Horrific encounters with police, fighting from within, and an abrupt hiatus. Though they may
have grooved like they had no troubles, the group Earth, Wind & Fire dealt with
their share of tragedy.
The initial steps Maurice White took on his journey to stardom occurred in
Memphis during the late 1950s, where blues, jazz, and early rock and roll were thriving.
"So it's hard to characterize, it's hard to say exactly what
type of music it was because it had all different type of roots."
However, aside from the music scene, the environment was far from ideal for White
and most other Black people living in the city.
In his memoir, "My Life With Earth, Wind & Fire," White recalled one of the worst
episodes of discrimination he faced. While delivering newspapers for work,
two police officers pulled their vehicle over to harass him. Calling the teen racial slurs
was not even enough for the two cops, as they proceeded to assault him as well.
White described the traumatic experience and the effect it had on him, writing -
"Once I got up, I just stood there sweating and shaking in the cool evening air. I had
urinated on myself. I vowed that if I got stopped again by the police,
I would run and cut through somebody's backyard. The fear haunted me for several months."
If you or a loved one has experienced a hate crime, contact the VictimConnect
Hotline by phone at 1-855-4-VICTIM or by chat for more information or assistance
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After moving to Chicago, Maurice White continued to land music gigs and, most notably,
became a member of The Ramsey Lewis Trio in 1966. But the venture was short-lived
because the talented musician wanted a project of his own, as described in "My Life With Earth,
Wind & Fire." He then formed The Salty Peppers in 1969 and moved to Los Angeles not long after.
Both in Chicago and at their new location, the group continued to struggle to gain a large
following, which led to White rebranding them into their now iconic name, Earth,
Wind & Fire. The band did better after the name change, but still failed to produce anything
hugely popular after their self-titled debut in 1970 and the next album, "The Need of Love."
According to AllMusic, the frontman then decided it was necessary to start from
scratch and completely replace every member of the group except for his brother, bassist Verdine
White. At this point, singer Philip Bailey was one of the new major players brought on board,
and by 1974 the revised lineup finally made EWF's first major hit, "Open Our Eyes."
Earth, Wind & Fire worked hard to gain acclaim during their first few years in Los Angeles,
but the band did manage to secure their place within the fold of a major studio,
Warner Bros. Throughout this turbulent period, the group received help from Philip Bailey's mentor,
Perry Jones, who was their main liaison with the label, as described in White's memoir.
Yet, after the band made the transition from Warner Bros. to Columbia in 1972,
Jones' relationship with the band became strained. He also had left the studio with the hope of
becoming the group's primary manager and was even living at White's home at the time. However,
with Columbia came new management, so Jones effectively lost his place among the band.
In his memoir, "Shining Star," Bailey recalled the painful,
but necessary, decision to let him go, saying -
"Having Perry around caused tension within the ranks. [...] I felt bad seeing Perry go,
since he had done so much as a friend, and hoped that one day our paths would cross again."
A revamped Earth, Wind & Fire added another dimension to the band with the
singer Jessica Cleaves in addition to the other vocalists, Maurice White and Philip Bailey.
Yet, in one of the many changes to EWF's lineup over the years, Cleaves left not long after
recording her second album with the band. In his memoir,Bailey described
the difficult situation leading up to her exit as she began calling off shows,
and even worse, her bandmates became aware of her increasing drug use. The singer recalled -
"Everybody loved Jessica like a sister [...] I was
sad that we weren't able to work it out. [...] After her departure,
Maurice decided to discontinue the female vocalist role and go on with just the guys."
On the other hand, White did not seem as upset with Cleaves leaving,
and he explained in "My Life With Earth, Wind & Fire," that the main reason was
that she wanted to live with her new husband in Kansas. He coldly added -
"Jessica had substance abuse issues, and she wasn't going to last long in the band anyway."
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues,
help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
In 1976, the band members of Earth, Wind & Fire experienced a terrifying moment when arranger and
producer Charles Stepney suffered a heart attack while they were recording their album, "Spirit."
Even though Stepney survived after he was taken to the hospital, it was just the beginning of the
tragedy. Philip Bailey recalled in his memoir, that after they'd cut the basic tracks for the
album, they got the news that Stepney was found dead in his home in Chicago. He went on to write -
"We were floored by the news. His death would affect us both personally and professionally,
altering our course tremendously."
"When the red light would come on and we would be a little nervous he
was sitting there just 'Relax relax baby, we're gonna get through this,' you know?"
Maurice White also described how unexpected Stepney's passing was, because he seemed
to be recovering as he rested back home in Chicago. In his book, the frontman added -
"No matter how death comes, sudden or not, it's always a shock, and Step's death was so abrupt."
The 1970s was a great decade for Earth, Wind & Fire among the long history of the band, but that
would all change in 1980. Philip Bailey said via his memoir that guitarist Al McKay became fed up
with the drastically uneven distribution of cash between Maurice White and the rest of the group.
White, on the other hand, had a slightly different perspective on
the fierce disagreements, writing in "My Life With Earth, Wind & Fire" -
"Al had had it with my leadership. We were clashing hard and had some
serious heated disagreements. It got so bad that a few times we had to take it outside,
so as to not completely ruin the vibe in the studio."
