Nigerian musician and son of late music icon Fela Kuti, Seun Kuti shed more light on his relationship with his late father and revealed how long he grieved after his death.
Seun Kuti made this known, while speaking to media personality Chude Jideonwo, he stated that losing his father to him was losing a friend, father and family member at once.
He noted that his relationship with his father was very different from that of his siblings and their father, he jokingly stated that he felt bad for his sibling because their father had become a laid-back version of himself before he was born.
He stated, “Fela was a model father; he was very different from the stories I heard of my elder ones. I feel bad for them. I can’t lie. I tell them all the time, I enjoyed it for you guys. Trust me, I held it down. I did not slack. By the time he had me, he was 44; he was always home, so my relationship with him was very different from that of my siblings—very, very different. I know that for a fact.”
Going deeper Seun spoke about his grief after his father passed away, noting that losing him was a different kind of pain from which he hasn’t recovered from.
“I grieved for my dad because he was the closest person to me, and he was the first person I know that died, so for me, it was a really impactful experience losing my dad; it was like losing my best friend, my dad, and a family member, all in one. I really grieved for a long time. I grieved for my dad.”
Furthermore, the singer spoke about his mother’s death, he stated that he wasn’t able to properly mourn his mother because he was on a music tour at the time as a result he is still actively grieving her up till date.
“The one I didn’t grieve was my mom. I had a tour. There was no time to break down. If I’m going to share some of my mental issues on your show, it’s like I think I’m grieving my mom in stages; kind of, I’ve not really had time to really delve into that, but the bad part is past, and I still grieve her from time to time. I don’t have complete closure for my mom like I do for my dad.”
