Soul legend Bobby Womack has credited Damon Albarn's group Gorillaz for kickstarting his career after excessive drug use robbed him of his creative edge.
The singer/songwriter, dubbed 'the final great soul man', all but renounce the music business following the end of his baby son in 1978 and he admits lots of the medicine he wrote and recorded after the tragedy wasn't up to his previous standards.
And he'd quit completely when Albarn called and asked him to be partly of Gorillaz for the group's Plastic Beach album.
Womack tells WENN, "I went through burn-out. I was always doing music or working somewhere and so one day I missed the spirit and I didn't believe in myself, I didn't believe in the songs I wrote. I walked away.
"Then Gorillaz called me and asked me if I'd join them on their next single. I'd never heard of Gorillaz. I said, 'I've heard of The Monkees!'
"But they loved me when I didn't yet recognize me and the one was a big hit and so they said, 'Will you do a tour?'"
Womack was reluctant because he feared he'd be around drugs again and he didn't need to hazard his sobriety, but the money he was offered was too just to go down.
He adds, "I'd dropped the use and I hadn't sung in a piece and I hadn't been around entertainers. But they were paying me tax free way over what I would have earned doing nothing but dates in 5 years, so that impressed me.
"There was no drugs around on tour, there was always people happy and loving each other. I was like, 'What sort of situation is this? Heaven?'"
And the experience inspired Womack to begin writing again: "One day I was riding on the bus and I told my help to state the driver to draw over and get my guitar and take a a pad and I wrote about 20 songs. My thoughts were running crazy. I was like, 'Thank God, that's the spirit I wanted back.'"
The mortal man is now planning a major comeback with a new blues album, called "Life in the House of Blues," which features collaborations with Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dogg and Rod Stewart.
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