Maverick entertainer, Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy, speaks to JANE KOLADE about his life, and times as an entertainer, his upbringing as a judge’s son, his bad boy image, his friendships in the industry and lots more.
As an old friend of the ‘Rainmaker’ (Majek Fashek), can you please tell us when you first met him?
I can’t pinpoint the exact date, but I remember that it was during the era of the defunct Polygram Records, Tabansi Records on in the premises of a record company somewhere in Oregun sometime in 1982. I had been seeing him around, anyway, we spoke briefly, and I took a liking to him. At that time, I was living in my village. During my time in the village, I remember my father calling me and telling me that he had seen Majek in Lagos, and I was wondering how on earth my father came across Majek.
So, one day I was at home when my father came on a visit, and showed up with Majek, and that was how Majek ended up staying with me for over a year, and worked in my studio as a studio/session executive. So, Majek and I go way back. One night, I was in my house resting, and there was no power, and my generator had packed up, when my wife and I heard the sound of a lovely voice playing on the radio, and I wondered how that could be as there was no power. So I rushed downstairs to confirm what was happening, and got there to find that it was Majek. Come to think of it, a lot of people have passed through my hands, a lot of people have gone on to become great; I am proud to say that Majek was one of them.
But coming back to Majek, fame comes with a price, not a lot of us can handle fame. Fame comes with a price, and some people are more able to manage it than others. Most artistes are usually not business inclined, they do not know how to manage their careers, and I happen to fall into that category as well. But in all of that, I prefer to see the good in people. I believe that we all need discipline to manage our lives, and some people need to apply it in their lives. I thank God for my upbringing; we had loads of values pumped into us growing up. I also believe that artistes need to reinvent themselves, because I believe that artistes have expiry dates, hence the need to manage their images so that they can remain relevant. But for some of us, we just can’t manage that.
And for some of us who unfortunately have picked the wrong habits, like drinking, drugs whatever; and are not quick enough to know that it can’t help us, it can be a problem, and so many things come to play. So, again, I say not everyone can handle fame. There are people who do not like to be talked about, especially when the media does not represent them in a proper light, they get upset. But for others; people like me, I really don’t care as I already know who I am.
So when people call me names that are not me, why should I worry? I have confidence in myself. I grew up with a healthy sense of confidence, so nothing fazes me, and whether or not they understand my actions is none of my business. Words like that are like water on a rock to me. I can’t be bothered about people who can’t see beyond what they see to see me, and the profound things that I do, because being Charly Boy goes beyond the rings, or my weird dressing, or crazy philosophy. It is about how I have added value to my environment, and to the people I have come across. It is about how I achieved what I have, and how I had to take the route I took to get there.
Meanwhile, as an adult, after I had finished what I believed I owed my old man; to get a good education. I have never enjoyed being under anybody’s shadow, and I was not going to do that as an adult, so when I got back from the States I moved to the village.
We are different kinds of people, and I think that for Majek, what happened to him was most unfortunate, because he was such a promising young man. I used to rank him up there with the greats. But I don’t know what happened. I sum it up that some of us find it hard to handle fame. Sometimes it takes away the person you were before the fame. I pray for the best for him. At a time, I had great hopes for him to be a great star, but I don’t know what happened along the line. Some of us have great prospects but things can happen to derail one.
But as a father figure in the industry, our duty is just to give advice. Because there is no road I have not been, I experimented with all those stuff. So you can’t say because a person is struggling with something, it makes him a bad person. Having said that, we have to be careful of the company we keep. There are people who are in our lives that are not interested in our well being; friends who do not add value to you, but keep sapping energy, creativity from you, or the goodness in you. That is why I am very conscious of who I move with. I am practically a loner. Life has taught me to be a loner. I have a few friends, friends in the real sense of the word, but not more than two or three of them. We talk to each other.
Oftentimes, people say a junkie goes to rehab, when they come back, the challenge is not falling off the wagon, because they went back to their former environment. Majek has been to rehab three times before this last stint, how are we sure of this?
There is no guarantee in life. Everything depends on the individual. Let me start with myself. I gave up smoking for almost eight years, and I don’t drink at all as I have never been used to alcohol. I quit smoking for such a long time I couldn’t even believe it. And addiction has many faces, there are people who are addicted to alcohol, drugs, stealing; kleptomania, is a form of addiction, and are bad for you. But after I lost my father who was my best friend, I found myself back into smoking and I have not been able to quit since last year, after giving it up for almost eight years. I came back as though I want to make up for all the years I missed.
These things are funny, you never can tell what can trip one up, and so I don’t pass judgment on people. I don’t like the fact that I am addicted to nicotine, why am I still doing it? The same applies to Majek, but I have told myself that I am going to quit. If I could quit cold turkey the first time, I can do it again. I am getting to a point where I have to freshen my breath and all that for me to be happy, because I don’t like nicotine trailing me around everywhere I go.
