Memphis soul legend and minister Al Green talks about the tension in his life and career between the spiritual and secular realms in an interview published today in the San Francisco Chronicle. The Forrest City, Ark., native says it was Hank Williams' wife, Audrey Williams, who got him to think about singing secular music again after a decade singing only gospel:
"I can't tell the man upstairs what to do, so I had to go seek and ask and inquire, 'What are you doing?' " he says. "And the answer that I got is, 'If the people are asking you what am I doing and how can you sing what you're singing and be my son, ask them how did they get here?' "Green, who preaches most Sundays at Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis, also says that his sermons are improvised, much like the vocal riffing on his hit records:
"Sometimes I don't sing what's on the page in the studio, or I don't write anything for preaching at all because I figure, like, if I don't know enough about Him now, after 30 years, I'm not gonna know it by reading a little bit this afternoon," Green, 63, says by phone from his Memphis office.
"Isn't that fantastic?" he asks, laughing.
Green performs Wednesday at The Warfield in San Francisco.
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