When songwriter and band leader Maurice White moved to Los Angeles from Chicago in the late '60s and wanted a bass player to play in his new, as yet unnamed band, he called his little brother Verdine.
And now, 42 years on, the band that would become Earth Wind and Fire is still going - though Maurice, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, stopped touring with the band in 1994.
But, says Verdine, he is still very much the spiritual leader of EWF.
"He makes decisions and keeps reminding us to keep the quality of music up," he says in his deep, crispy voice.
Verdine remembers the excitement of leaving his hometown of Chicago as a 19-year-old to join his brother.
"When I first came out to Los Angeles I was just out there to see what was going to happen - and it really worked out for us," he says. "But I had no idea it was going to turn out like this."
By that he means winning six Grammy awards, recording six top-10 US albums, including the classic 1975 albums That's The Way of the World and Gratitude, which both hit No 1 in the States, their 1979 hit Boogie Wonderland, which was a classic of the disco era, and more recently being invited to funk up the White House at the request of Barack Obama.
"Oh yeah, he's pretty cool," chuckles Verdine.
The band, which these days is also made up of long-time members drummer Ralph Johnson and singer Phil Bailey, play the 50th National Jazz Festival in Tauranga over Easter.
"There are so many great places to go these days," says Verdine of the band's touring.
"And the audiences still love it and you know, we've got five generations of kids coming to see us now."
I tell him I was 3 when That's The Way Of the World came out - yet that and Gratitude are now both favourite records of mine.
"You were conceived on that music man," he laughs. "They were really great records. We were really happy to make those records."
The career turning point for the band came with That's The Way of the World, a soundtrack to a bomb of a movie starring Harvey Keitel. The story goes that after seeing the film the band realised it wasn't going to set the box office alight.
"It was not successful. Not successful," Verdine laughs, so they rushed the release of the album.
And it blew up, thanks to classic songs such as the butt-shaking funk and soul of Shining Star and the title track, which was poignant and reflective, yet deeply groovy, man.
"We had been playing across the whole country and that album was a special album - and we knew that when we were making it. It become the No 1 album on all the Billboard charts, and Shining Star was our first No 1 single. It's a brilliant tune, and people still love it today."
That song is the first track on the album, and perhaps EWF's most famous tune, along with Boogie Wonderland and 1978 single September, with the beautiful first lines, "Do you remember the 21st night of September, love was changing the mind of pretenders ...".
Meanwhile, songs that were highlights of the band's live shows included the crazed percussion and horn-driven instrumental Africano ("It was just a live groove. It was just what we do, man, you know.") and the nine-minute epic New World Symphony ("That was my song. It was long, huh?
But it was great though, you know.") Back then, as well as being at the forefront of black music along with everyone from the Commodores and Parliament/Funkadelic to Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder ("Talking Book, oh man," he says of Wonder's 1972 classic.), EWF were putting together elaborate and wild live shows which included magicians, pyrotechnics, and the band even disappearing into thin air on occasion.
But mostly it was all about "the songs, man, you've got to have great songs and they were great songs. It was a very important time for black music and I think what we brought that was unique was the lyrical content and the messages in those songs".
The main songwriter was Maurice, with other band members chipping in along the way, and Verdine remembers his brother always having an ear for a good tune, even when they were growing up.
Maurice used to bring home records for his family to listen to when he was a session drummer at renowned Chicago record label Chess Records, which was home to some of the finest American blues, R&B, soul and gospel music of the '50s and '60s.
"He always knew what a great song was. He knew his stuff. We were spoilt." And that is manifest in the canon of EWF songs, the legacy of which lives on today reckons Verdine.
"It's still being written.
"The key is good songs, man, good songs.
"We've been around for a long time and I think my job is to remind everybody out there what it is we do and bringing that energy to the group on a consistent basis."