Back to Majek, we can do everything; all the cheer, all the love for people going through their form of addiction; whether to alcohol, drugs or whatever, but 80% of him getting better depends on his willpower. The right kind of atmosphere is another thing, but all we can do is pray. Sometimes, I feel I’m a hypocrite because I’m an addict too, for, some of us, our addictions are not visible, but they are there anyway. It is all about willpower, there is no guarantee whether he will clean up, or remain clean. It depends on how far he is willing to go to fight it. We all have our demons. I know for instance that smoking is not good and that is why I have to ask your permission to smoke in your presence, and have to use things to kill the smell.
At the time you met, and during the time he spent with you, did he drink or smoke?
Not at all. I was a bad boy and I never used to smoke around him. I smoked weed, dank and all but I didn’t use to around him because that was the impression I had about him. He was clean, a clean spirit.
So you studied in the US, and returned home, to the village. Why Oguta?
After my youth service, even before I returned home, there was a job waiting for me with Mobil, after studying Mass Communication. But I said I was not interested, and my dad blew a fuse. I come from a background where you finish school and get into line, get a job, advance in the job, and all that. Then for the first time in the history of the Oputa family, I refused to toe the line, it was scandalous. After that resolve, the kind of insults, and yabis my dad gave me, saying I was throwing my life away.
I never stopped hearing his mouth, he was then made a Supreme Court judge and moved to Lagos. I said “Thank God.” At least, I now had a roof to myself. I was not willing to depend on anyone, I wanted to find my own way, and do my own thing. And I paid the price for that, The kind suffer when I see no be small. We were middle class, and those were the days Nigeria was good, you lived off your salary. So there I was, after a year, everything dried up, nobody was coming because there were better studios around. If you know the location of Oguta, it is out of the way. From studio, I started running a buka where I sold food. Things got so bad that my wife decided that she would go back to America, work and send money home. By this time, we had had our first child together, a son. All the while I was trying to find my feet, I was embarrassed to get back to my parents that things were hard, or ask for help; that was the last thing I was willing to do.
Whenever I had to come to Lagos, I came on a bus, and on attachment seat for that matter. During one of the trips I made to Lagos, I met Tina Onwudiwe. I met her when I was still struggling, and we just fell in love with each other. Nothing intimate like that, but she could see and understand where I was coming from, and why I was willing to make the sacrifices I was making, hoping I would find my way. Tina was also of the same spirit and that was how we clicked.
During those times I visited, or she visited, she would urge me to leave Oguta, and move to Lagos saying, “You will die here o!”It went on, and Tina had such crazy ideas, once we went to a newspaper house, and Tina said that we were getting married. And they asked “Where?” She was crazy like that, but she opened my eyes to all the shenanigans in show business. How they do their things, the hype, and all that. When I started, I started with the Sissy look, which is where the being gay came from. I heard questions like, “How can a man be wearing lipstick, weave-on and all that?” Then she said, “Let us go for a more rugged look.” She introduced me to biking, the Mohawk look, and all. She said I had a good body “so I want people to see you”, and that was how it started. But what really did it was when she told me that she had a record deal for me, saying, “Yes, you must move to Lagos.” Not knowing that Tina had already paid two years rent on an apartment for me at Gbagada. That was how she lured me to Lagos. And that was how I was able to break away from Oguta.
At what point did your father begin to see the sense of your career choice as an entertainment?
From the beginning, he continually complained about my dress choice, saying “But you can wear suit now. Why must you be deceiving people? This is not the environment, they won’t understand this.” That was his problem; one was tempted to get them to understand.
And I told him that it was not about people. He wouldn’t understand, I didn’t have problems with my mother, but my dad just couldn’t bear that fact. Sometimes, he would ask, “Show me somebody in this profession that is living a good life, is it that your mentor, Fela?” That was his problem. Tina might be dead, but I owe everything to her, and I cannot tell my story without referring to her. Because I know how she impacted my life. One day, she went to blast my father saying, “I have seen something in your son that I don’t think you have seen.” You can imagine a total stranger coming to tell you about your own child. My father was shocked, but my mother welcomed her. I didn’t ask her to do that. I wasn’t even aware she knew where they were living.
One day, I was driving home with my father, somewhere around Tinubu square, after putting out my first album, Nwata Miss, and was promoting my second album, 1990, it was a hit. And people were milling around, and he kept asking, “How did these people know you?” It was then he started to realise the impact of my choice. And so when he continued about my dressing, I told him, “If you don’t want me to come to your house, no problem. I am no longer in school expecting you to pay my school fees, as I am an adult.” But not long after all that, he started to understand.
Prior to that, I felt that he had no love for me, and as a child my dad would beat the shit out of me. Things took a dramatic turn after his retirement, and he lived in my house in Abuja. And that was when we would sit and have conversations, and we came to understand each other better. He became my best friend, making me understand that everything he did was in our best interests. Now as a father, I am finding my own with my children. They won’t go through what I went through because for my kids and I, you won’t know who is the father, and who is the kid. Having said that, my old man is a great man, I learnt quite a lot from him, especially humility, and contentment.
