Terry Gross

So that was Fela doing his song, Unknown Soldier, about his mother being thrown out the second story window by the military who raided the compound and burned Fela's home down.

So after his mother dies, it transforms him.

He misses her so much.

She was the person who really supported his vision of change.

And like you said earlier, he lost a lot of his following because people didn't want to be exposed to this kind of brutality and death.

And his music changed.

He became more spiritual.

His music became more spiritual or ambient.

I don't know how you'd describe it exactly.

What kind of spirituality did he pursue?

Well, let's take a break here.

If you're just joining us, my guest is Jad Abumrad.

We're talking about his new podcast limited series about the father of Afrobeat, the Nigerian musician Fela Kuti.

It's called Fela Kuti, Fear No Man.

We'll be right back.

This is Fresh Air.

Another place where Fela really loses me, he's an AIDS denier.

You know, AIDS is kind of raging in Africa at the time, and he doesn't believe it's real.

And then he contracts AIDS himself and won't admit that he has it.

So his children weren't – his oldest children weren't sure whether they should have a big public funeral or not because he had lost a lot of his popularity and he died of AIDS.