He's written and/or produced countless chart-topping hits, been nominated for 47 Grammy awards, (and won 16 of them!) He's "discovered" talents such as Josh Groban and Michael Buble, and now, finally, I was able to corner David Foster long enough to capture a podcast chat!
David has recently teamed up with his gorgeous and talented wife, Katharine McPhee to record "Christmas Songs," a collection of timeless classics that sound other-worldly with Katharine's soaring voice and David's brilliant arrangements.
Pull up a chair and come on in. You won't want to miss a single word of what this charming man has to say. ~ Delilah
It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas. I'm playing all your favorites on the air, and all my favorites, and the kids at home in the car we bounce around between holiday errands, shopping Christmas festivities. My tree is up and decorated with gifts collecting beneath the bows. We've been popping a lot of popcorns, sipping a lot of hot chocolate, spicy cider, and of course my tea, all absolutely necessary for the number of Christmas movies the kids have been watching. And the year is absolutely tingling with excitement and anticipation. Oh how I love this time of year. Christmas time gives equal weight to the remembrance of years past and the making of new memories. It can be a bit of an emotional roller coaster in ways, but oh so very good for the soul. It would be difficult to invite a guest to love someone that's had more to do with the soundtrack of our Christmas playlist, or with what will be listening to in the present in the future than the man joining us today. Having produced albums that have sold over half a billion records globally, David Foster is one of the most successful commercial producers and composers of popular music of all time. He won his first Grammy way back in for Earth Wind and Fires After the Love Is Gone, and his collection of winds has grown every year or two since then. Would be here for hours if I tried to list them all all week, if I were to read all forty seven of his Grammy nominations. That said, I do want to mention some of my favorites, like Chicago's Hard Habit to Ache, Natalie and nat King, Cole's Unforgettable, Whitney's I Will Always Love You, Seline Dion's album Falling Into You, and the Irresistible Michael bou Bleat call me Irresistible and Crazy Love. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The legendary sixteen time Grammy winning producer has worked with artists like Natalie Cole, Amy Grant, Michael Boubli, Seline Dion, Josh Grobin, just to name a few, on their own Christmas albums. This year, David partnered up with his beautiful wife, the phenomenal singer songwriter Katherine McPhee, to release their own rendition of all time Christmas tunes, simply titled Christmas Songs is a passion project to bring a little more joy and music to the holidays, and David is going to tell us all about it just after I share a little Christmas love with today's podcast sponsor my Ends. Family and listeners know my love of tea, especially all things that come from the Bigelow Blends. Did you know that they have an incredible line of wellness teas called Bigelow Benefits Benefit Tea. Blends helped to fuel our bodies with quality ingredients that are both good for you and full of aromatic flavor. Maintaining our health is important all the year through, but the months spent indoors can be especially challenging. With blends such as lemon and Echinasia to support our immune system rows and meant for stress relief, camemel and lavender for a good night's sleep, and others that helped to create balance, focus, and even one to help calm tummies. They've got me and my family covered. Cold weather is coming, but you can rise to the challenge like the satisfying steam from a hot mug of Bigelow Benefits Wellness tea. Let's commit to keeping ourselves as healthy as we can by sipping a cup together as I play all your request and dedications over the air waves each night with me. I love someone today is the amazing David Foster, who you said you're feeling a little under the weather looking at your schedule, I hope you're slamming the vitamin season d s because my gosh, you're burning the candle at both ends. My friend, we are for sure. And you know, I'm afraid to take a COVID test because I haven't had it yet and it sort of feels like that might be what it is. But we'll get through this interview first, and it's great to talk to you as usual. So have you lost your sense of taste or smell? No? I have not. You know, I lost my sense of humor. Is that anything to do with COVID? Or you have not lost your sense of humor. Last week we spent time together. You were promoting your book and I was dela I did when I read it to see that your sense of humor was infused on every page. Oh good, And that was probably a dozen years ago. Do you remember when I came to your place? Do I remember when you came to my place and we dined together. Yeah. Yeah, who's now momm ng living her best life with two baby girls. That's great. And I don't know how it is. Everybody's getting older, but you and me, Uh well, we're on the side of the dirt. Amen to that. Every day I wake up on this side of the