BY ANYBODY’S STANDARDS PP ARNOLD HAS LED AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE. A ‘GOOD GIRL’ PLUCKED FROM AN ABUSIVE TEEN MARRIAGE BY IKE AND TINA TURNER, AND DEPOSITED RIGHT IN THE HEART OF MID-1960s SOUL MUSIC, PP FLOURISHED AND WENT ON TO WORK WITH MANY OF THE GREATS.
In this new interview with The Mouth Magazine, the woman born Patricia Ann Cole in Los Angeles during 1946 looks back at a few choice moments from her career, and discusses the tools she’s used to cope with her extraordinary personal life…

PP Arnold plays Cornbury Festival on Saturday 14th July. Tickets here
Visit PP Arnold online here
PP Arnold portrait by Sandra Vijandi Photography

IT’S A THRILL TO TALK WITH YOU, PP – NOT LEAST BECAUSE YOUR 1967 RECORDING OF THE FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST IS A REAL FAVOURITE OF MINE. IT’S A GREAT SONG ANYWAY, BUT YOUR VERSION OF IT IS DEFINITIVE… LEGEND HAS IT THAT YOU BOUGHT THE SONG FROM CAT STEVENS FOR THIRTY QUID… THAT’S MONEY PRETTY WELL SPENT!
Well, Cat Stevens was a writer at that time. He was one of the artists who used to hang out at Immediate, the record label. Immediate really was a useful hub for all the young writers, singers and musicians who were trying to make it in the industry at that time. So everybody knew everybody else and it could be a sort of melting pot. But I don’t know too much about that particular rumour, ha ha…

DO YOU REMEMBER MUCH AROUND RECORDING THE SONG?
Yeah, I do, I do… Mike Hurst brought the song to the table. He brought it to the attention of myself and Andrew Loog-Oldham. I loved it, so we booked Olympic Studios in Barnes for one evening and Mike Hurst produced it. A big orchestra… In those days you recorded everything, all the live strings and so on, all together. I remember standing in the booth and singing along with this beautiful orchestra playing. I used to always sing along when the track was being recorded – to be a part of the creation of the moment, really. It was a really beautiful evening, a beautiful night, and we got a beautiful track cut by the end of it.

WHAT IN PARTICULAR DID YOU LIKE ABOUT THE SONG?
I liked it straight away ‘cos I could really relate to it – I always like to be able to relate to a lyric. I understood it straight away because I had been a victim of… I hate to say ‘victim’, really… but I guess I was, ‘cos I was very young… I had been a victim of a very abusive teen marriage… and so I could relate to that ‘first cut’. That first time you get hurt. That first pain when you’re young.

I DON’T DOUBT THAT THE FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST IS THE SONG WHICH HAS FOLLOWED YOU AROUND THE MOST FOR THE LAST FIFTY YEARS… AND SO I WONDERED WHAT YOUR RELATIONSHIP IS WITH IT?
Yeah, it has followed me around. I love that song. Every time I sing that song I love it even more. I never ever ever get bored with singing that song. I never sing it exactly the same way, every time I sing it. It’s all about the moment, the emotion of the moment. That’s what we soul singers do, right? THE FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST is such a beautiful song – such a beautiful melody and such a beautiful lyric. Even when I go inside the song and I have to relive it, it’s kind of like a pain that’s now turned to joy. I managed to free myself from that pain, and that’s when destiny opened up her door and I was suddenly in the music industry… That song turned my life around. I was able to take a really negative experience in my life and make something very beautiful and positive out of it. I survived, y’know?

