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Carole Mikita ReportingLast night a Grammy Award for best gospel performance with Ray Charles, today Gladys Knight came to Salt Lake to promote her new CD. Carole Mikita had a chance to talk with the renowned singer/entertainer.
Hundreds jammed into the downtown Deseret Book store for a lunchtime mini concert. Gladys Knight began singing at age four, many remember her hit songs with her cousins 'The Pips.’ Now she has a new sound.
One of the legends of MoTown, Gladys Knight has gone gospel. Her new CD is songs to the Lord, all stemming from life as a Latter-day Saint.
Gladys Knight: "It just hit me one day, now I know why I sing; it's his business.
"One Voice" has been in the top ten on the Gospel Charts for a month. Gladys opened that door. Other Latter-day Saint recording artists have been left out of gospel music because many don't consider them Christians.
"My friends thought I was nuts when I joined the church; said, ’She done lost her mind, you know they don't like no black people over there.’ If you don't want to believe in it, that's one thing; but to spout off something about it, you know, is just not the way that it should go..."
The line for her autograph stretched around the store. She believes she and her multi-racial group, the Saints Unified Voices, deliver a message.
Gladys was invited to the Grammys last night, but stayed home in Las Vegas to lead her choir in church meetings. Her bishop is the one to tell her she had won the award. She and the choir are working on another CD.
