(One admirer, Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac, served as an executive producer for the documentary and sat for an interview.) In This Is Love, funk icon George Clinton recalls discovering Love’s music in the 1960s and ’70s, calling him one of the “for-real unsung heroes of that era.” The more Alexander learned about him, he says, “I could not resist this undeniable force of nature that was drawing us toward this man, this voice, this story.”Ī version of that same force has been with Alexander himself since he was five years old, growing up in Santa Monica and making movies with his parents’ camcorder. King, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Lionel Richie, James Brown. Love spent a decade as a bandleader and manager for Sly and the Family Stonee, and he has written or performed with Little Richard, Chuck Berry, B.B. Over the years, he wrote songs that were recorded by Ray Charles and Isaac Hayes Jay-Z sampled Love’s “Does Your Mama Know” in his 2007 single, “Sweet.”
The oldest of 17 children, Rudy Love formed his first band in grade school, and in college began performing with siblings as Rudy Love & the Love Family. Robert Love’s church services became a destination for artists like Sam Cook and Aretha Franklin when they came to Wichita on tour, and Lou Rawls was an old friend. Part of that talent and spirit came from Love’s father, Robert, a pastor and accomplished gospel singer who had a brief recording career of his own (complete with an uhappy experience with duplicitous music-industry executives). He felt compelled to bring attention to Love’s overlooked influence and talent, and his indomitable spirit. “When making art, you have to channel your inner child and not overthink things,” he says.
RUDYS TRUCK JAM FALL 2016 MOVIE
For many years, he helped his mother run her Wichita soul food restaurant, Mama Love’s Kitchen.įollowing a serial killer movie with a music documentary did not deter Alexander. He continues to write songs, and to perform and record locally with his bandmates, most of whom are his siblings.
Love had other chances at stardom, only to return again and again to what mattered to him more than fame, money, or bitterness: love for family and music. But his life wasn’t the tragedy one might expect. When Love was a promising 17-year-old funk musician, he’d been tricked into signing a fraudulent contract with a company called Canyon Records that allowed distributors to steal his songs for decades: a generation of musicians was influenced by Love’s work-hits like “I’ve Just Got to Tell Somebody” and “Your Love is So Doggone Good”-without ever knowing his name.
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