- How He Has Managed Them All
Music legend, King Sunny Ade is easily one of the most successful music stars to have come out of Nigeria. And he is still coming on strong. Unlike other artistes he has been able to conquer all the vices that have brought many stars down globally.
He has made money, big bucks. He has seen fame. He is famous. He has been a star since the 70s. His success has attracted a lot of women to him. And he has had his own fair share of women. Despite all the success and fame that has come his way KSA has carefully managed all these. “I don’t smoke, I don’t drink” he says. And he has managed to keep a level head. In this interview, with City People Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE, he speaks on Fame, Fortune and more.
How did KSA become a big brand? What are your success secrets? What are the lessons life has taught you?
A lot, like the Yorubas say Ohun ti oju agba tiri ti ko with City People, ko ma dupe folorun ni. What I have seen in life, and what life has taught me, I am still thanking God that I am still surviving.
First of all, my father died when I was very young and my mother took over. I believe that you are already in this world you can’t kill yourself. You are to keep on struggling. You have to struggle to survive. How do you survive? You have to kind of plan yourself. This is what I want to do, may God give me the guide lines. I want to do this and that.
To survive, to lead a team you must work as a leader, not as a Commander, a Captain, somebody who is in charge. You have to work as a team leader. You are a team. We are all looking for survival. That is the experience in life.
How has this helped you to sustain your music and your fame?
I still continue to say thank you God. Sometimes when people ask me how did you do this, I look at myself and say really how do I do it. It is a blessing. I keep on knocking the door because the bible says Knock and you shall be answered. First of all love yourself more than anybody. Have the fear of God in mind. Respect people, because you need to be respected. If you don’t respect people they won’t respect you, regardless of their age because the little child of today can become a big person tomorrow. Eventually what you did to them when they are young they will remember. That is how I live my life. I just thank God.
How has KSA been able to handle FAME, Success, Money, Women? These are the basic issues that bring down stars?
I would say up till now I am still looking for that fame. I am looking for that name, that fame. When you have become famous, it is not you that will see yourself as a famous person. Let the people call you that. Don’t call yourself. And once people begin to call you famous or a celebrity that is the exact time you have to be careful because challenges will start coming.
That is when people will begin to put you at the centre to discuss you, what you do, what you eat, where you go. You will suddenly become the topic for discussion.
They will begin to discuss you. Then envy sets in. Jealousy sets in. So, eventually you must be very careful success brings Envy. I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I don’t do most of the things other people do.
I am still saying I am yet to be famous. I am not famous yet. I am cooking.
How was KSA able to avoid all these distractions of drinking, smoking, drugs that have pulled down many music stars?
(Smiles) I try my possible best to learn what is called Contentment. You have to learn to be contented. Look if you say you are rich, there are those who are richer than you. If you say you have money somebody has had it before. If you say you are successful, there have been more successful people before you.
There is nothing you are doing that has not been done before. No big deal. You are in the middle. If you think you are the first in something you are at the middle. Somebody has done it before.
If you say you are the first born in a family, you have forgotten you have your father and mother before you in the family. If you say you are the last born, how about those coming before you. You are not the first soft sell journalist.
Even if you say you are the No 1 publisher today, these were people before you and there are people coming behind you. So you are in the middle. So the way to go about it is to look ahead keep pushing ahead, look at your back. You should learn the lesson that what you have come to this world to do is to do what you can do and then move on and leave the rest.
But all KSA’s albums over the last 40 years have been big hits. What’s the secret? What is your advice to them?
Actually I am thanking God now that the new generation are now putting better content like Korede Bello who sang God Win. That is deep. When you look around, you will know that it is God that is making things happen so he is wining.
So you get closer to God. The guy became an Ambassador to the Police to appeal to his generation to avoid crime.
As for how I did it. I take my time to plan and research into my music. I do my work in selecting all the songs that come my way. And then I call my band members together to help enrich the music. I sing new songs to them and we all work on it.
We normally sit down every 3 months (before now) every 90 days to brainstorm. We have to work because we are still saying to ourselves the best is yet to come. But it is now 12 month Calendar. So we combine every thing together. We collate and select what we have. What we have in our reservoir is much more. We look at the situation of the country, the situation in the state and the world we have to sing something about the situation of things. They preach part of it in church. They preach about it in mosque and at parties. We collate all these. We are like somebody who is writing a book and is collating all the chapters. You have to keep on writing.
How do you retain or store new songs that come to you?
Sometimes I quickly write it down sometimes I will put it in a tape recorder, sometimes I will call somebody.
I will tell him to remind me this song and I will quickly get a jotter to note it down. When it comes like that I will collate it together. Sometimes I can write it down and I don’t have the music to go by it. Sometimes I will forget. The lyrics will be right but I will try and recollect how I sang it when it came. After I get it I will call on my musicians: You the guitarist check this. You the talking drummers check this song. You the singers check this song. For instance I may think the first track will be the best they probably will take the 2nd
At the last wedding of Ooni of Ife, it was announced that King Sunny Ade has become a lecturer at OAU. Tell us about that. Are you a music professor now?
