WHERE ARE THEY NOW? |
Wiz kid
Serena Kappes
(PEOPLE)
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(PEOPLE) -- Late-night feedings and diaper changes aren't exactly the stuff that normally inspires a career, but Stephanie Mills would tell you differently.
The singer, who rose to fame as a teenager starring in the hit 1970s Broadway show "The Wiz," is now a single mom and credits her son, Farad, born in February 2001, with giving her a renewed outlook on her career. "It was like a breath of fresh air," she says of having a child.
That reinvigoration helped lead Mills to a place she hadn't visited in more than five years: a recording studio. Mills decided the time was right to record "Born for This," her first mainstream album since 1992's "Something Real" (she also recorded a 1995 gospel album, "Personal Inspirations"). And, says Mills, "when you're going to the store and people were like, 'Oh, we miss you,' " she knew the time was right to record again.
Giving her fans what they want is something that Mills, 45, has been doing since she first stepped on the Broadway stage at age 10 in the musical "Maggie Flynn." A diminutive child with a powerhouse voice, she then rose to fame as Dorothy in "The Wiz," based on "The Wizard of Oz," which ran from 1974 to 1979. But she didn't make the leap to the big screen to play the role in the 1978 film version -- that honor went to Diana Ross. "I was a fan, so it didn't really bother me too much," she says.
The blow was also softened by the fact that Mills made a seamless transition from musical theater to R&B stardom, scoring a slew of hits with gold-selling albums including 1979's "What Cha' Gonna Do with My Lovin'" and 1980's "Sweet Sensation." "(It's) hard to do for some people that come from theater, so I was really blessed," Mills says. She also earned a Grammy in 1980 for best female R&B vocal.
In the late 1980s, the Brooklyn, New York, native returned to the theater, appearing in a number of musical plays such as "Your Arms Too Short to Box with God" (costarring Teddy Pendergrass). But after not performing her own songs for a decade, Mills began touring again in 2001. "Coming back to feel the love from people, it's really, really a high," she says.
And although she wasn't married (she is thrice divorced), Mills decided to fulfill her lifelong dream of having a child. "I wanted to have children when I was married, but it just didn't work out, so I chose to do it alone," she says. (Farad's father is a friend whose name she chooses not to reveal.) Mills gets plenty of help from her family (including parents Joseph and Christine), who live near her in Charlotte, North Carolina.
With "Born for This" (which is set for a February release), Mills says she is ready for whatever comes her way. "Everything seems brand new," she says. "I'm excited about it -- and that's what you should be."
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