Veteran highlife-jùjú musician Ebenezer Obey has hinted that death will hit him faster if he ever retired from performing his music.
Unlike his aged colleague, Dr Victor Olaiya who has been instructed by his doctors to cut down on his music performance, Ebenezer Obey states that music is his elixir.
“I must tell you something. If I retire from music, I would die quickly. That is what I feel. I have been diabetic since I was 30 years old. It took the power and ministry of God to keep me alive. It has affected my eyes but I am not blind. As it is, I would say it is the miracle of God. Playing music is a tonic for me. At 75, all I want is whatever pleases God.”
The musician turned cleric told Saturday Beats crew how much he missed his deceased wife and how much he still misses her and that there no plans of getting remarried.
“I met my wife when I was a struggling musician and her parents told her not to marry me. They warned her not to marry a musician but she told them that she was going to marry me. I met her in her elder brother’s place because he was my friend. When I met her, we greeted and that was how we started.
“When you are a musician and the ladies tell you that you are handsome, you are in trouble. They used to tell me that when I was much younger. That was a big problem. We thank God I was able to overcome that. Women are part of music and I had my own fair share of that but God helped me to put it under control because He knew He was taking me somewhere. I want my life to be read. I am not hiding anything. Then, I did not drink neither did I smoke because my mother had warned me against that and it was believed that every musician engaged in such but I had my fair share of women,” he said.
“I would kickstart my 75th birthday celebration at Idogo, where I built a police post to give back to the society that made me who I am today. It would be inaugurate. Also, the Idogo Area Progressive Union where I am a pioneer member is making the king and me the chief patrons of the club due to my contribution to the community. On April 3, at Abeokuta, there will be a church service in the morning at the Olusegun Obasanjo Event Centre. The former president actually paid for the hall. On that day, I also intend to launch the Ebenezer Obey Music Foundation. The aim of the foundation is to train youngsters in music and it would be affiliated to the Olabisi Onabanjo University. I also want to have endowments in different universities so that I can give scholarships to students. Also my friends are planning something in Lagos before the year runs out,” he said.
