David Foster was born in Victoria, British Columbia. The son of a blue-collar worker and homemaker, Foster started playing — and studying — piano at age four. One morning his mom was dusting the family piano when she hit a key by accident and David said, "That's an E!" naming the correct note.
"It sounds cliché, but it's true," says the 72-year-old, reflecting on a life spent searching for the right notes. "When I go to the doctor's office, still to this day, when they ask me my occupation, I always reply musician."
After studying music at the University of Washington at 13, the prodigy moved to Edmonton, Alberta where he led a nightclub band in a joint owned by jazz piano player and arranger Tommy Banks. The impresario took Foster under his wing and encouraged the teenager to write. "As a songwriter, I bloomed late," Foster says. "In my early 20s I wrote some songs and some got recorded, but looking back they were just awful."
Thanks to Banks' tutelage on the art of arranging — and the hard work of gigging in bands throughout the early-to mid 1970s — Foster's songs kept getting better. In his CSHF acceptance speech, Foster shared some simple advice another mentor, Quincy Jones, once gave: "The three ingredients to a hit record are: the song, the song and the song."
As a keyboardist during this early chapter of his career, Foster kept searching for those key ingredients. He played on a pair of George Harrison records (Extra Texture and Thirty Three & 1/3) and also lent overdubbed piano to Lynyrd Skynyrd's third studio album Nuthin' Fancy (1975). One of his early production credits was Alice Cooper's fourth studio record From the Inside. The 1978 concept album chronicled Cooper's time inside a New York sanatorium during a rehab stint for alcoholism. Reflecting back, Foster says this project was not one of his best.
"I don't think that album holds up. Not because of Alice, but more due to my ineptness at producing that kind of music. I believe I took him a little too far to my side," he recalls. "Still, I loved making that record. The same goes for the Tubes, who I co-wrote 'She's a Beauty,' with. They were so inventive and creative.
"Most people, who know me, know that when I lay my hands on the keys what comes back is not rock 'n roll," he adds. "Even though rock is not what I'm known for producing, I listen to all kinds of music."
Foster admits during his prime production years he rarely listened to music for fear he might unintentionally copy something he heard on the radio. These days, he has rediscovered the joy of listening for pleasure. Some music Foster is currently digging includes Big Thief and Miles Davis.
As the decade came to a close, the first major milestone for the songwriter-turned producer — and first GRAMMY — came after co-writing the song, "After the Love Has Gone." Four decades later, the 16-time GRAMMY winner was inducted into Canadian Songwriter's Hall of Fame (CSHF) along with Bryan Adams, Jim Vallance, Alanis Morissette and Daniel Lavoie, became the five newest inductees into the Canadian Songwriter's Hall of Fame (CSHF).
Before being feted by his peers, the legendary musician, composer/arranger and producer, took time to chat about career-defining moments — the hits and the misses — along with the joys of touring the The Kat & Dave Show.
Earth, Wind & Fire - "After The Love Has Gone" (1979)
"After the Love Has Gone," the top track off Earth, Wind & Fire's 1979 album I Am, peaked at No. 2 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B charts. The song was nominated for three GRAMMY Awards: Record Of The Year, Song Of TheYear and Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo Or Group — winning the GRAMMY in this category; Foster also won his first GRAMMY (Best R&B Song) for this co-write. The beautiful ballad became the winning formula and sound Foster became known for throughout the 1980s.
"I wrote 'After the Love Has Gone' with my friends Bill Champlin and Jay Graydon," Foster recalls. "I took the song to another friend, Carole Childs, who introduced me to Earth, Wind & Fire's leader Maurice White. He loved the song and wanted to record it. This led to me co-writing with Maurice most of the songs on I Am. He was another mentor."
Foster's admiration for the band remains to this day. "I love Earth, Wind & Fire so much. Every R&B band and artist all the way up to Drake owes a debt to Maurice White and his band. There are so many genres hidden in their music: from rock to jazz; R&B to country."
Chicago - "Hard To Say I'm Sorry" (1982)
During the early-to mid-1980s, Foster collaborated with jazz-rock band Chicago on three albums: Chicago 16, Chicago 17 and Chicago 18. The producer arrived at a time when the band was in flux. Columbia had dropped them after underwhelming sales and they had recently signed with Warner Bros. Chicago 16 was the band's comeback and included the power ballad: "Hard to Say I'm Sorry." Foster co-wrote the No.1 hit with Chicago's singer/bassist Peter Cetera.
