Gladys Knight, known as the ‘Empress of Soul,’ is scheduled to take the Aiken Theatre stage this summer for an amazing show on July 31. The seven-time Grammy Award-winner is known for hits she recorded during the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s with her group The Pips, a group that included her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight and cousins William Guest and Edward Patten.
Knight has recorded two number-one Billboard Hot 100 singles, ‘Midnight Train to Georgia,’ and ‘That's What Friends Are For,’ eleven number-one R&B singles and six number-one R&B albums. She has won four Grammy Awards as a solo artist and three Grammy’s with The Pips. Two of her songs, ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine,’ and ‘Midnight Train to Georgia,’ were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for ‘historical, artistic and significant’ value. She also recorded the theme song for the 1989 James Bond film License to Kill. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Knight among the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
In 1995, Knight earned her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the next year, Gladys Knight & The Pips were inducted into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame. Knight published an autobiography, Between Each Line of Pain and Glory (a line taken from her million-selling recording ‘Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me’), and the next year, she and The Pips were presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. In 2004, Knight received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual BET Awards ceremony.
All told, Knight has recorded more than 38 albums over the years, including four solo albums during the past decade, Good Woman, Just for You, Many Different Roads, and At Last, showing the world she still has what it takes to record a hit album. Today, Knight and husband William, oversee her busy career from the Las Vegas headquarters of Shakeji, Inc., her personal entertainment corporation.