Funeral services for William Franklin Guest, a founding member of Gladys Knight & the Pips, will be Saturday at the southwest Atlanta church where he grew up singing.
Guest sang backup vocals for the group’s many hits, including “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (1967) and “Midnight Train to Georgia.”
Known for his wit and easygoing manner, the singer, who family and friends called “Red” and “Bae-bruh” loved a good joke and always made time to mentor aspiring artists, they said.
“His legacy will live on because of the contributions he made not just as a Pip but to the company and young artists,” said friend Alfred “Butch” Burch, CEO of Detroit-based Crew Records, which he co-founded with Guest, Pip member Edward Patten and others. “He retained his voice quality and enthusiasm for music until the very end. He was a good guy and a good friend.”
Guest of Jonesboro died of congestive heart failure on Dec. 24 in Detroit at the age of 74.
His “Celebration of Life” will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Mount Moriah Baptist Church near the Atlanta University Center.
“He will be remembered for his talent,” Pips member Merald “Bubba” Knight said. “In my opinion, Bae-bruh was the best male voice in the group. I feel like I’m on the road now without my big brother.”
Born in Atlanta on July 2, 1941, Guest was the youngest of four children born to John and Margaret Guest. He grew up in a family that loved singing.
As a child, he, his sister and cousins sang for relatives and neighbors on his grandmother’s back porch in Lynwood Park, a historic black community in Brookhaven.
At Mount Moriah, Guest performed the Fedilia Aires children’s gospel ensemble. “The children were so good that they started getting invitations to sing at other churches and musicals at funeral homes,” said the group’s pianist Dorothy Walker. “William was a sweet child. He never caused any problems. He was the ring bearer at my wedding.”
In 1952, Guest, his sister Eleanor, cousins Gladys, Bubba and their sister Brenda Knight started a singing group called the Pips, named for their cousin and manager James “Pip” Woods.
The Pips entered talent shows, and their manager lined up gigs at clubs and other venues on the weekend.
“We sang gospel in church on Sunday morning and went to work singing at the club on Sunday night,” Bubba said. “Then we’d get up to go to school the next day.”
Although underage, the youngsters performed at the Royal Peacock and the Auburn Avenue Casino, under the watchful eye of relatives. They’d perform the first show and then go sit in the car until the second show started.
“That was to keep the clubs from losing their liquor license,” Bubba said. “We became the house band at the Royal Peacock.”
In the late 1950s, the Pips traveled the South with Supersonic Attractions tour, starring artists such as Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke and B.B. King
Their first single, “Whistle My Love,” was recorded for Brunswick Records in 1958. After Eleanor and Brenda left the Pips, Langston George and another cousin, Edward Patten, joined the group.
As Gladys Knight & the Pips, the group won multiple Grammy and American Music awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Apollo Hall of Fame in 2006 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.
After the group broke up in 1989, Guest and Patten dabbled in the natural food business and started a production company. Guest started his own record label, Guest Shot Records, in College Park and later co-founded Crew Records in Detroit. Patten died in 2005.
In 2013, Guest published his autobiography, “Midnight Train From Georgia: A Pip’s Journey.”
“He was funny, but he was serious about the music profession,” said his friend Charles Mitchell, founder and director of the Jus’ Blues Music Foundation. “He was a great songwriter and vocal arranger and producer who mentored a lot of young artists.”
A few days before his death, Guest was in the Crew Records studio in Detroit, recording his solo CD, “Heart Don’t Change Your Mind.”
“He loved life, and he loved people. But most of all, he loved his family. He had a kindhearted spirit,” said his daughter Selena Andrews of Riverdale.
In addition to his daughter Selena, Guest is survived by his brothers John Guest and Ernest Leon Guest, his stepsister Andretta Poole-Jones and cousin Elizabeth Madison; his daughters Alesa Julien, Monique Guest-Schuh and Crystal Holly; sons William Guest II, Jonathan Guest, Christopher Guest, Sean Holly, Michael Giles and Richard Mosley; nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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