13 Aug 2015
When Bernard Fowler sings with the Rolling Stones, he is an indispensable part of their music, with his deep soulful voice that resonates with every note into your own soul.
You hear him soar in the background with his powerhouse sound, singing on tour with the band and on their albums. Bernard has also been essential to each of the Stones’ solo careers, in the studio and on the road.
But while Bernard’s contribution as a vocalist for the music of the Greatest Rock Band in the World is vital, he has his own solo career that is varied, extensive and really quite extraordinary. He’s also a producer, instrumentalist and songwriter, and his first solo album in 2007, Friends with Privileges, on Sony Japan, was critically acclaimed.
And now the tall, sultry crooner with the gorgeous signature dreadlocks plans to finish recording his second solo album and release it soon with the help of friends, fans and Pledge Music.
http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/bernardfowler
“I’m really excited about my new music, it’s shaping up to be a great album I’m very proud of! While I’m on break, I’m going back into the studio to finish up the 10 tracks,” Bernard told me. “There’s also special bonus material I’m recording for my supporters and will offer it exclusively through Pledge Music. The website allows me to raise money for mixing and mastering and lets me have creative control – with no constraints. It’s perfect for an artist like me.”
We sat outdoors in the courtyard at the Four Seasons after the Rolling Stones last show in America in Washington, D.C., on June 24, and he told me about his solo project, and what defines him. And he presented it artfully with his modulated, punctuated, melodic speaking voice, and dynamic and engaging personality.
“I love making music. In fact, Bernard equals music, with an equal sign – and you can write that,” he said, pointing to my notepad. And so I did, in all caps, BERNARD = MUSIC.
And, like a math equation, the reverse is definitely true: MUSIC = BERNARD as he has appeared on over 30 albums and worked with – and earned the love and respect of – an amazing roster of influential artists that includes: Yoko Ono, Robert Plant, Pearl Jam, Motörhead’s Lemmy, John Mayer, Def Leppard, Living Colour, The Neville Brothers, Herbie Hancock, Joe Walsh, Duran Duran, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Herb Albert, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sly & Robbie, Gil Scott-Heron, Johnnie Johnson, and Bootsy Collins.
“I’ve done a lot of things, recording – wise,” he under-states. His voice is his primary musical instrument and his harmonies are smooth as silk. But Bernard is also a talented trombone, percussion and keyboard player and brings all of these talents to many performances and recordings in a span of genres – rock, pop, soul, blues, jazz, funk, alternative and Latin. He is a very busy and successful artist in a rarefied world.
“It’s my life, it’s what I do and I can’t imagine doing anything else,” he said with a big contented smile.
Bernard was dressed all in black (tee, jeans, Beatle boots) with an armful of silver bracelets and looked rocker-hot, as more than a dozen fans and friends stopped by to say “hello” and congratulate him on a wonderful performance. He was basking in the afterglow of an amazing Rolling Stones show that evening, before preparing to leave the next day for the last three shows of the tour in London.
“That was off the hook!” he said of the concert. “The band is now playing better than ever. There’s no better front man than Mick Jagger – he’s my hero and the hardest working man in show biz.” (But he added a comment caveat: James Brown previously had that distinction until his death.)
“I watch them all every night and I’m telling ya – the band still has passion for the music. And that passion shows!” Bernard said passionately. “Those cats are our blues men now. Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, they’re gone. But Keith and Ronnie learned from them. All that stuff they listened to – those leads, those riffs – come through at every show. You can hear it – like a direct connection to the old blues cats. It’s fuckin’ incredible.”
Bernard has been a huge Rolling Stones fan since he was a teen in the 1970s and his father gave him his first Stones album, which he listened to “until I wore it out.” It was 12 x 5, the band’s second release from 1964. “I mean it was on the turntable so much, it skipped and popped, that thing was played out,” he said laughing.
And now singing songs from that adored album with the band who recorded it nearly 40 years ago, “blows my mind!” Bernard said. “I’m tellin’ ya, you can’t make this shit up! There’s a reason I am here, there’s a reason!”
