Singer Jeffrey Osborne is moving his charity golf tournament to Foxwoods

June 16, 2017 12:00 am • Last Updated: June 16, 2017 2:23 pm

By Kristina Dorsey
Features Editor

k.dorsey@theday.com

Jeffrey Osborne

Singer Jeffrey Osborne is moving his celebrity golf tournament to Foxwoods

Here's what you probably know about singer Jeffrey Osborne: He has been nominated for multiple Grammys. He has enjoyed hit singles as a solo artist with “On the Wings of Love,” “You Should Be Mine (The Woo Song)” and as a duet partner with Dionne Warwick on “Love Power.” He was part of the group L.T.D. when they scored with such songs as “(Every Time I Turn Around) Back in Love.”

He wrote the lyrics to “All at Once,” which Whitney Houston recorded. He sang on “We Are the World.”

So, yes, he has certainly made his mark on the music world, but he has also, over the past few years, taken on another role. He has organized a successful fundraising golf tournament benefitting nonprofits that support music and arts for kids as well as organizations that provide a safe haven for families in need.

Osborne, who grew up in Providence, R.I., and now lives in L.A., established this celebrity golf tournament in Rhode Island six years ago to benefit charities in the Ocean State. The tournament, which has raised more than $750,000 in total, had been held at the Carnegie Abbey golf course in Portsmouth, R.I.

This August, though, the tournament will be making a big move: to the Lake of Isles course at Foxwoods. (More later from Osbourne about that decision.)

In addition to the golf tournament, there will be a softball game on Aug. 6 at Dodd Stadium in Norwich, with a comedy show that night at Foxwoods. Cedric the Entertainer has already committed to the show, and past participants have included George Lopez, Chris Tucker and Sinbad. A celebrity poker tournament takes place on Aug. 7, followed by golf on Aug. 8.

Among the stars who have regularly turned up for the tournament are Smokey Robinson, the O’Jays, Johnny Gill, Philip Bailey, Julius Erving, Doc Rivers and Sugar Ray Leonard.

And a mainstay has been Magic Johnson, although, with Johnson having taken the job as the Lakers’ president of basketball operations, it’s up in the air as to whether he’ll make the tournament this year.

Part of the inspiration for creating this fundraiser was Osbourne’s late brother Clay, a jazz singer who wanted to provide music scholarships. (Another Osborne brother, Terrell, is the golf tournament’s director.)

The proceeds from the event will go to six Rhode Island charities, including St. Mary’s Home for Children, which deals with children who have been traumatized by abuse or who have psychiatric or emotional challenges; Amos House, which provides support for people who are hungry, homeless and in crisis; and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School, which aims to reach elementary school students with music programs that help kids learn. This year, a new Connecticut beneficiary is being added in the form of the Boys and Girls Club of Hartford.

Osborne chatted about the tournament and his life and career in a recent talk with Day reporters Kristina Dorsey and Rick Koster in the newspaper’s New London office. He was open and engaging, and here are some excerpts from the conversation.

This wasn’t Osborne’s first time in New London. Osborne, now 69, sang in the Whaling City when he was a kid:

“My first professional job when I was 13 years old was in New London, Connecticut. It was a place called the Ebony Lounge. I don’t even remember which street it was on down here. My brother Billy actually was performing at the club. He said, ‘Well, it might be cool if you came up and sang a couple of songs.’ My mother used to chaperone me, and I would come up. I was making $10 a night. …

“I just remember the fact that I loved it. I never had stage fright. People always ask, ‘Do you get nervous?’ I’ve never gotten nervous. But most entertainers do, most of them I talk to. I think that’s because my mother used to have me sing for company when I was 3 … so I probably got over that when I was that young.”

His golf tournament draws a wealth of athletes, and here’s how he got to know so many sports stars:

“It started years ago with me and Magic, really. It was, I guess, his rookie year, which was ’79 … Before he reported to the Lakers, he was going to have this big birthday party, and he reached out to the group I was in, L.T.D. It was one of his favorite groups, so we went to Lansing, Michigan, and performed for his birthday. Then we became, like, best friends.

