A Minute With: Sharon Jones on soul music, cancer and R-E-S-P-E-C-T

By Eric Kelsey LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Cancer became the inescapable loss lurking in the background of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings' latest album, "Give the People What They Want," the sixth release from the indie soul group credited with reviving the genre a dozen years ago. Jones, the 57-year-old singer who rose to prominence after a career as a backup singer and a stint working as a guard at New York City's Rikers Island jail, lost her mother to cancer while writing material for the album, and the brother of saxophonist Neal Sugarman succumbed to the disease too. Jones herself was diagnosed with bile duct cancer, which pushed the album's release from last August back to this week, and underwent her final chemotherapy treatment on December 31. The singer, who has been praised along with her band by Rolling Stone magazine as "extending and preserving tradition," spoke with Reuters about soul music, cancer, getting her due.