MASON CITY | Darlene Love, one of the background singers featured in “20 Feet from Stardom” which won this year’s Oscar for best documentary, said the film has changed her life.
“It’s given me a grander playground,” she said during a telephone interview with the Globe Gazette.
Now instead of performing just on the East and West coasts, she is doing concerts in places she’s never sung before, such as Kansas City and Mason City.
Love, who will perform at the North Iowa Community Auditorium on Saturday, was inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame in 2011 for her contributions to music.
She sang lead for the 1960s girl group The Blossoms. Their biggest hit, “He’s a Rebel,” topped the Billboard Hot 100 but it was credited to another girl group, The Crystals.
Love has provided background vocals for some of the biggest names in music, including Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin and Bruce Springsteen.
In the past people didn’t pay much attention to backup singers like Love and her “20 Feet From Stardom” co-stars — including Judith Hill, Merry Clayton and Lisa Fisher — but they had an important role to play.
“We were supposed to make them (the stars) sound better,” she said. “We gave them the energy to do their shows.”
She said one of her favorite singers to work with was Sam Cooke.
“He was a wonderful, sexy man,” she said.
