The Chic Of Some People
En route to the Galway Arts Festival Chic’s Nile Rodgers talks about his friendship with Michael Jackson and David Bowie, working with Daft Punk and sharing the stage with The Smiths’ Johnny Marr.
Roisin Dwyer, 28 Jun 2012
“It’s funny when you think of all the moments in your career that may have been one of the best! As well as the thousands of people lining the Mall singing along to ‘We Are Family’, you could see the royal family and you knew that they knew the song!” laughs Nile Rodgers, clearly amused that he played an indirect part in the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. ‘That was amazing to me, the royal family nodding their heads mouthing the lyrics!”
In advance of his upcoming Irish shows, the legendary New Yorker has taken time out of his hectic schedule to chat to Hot Press. The band’s festival season is jammed full of dates in what Rodgers has dubbed excitedly on his website Chic’s Biggest Summer Of Love. Indeed there was much affection on display recently in Manchester when Johnny Marr joined the band on stage for a sterling rendition of ‘Le Freak’.
“Johnny and I became friends about a year ago,’ explains Nile. ‘One of the guys from Duran Duran told me that Johnny had named his son after me which I thought was interesting to say the least! But now I have met Nile and he and I are good friends, he is a pretty damn fine guitarist himself! I just love Johnny’s entire family, they are wonderful people.”
“I used to love The Smiths,” he continues. “I’ve watched Johnny’s career as it developed and I could tell from his style that he wasn’t the typical guitarist of his genre. But I didn’t know that the mutual admiration society was so strong between us!”
As well as a packed tour schedule Rodgers also has several music projects on the go, one of which is a collaboration with French disco duo Daft Punk.
“I’ll let them do all the talking about that,’ he avers. ‘It’s a great concept, it’s really amazing. I’ve known Guy and Thomas for so long and we’ve been trying to do something together for years. They came over to my apartment, so at least we know I showed up at the recording studio! That’s as much as we’ll say, it’s going to be phenomenal though.”
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