Entertainer John King has emphatically denied persistent rumours that he was caught in a compromising position with a male.
The two-time calypso monarch said he has broken his silence on the issue, given the devastating impact this talk was having on his loved ones.
“I’ve been accustomed to having all sorts of things said about me, written about me, because you are in the public’s eye and it’s expected that these things would happen,” he told the SUNDAY SUN in an exclusive interview.
“Unfortunately with this particular situation it seems to be taking a toll on my friends, my parents, wife . . . . Thankfully, it hasn’t really got to the kids as yet; but I believe that would be the next step,” he added.
In the last few weeks, several viral text messages have been circulating stating that a number of prominent people were caught in a sexually compromising position by a spouse. One of the people consistently mentioned is King and those he was supposedly with are all politicians.
King said that people who read and believe such things need to ask questions.
“Something would tell me that if a story keeps changing almost every two weeks, it can’t make sense. But the interesting thing for me is when I walk into places you can see a look on people’s faces, or you can see them go into a corner and start whizzy-whizzying, or [see the] look, ‘Boy, he ain’t got no shame at all’.
“I ask myself what I have to be ashamed of? What you think or what you hear is entirely up to you. But I just had to do this because I think it’s unfair to my friends and my family.
“It is unfair to them that to have to defend something or lose their cool over what some idiot tells them. It’s madness.”
King, who worked as a counsellor at the Government Industrial School for eight years, said this level of negative portrayal of achievers, or those who appear to have achieved, was a negative feature of Barbadian society which people need to recognize and deal with.
He lamented that because of this thinking, men who appear to have achieved are often said to be thieves, drug sellers or homosexuals.
King attributed much of this to the low self-esteem that seems to afflict too many within society, which was cultivated through generations, and was fed today by negative cultural influences.
“We as an ethnic group are mentally and spiritually damaged, and until we get to a point where we can deal with that particular aspect of ourselves, we will be forever passing on this negativity like a contagion, from one generation to the next.
“Nobody wants to really deal with it, because it is not in some people’s best interest to have us free of these kinds of things. If I can keep you as an idiot, or if I can get you to pull down your people – the ones that try to rise up, that try to progress – I would be on top of you all the time. Unfortunately, this is where we are at,” said King, the prolific songwriter.
“We are slowly becoming what I would have seen on movies coming out of the United States on BET – that kind of ghetto, low-level, no-ambition, just violent, vulgar, uncultured type of people,” he said.
Illustrating this point, King added: “When I go to Puerto Rico for a show and hear there are stores that refuse Barbadians coming in to shop, or in Miami or Venezuela because they are uncouth . . . .
They are unmannerly, they go into people’s hotels and urinate in the elevators. This is what I face in travelling on a regular basis; and I ask myself what is happening with our people? What are we becoming?”
King said that in the last 20 to 30 years Barbados had lost its way – in tourism, the largest properties were non-Barbadian; in business, the Trinidadians were the main owners . . . . Even cricket had dropped, he lamented.
“We have no self-determination. Other people are determining your future for you. These are things that we need to start thinking about.
“This is a country that has produced some of the greatest cricketers that the world has ever seen – out of nothing. There was no technology. But today you can’t create half of one. Why?” King asked rhetorically.
The award-winning performer stressed that Barbados’ only resource was its people, and therefore emphasis should be on developing their creativity and ingenuity, and being positive.