The situation reached its breaking point while EWF was touring throughout South America, and
McKay announced that he wanted to quit the band. He was then officially fired shortly after, when
he refused to fly to their next show in Mexico. Bailey recalled the difficult time, writing -
"It was a sad time for us to lose Al, our 'rhythm master,' but a relief to him,
once it had gotten too intense and unbearably ugly for him to continue."
Towards the mid-'80, the floodgates of discontent opened wide within Earth,
Wind & Fire, as the other band members began to show increasing disappointment
that their ideas were not taken into consideration. Maurice White, who refused
to relinquish control of his band, explained the tense situation in his memoir, writing -
"As time went on, I believe that my clarity about what I wanted to
do and how I wanted to do it became a source of some of their frustrations."
"Now mind you, being in a band is very difficult.
Because in a band everybody wants a say-so. They want it to be a democracy."
White added that he did meet with each of his bandmates personally to calm things down, while
maintaining a firm hand on the band's direction, but it didn't always work out, as White recalled -
"Sometimes they would voice their complaints or frustrations to me;
sometimes they would voice their frustrations with others within the band. Sometimes they
would talk about personal frustrations, and sometimes we'd just go at it toe to toe."
After the massive failure of the album "Electric Universe," in 1983, Earth, Wind & Fire reached one
of its lowest points when Maurice White put the band on an indefinite hiatus.
"It was fun for me for a period of time and then after that it
started — the isolation is what I didn't like."
The news was not only heartbreaking for his bandmates, but according to Philip
Bailey the worst part was that all of them were caught completely off guard by the decision and
had no other means to make a living lined up in preparation for the breakup, with Bailey writing -
"Some members lost their homes and fortunes, and some went into counseling after suffering
nervous breakdowns. Even Maurice's brothers weren't immune from the axe. Maurice and
Verdine weren't speaking to each other during this terrible time, and Freddie had moved on."
Percussionist Ralph Johnson was a member deeply affected by the
shocking news and admitted how difficult it was for him when he told CBS News -
"This is all we knew, this is all we had. So, when somebody kind of pulls that rug out, you're like,
now you've gotta rethink your whole program." Johnson was then forced to work in very different
jobs for a time — first in construction, followed by a position at Federated Stereo as a salesman.
On top of the rough period that Earth, Wind & Fire was going through in the early '80s,
Maurice White also had to deal with the collapse of his label, the American Recording Company.
In "My Life With Earth, Wind & Fire," White acknowledged that the studio's dependence
on his band led to its downfall when other negative factors came into play, recalling -
"In many situations, that would have been enough. But between us starting
the label at the beginning of the downturn in the record business and,
to a lesser degree, my lack of interest, it may have been doomed from the start."
Philip Bailey may have been one of the most important members of Earth, Wind & Fire,
but even he was not immune to the rough times following the disbandment of the group in 1983.
The situation for the singer was great at first as he managed to start his own
solo career and released three albums in just a couple of years. Yet when the last of this trio,
"Inside Out," performed poorly, his career hit a rough spot.
To his dismay, Bailey was called into the office of the new head of A&R on the West
Coast for Columbia, where he got the terrible news that he was dropped from
the record label. In his memoir, Bailey recalled the painful experience, writing -
"I put on my best front and smiled and walked out the door,
sunken and depressed. I had waited all this time,
and now I was immersed in a cash-flow crunch as a result of the downtime and broken promises."
Several years after they reunited, the band faced another horrific tragedy when one of
their former members, saxophonist Don Myrick, was shot and killed by a Santa Monica police officer.
In 1993, The Los Angeles Times reported that Myrick was mistaken for a drug dealer by law
enforcement, when they carried out a search warrant at his apartment.
In the chaos that ensued after they gained entry into the home,
it was believed that the musician was carrying a firearm — but it was only a butane lighter.
Myrick's mother took the city to court over the fatal accident and was awarded a settlement of
$400,000. The district attorney was also highly critical of the officers' failure to adhere
to knock-notice requirements, as they instead gained access using a key without permission.
The DA argued that if proper procedures had been followed, Myrick may not have lost his life.
Earth, Wind & Fire getting back together in the latter half of the '80s was a happy
occasion for the bandmates, but by the turn of the decade, it became increasingly
clear that not all was well with the original founder of the talented group, Maurice White.
When talking with CBS News, Philip Bailey described what it was like
for him to gradually discover that White was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, saying -
"It took a lot of courage for him to finally get to the point of really even saying,
'This is what it is,' 'cause we were all hoping, you know, that it perhaps might be something
else — something that you might be able to be treated with this, that, or the other."
By 1994, White's condition deteriorated to the point that he was unable to tour with the band,
which was the first time that Earth, Wind,
and Fire performed without him at the helm. Then in 2016, the illness sadly took his life,
and the legendary songwriter passed away in his Los Angeles home, leaving behind a musical legacy.
"What people have been able to hear and experience for 45 years you know, came out of his heart."