YOU MENTION BEING A TEENAGER, AND I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT ONE OF THE GREAT THINGS ABOUT SOUL MUSIC FROM THE MID-’60s IS THAT THERE’S THIS REAL TEENAGE ‘INNOCENCE’ ABOUT IT… SOMETIMES IT JUST ABOUT VERGES ON AWARENESS, BUT THERE’S A REAL EARNESTNESS AND TEENAGE ENERGY TO IT… DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?
Yeah, it does… It does make sense. I was a teenager during the creation of Motown. All those groups. At school, high school (and even at junior high school at the beginning of Motown) we used to have these dances – dances on Wednesday afternoon after lunch, called Teen Canteen… Everybody would go to the auditorium and dance to Motown and have a really cool time. We were cool, we were all cool. Actually, when I came to England and there was the Mod thing, the way the Mods dressed, that was the way we dressed. We were Mod, I guess, but we called it Ivy League.

SO ARE THOSE SCHOOL DANCES WHERE THE MUSIC REALLY STARTED FOR YOU?
Well, actually I was born into a family of gospel singers. I had one sister and four brothers, so there were six of us, and we all sang. We’d go to church on Sunday and during the break, between Sunday school and 11 o’clock service, we’d be at the hamburger stand playing Motown on the jukebox and all singing… So I grew up singing with my sister and brothers – so when I came to England the Small Faces reminded me of my brothers, y’know? We were all about the same age… and the same height, ha ha… We were like the babies on the scene, really. The young kids on the block. The Rolling Stones and all the other groups, they were about four or five years older.

SO, BACK BEFORE THE MUSIC HAPPENED, YOU WERE LIVING IN LOS ANGELES, MARRIED WITH CHILDREN…
Yeah, I was. I became pregnant at the age of 15 and I missed out on having a normal teenage experience. I had two kids by the time I was seventeen years old. My son Kevin and my daughter Debbie… Kevin coaches soccer now, but sadly I lost Debbie. She died in a traffic accident… Losing Debbie was really devastating. My babies. Me and my babies. I was working two jobs and looking after two children and dealing with my husband… I actually said a prayer, asking God to show me a way out the hell that I was in – but I’d never in my wildest dreams thought about singing professionally or anything… and suddenly he stepped in and gave me this career as a singer. I was able to change my life and make a better life for my kids.

AGAIN THE LEGEND SUGGEST THIS, BUT YOUR CAREER BEGAN ALMOST BY ACCIDENT… SOME OF YOUR FRIENDS WERE AUDITIONING TO BE IKETTES – BACK-UP SINGERS IN THE IKE AND TINA TURNER REVUE… ONE OF THEM BACKED OUT AND ASKED YOU TO GO ALONG TO MAKE UP THE NUMBERS…
Well that’s true, y’know? I can see that morning, even now. I can see myself in the laundromat room of my apartment building, washing clothes and cleaning and getting ready for the week ahead. Saying my prayer and then coming inside and doing all my chores and the ‘phone ringing. My friends Maxine Smith and Gloria Scott begging me. They called me out of desperation, really. The other girl hadn’t shown up. Maxine was, like, an ex-girlfriend of my brother Ronnie. Actually, the other girl, the one who didn’t show up, was also an ex-girlfriend of my brother Ronnie, ha ha ha…

… HA HA… HE WAS A POPULAR GUY!
Yeah, he was! He really was! He’s no longer with us either, sadly. But, yeah, he was popular. He was a real cutie-pie… But, yeah, Maxine and Gloria said “You gotta come” and I was, like, “No, I can’t go. My husband’s not gonna let me go”… They said “Tell him anything – we’re coming” and they hung up the ‘phone… A half hour later they were knockin’ on my door! So I told my husband a lie, ha ha, and next thing I know I’m in Ike and Tina Turner’s living room singing DANCING IN THE STREET, ha ha ha…

YOU PARTICULARLY HIT IT OFF WITH TINA…
Straight away. We sang DANCING IN THE STREET and another song, which I can never remember. I didn’t know the other song, so I just had to follow the harmony. That was okay – I grew up singing so my ear is how I do it. So, anyway, we finish singing, and right afterwards Tina goes “Girls, you got the gig”… I go “Oh no, not me..! I gotta go home. I’ve lied to my husband and I’m gonna be in big trouble”. Tina just planted a seed and said “Well, if you’re gonna get in trouble for nothing you might as well go with us up to Fresno and see the show”…

