CHIC Organization guitar tech, Terry Brauer

I was looking at some video that my guitar tech Terry shot of the band. This was a few days before my session with Adam Lambert. We were about to rehearse for a cancer charity concert.

Usually when you see me playing with the CHIC Organization, we're tightly rehearsed and playing songs that I've written and produced. But even after all these years, playing music is still fun and recreational as much as it's my livelihood. So this is what I do Behind Closed Doors.

 

My guitar tech Terry and Bruno Mars at rehearsal

Usually when you see me playing with the CHIC Organization, we're tightly rehearsed and playing songs that I've written and produced

In my hotel bed with the Hitmaker Behind Closed Doors

In Le Crib Studio jamming

 

Me and The Hitmaker

I'm feverishly working on many different projects - and the one thing that connects them is my guitar playing - and my favorite guitar. It's nicknamed The Hitmaker because it's played on countless hit records. It's not the only guitar I use, but it is the one I use the most.

It has a very unique sound and feel. It has a certain brightness which allows it to cut through most frequencies, even at a low volume. It's so distinctive, that when I play on a recording, The Hitmaker often becomes a second voice. It's these qualities that have bonded me to this guitar from the moment I bought it thirty-five years ago.

I've tried to find the earliest photographs of me with The Hitmaker up to the latest - to show my Loyalty.

 

'Nard and Nile early Hitmaker circa 1977

The Hitmaker in Studio A at the Power Station, where it played on the famed studio's first recording, CHIC, in 1977

Cover of Melody Maker in '81

Performing with my Hitmaker Strat on TV show All My Children in '82

Here I'm playing The Hitmaker at Bernard Edwards' final show in '96

Me, The Hitmaker, and Seal - It played on his hit song "Fly Like An Eagle"

Playing The Hitmaker with Elton John

Me and The Hitmaker recording with Adam Lambert

The Hitmaker and me are a loyal team

 

Another new shot of me and Adam Lambert photographed by Terry - I'm Cracking Up

It's time for my next round of post-op cancer blood tests, which usually make me nervous. But I don't feel very nervous today because I've been laughing half the night. I found some behind-the-scenes video of my first few minutes with Adam Lambert. In it, I'm breaking down my initial approach to the guitar parts on his song "Shady."

Adam was late getting to the studio and I had limited time. I'd never seen this footage before because it was shot by my guitar tech. It was in a folder that I didn't recognize labeled "Last Minute Out Of Control."

 

Adam's cracking up too!

Me in the Power Station/Avatar's Main Room

 

Most of these pictures you're seeing for the first time

A few months ago I played on a funky Adam Lambert track called "Shady." Typically, I photograph what goes on in my daily life after being attacked by aggressive cancer last year.

Since I can't photograph and play guitar at the same time, my guitar tech Terry shoots when I'm playing. He wanted to be respectful of Adam since it was his first time meeting him, so he took these shots as discreetly as possible. Most of them are being Seen For the First Time.

 

My guitar tech Terry with "The Hitmaker" guitar

Me and Adam during the "Shady" session

Me and Adam having a laugh between takes

@AdamLambert tweeting fans while we wait for the beat to drop

Me and Adam Lambert in a tight shot

Me and Adam in Studio A

Me, The Hitmaker (my guitar), and my engineer Rich recording "Shady" in the very room whose maiden record was CHIC's first album

 

The Full Early CHIC Org had five guys and eight Absolutely Fabulous Women

Since the formation of the CHIC Organization, we've had the extreme pleasure to employ a huge amount of Fabulous female musicians. I've also been fortunate to have the support of a Fabulous group of women that are there for me in other capacities.

Today I was going through my scrapbook and realized that the list is so long, today's blog post will merely scratch the surface - the ladies in my universe are Absolutely Fabulous Women!

 

Click on images to read the article - Use your arrows to navigate

 

Dance Music guru Arthur Baker telling me after-hours nightclubbing stories at Bestival

This year, CHIC will play in the UK at least ten times. Many of our gigs will be festivals which are so much fun, they should be illegal. One of them will be Bestival.

This year they're giving me my own tent for a pre-concert book party and solo guitar jam. All I can imagine is that it's going to be twice as insane as last time, and that show was Crazy, Sexy and Fun.

