Patti LaBelle
Lives Long Sugar

Aug 20 | archive | subscribe

To many she is best known for her 1985 chart-topper "New Attitude." Which she tells Phil is about staying optimistic. "Everybody wants to get a new attitude, everybody wants to get a new something. A new attitude, a new way of dressing, a new nose, a new body, a new way of wearing your hair it's just so positive."

She knows a thing about remaining positive. Within a 10-year period LaBelle, a diabetic, lost her mother, three sisters and best friend to diabetes and cancer. So when she goes on stage she carries the message to live each day like it's your last. She adds, "And while you're living realize that there are other people who are less fortunate, and if you only look after yourself God's gonna get you."

The mother of four, counts her fans and the love of her family for being alive today. She says they keep her going and keep her strong. "At sixty one the only thing that can hold me back is me myself."

LaBelle is also the spokeswoman for a scholarship given in her name, the National Minority AIDS Council's "Live Long, Sugar" Campaign. "As far as AIDS has been on the universe, I've been doing something. Over twenty years and let's keep doing whatever we can to save our sisters and our brothers." nmac.org