Harry Wayne Casey has been called the “founder of the dance revolution” and, 50 years into KC and the Sunshine Band, he’s still pleasing fans with classic hits. The band kicked off a nearly 30-show tour last month in Tuscaloosa, Ala., which included a stop at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood. A musical about the group is also set to premiere in Scotland and KC says he has new music on the way.
KC ranks as one of the most iconic musicians in South Florida history and still lives within 10 miles of where he grew up in Hialeah. The band’s classics include “Get Down Tonight,” “That’s the Way (I Like It),” “Boogie Shoes,” “Rock Your Baby,” “Please Don’t Go” and “Yes I’m Ready.” In 1975, the band was the first to score four No. 1 pop hits since the Beatles did it in 1964.
Disco may have gone out of vogue amid punk and new wave at one point, but the band’s music is a vibrant part of pop culture. Its website notes the music has been featured in more than 200 motion picture soundtracks and every major sporting event in the world.
KC was interviewed via phone by Lifestyle Group Editor-in-Chief Kevin Gale a week before the tour kicked off. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Congratulations on celebrating 50 years of music. What is the ride like these days?
It’s pleasant. I love what I’m doing, and I really enjoy it and there’s no pressure to do anything to be anywhere or whatever. I’m just enjoying it.
What can fans expect at your upcoming show at Hard Rock?
It’s definitely all the hits. There’s 15 of us on stage. It’s me, it’s the band, it’s the music. I like to say the music is the magic.
Talk a little bit about the band and the dancers and choreography. I read that there’s a lot more choreography these days than originally.
We’ve hired top choreographers during the years. The guy who choreographed this show choreographed the Michael Jackson, “This is It” [a residency in London that was canceled because of the singer’s death]. His name is Travis Payne. I just want to give the people a show. I don’t like to just stand up there and not do anything
Do you have some members of the band or your dance team who have been with you quite a while?
Well, the percussionist , Fermin Goytisolo, started playing with me on the second album in 1976. He’s from Miami and was born in Havana. I have musicians who have been with me a year up to since 1990 when I came back.
I would guess that you’re getting multiple generations of families at shows these days.
My demographics have always been kind of like that, even from Day One. It still is that and it’s great to see the different generations come out to the shows: babies, grandmas, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters.
You grew up in Hialeah. Do you still live down here part of the time or all the time?
I still live here in Miami. Pretty much within 10 miles from where I was born.
Talk a little bit about early in your career. I read that you worked at a local record store and then you hung around a recording studio owned by Henry Stone.
Well, at the record store we would place orders on Mondays and Thursdays and pick ’em up on Tuesdays and Fridays. Back then, record manufacturers had local distributors. One of the largest wholesale record distributors in the United States was in Hialeah and called Tone Distributors. Upstairs was a recording studio. I met everyone at Tone and eventually left the record stores and asked Henry for a job. He didn’t have a job at the time, so I went to his competitor and I got a job there. Then, after work, I would go hang out at Tone and just do whatever was needed to be done after hours and then eventually made my way upstairs and started writing songs with some of the other writers there. And then one day went in and made my own song.
What was that song?
“Blow Your Whistle.” [Released in September 1973.]
When things started moving ahead, you had such an incredible run there in a few short years. What was it like to go through that?
Excitement on one end and then loneliness on the other end.
I read that you had throngs of fans looking for you and you had to hole up in a hotel a lot.
It happens to a lot of artists. The success brings recognition. I would get to a hotel and it would be 5,000 to 10,000 people outside the hotel. I would never go through the front door. I always went through the back door. I never knew what it was like to go through the front door of a hotel.
I would be looking down at all these people and wanting to be right down amongst them, but knowing I really couldn’t. You kind of feel isolated in a way. They had guards on every exit, every elevator up to the floor that I was on and I was just being shuffled around kind of that way. Other band members and people could go out and do whatever they wanted to. I really wasn’t able to do it and it felt very isolated and I was very lonely at times.
What’s it like for you now? Do you still get recognized?
Since then, I grew a beard and stuff, so I kind of move around pretty easily through public spaces and I haven’t really been that visible on any kind of social stuff, so I do pretty good moving around.
What’s life when you’re not touring these days? Do you have certain things you like to do for fun or do you have hobbies, pets?
I have my dogs. I love to play tennis. I like to ride my bike and I just like to do normal things that people do: Go to the movies, go to nice dinners, have some nice wine and socialize with my friends and my family and all of my pets, my dogs, the birds, the ducks. And I like to travel.
What kind of dogs do you have?
I have Golden Retrievers.
Oh, how many?
Two.
Okay, that’s a handful.
