At over 65, it is not unusual to find Juju maestro, Admiral Dele Abiodun, mounting the stage for an eight hour musical performance at society events, a performance that involves singing, dance moves, playing of the guitar and other musical instruments. Prior to this time, when night parties were the vogue, he used to perform from 7pm till 5am. Dele Abiodun was once the Vice President of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN) and later the President of the musical body. In this interview with PAUL UKPABIO, Admiral Abiodun opens up on family life, the values that kept his family intact through his early musical sojourn, the troubled musical industry and his life style as a grandfather.
What has been happening to you? I am still around, doing the business of music. I have not been a businessman and I do not think I can be one; I am a musician to the core. I entertain at events, our usual juju parties as usual and I recognise that I cannot leave music unless music leaves me. I have been an entertainer since 1970 and I am still in it. Music is the only thing that I know how to do best.
How about shows?
Nobody does that anymore in Lagos. The night life in Lagos is no longer like what we used to have. So, shows for me are outside Lagos, in the other western states. But usually, you find me at our normal Yoruba traditional events, wedding ceremonies, burial, and receptions and so on. It has been a long time that somebody organised a major show involving juju musicians. So, our shows remain at major celebration venues. But we have no cause to complain.
What has the patronage been like and what is the size of your present fan base?
It has been most pleasant. One can easily measure the size of my fan base from various calls I get from all over the place and the feedback from the various social media networks. The fans on these social networks may be more of the younger generation, but that’s because majority of the older fans are not on the social media networks. However, that goes to show that the younger generation are fast coming up too.
Are the younger generation really into juju music?
That is the most interesting part, they are! As a performing musician, I blend easily. I study my crowd before I begin to render any song or play music. With a crowd comprising the younger and older generation, the best thing to do, to carry them along, is to blend, to give both sides what appeals to them. Definitely, both sides will enjoy it. The truth is that the younger generation enjoy juju music too.
Sometimes at wedding ceremonies, the younger generation may desire music of the younger generation wave-making artistes for the groom and bride to dance, but if you know what they want, you give it to them, you increase the tempo of your songs to disco and the instruments too and before you know it, they will be enjoying your music. Recently, I had a gig in Ibadan, Oyo State, and the younger people there were asking for more. They requested that the band continue to play into the night.
How do you keep going despite your age?
The secret is that, I do not relent in all my efforts. If you are a lazy musician, you will be at one spot and not be relevant, and nobody will invite you outside there for their events. When people see you playing, and see that you are relevant, they will note it and then invite you to their events. My being active has to do with constant rehearsals and keeping my band members on their toes. I also educate them on what is obtainable in the industry today as different from that of yester-years. And even if we do not have to throw away yesterday’s music, we still have to blend it.
How long have you been keeping the band going?
I have been a professional since 1970. That was when I set up the band. Not exactly the same people that we started out then, but the band broke up only once and after that, it has been a smooth sail.
What would you say kept your band together this long?
It has been constant engagement and constant better remuneration, relevance of the band in the society, placing us where we belong; when you mention juju music today, after mentioning my seniors, King Sunny Ade and Chief Ebenezer Obey, then you will look nowhere else but to the Admiral. Every musician wants to belong to the top three. The good relationship that I have also had with the members of the band has also helped to make them stay with me.
When Chief Ebenezer Obey went playing gospel music, would you say that you benefitted from his fan base?
Juju music is straight forward in the sense that, most juju music lovers listen to KSA, Ebenezer Obey, Dele Abiodun, Shina Peters, Segun Adewale or Dayo Kujore and down the line like that. We all play juju music; there is no difference, except that the stage performance could be different in carriage, in instruments and so on. So it’s a big space for the fan base.
Over the years, it seems it is the same set of people that play the juju music. Why is it so?
