Chris Barilla / People.com
Photos: Rachel Deeb
Keb’ Mo’ Channeled a Painful Chapter of Life into a ‘Breakthrough as Well as a Breakdown’ on His New Album (Exclusive)
Keb’ Mo’ tells PEOPLE about the health crisis and marriage ending that reshaped his perspective, as well as the hard-won gratitude that fueled his latest work
Keb’ Mo’ is not in the business of letting anything slow him down.
The California-raised, Nashville-based blues icon, 74, is back with his latest body of work, The Breakdown, a collection of songs that arrive directly following a difficult season in the five-time Grammy Award-winning artist’s life.
After receiving life-saving open-heart surgery, which he tells PEOPLE was “a nice tap on the shoulder,” he had an unlikely, calming revelation associated with the ordeal. “That just meant my life is moving along as it should be,” he says. “And it’s not unlike any number of people around me, not around me, around the world who hit a certain age or just hit that moment where mortality taps you on the shoulder at any age. It’s like life happens, and so I just listened to what was in the moment, what was going on right there and all the things that were going on with me.”
Health issues weren’t all Mo’ had to navigate in a short window of time. Additionally, the end of his 20-year marriage came shortly after his hospital stint. Similarly to his surgery, Mo’ retains another neutral perspective on the matter. “All of it was based on acceptance, not regrets, but accepting what has happened,” he says of those trials and tribulations. “And I go, ‘Well, if I had done this, where did I mess up? Where did I go wrong? Where did I… No, this is where I am. This is what I did, and this is where I am. Okay, let’s go.’ ”
“Just own it, man. There it is. I own my stuff,” he doubles down, later adding of both ordeals, “I don’t know what the outcome is, I don’t know how and I don’t know, but the clarity is ever-changing every day. The clarity, and it’s just because you’re old. These are problems I’ve had my whole life. These aren’t new problems. Maybe the health is, but relationship stuff is new.”
All of this culminated into The Breakdown, 10 songs that mark the iconic artist’s first-ever stripped-down record, which is comprised of just his voice, guitar and carefully selected vocal contributions from the Soweto Gospel Choir and the gospel sextet Take 6.
“Let me just break this down in just a guitar and a vocal,” Mo’ shares of creating the record. “Let me break it down in just the bare bones of what it is, and let me talk about some things, and let me go back and get some things that maybe I didn’t get before, because I pulled older songs from this record to put on this record and new songs. And so the breakdown is a breakthrough as well as a breakdown.”
From a literal standpoint, a breakdown is a stripped, rhythmic section where accompaniment stops or simplifies. But from a philosophical standpoint, Mo’ utilizes the textbook definition of a breakdown very precisely to reflect the hard times he had to navigate prior to putting pen to paper for this album.
“Oh, yeah. Well, what was the breakdown is emotionally, it means a wounding of sorts, like a breakdown or something unhappy, but I think of that kind of breakdown. Then I think of the kind of breakdown, the musical breakdown,” he shares.
The medium, being only himself and a guitar, presented unique challenges for a man used to operating with all of the trimmings a modern studio can offer. Reflecting on the emotions associated with that, and the vulnerable subject matter present on the record, he says he felt “exposed, yes, but it also challenged in a way that I had to figure out how to deliver those songs with the tools I had, with the instrumental tools and the vocal skills and whatever I had.”
“It was a journey I went on,” he adds. “A little journey, [but] at the same time, I was frustrated. ‘Oh, that one’s not right. Let’s try this. Okay. Not quite there yet. I got some of the pieces, that piece right there. Nah, that one’s a little… Nah, it’s got to sound better. Hold on.’ ”
Momentary recording challenges aside, at 74 years old, Mo’ is rightfully confident in his abilities as a whole. The man who has collaborated with the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Jackson Browne, Buddy Guy and Joe Walsh, performed in locations ranging from Carnegie Hall to the White House and had songs recorded by artists spanning B.B. King to BTS knows a thing or two about crafting a melody — and that his perspective can only come with age and experience.