… AND YOU DID…
… And I did! I joined, but I only had less than a week to learn their whole show! But that audition day was just ‘one of those days’, y’know? Sometimes you have days that just take on a life of their own. This day did that. I mean, I was really a good girl, y’know? Well, okay, I had let myself get talked into ditching one class – my music appreciation class, at that, ha ha! As a young teenage girl with hormones jumping all over the place I ditched my class and thought that I could handle a sort of ‘heavy petting’ session but I got jumped on. A cute guy and we just go crazy. He was older than me, as well, so in a way when I look back on it it’s kinda like I was sort of ‘groomed’… I kept saying “No, no, no, no” for a long long long time but… y’know… Anyway… Anyway… That was so long ago. When you ask me these questions I’m right back there and can remember it. It’s clear.

IKE AND TINA TURNER CAME OVER TO THE UK IN 1966 AND SUPPORTED THE ROLLING STONES. THAT WAS A MASSIVE TURNING POINT IN YOUR LIFE…
Big time! Big time!

YOU LEFT THE IKE AND TINA ROADSHOW AND STAYED IN THE UK. SORT OF RATTLING THROUGH YOUR CAREER HERE AT GREAT SPEED, YOU WORKED WITH THE SMALL FACES, AND YOU WENT ON TO WORK WITH MANY OTHERS OVER THE YEARS – INCLUDING NICK DRAKE, PAUL WELLER, ERIC CLAPTON, PRIMAL SCREAM, OCEAN COLOUR SCENE, THE BEATMASTERS… I WANT TO ASK YOU ABOUT A COUPLE OF ARTISTS I’M NOT SURE I’VE HEARD YOU SPEAK TOO MUCH ABOUT… YOU SANG BACK-UP ON PETER GABRIEL’S 1986 SINGLE SLEDGEHAMMER…
Yeaaaaah! I’ve been blessed to be asked by so many great artists to work with them, and SLEDGEHAMMER was a great record. And another great time. I’d left the UK after losing Debbie, a few years before, then but I’d just come back and I’d done some things including the show STARLIGHT EXPRESS. After that show I was getting ready to record an album and I met a guy who hooked me up with Peter Gabriel. He had these anti-gravity boots at his house, and I was always really into all of that sort of thing – so Peter and I really hit it off. I was in an accident in the mid-‘80s, I was crushed between two cars. So I got into alternative healing and also fitness, sports. Because I’d had my kids when I was really really young, I’d never developed my own sporting abilities. My brother introduced me to Shotokan (karate) to help me with my grieving. I didn’t really do it for that long, but when I started doing my training I realised I had quite an ability for long distance running. I was running for my life, basically. From there I got into a lot of sports things. I moved to Miami for a while and while I was there I found out about anti-gravity boots, so I bought a pair. The boots have, like, a sort of clip on them so you can attach them to something. I had this tree in my garden and what I’d do is I’d just hang upside down from it in the boots, doing sit-ups and everything upside down. The anti-gravity thing, being upside down, it helps the blood to flow. From your feet to your head… all of that, ha ha.

PETER HAS LONG BEEN INTO THAT SORT OF STUFF…
Yeah. At his house in Bath, he had some anti-gravity boots too. So we had this weird exercise thing in common and it helped us connect. It was a really lovely evening of… hanging upside down in the boots and then going into Peter’s studio to sing and then having a really lovely dinner together, ha ha. Yeah, that was cool.

YOU WEREN’T UPSIDE DOWN WHEN YOU WERE SINGING THOUGH, WERE YOU!?
Ha ha, no I wasn’t upside down when I was singing. That was a long-winded story though, wasn’t it? That’s the thing; when I remember and go into these spaces in my life there’s always some story!

