Shirley Caesar has created forty-one albums over the years and is legendary in music circles. Her music and her character have positively shaped the lives of everyone from today's singers to as she would say common folk. In 2005 Oprah Winfrey acknowledged Shirley's efforts with and invitation to the Legends Ball which honors those who have made significant contributions to the arts and entertainment industries.

She has drawn the praise of people such as Blind Boys of Alabama's Ricky McKinnie who says, "Shirley Caesar is one of the greatest female gospel singers of all time. No wonder her last name is Caesar."

When contacted gospel singing dynamo CeCe Winans said, "Shirley Caesar is without a doubt one of my musical heroes. She praises God with power, beauty, and grace. I love her!"

Despite her accomplishments (11 Grammys and 18 Dove Awards) and the accolades of others Caesar protests when I tell her that some would say she is the greatest gospel singer of all time. Before I could finish making that remark she was already protesting, "No, no, no, I just love the Lord and I love singing. There are far better singers on the back rows of choirs than me. If anyone would have ever told me years ago that my career would have expanded and mushroomed as it did I would not have believed them. I think that the difference is many of them (who have not received the same attention) have not been through what I have been through so I probably have a greater anointing. When it comes to being a great singer no."

Now entering her twenty-third year of marriage to Bishop Harold Williams Caesar pastors the Mount Calvary Word of Faith church in North Carolina where she was born. She takes delight and expresses amazement at the people she has met. Sounding much like the girl who would say I will never wash this hand again she marvels that John Travolta kissed her hand. She says of fellow singer Patti Labelle, "I am grateful for Patti Labelle. I had the privilege of working with her on my Shirley Caesar and Friends CD. She was an awesome blessing." She also counts herself as privileged to have worked with Gladys Knight.

She took acting pointers from Cuba Gooding Junior when she appeared in "The Fighting Temptations" with Gooding Junior and Beyonce Knowles. She also acted in the movie "Why Do Fools Fall In Love". She appeared in Broadway's "Born to Sing" and collaborated with Cissy Houston and Tramaine Hawkins for the gospel musical "This Is My Song". Her soundtrack credits include the movies, "Preacher's Wife" and "Rosewood".

Life however has not always been easy for the girl who grew up in a home with a semi-invalid mother, no father and one of twelve children. "I knew what it was in the early years of my career that while I was singing the promoter was running off with the money. I still had to come up with something for my group members to get them back home. I knew what it was to be in a city and couldn't even get out of the hotel. I know what it was to be run by a pitchfork with rednecks trying to kill me. God spared my life," she says.

It was her humble beginnings and her mother's encouraging words and advice that have fueled Caesar's career. "Mom often made it very clear to me that the people were depending on me and she said, 'I am depending on you and God is depending on you. Don't let us down. Don't you ever go out and sing one thing and live something else.' That stayed with me not because momma said it but because when you get the greater one who is the Lord Jesus in your life then He makes a difference.  Just the very fact that momma would always say that to me made a great impact upon my life."

One might think that a gospel singer in her late sixties would have become set in her ways. One might even think that she could be afforded the luxury of being stubborn about singing only a particular style of music but such is not the case with Caesar. As a matter of fact on her most recent CD "I Know The Truth" she does a duet with rapper Tonéx. She describes for me how it wasn't that big a change for her as she walks through her house picking up inanimate objects and uses them as imaginary microphones. Still talking to me she breaks into an impromptu rap.