An interview with 'Kool' of Kool & the Gang

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A novelty act from a generation ago?

Sure,  Kool & the Gang are living off their many hits of the 1970s and 1980s. They'll be the featured act at next Tuesday's Orange Bowl because of iconic songs like "Celebration," "Ladies Night" and "Jungle Boogie" from decades ago.

But the only U.S. musical act to get permission from the Obama administration to perform in Cuba? Kool & the Gang.

The group played in Havana on Dec. 20 before what group founder Robert "Kool" Bell said was a crowd of 250,000.

"We were invited by the Cuban Institute of Music," Bell said in a phone interview with me this week.

While in Havana, Bell said "We're not politicans, we're musicians." And they resonate with the Cubans.

"Our music has been very popular in Cuba for many years," Bell said. "It's only 90 miles from the U.S., so they've heard our songs on radio stations from Florida. And a lot of people have come to Cuba from Canada, France, and other parts of the world would bring our music there."

The crowd was one of the three largest the 40-year-old group has played before. The others were a July 4 celebration -- there's that word again -- near the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and a concert for AIDS awareness in Kenya.

Kool & the Gang are global. Among their tour stops in the next three months are Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo, and Santa Fe, N.M. They played in the Republic of Georgia and in Russia last October.

Bell, 59, has been asked countless times why the group's songs endured when so many others fade to obscurity?

"The music is a funky, raw soul sound," he said. It's been in "Rocky," "Pulp Fiction" and "Saturday Night Fever."

"They're the type of songs that gravitate toward people," Bell said. "It's been a blessing. It doesn't happen all the time."

Kool & the Gang will play for an hour at Monday's Orange Bowl Fan Fest in Miami. They'll do eight minutes at halftime of the Orange Bowl.

I'm guessing it will be a celebration.