Lightning Bolton
Last Updated: 8:19 AM, June 26, 2011
Posted: 7:51 PM, June 25, 2011
Michael Bolton: adult-contemporary balladeer, lust magnet for middle-aged women, mullet-haired ’80s icon . . . Internet comedy sensation?
The Connecticut native owes that last résumé item to his star turn in “Jack Sparrow,” a video by the Lonely Island comedy troupe in which he repeatedly (and hilariously) busts into a hip-hop track with a costumed musical tribute to “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Forrest Gump” and other flicks. The short became a viral smash after it aired on “Saturday Night Live” in May, surprising those who figured Bolton to be humor-challenged and uptight.
Consider it the latest twist in the career of a man who’s gone from barroom blues singer to soft-rock megastar, and collaborated with everyone from Pavarotti to Lady Gaga. We spoke to Bolton just before the release of his new record “Gems,” a collection of duets with artists including Seal, Rascal Flatts and Indian composer A.R. Rahman.
You’ve continued to tour heavily through the years. Did that hinder the time frame for making the record?
No, it was a year and change. It was originally going to be half an album of duets and guests, and then it turned into the entire CD, as people started hearing about the project. These 25-, 26-year-old artists who were teenagers when they first heard my music turned out to be big fans, and they wanted to be involved. I got contacted by the Rascal Flatts guys. Orianthi shows up, and she’s a fan from Australia. Next thing I know she’s on the record.
She played on “Steel Bars,” a song you wrote with Bob Dylan. How did that collaboration come about?
I got a phone call from his manager. I was staying at the Sunset Marquis, and I had a week of songwriting sessions booked with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and Diane Warren. I just canceled everything and started nervously working on ideas.
Did you actually sit down with him?
He’s got a studio in his garage with drums, keyboards and a few guitars. So I went out to his house, and he came in and introduced himself and I just went into shock. We talked, and [in a Dylan accent] just the sound of his voice was taking me back in time and making it even more surreal.
I said, “I worked on a couple of ideas I thought you might like.” The first one I played, he just started coming up with lyrics left and right. It was crazy. He’d come up with a line and I’d come up with an answer, and two or three hours later we had pretty much written “Steel Bars.”
You may be the only musician in history to collaborate with both Kenny G and Bob Dylan.
[Laughs.] Throw Gaga into the mix, too.
Given the changes in the music business, how might it be different for someone like you now?
Labels used to chip in and give you tour support, and those are two words you’ll never hear again. That was a part of artist development that no longer exists. Also, when people can just go download the one song they love and leave the rest of the record alone, you’re looking at a very different environment. I don’t know how a young artist survives that.
On the plus side, you can now appear in a skit and have 20 million people watch it on YouTube.
I’ve got songs that have been on YouTube for years that have only, like, 8 million hits. And we were watching this thing hit 14 million in two weeks! I’m getting high fives from teenage guys in airports. It’s great. It makes me want to do more of it.
How did you get involved?
Andy [Samberg], Jorma [Taccone] and Akiva [Schaffer, all of Lonely Island] approached me. They started sending me ideas, and I’d look at the pages and say, “This is really funny s--t, but I can’t read this line. This is language I’d use if I was kidding around with a couple of friends, but not on camera.” They kept pitching me for months and it was like, these guys aren’t quitting. So finally I said, “If you want this to happen, why don’t we get to what it is that we both do?” And they came up with this concept.
Those guys are like a three-headed monster: They’ve got a tremendous amount of energy and focus. There’s an incredible amount of attention to every detail. But when you see the footage, it was worth it.
What was the most fun character to play?
Scarface, because I’m a huge Al Pacino fan, and [in Tony Montana accent] I seen Scarface five or six times. I know dat character.
Doing Erin Brockovich was a bit traumatic, because I was afraid to look in the mirror, so I just went out to the set and we started shooting. Then I saw myself in the lens, and it was like, I should probably go back to therapy.
It seemed a big part of the reaction to the video was people saying, “Hey, that guy actually has a sense of humor.”
That was just funny to me. Because every radio interview I do I have people in the studio laughing. The only thing I can relate to as far as people thinking I’m serious is that the long road to success made me such an intense workaholic. I’m serious about my work, I’m serious about my kids, but with everything else, it’s like, I’ve been the class clown all my life.
