Kool & The Gang return to roots

When Kool & The Gang co-founder Robert “Kool” Bell and his brother Ronald were growing up in 1950s Youngstown, the Lincoln Elementary School pupils were typical boys.

Living on Prospect Street, swimming in local pools and riding around on homemade motorbikes that Robert himself built under the watchful eye of his grandfather, the Bells on occasion showed hints of their musical future. 

“By listening to different albums and my grandmother played piano, music was around the family,” said Robert, calling from his New Jersey home. “That’s when I started to get more interested in the music business. My brother and I used to take these old paint cans down to Immaculate Conception [Church] off of Oak Street in Youngstown.

“There’s a place called The Pit, and we used to take these paint cans and use them as bongos. Each can, depending on how much paint was left in it, had a different tone. So when I first moved to Jersey City [in 1960], the first instrument I played was bongos.”

Kool & The Gang and KC & the Sunshine Band will play 7 p.m. Friday at the Chevrolet Center in Youngstown.

For the full story, see Thursday’s Vindicator or Vindy.com.