INDIANAPOLIS — When you hear the national anthem before Sunday's NBA All-Star Game, one of Indy's favorite sons will be the one holding the mic and singing.
That would be Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, an Indianapolis native who has part of Interstate 65 named after him and an impressive 13 Grammy Awards.
If you're 40 and older, chances are, a Babyface song was part of the soundtrack when you fell in love or got your heart broken.
Thursday, a whole new generation joined the Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds fan club when the music legend visited Carl Wilde Elementary School with Music Will, the nonprofit he's partnered with to bring musical instruments and other resources to music departments at 20 Indianapolis Public Schools.
Edmonds knows firsthand the power music can have in a child's life.
"It's like you become a superhero. It's like nothing else matters, and the music just gives you a power, and suddenly, you're not shy anymore," Edmonds told several hundred students gathered in the school's gymnasium.
The 65-year-old Crooked Creek Elementary School alum, who didn't make the school choir cuts, would know a little something about that.
He was a just a shy sixth grader from Naptown when he first saw the Jackson 5 perform in Indianapolis.
"It was the moment where I knew this is what I wanted to do," Edmonds said. "It was crazy to see these kids up there on the stage, people screaming at them."
"These kids were from Indiana, and it was hard to believe they were just up the road. It was crazy to imagine, maybe, I could do that one day, not really thinking it was possible," Edmonds said.
Two years later, when the Jackson 5 came back to town, Edmonds knew he wanted to meet them.
So he looked up their promoter's number in the phone book and called him, pretending to be his eighth grade English teacher.
"I was a school teacher, Mr. Clayton from Westlane Junior High School." Edmonds explained. "I called the promoter, and I told him I had this great idea about kids interviewing kids, and I used my Jimmy Stewart impersonation voice at the time to sound like an adult, which I guess worked, and I ended up getting to meet them at the Hilton Hotel. It's still there. Twelfth floor."
"I was going to come up with the best question ever that (Michael) had never heard before, and my first question was, 'What's your favorite color?' So not a great interview," Edmonds said.
Not a problem. Edmonds already knew what he wanted to do from then on.
He taught himself how to play the guitar and wrote his first song at 12 after falling in love with a girl in his class.
"The love for music at an early age, pulled me into it and because of how these feelings, I wanted to write about it," he said.
"The song was called, 'Here I Go Falling in Love,'" Edmonds said.
It was the first of hundreds the recording artist, songwriter and producer has brought to music fans over the past several decades.
"My superpower was music," Edmonds said.
Even now, with 13 Grammy Awards, more than 100 top 10 R&B and pop hits, his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a highway named after him, that's just the tip of iceberg.
"I've been blessed to have the talents that I do have. I don't think it's all me," he said.
"I think it's God-given, and I work hard for it, but just because you do that doesn't necessarily make you bigger or better than anybody else," Edmonds said. "I just don't believe the hype."
Hype aside, Edmonds admits he's still nervous when he thinks about singing the national anthem Sunday in his hometown.
"You always get nervous, and you worry about the word. I know the words. I've sung it a million times, but you get in front of people, I gotta hope that superpower takes over," he said.
Music is a superpower that Edmonds happily shared with kids from his hometown.
"You could see that they had a light. There was a light in them," he said. "The next whoever could be in that room."
It could be the next shy kid from Naptown, for whom music changes everything.
"I'm just glad to be here and honored that I could be a part of giving back to these schools," Edmonds said.
Edmonds and Music Will founder and executive director Dave Wish appeared on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" on Tuesday, Feb. 27.
At the end of their segment, Clarkson announced a $10,000 donation from Zildjian, which is the world's leading manufacturer of cymbals and drumsticks. Then, Edmonds, Clarkson and Wish all agreed to match the $10,000 donation from Zildjian, bringing the total to $40,000 for Music Will.