dirt. I said, thank you God, that's right. And you're killing and you're still killing it trying, you know, because I have so many young people. I adopted a little boy who's six now, and then I have a thirteen year old and an eighteen year old still at home. I have to kind of stay current. Otherwise they think that I'm just like this ancient dinosaur. Yeah, and so that helps me a little bit to try to stay relevant. But when I told one of my older daughters, my second oldest daughter, that I got to interview you this morning, and I said, we're gonna be talking about the new Christmas album he did with his wife. And she said, who's his wife? And I said Katherine McPhee. She says, oh my god, and she just fell out, like like fell out. She says, I watched her every episode when she was on the idol, and I've watched every movie she's ever done, and oh my god, mom, she's so beautiful and blah blah blah, can you get an autograph? And I'm like, David's kind of a big, kind of big deal to like um, but you know that's her generation and Catherine is is speaking to her heart, so yeah, yeah, I get it. It's it was pretty fun to see her reaction. I never know how how my kids are going to react. Like when I tell them, you know that that I got a kiss on the cheek from Lionel Richie, they think that's pretty cool, especially nowities like Hall of Fame and us gonna ar. Yeah, so that was cool. But you know, when I say that I got to hang out with Celini Dian, They're like, who seriously, I know, but what abs? Because you and I have been in the same music industry for a minute, a little minute or two. I knew a lot of the stories, but I didn't know the story stories. And I loved that you shared the back stories and the whole pictures, painted the whole pictures. And after that, when I listened to the music that you've been a part of, it meant so much more to me. And now you and your beautiful wife Katherine got this great Christmas album out and I've listened to it twice already. But there's a world winds schedule. You guys are everywhere. You're everywhere. You're lighting Christmas trees, you're doing parades, you're good Morning America, you're everywhere. Well, we made a near fatal mistake with this Christmas and I'm saying that time in cheek because you know what it takes to promote a record, you know better than anyone. And we just thought we would put this record out on Instagram and have some fun. And you know me, when I once I decide I'm gonna do something, I sort of go all in. And then our manager, Mark Johnson, who's wonderful guy, he said, let's go get a record deal, and so we thought, okay, well that's okay, and then he went to my old friend Tom Wally, who used to be chairman of Warner Brothers with me and Um and Tom has Concorde Records and Lotos Records, and before you knew it. Long story short is, we were on a label, a great label, and they're like, we got to promote this thing, and so, yes, you're right, we're doing the Rocket Feller, NBC tree Lighting, we did the CBS tree lighting. We're doing Kelly and Ryan. We're doing all this stuff, and it's a real promo. I had kind of forgotten what it takes um to really get out there and do the record. Otherwise it just gets he goes into the ethos and nothing happens with it. Yeah. And so you have to be on a plane every other day or every day, depending upon your schedule. And you have to look good while you're doing it, you know, which is no problem for Cat, a little harder for me. Uh. And then you get to set in the green room and you get to wait and wait and wait and wait, and then you have all these stories. Yet whenever I do this, I have all these stories I want to share. You get out, they ask you two questions and I'm like, okay, thanks for being here. I'm like, wait, wait, I didn't even get to my good stuff. But you know what, the great thing about Christmas music is a lot and and you probably know that I've done you know, Michael Buble and Josh Groban, but Shelly and Selene and a lot of really cool Christmas records. You get a free pass at Christmas. So you can't be too corny, and you can't pick a song that you know. As long as you pick a song and everybody knows it's gonna be okay and you get to you don't have to worry about top fort you and having a hit and being on the chart with Bruno Mars or Taylor Swift. You just have to do good quality music and do songs that everybody loves, and you get a free pass basically. And that's what I love about it. You can be in the studio without thinking about, you know, I gotta make a hit. You know, I might like Christmas me is it a little bit um? But I really love the way my listeners respond to Christmas music. And when n O eleven happened, we made the decision, my team made the decision to start playing Christmas music a little earlier because we really needed it, the nation really needed it. And somehow that stuck and then we kind of backed it up a little bit, backed it up a little bit, got it closer to you know, just the month of December, and then COVID hit and again that sadness and that grief. Everybody's like, we need Christmas now, we need Christmas like in July, and so we started, you know, we started playing Christmas music a little earlier. And