It is. One is 2 years old and one is 8.
Are you in a relationship?
No, I’m single.
I bet you’d be a good catch.
I just enjoy my freedom.
How does it feel to see your music continue to be a cultural touchstone, such as being sampled by rappers and turning up in TV shows and movies?
It’s sort of getting the last laugh. I don’t think we’ve ever gotten the credit that we deserve for what we did do. There were a lot of naysayers about the music, about disco, about the whole thing throughout the years and they always tried to tear us down. To see that our music not only influenced so many other types of music but is so popular in today’s culture is just amazing to me. And it’s kind of like just getting get the last laugh. So, yeah, that’s kind of how I feel about it.
That sort of addresses the next question I was going to ask about the whole Disco Sucks movement, although I saw that you sort like to refer to your music as dance and that it has heavy R&B elements to it.
The guy who created that whole scenario actually came to a Marlins game. In the middle of the Marlins game, he apologized to me. What was really weird is everybody thought that the whole world did that. It only happened in one place in Chicago that one night. The media can really blow things up beyond what it actually is sometimes. [The event at the Chicago White Sox’ Comiskey Park on July 12, 1979, included a box of disco records being blown up in the middle of a doubleheader. A riot ensued and the second game was forfeited because the field was unplayable.]
You had a time when you were retired, and I’m curious what brought you out of retirement?
Arsenio Hall wanted to see a reunion of the band on his stage on his TV show, and so I did the show and then kind of realized that I had stopped doing something that I really enjoy doing when I quit the business. I just didn’t want to have anything to do with it. I was so tired of the political part of it and the pressure of the whole thing and everything, and I just wanted to have nothing to do with it after 1984. Once I came back out, I just realized what I was missing what I love to do and I hadn’t really put any thought into it until that TV show.
What keeps you going these days?
I love what I’m doing and I have a great band, an amazing band, and it’s so much fun to be with them on the stage and off the stage, and just to see people smiling and having a good time and creating new memories or reliving old memories. There’s nothing like it. Being on that stage is my happiest moment in life.
Is there one song in your repertoire that you say, I’m never going to get tired of performing this?
All of ’em. I’ll never get tired of them.
What honors or chart performance things or other accolades do you hold most dear?
I have nine Grammy nominations. I have three Grammy awards. I have American Music Awards. I have awards from other countries. I’m just happy that I’m able to make people happy with my music. All those accolades and things are just material things. And the most important thing to me is that the music uplifts somebody in a time of sorrow or time of a sickness or an illness—just in life, period. My music comes on and they feel happy and it makes their day a little bit brighter. So, I think that’s what’s most important beyond all the other stuff that comes with the awards and all that sort of thing.
Are you in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
No, I’m not.
Is that just because of your genre? It seems like you deserve to be in there.
I have no idea. I mean, I am surprised by who gets in and who doesn’t. It is what it is.
I read a Connect Savannah article in 2022 that indicated you were working on a new album and you thought it was some of your best stuff.
I started the project back in 2012. I have 56 new songs or whatever. I’m releasing a new song next month song I wrote with Lewis Martineé who did Expose.
What’s it called?
“I Get to Love You.” And my musical comes out in Edinburg, Scotland [on July 31.] I have a new artist called Nines who has a song coming out that I wrote called “In the Back of My Cadillac.” So, there’s a lot of things going on.
Tell me a little more about the musical.
Well, they came to me about three, four years ago and just in the last year or so, it’s escalated to where they’re doing a 60-minute premier of “Who Do Ya Love” at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Hopefully, it runs 25 days and does well enough to go from there to the West End in London and then eventually Broadway. I’m really excited about it including the guy who wrote the book, wrote the movie, “Pretty Woman,” J.F. Lawton. I have some great directors and music directors who have been involved with other major productions. Lisa Stevens is the director. It’s just a great team and a lot of excitement about it.
It’s not a jukebox musical about my life up to the success of chasing the Sunshine, but all the music fits the story very well. It’s kind of a story of growing up here in Hialeah, or Miami, with me, another guy and two girls, and it’s our story. [The listing for the musical says it features over 20 tracks including “Give It Up,” “Please Don’t Go,” “Get Down Tonight,” “Boogie Shoes” and “That’s the Way (I Like It).”]
Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you might want to share with our Lifestyle readers in South Florida?
I’m excited to be at the Hard Rock as always. I love performing there. And they finally opened up the top tier and we’re almost at a sellout. The shows were always amazing there and in this show, I’m adding a little something before the show for the audience and it should be a fun night.
By the way, I also see you have a fan club. Is that still pretty vibrant?
It is and we have great merchandise at heykcsb.com.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Adkins Publicity
