‘A dream come true:’ Inside the Buffalo life of R&B legend Brian McKnight

Brian McKnight never had a backup plan.

During his time at Oakwood University in Alabama, the singer had a 3.4 GPA. But McKnight’s grades suffered the following semester.

The now award-winning R&B superstar wasn’t focused on his academics. He was in the studio, creating roughly 150 song demos. His GPA dropped to 0.9.

McKnight eventually got kicked out of school, giving him more time to focus on his music.

“People always talk about having stuff to fall back on. I kind of always felt like if you have something to fall back on, you’ll fall back on it,” McKnight said.

With 16 Grammy nominations, eleven Hot 100 hits and 30 million records sold worldwide, McKnight’s career is the result of his refusal to fall back. The singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist is a 25-year industry regular, and looks back on his Buffalo roots as a reason for his massive success.

“I’m not sure if growing up anywhere else, I would be the same me. I think it’s been super important,” McKnight said. “Anybody can come from New York. Anybody can come from LA. Anybody can come from Miami. Being from Buffalo, there’s only a few of us that made it out.”

A different dream

McKnight was born in 1969, and grew up in North Tonawanda where he learned to sing at the foot of his grandfather. His family lived on Vine Lane off Sweet Home Road, and McKnight considered his neighborhood a “melting pot of everyone.”

“I think when you grow up there, you learn how to dream, number one. And that’s something that’s really, really important because winters are so bleak. There’s nothing else you can do,” McKnight joked.

McKnight grew up with three older brothers: Michael, Claude and Fred, who introduced him to sports and shared their music tastes with him.

A career in sports was McKnight’s first goal.

McKnight and his brothers, who were five, six and seven years older than him, played little league football in Amherst. Although they were involved with a local church choir, their priorities were on the football field or in the stands, according to McKnight. He watched the Buffalo Braves, Bills and the Sabres with his father. He remembers a “hockey Christmas” where he and his brothers all received skates and sticks. They froze over their backyard that year so the kids could play hockey.

Watching professional sports and playing with his brothers gave him his idea of what he wanted to be.

“If I had been two inches taller, no one would have known I could sing at all. The NBA was always my dream, although football was probably my best sport,” McKnight said. “I don’t think any dream is really obtainable until you have an opportunity.”

A new opportunity

Although McKnight loved sports, his family recognized his vocal talent and got him involved in their local church choir at Emmanuel Temple. McKnight and his three brothers formed and sang in an a cappella group, appropriately named the McKnight Brothers. The boys went from church to church performing their music.

But McKnight was tired.

“My weekends were filled with ‘go sing here then make it to halftime at the [Little League] game,’” McKnight said.

“None of us wanted to sing. I mean, we liked it, but we wanted to be out there with the guys playing sports. It was a tough thing. But none of us would say that we hate it now because of what it’s done for us.”

But when he wasn’t singing at church, McKnight was involved in music at Willow Ridge Elementary School.

“I sang at a school thing in third grade. Before I went on stage, one of the ladies put makeup on me and I cried for [her] making me a girl. That was my first memory of singing in front of people other than church,” McKnight said.

Joanne Cretacci, the current vocal music teacher at Willow Ridge Elementary School, wasn’t teaching during McKnight’s time at the school, but welcomes McKnight to return.

“I think his success is wonderful and doesn’t surprise me because many outstanding musicians have come out of the Sweet Home program,” Cretacci said. “I intend to share Brian and his history and music with my students. If he would like to come for a visit here we would surely welcome him.”

During and shortly after his time at Willow Ridge, McKnight learned to play multiple instruments. He taught himself how to play piano, then learned guitar at 12, bass at 15 or 16 and played trumpet in band in the sixth grade.

Songwriting came easily to McKnight at an early age, too.

“When I was a kid they put all the credits on the records. They put who played, the people who wrote it, the people who produced it. Some of the same names were always coming up –– that’s the writers. It dawned on me that the songs were probably more important than any other part of what I’m seeing. I always wrote instrumentals but I didn’t start writing lyrics until I was 14,” McKnight said.

“Even now, with all the success as an artist, I’m a songwriter first because without the songs, I wouldn’t have a vehicle at all.”

Finding success

McKnight moved from Buffalo to Orlando in 1978. Nine years later, everything changed for the McKnight brothers.

In 1987, Brian’s brother, Claude, signed a record deal with Warner Brothers for his a cappella group Take 6.

“[I thought] if that guy can make it than surely I can make it,” McKnight said.

Brian then sent out his own demo tapes to labels.

In 1989, while departing from Oakwood University, he signed his first record deal with PolyGram Records. The record company’s president heard his first demo single and flew him to Los Angeles.

It took McKnight three years to put out his debut album, but 1992’s certified-platinum “Brian McKnight” was just the first taste of success for the singer.

Since releasing his debut album, McKnight has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. His accomplishments got him inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in 1998.

Van Taylor, a trustee at the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame, said McKnight is a “true native son” of Buffalo and is impressed by his longevity in the industry.

“[It’s] impressive. The entertainment business can take a heavy toll on anyone, from health to personal stress. To see him still kicking is a beautiful thing,” Taylor said.

Marchon Hamilton II, a UB campus minister and music artist, met Claude McKnight and Take 6 before and said it would be great to meet and sing with Brian someday.

“As an upcoming music artist, Brian is someone whose level of success both vocally and professionally I aspire to attain,” Hamilton said.

In his 25 years in the industry, McKnight sang for Michael Jackson, was nominated for 16 Grammys and performed alongside Mariah Carey and Drake. But McKnight said none of things are his proudest industry moment.

“It’s right now,” McKnight said. “People still come to see me. They put down their hard-earned money to come hear songs, some of which are thirty years old. … It’s a crazy feeling –– even crazier than selling a bunch of records. After all this time, this is still happening.”

Brenton Blanchet is the senior arts editor and can be reached at Brenton.Blanchet@ubspectrum.com and @BrentBlanchSpec.

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