Used-record store bargain bins are littered with the evidence of what usually happens when actors decide they want to be pop stars.
The list of those who’ve tried and failed to make the leap reads like a seating chart at the Golden Globes: Russell Crowe, Eddie Murphy, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Bruce Willis, Minnie Driver, Billy Bob Thornton, to name but a few.
So why has Jamie Foxx succeeded where so many of his Tinseltown colleagues have failed? Having grown up singing and playing piano in church, Foxx attended college on a music scholarship, then detoured into comedy and acting, eventually becoming a bona fide movie star.
His 1994 debut album, “Peep This,” may have flopped, but since returning to music with 2005’s “Unpredictable,” he’s become a pretty reliable R&B hit factory. His latest album, “Intuition,” has produced three Top-10 singles, including the club jam “Blame It,” which is heavily doctored by Auto-Tune, the pitch correction software that’s frequently used as an otherworldly vocal effect. Thanks in part to a slyly hilarious video co-starring Forrest Whitaker, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L. Jackson and Ron Howard, it has become the biggest hit of Foxx’s career. During a break from his current tour, he tried to explain his secret.
Q: Once you had a successful acting career did you ever consider keeping music as a hobby rather than trying to make it a full-fledged second career?
A: I always wanted to do music, man. It burned me up. I loved comedy and acting but when I thought for a minute that I wasn't going to be able to do music, it really saddened me. But I was lucky enough to run into someone like Kanye West who put me on a song called "Slow Jamz" and then we had a movie called "Ray." Then I was fortunate enough to be on some great records like "Gold Digger" and to have marginal success with the album "Unpredictable." Then this past album, "Intuition," with "Blame It," that really sort of gave us a signature song that says, "OK, we bought some more time in this music game so if we keep working diligently, we'll go from being a rookie to hopefully a veteran in the next four or five years."
Q: Obviously, that transition has been attempted by plenty of actors and actresses generally with a lot less success. Did those failures give you any pause?
A: Definitely. Because you don't want to look corny. My first album, I wasn't corny but it was on the verge. But luckily I got with Breyon Prescott, who is my music partner. He said, "What you need are songs that are hit songs even if you're not singing them. Then you back it up with the fact that you actually play music. That's what's going to separate you from the others. You're a real musician. You've got to earn the respect of the real musicians. You can't let it appear as if you're just doing it as a hobby. It has to be real."
Q: The video for “Blame It” is sort of genius, but how come you didn’t get Ron Howard out on the dance floor?
A: [Laughs] We wanted to keep it smooth. I don't know, I'm sure he can get down. I mean, you remember "Happy Days." But seriously, we were all at the [presidential] inauguration, and there's Ron Howard, there's Forrest Whitaker, there's Samuel L. Jackson. We're all on this wonderful, natural high, and I just said, "Would you be in this video, Mr. Howard?" And he said, "Sure, just give me a call." The video made the song stretch across the pop world.
Q: Did you have specific ideas on how you wanted “Intuition” to be different from “Unpredictable”?
A: The tempo had to be up. We had to take chances. Like with "Blame It," not a lot of people even knew that was me singing with the Auto-Tune. At first I was like, "I don't know about this Auto-Tune thing," but my music guy was like, "Music is music and this is the music of the day so we have to have some of it." We thought we found the right combination of Auto-Tune and great songs.
Q: Do you think you might one day want to make an album that’s more back to basics—just you and live instrumentation?
A: It depends on where the music world goes. You have to stay current. So you play the game the way that the rules are set up. If you play within those rules and get a chance to win, hopefully you're able to start to pull it back to the things that you like to do, like stripped-down old-school R&B. But you have to navigate that very carefully. Because if you want to stay relevant, you have to do relevant things.
Concert Preview
Jamie Foxx
8 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. $45.50-$75.50
Chastain Park Amphitheater, 4469 Stella Drive N.W., Atlanta
404-233-2227, www.chastainseries.com
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