If you’ve ever listened to Céline Dion, Jennifer Lopez or Whitney Houston, then you’ve had the pleasure of hearing David Foster’s producing talents.
But the 72-year-old is also a pianist and a songwriter, and now he’s working on a musical.
On Wednesday, Foster — who grew up in Victoria, B.C. — was revealed as one of this year’s recipients of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards, alongside author and playwright Tomson Highway and fellow British Columbian Crytal Pite, a choreographer and dancer who started her professional career as part of Ballet B.C.
Foster spoke to CBC’s On The Coast host Gloria Macarenko about the honour, his career in music and why, in his 70s, he’s enjoying the life of a being a touring musician.
When you were starting out as a professional musician — and this goes back to your teens, we have to underscore that — did you have a long-term plan?
Those of us that are lucky enough to know that we want to do something, it’s a big break for sure. I’ve always wanted to do music, but I had no idea where it would take me, like [for] a lot of people, the goalpost keeps moving. And as long as you keep that goal post moving, I think you’re in good shape, but I’ve sort of tried to do that.
Do you feel more or less attached to your older songs as time passes?
Less. I do. I do feel less. You’re less anxious about pretty much everything. And so you get more reflective on what you’ve done.
I, like a lot of people, think that I’ve accomplished a lot sometimes and then there’s other days where I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything and I better get to it.
I guess that’s the process of trying to be creative.
What new challenges does Broadway songwriting pose for you?
It’s actually not a Broadway musical yet. It’s only a musical because we’re not on Broadway. But we hope to be and we’re getting close.
We have a three-week workshop coming up in May in New York, which will be our second workshop.
And then we go out of town, hopefully in the fall, and hopefully it will be in Chicago where we can further work it out and, god willing, we could be on Broadway next year.
But everything is such an influx right now. Broadway’s just struggling almost more than anywhere and I don’t really know the reason for that but maybe, if there’s a will there’s a way, that we’ll be on Broadway next year.
Anything else on your musical to-do list right now?
We’ve been touring a lot. I’m married to Katherine McPhee and she’s a great singer. She comes with me on the road. We’re actually going to go on the road, the two of us and make it a proper show with just the two of us.
The touring thing is great, and I’ll tell you why: Because I spent my whole life making music in the studio, passing it out under the door, and the artist takes it with them and it goes out into the world and it either works or it doesn’t. But when it works they get to tour and play those songs for a lot of people and they get that feedback and I never got the feedback.
So in the last few years I’ve been touring and doing songs that I’ve written and produced and the feedback is amazing and, I’m not going to lie, it’s a great feeling. So I love touring and we’re going to do lots more of it.
This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
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