(drumsticks clanking) ("You Got Me Hummin'") - [Interviewer] What is soul?

- What is soul?

It's connection.

♪ Uh, uh, uh ♪ - Soul is, it's one of the things that you can't claim.

You can't give it away.

You can share it.

♪ I don't know what you've got ♪ ♪ But it's getting to me ♪ ♪ Makes my cold nights hot ♪ ♪ Hot winds blow right through me ♪ - And I've always been that way.

As long as I can remember, I've loved sharing what I have to share, you know?

- [Interviewer] Somehow, Ural Thomas has led a life of soulful transcendence.

Throughout joys and pains that are octaves apart, Ural has constantly taken the high note.

- I've never felt like I had anything to call my own.

Because I always felt like I was a public servant.

I even had busboy jobs, and I'd sing.

I was a singing busboy.

♪ Did you say I've got a lot to learn ♪ ♪ Well, don't think I'm trying not to learn ♪ ♪ Since this is the perfect spot to learn ♪ ♪ Teach me tonight ♪ You know, those kind of songs, you know.

- [Interviewer] So you'd do that as a busboy?

- Yeah.

- And what would you be doing when you're singing like that?

- I'd be carrying about 15 glasses of water on one arm and serving the people like this and dancing around.

Dancing around with food and stuff too.

They'd come out with these big long carts of food, and we'd have maybe 500 people to serve.

♪ Push 'em up, push 'em back ♪ ♪ Baby, you know they're right, now they're up ♪ ♪ La la la la la la la, push 'em back ♪ ♪ Back yeah ♪ ♪ La la la la la la la, push 'em back ♪ - I started singing with The Monterays, the Cotton Club, I think it was about in 1955, somewhere around in there.

And we used to open up for people like Etta James, Big Mama Thornton.

- [Interviewer] Ural's story plays like a Broadway musical from the streets of Portland.

He says he opened for Otis Redding at New York's Apollo Theater.

- Through the week, it was five shows a day.

And I had to walk from the 10th floor down.

In between my going up to the floor, I was making my outfits and costumes for the next set.

(laughs) It was so much fun.

♪ People, let me tell you ♪ ♪ People out there, we ain't got no news for you ♪ - On the Can You Dig It Live album, those pictures, the pictures that are on the front and the back was taken by James Brown.

- [Interviewer] Taken by James Brown.

- Yeah, he took pictures of me and he brought me a roll of them.

A couple of his photographers, he had three or four guys in the audience taking pictures, you know, I guess not just me, whoever came through that he thought had something to offer his, you know.

But anyway, he... - [Interviewer] So what did he say to you about your singing?

- He would never even see...

He'd always send Maceo and those guys.

You know, they always come to a party.

They gave parties for us, you know.

But he wouldn't come either.

He was the king.

Him and Otis Redding, they were fighting over who the king was.

And I didn't want no parts of it because I loved both of 'em, you know?

And I didn't want to be in the middle of that.

God, I said, "This is going to be magnificent.

"I'm getting to meet two of my favorite people, you know.

"And maybe we'll all get to sing together."

- [Interviewer] That wasn't meant to be.

But Ural did record for Uni Records, the same label that offered Neil Diamond, The Osmonds, and Hugh Masakela.

There, he did a signature song, "Pain is the Name of Your Game."

The song was about love.

But the game that hurt Ural most of all was the business of music.

His writing partner at King Records, home to James Brown, gave Ural some advice.

(slow soul music) - "Don't Lose your creativity."

He says, "Don't ever lose that."

He says, "Let somebody else "handle that business part of it for you."

He said, "Because you get too involved in it."

He says, "And I'll tell you, Ural, "you're not the kind of person that would carry anger."

♪ I'll never be the same ♪ ♪ Pain is the name of your game ♪ ♪ Pain is the name of your game ♪ - [Interviewer] So you had opened for Otis Redding?

- Yes.

- [Interviewer] You had opened for Stevie Wonder?

- Yes.

- [Interviewer] You had been at the Apollo.

- Yeah.