One of the main reasons must have been for us to hear Bernard harmonizing on an incredible “Under the Boardwalk” like he did at the second Philadelphia Stones show June 21, with special guest Aaron Neville. Other songs Bernard sang live on tours present and past from his favorite album 12 x 5 are: “Around and Around,” “Time is On My Side” and “It’s All Over Now.”
When I remind him of his own contributions to these songs from the influential album dear to his heart, he exclaims, “How fucking cool is that!”
Yeah, that’s very cool. And so is working with the Rolling Stones since their Steel Wheels album and tour in 1989 and appearing on all their records for the next 19 years (through Shine A Light). Very fucking cool, indeed!
It all began with Mick Jagger’s solo album, She’s the Boss, when Bernard was the vocalist and the arranger for the record in 1985 (he was introduced by his friend Bill Laswell producer and bassist.) “And I’ve been working with the Rolling Stones in some way, many ways, ever since,” he said.
Bernard toured behind Mick’s second solo record, Primitive Cool, in Japan and Australia in 1988. Mick noted a decade later that Bernard “is very strong and can sing for ages. He’s got a lot of range and a lot of stamina vocally. You have to have that if you’re going to do long nights and lots and lots of shows, all in the open air; he can easily keep up with me.” And he can definitely complement Mick’s signature falsetto and other varied vocals.
The other Stones apparently think Bernard can keep up with them as well. He has worked with Ronnie Wood, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards on their solo projects, also appearing on albums and tours.
He is co-writer of the original tracks on Ronnie’s 1992 release, Slide On This and co-wrote five of the tracks with Ronnie on I Feel Like Playing from 2010. He was also the producer on both of those albums.
“It was great to collaborate with Ronnie but it was a tough time for him, he was going through some heavy stuff,” Bernard said, recalling the Stones guitarist’s divorce during I Feel Like Playing. “Ronnie told me ‘I’ve got a lot of stuff to write about, let’s make a record.’ So we sat and wrote a beautiful body of work together.”
Bernard performs live on tour with Ronnie and with Charlie, and also fronted two of the drummer’s jazz records. Plus he lends his talents to Stones saxophonists Bobby Keys and Tim Ries for their own musical projects.
Bobby once said the first time he heard Bernard sing, “I really thought I was listening to Sam Cooke and Otis Redding joined together! He has an inbred instinct and feel for music and expresses it vocally. He’s not just a vocalist, as such. He’s a musician.”
Bernard worked with Keith on Main Offender in 1992, and worked with the “human riff” again over the past year on his new studio recording. “Keith called me to sing on his solo album. It’s a beautiful record and whenever he decides for it to come out, it will genuinely be well-received.”
Royland Bernard Fowler first learned about beautiful music in the Queensbridge Projects of New York City (where he was born and raised), by singing along with the radio. “That was my formal training,” he says with a smile.
“I listened to – and sang to – everything my mom and dad played at home, like Muddy Waters and Little Richard. And I used to pretend to be all the Temptations,” he said, with a laugh and Motown arm moves. “Music was always playing, even when Mom would put me down for a nap. I heard such a huge range of songs – it gave me a great appreciation for all music, and it’s all a part of me. I’ve always loved song. And I love voice.”
“I was really born a soul singer but I always had this thing for rock and roll,” he added. In high school, his musical tastes were much wider than his mostly Black and Puerto Rican classmates. Bernard was listening to – and singing along with – popular ‘70s artists like Jimi Hendrix, Carole King, Three Dog Night, Santana and Buddy Miles.
It’s no surprise that he didn’t wait long to sing professionally at 15 and started writing songs at 16, fronting for Total Eclipse, who were later signed to Brunswick Records. As a teen, Bernard played bass in a salsa band too; he was always able to adapt his talents to many musical styles.
Bernard’s first success in the music industry came early as a trailblazer of house music as a member of the New York Citi Peech Boys with their club hit “Don’t Make Me Wait.“ He was in many eclectic bands, including The Celluloid, and the hip hop rap vocal band, The Smurfs. He appeared on Public Image Ltd.’s Compact Disc and collaborated with Herbie Hancock on the jazz great’s album Future Shock (“one of the pinnacles of my career.”)
