Bobby Womack Biography Quotes 8 Report mistakes

Early Life and Family Roots
Bobby Womack was born Robert Dwayne Womack on March 4, 1944, in Cleveland, Ohio. He grew up in a close, musically driven household led by his father, Friendly Womack Sr., a steelworker and part-time musician who taught his sons to play and sing. Alongside his brothers Friendly Jr., Curtis, Harry, and Cecil, Bobby learned harmony, guitar, and the discipline of rehearsing until the parts locked. The family first performed gospel as the Womack Brothers, traveling from church to church. Their mother, Naomi, kept the family together on the road and at home, while Friendly Sr. drilled into the boys a belief that music, faith, and hard work could be a way forward.

Mentorship Under Sam Cooke and the Valentinos
The turning point came when Sam Cooke, then a gospel star turned pop icon, discovered the Womack Brothers and signed them to his SAR Records imprint. Under Cooke's guidance, the brothers shifted from gospel to secular R&B, taking the name the Valentinos. With Cooke as mentor and producer, the group scored with "Lookin' for a Love", an adaptation of their earlier gospel material, and cut "It's All Over Now", co-written by Bobby and Shirley Womack. When the Rolling Stones covered "It's All Over Now" in 1964, it became their first UK No. 1 and a major windfall for Bobby as a songwriter, cementing his stature even as he was still a teenager with a guitar too big for his frame.

Loss, Controversy, and Survival
Sam Cooke's death in late 1964 shattered the Valentinos and dissolved SAR Records. In the aftermath, Bobby married Cooke's widow, Barbara Campbell, a decision that created a rift with fans, industry peers, and even members of his own family. The controversy led to boycotts and bookings drying up. At great personal and professional cost, he moved into behind-the-scenes work to survive. The marriage itself would later combust in public, culminating in Barbara shooting Bobby during a confrontation; he survived, but the scandal only deepened the turbulence surrounding him.

Session Craftsman and Songwriter
Shunned as a frontman for a time, Bobby rebuilt his career as a guitarist, arranger, and writer in Southern studios. He played on and wrote for Wilson Pickett, co-authoring "I'm a Midnight Mover" and "I'm in Love" (the latter later embraced by Aretha Franklin). He wrote "Trust Me" for Janis Joplin, and worked closely with Hungarian jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo on the album High Contrast, contributing compositions including "Breezin'", which George Benson would turn into a landmark instrumental hit. Bobby's session years honed his arranging touch: tight rhythm guitar, conversational lyrics, and the ability to stitch church feeling into secular grooves.

Solo Breakthrough in the 1970s
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, Bobby re-emerged as a solo artist with albums that defined sophisticated soul. Communication yielded "That's the Way I Feel About 'Cha"; Understanding followed with "Woman's Gotta Have It", a sly, empathetic anthem that showcased his writerly eye for relationships. His voice grew darker and more lived-in, and his guitar sounded both church-born and street-wise. The film world beckoned, and with composer J.J. Johnson he delivered "Across 110th Street", a vivid portrait of hustlers and survivors that would later be immortalized by its use in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown and in other films. He returned to his family roots with "Lookin' for a Love", which topped R&B charts, and he memorialized his brother with "Harry Hippie", a tender ode that took on tragic weight after Harry's death.

Family Ties and Womack & Womack
The Womack story remained a family story. Cecil Womack, Bobby's younger brother, married Linda Cooke, Sam and Barbara's daughter. As Cecil and Linda Womack, they forged their own acclaimed duo, Womack & Womack, crafting elegant, emotionally astute soul and writing songs later covered by many. This complex web of relationships kept Sam Cooke's musical lineage intertwined with the Womacks long after the Valentinos era.

Trials, Addictions, and Resilience
Bobby's personal life was turbulent. His marriage to Barbara ended, and he later married Regina Banks. The death of his young son Truth in a swimming pool accident devastated him and deepened a struggle with cocaine addiction that shadowed parts of the late 1970s and 1980s. Even amid chaos, he delivered. The Poet (1981) and The Poet II (1984) reignited his solo career; "If You Think You're Lonely Now" became an R&B standard, and his duets with Patti LaBelle demonstrated a dramatic, church-rooted chemistry that audiences embraced. Legal and business battles with labels were frequent, but the records kept him in the conversation as a singular stylist whose voice could be both confessional and swaggering in the same verse.

Rock Circles and Lifelong Admiration
The Rolling Stones' early embrace of "It's All Over Now" had long-term echoes. Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood were open admirers, and Wood, in particular, became a friend and collaborator. That mutual respect crystallized when Bobby was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009, with Ronnie Wood playing a visible role in honoring him. The esteem of rock royalty affirmed what soul fans already knew: Bobby's guitar feel and songwriter's ear translated across genres.

Late-Career Renaissance
A new generation discovered him through Damon Albarn and producer Richard Russell. Bobby's searing features on Gorillaz tracks brought his voice to a global, younger audience. The partnership led to The Bravest Man in the Universe (2012), a stark, modern record produced by Albarn and Russell that set his weathered voice against spare electronics and acoustic flourishes. Guests such as Ronnie Wood and others added touches, but the core was Bobby's voice: penitent, wisecracking, unbroken. The album drew widespread acclaim and led to renewed touring. During this period he publicly discussed health struggles, including diabetes and a successful treatment for early-stage colon cancer; he also spoke candidly about memory issues. Even so, he poured himself into performance as if to compress decades of living into every chorus.

Final Years and Passing
Bobby Womack died on June 27, 2014, in Los Angeles at age 70. The exact cause was not publicly disclosed. News of his death prompted tributes from soul singers, rock guitarists, hip-hop producers, and fans who knew him first through film soundtracks or sampled beats and then traced the voice back to its source in Cleveland's church halls and Sam Cooke's studio.

Artistry and Legacy
Bobby Womack bridged gospel, soul, blues, rock, and film music with uncommon honesty. As a songwriter, he gave others hits; as a guitarist, he threaded rhythm and melody with a sly, syncopated snap; as a singer, he testified. The constellation of people around him, Friendly Womack Sr., Sam Cooke, Barbara Campbell, Linda Cooke and Cecil Womack, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Gabor Szabo, Patti LaBelle, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Damon Albarn, and Richard Russell, both shaped and reflected the span of his talent. Through tragedy and controversy he kept returning to the studio and the stage, turning experience into songs that felt lived-in and true. "Across 110th Street", "Woman's Gotta Have It", "If You Think You're Lonely Now", and the compositions he handed to others show an artist who understood longing, pride, hurt, and healing. His legacy endures not only in his own recordings but in the countless reinterpretations, covers, and homages that continue to carry his voice forward.

Our collection contains 8 quotes who is written by Bobby, under the main topics: Music - Mortality - Tough Times - Romantic.