The NY Beacon

Bookin’ It
Richard Smallwood releases memoir
23
Author Richard Smallwood
The Richard Smallwood Singers
BEACON, December 12 – December 18, 2019 newyorkbeacon.com
Posted By Don Thomas
Multiple Award-winning
Recording Artist/Songwriter,
and
Author, Richard Smallwood,
released his memoir “Total
Praise: The Autobiography,”
with the foreword written by
Tony Award winner Phylicia
Rashad on November 11,
2019, two weeks before his
71st birthday.
Smallwood chronicles his
life as a musician and composer
and the highs and lows of his
music career. He also shares
his journey of love, loss, grief,
and his bouts of depression,
mental illness and his obsession
with suicide.
He also documents his
humble beginnings from Atlanta,
Georgia to Washington,
DC, to his love of music as a
child prodigy to his memories
of segregation to the Civil
Rights Movement and beyond.
As a young child, Smallwood
also experienced trauma with
regular beatings and physical
abuse by his stepfather, including
the time his stepfather
sexually molested a little girl
at the church, who was one of
his friends.
The memoir is an intimate
and engaging autobiography
with countless stories of tragedies
and triumphs by one of
America’s most revered music
legends.
With all of his many career
achievements, accolades, and
awards, Smallwood, like many
other people, has suffered from
depression and mental illness
for decades. With a powerful
testimony and excerpt from his
book, he is transparent about
his struggles with the disease
and the obsession he had with
suicide.
“The year 2015 was a rough
one for me. After stopping
my medication in 2010 for no
other reason than thinking I
didn’t need it any longer, the
depression began to creep back
in increments. It was so gradual
that I didn’t realize it was
returning. By 2015, I knew that
it was back. I just didn’t want
to admit it. I didn’t want to talk
to my therapist because I knew
deep down inside I needed to
get back on medication, and
that was what she was going
to tell me. But each month,
it seemed like it would get
worse. Being consumed with
death began to invade my
mind again.”
“The depression
was so thick it was
almost physical.
In fact, it was
so thick, it was
almost visible.
Day by day, it
got worse until
it was hard for
me to get out of
bed. By the time
that Thanksgiving,
the anniversary of
Mom’s death, and
Christmas all came
around, it had gotten
scary. I hid it from
my family and everyone.
I spent many
days googling on the
Internet how to end
my life painlessly.
“I didn’t want to
suffer or be maimed
in some type of permanent
way and yet
still be alive, I just
wanted it to end. I
watched video after
video on YouTube
of suicides, people
shooting themselves
in the head, people
hanging themselves,
and jumping from
buildings, thinking I
just needed to find a
painless way to end it.
“I became morbidly
fascinated by watching
these suicides and couldn’t
stop watching them. Every
time I would Google ‘painless
suicides,’ a suicide hotline
number would come up on the
screen and say, ‘call immediately.’
I didn’t want help. I just
wanted it to be over.”
Smallwood will begin his
yearlong North American and
international tour, “The Total
Praise Experience,” in 2020
where he will not only participate
in workshops and performances,
but he will
engage in
conversation with audiences,
supporters and fans about his
many life lessons and how he
has overcome obstacles and
continue to struggle daily to
remain mentally and spiritually
healthy.
Richard Smallwood began
to play music by ear at
the age of five. By seven, he
took formal music lessons,
and by eleven, he had formed
his gospel group made up
of neighborhood children.
During his junior high school
years, Robert Flack was one of
his music teachers who significantly
influenced his growth
and development.
While at Howard
University, Smallwood
was also a student
of the late great
Dr. Thomas Kerr
and was a member
of the first gospel
group, the Celestials
on Howard
University’s campus,
who years later
became one of the
first gospel groups
to perform at the
Montreux Jazz Festival
in Montreux,
Switzerland. Richard
was also a
founding member
of the Howard Gospel
Choir.
During his college
days, he became
friends with
Donny Hathaway,
who also had a major
impact on his
career. Smallwood
also played and
wrote music for
numerous productions
at Howard
University’s Drama
Department,
where he worked
alongside fellow
students and sisters,
Phylicia Allen-Rashad and
Debbie Allen.
After graduating from Howard
University, Smallwood
taught private lessons at the
Washington School of Music,
and later for the Washington,
DC Public School system and
the University of Maryland,
College Park.
In 1977, he formed the
Richard Smallwood Singers.
In 1981, he secured his first
record deal with Benson Records.
His debut album, The
Richard Smallwood Singers,
spent 87 weeks on Billboard
magazine’s Gospel charts,
which cultivated a fresh,
young, and sophisticated audience
for the ensemble and
produced the now classic, “I
Love The Lord.”
Best known for his global
anthem, “Total Praise,” “Center
of My Joy,” and “I Love
the Lord,” he has released 19
albums and received 11 Stellar
Gospel Music Awards, four
Dove Awards, one NAACP
Image Award and eight Grammy
Award nominations. His
music continues to influence
generations of music lovers
and creators globally.
Throughout his career,
he has worked with a wide
range of music artists, including
Aretha Franklin, Edwin
Hawkins, Whitney Houston,
Chaka Khan, Yolanda Adams,
Destiny’s Child, Karen
Clark Sheard, and Kelly Price,
among numerous others.
Richard Smallwood graduated
from Howard University
cum laude in 1971 with a
Bachelor of Music. In 2004,
he earned a Master of Divinity
from Howard University
School of Divinity and was
ordained at his home church,
Metropolitan Baptist Church
in Washington, DC. In 2006,
he was inducted into the GMA
Gospel Music Hall of Fame.