this album that you and Catherine have done has just what you said. It's got the songs we love, but it's got, um like a fresh twist. I don't know if it's just Catherine's sweet voice, are your arrangements are what? But I listened to Blue Christmas yesterday, I think four times. I couldn't get enough of it. Yeah, it's it's, it's it's. Of course, she is a fresh Signy singer and I love the way she sings. And I'll give myself a little credit to for being inventive. I've done most of these songs many, many times with many artists, but you always find a way to put a little twist on it. And you know you mentioned Blue Christmas. It's a strange song because it's actually a sad song. It's a very sad song, and I was listening to it because of a very sad reason. But um my gosh, her her voice and your arrangement on that it brought me to tears. Oh that's nice. Well, well, it is a magical song even though it is sad. But you can find some some magic and happiness and beauty in it as well. Um and and so next year, by the way, we're gonna add five songs to this record and and and have a fuller, full album if such a thing exists anymore. And I'm really looking forward to uh that. So maybe ask your listeners to send in, like what would they like to hear? I can do that. I can do that. And then if they say Grandma got run over by a reindeer or the Christmas shoes, I'm not telling you that, I'm just kidn't like, just delete, delete, delete. Yeah, you know, it's an interesting thing that probably your listeners will would agree with that people don't want to hear new Christmas songs. They don't they want they want the old, the stuff that they recognize, even if you put a new spin on it. But I'm I just hate it when an artist comes out and I'm I'm I'm really going to be awful here. But when they come out and they go the stockings are full and the chimneys on day and the fire is lit and stand it, you know, it's like, no, you can't do it. These songs have been around for almost a hundred years and just leave them alone. Yeah, what you said earlier about the Christmas is a magical time in my world because is we don't have the hype. We don't have we don't have to deal with the stuff we have to deal with the rest of the year. We just have pure love and songs that have stood the test of time, and lyrics that everybody can sing to. I mean, I have the music playing in my car, my kids sing to it, my grandkids sing to it. And there's something healing about that intergenerational connection when we're all singing the Christmas Song together or grown up Christmas list. I agree. And of course your family, in particular you, You've you've done such great things bringing your family together from a lot of different places. You brought a lot of children together, a lot of children together, a lot of different places, a lot of different circumstances, but one thing in common is love. That's right. Love good for you. And I just have a quick question for you that I think your listeners would probably be curious about. You probably talked about it many times, But when you were a little girl or when you were a teenager, did you imagine that your life would be filled with so many children? Is that what you always wanted. I did want a big family. I envisioned four kids, two boys to girls. That's what my family of origin was, and I would have been. You know, I thought I would have a modest house, a white picket fence, two boys, two girls, maybe three and three. Um, but fifteen, No, that that never crossed my mind. And my family, my mom had us fairly close together. There's you know, like ten years between the oldest and youngest, and we're all crammed in between. There's like thirty six years, no, thirty eight years between my oldest and youngest. Um, so you're not you're not gonna miss heaven. On a technicality, I can tell you that. Thank you, Thank you so David, you and Katherine. What if you get to slow down after your your your album tour, what is your favorite holiday tradition? Like, is there something that no matter what, no matter what, where you're doing, where you're going, what you're doing, you gotta do, you gotta share, you gotta have this thing. Well, it's it's a moving target, as you can imagine, but we found something that we love and that is the desert which is near Los Angeles where we live. Palm Springs a Palm desert and we I mean, I'm going tonight unless I have COVID, and then I won't be going. I'll be staying here by myself. But uh, we get there every chance we get, and this year will be our first Christmas there and we're really excited. Nobody's there at the club that we're at for Christmas because they're all in exotic places, you know, skiing and doing whatever. But we're happy just to be there. The weather is great, the vibe is great, it's healing out there, and as you said, we're going to need a little slow down. So after we get back from our last concert is December seventeen in Vegas, We're at the wind On Court Theater in Vegas six and seventeen December, and then we don't work from the seventeen until January nine something like that. So nice little break and we'll be in the desert. And can you just turn off the phones and relax or is that not in