End of the road for Gladys Knight’s fried chicken business

Mini-chain had been open since 1997

Gladys Knight has called time on her fried chicken business following legal wrangles with her son.

The soul legend’s ‘Gladys Knight’s Chicken & Waffles’ mini-chain opened in Atlanta in 1997.

But following a lawsuit and a recently failed health inspection, it has now been officially renamed ‘World Famous Chicken & Waffles’.

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It comes after Knight sued her son Shanga Hankerson, who founded the restaurants, in order to have her name and likeness removed from the mini-chain after it ran into legal troubles in June 2016, reports eater.com.

Hankerson was also charged in an IRS raid for allegedly stealing over $650,000 in both sales and withholding tax.

He is no longer affiliated with the brand, which now operates two locations in the Atlanta area. A third restaurant was recently closed.

Knight previously featured in Jools Holland’s 10 most memorable ‘Later…’ performances alongside Oasis, Amy Winehouse and Paul McCartney.

At the time Holland said: “I’d always really loved Gladys Knight so when she came on, you know, I’d been to see her at Lewisham Odeon when I was 14. In the mornings when I’d be getting up for school her records were on. I loved Motown and all that stuff, so when she came on there was some mix-up.

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“She wanted a band, then she didn’t, then it was just me and her at the piano and then I started playing – we did ‘If I Was Your Woman’ – and up until then she hadn’t really been Gladys and then she suddenly started singing and she was suddenly this voice I’d been hearing all my life. I was like ‘Woah! This is great!'”

Blur, Paul Weller, Portishead, Smokey Robinson and Richard Hawley also featured in Holland’s most memorable performances.

 

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