EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Dorothy Norwood Storyteller Extraordinare This is an interview with Evangelist Dorothy Norwood. It’s a pleasure to be able to interview her, also with Ms. Wanda Adams. Kenneth Smith - Ms. Norwood, I’d like to let the people know a little bit about your career, also about yourself. First, tell us a little about Ms. Dorothy Norwood. Dorothy Norwood - Well, I’ve been around a long time. God is still keeping me. I’d just like to say that most people know of me, know about me. But I’d like to bring you up to date about what is going on now. It’s about now. I just released my first single on my label, Dorothy Norwood Music Group. It’s doing very well on the charts. I’m steady traveling and singing. We are getting ready to do a big distribution deal. It’s just a blessing. I have a couple of other artists on my label, which are The Yancy Family as well as Pastor Bishop Jonathan Greer and Rodney Cunningham. We’re just doing what we need to do. There’s a saying they always had when I was growing up, “You’d better run while the sun is shining.” (I’ve heard that before!) Since the sun is still shining I’m going to run, because when the rain falls you can’t run, or the storm rises you can’t run. Run on in Jesus’ name. We thank you so much for allowing us to do this interview for the magazine. K - Actually, I have a total of five or six questions. The first one is a question I wanted to ask you myself, it’s one I prepared. After being in the industry over 36 years of ministry, how have you seen the industry change from then to now? N - We are going to correct that - I think you have an old bio that you probably read - they do that all the time, but the only thing it does is keep my age down! I’ve actually been in the business for 52 years, getting ready to release the 52nd album. In answer to what you asked - is how do we keep going? K - How has the ministry changed from the time you started to now, or is there a change? N - Oh, listen, what are you talking about! Everything has changed, nothing stays the same. The industry has changed tremendously. It reaches a wider span of people. When I was coming up you could record a record in two hours, they would mix it in another hour and have it on the street the next week. (Oh wow, man!) Now it takes days and months to get it out, because everybody is competing for perfection. And we have a different sounding gospel now, we have different styles of gospel now, contemporary and the hip-hop gospel. All of it is talking about Jesus, and representing Jesus. However, I thank God I haven’t had to change my style. However, I’m stepping up with some of the young folks sound as well, so that I can be able to reach more people and a bigger audience. We used to have to wait until Sunday morning to hear gospel on the radio. Now you’ve got so many 24 hour stations in most cities. And what can I say, but it has grown by leaps and bounds. 8 DEVINE GLORY MAGAZINE K - Yes, yes, that’ a blessing! How did you obtain or get the name, The World’s Storyteller? N - Well, when I went out on my own after I left the Caravans, of course my mother passed away. She was ill and I went home to take care of her. That’s when they hired Shirley Caesar and there was no room in the car for me, so when I came back to Chicago it was time for me to really step out on faith. I said to myself, all of these folks are all these pretty high voices, some of them doing these runs and carrying on. I said I got to get a style of my own. And I said, I will start telling gospel stories and do a song that will tie in with the subject of my stories. And that first story I did was Johnny and Jesus, which connects to Denied Mother. And Denied Mother has followed me all of these years. K - Yes, that’s something that’s real important, that’s something Indy artists don’t do today, they don’t find out what their niche is, they try to adapt or copy other people and I think that’s where they go wrong. N - I always tell everybody, no copy does as well as the original. When you copy people all you’re going to do is keep them in the limelight, singing their songs and trying to use their style. However, you’ve got to do it on your own. K - Yes, yes. How important is it for you to spend time with God, and do any of your songs come from that time after you have spent with him? N - Oh yes, it’s so important. But I must say, some time I’m so busy during the day but I don’t know, I seem to be a kind of night owl. I’ll get in the bed sometime around 8 o’clock and I’ll wake up at 11 or 12 and I don’t go back to sleep sometime until 2 or 3 and that time is a quiet moment to spend with God. And a lot of my songs and my stories I have written were in the midnight hour. K - Oh, wow. Yes, that’s awesome. I’ve noticed, and even myself, you’ve inspired so many people and artists around the world, tell me who was it that inspired you to do what you do? N - Okay. The first one that inspired me was Mahalia Jackson. When I first went to Chicago and went to hear her sing one night, that first night I got there they called on me to sing, and she took me on the road with her. But I always loved her from the time I used to hear her sing, Move On Up a Little Higher! Yeah, and she just inspired me. Then, I went back to join a (or Joyner?) church and who came through the door but one of my very favorites I used to hear in Atlanta before I came, was Albertina Walker. (Oh, wow!) And she came to me that night. James Cleveland told her, there’s a little girl over at that fellowship and you need a singer, you’d better go over there and get her. I saw her in the back and I tell you, I sung my
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