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B.J. Thomas has sung all across the country, jazz for John Coltrane and gospel with the Dorothy Norwood Singers. Now she's home, living in her grandfather's house, still singing.
By DAVE SCHEIBER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 13, 2001
She is the other B.J. Thomas, not to be confused with the '70s crooner famous for Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head.
Ms. B.J. Thomas, thank you, has spent most of her life singing gospel, blues and jazz.
Born in St. Petersburg in 1940 as Barbara Jean Payne, she learned to sing in church, moved away and became a backup vocalist for such stars as Marvin Gaye and Al Green, then returned. She married Rufus Thomas and became B.J. Thomas.
A fixture on the local nightclub scene for more than a decade, Thomas signed last year with a Los Angeles independent label and is releasing a CD, Work It Out, this month.
This is her story.
I was the youngest of four kids, and my dad always used to call us by our whole name. I just hated being called Barbara Jean, so they started calling me B.J., and it just stuck.
I went to Jordan Park Elementary and started at 16th Street Middle the first year it was built. But when I was 13, I moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., to live with my oldest sister. We lived in Flatbush, and I lived almost a completely Jewish life -- in a Jewish neighborhood, in schools with all Jews. My high school was Erasmus Hall, and Barbra Streisand and I graduated together. I knew her very well, and at that time, I guess neither one of us knew we could sing.
You talk about a singer, though, that was my older sister. She wrote a song called G.I. Blues in the Army, which got recorded. She was such a great influence on me and encouraged me to pursue music. The tragedy is she was killed in a car crash in 1973 the day before she would have turned 40. Her name was Carolyn Payne. I looked just like her.
After I got out of high school, I went to Chicago and hooked up with a gospel group called the Dorothy Norwood Singers, which is still a very popular group. We went all over the country, overseas, everywhere. From there, I sang with a great jazz artist named Sarah Sanders, and with the great John Coltrane. I sang at his funeral.
I guess I could have stayed out there, but my dad died of cancer in the late '80s, and my mother really wanted me to come back home. She said, "You know B.J., I'd love to spend some time with you before I go.' That was all it took. I had just bought a house, but I sold it and came on home. And you know what? My mother is 87 and doing great. She still drives and is still very active in Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, the church I grew up in.
I'm living in the house my grandfather lived in. I just love it here in St. Pete. The most important thing to me now isn't even the music. It's helping the children of this city, who are suffering out there on the streets or in the hospital. I'm working on a plan to reach out to these kids, by teaching them music. Some of my musician friends are offering to help. I want to start a class to teach them an instrument and get them involved with something positive.
You know, I used to wonder, "What if I'd have done this or that differently, maybe I'd have made millions of dollars.' But maybe that was not for me. God gave me me this gift to sing, and I can sing. I love to sing. Maybe I wasn't supposed to be famous, famous, famous. It doesn't mean I've not done my part. I've done my part. And I couldn't be happier.