Al Green, the Prince of Love : Once a soul singer, he now deals with attempting to save souls

Al Green, arguably the ranking soul singer of the last 20 years, left the pop world to devote himself to gospel music a decade ago, but he still commands a room like a mass media star. Arriving at A&M; Records’ Hollywood headquarters for an afternoon interview, he breezes into the publicity offices like a one-man party. Dressed to the nines and splashed with cologne, he dances into the room singing “Blue Suede Shoes,” then proceeds to deliver a friendly kiss to every female member of the publicity staff, who gather around as if Santa had dropped by for a visit. He greets male staff members with equal, if less physical warmth and generally radiates love and happiness.

Clutching a large, economy-size pack of Juicy Fruit gum, Green, 43, removes his bright red sunglasses and settles down next to a window for the business at hand. But alas, the man has a roving eye. Every woman who walks by the window distracts him. If he knows the passer-by, he flings the Venetian blind aside and hollers. If he doesn’t know her, he simply stares appreciatively.

Though Green (who will perform at the Wiltern Theatre on Aug. 26 and the Coach House on Aug. 31) is a man of the cloth--he’s a minister at a nondenominational church in Memphis--he feels no need to stand on ceremony and communicates his religious beliefs in a refreshingly unsanctimonious way. He’s an extremely playful man--far too mischievous to concern himself with hyping his new album, “I Get Joy”--and any conversation with him is guaranteed to roam far and wide. Herewith, a few nuggets of high-flying wisdom from the Prince of Love:

ON BEING BORN AGAIN: I was born again when I was playing Disneyland in 1973. I’m not a spiritualist so I can’t explain it, but I woke up rejoicing and was a changed man--which is not to imply that I was unhappy prior to that. I’ve never been unhappy. Do I look unhappy now? No I do not. I attribute my happiness to drinking Perrier water. (He laughs uncontrollably.)

ON THE SOUTH: My life style is free and easy, which is the Southern way. It’s nice down there and the South offers great freedom to its citizens. They don’t want you goin’ nuts with it, but it is available to enjoy. The South is changing along with everything else, and at about the same rate, but the South has come an extremely long way. It’s doing better than Chicago in reference to integrating the schools--Chicago hasn’t integrated yet.

ON THE “CHITLIN’ CIRCUIT”: The Southern chitlin’ circuit still exists--there’s a chitlin’ circuit in the North too, baby. What is the chitlin’ circuit? It’s a lot of dumpy clubs you’d never go to (featuring) entertainers you’d never interview. There’s a thousand of them clubs in every city and they’re full of little people who work in factories on little jobs. The guys who run them clubs never know if they’re gonna’ make it from one week to the next--it’s the same as it’s ever been. I played clubs like that and I loved it. I met Johnnie Taylor in one of them clubs--the Paradise in Memphis. Johnnie Taylor’s a friend of mine and a blues singer who used to be with the Soul Stirrers.

ON BUSINESS: People like Joe Louis, they worked hard all their life and died penniless, but the music business is changing. It’s treatin’ people a little more fair, but, still, you gotta take care of business. You can’t lay back and be a star and not take care of your business. Now come on, lets be serious! You gotta get up off of your nice little beautiful backbone because that’s what survival is. You got to be on the phone talking to people, moving, building and planning. You can’t be sittin’ back and sending Miss Mildred to the store to get you some more cottage cheese. You gotta be down at the office checking to see if any checks came in and payin’ the bills. So, we be about business and they keep me more or less in a business frame of mind rather than the star trip. I don’t get to deal with that too often.

ON CELEBRITY: I signed three autographs getting my baggage off the go-round at the airport today, and I sign autographs at the store when I’m buyin’ a Popsicle or gettin’ some Tootsie Rolls. Autographs are no problem for me because I’m not a star. When I think of the word star I think: “Too big! Too glamorous and popular!” I’ve never been a star yet, and Willie (Green’s producer Willie Mitchell) says that’s what my problem is. He says I don’t know how successful I am. Well, I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout that. I just know that I write songs on a legal pad like you have right there and I make ‘em into my children. I make ‘em from a little baby to a grown-up.

ON POP VS. GOSPEL: I don’t know if I’ll ever make a pop record again, but then, I don’t know what a pop record is. My spiritual beliefs were as much a part of the records I made in the ‘70s as they are a part of what I’m doing now, so I have no idea why the public’s perception of me has changed. My audience today isn’t as big as it was during the ‘70s, but the concentration is heavier. It’s like the difference between regular and premium gas--you get better mileage with gospel.

