Back in Tune

Friday, Oct. 26, 2001 | 9:18 a.m.

Teddy Pendergrass was one of the most popular R&B singers in the country when his Rolls Royce crashed into a tree on March 18, 1982, leaving the rising star paralyzed from the chest down.

"I felt total devastation," Pendergrass, 51, recalled about the accident during a recent telephone interview from his home in Philadelphia. He performs Saturday at Texas Station.

"I don't know what else to tell you. The next day, it's entirely different. If one hasn't experienced that, then you truly don't know what it's like. I can only tell you the immense depression and the devastation one feels when one day you can get up and go to the bathroom, and the next day somebody has to do it for you."

Pendergrass, who was born in Philadelphia, sang in church choirs as a child and as he grew older began playing drums in local bands. He got his big break when Harold Melvin signed him as drummer for his group, the Blue Notes.

When the lead singer left, Pendergrass, at the age of 19, took his place.

At Philadelphia International Records, Pendergrass and the Blue Notes made such hit recordings as "Wake Up Everybody," "If You Don't Know Me By Now" and "Bad Luck" before he embarked on a solo career in 1976.

Pendergrass was riding the crest of success when the crash occurred. He had caught the ear of the musical world with such hits as "The Whole Town's Laughing At Me" (1977), "Close the Door" (1978) and "Turn Off The Lights" (1979).

After the accident, which was reportedly caused by the car's faulty brakes, Pendergrass was in a coma for eight days and spent a year in physical therapy and counseling before resuming a career that was a shadow of its former self, making occasional television and stage appearances and cutting a few albums.

But Pendergrass quit touring and battled the emotional demons that come with life-altering experiences.

On May 27 in Atlantic City, after being absent from the touring circuit for 19 years, Pendergrass finally went back on the concert stage -- this time in a battery-powered wheelchair.

Pendergrass has received rave reviews.

"It's all been just a wonderful experience," he said. "It far exceeds anything I would have anticipated. I don't know the adjectives to use ... this has been the fulfillment of a promise I made myself 19 years ago."

Pendergrass said he received many offers over the years to return to the stage, but he didn't feel he was ready.

"A lot of things go into making a decision (of this magnitude)," Pendergrass said. "If you've had a physical injury that has altered your lifestyle, then you don't just make arbitrary decisions just because there is an offer. I had so many other things to consider -- health is one. Also, (whether there is a) capablity to be able to do it, is another. It just has taken the amount of time it took before I felt comfortable enough to do it."

Pendergrass wasn't particularly nervous when he resumed his touring career after the hiatus.

"My feelings were shock from the moment I agreed to do it," he said. "That was when I went through all of my changes. My feeling (onstage) was, 'OK, I agreed to do it and I said I'm going to do it,' and it takes off from there. I can't really describe, nor do I want to describe, all of my emotions -- there are some things you need to keep to yourself, so I won't even try to explain."

Pendergrass said the decision to go before an audience again was both easy and difficult.

"It was easy to want to do it, but it was difficult to be sure all the pieces were there," he said. "I had to try to put back an organization that had been down for almost 20 years. It was not just go get a band of guys off the corner and go sing a song. It was a matter of bringing an organization back together of people who you are accustomed to working with, people you are comfortable with.

"And there are certain business constraints, cost constraints. An artist onstage is an organization, not just some guy or some girl up onstage singing a song. It takes a lot of technicians and planning and organizing to make sure it looks seamless ... but it takes a lot in order to put it together. It took months to put all of this together."

Pendergrass said the first appearance onstage in Atlantic City was the hardest part of the tour.

"I feel like I'm over the hump," Pendergrass said. "The hump was in Atlantic City. Now it's just a matter of planning and figuring out how to best facilitate what I do, understanding the constraints I have both physical and otherwise."

Pendergrass is routinely asked about the accident that paralyzed him. He isn't sensitive about it, but says that's history.

"That was 19 years ago," he said. "What do I need to go back and talk about that for? I don't know what else to say about it. It happened. I don't need to relive it. It happened. I'm not uncomfortable, but I don't fathom just talking about it."

Pendergrass says he's not inclined to talk about the accident because he doesn't want to put people into a dispirited mood.

"I'm trying to uplift America, to live a life so that other people can see that they also can have lives," Pendergrass said. "I'm not trying to go back and relive the history of what happened to me 19 years ago."

He says he has a positive attitude.

"I don't want to relive the woe-is-me times because I'm beyond that," Pendergrass said. "I want other people to get past the same thing and think about what it is they can do to have a better lifestyle."

The singer has created the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance to help others in his situation.

"It's a nonprofit organization whose goal is to help facilitate educational and employment opportunities for people with spinal-cord injuries," he said.

The bottom line, Pendergrass said, is the quality of life.

"(Since the accident) I have recorded records, been on television numerous times, been on awards shows, I've been granted awards, I've given awards, I've made appearances, I've had business developments," he said. "I've had a very full life.

"Of course, there are times when you think your life isn't worth a (expletive), but I've been able to surpass a lot of that and I've been able to sustain a fairly good quality of life, a real good quality of life, and that's what TPA is, it's about helping people have a good quality of life. That's above and beyond finding a cure (for paralysis).

"Disability isn't the only thing we must endure. There also is a feeling of helplessness, of hopelessness -- it's all these things that one feels if they're not given the opportunity (to succeed). That's what TPA is about, it's about opportunity."