Jarekus Singleton respects the members of his family who refused to attend his shows for religious reasons.
His grandfather was a church leader who disapproved of the blues as “the devil’s music” and his beliefs have influenced younger members of the Singleton clan.
But the Mississippi guitarist reports not all of his relations agree.
Singleton tells the Macomb Daily: “If my grandfather was alive right now and knew I was playing blues music, he might be tracking me down with a hammer. Or a gun!”
He says of the rest of his family: “They don’t give me a hard time about it, but they don’t come to the shows because it’s against church doctrine. I do respect the church and what my grandfather built and what he started.
“But I have a big family, so a lot of them do come.”
And Singleton recalls how his uncle was an influence on his musical ambitions. “He would take me out driving and introduce all these new CDs – Albert King, Prince, D’Angelo, James Brown. He listened to everything, man. We would just drive around and listen to all this different music.”
The 30-year-old is working on the follow-up to 2013 debut album Refuse to Lose.
