You’ve performed all over the world. Which of your performances is the most memorable?
Ah! Ah! Honestly, they are all memorable to me oh!
So you can’t choose a particular one as your best?
Most of the time, I feel great about them. It’s only some that I feel this was not good, that I didn’t get it right along the line, but I’ve never felt one was the best. Most of the time, I just feel fantastic, we did it again. But sometimes, I just feel I didn’t do it well, I missed some things …
How do you know?
You’ll know you made mistakes now.
On a performance level, let’s say you are perfect. Financially, which show has been your best?
I’m sorry, but this is something I’ll never talk about, because again, I try to keep Lagabaja away from the issue of money, money. I want to concentrate on my act. Money is not everything, but it’s very important, and that’s why we want to see piracy reduced.
What else do you do apart from music?
Truly, it’s mostly music, because it’s such a vast area. There are even many things I want to do in music that I’ve not had time for. As a songwriter, singer and instrumentalist, I have to work on myself more and more all the time. So there’s really so much to do in music that you won’t have time for anything else except some other things you like to do like watching movies, TV and stuff.
Who sews your Lagabaja costumes?
A tailor ni oh!
Where is he or she?
If you know him, then you’ll know …
We hear of the rivalry between you and Femi Kuti. Do you feel you are better than him or he is better than you?
No! I don’t look at myself as better than anybody. I appreciate his music. And we relate well, you know.
There will always be some rivalry in terms of you’re doing this, can I do better? But my mentality will never be that of I’m better than you. All I do is appreciate you. There’s no palaver at all.
There was a time you, Femi, Seun, Dede, Alariwo and others were always grouped together as the new disciples of afrobeat. But what is happening to afrobeat now?
I am not playing afrobeat, but Fela is a big influence on me. If you listen to my music very well, you’ll hear juju in my talking drums. You’ll also hear afrobeat, apart from many other influences. I don’t play it, but I can tell you afrobeat is doing very well internationally. Very well because the way to measure how successful a style is, is when other people start to play that style. The reason many people are not playing it in Nigeria is because it’s more complex to perform.
Do you regret that Ego is no longer with you?
It can’t be regret lai lai! If you say sometimes miss her, yes. But regret, no. No regret because she has to go to higher grounds.
You were once said to be driving a cab in the US.
Another of those big, empty stories. It doesn’t even deserve an answer. By the way, as I told someone before, it’s not as to drive a cab is bad work oh! Work is work. But the truth is that I had no business with any cab.
Considering how good you are musically, are any of your children taking to music?
Does Lagbaja have children?
Delightexclusive 