“After a while, technically, you know how to do things,” he shares. “I know things now that I didn’t know in my 20s, just like my 30s and 40s even. I just didn’t know how focused and how simple you can make something and still make it powerful, you know?”
Despite having over 20 projects under his belt, The Breakdown doesn’t feel like Mo’ is now reaching for things to say. In fact, it stands as one of the most on-the-nose emotional offerings he has ever crafted as a direct result of the album’s genesis.
The proverbial source of the emotional river that the LP is appears to be the track “Every Step of the Way,” a beautiful ballad that sees Mo’ analyze his rollercoaster existence — the highs and the lows — and express hard-worn gratitude for the totality of his life experience.
“If there was going to be a title cut, ‘Every Step of the Way’ probably would’ve been it,” he says.
Though Mo’ jokes that his friend, Mahal, considers him such a perfectionist that “he says, ‘Oh, here he come with his tweezers,’ ” he accepted a humanistic approach by virtue of the medium on The Breakdown.
“It’s not going to be perfect anyway. I don’t care how much you tweak over it. I don’t care how much you… It’ll always be better, it’ll always be worse, and there’s nothing wrong with going in and really giving it all, capital A-L-L, all you got,” he explains.
Additionally, Mo’ jokes that “You just have less f—s to give” after growing older, adding, “You just go like, ‘Hey man, this is it.’ ” With that, he makes it clear that he is “unwilling to waste time on bulls—” in any capacity related to what he once was.
Nonetheless, he maintains his true and absolute calling to music, and crafting new sounds to continue to inspire new generations of blues fans and beyond. “Anytime you write your truth and all these songs are already sitting there. They’re already in my consciousness. They’re already in the ether. They’re already just sitting there,” he proclaims.
“I think what I’m doing, my job as a musician, I think of myself as a service center, a service. I’m a store, and I worry about how I’m showing up in the world, and that bugged me more than anything because I think for me and my heart, that’s what’s driving my gratitude,” Mo’ shares. “That’s what’s driving my life forward. That’s what’s pushing my life forward is that ‘Why are you doing your music?’ I was talking to someone about in my 20s and 30s, I was trying to be successful, but when I stopped trying to be successful and became a humble servant, it changed so fast. It was crazy, within a couple of years.”
And despite having dealt with multiple situations —both throughout his life and recently in particular — that would, in many cases, rightfully stop a person in their tracks for an understandable period of time, Mo’ picked himself up by the bootstraps and expressed his emotions through song. To the 14-time Blues Foundation Awards recipient, it all comes back to gratitude for the life he has lived.
“Gratefulness in itself is grateful. Even if you’re walking around with one leg and you’re going like, ‘I wish I had two, but I got this one. I got this one leg. All I need is a stick and I can just hop on that.’ It’s being grateful for what you have and not being ungrateful or just envious what other people have or something you don’t have, because what you do have is the whole thing,” he shares.
Mo’ adds, “Gratitude itself, man, is everything. Being grateful for whatever you have and knowing that it can always be worse… gratitude is so powerful.”
Additionally, working on the project and navigating serious life turmoil brought him to further unpack his relationship with the notion of vulnerability, recognizing that it may not be his strong suit. “I’m always willing to take the heat, take the blame… that word means different things to other people,” he shares. “I’m a nice guy, but I don’t know that I’m that vulnerable because I protect myself from anger. I protect myself from things that are like that, so I tend to be less vulnerable and more stoic and more just like, ‘No, I’m going to control this,’ because I like being in control because I love my peace.”
Ultimately, when asked about what the Mo’ who entered the hospital for treatment would think about the Mo’ who has released The Breakdown, he says, “Well, I think he probably wouldn’t be surprised because that guy that went in the hospital, that guy that had that surgery and stuff and had to go through that stuff came to that place from a place of grace and from a place of, ‘I know this is what’s supposed to happen and I know whatever’s going on is right,’ and I’m just going to trust it and I’m going to go on in and I’d be telling him, ‘Yeah, man, we were right. It’s okay.’ ”
The Breakdown is available on all major streaming platforms now.
🎧 Buy/Stream the album here: https://i.concordjazz.com/kebmo_thebreakdown
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