EXCLUSIVE: Kelly Price On Her Grandmother's Influence, Making ESSENCE Fest A Family Affair, And Her Favorite New Music 

The last few years have been tough for Kelly Price, but the Grammy-nominated singer is pushing through. We recently talked to Price about how she’s turning that pain into new music, the importance of family, and what she’s been listening to.

Price is planning to drop a new album in 2017. “I have some incredible new music coming,” she teased, referencing her sister’s death and her own divorce. “I’ve gone through a lot of new changes, career and personal. The music will reflect that. Too Fat For Fame is coming in 2017 and there’s the possibility of a docu-series with my family. I’m working on a memoir, there’s a lot. And, I recently just joined the cast of For Colored Girls with Angie Stone and Robin Givens.”

Price is staying busy and strong; a strength she says comes from her grandmother, who at 91 years old inspires her every day. “I look at her and her strength has always been amazing. To be born in the time she was born in and pursue a college education,” she said. “And everyone in my family who is musical is musical because of her, she was a musician. She plays the piano and organ, she sings incredibly. She’s four foot ten, but when she opens her mouth she sounds like a trumpet, and so she was my earliest influence with everything. Whether it’s my faith in God or music.”

It seems that her grandmother’s musical abilities have not only been passed down to her, but her children as well. “My baby girl sings, my son sings, my oldest doesn’t, but she has more an administrative mind,” she said, before revealing that her son recently auditioned for the ABC show How To Get Away With Murder and received a callback. Talent definitely runs in the family. 

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Price added that once she decides to retire, she’s hoping her daughter will assume the mantle: “My youngest daughter is an amazing singer and songwriter, she’s been back and forth trying to decide if she wants to do music. But it’s in her heart and she recently circled back to wanting to do it. I didn’t push her either way, I just waited for her to decide. Once she’s in the business, she’s going to retire me and you guys can have her.”

Family is incredibly important to the singer, who recalled bringing all of her children and her mother to ESSENCE Fest last year for the first time. “I’ve gone for many, many years and brought one of my kids along. This past year I brought all of my kids with me and my mother and we had a ball. I also put my kids to work,” she laughed. “I made them carry bags and be my assistants. But the festival is something we really, really enjoyed as a family; it was the first time we were all there together. “

With the year winding down and new projects on the way, Price is just focusing on what’s to come and finding inspiration in the new crop of musicians popping up today. She lists BJ the Chicago Kid, The Internet, and Ro James as artists she’s been listening to, adding, “I’m very impressed with this latest crop of musicians and creatives. They’ve found an incredible formula to do what’s new and what’s now and mix it with music from previous generations and you hear that in what they deliver. They’ve found a way to honor what came before with what’s now.”