Barnabas Ministries UK

Smokey Robinson

MUSIC LEGEND FINDS JOY IN FAITH

IT’S THE TRACKS OF MY CHEERS!

He’s probably had more songs than any other any singer from the last 50 years.

Classics such as Tears Of A Clown The Tracks Of My Tears two of Smokey Robinson’s chart toppers still played on radio stations all over the world.

But when he was asked to choose for the famous Motown Comes Home album alongside Stevie Wonder and The Temptations, Smokey opted for a favourite rack – I’ll Keep My Light In My Window.

!In case someone doesn’t get the title, let me spell it out for them,” he said. “The light is Jesus. I want Jesus’ light to always shine on me, to illuminate everything that I do.”

Only ardent quiz fans will know William Robinson is one of the music world’s giants. The rest of us know him better as Smokey. So how come to get that name?

“I loved cowboys. My Uncle used to take me to see movies. He had a cowboy name for me, which was ‘Smokey Joe’. So whenever anybody asked my name was, I told ’em Smey Joe.”

There doesn’t seem to be a time Smokey was not singing or composing songs. Growing up in music was everywhere. Little wonder that his first million-Shop Around, came shortly after leaving high school.

If the world was watching this new young  singer, he felt someone else also looking after him.

“Since I was a little bitty boy, I’ve always felt like God was watching me, and I don’t know why. I guess because he was,” explained Smokey.

“I hadn’t done any drugs or anything like that. I’m watching TV, and I hear a voice say to me. I want you to know more about me. I want you to know my Son, and I want you to tell your friends’.

“Now I know that one of my friends is in the room and playing a joke on me. So I get up and look all around the room. I look up under the bed, in the closet, everywhere and nobody’s there. I’m astounded by what has just happened to me, and I never tell a soul.”

Smokey started attending a Bible group and then gave his life to Jesus. “The one thing about God that’s so beautiful is he is omnipotent and he is the Almighty. But he’s not a dictator. So I figured I knew what I was doing, so he let me figure that.”

As the hits followed, so did Smokey’s plunge into a drug-fuelled lifestyle. He regularly smoked weed, and cocaine became a favourite.

When asked how he got himself out of that downward spiral, he insisted: “I didn’t – God did. I had gone down to my last legs. I was stepping off a cliff. I let myself deteriorate, so a friend of mine took me to a service where I was prayed for.

“I went in an addict, and when I came out, I was free. That was in May of 1986, and the only time when I even associate myself with drugs now is when I speak against them.”

Today, after decades at the top, Smokey, 72, has combined his love for Jesus with his musical talent to produce his first ever gospel album, Food For The Spirit.

“I don’t really call it gospel, more inspirational,” he said. “I really haven’t strayed too far, musically, from my roots.

“What you’ll find on the album isn’t too different from what I’ve done over the years on other projects.

“I’ve always written gospel songs. I had been stockpiling them for other artists, but the Lord impressed on me that these were songs that I needed to sing myself. I needed to let it really be known where I stand”.