ROCK’N’ROLL CONFIDENTIAL
LEE FIELDS
North Carolina’s soul survivor talks intuition, corn liquor and absent friends.
Sofa, so good: Lee Childs, not scared of fear.
Zach Cordner
“I GREW UP with house parties and church,” Lee Fields tells MOJO. “The music I make reflects that. It makes you feel reverence to a higher power, but it makes you want to do the wild stuff too.” Inspired by James Brown on The T.A.M.I. Show in 1964, Fields started singing aged 14. At 17 he caught the bus from his home in Wilson, North Carolina to New York, where energetic shows and under-ground funk 45s in the mould of the Godfather earned him the sobriquet ‘Little JB’. Sidelined by disco in the ’80s, in 1996 he recorded scorching 45 Let Man Do What He Wanna Do with future Daptone Records founder Gabe Roth. Ever since, he’s been one of the soul revival’s most compelling voices.