Kool & the Gang’s Robert “Kool” Bell is celebrating his R&B, funk and soul band’s 60th anniversary this year.
During an interview with Fox News Digital, the 73-year-old musician, who is embarking on the 2025 Ultimate Disco Cruise with Kool & the Gang next February, marveled at how the group continues to tour and create new music after six decades.
“It’s been a blessing this year as we celebrated 60 years [since] our first record came out,” Bell said.
Robert “Kool” Bell is celebrating Kool & the Gang’s 60th anniversary. (C Brandon/Redferns)
“The band started as a jazz band in 1964. And, of course, The Soul Town Band, Kool & the Flames.
KOOL & THE GANG DRUMMER GEORGE BROWN DEAD AT 74
“We are also the most sampled band in hip hop — 50 years of hip hop,” Bell added. “So, that kind of makes us the most sampled band in the music industry because most of all the sampling came from hip hop. It’s a blessing. So, we’re out now celebrating 60 years in the business.”
Kool & the Gang was founded by Bell, his brother Ronald Bell and their New Jersey high school friends Ricky Westfield, George Brown, Spike Mickens, Dennis Thomas and Charles Smith, all of whom comprised the band’s original lineup. The group started as a jazz and soul band called the Jazziacs but later went through several name changes, including The Soul Town Band and Kool & the Flames.
WATCH: Kool & the Gang’s Robert ‘Kool’ Bell admits he was starstruck when he played with James Brown
“Going backwards — Soul Town Band — there was an organization in Jersey City called the Soul Town Review, and we became a part of the Small Town Review. And we became The Soul Town Band,” Bell recalled. “Now, we would have to learn Motown songs because the various artists locally would be singing stuff from Motown and also a little bit of James Brown, and etc, etc.
“So, that’s how we moved on after that to Kool & The Flames. And Kool & the Flames, we had another problem. Because you had James Brown and his Famous Flames. So, although we played a lot of James Brown’s songs when we were Soul Town, we didn’t want to have any problem with The Godfather.
“So, we said, ‘Well, hey, what can we call it though? So we came up with another manager as well, Gene Redd, who came up with Kool & the Gang. And we came out with our first record in 1969 as Kool & the Gang.”
After settling on the moniker Kool & The Gang, the band landed a recording deal with Redd’s independent label De-Lite Records and released their self-titled debut album in 1970.
The band formed in 1964. (Ebet Roberts/Redferns)
Kool & the Gang first found commercial success in 1973 with their fourth album, “Wild and Peaceful,” which featured the hit songs “Jungle Boogie” and “Hollywood Swinging.”
However, the band rose to global stardom after James “J.T.” Taylor joined Kool & the Gang as lead singer in 1979. During Taylor’s nine years with Kool & the Gang, the band released their four highest-selling albums, including 1979’s “Ladies’ Night,” 1980’s “Celebrate!,” 1981’s “Something Special” and 1984’s “Emergency.”
The albums featured a number of hit songs, including “Ladies’ Night,” “Celebration,” “Get Down on It,” “Cherish,” “Joanna,” “Misled,” “Fresh,” “Summer Madness” and “Too Hot.”
Kool & the Gang has released 25 studio albums to date, with their latest being 2021’s “Perfect Union.” The band has won two Grammy Awards and has sold over 70 million albums worldwide. Kool & the Gang’s music has been sampled over 1,950 times, according to WhoSampled.
Artists who have sampled the band’s song catalog include Madonna, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, Ice Cube, 2Pac, Nas, Q-Tip, A Tribe Called Quest and Miles Davis, among many others.
In 2014, Kool & the Gang hit the road for their 50th anniversary tour, and the band continues to perform nationally and internationally.
WATCH: Kool & the Gang’s Robert ‘Kool’ Bell recalls performing with Elton John, Van Halen and Kid Rock
Kool & the Gang is currently on tour with concerts scheduled through October in both the U.S. and Europe. In addition, Bell told Fox News Digital the group is looking forward to headlining next year’s Ultimate Disco Cruise. The five-day cruise on the Norwegian Pearl will depart Miami, Florida, on Feb. 19 with stops in Cozumel and Costa Maya, Mexico, before returning to Miami Feb. 24.
Bell said Kool & the Gang was previously included in other lineups for the Ultimate Disco Cruise, which takes place annually.
“We’ve done quite a few. The last one we did was with Royal Caribbean, the Celebrity ship, and now Norwegian has taken over the Disco Cruise, and we have our champagne. We have a champagne called Le Kool champagne, and it’s with Norwegian Ships,” he said. “We’re looking forward to February of next year.”
Bell launched his champagne brand, Le Kool, in 2020 and announced in June it would be available on Norwegian Cruise lines.
Bell and the band are headlining the Ultimate Disco Cruise next year. (David Becker/BET/Getty Images)
During his interview with Fox News Digital, Bell teased what fans can expect from the 2025 Ultimate Disco Cruise.
