No 1 in 1985, with its chorus refrain “Frankie, do you remember me?”] was written by Denise Rich, she’s written for Céline Dion and other artists. She wrote that song about a high school crush that she had, she submitted it to us and it was a folk song, very laid back. Nile [Rodgers] produced it and turned it into this fun pop song.
Are you a fan of the Fall’s version of Lost in Music? CheererUpper
No, but I should be. I’ll check it out, I promise. Manchester reminds me a lot of Philadelphia.
Thinking of You is a decent candidate for the most life-affirming record I’ve ever heard. Why did it end up on a B-side (to Lost in Music) – did no one realise?! StevefromNottingham
That, my friends, is called: what record companies do. There’s always some stuffed shirt sitting behind a desk that doesn’t know what they’re doing. Do you know that We Are Family was the B-side to He’s the Greatest Dancer when it first came out? There are some people every now and again that come up to me after a concert with this very rare record. Evidently, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards marched up to the label [bosses] and they’re like: will you please stop [pressing] that record, that is going to be a single one day.
What are your interests and passions outside music? SH1961
Well, I taught spinning for about 20 years. I used to always say, before Peloton even came out, there should be a bike with a screen on it. I started by teaching my sisters [workouts] on the road, and then the band and the crew, and then I got certified.
Would you change anything if you could go back? DabMaine
I probably would have done solo stuff sooner, because I feel like there’s always room to grow and it’s never too late to keep doing what you believe in. The [sisterly] rivalry part, I don’t think you can change. But maybe how I dealt with it, that might have been different. Being the youngest, I always wanted to walk up to Michael [Jackson] while we were touring [with the Jacksons], and ask: “Do you feel guilty that the producers always ask you to sing everything?” I probably would have been more comfortable doing more and not worrying about what people think.
