Kathy Sledge, the lead singer of Sister Sledge, has addressed the long-standing rumour that she voluntarily left the group, calling it 'the biggest myth'. In a new interview, she reveals she was voted out after asking to pursue a solo project while remaining in the band. 'I got kicked out,' she says, contradicting a 2024 statement from her sister Debbie that Kathy 'wanted her own career'.
Reflecting on the group's iconic 1979 album 'We Are Family', produced by Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, Sledge recalls the creative process. 'The word that comes to mind more than anything is trust,' she says. 'They believed in spontaneity. I couldn't hear the songs before it was time to sing them; they didn't want it to sound over-rehearsed.' She notes that the producers turned down working with the Rolling Stones to produce Sister Sledge, wanting to prove their ability to make a hit with an unknown act.
Sledge also discusses the political and social defiance of disco culture, particularly in the wake of the Stonewall riots. 'It was definitely political,' she says, pointing to the 1979 Disco Demolition event in Chicago as an industry reaction to changing financial dynamics. 'Until disco came out, the No 1 song was Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand's You Don't Send Me Flowers. And then here comes Le Freak by Chic and it knocked it right off the top spot. That freaked the whole industry out.'
On her relationship with the song 'Lost in Music', Sledge says it should be Sister Sledge's theme song. 'I've been doing this since I was 11 years old, but in order to survive the industry there has to be a balance. There were times, especially in the early days, where we toured so much that we couldn't come up for air, and that, if anything, makes me relate to those lyrics.'