PETER HAS ALWAYS BEEN A MASSIVE OTIS REDDING FAN, AS I UNDERSTAND IT – AND YOU CAN REALLY HEAR THAT IN SLEDGEHAMMER I THINK..
Yeah. He really loved soul music. Y’know, I didn’t know anything about Genesis? I’d been out of the UK – I’d gone to Los Angeles to do a record and I lost my daughter and so I didn’t go back to England. I was away from 1975 until 1983, so I think I missed that whole Genesis period and everything. I only really knew about Peter when I went to do the SO album. He was just a great guy, to be honest.

YOU ALSO WORKED WITH THE KLF… AND AS GREAT AS THOSE RECORDS ARE, THE BUSINESS SIDE TURNED OUT NOT TO BE A HAPPY EXPERIENCE…
The business, yeah. Ha ha… The bus-iness… Everywhere I go people say “Woah, you’re the voice of 3AM ETERNAL” – but Bill and Jimmy have been trying to say that the hook of the song, which I sang, wasn’t even the hook. It’s ridiculous, really, ‘cos everybody knows that’s the hook. It’s a really great record – and everywhere I go everybody wants to talk about it. So I realise that the record was a massive major hit all over the world – and the percentage I asked them for was only small. Plus, I am the MuMu choir… I am the MuMu choir… Katie Kissoon (who I also worked with for Roger Waters), I took her down to the KLF’s studio in Dagenham in their police car, and we tracked those “MuMu” bits over and over again. They used those vocals on so much of their music. My deal with them was “Hey man, if you use a solo bit just look after me”.

I THINK YOUR SHARE PROBABLY WENT UP IN FLAMES…
I was really annoyed about that. I guess it did go up in flames. But did it really? Did it really go up in flames? I showed up at Jimmy’s place shortly after it ‘went up in flames’ and surprised him. Like, really surprised him, ha ha. I showed up with my son, to try and get some justice. And now I understand that the KLF are having something of a resurgence – and it’d be really lovely if they’d pop up one day and do the right thing… But, anyway… We wanna stay on the positive, don’t we?

WE DO… ONE OF THE THINGS THAT’S ALWAYS STRUCK ME ABOUT YOU, BUT PARTICULARLY AS WE’VE BEEN TALKING, IS JUST HOW MUCH CONTENT THERE HAS BEEN IN YOUR LIFE – SO MUCH EXPERIENCE… THE MUSIC AND EVERYTHING ASSOCIATED, OF COURSE… BUT THE DIFFICULT TEEN MARRIAGE… THREE CHILDREN, ONE LOST… YOU WERE INVOLVED IN QUITE A SERIOUS ACCIDENT YOURSELF… USING THESE WORDS IN A COMPLETELY CELEBRATORY SENSE, YOU’RE A TRUE SURVIVOR…
Thank you. I like to live in the now, I like to stay focused in the now. I got so many exciting things happening right now. But when I think about all the things I’ve survived through my life I do give thanks… Really, I do. God had blessed me so much. Life can throw difficult things at you all the time – and there have been times that I didn’t know how to deal with those kind of things. I suffered a lot, y’know? It made me suffer. But now, most of all, I look at my Grandson and I think he’s the true soul survivor… His name is even Soul… He was born with his heart backwards – and so he has a lot of special needs as a result of that. Soul came in here fighting and he’s still fighting. He is just gorgeous, he’s so fabulous.

WHAT’S THE SECRET, PP? WHAT QUALITY IS IT THAT’S MADE YOU SURVIVE? BECAUSE, TALKING TO YOU NOW, YOU’RE NOT AT ALL CYNICAL OR HARD OR CLOSED OFF…
I personally believe that we’re all spiritual beings in physical bodies, and when we can no longer live in these physical bodies the spirit moves on. I believe there’s only life – and I try to stay connected with that. I stay connected with all the family I’ve lost and all the friends I’ve lost. Everyone who didn’t make it. My meditation this morning was all about how we’re connected with our true selves. We have our ego selves and our true selves. The ego self is how most people function in the physical world we live in. But the true self is always perfect, so that’s one of my positive things that I come back to throughout each day. Stay positive and stay connected to your true self, your inner self. Work from that. Work from the inside out – instead of letting the outside beat you down…