Al Green's Soul Revival

So there wasn't a rivalry between Hi Records and Motown and, say, Stax?
I wasn't tryin' to outdo Motown, and Motown ain't tryin' to outdo Stax. We just happened to be out at the same time, when everybody was offering a different type of music — different colors of the rainbow.

You and Willie Mitchell wrote a lot on the fly. Which songs on your new album were conceived in the studio?
"You've Got the Love I Need" was written just like that. Anthony Hamilton just came in the studio, and we did it. I also did that with "Let's Stay Together" and "Tired of Being Alone." They were just written like a painter would take a brush to the canvas and try to express himself in a two-minute span. Those are the songs!

Some of your biggest hits.
Oh, yeah. There were lots of kids being born around then! [Laughs]

In your autobiography, you write that you're inspired by the sound of birds singing. Which ones sing the best?
Robins. They were around our house a lot when I was growing up. And other little brown birds, singing in the trees. I don't know the names of them — I'm not a veterinarian [laughs]. But I'd always listen to them because they sounded so beautiful. I thank God that he made me so that I could listen to the beautiful things in life.

What are your favorite more obscure Al Green songs?
My version of "Pretty Woman" is one. Willie wanted me to do it but wouldn't let me listen to the Roy Orbison, he said, "sing it the way you sing it."

Is there a reason for the white suit and all-white background for the cover of your 1972 LP I'm Still in Love With You?
That cover, to me, symbolized that we had made it through all these growing pains in civil rights — and in 1972, we were finding our footing again.

How do you respond when people say you're the greatest singer ever?
I'm just humbled. Willie Mitchell said to me the other day, "You don't know how your music has touched people." I said, "What are you talkin' about?" And he just laughed and shook his head.

[From Issue 1054 — June 12, 2008]