- [Interviewer] You had recorded on your own.

- [Ural] Right.

- [Interviewer] And you walked away.

- Yeah, because I didn't... What I was being offered was not what I could give.

♪ Pain is the name of your game ♪ - I learned a lot about the industry.

And I learned that it really wasn't my cup of tea.

♪ It's not the way I want to feel ♪ - They wanted me to be a dog-eat-dog kind of a person.

And I couldn't.

You know, that's not music to me.

I always felt like music is supposed to help to heal.

And I never tried to argue with, "That's my song," or who wrote this song or that song.

And after I'd walked away from actually the songs that we're doing today, I didn't really want to do 'em all over again.

I wanted to move forward.

♪ I can't stand it any longer ♪ - [Interviewer] Ural went home.

He funneled all that creativity into building a house.

That actually, in 1980, the "Sunday Oregonian" called him an urban squatter and second cousin to the pioneers.

- [Ural] My whole house is made out of recycled.

- [Interviewer] All these materials?

- [Ural] Every bit of this stuff is.

Some of it, I pulled out of the dumps.

Some of it, the Rebuilding Center gave me.

And sometimes, people drop by and say, "Hey, Ural, can you use this?"

And I'd say, "Well, sure; thank you very much."

And they says, "Well, I have some more."

I said, "Well, how much do you want for it?"

They says, "No, we're here to help."

- [Interviewer] He fought the city, survived a fire, lost one house, and built two more.

He taught music and had jam sessions or salons here every Sunday.

- And then I just showed up.

And the cast of characters were playing music in there just like every Sunday, you know.

One guy had, I think, one string on a guitar.

One guy was playing tin whistles.

It's pretty wild what goes on in there.

- [Interviewer] Scott Magee is a DJ.

You can hear him Friday nights from six to eight on KMHD.

Also a drummer, Scott wanted to start a band when Mississippi Records' Eric Isaacson told him about Ural Thomas.

- Well, coming from the fact that I'd already heard all of his recordings, I just thought, "I can't wait to meet this person."

And the guy that was playing drums immediately stood up and he's like, "Here you go, get on the drums."

And like, I think I basically shook Ural's hand, said, "So nice to meet you," and was playing drums with him within like 30 seconds.

(chuckles) ♪ Come back ♪ ♪ Baby, please come back to me ♪ - [Interviewer] Scott built a band of Portland all stars around that voice while Ural, at 73 years old, is still renovating his house and now his career with his new soulmates.

So then, what you and Scott had was a connection.

What you and Scott had was soul.

- It was soul, absolutely.

I mean, I didn't have a clue that it would escalate to where it is, and we'd become in demand to people because they liked what we were doing.

- [Interviewer] "Willamette Week" named Ural Thomas and the Pain Portland's Best New Band.

♪ I don't know what you've got ♪ - I never expected that.

And I don't think Scott did either.

But at the same time, we didn't push it back.

We didn't say, "Get that away."

We said, "Bring it on in here, man."

(laughs) Some more soul.

(Ural and Interviewer laugh) We hook it up.

♪ When I tried walking ♪ ♪ Then my feet begin to running ♪ ♪ 'Cause you got me hummin' yeah ♪ ♪ You got me hummin' yeah ♪ ♪ Oh yeah ♪ ♪ You got me humming yeah ♪ - With what I've accomplished and what I've lost and what I've gained, which is it balances out, you know.

I don't feel like I have any reason to be disappointed.

I don't feel like I have any reason to feel like that I'm something special.

- [Interviewer] You know what else is balanced?

- What is that?

- [Interviewer] You've spent all these years building up houses.

- Yes.

- [Interviewer] And now you're spending almost every night tearing 'em down.

(Ural laughs) - That was wonderful.

♪ You got me hummin' yeah ♪ ♪ You got me hummin' yeah ♪ ♪ You got me hummin' yeah ♪ ("You Got Me Hummin'" fades) (audience applauding and cheering) - Oh yeah, "You Got Me Hummin'."

(audience applauding and cheering)