Landing the irresistible pop ditty “Let’s Hear It For The Boy” atop the charts and on a mega soundtrack, which tied “Grease” and “Titanic” with more than eight million copies sold, would’ve been enough to secure Deniece Williams’ place in pop culture.

But that’s merely one major moment for this stylish soprano, who besides being Johnny Mathis’ leading duet lady on the likes of “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late” and “Without Us” (TV’s “Family Ties” theme), delivered the silky soul of “Free,” “Silly,” “It’s Gonna Take A Miracle” and “Black Butterfly,” all while winning multiple gospel Grammys.

Throughout it all, she stayed close to her hometown of Gary and became an ambassador of sorts for the brand new Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana, where she pulled up a chair with Chicago Concert Reviews to ponder fame, “Footloose” and her Midwest foundation.

What do you think the Hard Rock Casino will bring and mean to Gary?

Deniece Williams: I’ve been praying for so many years that something would help the city turn around, and so to see all of this, it’s just incredible. First, it will definitely bring jobs and when people in the surrounding areas know there’s a very elegant, top-notch casino here, that will attract a lot of people…I think that a lot of people will want to see The Jacksons’ home…I’m hoping and praying that people from all over the world will want to come here.

Did you add any memorabilia to the exhibit?

Williams: I did. I have one of the dresses that I wore in the “Let’s Hear It For The Boy” video that’s being displayed here. I’m very happy to be a part of this.

How did it feel being a part of the whole “Footloose” phenomenon?

Williams: Oh, it was just incredible! I remember I was in the studio recording with my producer, George Duke [Smokey Robinson, Anita Baker], and we got a call saying, “there’s only one song left in this movie that we’re doing the soundtrack for and we want to know if Deniece would be interested?” So George and I went over to the writers, [Tom Snow and Dean Pitchford], to hear the song. We left and George said, “we’re not doing this song.” I said, “George, come on, we have to do this song! It’s in a movie and it’s up-tempo. People say I’m a great balladeer. I can do up-tempo!” “We’re not doing that song.”

And so I tell people, “the man is the head, but the woman is the neck and she can turn that head any way she wants to once she puts her mind to it.” So I went to George’s wife, Corine, and I said “Corine, George won’t do that song with me,” and she said, “oh, don’t worry about it!” A week later, I’m in the studio recording “Let’s Hear It For The Boy” with George, and after 15 million sales, I said “George, what do you think about the song [now]?” “I still don’t like the song.” I said, “okay, send me your producer’s check. I’ll take it off your hands [laughs].

Did you ever expect that type of public reaction or were you prepared for it after recognizing the song’s quality when it was initially presented to you?

Williams: I really felt that it was going to be a big hit. I didn’t know where the song was gonna be placed in the film, but when I went to the premiere and I saw that Ren McCormack, [played by Kevin Bacon], learned how to dance off of my song, I sat there and I cried because I felt that was one of the most key points of that film, and [the fact] that I was a part of that was just incredible.

That all came after numerous Johnny Mathis duets. How is he as a lifelong collaborator?

Williams: Oh my God, he is such a sweetheart. The thing that I learned from John the most was to be humble, even though you’ve got all this success and you travel the world. He is probably one of the most humble people that you’ll ever want to meet. [Whenever] we get together, we just laugh about everything. I told him, when I [first] went in the studio, “I’ve been singing along with you since I was 12, every time you were on television, on Merv Griffin, or Johnny Carson, or Dinah Shore. I’ve been practicing this duet with you forever!” It was just incredible to sing with him and seeing everything that came out of that song, [1978’s “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late”], was tremendous.

What was it like going from mainstream stardom to fully immersing yourself in gospel?

Williams: You know, I’ve been doing gospel on all my secular projects. In fact, the first Grammy that I won for a gospel song was off of one of my secular records, so it wasn’t like I came in all of a sudden. There had been a progress of me always having gospel on my projects, even though my record label didn’t like it [laughs]. Oh my, the fights we had over that! So then when I did go on to do the Christian and the gospel music, it wasn’t a surprise to that audience because I’d been doing it all along.

Plus in 1984, “Let’s Hear It For The Boy” was nominated for a couple of Grammys, but it was Tina Turner’s year and I said, “I love Tina Turner. Let her [perform], but I do have a request. I’d like to sing in the gospel section.” And they said, “you what?” I said, “I want to sing in the gospel section.” And they said, “well, we only have a minute-and-a-half left.” I said “I’ll take it,” so I performed “God Is Truly Amazing” and it’s been said that it was one of the best performances of the evening. It was easy for me to do that and now I’m excited about my brand new jazz project…I’m thinking it will be out by the end of this year/first of 2022 at the latest, but it certainly will mean that I’ll be back out touring.

How’s your current live show shaping up?

Williams: The next show that I’ll be doing, I’m a co-producer/story writer of a theater piece called “Live At The Crescendo Club Starring Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald & Pearl Bailey.” We’re going out next year and we actually have a theater in Chicago that is interested in our having a residency there for a while. I’m gonna be doing the role of Sarah Vaughan. I love her voice, so I’m very excited about that.

What was the best part about growing up nearby in Indiana and the Midwest?

Williams: I am so grateful being born and raised in the Midwest. We have a different kind of attitude towards life. When you get out to California, it’s mostly make believe [laughs] and very few feet on the ground. In New York, they can be lovely, but they can be hard, you know? I love that I grew up here. I grew up in a Christian home, so [I have a] very firm foundation. It was a great upbringing and I think the values that we were raised up under in the Midwest were just tremendous.

How has faith guided you throughout the ups and downs of the music business?

Williams: It was my faith that kept me grounded. I came into the industry and I was already married with two children. I got off an airplane in Los Angeles with a 14-month-old and a two-month-old, so for me, I looked up and I said, “okay God, this has got to work!” And he has taken care of me. Everything that I’ve experienced certainly wasn’t my doing, or anything that I wanted to do, or went after. I just believed that this was God’s plan for my life. I’ve just trusted in Him, carried Him, been in prayer about what happens in my life, and what happens in the life of my children, and my grandchildren. I’ve seen God honor those prayers and do things for me that I could’ve never done on my own.

---

For additional information on Deniece Williams, visit Facebook.com/NiecyOfficial.