It is creativity, if the younger ones are lazy, the older ones will continue to enjoy the big stage. It is like it is in politics. If the younger ones cannot take up the challenge, the older people will still be relevant and be in charge. If you look around for who will do a job for you and you know you can trust a particular person despite his age, you will give him the job and he will deliver.
Over the years, the younger generation has found it difficult to breakthrough because the creativity is not there. To be creative needs hard work. When I started, I was beating about the bush, playing Chief I. k Dairo’s music, Victor Olaiya’s music and the music of KSA and Roy Chicago. But somewhere along the line, I told myself that I can never be like these people if I keep playing their own music.
I realised that my personality is different; I went to Ghana to study music at The Young Pioneers School of Music. My father was a headmaster before he died, that meant also that I was well educated. So, at that point I chose to be creative in a unique way. I discovered myself with originality. That was the point when ‘Adawa Super King’ originated from. ‘Adawa’ means uniqueness; that is, to stand apart. I created my kind of music, a mixture of pure high life music that I took from Ghana to Nigeria and blended it with the juju music in Nigeria.
As a headmaster, how did your dad feel about you going into music?
Ha, he felt very bad. I was scared of him. He wanted me to be a doctor, lawyer, or an engineer. But at school, I was a member of the school band. I attended Adeola Odutola Comprehensive High School, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State. From there, I went to the music school in Ghana, before I returned to join a friend’s band and later established mine.
How did you break to the limelight?
I owe that to the Late Art Alade who used to host the programme, Bar Beach Show, on television. He auditioned me and I passed and I was used for the Bar Beach Show. After that the rested Sketch newspaper featured me and my relevance was up. Somebody saw it and showed it to my father. He didn’t even know where I was until one day I had a show at a prominent hotel in Benin, Edo State. He was there.
My father was sitting at a corner and I didn’t know. That was about eight years after I had left home. I was told that an elderly man wanted to see me. When I realised he was the one, I felt like the ground should open up and swallow me. He called me with my catholic baptismal name, ‘Cyril.’ He called me twice, and asked, “Is this what you want for yourself?” I replied, “yes, dad.” He looked at me and said: “If this is what you want to be doing, then God bless you.” Since then, I have been up and doing.
Is any of your children interested in music?
It is expected that they should be interested in music, but they are in their own areas of specialty. Sometimes when I rehearse, some of them come around to listen and when they find fault, they tell the band members. That was those days when they were not courageous enough to tell me. I was the one that told them to be free to correct me. My children are free with me and free with music. My first son plays drums and my second child sings.
I have a son in London that now has a deal with BBC London, he is a sound engineer, a Masters Degree holder, who loves Fela music a lot. He is also a Disc Jockey. Education has remained my first legacy for them. I told them that after getting education, they are free to choose any other thing to do.
As a Nigerian musician, how have you been able to keep one wife all through the years?
Yes, I have one wife, her name is Tokunbo. What helped me keep one wife over the years has been education, constant enlightenment and maturity. Though a prince, I do not believe in piling up women. It cannot do anybody any good because in the family, it will mean you are dividing your interest. When you go, what you will be leaving behind will be hatred. And the family may have to scatter. So why will I want to scatter a family? The kind of upbringing that we had didn’t encourage polygamy. I have a strong tie with my family. My children come around me every now and then. The ones in America notify us when they are coming.
But how come you did not fall into the pressures from the opposite sex?
I am not saying that I am a saint. I had my ‘fair share’ when I was coming up and before I got married. There were women who were all over me. But I was careful not to commit myself to those women. That was because I knew the implications of marrying more than one wife. I didn’t need anyone to advise me about it. I am educated and enlightened. I read newspapers daily, and I read the stories of people who have passed through that kind of situation, and learnt lessons from there.
You are still very much on stage most weekends to entertain. Where do you get the strength and energy from?
To God be the glory, all achievements in this world come from God. However, the kind of lifestyle that we live determines a lot of things about our health too and determines who we are. If I have been a wayward person, or stayed away from my family and home, I know a lot of negative things too would have happened. Two years’ time, I will be 70. I do not feel it.
