Remembering Wilson Pickett; daughter, Veda, helping to keep his memories alive

Today marks the 12th anniversary in the death of one of music’s greatest, Wilson Pickett – soul singer and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, best known for such hits as In the Midnight Hour, Mustang Sally, Land of 1,000 Dances and Funky Broadway.

Born on March 18, 1941 in Prattville, Alabama, Pickett grew up singing in the Baptist Church choir. He was the fourth of 11 children. In 1955, Pickett left Alabama to go live with his father in Detroit, Michigan and joined the gospel group the Violinaires, touring with the group for four years before joining The Falcons in 1959.

Pickett had a long career in music and had plans to record a gospel album prior to his death. But he never got the chance to do it. Pickett, with his ex-wife Bonnie Covington, had four children – two sons and two daughters. The oldest daughter, Veda Pickett Neal, has been keeping her father’s legacy alive and says she is the only one of the four siblings who sings.

And it was because of her singing that I first met Veda Pickett Neal two and half years ago at the Summertime Blues series at Firemen’s Park in Niagara Falls, Canada on Aug. 27, 2015 where she sang some of her father’s classics. We stayed in touch online and have become friends.

Then just over a year ago, I got together with Veda in Columbus, Georgia – about an hour and half south of Atlanta – where she resides with her husband. We met up at Applebee’s for lunch then headed to Columbus State University campus and sat outside talking. She reminisced about her father and talked about her own life as well.

Veda gleams with pride when talking about her father. She shared stories about what it was like growing up with a famous father, a man she called “Dad” or “Daddy”. She was very young when her dad was discovered in Detroit, where Veda was born and raised.

“I was probably about three years old, I was three when he started singing with The Falcons and before he got to Atlantic Records I was about five years’ old,” Veda said, adding, “He got discovered on my grandfather’s back porch. That’s how he got discovered, by a guy named Willie Schofield (singer of The Falcons). So that was kind of neat, because he was telling me how he was just minding his own business because my dad loved to sing and he started singing. The next thing you know this guy is asking, ‘Who is that singing?'”

And that’s when Schofield asked Pickett if he wanted to join The Falcons.

“My daddy really didn’t know; he was a Gospel singer at that time. So he went and asked his stepmother, which is my grandmother Helen, what she thought about it. And she told him be led and do what you think is right. That is how he got started singing with The Falcons.”

Veda has a lot of great memories growing up. When asked what her greatest memory is of her dad, she responds: ” My greatest memory is just that my dad was so down to earth. If he was not singing, my daddy probably would have been a comedian because he always had a lot of jokes. He was always a good story teller and he loved to joke and laugh. If you would’ve met my dad, you would’ve thought that you knew him for about 20 years. That’s how down to earth he was.

” I think that was my really good memory of my dad, just being dad. I didn’t know him as Wilson Pickett, the famous person. He was just dad to me,” explained Veda. “We did so much together. We went fishing, he taught me how to fish, he taught me the normal things in life. I don’t know about being a celebrity’s daughter. All I know is I’m just a child of Wilson Pickett.”

Veda said it wasn’t uncommon to see other singers at the Pickett household hanging out with her dad, including Bobby Womack, Solomon Burke and Little Richard.

“People don’t realize how they were just human beings, they were all funny and joking, hanging out and did a lot of things together. That was my normal way of life. We were just normal, having fun like everybody else.”

A few years after her father passed away in 2006, Veda wrote a book entitled I Never Had a Golden Spoon. When asked why she wrote the book Veda replied:

“What I really wanted people to realize is that I had to live a normal life like anybody else. I grew up not having a golden spoon in my mouth. People would think that I got everything handed to me on a silver platter or gold platter. No. I had to work various jobs. I had worked at McDonald’s, Popeye’s – you name it. I had to live a normal life. My mom and dad taught me to be responsible. So I never had a golden spoon.”

Veda said she had to work for everything and even had to pay her own way through college.

“My dad didn’t give me everything, he wanted me to be responsible. That’s really why I wrote the book because I wanted people to see another side of me besides being Wilson Pickett’s daughter. So when people read the book they were like, ‘I couldn’t believe you went through all of these things!’ Yes, I did, just like everybody else. I’m human, I put on my pants the same way as everybody else.”

Besides her book, Veda also recorded and released a Gospel album (Jesus Is My All & All, August 2015) in honour of her father who never had the chance to go back to his roots to record a Gospel album of his own. In addition, Veda recorded her own version of In the Midnight Hour which can be found on Amazon.com. Plans are in the works, as well, to record another Gospel album with songs her father wrote but never released. She has also re-recorded some of her father’s popular songs for a tribute album and had gone back to Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama to do that with some of the same musicians who recorded with her father, including the original keyboardist on Mustang Sally, Spooner Oldham.

“It was an honor to be in the same studio that my dad did one of his first recordings, Mustang Sally, and I had a chance to go into that studio and worked with some of the musicians who recorded with my dad. They recorded with me and I thought that just was a blessing.”

When asked what she thinks her father would say about her versions of his songs if he was still alive, Veda responds, ” Oh he would be proud but he would tell me, ‘You can’t sing like me!’ That’s my dad, you know. He will try to tell me how to sing a song and I’d be like, ‘Dad this is me singing it, not you singing it.’ He would be proud though.”

About a year and a half ago, Wilson Pickett was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan for his work with The Falcons and as a solo artist. And most recently, Pickett was inducted into The Soul Music Hall Of Fame.

Aside from music, Veda keeps busy with family life. Her husband will soon be retiring from the military. She has two grown daughters and two grandchildren.

“It’s just a blessing now that they are a part of my life and a part of what I’m doing, they support me. I do a lot of overseas missionary work and humanitarian work. I love feeding the poor, whatever I can do to contribute to the community – to build a community back up. That’s what I do and I enjoy doing it,” Veda said, saying she travels to India, Africa and Egypt for her missionary work.

And in the meantime, Veda makes sure her father, The Wicked Pickett, isn’t forgotten.

“I’m happy. I’m keeping my daddy’s legacy alive and that is the most important.”

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