Gladys Knight

Knight has been married to William McDowell since 2001. She was previously married to James “Jimmy” Newman, Barry Hankerson, and Les Brown. Her three children are James “Jimmy” Newman III, Kenya Maria Newman, and Shanga Ali Hankerson.

Knight’s first marriage to Newman influenced an early pause in her touring career, as she stepped away from the road to raise their children while the Pips continued performing. Her son James later managed her career through Newman Management Inc. until his death in 1999.

Knight began singing gospel music at the Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Atlanta when she was four. At seven, she won Ted Mack’s The Original Amateur Hour television talent contest, singing Nat King Cole’s “Too Young.” She also performed with the Morris Brown College choir during the early 1950s.

In 1952, Knight performed with her brother Merald “Bubba” Knight, her sister Brenda, and cousins William and Eleanor Guest at a family birthday celebration. The performers formed the Pips, named after their cousin and manager James “Pip” Woods. After Brenda and Eleanor left, William Guest and Edward Patten became part of the group’s best-known lineup.

The group toured the segregated Southern “Chitlin’ Circuit” and opened for performers including Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Little Richard, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Ike and Tina Turner, and B. B. King. In 1961, the Pips earned their first R&B hit with “Every Beat of My Heart.”

Gladys Knight & the Pips signed with Motown in 1966 and released a run of major singles, including “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “The Nitty Gritty,” “Friendship Train,” “If I Were Your Woman,” and “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye).” During their early Motown period, the group toured as an opening act for Diana Ross and the Supremes.

The group left Motown for Buddah Records in 1973 and reached the peak of its mainstream success with “Midnight Train to Georgia,” “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me,” “I’ve Got to Use My Imagination,” and “The Way We Were/Try to Remember.” “Midnight Train to Georgia” became the group’s signature song and was originally titled “Midnight Plane to Houston” before Knight revised the lyrics.

Knight and the Pips also recorded the soundtrack for the 1974 film Claudine, working with producer Curtis Mayfield. Legal issues led to separate recordings late in the decade, including Knight’s solo albums Miss Gladys Knight and Gladys Knight. The group reunited for albums such as About Love and Touch, recorded its final album, All Our Love, in 1987, and disbanded after a 1988 tour.

While still associated with the Pips, Knight joined Dionne Warwick, Elton John, and Stevie Wonder on the 1985 AIDS benefit single “That’s What Friends Are For.” The recording reached number one and won a Grammy Award. In 1989, she recorded “Licence to Kill,” the title song for the James Bond film of the same name.

Her 1991 album Good Woman reached number one on the Billboard R&B album chart and included the number-two R&B single “Men.” Her later albums included Just for You, Many Different Roads, At Last, Before Me, Another Journey, and Where My Heart Belongs. At Last earned her first solo Grammy Award, for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Album.

Knight also created and directed Saints Unified Voices, a gospel choir associated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The choir’s album One Voice won a Grammy Award. Her duet with Ray Charles, “Heaven Help Us All,” also won a Grammy for Best Gospel Performance.

Knight made her film acting debut as Maria Wilson in Pipe Dreams in 1976, earning a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year. Her later film appearances included Hollywood Homicide, I Can Do Bad All by Myself, Almost Christmas, Coming 2 America, and I’m Glad It’s Christmas. She also recorded music for The Butler, including the Lenny Kravitz-written song “You and I Ain’t Nothin’ No More.”

On television, Knight starred with Flip Wilson in the sitcom Charlie & Co. and had roles or appearances in The Jeffersons, A Different World, Living Single, The Jamie Foxx Show, The First Family, Star, and Hawaii Five-0. She competed on Dancing with the Stars in 2012 and finished third as the masked “Bee” on the first season of The Masked Singer in 2019.

Knight and the Pips were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. Knight received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1995, the National Medal of Arts in 2021, a Kennedy Center Honor in 2022, and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023.