Keith Richards, guitarist, the Rolling Stones: It was a legend even in England amongst R&B and blues fans. It’s where all the cats wanted to go and never really thought we would get there. Especially when the (1962) album James Brown Live at the Apollo came out, that really stuck it into us. You could imagine all the people playing there—Chuck Berry, the Drifters . . . it’s a dream list, it was Shangri-la. I never thought I’d get there, but I did. I went to see James Brown in 1964 and he was incredible, amazing, and the band was amazing. We were invited up to his dressing room and there he was playing emperor . . . like “take my shoes off, get me a burger.” He was proving who was numero uno in that room. I was pretty happy, because I didn’t get sent out to get a burger.
Questlove, musician/producer: My father was in a doo-wop group (Lee Andrews and the Hearts), and in 1975 they did a reunion show at the Apollo. Ben E. King was on the bill, the stage was set up like a living room, and Ben E. King came on and said ‘Hey Lee Andrews, did you drive up here in a silver Granada with Pennsylvania plates? I think you better go back in the alley where they’re stripping your car apart.’ Sure enough, someone had taken the tires, everything. Also, Dinah Washington once told my dad to lose the white gloves he and his group wore; that they were ‘too minstrel.’ I was five years old, and my mother told me that they throw tomatoes at you at the Apollo, they boo you, you’d better be good. That was my introduction to the Apollo –fear. My parents got robbed, people got booed, and my father had his heart broken by Dinah Washington.
According to the theater’s historian, Billy “Mr. Apollo” Mitchell, the back alley, which leads from the backstage to 126th Street and faces the elementary school C.S. 154, was infamous back in the day. Mitchell recounts stories of barbecues, card games, shooting dice, drinking, as well as various illicit activities. A security guard with one arm, called “one-armed Neil” presided over the backstage. Mitchell, who was 15 years old when he started as an intern in 1965, remembers comedian Flip Wilson insisting on a closet-size dressing room in the basement. The other dressing rooms were—and still are—on five floors with a pecking order, with the biggest stars closest to the stage. Mitchell recalls Flip Wilson sliding a piece of paper with his food order under the door. Then, when Mitchell brought the food back on a tray, Wilson waited until no one was around, quickly opened the door and took the tray inside. When Aretha Franklin returned to the Apollo in 1971, the marquee simply said “She’s Home.” During one performance, the Queen of Soul insisted—as she always did—that the theater’s cooling system be turned off and reportedly, she stopped singing mid-song, said, “I feel air,” and walked off the stage. The three-paneled “signature wall” at the right-hand side of the backstage has been signed by some of the widely diverse people who’ve performed at, or visited the theater, including Barack and Michelle Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton, members of Metallica, Prince, Kris Kristofferson, Paul McCartney—who called the Apollo “the holy grail”–and hundreds of others. Prominently displayed on stage right is the famous tree stump—reportedly from the tree that was cut down in front of the theater in 1934—which performers have traditionally rubbed for good luck.
Along with the televised Showtime at the Apollo, which exposed the Apollo to a wide audience, many people were made aware of the theater earlier through the legendary 1962 album, “James Brown Live at the Apollo” which spent 66 weeks on the Billboard charts. The “Godfather of Soul,” who appeared at the venue over 200 times, paid for the recording of the album himself— an album that many consider to be the greatest live album of all time. David Bowie cited it as an inspiration, and Lee Daniels says it was in every black household he knew, “along with the Bible.” In the past 25 years, all sorts of music—in addition to dance, opera theater, and comedy —has been onstage at the Apollo, and there isn’t a star who performed there or saw a show there who doesn’t remember something special.
Chris Rock, comedian/actor/director: I think the first time I went to the Apollo was to see George Clinton—his show with the spaceship, wearing the diaper, the fur coat . . . it was crazy. And in the middle of the show, Philippé Wynne, the lead singer of the Spinners, comes out. At that time, the Spinners were the biggest fucking group in the world; you couldn’t get more pop than the Spinners. And Wynne comes out in the Spinners outfit—white shoes, red suit, and people lose their minds. Because it’s New York—and you never know who’s going to show up in New York. So after that, I go home and go to sleep. And then [as Rock recalls] soon after that Philippé Wynne’s dead. That was my introduction to the Apollo. Philippé Wynne dies.
Alicia Keys, singer/musician: When I started to get into the music of Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, and Smokey Robinson, I started understanding what type of pillar the Apollo was for our artists. Nina Simone was a big inspiration for me, and I read about how she performed classical music at the Apollo at the piano with her back to the audience. I was around 10, and had never heard of another black woman who had played classical music. So I started to imagine that that was what I wanted to do one day. I remember when I walked in there to perform for the first time, it was like the energy of the greatness coming off the walls and the floor—it was just palpable.
Lionel Richie and Mavis Staples.
Alicia Keys and Chris Rock.
QTip, rapper/producer: The first time [A Tribe Called Quest] played there was New Year’s Eve, 1989, with Big Daddy Kane. We came out onstage with champagne bottles, all the neighborhood kids were in there, a bunch of hustlers were in there, shit was booming. It was fun.
LL Cool J, musician/actor: I’ve seen many, many, many shows at the Apollo. I saw Rob Base and E-Z Rock perform there when their big hit, “It Takes Two,” had just come out and I remember feeling like I had never seen a crowd rock that hard in my life. I performed at the Apollo on numerous occasions; I remember singing “I Need Love” and girls rushing the stage, trying to tear my shirt off.
Nile Rodgers, musician/producer: I became a member of the Apollo house band early in my career. The first day on the job, the orchestra leader told me I came so highly recommended, he knew I could sight-read and therefore, didn’t need to rehearse. At showtime, I took my seat with the band, and was so focused on doing a good job, that I didn’t notice a coffin being wheeled onto stage right. As the conductor’s hands came down, the coffin’s lid popped open and out jumped Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, made up like the skeletal voodoo deity Baron Samedi. I was startled to death, grabbed my guitar and tried to run off the stage, but the stagehands blocked my escape route. The audience died laughing; the entire band was in on the joke.
Questlove: By the time I realized I needed to get over my fear of the Apollo and that the Roots should play there, we got this guy who’s hilarious at the barbershop to open for us. Apparently, he slays like crazy at the barbershop. But when he opened for us, he was getting mercilessly booed. And then, following him, we did the best show ever. So the next night, I asked the barbershop guy, “Hey, can you do it again?” But the Apollo didn’t want him again.
Janelle Monáe, singer/actress: When I played the Apollo in 2013, I just remember thinking about James Brown and Stevie Wonder and all my musical heroes and I cried after the sound check. I couldn’t believe I was on the same stage they had been on. And the best part was looking into the audience and seeing the diverse range of people: Asian, white, black, Hispanic, Muslim, gay, transgender, you name it. We were all there together breathing in the experience as one.
