Arrington helped turn Ohio into America’s funkiest state, but turned away from music for 25 years to work as a minister – and find himself. Now he’s back with a new album
Yellow Springs, Ohio, is buzzing, despite it being a weekday afternoon in a pandemic. When Steve Arrington and I meet at a cafe on the town’s main strip, we instinctively reach out our hands to shake. And then, midway, we remember. As we switch to the now-common elbow bump, he sighs. “We do what we can to get by, I guess.”
Arrington, 64, is no stranger to adaptation. His career as one of the greatest funk stars in the US began on the underground scene in nearby Dayton just as it began to take off in the mid-1970s. Arrington’s older brother was in bands, and some of the best funk drummers of the era would come to the family home and play while a young Steve sat on the steps. They would give him permission to play on their kits when they weren’t using them, and this is how Arrington drummed his way into bands throughout the area, most notably joining Slave in 1978 as a drummer before sliding in as a backup vocalist and eventually taking over as lead singer.
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