Blues legend James bands with sons

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Aug. 15, 2003 | 9:28 a.m.

Etta James was a self-described wild child during her early years as a touring blues vocalist.

"The people who toured with me used to lock me in the room at night to keep the bad boys away, but it didn't do any good," James said.

"I would go out the bathroom window, climb down one of those big pipes, and party like a dog. Then I'd come right back up that same way and be in when they came back to get me in the morning."

So when James gave birth to two sons, Donto and Sametto, during her 30s, she was understandably concerned about them following in their mother's rowdy footsteps.

The solution? How about turning Donto and Sametto into musicians, inviting them to play in her band and keeping a close eye on her two boy while out on the road? "At first I didn't think about them playing with me. I was just thinking about making musicians out of them because my main objective was to watch them," James said in a phone interview from her Southern California home.

"I wanted to be there to watch them, to say, Hey, don't you go out with those guys, don't go to any after-hours joints, don't let me see you drinking.' I turned into a policeman."

James' plan worked just as she'd hoped. Her sons, now both in their 30s, have been regular members of her touring ensemble for 12 years.

The James family tour bus rolls into Las Vegas for a pair of shows tonight and Saturday night at the Las Vegas Hilton Theater. The 65-year-old James will be backed by a nine-piece band, which includes Donto on drums and percussion and Sametto on bass.

"Most people don't get to bring their kids along, but they were both so show-business crazy from the start," James said. "When they were little they were trying to act like Ray Charles, playing the piano with dark glasses on, and my oldest was beating all the coffee tables up with knives, playing drums with them.

"So I got to watch them growing up. And now they're there to watch me."

In the last year, James' two sons have watched as their mother has taken dramatic steps to improve her health. First, she underwent major knee surgery in October.

Since then, with the help of doctors, she has reduced her weight by 184 pounds, dropping from 398 pounds to a current weight of 214.

Those changes have allowed James to walk on her own again.

In recent years, she moved only with the help of a cane or motorized scooter.

"I feel great, and I can stop running around on my scooter buggy everywhere," she said. "You don't realize what it is until you can't walk, you don't realize how important it is not having anything to lean on."

James is also free to move about onstage again, instead of trying to do her trademark, risque "Booty Dance" from a chair.

"People used to say, 'Etta must be possessed because she's doing it in a chair.' That was all right, but it wasn't like being on your feet," she said. "But at 65, how much dancing can I really do? I'm not Christina Aguilera. I can't show my navel, and I can't dance like she does. But I can still move when I want to, if there's something to move for."

Since May, James has been moving to the beats on her latest album, "Let's Roll." A blend of rhythm & blues, rock and country sounds, the disc debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Blues Albums chart.

"Let's Roll" is simply the latest chapter in a storied career that spans more than 50 years. In that time James has received virtually every honor in the music industry, from her inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1993) and Blues Hall of Fame (2001) to her spot on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

In 1994 James received the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album for "Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday." And this year she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy.

Those accomplishments don't seem to have changed the fun-loving Los Angeles native, though. She tries to keep them all in perspective.

"They mean so much to me, all those accomplishments, but they're things I never thought that I would get," James said. "I'm not really money crazy. I love money, don't get me wrong, but I'm not possessed by it.

"I have a lot of things that I want -- a family, grandchildren, a nice house, a pontoon (boat), things like that -- but I'm not the kind of person who wants to sit in a bed with curtains hanging around and go, 'Oh, la ti da. Bring me some tea.' I'm just glad to have a great big yard, a dog and the longevity of my career."