Dele Abiodun

Dele Abiodun was born in 1948 in Sobe, Nigeria, a town on the boundary between West and Mid-West Nigeria. As a youngster in school, his interest in music led him to head the school band as a drummer. He dropped out of secondary school to pursue music, using money given to him for school fees to take a bus to Accra, Ghana, where he enrolled in the Young Pioneer School of Music. At the time, Ghana was a leader in state sponsored development of musical culture in Africa. He turned professional in 1968, as a guitarist, after a brief flirtation with bass. By 1970 he had formed his own band and soon became known as Prince Admiral Dele Abiodun and His Top Hitters Band. His musical development was influenced by such highlife greats as Victor Olaiya and Rex Lawson as well as the juju master I.K. Dairo. But he also set out to create an original style. "I feel every musician then was either playing like Sunny or Obey," he says. "I felt I just had to evolve my own brand of music. I listened to Sunny and Obey's music, but I can't play like them. My own brand of music is a mixture of highlife and juju. I believe I just have to do my own thing; I hate to be a copycat!" He is currently the president of Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria.