The Isley Brothers, now down to just two of the group's original members, have shared a new theme song written for the film By Any Means.
"By Any Means" pairs Ronald Isley's still-distinctive tenor with young Nashville singer David Kushner, whose baritone blends country, gospel and blues, over an arrangement that draws from those same traditions.
The film, based on the book Deal With the Devil, dramatizes the FBI's recruitment of mobster Gregory Scarpa Jr. to help locate where the Ku Klux Klan and local police buried the bodies of three civil rights workers murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1964. It stars Mark Wahlberg as Scarpa and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the Black FBI agent he partners with.
The song was written by Diane Warren, who has earned nine consecutive Best Original Song Oscar nominations and is expected to be in strong contention for a tenth with this track. Warren said working with the Isley Brothers was a longtime dream.
Ronald Isley said the group's rise paralleled the Civil Rights Movement, and that he was honored to sing lyrics carrying "a message of defiance and resilience against a broken system." Seven decades after emerging from Cincinnati blending gospel, blues and R&B, Ronald and Ernie Isley remain the group's only original members still recording under the Isley Brothers name.
The facts
- New song 'By Any Means' written for the film of the same name
- Only Ronald and Ernie Isley remain from the group's original lineup
- Song written by nine-time Oscar nominee Diane Warren
- Film dramatizes the FBI's use of a mobster informant in a 1964 civil rights case
- Stars Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
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