Calling in from Milan, Italy, a singer, songwriter, guitar player who has created songs for artists such as Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, and his late wife of 30-plus years, GRAMMY Award-winning singer Donna Summer. Meanwhile, as a recording artist, he just released a new single at the beginning of this month, following a 2024 in which he released three singles, plus an album done with a two-time GRAMMY-winning producer. His résumé also includes having appeared on the iconic TV show “American Bandstand,” a single that hit #7 on the Billboard charts, and being in both Rolling Stone and Billboard. His official YouTube channel has a total of almost six million combined video views and his top five songs on Spotify alone – where he has close to twenty thousand monthly listeners – have a combined total of approximately a half-million streams.
“I had my first songwriting hit back in 1969 … for a guy named Tommy James.”
“My wife was Donna Summer. She passed away back in 2012 and since that time was when I really set out on this solo singer-songwriter career and in this time, I’ve only written by myself because I wanted to take this phase of my life to, it's not like I'm chasing pop stardom anymore. It's more a matter of continuing to evolve as a writer, being able to say the things that I want to say in the way that I want to say them.”
“My father had a jukebox route and at the end of the week he would come home with a bunch of 45s that he would have to change out in machines, and I became intrigued with the names under the song title in parentheses, and these were the songwriters. From a very early age, nine years old, it was my dream to be a songwriter. For me being a songwriter isn’t a job, it was a calling.”
“Tommy James lived around the corner (and) came into the club one night. Me being an aspiring songwriter – Tommy had already had songs like Hanky Panky and Mony Mony and I Think We're Alone Now, he was a very big star in America in those years – and he was very kind to me. I got to meet him. He lived around the corner. I would go around the corner on breaks to his apartment and try to write songs with him. I was fortunate enough to get on a song of his called Ball of Fire, which was released in 1969 and was a top 20 record back in those days. He brought me into the recording studio, I got to see him make Crimson and Clover, Crystal Blue Persuasion. I saw how a pop record was made.”
“I got to take my first flight out of New York City to Los Angeles to be on American Bandstand (and) got to go back to be on American Bandstand a number of years later with my second band.”
“In 1980 I got a record deal through RCA and did a solo album.”
“Writing became my refuge after she passed away and I realized that it's very important to have a sense of purpose and to challenge yourself in life.”
“Part of being in the music business is being able to adapt to the changes, so that's what I do. I don't wrestle with it. I don't lament what was. I look to the future. I try to see what's happening now, where it's gonna go and try to stay with it as best as I can.”
“This is my calling. This is my purpose. This is what I enjoy doing. This is where I know who I am. This is what I do, and I feel very grateful for that ability.”
“Artistically you want to be yourself. You have to find out who you are. You want to work with your strengths. Not that you don't listen and learn and assimilate from other people, but the biggest mistakes that I've made as an artist is when I've tried to copy someone else, when I've tried to imitate something else.”
“How’d You Get Here”
“Talkin’ Ugly Truth, Tellin' Pretty Lies”