‘The Comeback Queen’ Not A Title That Sits Well With Bettye LaVette

Bettye LaVette has expressed her confusion to the title that has now become a common nickname for the artist, The Comeback Queen, which she received upon moving into mainstream focus.

“How can I come back when I never came the first time?” she exclaims in a recent interview with TheMusic. “No, I'm not coming back. [It's] quite a strain on someone who is 66. Nobody is discovered a 55-years-old. To be given a book and to have all these albums and to be able to sing for the president… that has never happened to anyone at 66 who no one has ever heard of.

“Now there are people – like when they brought back John Lee-Hooker or Josephine Baker or whomever – they had been somebody at one time, but my audience, I tell them they are joining me at the end of the eighth year of the 'Who The Hell Is She?' tour, and you are now joining me on the 50^th Anniversary tour.”

She goes on the explain her situation as an artist, and how her experience is a unique one.

“I'm the oldest person in the world that this has ever happened to. It's not like I am a has-been, I'm a never-was! I'm now actually taking the third step; it's a strange kind of place to be in, but a wonderful place because I'm being acknowledged all over the world.”