Rudy Love and The Love Family will receive a Legacy award Saturday at Wichita’s NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet. Rudy Love, leader of the musical group, passed away in 2021. His brother, Bob Love, a longtime band member of the musical group, is set to release new arrangements of some of their classic hits.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Love Family Band has been influential in the music scene since the 70s, and now you’ve remixed some of your 70s jams. We can’t wait to get to those, but I do want to begin by asking about one of your songs that is meaningful to you, the ballad, “My Imagination.” How did that song come about?
It is actually the anthem for the family because, being raised in Oklahoma, we saw our father in singing groups, and then when we were able to see a television, we got hooked on Fats Domino, the ultimate performer and musician, and then we would see folks like Little Richard and Chuck Berry, and we got glued to it because of the fact that my daddy, Robert Love, Sr., was such a great singer.
We eventually moved to Wichita, and he started singing in churches, and we would go to Matthewson Jr. High School, which was a great school, then it turned into Chester I. Lewis and was eventually torn down due to structural damages but we used to see concerts in that auditorium, the Mighty Clouds of Joy with Joe Ligon, The Soul Stirrers, The Five Blind Boys, and so many great … matter of fact, we saw the young Aretha Franklin there along with her father Rev. Cecil Franklin so we got a good look at show business and what performing was all about.
Also, the fact that my father was into the music business … along with his partner Don Level and many of the gospel groups; the Canaanites was a group that Daddy was in, and they would dress sharp. They always had their hair done, their conks or their processed hair, nice clothes on, and everybody always went crazy when they performed.
We decided early in life that we really wanted to do something like that. After Dad was out there quite a bit, Rudy decided to start to perform with his own band, and he started Rudy Love and the Soul Brothers, then Rudy Love and the Company Soul, and then later, Rudy Love and the Love Family.
We always wanted to perform. When we were little kids, we would watch James Brown, and we would tie towels around our necks like the capes they would throw across his back and act like we were performing. We would watch Solomon Burke and all those guys who wore the flashy clothes, so we got hooked on show business early.
It’s so interesting, and this song, I feel like it’s pure bliss. At the beginning, there is a thunderstorm. Why did you decide to use that sound?
Well, the sound effect is basically because when you are indoors and can’t go outside, one thing you always have is your imagination, and you can just sit and imagine you are anywhere and doing anything and becoming anyone. So that would be the thing: we would just sit and imagine, and Rudy wrote the song, which was about imagining that your mind can take you anywhere you wanna go, and you will be on like a supernatural high. You’re actually moving through where maybe you were living in some rough conditions, kind of like us; we had a lot of kids and a lot of things going on, but we always could dream or imagine and that’s the essence of this song.
Who, along with Rudy, was involved with singing, “My Imagination”?
Diane Florence Love, Rudy’s second wife, along with my sisters, Peggy and Denise, and Ace, my cousin/brother who moved in with us during his teenage years, was one of the pioneers of Rudy Love and The Love Family Band. Some of the highest parts on there were Ace singing those parts.
It’s so beautiful, and as you mentioned, "Supernatural High" is a hook that you never get tired of.
Yes, I think the essence is that “Supernatural High,” and back in the day, that was like a buzzword to be in your euphoria, to be where you wanted to be.
Now, you’ve updated the sound of some of your 70s songs with new remixes?
Yes, I, along with JBris, a producer by the name of John Brister. Rudy and I started working with [Brister] way back years ago, and he and I continued the work that we were doing, and we wanted to update some of the songs that people like, like "Ain't Nuthin’ Spooky,” "Does Your Mama Know,” “This Song Is For You.” We updated them, and we have them on a new album that's going to be coming out soon, called "Keep the Music Playing,” and that comes from when Rudy found out he was ill. I would DJ for him, sit down and play all the songs that we used to play, and sometimes we'd be up all night long, and he would look over at me, and I'd stop, and I'd almost go to sleep, and he'd say, "Hey, man, keep the music playing!” So, we just kind of adapted that as the message from him to just keep the music.
And we're doing that through Rudy Love Jr. and the Encore, my niece Rochelle Love, and along with Rudy Love Jr. and many of Rudy's children — Gina Thurston and the Thurstons, Wade Love Experience — they're all going to continue the music legacy. So that's how we're going to keep the music playing.
Tell us about the remix, “Ain’t Nuthin’ Spooky.” It is so funky. I mean, when I heard that, Bob, I thought, “Oh my gosh, it's such a groove and drumbeat.” How did you decide to put this song together?
Well, actually, what I would do is I'd run songs by John Brister, and he's an incredible producer and musician himself. He's been an admirer of our music, and he is the one producer that I found who understood the Love Family grooves. He is the one who came up with that funky track, and through technology we're able to transfer the vocals and keep the vocals, which were great vocals, and be able to update the music.
Let's talk about your signature song, “This Song Is For You.” What was the treatment on that song?
That song was written by our first cousin, bandmate and guitarist Tony Matthews, who was a bandleader for Ray Charles for many, many years, and then played with Little Richard, Sam Cooke, and Jackie Wilson. But that song, when we decided, we were scared to kind of really touch it because everybody likes it the way it had been presented earlier. But I just wanted to put a little more strings in it, soften it up a little bit, and just take it to another level. It stands the test of time by itself, but this took it to another level where it will go on and on.
“World Citizen” is a funky, socially conscious tune. What's behind that song?
I'm working hard to try to get it out for the elections coming up, and we had done it earlier on the “This Song Is For You” album, but when John and I got a hold of it, John got crazy with it. It's a song that … I don't want to say protest song, but it's an awareness song to let everybody know that we really believe in America. We believe in what America can be, but we love it where everybody is recognized as citizens, and they have rights like everybody else.
So, where can people find the remixes?
The remixes should be coming out pretty soon. We are working on them very hard. We have the graphics already for the album, and I'm trying to get it out within the next couple of months.
Find more information about the legendary band Rudy Love and the Love Family, as well as the new remixes at lovefamilymusic.com
