As the world continues to mourn the loss of legendary singer Roberta Flack, the working relationship between her and her former background singer Luther Vandross is starting to take centerstage. And now we’ve got a bit more insight as to why Flack fired him from his role long ago.
Thanks to a newly a resurfaced video that’s taken the internet by storm, it shows Vandross in a sit-down interview with CNN back in the day where he’s discussing how he got his start in singing career. While explaining how he began singing backup for Flack, Vandross went on to share that due to the “Killing Me Softly” singer’s sometimes busy schedule — he would take over and sing her lead parts so that they could go on with rehearsals and sound checks. However, after Flack caught him belting out on of her tunes, she made an executive decision to let him go. But it’s not for the reason you might think.
“Roberta would sometimes have interviews and sometimes she’d be unable to show up for sound checks. So I would sing her songs for her in soundchecks to test the microphones,” Vandross explained. “What happened is one day she had come back to the theater and I was singing. And she came over to me and said, ‘you know, you’re getting a little too comfortable sitting on this stool in the background singing oohs and ahhs. I really want you to make your own statement and make your record, you know?’ And she in effect fired me.”
Years later, Flack would share her version of the story with CNN and pushed back on Vandross’ narrative, explaining that she didn’t “fire him” in the traditional sense but gave ultimately gave him the freedom to explore his own talents and make a name for himself without her.
“Luther Vandross likes to say that I fired him, but I never really fired him. What I did was to encourage him to believe in his own ability to produce his first album,” she said.
As history will tell you, after parting ways with Flack, he eventually dropped his debut album “Never Too Much” in 1981. The eponymous single reached number one on the R&B charts at the time and served as a promising jump off point for what would come to be a successful solo career.
Flack died on Monday, Feb. 24. She was 88 years old.