The Last Word: Martha Reeves

This is The Last Word. It’s our chance to take a bonafide legend and ask them about life, navigating the tricky waters of the music biz and what they’ve got on the horizon. Up next, it’s Martha Reeves, the legendary Motown singer.

Happy Belated Birthday, Martha! How did you spend it?

Martha Reeves: We had a party.  My son and my daughter gave me a party.  It was wonderful.  A lot of wonderful people.  We gathered at a restaurant called Cutter’s.  And it was in the market area near where I was raised and where I went to school.  So, it’s like a lot of friends, wonderful friends.  It wasn’t a thing for the press, though. It wasn’t cameras outside and all that.  It was just a wonderful gathering of beautiful people.  

At 85 and with six decades in music, what would your advice be to your younger self?

MR: Oh, I can’t say anything.  I’m giving all of the glory to God.  I’m reborn in ’77. I’ve been growing ever since then and God has blessed me and with a man named Christopher [Roe], mind you. And every miracle that I have ever dreamed is happening.

We recorded a masterpiece album [Searching] and the material is all handpicked and it’s all a special thank you to the world and the people that have been in my life and the people who have influenced me, the people whose lessons I’m experiencing and showing in my delivery.  I had complete freedom for the first time in this adventure and was there with every session with the musicians.  I was there and it was an experience I guess I’ve lived for.

It’s like going to the university after all of these parochial schools and this education that music is or has been to me.  It is marvellous being able to express yourself.  And this is an adventure I’m glad to be on.

As you mentioned, you’ve worked with some incredible musicians. From the likes of Stevie Wonder to Marvin Gaye, is there anyone in particular that you feel like you’ve learned the biggest lesson from?

MR: Oh no, I can’t give it to one person. I think it’s the Holy Spirit, and I can’t give it to anyone else. It’s the people who in my encounters, and, and through the Holy Spirit, God has let our paths cross, and most of the adventures I’ve been on, I’ve been asked to come on them.

Searching is your first album of new songs in 22 years. What sparked the interest to record something new? 

MR: I haven’t stopped recording. I’ve been recording every moment I can all these years, and I do have an album that’s in between some of the studio-recorded albums or whatever.  I didn’t put it through the resources, but I have recorded, maybe 5 years ago, a self-produced album and took joy that one of the songs is on the [Searching].  So I’ve been recording, but I love hearing any mention of the new product.

What is your favourite part of the process – the recording or the live performance? 

MR: I had a vision of recording this album, and one of the songs on it is ‘Thank You, Jesus!’ And it’s a song just to sing exactly that.

I said, “You don’t have to go through a mantra.  You can go directly to the Holy Spirit and speak directly to God”, and I learned to do that and I got a chance to do a song called ‘Thank You, Jesus!’ on there when I can envision one day being on the stage and the whole audience is repeating the chorus as the backup singers and the horns are on this particular part of the song.

I got a chance to thank my Heavenly Father on tape and it’s recorded and it’s marvellous, and the people that sang it were as happy and joyful as I was.  If the people that recorded this album was under the direction of Delfeayo Marsalis and Christopher Roe, and God, it has got to be the miracle of my dreams.

I’ve longed to have this kind of attention.  I’ve longed to have a disco version of a song.  I’ve longed to, to be in a sellable disco video, or a recording session with the whole band and the girls and see the magic happens. It’s just been a wonderful place.  All of my dreams are being answered and some things I was never dreaming about are happening.

I’m a little country girl from Alabama.  I was born in Eufaula and I’ve been inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as quite a few others.  But this, this album, I’m sure is going to be the masterpiece of my entire career.

I have been able to express a lot of desires that I’ve wanted to hear.  It’s OK to have the gift, but it’s what you do with it, and they let me be free.  They didn’t tell me or give me any advice.  They just gave me lyrics and notes and settings like that studio down in New Orleans.  I don’t know why it’s a secret.  It was a secret to me. But to record down in New Orleans with the Marsalis family and their dad, Ellis Marsalis’ dedicated studios, facilities and university that it is. That establishment is wonderful.  I guess it’s the best kept secret because it’s so magnificent, but I’m going to tell it.  It was a joy to be in New Orleans.  It’s 3 or 4 visits and get this marvellous music from this collection of musicians all over the world.  It’s magic and it’s fantastic, and I’m joyful.  I’ve been praying.

Your passion for music is so palpable!

MR: I don’t know if everybody realises when you dedicate your life to music, music is a universal language, and you can’t just go into it and come out of it. It’s your life.  The rest of you. It’s the rest of what you do.

I started at the age of 3 with my brothers, Thomas and Benny, singing in my grandfather’s church, Metropolitan AME here in Detroit after moving from Alabama.  So, I knew at the age of 3 that I was going to be something.  I knew that. We sang so good and we rocked the house.