“Baby come shake your thing, let’s shake our thing together”--that’s great fun, but with gospel you’re talking about something with substance that means something to people who already shook their thing and left that behind. They serious about their family and buying the children’s gym shoes.

See, with gospel you talkin’ about something that means a bit more than parties and dope. I still love my early songs, but the man was called into the ministry, and when that happens, you do what you must to fill your calling. Still, I’d like to clarify that I don’t like to be called Rev. Green, because to me reverend is like way up, like holiness. In the Book, there’s only one real reverend. So, as far as I’m concerned, (laughing) you can call me Al.

ON THE ABSTINENT ‘80s: People are cleaning up because partying can wreck your life. For a long time people were ignorant to the long-term effects of this stuff--they didn’t know it was killing them. You talkin’ about having a good time, but hey, where’s your liver? Your liver’s gone, your heart’s dead, your head’s dead and your job and family are gone.

ON HIS FITNESS REGIME: I get up and I’m allowed to have one cup of coffee in the morning. I like to brew the coffee in the middle of the house so I can smell the aroma all over the house. After that I run because it’s good physically. I run down to my gate and back about five times a day and that comes to about a mile. I keep my energy up by eating spinach and broccoli. They took away my cheese, and they make me eat oatmeal! If I’m real lucky I get a hamburg er. I’m in great health. (He gets up and does a round of jumping jacks.) I come from people who are long runners--the Swahili tribe. They can run for a hundred miles.

ON WOMEN: Women? Women? Women? (Panting, he goes into a routine from “Amos and Andy.”) “Oh Andy, take my blood pressure Andy!” Well, my attitude about women is basically the same as it’s always been, but I don’t have the option to chase women as I used to. And honey, I used to chase women. Sometimes I’d stop chasin ‘em and let ‘em chase me and we had a lot of fun. But now, after 40, all that’s just kids’ stuff. I don’t really miss the running around.

ON AIDS: Is AIDS a punishment from God to get folks to not be sleepin’ in the bed with the boys? I don’t know nothin’ about the AIDS epidemic and whether it be from God or not, sweetheart, I can’t tell you that. I don’t know if everything on Earth is from God. There’s a lot of evil in the world, and I’ve seen some people who didn’t have the right perspective. Should a guy be punished for being in love with a guy? My feeling is, that’s his business. Who you go out with, who you don’t go out with--that’s nobody else’s concern.

ON THE INCARCERATION OF JAMES BROWN: I have no idea what James’ case is or anything about his new marital state and what it brought. But I do know that sometimes people are forced to abide by the rules to save their lives. If you’re out of control it might serve you best to lay off things for a year or so until maybe you can see your way to where you don’t need the things that are causin’ your troubles.

ON MADONNA: I don’t know Madonna ‘cause they wouldn’t let me see her video. The only one they’d let me see was the one where she was doing the commercial and I didn’t get to see all of that because when they got to the blood part I said, “Yuck!” I hid my eyes and peeked through, askin’: “What she doin!?” They said, “She’s cuttin’ her hand!” And I said, “Oh God, I don’t wanna’ mess with it!”

ON MICHAEL JACKSON: I went to a party for Michael around the time he was gettin’ started with “Off the Wall” and I gave it to him then. He said, “If you’re not gonna sing it then let me sing it.” I said, “Michael, I’m gonna preach and sing spirituals and gospel, so you take the ball and run.” So that’s what he’s doin’ and he’s doin’ good. (Green sings the guitar lead from “Beat It.”)

ON PRINCE: Prince is my friend and he’s got good music and good ideas, but his music is kind of frisky to me.

ON RAP: Rap music really hasn’t interested me so much because sometimes the guys have big old chains on and a whole lotta rings. And sometimes the rap music is about things that are kinda jolting. They aren’t sayin’, “I love you.” It’s angry music, real hectic and choppy.

ON ELVIS PRESLEY: I ran into Elvis in Memphis maybe three or four times. I always loved his music--especially “You Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound Dog.” Elvis had a hard life because torment seems to come along with whoever has the unfortunate fortune to have the kind of life he led. But we don’t deal in that arena whatsoever, with the arena of tormented lives. So many pop singers have had unfortunate lives but that’s not our thrust. We come from another planet and we’re another animal altogether! (Green leans into the microphone and growls, then whispers ‘I love you.”)