Grammy-winner Nile Rodgers on INXS, his special bond with Kylie Minogue and ‘great friend’ Keith Urban

Six-time Grammy-winning guitarist and producer Nile Rodgers has revealed the special bond he shares with superstar Kylie Minogue, as well as other Aussie music icons.

Revered guitarist, songwriter, producer and performer Nile Rodgers has packed an awful lot into his 50-year music career so far.

As the creative force behind disco stalwarts Chic, and a six-time Grammy-winning songwriter/producer for artists as varied as David Bowie, Madonna, The B-52s, Duran Duran, Lady Gaga and Daft Punk, he’s been an integral part of recordings that have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million singles worldwide.

But the 71-year-old, says he is “working harder now than I have ever worked before” and says that his past year of touring, and particularly his recent high-energy, low-tech, life-affirming Australian shows, have been the best of his life.

Trailblazing guitarist Nile Rodgers has revealed how Australian music icons INXS, Keith Urban and Kylie Minogue shaped his career.

“I have so much love for Australia – we have been there a few times, but this last go around, I haven’t experienced anything like this,” he says. “I couldn’t believe the excitement and the love from the crowd. I was like ‘man this is unbelievable – this is probably as good as it’s ever going to get’.”

It’s hardly surprising then that he chose to dedicate the most recent episode of his popular Deeper Hidden Meanings Apple Music radio show and podcast to Ausmusic Month, with Melbourne-born, LA-based songwriter Sarah Aarons (Zedd, Miley Cyrus, Khalid) repping homegrown talent including The Kid Laroi, Flume and Spacey Jane to a global audience.

But Rodgers’ ties to the Australian music scene go back decades. In 1983, fresh from producing Bowie’s hugely successful Let’s Dance album, Rodgers helped INXS break into the US market by producing Original Sin, which became their first song to chart there.

Rodgers had happened upon the Aussie act in a small club in Toronto while en route to see U2 and Hall and Oates. He was stunned to hear them performing a song from his first solo album, which had been released the same year, while Rodgers was still in the depths of the cocaine and alcohol addictions that nearly killed him. The way he tells it, the album was an absolute dud, beloved only by Bowie, his mum … and INXS.

Nile Rodgers and Keith Urban have a longstanding relationship. Picture: Jason Kempin/Getty Images for NMAAM

“I had never heard of them,” he says, “and I walked into the club, and they started singing one of the songs from my first solo album, which was a complete flop by the way, and they had it in, like, four-part harmony and it was all beautiful. I was like ‘whoa, what is this?’ and they’re saying how much they loved my solo album.”

Rodgers also worked on Tina Arena’s 2001 album Just Me and also added his signature guitar sound to Aussie sibling DJs Nervo’s 2015 electro-pop single The Other Boys, which also featured vocals by Kylie Minogue. In 2006, Dannii Minogue had also covered the Sister Sledge song He’s The Greatest Dancer, written by Rodgers and his Chic partner Bernard Edwards, and Rodgers is gushing in his praise for the sisters.

“I have been fortunate in that I have worked with so many people who are the nicest people you ever want to meet,” he says. “Kylie and Dannii are so nice. You almost can’t believe how nice they are.”

He and Kylie also shared a special bond. Having beaten his addictions nearly 20 years ago, Rodgers also survived prostate cancer and then liver cancer, giving him a lease of life that ensures he’s as busy as ever into his eighth decade.

Nile Rodgers performing with Chic in Nashville this year. Picture: Jason Kempin/Getty Images

“She’s just an absolute sweetheart, and we’re both cancer survivors,” he says of Kylie, with whom he shared a bill at last month’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. “I’m a two-time cancer survivor so when we first met, we appreciated life a little more. She’s a sweetheart.”

But it might be his unlikely musical bromance with Keith Urban that provides his deepest connection Down Under. The pair have been “great, great friends” even since the Kiwi-Aussie country-rock megastar got up on stage to play in Nashville while Chic was on tour with Duran Duran. They have collaborated on songs including Urban’s Sun Don’t Let Me Down and Out the Cage, and Rodgers says he’s a particular fan of his mate’s banjo playing. On paper, it shouldn’t go with the distinctive, choppy, funk guitar sound that propelled Rodgers to the No. 7 spot on this year’s Rolling Stone list of the 250 greatest guitarists of all time, but somehow it does.

Rodgers said he bonded with Kylie Minogue as they’re both cancer survivors.

“It really does work, right?,” says a beaming Rodgers. “We have done a fair amount of recording, we have done quite a few live gigs. That’s when he and I really have fun because … it’s just two people who love each other having a really good time. I mean a really good time, because we love each other’s playing. We have a magical sound together.”

For a songwriter/producer whose creative efforts have contributed to all-time classics such as Le Freak, Good Times, I’m Coming Out, Like A Virgin, Love Shack, We Are Family, The Reflex and Get Lucky – to name but a few – Rodgers has a refreshingly down-to-earth attitude to the alchemy behind creating a hit. Early in his career his manager gave him the sage advice that you have to mine tonnes of ore to get an ounce of gold – and they are words he still lives by.

“I’m always aware of the fact that most businesses fail and most records fail,” he says bluntly. “So I just go in and try to make sure the artist has the best time possible and you make the best record possible and hope that we don’t fail … I’ve been lucky enough for my successes to be really big. So it looks like I just make big hit records all the time, but that’s certainly not the case.”

Rodgers on stage at Rock in Rio 2019. Picture: Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images

Having seen technology change dramatically over his career, one recent advance he’s particularly excited about is spatial audio, a technique adopted by Apple Music and designed to create an immersive experience that gives fans the impression that the sounds are coming from all around and above.

“I believe the technology is going to get better and better because I think when people start to hear it and really appreciate it, things are going to change,” he says. “I really believe it’s going to be like when we went from mono to stereo.”

As a regular performer as well as writer and producer, Rodgers says that spatial audio is the closest approximation to the feeling and sound he gets while he is on stage and raising the roof with his crack band.

“I am a big fan of music sounding the way music sounds,” he says. “If you went to hear a nice little string quartet or a chamber orchestra or a full symphony orchestra and you’re sitting there, you’re not just hearing that music coming from two sound sources. It’s sort of surrounding you.”

Nile Rodgers’ Apple Music Radio Show and podcast Deep Hidden Meaning is out now

Originally published as Grammy-winner Nile Rodgers on INXS, his special bond with Kylie Minogue and ‘great friend’ Keith Urban