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GP: Your fans are wonderful, loyal, and dedicated. How does this affect your work?
JG: Oh, it's essential. To build a fan base like that, they become part of your team and their opinions are very good ones because they begin to know me for everything that I am. They become the real, real fans. It's very important to keep them in the loop and keep them happy and keep them communicated with. I try to post on the Web site and let them know what's going on. And then of course we offer them lots of goodies. We offered them the tickets first for the PBS special; we're going to give them all a free Christmas song. They have been really amazing. Their phone calls to the TV stations, the letters that they write, the letters that they write to me, the meet-and-greets that they come up with, the name they've given themselves [Grobanites], it's all pretty incredible. It's really flattering, really wonderful to feel that kind of warmth from so many diverse places and people.
GP: I think your relationship, posting messages on the Web site and really communicating with the fans, contributes to their loyalty.
JG: I hope so. I think every performer understands how important the fans are, but especially for someone like myself, where MTV is not in the picture, pop radio is not in the picture. This is primarily a word-of-mouth album. And the people who were there first, these four or five thousand people on the Web site, they're the ones who believed in it from the beginning, with me and my team, and they helped make it happen. They are very important.
GP: How do you describe your relationship with David Foster?
JG: David Foster has been the real taskmaster, father figure in the recording industry for me. He discovered me. ... He was looking for a singer for Gray Davis' inauguration -- it's funny 'cause he was just reelected -- he had an inauguration concert four years ago, and Michael Crawford was supposed to come in and sing "All I Ask of You" from "Phantom of the Opera" and couldn't make it; he had a rehearsal he had to do. [David Foster] called my voice teacher at the time [Seth Riggs] and said, "Send me some tapes of some people that you have, we need to pick someone right away." And he listened to some tapes, and my teacher had said, "Go ahead and make a tape, I'm going to send it to somebody." So I went off and I made one and sent it to him, and he called me up and said, "Hey, David Foster" -- and I had no idea who David Foster was -- "Yeah, I want you to come down to the Arco Arena in Sacramento and sing for the new governor." I thought, "Wow, that's pretty amazing." And it was really kind of a turning point for me. It was for 20,000 people, and it was the first time I sang anything professionally and it got a great reaction. Then two weeks later, it was kind of the same situation [for the Grammy Awards rehearsal]: "Andrea Bocelli couldn't make it, and Céline Dion is here, and would you mind learning 'The Prayer' and coming down and singing it with Céline?" I was 17. That was a little harder to say yes to because I didn't really think that I could do it. Because Andrea Bocelli is like the tenor of tenors, and I was a 17-year-old baritone. And I went and I did do it, and David Foster was the guy to say, "Look, you're not letting me down. Come down here and do this right now." And I needed that push, and it wound up being a day that changed my life.
GP: Who else has had a great influence on your life? Musicians, songwriters, composers?
JG: The number of angels who have come down from high places and helped me out, that have said, "You can do this and we're going to help you," is incredible. David's been one of them. Walter Afanasieff, who is a huge Grammy Award-winning writer/producer, is another. David and Walter both have a real love of classical music and orchestration and of arrangement and they look at this as a challenge, but also as a chance for them to stretch their arms out a little bit and try something new. Everyone in this business, to a certain extent, is dictated by formula. When they sit down at a piano, generally speaking, they've got orders to come up with that next catchy tune that we're going to put on the radio and sell a million records. So, when this project was starting and I was trying to find songs and ... looking for people to do things with, they kind of looked at this as something refreshing to sit down and play, something that they would want to play over and over again -- not because it's got that tune that nobody's going to be able to get out of their head. They wrote some beautiful music together. The first song I recorded was "Gira Con Me"; I heard it and I said, "Wow, this is really incredible, guys." I learned a lot from the great writers -- David, Walter. John Williams and I got to work together on the AI soundtrack, on the song "For Always." That was a thrill and an honor. Ennio Morricone wrote two songs on the album. So I learned a great deal. I sat back and I watched and I learned a lot. And I love to write as well, so I hope to do some collaborating on the next CD.
GP: Oh, you do?
JG: Definitely. I've been writing all my life, but when you have those kinds of people collaborating on your album ... if they had said to me, "We really don't know what to do," I probably would have sat down and come up with a few things. But man, the amount of beautiful music that was handed to me for this CD, I was so honored to have it, I figured, sit back and learn for now.
GP: When do you expect to release your next album?
JG: The next album will hopefully be out in October of 2003.
GP: When you mention the formula, I think that's very interesting, because you do seem to be outside of any formula one could name. I know you have mentioned that folks at record stores just don't know where to put your CD.
JG: Well, yeah, it's very, very difficult, and I have been so blessed and so happy to have the success that I've had on the CD, which went double platinum in America, and we're almost at three to four million worldwide. It has been incredible, but even still, there are so many people out there who just don't know where to put it or are afraid to enjoy it or afraid to buy it because it doesn't fit into a formula. And it really kind of opened my eyes to the fact that there is such a risk when you try to break a mold, even a little bit. And it's why so many people are pressured not to, which is why I give so much kudos to people like David and Walter for deciding to take this on and put so much of their power and money into [it] because, to a certain extent, whenever you decide to go away from what is usually formula and pop, pop rock -- and don't get me wrong, I love that kind of music and that's the kind of music that makes the world go 'round right now -- when you don't do that, you are going to be discriminated against a little bit. It's my job now for the rest of my life, I think, to win over those people that are scared of it or aren't willing to give it a chance.
Interview by Samantha Gleisten for GREAT PERFORMANCES Online conducted in November 2002.
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