Age: 69 years
Date of Birth: 19 September 1952
Birth Place: New York, United States
Sun Sign: Virgo
Parents: Nile Rodgers Sr. and Beverly Goodman
Partner: Nancy Hunt
Height: 5’6” (170cm)
Weight: 61 kg
Nile Rodgers Net Worth: $200 Million
Who is Nile Rodgers?
Nile Rodgers is a well-known name among music enthusiasts. A winner of multiple Grammys, he is an American guitarist, singer-songwriter and producer, most famous for co-founding Chic – a famous late 70’s Disco Group where he was the lead guitarist as well. Nile Rodgers’ guitar style called ‘chucking’ has made him quite famous, but that is not his only claim to fame. He has worked on numerous albums which have sold more than 500 million copies throughout the world. Famous hit songs by Nile Rodgers include “Dance, Dance, Dance,” “Le Freak,” “I Want Your Love” and “Everybody Dance,” alongside many others.
Early Life: Childhood and Teenage Years
Nile Rodgers was born on 19th September 1952 in Lower East Side, New York City to Beverly Goodman when she was just 14. Nile’s birth father, Nile Rodgers S. was a percussionist who used to travel a lot. For that reason, Niles never saw much of him as a kid and he passed away in 1970. Before that, in 1959, his mother married Bobby Glanzroc. Both of them were at a time addicted to Heroin and due to their influence, Nile started doing drugs when he was 13.
Nile learned to play the clarinet and the flute while he was growing up, but he didn’t play guitar until he was 16 years old. Once he did, he joined several bands as a teenager. Nile was also a part of the Black Panther Party’s Lower Manhattan branch.
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Career
Rodgers started touring with the Sesame Street band and played in the Apollo Theater house band, where he performed with R&B legends such as Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Maxine Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Ben E. King.
There, he met Bernard Edwards and both formed The Big Apple Band which backed the vocal group New York City. Rodgers and Edwards toured extensively with New York City as a result of their 1973 hit, “I’m Doin’ Fine Now.” It was later disbanded, following the failure of their second album. Next, ‘The Boys’, a funk-rock band was formed when Tony Thompson joined as a drummer. The group then had Raymond Jones on the keyboard and Norma Jean Wright as the singer and in 1977, it was renamed Chic. “Dance, Dance, Dance” became one of their first big hits during the disco era. That’s when Chic and Nile Rodgers’ songs earned a place in the hearts of disco fans. Other popular hits were “Le Freak,” a triple-platinum single, “Good Times,” a chart-topper and “He’s The Greatest Dancer”. Chic was the dominant force in disco, soul, funk, and jazz. During the 1980s, however, disco was fading out. With declining album sales, Chic broke up in 1983. But Rodgers’ career was just getting started.
Kicking off his solo career in music, Rodgers produced a bunch of his recordings alongside Bowie’s Let’s Dance album, as well as Madonna’s Like a Virgin. Duran Duran, Jeff Beck, INXS, The B-52’s, Grace Jones and Sheena Easton are among some of the other artists he worked with. He also produced soundtracks such as the one for Coming to America. In 1992, Chic regrouped with the release of Chic-Ism. A few months after Chic performed at Budokan Arena in Tokyo in 1996, Edwards passed away from pneumonia and Rodgers started working as a solo artist again. In 2011, he wrote an autobiography, Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny. The singer still tours with Chic along with writing, producing and recording for others. Nile Rodgers and Daft Punk’s collaboration for the latter’s 2012 hit album Random Access Memories was a big hit.
Awards and Recognitions
Nile Rodgers has been honored with the Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Heroes Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, as well as inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
