Sep 3, 2015 4 min read

Sometimes after you interview someone who makes music for a living, it’s tempting to fire up some of their work.

After you interview Patti LaBelle, it’s tempting to fire up not the stereo, but the stove.

A cook in her off-hours who sells several collections of her recipes on her website, LaBelle happily describes the mouth-watering selection of food she likes to make – Italian dishes, sweet potatoes, apple pie and on and on.

“I do everything,” LaBelle explained two weeks ago.

Cooking would seem to be a logical pursuit for someone whose father once owned a Pittsburgh restaurant, but the 71-year-old LaBelle has made her name over the last 45 years or so as a top-tier R&B and soul singer. First making a name for herself fronting the 1970s group LaBelle, which scored a No. 1 hit in 1975 with “Lady Marmalade,” the Philadelphia native ventured out on her own in 1977 and, in the years after, had hits with songs like “New Attitude,” “If Only You Knew” and “On My Own,” a duet with Michael McDonald. Along the way, she’s been nominated for 13 Grammys with two wins, been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, belted some lines in the superstar ensemble that sang “We Are the World” at Live Aid and done some acting, including a stint in her own sitcom, “Out All Night.”

All in all, it’s been a pretty good career for someone who once opened for The Who on what must have been one of popular music’s most incongruous double bills.

“If you dream it, you can do it,” she said.

Though it’s been several years since her last hit, she remains a popular draw on the road, and will be at The Meadows Racetrack & Casino in North Strabane Township at 8 p.m. Sunday.

There’s been a eight-year drought since LaBelle last put a new album out, but she plans on ending that sometime in 2016 – she has just completed a standards album, and it will feature songs made famous by the likes of Dakota Staton, Nina Simone and Frank Sinatra.

“I love the old songs,” she explained.

One of her old songs, “New Attitude,” has become a kind of standard in its own right. Originating from the “Beverly Hills Cop” soundtrack in 1984, it’s been used in commercials, movies, an episode of “The Simpsons,” and has become a kind of feminist anthem of self-affirmation.

”I’m very proud of the impact it has had,” she said. “When I sing it, I feel empowered.”

And then there’s “On My Own,” a hit that almost wasn’t. LaBelle recalled how producer Richard Perry, whose credits include work with Barbra Streisand and Rod Stewart, originally wanted her to sing the song, literally, on her own. But she didn’t like that version, enlisted McDonald for a duet, and found the missing ingredient.

“At first you don’t like something, and then you love it,” she noted philosophically.

LaBelle has also become more visible recently as a result of her participation in ABC-TV’s “Dancing With the Stars.” She made it as far as the sixth week this past spring, and won praise for being a bouyant participant and having a deft quickstep.

“‘Dancing With the Stars’ did a whole new thing for me,” LaBelle said. “A whole wonderful thing. Eighty percent of the people coming to see me are coming for the first time because of it. A lot of good things have come out of things I’ve done on TV.”