<\/p>\n
Gregg Martinez\u2019s soulful voice has brought him from Carencro to Malaysia and more than a dozen countries in between. He still has Ivana Trump\u2019s handwritten note of praise he received during his four years of performing exclusively at Trump casinos in the 1980s in Atlantic City.<\/p>\n
Martinez hung out with superstar singer Teddy Pendergrass and songwriters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, architects of the \u201cPhilly Soul\u201d sound who churned out 75 gold and platinum records in the 1970s and \u201880s.<\/p>\n
Record executives were ready to make Martinez the next star. But the casino fast life and his south Louisiana roots just weren\u2019t in the groove.<\/p>\n
\u201cI squandered the whole thing,\u201d said Martinez, who\u2019s now a retired school bus driver living in Opelousas. \u201cI was too busy partying and didn\u2019t take it seriously enough.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t connect with the music so much. I was so Southern, and they were more of the Philadelphia sound. I was 28, but I was a young 28. I was a late bloomer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez has bloomed into a seasoned performer, hosting his \u201c50th Anniversary Career Celebration\u201d at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Rock \u2018n\u2019 Bowl in downtown Lafayette. He shows off his self-described \u201cpowerhouse Louisiana soul\u201d singing style, with flavors of R&B, blues and swamp pop.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel like 50 years,\u201d Martinez, 69, said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how that even happened. Everything just flew by. I\u2019m not retiring. This is not a retirement party.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 50th anniversary also has Martinez reminiscing about his post-casino journey as a Christian singer with three albums. He became a noted speaker in an anti-drug program that brought him to churches and schools throughout Europe, Africa and Asia.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
By 2006, Martinez was back in Louisiana, ready to sing the R&B and swamp pop he left behind. His \u201cBig Bad Daddy\u201d CD kicked off a stream of a dozen albums and times as lead singer of the legendary Boogie Kings.<\/p>\n
The praise continued when Ed Bradley of \u201c60 Minutes\u201d fame grabbed Martinez backstage at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to say, \u201cYou are one of the best-kept secrets in this country.\u201d Martinez sang at the funeral of soul great Percy Sledge.<\/p>\n
Martinez remains a festival performer and continues to record songs, along with video performances. A cover of Donny Hathaway\u2019s \u201cA Song for You\u201d was released Aug. 1 on YouTube.<\/p>\n
Nola Blue Records has put out his original song and video, \u201cStreets of New Orleans,\u201d which marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Martinez\u2019s hopes and dreams are now far removed from Atlantic City.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
\u201cI have a strong faith,” he says. “I spend every morning with my prayer time. I don\u2019t pray for the same things anymore. I just pray for God to create opportunities to sing that I never dreamed of\u00a0\u2014 and just see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herman Fuselier is a writer, broadcaster and tourism director living in Opelousas. His \u201cZydeco Stomp\u201d radio show airs at noon Central time Saturdays on KRVS 8.7 FM and online at KRVS Public Media.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.theadvocate.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gregg Martinez\u2019s soulful voice has brought him from Carencro to Malaysia and more than a dozen countries in between. He still has Ivana Trump\u2019s handwritten note of praise he received during his four years of performing exclusively at Trump casinos in the 1980s in Atlantic City. Martinez hung out with superstar singer Teddy Pendergrass and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1952709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1952708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Gregg-Martinez-is-celebrating-a-50-year-career-in-music.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1952708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1952709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1952708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1952708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1952708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}