Honey Cone To Set Sail on Soul Train Cruise

Honey Cone

When Billboard hitmakers Honey Cone sets sail later this month aboard the hippest ship on the sea, the Soul Train Cruise, it continues a legacy between the R&B/soul vocal group and the landmark television series that dates back over fifty years. 

Honey Cone was riding high after scoring back-to-back Billboard No. 1 singles, “Want Ads” and “Stick Up,” when Soul Train debuted in 1971. The show’s creator and host Don Cornelius booked the award-winning trio to perform on the very first episode of the series. Although the show ended production in 2006, Honey Cone reestablished their relationship with the brand in 2014 by performing on the Soul Train Cruise. After a sweet year that included concert dates from Hollywood to Atlantic City and from the Rose Bowl to the Hard Rock Café, Honey Cone readies to return to play the tenth-anniversary Soul Train Cruise that sails January 29 through February 5.   

Original Honey Cone member Shelly Clark-White, who was in Chicago for the first Soul Train appearance, leads the group today. She’s joined by Kathy Merrick and Wendy Smith-Brune. Honey Cone will be backed by a band consisting of Earth, Wind & Fire’s drummer John Paris, guitarist Romeo Brune and musical director/bassist Tony Boyd. 

“We're blessed and honored to once again set it on fire on the Soul Train Cruise just as Honey Cone did in 2014. We're always treated like royalty on the cruise because they constantly run the original television footage of us on all the monitors since we were the very first artists to perform on Soul Train along with Gladys Knight and Pips,” said Clark-White, who was inducted into the Soul Music Hall of Fame with Honey Cone in 2021. 

In addition to performing their chart-topping, gold-selling hits and fans favorites from their catalog produced by the legendary team of Brian Holland-Lamont Dozier-Eddie Holland, including “Want Ads,” “Stick Up,” “While You’re Out Looking for Sugar,” “Girls, It Ain’t Easy,” “One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show” and “The Day I Found Myself,” Honey Cone plies their magic to reimagine vintage R&B/pop hits by artists such as Beyonce, Donna Summer, Teena Marie, The Emotions, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and Earth, Wind & Fire. 

Last year, Honey Cone sold out Herb Albert’s Vibrato Grill Jazz, performed at the VIP-heavy Rose Bowl Party of the Century 100 Gala; the distinguished Heroes and Legends Awards, and at the fifteenth annual Classic R&B Music Festival. They’ll be back at Vibrato in April and will continue in the recording studio on work that began last year with the PWP production team that consists of Earth, Wind & Fire’s Verdine White, Paris, and Neal Pogue. A national concert tour is in the planning stages. But first, rehearsals are currently underway for the Soul Train Cruise. 

“This cruise will be special to each of us. Something fun and different that we are really looking forward to is hosting the Soul Train Cruise annual wine-tasting event. We thank Tony Cornelius for inviting Honey Cone to take part,” said Clark-White, who collected awards for Honey Cone from the National Association of Television and Radio Announcers, Rhythm & Blues Music Society, and a Heroes and Legends Lifetime Achievement Award.