大象传媒

1. His guitar is known as ‘The Hitmaker’

Nile’s 1959 Fender Stratocaster guitar has been the bedrock of almost every record that he’s worked on, and has acquired the nickname ‘The Hitmaker’.

In 1973, he and Bernard Edwards were playing at a Miami nightclub when he realised that the support act’s cover tracks sounded a lot better because they were playing better guitars. So, Nile went out and bought his beloved Strat, and learned to “chuck”, which allowed him to play three guitar parts simultaneously. “I could play the lick, play the chord, and also give the vibe,” he explains. “I went into the bathroom and I practised for a few weeks and I emerged Nile Rodgers.” Chic’s unique sound was born.

2. His earliest memory is composing music

Rodgers playing 'The Hitmaker' in the This Cultural Life studio

Nile was born in New York City in 1952 and grew up in Greenwich village with his mother – who was just 14 when she had him – and his white, jazz-loving stepfather, Bobby.

“I had a very lonely childhood,” he admits. The first book he read was Treasure Island, and he spent hours imagining swashbuckling scenarios with pirates and “composing music” in his own head. Even now, he still adds a musical score to his day. “It’s just how I’m programmed,” says the artist.

His home life was “wonderful” but he didn’t have enough of it. “My parents were both heroin addicts and they were quite nomadic,” he recounts. Later, Nile began to use drugs himself and nearly overdosed many times. Drugs were just part of the culture in the sixties, he states. “I started out as a glue sniffer, and it was all the rage.”

3. He was exposed to culture from a young age

Despite his troubled upbringing, music and the arts were “incredibly important” at home, recalls Nile. “Every manner of dance, theatre, music, painting, sculpture.” He was regularly taken to theatres and museums. “My parents were so culturally literate.”

“Because my dad was a sort of top-of-the-line haberdasher… a lot of the jazz musicians would come over and buy my dad’s stuff at a discount.” Artists like comedian Lenny Bruce and jazz pianist Thelonious Monk were often hanging out in the apartment, laughing and joking and playing chess with him. “It’s an exciting, wonderful, cultural life. It was rich.”

4. He was not a natural guitarist

Nile started playing percussion with his biological father, who was a “terrific musician”. At school, he learnt the flute. The first guitar he picked up was his grandfather’s. He was from Georgia and played country music.

“He had a guitar hanging up on the wall and whenever he wasn’t around, I would sneak the guitar off the wall and play it,” he admits. “I was not natural at all… I had it tuned improperly!”

5. His jazz guitar teacher taught him ambition

Nile’s guitar teacher was Ted Dunbar. “He taught us the techniques of jazz. He was a taskmaster,” says Nile. “Had it not been for Ted, I would not be talking to you.”

Ted helped him understand that he could fuse his natural musical talents together and be a composer and an arranger. “When I was younger, those words were huge.”

Ted also told Nile that any song in the Top 40 is a great composition “because it speaks to the souls of a million strangers.” It was a formative moment: he realised that it was possible to have hit records and still be a respected artist.

6. He played in the Sesame Street band

Nile got a part with the Sesame Street band, and toured the world. “That was really the beginning, where I first got a pay cheque… It was amazing,” he recalls. When his first money came in, he bought a pair of snakeskin shoes.

He played with everyone from Screamin' Jay Hawkins to Aretha Franklin. “The roster was so big and this was instrumental in my development because I had to learn how to interpret all of these different styles of R&B.”

7. A snatched suitcase led to the birth of Chic

Nile formed Chic with Bernard Edwards in 1977. The band had numerous hits – Le Freak even hit number one on three different occasions – but when they started out, they struggled to get a record deal.

Nile Rodgers with host John Wilson

Then, on a trip to England, Nile’s suitcase was snatched. While he was waiting in London for the American embassy to open, he went to see Roxy Music with his girlfriend. “That was the beginning of Chic,” he recounts. “I saw this group wearing couture clothing and having these two girls dancing around looking cool and I was like, 'wow'.” He realised that his band could be branded differently to all the other R&B acts.

8. He pays tribute to Bernard at every gig he does

Nile worked with Bernard Edwards for over 20 years. He died of pneumonia at the age of 43, just hours after coming off stage in Tokyo.

“It was so unnecessary,” states Nile. “The doctor said, just based on his vital signs and the fever that he was running, the last thing that he needed to do was two 90-minute shows. But he insisted.”

Bernard made it through the gig, but he didn’t make it through the night. Nile found him on his hotel room couch the next morning, the television still on and his face still propped in his hand. “My heart didn’t want to accept what my brain knew,” he recounts. He shouted at him to wake up, before touching his cheek. “It was the same temperature as the glass table. And at that point I was aware that he was gone, and I broke down and started crying like a baby.”

Today, Nile keeps his musical partner’s legacy alive and pays tribute to him on stage at Chic’s concerts. “Bernard and I, on our worst days together, sounded smoking,” he says fondly.

9. All he ever wanted was one hit record

The Chic sound that they pioneered is still being referenced today. “It surprises me because… I just wanted one hit record,” he states. “If you go to a Chic concert right now, and you see what the crowd's reaction is when Everybody Dance comes on, my heart soars.”

Aged 72, he shows no sign of stopping. “There’s just nothing as satisfying as playing live, except from composing. It’s about what my guitar teacher told me: playing to the souls of a million strangers. Playing music to people that I will never, ever meet.”