I am not a professor. I am a lecturer at the University of Ife. My director tells me the times they need me for the lectures and I usually go when they need me. They know the pressure of my work and sometimes they excuse me. I sit as a leader of a band. I am a musician. I have other companies that I sit as the Chairman. I have other companies that I sit as President and other associations. At Ibadan Poly too I am about to start teaching. They are looking at my schedule. They occasionally pity me.
Everybody believes King Sunny Ade is the richest artiste in Nigeria. Do you agree?
In music, yes I am rich in music yes. But I am praying for it to become cash (Laughs).
Apart from presiding over King Sunny Ade Organization, what are all the other things you do?
This is one of them. I now run a radio station. They have a big management that includes Ambassador Farounbi, Mr. Clement Ige who was the former Editor of Tribune and Engineer Olugbode who had worked with NTA as the director of Engineering. They are all big players and I am the Chairman. I am involved in the running of the station. You have to know what to do. You can’t just sit down. I have other companies. I am a contractor. I build houses. I build roads. Yes.
Why did you close down Ariya Nite Club at Yaba?
Ariya Nite Club had grown too small for me. It took me so many years when I stopped playing there. It is too small for the fans. In the morning after we close, the whole area will be jam-packed with luxurious buses. The whole area is now motor packs like a transport zone. So, I changed it to an office for many years.
Many had thought KSA will build a big hotel somewhere in Lagos where he will play say on Fridays or Sundays…
God will make it possible if it is my way. I love the idea. When you do things like that you have to manage it well.
How has KSA over the years been able to manage your female fans who fall in love with him?
Well, I thank God and I thank them. They normally see me as their best friend and I see them as my best friends. I also see them as mothers. Women are important to music. Any music or musician that has no background of woman is nothing. So I like them. I see them as hey, carry me along, let’s enjoy. It is from there that my family eats. It’s from there that I will eat. I see them as nice people. They are created by Almighty God to be respected and to handle them with care. I thank God. They are all my fans. There are millions of hem who don’t know me in person but who watch my videos and they become my friends.
In the last few years you have been spending more time in Ondo. Is it because of your big country home in Ondo?
Home is the best. Whether you like it or not when you go abroad, you have to come home. I have been coming to Ondo regularly now for about 16 years. I do a lot around here. When you came in, you saw me in a construction overall. I am into construction I am into building houses. I am involved in the construction of this studio. I am supervising the builders. I am a builder.
A lot of people talk about your Ondo home as being one of the best country homes in the world. Tell us about KSA Ondo mansion.
Hmmm! It is a country home that God made possible. So, I have nothing much to say about it. There is no big deal about it. Well we thank God. I tried my best to build a nice place. Tomorrow we pray that other people will build a bigger and better one. And life goes on.
I love my country home. I did it the way I believe I just want to do it. It is not only for comfortability, but for the image of musicians in Nigeria and Africa. In Nigeria today, we are trying. Musicians are building good houses. Once they have the money they build themselves good houses. You don’t have to stay in the towns or cities; you can go into the suburbs to buy so many plots of land. Then you can build. People will come and meet you there.
What is your regret in life? What could you have done differently?
Personally, I have no regrets because first of all what I am doing now, I did not learn it from anybody. Nobody thought me music or how to dance or how to play guitar or do anything. But I found myself doing it. And I thank God, that God blessed it.
Eventually, people love it. The only thing I can say that looks like regret is: I wish I had a father, at my early age, when I was in my 20s or 30s to guide me. I would have loved to have a Dad that I can say, Dad, this is what I want to do and he can say shut up boy. Will you go and do this or do that. But even at that, I don’t regret because my mother made up for it. She did a lot. This building we are in that houses the Radio station was built for my late mother. She was unable to come. She said when she is coming all her friends and the whole world will know she is coming back home. And God answered her prayers. And it is my own joy.
What do you miss about your mum?
I call her Maami. I miss her a lot. She was my Father and Mother, combined into one. You know I didn’t have a father, now I don’t have a mother. So it is a whole lot of difference. But I thank God that I grew up well to enable me say that. I miss my mother because before she died, she used to oversee my food. She will supervise the cooking of my food. My kids, my grandchildren always love to eat her food. She does not pound the Iyan. She doesn’t do the actual cooking. She just sits down and sees to it. When they are preparing my food you don’t talk. She will say everyone should keep quiet, don’t put spit into my husband’s food. Before my mother died, she used to call me my husband (Oko mi). Any of her children who are boys she calls them my husband, my husband, Oko mi, Oko mi. I miss her a lot. We miss her a lot. Up till now, all the kids do ask me. When will mummy come up? Because you sad she now lives in America. So why are you avoiding us, to follow you to America to see Mummy. She has only one name Maami. That is what we all call her.
Does KSA feel fulfilled?
Yes. I was made by God. He made me. That one is enough to say I am fulfilled.
How have you been able to cope with the celebrity life of a star? You go on the road; your fans will mob you. You can’t go to the market place. You can’t stand by the roadside. How do you cope?
I don’t mind. That is part of what you prayed for. And you have to learn how to cope with it. But I am still thanking God that even if they mob me, they won’t harm me. All they want is to be able to take pictures with me. They are my family. They are part of me. That is how God wants it. Who am I to complain?
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