Culture
Hanh Brown talks Kool & the Gang Rock Hall induction
By: Nicholas Kobe
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CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOUB) – Kool & the Gang is one of the most influential groups of the ’70s.
Starting out as teenagers, and originally called the Jazziacs, Kool & the Gang developed their sound from jazz to funk to R&B and pop and everywhere in between. On top of hit songs like Celebration and Jungle Boogie, the band proved to be a huge influence on the emerging genre of hip-hop, as Kool & the Gang became one of the most sampled groups in hip-hop history.
The band’s legacy remains strong to this day, be it from their inclusion in soundtracks, smatterings of new music, or the genre of funk itself, which would not be the same without them.
As of October 2024, Robert “Kool” Bell is the only surviving original band member, and the band was selected to be inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year, alongside performers such as Ozzy Osbourne, A Tribe Called Quest, and Cher.
The 2024 Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony happens Sunday at the Rock Mortgage Fieldhouse (1 Center Court). Ahead of that ceremony, WOUB’s Nicholas Kobe spoke to Hanh Brown, the wife of Kool & the Gang’s George “Funky” Brown.
Find a transcript of their conversation, edited for length and clarity, below.
Starting off pretty broadly, what does the Kool & the Gang Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction mean to you?
Hanh Brown:
It’s very humbling and it’s an honor. I wish George was here. I’m sure his partners would do anything to be here as well. It’s something George had fought for so many years, for the band to be inducted because he believed in his heart that the band is as equally deserving of being in that position. So here it is and we are just so honored to be that part now and while Kool is still alive. That’s a blessing.
Absolutely. So as you’ve been preparing for this induction, what has the week leading up to this ceremony been like for you guys just kind of preparing to be at the ceremony?
Brown:
Well, it’s been a work in progress as I would say, just knowing that they made it. It’s like, wow, we have to take a step back to digest and just to soak in the moment to say, ‘Wow, this is so important for the band and for us all as a family up to now.’ I know Tia, the office gal who is now in charge of the band, has been running mad and trying to get all everything in order, the tickets and the seating and everything that comes along with it. But as for myself, just talking about it and spreading the news and everybody knows about it, it’s been interviews and for me trying to figure out what I’m going to wear. And I have not gotten there yet, but I’m going to work on it this week.
Yeah. I mean, as the ceremony approaches, are there any particular memories or any particular thing about Kool & the Gang that you’ve been in particular kind of reflecting on?
Brown:
Well, George and I have been together about 30 years, so that’s where, as far as how far it goes back to for us. Remembering the band through the challenge of George as being a founding member and being part of the band, the highs and the lows that I’ve seen him go through, it’s humbling. And just to watch him go through those journeys and for him to write and to be part of the band and showbiz is something different.
People look in and say, ‘Well, it must be a luxury to be able to travel the world.’ Well, you know what? It is in a way, in a sense, but I always saw George in my own heart, and he’s a working man. Like everybody, it’s just a magnitude of what he can do because everything he does, it’s a gift. It’s come from inside and from his mind and his heart. Whereas a lot of people, the folks we learned, we study and what we do is we produce that. But my memory of George and throughout this journey is what I’ve learned is that in show business, regardless of health, regardless of what’s going on, you go on, you can make a commitment and everybody counts on you to fulfill that.
And I remember George would always say, ‘the show must go on. Even if I’m sick.’ When he was sick with his health as easy as a cold, which he doesn’t get a lot at all, barely, until to his last day, the show must go on whether I’m writing or whether he’s on stage, he would say, ‘it just goes on no stopping. We can’t do that. We can’t.’ I’m like, ‘why can’t we go in and say, oh, I’m not coming in because I’m sick.’ ‘No, it doesn’t work that way.’ And I looked at him in front, I’m like, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘You’re not talking about hundreds, thousands of dollars of people investing. You cannot let that go. And if you just blow it out, people’s not going to come back. It’s completely different.’
Either from the first time when you met George or just your first exposure to the band overall, was there a moment for you where you realized just how massive of an impact that Kool & the Gang was going to have musically and culturally?
Brown:
To be honest with you, when I first met George, I didn’t put two and two together. I just thought I met George as a simple man watching him perform at a private function, went along with a friend of ours and I thought it was just music. It’s something I listened to on the radio, his music. But when I went to see him at this private function, I thought he was just in a cover band, not realizing the magnitude of it.
Nicholas Kobe (08:35):
In the band’s time, as things have gone on with the group, how have you seen the relationships over time between all the different band members? How have Kool & the Gang grown and changed with each other over their very long career?
Brown:
Well, through the years when they were younger, George and the band, they were a family as young adults or young kids becoming young adults and then into full-blown manhood. He says, ‘we were kids, we were all just, that was our passion was our music.’ So George took that position to heart and he really nurtured that and relished that feeling of familyhood and for him, as the band got bigger, of course, other members come in and all that stuff. I met George at a time when he was still in the band and then he was outted from the band because of other band members.
So it was heart-wrenching for me to see and it was really difficult for him to have that. And he took it and he stepped away from the band for a few years and never asked. He never talked about it. And not until just recently when he passed, I said, ‘George never talked about any of his bandmates. Never threw anyone under the bus, never talked ill of anybody.’ That was one question that he would never answer and I finally got the answer for that in my heart. Seeing, watching , nowing, and hearing the business side, sometimes it’s like it’s politics in any family as we call it or in any group, there’s always politics and you are just one voice. And when you are not a family member, a quote-unquote blood family member, you have to almost be outvoted. He would always say Colitis was the groundbreaker between all of us.
So he was very grateful when Colitis was alive and sadly he was the first one to go. George would make comments and he would complain about the things that were done to him, but he would never, again, he never spoke ill of his brothers, as he would say, ‘it is what it is.’ And he said, ‘I’m just blessed to still be part of it and that I’m one of the founding members and to be able to produce and create the music.’
Yeah. And what are you excited about reuniting with, all the extended other families of everybody in Kool & the Gang again for the ceremony?
Brown:
Well, JT is the missing member ever since he left the band and we did see him I think a couple of other times through those years that he was out of the band. What we always hoped at that time was for him to come back. But politically and decision-wise and business, that is not going to happen. I don’t have any animosity towards anybody. That’s probably why George and I saw eye to eye on most things. For me, I’ll be able to sit at the same table with JT and its family. And I was telling my business partner Claude this last night, I said, ‘this will be the first time that I will actually share a table with JT in many ways and this will be the first time I will meet his wife.’
So it’s a new beginning for me as an adult and as we age, we also learn to leave it behind and start anew. And as I said, I don’t have any animosity with anybody. So the joy of it all is that we all as a family will come together and celebrate this band’s achievements and I want to be able to acknowledge JT for contributing his time and his share during that period of the band’s career. So that is what we are all there for and hopefully, we all can leave all those bad memories behind or whatever was said and done in the past behind.
Yep, absolutely. It was recently announced that Chuck D is going to be the one who’s going to be helping induct Kool & the Gang into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. What’s your opinion on that or just kind of your history with Chuck D and his history with the band?
Brown:
I don’t have any comment on that one. It is what it is and all I can say is that as long as he represents the band and does it right. All I can say is I pray that it is done with class and that he announces to the world why this band needs to be inducted. And so that’s all I’m hoping is that he gets the message across. So hey, let’s go, and let’s see how it goes.