“I started doing the National Anthem for the Lakers. Before they knew it, every game I sang at, they won, so I became their good-luck charm. I have opened every season for 32 years. I started doing the playoffs, and I did all the playoff games, and I have, like, six championship rings from the Lakers.”

“So we just became great friends, and I was there for him when he went through the roughest period, when he had to announce he had HIV. A lot of people pulled away from him, and he’s never forgotten that. So when I mentioned to him that I was having a tournament, he said, ‘I want to help, I want to be there.’”

On the advantages of moving the tournament to Foxwoods:

“It gives us the ability to raise more funds because now we have two 18-hole courses. Before, we were doing it at Carnegie Abbey, which is one 18-hole course. So now we have the ability to bring twice as many celebrities in because we have that extra course, so we can raise more money …

“It also makes sense because we have everything under one roof. The hotel is right there, the golf course is right there, we do a comedy show and the theater is right there. Whereas in Rhode Island, we’d have people staying in Providence, have to drive to Newport to play golf, so it was always transporting people 30 miles or so. This makes it so much easier, with everything under one roof. And we’re able to probably do anything we can possibly dream of, having a facility like Foxwoods. There’s everything there at this point. We’re thinking down the line we may have a bowling tournament. We’re talking about doing a celebrity poker tournament this year. So there’s so many other things we can do with Foxwoods. We feel we can really grow. It’s exciting for us.”

Some Rhody fans, though, weren’t too pleased about the move:

“It was tough because we’re getting people from Rhode Island saying, ‘Well, why are you taking it out of Rhode Island? You’re from Rhode Island. You’re from Providence. You come back, you do a great thing and then you take it out.’ We’re like, well, it’s going to enable us to do more for Rhode Island (by raising more money).”

Osborne lives in L.A. but still visits Providence:

“I’m the youngest of 12 children, so there’s a lot of Osbornes running around Providence, Rhode Island. We have our family reunion in July, so I’m back for that all the time. I’m back three or four times a year at least, so, yeah, I have very strong ties here.”

On playing with the O’Jays as a teenager in Providence:

“I got my first taste of playing behind somebody when I was 15. I ended up getting the chance to audition and play for the O’Jay’s in a little club … in Providence. I got to meet them at the end of the show, and I explained to them they need a drummer. They had a drummer who was dipping of into the drug of — I guess that was the drug of choice back then, it was heroin. He was kind of nodding off after every song. … So I talked to them, and they said, ‘You’re a little young.’ I said, ‘I played in this club, I have a local group.’ … I said, ‘Okay, I’ll bring a couple of drummers to audition if you let me (audition, too).’ They let me, and I ended up getting the job. That was kind of my first job playing behind people that were accomplished and had made it.”

On becoming a member of L.T.D.:

“I met L.T.D in 1969, coming through Providence. They were playing in this little nightclub. ... The drummer was smoking weed out in front of the club and got taken to jail. I walked in the right spot in the right time. The club owner was like, ‘Well, can you sit in with the guys?’ I sat in and finished the night and sang a couple of songs, and I ended up being asked to join the group.”

On the importance of music education in public schools:

“When I was in elementary school, they gave me a trumpet, which they don’t do anymore. They used to give kids instruments. It tweaked my interest in music. Of course, I don’t play the trumpet anymore because it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to play — it was my dad’s thing. My dad was a trumpet player … I played it for a while. My dad died when I was 13, and I really just pushed it away at that point. It was the worst thing I could have done. I wished I had continued with it. But I wanted to be on the corner, singing. I wanted to be one of The Temptations. It was the Motown era. Singing was the thing I really wanted to put my time into. …

“When I talk to fellow entertainers, all of them — I mean, Aretha Franklin, all of them — had public school music education. So we all fight for that.”

Magic Johnson at a previous Jeffrey Osborne Celebrity Softball Classic. (Contributed)

Jeffrey Osborne with children from the Providence summer basketball league that he supports, as they attended Osborne’s Celebrity Softball Game. (Contributed)

From left, Johnny Gill, Shanice, Smokey Robinson and Jeffrey Osborne onstage together. (Contributed)