The Isley Brothers on Beyoncé, Jimi Hendrix and the Walk of Fame   

Back when the Isley Brothers scored their first hit with “Shout,” lead singer Ronald Isley couldn’t have imagined that the group would one day have their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which will be unveiled in a ceremony on Jan. 28. That’s because the Walk’s official groundbreaking didn’t take place until February 1960, six months following the song’s release and more than half a decade after the group began performing. And what would he have said if you had told him the Isleys would still be working in 2026, with an ambitious new album in the works?

“I would say that’s fantastic and amazing. Oh, man, that’s so awesome,” says Ronald, who leads the group with his lone surviving sibling, guitarist Ernie Isley. “So many years, man.”

Over those years, the Isley Brothers’ music has been the soundtrack to countless parties, backyard cookouts, weddings, hookups, heartbreaks, road trips and sporting events, as well as actual movies, with prominent needle drops in “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” “Rush Hour” and “Bridget Jones’s Baby,” among others. They even provided an early showcase for Jimi Hendrix, who, as a member of their backing band, made his recording debut on their 1964 single “Testify.”

The Isleys are the only act to score hits on the Billboard Hot 100 across six consecutive decades (1950s-2000s), cutting a wide stylistic swath from R&B raveups like the aforementioned million-seller “Shout” and “Twist & Shout” and the string-sweetened Motown track “This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)” to the funky soul of the horn-driven “It’s Your Thing” and the Latin-accented psychedelic guitar workout “That Lady.”

The Isleys songs have also been sampled frequently by hip-hop artists, most notably the group’s “quiet storm” soul classics “Footsteps in the Dark” (Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day”), “Between the Sheets” (Notorious B.I.G.’s “Big Poppa,” Megan Thee Stallion’s “Consistency”), “Ballad for the Fallen Solder” (Drake and 21 Savage’s “Privileged Rappers”) and “Voyage to Atlantis” (SZA’s “Kitchen”). And Kendrick Lamar tapped the heavier side of the Isleys when he incorporated “The Lady” into his 2014 single “I,” which features newly recorded recreations of the guitar riff and other elements of the song, along with a guest vocal from Ronald.

“They’re an evergreen of the hip-hop world. Everybody comes back to them time and time again,” says Rachael Conte, VP of sample clearance, legal and business affairs, for Sony Music Publishing. “Ron Isley’s vocals are legendary. Sometimes there’s a vocal sample, the bass line … it’s all parts of the song. You could take it apart and sample it any which way, and it’s gonna be a hit.”

The enduring power and reach of the Isley’s music was demonstrated at Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration festivities in 2009, when Garth Brooks led the president and vice president-elect and their wives in a sing-along of “Shout” in front of the Lincoln Memorial. But, for Ernie, the best example of its impact might be the time he met Paul McCartney at a private event at businessman Ron Perelman’s estate.

“[McCartney] gives me a bear hug and just about cuts my wind off and says, ‘Ernie, if it were not for the Isley Brothers, the Beatles would still be in Liverpool,’” recalls Ernie. “When we got on stage together, he said that again for everybody to hear. And we performed with Bon Jovi, Jennifer Hudson, Usher and I don’t know who else. Wow. It was just one of those moments. To see everybody stand up, clap their hands, and sing ‘Twist and Shout’ and ‘Shout’ … They’re just like ‘Happy Birthday,’ right?”

In 2022, the Isleys returned to the charts with a remake of their 1975 song “Make Me Say It Again, Girl,” featuring a co-lead vocal by Beyoncé. It had a 37-week run on Billboard’s Adult R&B Songs chart, peaking at No. 1, and made strong showings on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay (No. 9) and Hot R&B Songs (No. 20) charts, but somehow missed the Hot 100.

“I called [Beyoncé’s] mother [Tina Knowles], and I said, ‘We’re going to do this [remake], and I want to do it with Beyoncé,’” recalls Ronald. “She called her, and she called me back in five minutes. She said, ‘Please, I want to do it with you.’”

Producer/engineer Tony Maserati, a longtime Beyoncé collaborator, was brought in to seamlessly blend her vocal with Isley’s in the final mix.

“Ron was just a pleasure. He knows exactly what to say, and he knows exactly what he’s looking for, and that’s the mark of a real pro,” says Maserati. 

He’s even more impressed by the Isleys’ remarkable stamina. “They knocked out a record a year for a very long time, and that’s not done anymore. There were some things where they were at the forefront and other things where they were catching up. And that’s what artists do. That’s survival in a tough business. That’s like being in the Olympics every year.”

Schooled in a variety of genres, from country & western and R&B to pop and gospel, the original lineup of the Isley Brothers began performing together in their native Cincinnati in 1954, encouraged by their father O’Kelly Isley Sr., a Navy veteran and former vaudevillian. They quickly scored a major success, taking first place on the national TV competition show “Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour.” But, in September 1954, the family was dealt a devastating blow when 11-year-old Vernon — who, contrary to reports, was not their lead singer — was killed when he was hit by a vehicle while riding a bicycle to school. Encouraged by their mother Sallye, a church pianist and organist, they soldiered on as a trio. 

After the death of their father in 1957, the family relocated to Teaneck, N.J., to be closer to the action in New York City. In 1959, the Isleys signed to RCA Victor and scored a hit with the self-penned “Shout,” and followed two years later with “Twist & Shout” for independent label Wand Records, which hit No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1963, the Isleys hired a new guitarist from Seattle, an Army vet named Jimi Hendrix. They bought him his first Fender Stratocaster and let him live at the family home, where he made a big impression on 11-year-old Ernie.

“This guy was unlike any musician I had heard or seen,” says Ernie of Hendrix, who sat next to him on the family couch as they watched the Beatles make their debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Feb. 9, 1964. “I didn’t know why he was practicing so much because he didn’t need to practice. He just played that well.”

Ernie famously channeled Hendrix with his distorted, liquid lead on their 1973 hit “That Lady,” recorded with a collection of newly acquired gear: a Fender Strat and Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi distortion and Maestro PS1-A Phase Shifter pedals.

“I hit the very first note on the guitar solo, and the entire song changed into something else,” says Ernie, who played his first live gig with the Isleys as a drummer at 14 and went on to play bass on their hit “It’s Your Thing,” before switching to guitar. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ I had never sounded like that. I never played like that.”

Time has taken its toll on the Isleys. They lost eldest brother O’Kelly at the age of 48 in 1986, and youngest brother Marvin (who played bass with the Isleys from the early 1970s through 1997) passed at 56 in 2010, followed by Rudolph at 84 in 2023. In March, Ernie will turn 74, and Ronald turns 85 two months later, but they aren’t stopping. Inspired by their success with Beyoncé, they’re working on an album full of collabs with a collection of high-profile contemporary artists.

And, as far as Ernie is concerned, all of his siblings are still with him.

“I virtually communicate with all of my brothers every day. That’s a spiritual thing,” he says. “We have collectively shared in the music, so there’s no disconnect, really. And me and Ronald — it’s a great thing. It’s wonderful.”

Tipsheet
WHAT The Isley Brothers receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
WHEN Jan. 28, 11:30 a.m.
WHERE 7051 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood
WEB http://www.walkoffame.com