My father was a great influence to me – Steve Black

Meet Veteran Musician, Steve Black who recently chatted with Salient Times Newspaper Esther Egbe about his career and more.

Veteran singer, Steve Black, who recently turned 70 years old, has expressed satisfaction over the success of his music in European markets, even though it was not widely accepted in Nigeria.

Black revealed to Salient Times that his father buys a lot of records then, highlife music both by Nigerian and Ghanaian musicians so I had the opportunity of listening to those records on my own when my father wasn’t home. I developed a love for those music and started thinking of singing and that’s how I started music in 1968 in Ajegunle in Lagos State.

My very first challenge came from my parents, they didn’t like the idea of me being a musician. I overcame that by running away from home to join my friends to pursue the musical career full time . The next challenge was having a place to learn how to play instruments and what instrument to choose and surviving during that period was another challenge, but I made up my mind that there was no going back.

I will say my father was my influence ,because he was the one buying all the records and I loved listening to those records ,but he never knew he was influencing me and when he discovered that I was going to play music, he got very angry and stopped buying records, but we became friends again when he found out that I was serious.

The Veteran explained that playing abroad favoured him more, because till forever I am still earning royalties on the works I did then unlike here where there’s nothing like that unless you’re a King Sony Ade and other big wigs like that ,but abroad, once you’re talented and good, you don’t have to be a big star to earn royalties on your works or what you did with other musicians.

In our days we weren’t doing collaborations ,but as a session musician I had recorded with many musicians like CLOUD 7, ERIC KOL, CHRIS OKOTIE, ONYEKA OWENU, OBY ONYIOHA, WILLIAM ONYEABOR, CHRISTY ESSIEN IGBOKWE, and many others, and if all these were done abroad I will still be earning royalties from those works.

There’s no creativity in today’s music like during our days, but today’s musicians are very lucky, they have things we didn’t have during our days like better equipment, better technology, social media and better paycheck ,but we were better musicians and it will remain that way for a very long time to come .

My career were in the 80s and 90s when my albums that were not accepted in Nigeria by record companies became very successful in Europe. It brought me international fame, money and great satisfaction. As a matter of fact, I’m still earning royalties from those albums. Meanwhile, that was what I struggled so hard to accomplish in Nigeria, only to realise that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, I quickly did something about it, and got results.”

My advise to young artistes is that using drugs is very wrong. They should remember that no matter how young they are today, they will definitely get old. If they are lucky enough to make money, they should invest in other things that can sustain them in old age, because musicians don’t earn gratuity and pensions like civil servants. It is what one keeps that one will fall back on when one gets old.”

He concluded that his current challenges is “The challenge I am facing at this stage of my career is not being able to travel round this country like I used to, because of the insecurity. I have fans all over the country, and they would love to see me on tour with my band, but the fear of kidnappers is the beginning of wisdom.”