your not in your capacity? I've never seen you slow down. No, it is, It is possible. I have a few things I have to work on. I'm working on a Broadway musical called Betty Boop, and I have two songs I have to finish before February. So if, if you know, if I get moved, maybe at the beginning of January, in between Christmas and New Year's I might pick away at the piano. But yeah, we can turn off. It's it's easy. I'm not that guy that has to run to the piano every day and and make a song, write a song, play a song. Although sometimes because I have a built in beautiful singer that I'm married to, sometimes we'll just sit at the piano and make some music. It just for ourselves and and just for fun. I was working with a couple of producers last year Broadway folks, and they're like, oh my god, we want to do the the Delilah story with all the songs you've played, you know, on your show during your career. And I'm like, David Foster needs to do this. That's every song. I mean, you literally have played every song every known to mankind. So God, if you can write a story around every song that's available, then you're no good. David. Thank you for your music for decades. How many Grammy nominations like forty something crazy? You know, I know, I don't want to be coy and go let me think. No, it's it's seven Holy moly. See that's how long it's been since we talked because I didn't update my research. Forty seven Grammy nominations. Yeah, and I've lost a lot, but I've won sixteen, so I've lost whatever that math is one, I've lost thirty one times, but that's okay. This podcasts is sponsored by a company solving a family problem. They've got the greatest name, forever forever dot com. I love my family and I love all my family memories, especially on the photos and all the videos of my children and my grandchildren. But I have the same problem as many people. My photos my videos are everywhere. Some are in old boxes and old photo albums, others are on social media sites and cloud storage accounts, and thousands are on my phone. But with all these memories spread about everywhere, they're really nowhere. 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So much crea activity and talent in one man it almost doesn't seem fair, But then again, we get to reap the rewards and all the music he has helped to create. We're catching up with David Foster. Everybody that I adore in our industry is connected to you. When I met Josh Grobin, he was like eighteen years old and I met him because of you. Yeah, he's forty two now, by the way, I know, it's like same uh same with Michael Boublay. I mean he was a kid singing in bars with grandpa and what a career. That what career, and what a life, What a life he has built? Yeah, I agree. So thank you for for all the connections and all the love and mostly my music man, all the music. Thank you, Delia. It's always great to talk to you. And next time I'm near where you are, I promise I'll come out make that drive to see you. And it's not short drive, by the way, folks. I promise I'll cook for you when you do. Alright, Happy holidays, God bless you. Give my love and my daughter Tandy's love to Catherine. Yes, yes, David Foster and his wife Catherine have already been super busy this holiday season, appearing on Disney's Holiday Special, performing at the Rodeo Drive Holiday Light Celebration and the Tree Lighting Ceremony at Rockefeller Center, visiting the set of The Today Show, and completing an eight city holiday tour, and they show no signs of slowing down. Catch them on CBS annual Home for the Holidays program on December eight on Live with Kelly and Ryan. On the nineteen watch the Disney Holiday Special that will re air on Christmas Day. You might be able to catch them on December sixteen, when they perform at when Las Vegas, heck, are everywhere, take a look around, catch them wherever you can. They are phenomenal together. Christmas Songs released digitally the day after Thanksgiving on November. The CD became available on December two. With the soaring vocal talents of Katherine McPhee and stellar production of the legendary David Foster. You're gonna want to add this to your Christmas music collection. You can find them both on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, as well as links to Christmas songs and so much more if you go to David Foster dot com. Are there gifts piling up under your tree? Have you planned your Christmas menu? Are you stocking up on ingredients? Or are you more like my Jenney, a last minute everything do er. I'm a little both with my huge family. I've got to start gift shopping early and then I pretty much let everything else fall into place. It either does or it doesn't, and I try not distress about it. Whatever camp you fall into, I to wish you the merriest of Christmas is and invite you to join me on the Airy tonight. This is a crazy time of year, to be sure, and I'll be playing a little bit of everything well thanks to David Foster, another crazy talented artist, for every holiday mood that's out there, the excitement that nostalgia, the joy of our Savior's birth. Take care of yourself, my friends, and remember, especially during the holidays, slow down and love someone