Physically I am still strong. When I start my show at 9pm I do not stop until 5am or 6am. These days that we do not do night shows again, I still start performance in the afternoon and stop at 7pm. I am always on stage for 8 or 9 per show. After that, I go home and rest. The same thing I do when I am outside Lagos. That is why you do not hear of any scandals about me when it comes to women. I have never lived a wayward life as a married man. My wife has no reason to be worried about me. Just like I do not have anything to be worried about her.
As juju musicians, do you meet to interact?
Among the juju musicians, we have a union like PMAN, it is called Association of Juju Musicians (AJM) and our President is Queen Ayo Balogun. We are all under her despite the fact that she is a younger person. That is our own association; PMAN is the general musician body which is nationwide. We have our meetings and there is no rancour among us.
You were once the President of PMAN, do you miss that era, especially now that people say that PMAN is not as strong as it used to be?
At a time Charly Boy was the president and I was the Vice President. PMAN was vibrant then, we were strong. But there were some games that were played as done in politics and I took over. Working with Charly Boy for two years made me part of the policy makers. I had a dream about where I wanted to take PMAN to. I started out to achieve that. But people had this mind set that if they were not there, then some other person was not supposed to be there.
It got so bad, so rough that we ended up in court; even the Secretary, Idowu Blessing, slumped in court and by the time we got to the hospital, he was confirmed dead. From then till now, I have not seen PMAN finding its feet. More so when ex-President Goodluck Jonathan was there, he was throwing money here and there, people wanted to benefit from the money. But that is not what PMAN is for; the organisation is to develop policies for musicians. When I was there, I had good programmes like housing and insurance for musicians.
I still believe that one day, PMAN will be strong. People should stop thinking of themselves alone; everybody cannot be president of PMAN. There should be a criteria for being president; it should not be position for just one album musician and so on. The PMAN constitution is so spurious; they will always find themselves in court. Some of COSON’s ideas today can be said to be from PMAN. But while COSON is working, PMAN is not. That is because somebody is ready to work somewhere. Leadership is not about just being president but about action, about delivery of service.
How do you see the music industry generally at this time?
The Nigerian music industry should be made up of creative persons. If you are not creative, don’t be there. I think musicians should sound differently from one another. But what we have today is that almost all the younger musicians are sounding alike. Originality is scarce. Sometimes it seems they do not even understand the meaning of what they are singing. My advice to this generation of musicians is that they should not sound monotonous or alike.
We have too many one album stars. Sustainability is rare because there is no creativity. Music is good business. It makes you live fine, it enables us to marry beautiful women, have children, send our children to school, have some measure of success, but we have to be focused and organised.
What attracted you to music?
I am a prince. In the palace, the first thing you hear in the morning is the gong bell that wakes up the king. Music is in my blood. I have uncles and brothers who play music. My grandchildren are already showing signs of going into music, though they are as young as 10 and eight, but they are already showing strong signs that they will be real great hits in near future.
A new government is already here, do you think musicians will fare better?
I do not really think that we should rely on the government. That is what is killing the industry. Musicians are always waiting on the government. They want to hold events and then invite the president, praise him and then after the show, some few millions of naira will be waiting for them. But how many people, how many of the musicians does that benefit? Not much, it only benefits those that are lucky to be there or the officials. What about those who are not there or opportuned to benefit from that money? They will continue to die in silence.
To me, that is not it. Everybody cannot like music. If the head of government does not like music, then a lot of his principal staff could like music. So, what we need from government as musicians is good laws to regulate how we do our business. Good laws will bring dividends. We want our business to put food on our table. We do not want cash from the government. What we want from the government are the building of theatres for us where we can perform. Let the government help us to fight piracy; let them give us strong laws that can checkmate piracy. That will make pirates to know that if they touch our music, they will be jailed and their business seized.
