Music is a way to break down barriers, according to singer Bob Khaleel. "It's a way for us to experience the human condition without racial, language or other walls."
Khaleel spoke of his diverse musical background during a telephone interview from Los Angeles. When he was a hip-hop artist with Bronx Style Bob, he caught the ear of Ice-T and the Rhyme Syndicate. He also captained a rock group, Super 8, performed with the HORDE Festival and even opened for Australian rock icon AC/DC.On Wednesday, March 24, Khaleel will open for hippie jammer Rusted Root in Kingsbury Hall. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale at Kingsbury Hall and all Smith'sTix outlets.
"My main influence would be the Beatles," the extremely polite Khaleel said. "They really drew me into music. After that, I got into my mother's records. She was a fan
of Motown.
"But I didn't consciously decide to be a musician. I just stumbled into that. What I really wanted to be was a basketball player."
Khaleel's brother went to college on a basketball scholarship as did many of his friends.
"I was too little," he said with a chuckle. "So I started rapping and hip-hopping at house parties. Then I went into other music performances, and pretty soon I had a portfolio of what I had done. That's when I looked around and realized that I was part of the artistic community. It really changed my perspective on life. And I enjoyed performing."
Khaleel never went to a performing arts school. He says that although professional schooling is good for some, it wasn't for him. "Schools teach you to rely on your strengths. But it also takes away from your natural appreciations. You get so focused into one mode that you become afraid to experiment.
"With all my tastes, it would have been hard. That was apparent in some of the challenges I had to face."
The music business is run by executives who see an artist as a spokesperson for a certain style, said Khaleel. "I'm African-American, and I knew there would berisks when it came time for me to make music that was outside the rap, hip-hop and rhythm-and-blues styles. But I've got one life to live and so I did it."
The leap of faith paid off. Shawn Mullins, who recently conquered radio with "Lullaby," asked Khaleel to tour with him.
"That's a major reward for me," Khaleel said. "When a guy like Shawn Mullins appreciates what I do and asks me to join him, that's saying a lot.
"I also remember playing a show in Oklahoma. We had a great audience. After the show, we go and mingle with some of the people in the crowd, and a woman came up to me and had a deep conversation about life. Then she showed me a picture of her daughter who had died.
"The woman told me that one of my songs had given her some strength." The song is "Grandma's Ghost."
"She was a Caucasian woman, and I'm a black man," Khaleel said. "And we connected on the human level. That's to say, there is no race or language or culture barrier. We were human beings who each experienced a loss.
Khaleel said even language isn't a factor when it comes to music. "My bassist is Norwegian, and we don't communicate through words. Instead, we use the music. And it's wonderful."