May 7, 2020
It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of my dear friend of 45 years, the legendary soul singer and Blue Note recording artist, Sweet Pea Atkinson. He passed away at age 74 on Tuesday, May 5 after suffering a heart attack in Los Angeles.
Born in Oberlin, Ohio, he moved to Detroit at a young age to work on the Chrysler/Jefferson assembly line – the same auto plant that had spawned John Lee Hooker twenty years earlier. He was discovered singing at a Detroit UAW Hall in 1978. Just young enough to have missed the era of great soul shouters like his heroes Bobby Blue Bland and Marvin Jr. of The Dells, he was ironically too old to be lumped-in with the smoother, higher-pitched soul stylists that became popular in the early 80’s like Prince and Rick James. Fortunately, he found a niche for himself – gaining some notoriety as the lead singer of our soul/funk outfit, Was (Not Was). True fans of the band will recall that Sweet Pea made his songwriting debut on the track WHAT UP, DOG for which he penned the reflective, semi-autobiographical lines:
Excuse me for Pimpin
I didn’t mean no harm
Was Just tryin to get some money
So I could buy a farm
With his matching hat, suit, shirt, socks and shoes, Sweet Pea cut a larger than life figure. When he signed to ZE/Island Records in 1981, Chris Blackwell wanted to create a comic book around him – casting him as a streetwise soul singer with superpowers. He was right on the money. His gruff voice and brilliant phrasing infused even our most oblique songs with an emotional intensity and gravitas. It’s not out of line to say that the whole lot of us rode the coattails of his vocals out of obscurity in Detroit to the land of our wildest dreams. Every one of the guys in the band looked up to him and loved him dearly.
Moving to LA in the early 90’s, he launched an illustrious studio career – performing on recordings for Bonnie Raitt, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Bob Seger, Iggy Pop, Solomon Burke, Michael McDonald, Walter Becker, Keb Mo, Jimmy Smith, Mitch Ryder, Marc Cohn, Ivan Neville, Richie Sambora, Taj Mahal, Kris Kristofferson, Brian Wilson, Jackson Browne, Cheb Khaled, Ryan Adams and George Jones. He was a beloved member of Lyle Lovett’s touring band since 1998.
Sweet Pea recorded two acclaimed solo albums: 1982’s Don’t Walk Away for ZE/Island and 2017’s Get What You Deserve, produced by Keb Mo for Blue Note.
He was one of a kind – tough as nails with a heart of gold. We’re gonna miss you Mallow Dog.
—Don Was