“Well, if they come to party, that’s what we do. If they come to celebrate, that’s what we do. If they want to get down on it and especially the ladies, that’s what we do,” he said with a smile. “And we’re going to have Le Kool champagne. That’s what they drink.”
Bell also recalled some of his favorite memories from his 60 years with Kool & the Gang. The musician reflected on the thrill of performing with some of the industry’s top stars over the decades.
WATCH: Kool & the Gang’s Robert ‘Kool’ Bell says touring with Kid Rock was ‘great:’ ‘He wanted to do 10 more’
“The latter part of the ‘70s going into the ’80s, we played with Elton John at Wembley Stadium over in London,” Bell said. “We did a tour during that time, and we had The Gap Band on the tour. And we had Larry Graham. Well, so there were a lot of different special occasions during that time.
“I’m going to tell you another one that happened after that,” he continued. “We did 48 shows with Van Halen. We did ten shows with Kid Rock. We played with Dave Matthews Band. We played with Dire Straits.
“And then we would go around playing with Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder.”
Kool & the Gang toured with Van Halen and Kid Rock. (Getty Images)
Kool & the Gang was the opening act for Van Halen’s 2012 reunion tour with frontman David Lee Roth. Roth invited Kool & the Gang to join the tour after enjoying the band’s performance at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival.
In 2013, Kool & the Gang joined the first leg of Kid Rock’s Rebel Soul Tour.
“That was great show,” Bell recalled. “We did ten shows with Kid Rock, and he wanted to do ten more.”
Bell recalled a conversation he had with Kid Rock in which the rapper revealed he had sampled one of Kool & the Gang’s songs earlier in his career.
“He said, ‘When I was coming up at the time, getting into the hip-hop world, I sampled your song ’Love and Understanding.’ I said, ‘I didn’t know that. You did?’ He said, ‘Yeah, man.’
“Yeah, and he has a little DJ in his set. And, my son, Prince Hakeem, he’s a DJ. And [Kid Rock] would say, ‘Look man, you need to keep rapping on ’Jungle Boogie.’ Yeah, ‘Celebration’s’ OK, but there is a rap on ‘Jungle Boogie.’ And my son has been doing that ever since. My son comes out with me sometimes.”
The band continues to perform nationally and internationally. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Though he has collaborated with many musical icons, Bell admitted performing with one legendary artist left him “starstruck.”
“The shows we did with James Brown. I mean, we had played his music in the clubs back in the ’60s. But to be [playing] several shows with James Brown, it was great,” he said.
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“People would say, ‘Well, Kool & the Gang have the No. 1 horn section. And James Brown would say, ’No, they No. 2. I’m No. 1. I bring the funk to the party,'” Bell said with a laugh. “But he was good.”
Bell added that thelate funk legend also shared his advice for navigating the business side of the music industry.
“The one thing about James Brown, he would come to us, came to me and say, ‘Kool, listen, are you controlling your publishing? Are you controlling your writing?'” Bell recalled. “’You need to be on top of that.’ So he was a good educator as well.”
Founding member George Brown died last year. (Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)
Last November, George Brown, one of the founding members of Kool & the Gang, died at the age of 74 after a battle with cancer. Brown was the band’s drummer and also wrote some of Kool & the Gang’s biggest hits, including “Celebration,” “Ladies Night,” “Too Hot,” “Jungle Boogie” and “Get Down on It.”
Bell, now the band’s last surviving founding member, shared his thoughts on how he wanted Brown to be remembered.
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“George Brown was definitely a great writer, and he dealt with some songs that was a part of his life. And one of the big records he had was ‘Too Hot,’”Bell said. “That was a great song.
“‘Ladies Night’ was also George Brown. I came up with the title, but George came up with the song along with J.T. and my brother.
Bell still marvels over the enduring popularity of “Celebration.” (Getty Images)
“He came up with the bass line,” Bell continued. “He said that we had just left a meeting in New York, and he was watching people in New York walk and, you know, as in walk, ‘dong dong dong dong dong’ — walking in New York. That’s how he came up with the idea of the bass line. He was a great guy, man, a great writer, producer.”
Looking back on the band’s legacy, Bell shared his excitement over how Kool & the Gang’s biggest hit songs like “Celebration” have stood the test of time and were featured in some of the world’s most historic moments.
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“It makes me feel great because, you know, you’re talking about a song that came out in 1980 and is still popular today,” he said. “You’re talking about a song that, in the space station, when the astronauts got up in space, they played ‘Celebration.’ So, they like ‘Celebration.’ And so many other accolades for ‘Celebration.’
“When President Biden was nominated for the presidency, they played ‘Celebration.’ When he won, they played ‘Celebration,'” he said. “Just a great song. Can we write another ‘Celebration?’ No. We tried to. We came up with the song ‘Let’s Have a Good Time.’ Didn’t quite work.
“‘Celebration’ is ‘Celebration.'”
