Nile Rodgers: from Chic to Duran Duran

Because of a new state law blocking anti-discrimination rules for the LGBT community, some musicians — most notably Bruce Springsteen — are refusing to play shows in North Carolina. But Duran Duran and its opening act, Chic featuring Nile Rodgers, played Charlotte on Saturday night, their last tour stop before their Tuesday-night show at American Airlines Center in Dallas.

While Springsteen canceled a Greensboro concert two days out — disappointing ticket-holding fans, many of whom probably are also opposed to the law — Duran Duran and Chic decided to let the music do the talking. Which it did, most loudly, during the opening act, when Rodgers led a sing-along of I’m Coming Out, the 1980 hit he and songwriting partner Bernard Edwards wrote and produced for Diana Ross.

“I said [to the crowd], ‘We’re in North Carolina, and I want you guys to sing the chorus,” Rodgers says during a Sunday-afternoon phone interview. “However, now I want you to sing it twice as loud!”

Rodgers then goes into the story behind the song: In the disco-era late ’70s, he would often club-hop in New York seeking inspiration, checking out the more underground clubs where DJs would pick songs he’d never heard before, rather than the more mainstream ones that played more commercial music. One night he visited a club called the Gilded Grape, known as a transvestite club.

“ I went to the bathroom, and in the men’s bathroom, on either side of me, there were six female impersonators, and they all were impersonating Diana Ross,” Rodgers says. “I obviously hadn’t been told that night that this was Diana Ross Impersonator Night. For me, it was something like a Fellini movie.”

At the time, he happened to be producing a record by Diana Ross — the first major artist he’d produced outside of his own Chic organization. “These guys wouldn’t have believed it: ‘Oh, gosh, you just gave me an incredible inspiration, unbelievable, I’m producing Diana Ross!’,” Roders says. “They would’ve been on the floor crying. ‘Oh, yeah, right, you’re producing Diana Ross.’ ”

Rodgers ran outside to a pay phone and called Edwards, who was at home, asleep with his wife and kids. He told Edwards to just write down “I’m coming out.” Edwards, half-asleep, didn’t understand.

“Later, I explained to him, if we did a song by Diana Ross called I’m Coming Out, what Diana Ross would be singing was not that she was gay, but that she was part of the disco movement,” Rodger says. “He didn’t quite get it. I said, ‘Look, if Diana Ross comes out and sings [sings it himself] “I’m coming out,” it’ll be just like James Brown singing “Say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud.” He said, ‘Oh, yeah! I get it now!’ ”

If you didn’t know that Rodgers co-wrote I’m Coming Out — or that he and Edwards were the minds behind such Chic’s disco-era hits as Le Freak and I Want Your Love, or that he produced David Bowie’s Let’s Dance (which featured Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar) or that he produced Duran Duran songs such as The Reflex, Wild Boys and the album Notorious — don’t worry. In nearly 40 years of performing, songwriting and producing, Rodgers has worked with Madonna, Mick Jagger, Daft Punk (he co-wrote Get Lucky), the B-52’s and more.

It’s likely that a lot of Duran Duran’s audience is familiar with Rodgers’ work with the band and with Chic, but a recent setlist revealed that the Chic part of the show includes a lot of songs that people might not immediately associate with Rodgers. But when concert crowds have heard the songs, the reactions have been strong.

Here is an edited version of some of the other things that came up during a 25-minute phone interview

On performing with Duran Duran

“It’s one of my favorite parts of the show,” says Rodgers, who also joins Duran Duran for some songs during their set. “I look at Duran Duran as my second band. They’re like my other Chic. So I get to play with both of my bands at the same time. ... I’ve never been so happy in my life, [and] I get to play with both bands. It’s such an honor.”

On the ‘I didn’t know he wrote that!’ reaction to the songs in Chic’s set

“That’s the kind of reaction I’ve gotten all my life. Composers and producers are pretty anonymous people. I could probably mention a bunch of songs to you and you’d say, ‘I love that song!,’ but you wouldn’t know who wrote it. You may know who performed it, but you wouldn’t know who wrote it. Sometimes a record comes on and my mom goes, ‘I love that song,’ and I’ll say, ‘Mom — that’s on my third album.’ ‘I didn’t know you guys did that many ballads.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, jeez.’ ”

On anonymity by design

“The whole concept of the Chic Mystique, which is what we used to call it, was because when we first started out, it was all about cult of personality and style, what people looked like. It’s more like that now, I can’t believe that. But when we started out, you had to look like a rock star to be a rock star. The great thing about the disco movement is you really didn’t have to. Most people didn’t know what [the artists] looked like, they just knew their music, because they’d hear their music at a club. They wouldn’t necessarily see ’em on television shows and things like that, because they had nightlife.

“They had daylife, and the nighttime was when they got exposed to music. They’d hear the songs, they’d learn the names of the artists, they’d go pick up the record, and sometimes the 12-inches were in these generic jackets. Which had a lot to do with the music being the winner, as opposed to the way the person looked.”

On his production work

“Most records I’ve played with superstars, they’ve let me choose the musicians. Madonna didn’t know any musicians. Bowie didn’t know any musicians [on Let’s Dance] except for me and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Diana Ross didn’t know anybody except for me. I love creating the planet that’s going to revolve around the sun. The star is the sun, and I create these other planets that I believe should be in their orbit.

“I just produced a record with a country artist [Keith Urban]. And I guarantee you, he was thrilled to play guitar with me. Just as I was with him. For the last year, we’ve been working on music, and he’s a friend, and you should see the two of us jam together. It was great.”

On his Texas connections

“You’re from Texas. How about the fact that I did the Vaughan Brothers [Family Style]? We recorded that record in Dallas. I also did the Beavis and Butt-head film with Mike Judge. We did that in Austin. I’ve done a lot of stuff in Texas that people don’t realize. I worked with [Texas-based guitarist] Charlie Sexton on a movie called Thelma and Louise. Charlie Sexton, as good-looking as he is, and as amazing a guitar player as he is, the big hunk story that came out of Thelma and Louise was Brad Pitt.”

On the deaths of David Bowie, his Chic partner Bernard Edwards (who died in 1996) and other veteran acts

“[The 20th anniversary of Edwards’ death] is right now, as a matter of fact. as far as real time is concerned. [Edwards died while on tour in Japan on April 18, 1996, but because of the time difference. Rodgers considers April 17 the anniversary in the States]. As soon as I get off the phone with you, I’m going to write my tribute to him. ... It make me think a lot. I become very introspective. I also have to admit that, as happy as I am that I’m still here, I’m a little bit perplexed, because I was the most reckless person I knew when I was younger.

“I was born sickly. I was born to a 14-year-old mother, so I had polycystic organs, I had asthma, I had all these things wrong with me when I was a kid. And I’ve only slept approximately three hours a night since I was 5  1/2 years old. So when I hear about all of these people around me passing away, a lot of whom seemed healthy and only ate organic food, when I’ve got diabetes and polycystic organ disease or whatever — but when I go out and put on a show, I feel like I’m a teen-ager. I feel like I’m still with Bernard at the Apollo. ... I jump around every night. That’s why I’m icing my knee now. I did a show with Beck almost a year ago, and hurt my knee, and it’s taken this long to recover.”

This story was originally published April 18, 2016 at 4:24 PM with the headline "Nile Rodgers: from Chic to Duran Duran."