Mavis Staples is determined to keep singing, The gospel icon, 83, grew up singing with her family ensemble, the Staple Singers, and in recent decades recorded unexpected collaborations with artists like Prince,
Arcade Fire, and David Byrne. During the worst of the pandemic, Staples, who lives in Chicago, where she grew up, sang to overcome the tedium of isolation. “Mostly our old stuff,” she says, “the songs we started singing when I was a kid: ‘Didn’t It Rain,’ ‘Help Me Jesus.’” Her family was a loving cocoon for her entire life, but now her father, mother, brother, and three sisters are all dead. She’s left with memories of performing with them, including at a rally before a Martin Luther King Jr. speech. “Ghosts,” she says. “So many ghosts.” Staples only briefly considered retiring. “I talked to the Lord,” she says. “I asked him, ‘Why am I still here? My whole family is gone. What am I supposed to do? Have you kept me up for a reason?” She came up with one answer. “I’m going to sing every time I get on the stage,” she says. “I’m gonna sing with all my heart and all I can put out.”
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