Bernard also fronted the band Nicklebag with Steve Salas and Bernie Worrell; today he and Steve are reincarnated as the IMF’s (“International Mother Fuckers”). The just released a live record The IMF’s Alive in Europe on Gunner Records in Canada.
Along the way, and early on, Bernard realized that he didn’t want to pursue his dream of being a rock star. “I had enough bullshit with being in bands, it’s hard to keep a band together,” he recalled. “So I decided that I wanted to sing and that I wanted to be a working musician. And I made up my mind that I gotta do it myself.”
Bernard’s vocals are so versatile, adaptable and adjustable that he can match and complement the range, style and timbre of any male artist’s voice in the business. When he worked alongside Alice Cooper on his Along Came A Spider album, the shock rocker tried to get Ozzy Osborn to sing the duet on “Wake the Dead,” but couldn’t. Instead, Bernard sang the Ozzy part with Alice.
“Everyone thinks that’s Ozzy, but it’s me! They wanted him and he gets credit, but I sang the duet on that song! I can sound like anyone!” Bernard told me, excited to share the secret.
Flipping the emo switch, he later shared his sadness over performing in the last gig of Michael Hutchence, former lead singer for INXS. Bernard was supporting his good friend’s solo show at the Viper room in Los Angeles. “Michael was a great front man, his death was a great loss,” he said. “Self-preservation is tough is this business.”
Throughout all the support for so many stellar artists, Bernard has kept focused on his own solo career. Today he still tours with Tackhead (in the Adrian Sherwood-associated band from 1989, with famed bassist Doug Wimbish) and with Bad Dog (Wimbish, Skip Mc Donald and Keith Le Blanc). Bad Dog toured behind Bernard’s first solo album Friends with Privileges.
A mix of rock, funk, R&B, and soul, Friends with Privileges featured a lineup of musicians that included, Stevie Salas, Ron Wood, Steve Lukather, Ivan Neville, Doug Wimbish, Will Calhoun, Darryl Jones, Simon Phillips, Kid Rock, Waddy Wachtel and Lisa Fischer, who sings backup with the Stones alongside Bernard, also since 1989.
For his yet untitled and forthcoming new album, Bernard was pleased with the contributors so far (with more to come, including music industry heavyweights): L Shankar, Waddy Wachtel, Wil Calgory, Doug Wimbish and guitarist Robert Davis. “There’s gonna be a good number of players on this disc,” he said, noting it will be similar to his last solo effort, featuring his powerful vocals on a unique brand of rock with stylish grooves. It will reflect his many diverse influences, “but it will be more focused.”
Bernard said that the artistic focus of his solo career “is making music that is true to me and my sound. Today’s technology can empower independent musicians and they can record the music that they like. And with a lot of hard work, they can sell records. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
The Pledge Music opportunity has given Bernard a chance to be up-close-and-personal with his fans, many of whom pledged money for his second solo album to have a meet and greet with him after Stones shows. His fan base has grown exponentially through the Stones, but he always had faithful followers for decades.
“My career has been pretty diverse. Some (fans) knew me before the Stones, and some only with the Stones. And some both. It’s a real compliment either way,” Bernard said. “I really appreciate my fans.”
I told him I knew something about him that would be a surprise for most of his fans: BERNARD = MOVIE STAR.
He laughed out loud. He was tickled and couldn’t believe that I knew that secret about him: Bernard Fowler has a small but significant part as a bad guy in the film The Matrix Reloaded. “How did you know that? Nobody knows that!” he shouted, still laughing.
I teased him – maybe he has sights on a new career path to Hollywood?
“Oh no, baby, at the end of the day I just want to sing!” he reassured me. “And I’ve been blessed to be able to do it for a long time in the best possible way, with the best possible people. Gotta keep on singing and making music. That’s what I do — what I do best!”