Would you say that your upbringing contributed in making you who you are, even though you went your own way?
I was raised catholic; attended catechism, was an altar boy. At one point, I wanted to be a priest. That was what they did to me. I usually tell people that you can either run away from your past, because there are things in your past that terrify you, or make you so unhappy that you never let go. Or, you run to your past, because there are things in your past that you value that make you what you are at present. And when everything goes around you that is all you know. I have always seen my family, and my father and mother together, stealing kisses, holding hands. So that explains my remaining married to one woman for over thirty years.
In spite of your wild image?
I have always had a sense of family; my family comes first, which is why I am attached to my family. I don’t joke around there. I was always reminded, “This is who you are. This name …” I did’t appreciate it at the time, telling my dad things like, “You are too old, too old school.” So we must teach our kids, talk to them, they may not appreciate it at that time, but with time, what you are saying will sink into their mind. My father died, he was not a politician, or a minister, but I saw the encomiums. The funeral was like a carnival, even though I staged part of that. But I was proud that he was my father. He didn’t have anything, I had more money than he did, but the kind of respect, and how he was revered, and that is exactly how I want to go out.
Not to be known as a money bag. Those are the things I got from my background, and I have been holding on to. People who know me know that most of the things about Charly Boy are a bit contrived, because like I said, artistes have expiry dates. But like a drink that has a long life span, they change the package, but the content is still the same. So all my shenanigans were part of the showbiz, and in public interest, and people who were not deep enough could not see it. They never asked themselves the right questions because they had preconceived notions. But I have always been mentoring, inspiring, so many people passed through my hands; Patrick Doyle, Gloria Anozie, and the likes.
Funny enough, before my father passed away, he would have been my manager if he had been younger because he became in the thick of what I was doing. This was a ninety-something-year-old man who would get on my bike with me, took walks with me. And I would tease him that, “But you never believed in me.” And he would say he did not see all of that at the time. So it is important not to be judgmental in our dealings with people.
It is very interesting to hear that you were friends with Fela. When did you meet him?
I did not know Fela close on at first. I knew him from afar from the seventies. Until I got back from the States, then I was always going to visit him. I remember the last time he got back from prison, my dad called me saying, “Your friend is out o! What are you doing? Are you going to go and see him?” That was good news, and I had to save money to come to Lagos. He was really a wild and crazy one. He takes the cake. After all he went through; he was able to stand all the intimidation, all the beatings. He was the one who told me, “Whatever path you take through personal conviction, be it right or wrong, and stick to it!”
Could you paint a picture in words as to the kind of person he was? Your perception of him?
Like a flamingo, like a rainbow. Fela was also a gentleman, not a lot of people know that. I know that a lot of things he did were an act.
Could it have been part of the show business?
It was. I knew the other side. I was one of the few artistes Fela went to his house. In fact, he opened my house; the one that Tina got in Gbagada. I remember the day he came to open my house, Fela sat at the table, with Femi, and Yeni, and he was using his fork and knife. Sebi he sang, “I no be gentleman at all” That is a side of Fela not many people know. The conversation was not the typical Fela conversation, and he did not smoke weed in my house. He drank wine, seeing him in that atmosphere, he stood out. It was not a Fela most people knew, he was a gentleman.
And the fact that he honoured me. He spent the whole day, at the end of the day I had to beg him saying, “Fela, a beg, I wan sleep”, before he finally left. I used to visit him at the shrine; those were good times, and I thank God for that. I thank God for all those memories. When he died, I gave him my own twenty-two gun salute. I have never seen a man like him; he had so much for the people that he stood up on their behalf. Regardless of all else, he was no angel, we all have our faults. I have my own faults as well, and I choose to see the good in people. Who are we to judge? That is why I choose not to criticise people. That is why Jesus Christ came, and who says that if you are gay you are a bad person? As far as I am concerned, it is the quality of whom you are that matters.
How have you been able to stay married to one woman for over thirty years?
This is actually my third marriage, and I remember that at some point she asked if I was going to marry her, and if I was not, she would go, so I did. But then marriage goes beyond compatibility. No one is compatible, you are marrying a total stranger, but you have to learn to deal with incompatibility. You made a commitment to that person, and you have to stick to it.
My friends say I am lucky to have her, and I might say she is lucky to have me. The truth, however, is that nobody has it all. Come to think of it, my wife has only three of the ten qualities I want in a woman. Marriage is about the right kind of management, equal respect, and understanding. After all, at one point after I married my wife, I no fit feed am, she had to go and make money to feed us. And afterwards, when I feel I have now arrived, I feel I can do without her because I have arrived. Arrived to where? Arrive to disarrive.
