Īt the beginning of the 1960s, Cooke formed SAR Records and signed the quintet to the label in 1961, where they released a handful of gospel singles. At just 16, Bobby dropped out of high school. During performances, Bobby would sometimes imitate the role of a preacher, which later became his nickname. Even though Curtis often sang lead, Bobby was allowed to sing alongside him showcasing his gruff baritone vocals in contrast to his older brother's smoother tenor. They went on national tours with The Staple Singers. He became their mentor and helped them go on tour. Sam Cooke, the lead singer of The Soul Stirrers, first saw the group performing in the mid-1950s. In 1954, under the moniker Curtis Womack and the Womack Brothers, the group issued the Pennant single, "Buffalo Bill". Career īy the mid-1950s, 10-year-old Bobby was touring with his brothers on the midwest gospel circuit as The Womack Brothers, along with Naomi on organ and Friendly Sr. Because Bobby was left-handed, he flipped his guitar upside-down to play, not knowing that the guitar could have been restrung to accommodate a left-handed player. Soon afterwards, Friendly bought guitars for all five of his sons. He couldn't believe how good I had got and he'd been real selfish holding on to that guitar for himself. Every lick I knew and then some I didn't. Even with one string short, I played classical music, soul, country and western, and rock'n'roll. Man, I played Andrés Segovia, Elmore James and B.B. After Friendly deduced that Bobby (who was missing a shoelace) had broken the string, he offered Bobby the chance to play the guitar for him in lieu of a whipping. One night, eight-year-old Bobby broke a guitar string, then tried to replace the string with a shoelace. Their father repeatedly ordered his sons to not touch his guitar while he was away, yet all five brothers regularly played it while their father was at work. Raised Baptist, their mother played the organ for the church choir, and their father was a steelworker, part-time minister, and musician who played the guitar and also sang gospel. My kids have had a much better life than I'd ever thought of livin,'" and, "the neighborhood was so ghetto that we didn't bother the rats and they didn't bother us." His mother told him he could "sing his way out of the ghetto." Recalling his childhood, Bobby said, "we came up very poor. They all grew up in the Cleveland slums, so poor that the family would fish pig snouts out of the local supermarket's trash. and Curtis were Bobby's older brothers, and Harry and Cecil were his younger brothers.
Born in Cleveland's Fairfax neighborhood, near East 85th Street and Quincy Avenue, to Naomi Womack and Friendly Womack, Bobby was the third of five brothers.
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