Soul music legends Sam Cooke and Bobby Womack have a complex past that many are unfamiliar with. Like many men before them, the source of their drama involved a woman.
As a pre-teen touring with The Womack Brothers, Bobby Womack met Sam Cooke, becoming the mentee of the seasoned soul singer and entrepreneur. Cooke, impressed by the young artist’s talent and musicianship, imparted tricks of the trade — teaching him how to use his voice and songwriting tips.
Womack, aspiring to emulate his mentor, later surprised everyone by marrying Cooke’s widow. Bobby’s 1985 hit song “I Wish He Didn’t Trust Me So Much” served many years later only to add further fuel to speculations of a possible affair between the protégé and his mentor’s wife before the older man’s untimely demise.
From the beginning, people knew that Bobby Womack was exceptional, becoming one of the lead singers of the group at the age of 10 in the mid-50s.
How did Sam Cooke Become Bobby Womack’s Mentor?
The Womack boys’ father, Friendly Womack, arranged for the five of them to open for Cooke’s band, The Soul Stirrers, and that started a professional relationship between Womack and Cooke that would last until Cooke’s death.
Both acts, rooted in gospel, infused sacred music with a unique twist and toured alongside pioneering groups like The Staple Singers. Womack’s musical prowess extended beyond vocals; he impressed veteran artists with his ability to play the guitar upside down. Music soon became his full-time pursuit, leading him to drop out of school at the age of 16 in 1960.
Around this same time, Cooke founded SAR Records and signed the quintet to the label in 1961. After a while, he persuaded them to change their name to the Valentinos and to delve more into the soul/R&B side of music.
That same year, the teen was hired to also perform and record in Cooke’s band with his mentor.
The trajectory took a tragic turn in 1964 when Cooke was shot to death in the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles, altering everything for the young rising star.
Sam Cooke’s Complicated Love Story
Cooke was married to a young woman, Barbara Campbell Cooke. The two met when he was 18 and she was 13. By the time she was 17, around 1953, she would give birth to their daughter, Linda. Six years later, after both Cooke and Barbara had married and divorced other people, the two would make it official and marry.
The marriage had its ups and downs, with Cooke having multiple affairs on his wife. Sadly, a year before his death, the couple’s third child drowned in a pool at 18 months. Barbara would tell one of Cooke’s biographers, Peter Guralnick, that the baby’s death and the way her husband died made her vulnerable to the advances of the 19-year-old Womack, allowing them to become close friends despite her being ten years his senior.
I Wish He Didn’t Trust Me So Much … Whose To Blame?
Bobby showed up to Cooke’s funeral with Barbara and dressed in one of Cooke’s suits. He also came to the funeral service, driving Cooke’s car. Within three months of the “Change Gonna Come” artist’s funeral, the two were married at her urging.
“If you promise to give me five years,” Barbara said to Bobby, according to his memoir, “I will give you a lifetime. You know, whatever you need to do. I just need you to walk with me here.”
On Feb. 18, 1965, a feature on Jet Magazine announced to the world they were married.
Many saw their nuptials as a betrayal, causing Womack to even fall out with his brothers. The backlash did not stop there. He would get booed at concerts and even was assaulted by Barbara’s brother.
Even Cooke’s father was upset, and reportedly was especially concerned that Womack would be around the late singer’s daughter, Linda, who was then 11. Despite this, Bobby insisted Sam would have approved of his marriage to Barbara.
Bobby said that he developed bad habits with his new wife in addition to enduring all of the criticism about what looked to the world as betrayal. Then he did something that would cause an irreparable rift in the marriage, bringing it to a quick end.
Linda Cooke and The Womack Brothers
In 1970, six years into their covenant, Barbara found him in bed with her 18-year-old daughter Linda Cooke. Bobby was 25.
Enraged, Barbara pulled out her gun and shot Bobby, grazing his temple.
Linda’s affair with Bobby would not last long, however. Linda would later marry Bobby’s younger brother, Cecil, in 1979. The two formed a group called Womack & Womack, where they put out several albums, “Love Wars” (1983) “Radio M.U.S.I.C. Man” (1985), “Starbright” (1986), “Conscience” (1988), “Family Spirit” (1991) and “Transformation Into The House Of Zekkariyas” (1993).
Linda and Cecil had a son named Vincent, named after Linda’s brother who passed away. Vincent Womack tragically died by suicide at the age of 21 in 1986. Even after this heartbreaking loss, the couple, who had known each other since childhood and raised seven children together, remained married until Cecil’s passing in 2013.
What Is “I Wish He Didn’t Trust Me So Much” Really About?
When Bobby released one of his last chart-topping hits, “I Wish He Didn’t Trust Me So Much,” he started the song with, “I’m the best friend he’s got / I’d give him the shirt off my back / He knows he can trust me with his life/ But each time he leaves me alone/ Leaves me alone with his wife.”
Many believed it referenced the relationship with Barbara and how quickly they got together.
Songwriter Johnta Austin tweeted, “When you consider that Bobby Womack attended Sam Cooke’s funeral wearing one of Sam’s suits, & then later married Sam’s widow & slept with Sam’s daughter, then his tune “I Wish He Didn’t Trust Me So Much” could be interpreted as a diss record.”
“And a savage one at that,” Austin added.
When you consider that Bobby Womack attended Sam Cooke’s funeral, while wearing one of Sam’s suits, & then later married Sam’s widow & slept with Sam’s daughter, then his tune “I Wish He Didn’t Trust Me So Much” could be interpreted as a diss record. And a savage one at that.
— Johnta Austin (@johntalsr) February 18, 2021
However, the song is not about an actual affair but the singer’s desire to be with his friend’s woman. The lyrics say, “There’s a way she make me feel/ Lord, I’m scared, so scared of what I do/ If she starts feelin’ same way too.”
“It’s not that she leads me on,” the song also says. “I’m gettin’ there all by myself.”
Bobby insisted in his memoir that the relationship started after his friend died, dispelling rumors the Billboard R&B top 10 single was about Cooke.
At the time of Bobby’s death in 2014, the complicated web of relationships was completely out of sorts.
“I don’t speak to Barbara no more,” Bobby said in his memoir. “Linda doesn’t speak to her. Haven’t spoken to Cecil for years. No one speaks to no one.”
