Photo: Joyce Culver
By: Sandi Durell
Multiple Grammy Winner singer & songwriter Michael Bolton was the guest of five-time Billboard/Airplay Monitor Radio Award winning broadcaster Valerie Smaldone at the 92Y on September 9th to talk about his life, his new book “The Soul of It All: My Music, My Life.”
After a well-timed cell phone play on the running “Please Don’t Call Michael Bolton” high speed internet TV commercial (shown on a screen), he appeared on stage to thunderous applause.
His persona became even more ubiquitous when he appeared on The Lonely Island’s “Jack Sparrow” – the video going viral with over 110 million views on YouTube.
Bolton, who is 60 years old, but says “12 years old psychologically,” had dropped out of school to hang around Greenwich Village to play guitar. He was turned onto R&B by his brother Orrin. It didn’t take long for a record producer to discover the talented Bolton around the age of 16. Here he relates the ins and outs of his experiences in the music biz with a good degree of humor.
Not only has he had multi-award winning singles and albums but a wide array of jingles that paid the bills in the 80s for his family – a wife and three kids! (popular ones -“Be All You Can” for the US Army and Dr. Pepper)
He wrote for many other artists (Patti LaBelle, Streisand, Cher) until a producer said to save those tunes and sing them himself. Smart move!
Not all was peaches n’ cream for the sexy Bolton as he talks about a lawsuit regarding a song name that was life changing (all in the book).
There’s no doubt that Bolton thrives on his creativity, the spark that keeps him alive. He’s also a proud grandpa! And . . . he’s very funny! Who knows, stand up may not be out of the question in the not too distant future!
Bolton is extremely genuine with a persona that engages and makes you feel as though you’ve known him for quite a while. This may have something to do with Ms. Smaldone’s easy interviewing style.
The illuminating evening concluded with a post show book signing and lots of photographs with fans.