"Anytime you are working with a band it is difficult. Chicago had seven very powerful members and they all had an opinion on what they thought should go on their records," Foster says. "To get the best results in the studio, it can't be a democracy. That is why a producer is there … to say 'yes' to this and 'no' to that. Even a band as famous as Chicago needs direction.
"They didn't believe in all the decisions I made and they struggled with me, but they appreciated the success we had," he continues. "Over the years, slowly, I've talked to all the guys. They've reflected and grown and we are now good."
The trio of Chicago albums was also great for Foster professionally, as a songwriter. A successful writing partnership was formed with Peter Cetera. The pair went on to write "You're the Inspiration" for Chicago 17. The 1984 album was nominated for three GRAMMY Awards and Foster won Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal (s). This was Cetera's last record with the band. Despite Chicago's commercial success in the 1980s, Cetera and Foster's close-knit relationship was one of the reasons the rest of the band were not happy during this period.
"They had lost their way," recalls Foster. "I did my best to remind them of their greatness and try to recapture some of the magic of their early albums in the 1970s; these were phenomenal records when they had the tiger by the tail and were running on all eight cylinders."
Whitney Houston - "I Will Always Love You" (1992)
Foster worked with Whitney Houston on The Bodyguard soundtrack — taking the Dolly Parton-penned "I Will Always Love You" and making it into a GRAMMY-winning hit.
In their first collaboration, Foster chose to include the third verse to the song — which had not made it into Linda Ronstadt's 1975 cover — after Parton herself pointed out that she would love to hear it. In a 2013 interview remembering Houston one year after her death, Foster spoke of how much he loved working with her because she always surprised him and brought something different to every recording. "Ninety-nine percentof the time Whitney gave me something better than what I asked for," he said.
Céline Dion - "The Power Of Love" (1993)
This ballad topped the Billboard charts in 1993 and remained there for four weeks. In the documentary David Foster: Off the Record, the producer recalls the first time he saw Céline Dion.
After getting a tip about the young singer, who was already a star in her province, Foster flew to Montreal and then drove 100 miles in the rain to hear Céline perform in a tent in rural Quebec. Her voice hit him immediately and Foster ended up producing her English-language debut, Unison (1990). He is credited with bringing her music to an audience outside the Francophone world.
"Céline's the best singer I've ever worked with," Foster says of the five-time GRAMMY winner, with whom he notched another one of his 16 golden gramophones for Falling into You (1986). "She was also incredible at taking direction. She knew her job, which was to sing. When it came to everything else, she just let others take care of it. Céline was the perfect artist. She had opinions, but she would try anything asked of her and that was golden."
Michael Bublé - "Home" (2005)
Another fortuitous Canadian discovery was Michael Buble, whom Foster first heard at a wedding when the unknown singer delivered an original version of the oft-covered popular standard "Mack the Knife."
As with his first listen of Céline, Foster heard something in Bublé's delivery. Eventually, the pair convened in Los Angeles to record. The crooner's self-titled debut arrived in 2003 on Foster's label 143 Records and cracked the Top 10 in Canada. The following year, Bublé won New Artist Of The Year at The Junos [Canada's equivalent to the GRAMMY Awards]. From there, the rise to stardom for the artist was steady. It's Time, his fourth studio album was released in 2005 and reached No.1 in Canada, Italy and Japan; it also spent 104 weeks on Billboard Top Jazz chart, including a record-breaking 78 weeks at No.1.
It's Time featured Bublé's first megahit, "Home." The original song, co-written with Foster's daughter Amy Foster-Gillies, won the Juno for Single Of The Year and went to No.1 in 10 countries. While Bob Rock produced It's Time, Foster was heavily involved in overseeing his young protégé and arranging many of the songs.
For The Love Of Live
After spending 40 years in what he calls "dark studios," Foster decided to take a hiatus from the producer's chair and return to his first love of playing piano and performing.
Currently, Foster is on tour with his wife, singer, songwriter and actress, Katherine McPhee. "I love performing live," he says. "For so many years I was in a submarine environment: air-tight studios with no windows. I would make a record and then whoever I was working with, they would get to leave the studio and go out into the world and play these songs we had written and recorded and see the reaction from people. I never got to experience that. Now I do."
Before hanging up, Foster reveals he is returning to the studio with Chris Botti, to help produce a live album for the former trumpeter in Sting's band. "He's just phenomenal!" Foster says describing his admiration for Botti. "Chris called me late one night and pleaded with me to produce for him. 'All I need you to do is come in for one week,' he said. 'I want to make a live album.' I thought, One week sounds like fun … And, I want to win another GRAMMY!"