 

This girl stretching in the tent was as nice as she was beautiful

And this girl was "wearing" these stockings

The hottest catering girl I've ever seen was working at Bestival

A quick shot with a girl before the show

Me with a girl and our monitor mixer Marco and Kim from CHIC in background

Melissa from CHIC and a girl in the tent who bore a striking resemblance

The 2010 Lineup for Bestival

Fab fun fine girl at Bestival 2010

The Bestival massage tent

Me with Echo & the Bunnymen at Bestival 2010

The 2012 Lineup for Bestival - [Click to Enlarge]

 

Jerry and me with the flight crew on the Japanese leg

Yesterday, while waiting in the lounge before boarding my flight back to New York from London, I had and interesting chat. I happened to be sitting next to a person who was a multiple cancer survivor. After talking to her, I felt very thankful of where I am today. Whatever my long range outcome is, the last week of my life was awesome. I've basically flown around the world, performed some amazing shows, met with some wonderful people and have great plans for the future Before I Die.

 

I did a series of great gigs in Japan and gave away a Fender Strat the last night

The CHIC shows were hotter than they've ever been

The girls were hotter

Did I mention the girls were hotter?

Me and my friend Miki backstage - right I've already said the girls were hotter

Chilling with my London flight crew

In London, I was the guest speaker at an exclusive dinner party with extremely influential business movers and shakers

While in London, I also did a documentary with a revolutionary take on disco music

Before leaving London I went over to the recording studio to meet LaRoux's Elly Jackson

I jammed on her guitar, which remarkably resembles mine and I marveled at all her gear with Ian

And when it comes to gear, they had lot's of it

Her new music brought a smile to my face and we agreed to work on some of it together - Then I had to catch an early morning flight

When I returned to new york from Japan I found out my tech D had hacked into my blog and put up Adam Lambert fan vids - Me playing "Shady" with Adam Lambert

Hanging out with one of my cool flight attendants on the way home to New York from London

When I'm in my NY apartment, this is the room I like to compose in

Because of the deals I did last week, as soon as I got home I worked on "The Good Antagonist" - a song from my musical DoubleTime

I also worked on "Start Again" because I'm obsessed with getting the show to Broadway

I've done a lot in my lifetime, but there's a couple more big things I want to do Before I Die

 

American Airlines #101 - London to NYC

I'm on a flight back home to NYC today. London has been amazing. Check out pics on my Facebook page of me hanging with Elly and the LaRoux Crew.

 

 

April 25, 2012 - Update by: IAmMisterD
Yesterday, I hacked Nile's blog in the middle of the day to share with everyone the incredible activity surrounding "Shady" and video footage from his session with Adam Lambert. After he saw it, we had a great laugh and thought it'd be great to keep it up for a whole day. We added some more YouTube clips to spice it up some, too. Enjoy!

Hey guys, it's D (IAmMisterD). Nile's in London taking over the world, but I had to hack the blog and share this with you guys (hope he doesn't mind!).

As many of you know, Nile worked on Adam Lambert's latest album, and the anticipation for their collaboration, "Shady" is just incredible!

We knew it even at the first session that this song has some fire, and between my cam and Jean Morisson's, we captured really great stuff that is now being remixed and re-edited all over YouTube. So much so that I had to hack into Nile's blog... cuz I, too, was Feeling So Shady.

 

 

Inspirational speaker and NY Times best-selling author Debbie Ford and me when she stopped by one of our CHIC rehearsals last year

Yesterday, I arrived home from Japan at 5:00 PM and today I fly to London at 6:00 PM. I only came back to New York to meet with award winning theatrical/film/TV director Kenny Leon and NY Times best-selling author/filmmaker/inspirational speaker Debbie Ford. After an amazing run of concerts in Tokyo, it will be very wonderful to sit with these two geniuses of their respective disciplines.

I've worked with Kenny at the UN at what many diplomats called the best show they'd ever had. It was called Breaking the Silence Beating the Drum: The UN's International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. I was the music director, Kenny was the director, and the program featured: Salif Keita, Whoopi Goldberg, Toumani Diabate, Izaline Calister, Akon and Peter Buffett, Blind Boys of Alabama, CCH Pounder, Gilberto Gil, Sarah Jones, Staceyann Chin, Phylicia Rashad, Passing Strange's Stew, and Ky-Mani Marley doing Redemption Song - (I had to kneel down to read the music because I couldn't see the notes in the dark.)

Down in Turks & Caicos, Debbie Ford eagerly listened while I read my memoir Le Freak to her daily. She reassured me that the book, which was the first thing I'd ever written longer than a few pages, was very, very good. It was difficult to talk about my lonely complicated life. I shared how I grew up feeling ugly, unwanted, and unloved because my teenaged mother was always abandoning me. She quoted, "By God, when you see your beauty, You'll Be the Idol of Yourself."