Nile Rodgers: Why I didn’t hit on Madonna

Nile Rodgers is a name not immediately familiar but it’s guaranteed you will have been touched by his music — and never more so than this year, when you are never more than five minutes from one of his records on the radio. The creative force behind well over $2 billion (Dh7.4 billion) worth of hits by the likes of Madonna, David Bowie, Duran Duran and most recently, Daft Punk, has always done his work with the intention of being rather anonymous, even with his own band Chic, who play Sandance at Atlantis this Friday.

“The Chic mystique meant I was never anything but a band member. Daft Punk changed that I became the defacto spokesperson for the song because like Chic “the robots” like to remain anonymous. The only human faces in the videos are Pharrell and myself which propelled me into the spotlight. I feel it is a new lease of life,”

The inspiring story behind the man stretches from a tough upbringing (born to a 13-year-old mother, who would later become a heroin addict) to the diagnosis of an “extremely aggressive” prostate cancer three years ago, which was turned into a force for creativity and positivity.

“I got my latest all clear in London but it’s a process that’s repeated every six months. It made me realise that my time on Earth is finite and I want to do as many positive things as possible. Cancer is devastating, humiliating and awful but I committed to not miss a show, speaking engagement or book signing.”

In his own words, Rodgers talks us about what went into making some of the world’s best albums — from why he didn’t hit on Madonna to the biggest compliment he ever had.

David Bowie: Let’s Dance (1983)

“He saved my life and my career, because at that point I was coming off the back of six Chic failures, my phone had stopped ringing and no one wanted to work with me. I met David Bowie at a nightclub and we talked, he liked where I was coming from and said ‘you know you can make hits, I want you to make a hit for me’. I thought that was odd because David Bowie was, well, just David Bowie. He did what he wanted. He made me realise that everyone wants hits and he paid me the biggest compliment I had ever heard when he said ‘do what you do best and make me a hit record’. I had played him my solo album and he said to me, ‘if you can make me a record half as good as that, then I will be the happiest man in the world’. We went onto make Let’s Dance, the album with Modern Love, China Girl and Let’s Dance on it. That album went onto be the biggest of David Bowie’s life.”

Madonna: Like a Virgin (1984)

“Probably the most exciting experience I have ever had with an artist, because she was relatively unknown but on the verge of super-stardom. The short period of time it took to make her record was negated by the fact we had to wait forever for a release date. We had finished the album and then Borderline came out from her first record and became a hit, so Like a Virgin had to wait. They then decided to release Lucky Star which again meant more waiting for the albums release. It did, however, mean that Madonna got to debut Like a Virgin at the first MTV Awards. It went onto be mine and her biggest-selling album. She knew she was going to be a huge star, but at the time she was living in a small apartment with no furniture, so after having to sit on the floor once too often, I gave her one of my sofas. The other story that has been taken slightly out of context is the fact that Madonna was angry that I didn’t hit on her. I was the only producer that didn’t hit on her and I was looking to be Madonna’s producer for life — a bit like George Martin and the Beatles — so any kind of relationship would have complicated things. The other factors were I had a girlfriend at the time and looking back, I wasn’t Madonna’s type.

Sister Sledge: We are Family (1979)

“There was a clash of cultures on this record. Myself and Bernard [Chic’s bassist, who co-produced] were heavily into the nightclub scene and Sister Sledge were young, very religious and not in the same mindset. We wrote the song He’s the Greatest Dancer and there was a problem lyric in it: ‘My creme de la creme please take me home.’ Kathy, who was to sing, the lyric suggested she sing ‘my creme de la creme please don’t go home’. We said no, as it changed the dynamic of the song to being about you as opposed to about him. We ended up using our lyrics and Kathy sang it without a hint of hesitation, she was completely committed and the record was a huge hit. The first single wound up being platinum and of course led onto one of the greatest songs I have written, which is We are Family.”

Daft Punk: Random Access Memories (2013)

“This was an important part of my life as I was diagnosed with extremely aggressive cancer and they weren’t sure if I was going to make it. I decided to do more concerts than I had ever done in my life and started doing more collaborations than ever. During that therapeutic recovery period, I worked with Daft Punk on Get Lucky, Lose Yourself to Dance and Get Life Back to Music. Get Lucky has become one of the biggest-selling singles of all time. The genius of Daft Punk is that they let me do my thing in the studio. I added a human touch to a previously very robotic sound. I gave it something different from what they have done before. The concept of the robots evolving was genius to me, they wanted to move back in time to move forward. Get Lucky is such a simple track — basically guitar, bass and drums propelling the track forward. It has a few whistles and bells like their vocoder but essentially it is a simple track you could sit down and play on the guitar or piano by yourself.”

BOX: The Hitmaker

The secret to Rodgers’ songs — apart from his obvious talent — is something he calls The Hitmaker: his 1959 white Fender stratocaster guitar. “This guitar is one of the most important things in my world ever,” he says. “I bought it in 1973 in Miami Beach whilst we were the opening act of the Jackson 5 tour, which shows you how long I have had it. People say a guitar can’t make that much difference but it makes the world of difference. It dwarfs anything else.” But The Hitmaker very nearly came to a sad end recently after he left it on a train. “I realised once I reached home and jumped in the sports car [he is a former race car driver]. I broke every rule in the book chasing the Hitmaker — I couldn’t outrun the train but got there just after it arrived at the last station. After some frantic searching with a very helpful police officer I found it next to a skateboard in a store room. I felt like I had lost a child. I just need to work out a way to thank everyone that helped me that day.”