You’ve mentioned previously about seeing the faces of young people and teenagers in the front row of your live shows singing along to every word. Why do you think your songs and Motown have such an enduring legacy?

MR: The wonderful [Motown founder] Berry Gordy and his wonderful family, his mother and father who were there and involved, who would come and represent our parents when they couldn’t come to the certain cabanas and Fairmont theatres and all the wonderful places we started appearing at.  We did a chain every year. We would expect to go to the different facilities for about 5 years in a row on the Motown Revue. So, we would train well and got a lot of love.

Most of our loved ones who were with us have gone on to heaven. So, now we’ve got their children who they played our music for, and they’re joyful too.  They’re comparing our music now with what is happening musically to their ears.  And some of the [modern] music is not even with instruments, it’s toys.  It’s like push a button, get a heartbeat rhythm, and you got a hit.  And it’s not the same. 

I can boast because my album is real.  Everything on there is real.  All of the bongos, the horns, and the rhythms you hear, all of the tunes, all of the tones.  Real people there.  And it’s wonderful, it sounds beautiful.

The remix of your single ‘To Know You Is to Love You’ by Eric Kupper, how did it feel to hear your music reimagined in a contemporary house music context?

MR: I’ve been on 4 major labels and I have disco music in my catalogue. And this is fabulous. I mean, I was waiting on Gloria Gaynor to take the lead.  I heard, “The power…” I was waiting on her to start singing.  It was so disco, but I’ve been there before.  We had music like that on Arista and on Fantasy, and I’m just reliving it. But it’s the greatest one I’ve heard so far.

That guy Eric Kupper, he is fabulous.  He knows his stuff, and I’ve heard he’s famous for a lot of other artists of the 2000s. Now we have to say I’m from the 90s, ‘85, the ‘61.  How far back do I need to go?  The music is, is growing, it’s going back to real instrumentation and I’m loving that.

Thinking back on your career, I wondered what for you has been one of the most important or profound live performances that you’ve done?

MR: I can’t go there because I’ve done everything. I’ve been on Motown Revues, I’ve done musicals. Ain’t Misbehavin’ for 6 whole months.

I mean, I’ve got a wonderful career in history of music, and it gets better and better.  But this new album is a landmark for me.  I have never been so happy with the product, and if I don’t listen to it for about 5 or 10 hours in a day, I feel like I’m missing something or I’ll sing it without the track being played, but, I’m so happy and proud of my music, I am. And I’m anxious to share it with the world.  I’m so anxious.

Do you have a favourite track on Searching that you’re most excited for the world to hear? 

MR: The one special one is ‘Golden Hour’ because it’s Delfeayo [Marsalis] and his wife’s love song. And I’ve had a chance to meet her.  They live upstairs above the studio – I’m giving away too many secrets, that’s their home in New Orleans – and she’s beautiful and this is a song that he wrote and I was given it on sheet paper, but I learned to sing it with Lamar Willis, one of our co-partners. ‘The Golden Hour’ is their love song, and I love singing it. It’s wonderful.

There’s plenty of songs in your back catalogue centred around love. Do you have any lessons in love for our readers?

MR: Oh no, I’m just sharing feelings.  I’m thinking that people can comprehend and agree with me on the love side, the righteous side.  I’m working on being as positive as I possibly can on the side of love.

I don’t want to be talking too harshly.  I don’t want to think of anyone hollering at me.  So, I tried to put the feelings in that soothe, the ones that make you dance or sway or glow with, you know, feel wonderful about yourself and keep your body moving, ‘cause if you don’t, you just don’t have it in you.

Music is a universal language.  It’s my heartbeat.  Motown recorded all of their music just about with the heartbeat in mind, the rhythms.  You can almost hear that on, especially on ‘My Girl’, at the beginning. It was the heartbeat of nearly every song.  You can place the rhythms of the Motown sound.

You’ve previously spoken so fondly about the idea of community, particularly when people talk to you about early hit with the Vandellas’, ‘Dancing in the Street’. Is that a sentiment that people could take more from in 2026, the importance of community? 

MR: It’s important, but we’re not Dancing in the Street now.  We’re building buildings back and getting our friendships and our relationships in order, of trying to find that love, that universal love that our music came from in the first place. [Berry Gordy] was trying to find the sound of young America and he found it. We were part of so many songs that changed not only the racial relationships but how men and women treat each other, and what love means to your heart and how you grow. From Smokey Robinson’s song, ‘Ooo Baby Baby’, you know, and get cute when you get a ‘Baby Love’ from the Supremes, and then, you know, I can go on with The Marvelettes helping people study the wars by having, “Oh yeah, wait a minute, Mr Postman”

The music is just what I live for and it’s part of me, and I’m so happy to be at this point and have these dreams, these dreams are coming true.  These are real miracles happening right here in my face.

Searching will arrive on 14 August 2026