The King of Pop, the Godfather of Soul… the Soul Queen of New Orleans. Irma Thomas’ long, storied career has cemented her among the best in the world. Since releasing her first single in 1959 to winning a Grammy and performing alongside The Rolling Stones, Irma Thomas’ decades-long contribution to music will go down in the history books. This year, she will perform at her almost 50th appearance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. With the performance, and a book, on the horizon we caught up with the Soul Queen to talk about her life and her music.
Q: After starting out young, with a lot of life experience, did you think then that your career would be what it is now?
I had no clue. Truly, I had no clue, because I wasn’t aware of the business and how it works, first of all. And number two, I didn’t think you could make a living at it, because most of the folks that I knew that was already in the business had other jobs as well. Then, you learned from the mistakes that were made, and the few people who were willing to give me a bit of information guided me as much as they knew, I would assume. When I first recorded, I wasn’t aware that the company takes whatever expenses that they make out of the money that your record has earned before you even get any royalties. That’s why most entertainers who started back in those days never got any royalties, because the company was taking all the money to cover the expenses of the recording. You never knew what that was, because they never gave you an invoice or any kind of printout statement telling you what your record has done. I wasn’t aware of the record magazines at that time and how they, you know, judge your songs, what category and what number you were in the choice for the nation and all of us. I didn’t learn all that.
Q: What is the advice you’d give to young artists just starting out?
The thing is, nowadays, most of the young people who are recording are doing it themselves. They’re doing YouTube or something of that nature, but they still need to know the business side of business. That’s why they call it “show business,” because there’s a business aspect of it that the entertainer who is doing the show should know, and they’re not told a lot. Of course, you have to consider the fact when I got into the business, it was during prejudice time, and so integration was not a thing, and prejudice was very high. And this is the South, so that should give you a lot of indication on why I wasn’t told a lot of things. Those people who helped me to get into the business, Tommy Ridgley, who actually introduced me to the record company that I recorded the very first song (which is going into the Hall of Fame this year), taught me what he knew. But evidently, he didn’t know heck of a lot, and those that did, moved away from New Orleans. Like Lloyd Price, once he got into the business and his record started doing well, he moved out of the South. A lot, a lot of the information that could have been taught, the people who could have taught you, left New Orleans. So, I had to learn by trial and error.
Q: What made you stay in New Orleans?
When I got into business, as I said, I was ignorant of a lot of the business aspect, and I was just happy to be able to record and sing. You know, I enjoy singing to the point where I’m just as happy, I’m just as comfortable and happy on stage as I am sitting down in my living room talking to you. The jobs that I was working on, I wasn’t even making minimum wage. (And whatever minimum wage was back then, I wasn’t getting it, because my first job paid me 50 cents an hour in it.) I got fired from that for singing on the job, and the second one was paying me $4 a night plus tips, and I got fired for singing on that job. So, it was just nothing. I had no inclination to make a move. Plus, I had three kids when I got into the business, so I had to stay put. I knew that I could at least survive. Even when I got a job to perform, I didn’t realize that I could have gotten $300 when I was only asking for $50. Fifty dollars, to me, was a lot of money, and it was back then. That’s my reason for not leaving New Orleans.
Q: What happened when you finally did leave New Orleans?
When I did decide to leave New Orleans, which was in 1970, I moved to Los Angeles, and I was staying with my Aunt Rose at the time, until I was able to find an apartment for me and my kids. I would go to the clubs to try to get a job; they wanted me to pay them to work in their club. And I said, “Hell no, I’m not. I’m not gonna pay you to work. You need to be paying me to draw some people in here.” So I got a job at Montgomery Ward instead, and I was making $1.75. I was able to support my family. I left Los Angeles and moved to the Bay Area [next], where I was able to still keep my day job and still work on weekends and earn some extra money. I lived in the state of California from 1970 to 1976. My husband is what first brought me back to the city. I had met him on a trip that I had made to New Orleans, and we became an item. He said he didn’t want to live in California, and I was I was doing better coming to New Orleans and coming to Louisiana than I was in California. So that wasn’t a big issue for me to decide to move back to Louisiana, because I was doing better [here] monetarily than I was in California, so, you know, that was a that was an easy decision to make.
Q: When you look back on your career, what is one moment you’re most proud of?
Be honest with you, when I look over the whole situation from then up until now, there are so many things that I can really say that I’m happy with in terms of what has happened to me over the years. There’s more good than bad. I couldn’t pick out any specific thing that I would be proud of than I am of anything else. Other than the fact that I wrote my first major hit “I wish Someone Would Care,” which became number 17 in the Top Billboard 100. Of course, the British Invasion took over from there. (The Rolling Stones got “Time is on My Side.” [It] released that year that I recorded “I Wish Someone Would Care.”) Pride thing is one thing, but I love what I do and I enjoy what I do. And so the pride part to me is being a bit selfish. I’m honored, and I feel very humble and blessed that I was given a voice, that I had absolutely no training. Overall, I look at my total career as a total blessing, because I’ve been able to raise four children. I met my husband and got three bonus children. I’ve been in the business 67 years. I’m humbled and I feel very blessed.
