Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 24, 1992 TAG: 9201250011
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JIM MORRISON LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
SONGS OF LOVE
Call him Mr. Sensitive, a soulful guy in touch with his feelings.That's how Michael Bolton describes himself. And that's what he thinks led to his breakthrough in the music business nearly two decades after he signed a recording deal.
"I get a lot of fan mail from people who perceive me as an intense but sensitive person, and basically I think that's who I am," he says. "I don't mind dealing with this kind of subject matter, emotionalism. I'm only comfortable with people who are open."
Bolton is plenty open about what motivates him: writing about the joy and pain of love, then pouring out his heart with a big, gritty vocal performance.
"Fortunately, I have pretty good access to what I feel, and that is, I think, the key to singing with conviction," he says. "To me, a big part of my success is being able to reach in and draw it out. That's what moves people."
A sampling of his song titles exemplifies the territory Bolton mines: "Love Is a Wonderful Thing," "Time, Love and Tenderness," "That's What Love Is All About," "How Can We Be Lovers" and "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You?"
"Time, Love and Tenderness," his latest album, is in Billboard's Top 10. It has earned platinum status, having sold more than 3 million copies. "Soul Provider," his Grammy-winning 1989 disc, has sold more than 6 million copies worldwide.
His brand of white-boy R&B has been all over radio the past couple of years. Five cuts from "Soul Provider" were hits. And "Time, Love and Tenderness" has spawned three Top 10 singles since its release last summer.
His tour, which began in July, has taken him to 72 cities in the United States, Canada and Europe. It stops in Southwest Virginia on Saturday with a 7:30 p.m. show at the Roanoke Civic Center.
So what if the naysayers call him sappy? He's convinced that songs endure because they find find a way into your heart, not your brain.
"I get shot at by the critics because they want me to write about the baby whales off the coast of Africa. But they're not going to get it from me," Bolton adds firmly. "I may contribute money to save the baby whales somewhere, or I may raise money for different causes, but I'm not out to satisfy the critics.
"There is something that will never change," Bolton says, "and that's the importance of what people feel emotionally - the experience of love and pain, for that matter. That's something that is never going to change."
After years of dabbling in hard rock, writing romantic ballads for others and playing clubs in his hometown of New Haven, Conn., Bolton has found the formula for chart success.
"My audience really does get, I think, who I am, and as long as there is such an obvious approval and an obvious appreciation there, I'm going to give my audience what they want in large doses."
\ Years of experience
\ Though he got an early taste of the music business, Bolton toiled years for his break. Now 38 and recently divorced, he comes across as savvy about the music business and confident, not cocky, about his talent.
His first record deal, with Epic, came at age 15. But it didn't amount to much. He didn't get serious about the music business until he was in his 20s and started playing clubs.
There were some lean times. "Mid-'81, it was as bad as it gets," he remembers. "My rent checks were bouncing."
A new management company took care of some of his bills and encouraged him to start offering his songs to others. Shortly after, he signed a recording deal with CBS.
In 1983, Laura Brannigan scored a Top 20 hit with his song "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You?" Soon, he had placed tunes with Thelma Houston, The Pointer Sisters and Joe Cocker.
"When you start to write hits, people think you're the goose that laid the golden egg, and they just want to be there when the next one comes rolling down the pike," Bolton cracks.
Meanwhile, his own singing career was less than spectacular. "Fool's Game," from his 1983 debut disc, hit the Top 10 album rock charts, but 1985's "Everybody's Crazy," which Bolton now calls a bad move into hard rock, was greeted with indifference.
"That's when I just kind of woke up and said, `This is not what people want to hear from me,' " Bolton says. So when it came time for "The Hunger," his 1987 disc, he changed gears.
"I think probably the biggest factor in my success as an artist really is deciding not to keep the harder-edged material for myself but a reversal . . . recording the songs I was doing demos of and giving away," he says.
Other things have changed, too. Fans mob him. He gets notes, flowers and requests to remove articles of clothing.
"It's pretty wild. I'm not shocked anymore, because it's commonplace," he says. "I do get a kick out of it, though."
\ A singer in his own write
\ "Dock of the Bay," his aching cover of Otis Redding's and Steve Cropper's classic song, and "That's What Love Is All About" helped propel "The Hunger" to more than a million in sales. And suddenly, Bolton was a singer in demand.
He now has little time to write tunes for others, but he did make time for one songwriter's request.
"Someone called who worked for Bob Dylan and offered an opportunity to write with him, and I wasn't about to refuse in this lifetime," Bolton says. Two sessions that he describes as "very painless" yielded the music; some lyrics tossed back and forth from Dylan's lair to Bolton's studio completed the words for "Steel Bars," the new album's concluding track.
Bolton appreciates great songs. He has included covers of soul classics on each of his past three discs, following "Dock of the Bay" with "Georgia on My Mind" on "Soul Provider" and Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman" on "Time, Love and Tenderness."
"One thing I've learned," he says, "is how important great songs are for an album."
And great songs are the key to a long-running career, he adds:
"It doesn't happen to be a stroke of luck that I have five hits on `Soul Provider.' . . . I don't expect this ride to end for some time, if at all."
Keywords:
PROFILE