Music

R&B legend Charlie Wilson chose to 'just go for it'

Grammy-nominated R&B legend Charlie Wilson, known affectionately by fans as “Uncle Charlie,” will swing into Verizon Arena on Friday as part of his Forever Charlie tour, featuring special guests Kem and Joe.
Grammy-nominated R&B legend Charlie Wilson, known affectionately by fans as “Uncle Charlie,” will swing into Verizon Arena on Friday as part of his Forever Charlie tour, featuring special guests Kem and Joe.

Charlie Wilson wasn't satisfied with performing for sellout crowds in theaters.

The nine-time Grammy nominee, former lead singer of the Gap Band and R&B legend wanted to see if he could pack a bigger house -- an arena.

Charlie Wilson

featuring Kem and Joe

8 p.m. Friday, Verizon Arena, North Little Rock

Tickets: $83-$186.50

(501) 975-7575

Ticketmaster.com

"I know this for a fact, that I've always wanted to do arenas by myself," Wilson says in a phone interview.

Matter of fact, this son of a Church of God in Christ minister prayed for it. Then he talked to his manager about it.

"I said, 'I'd really like to go big or go home,'" Wilson said. "And he said, 'Well, you know if we go to these big arenas and we don't sell them out, we're going to look real stupid. ... On the other hand ... if you sell out, we're going to look like geniuses.' I was like, 'Let's just go for it.'"

Wilson's Forever Charlie tour, named for his album released in January and featuring special guest R&B crooners Kem and Joe, has indeed sold out arenas. The tour, in fact, has been the highest-grossing R&B tour of this year. Wilson's appearance at Verizon Arena on Friday is part of the second leg of the tour, which began Feb. 12 in Cleveland.

According to a news release, he'll perform his No. 1 hits, "I Still Have You," "My Love Is All I Have," "There Goes My Baby" and "You Are," along with the 2014 Grammy-nominated "If I Believe." He will also perform hits from Gap Band days as well as songs from Forever Charlie, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip Hop album chart.

Rather than slowing down, Wilson, 62, has ramped it up. To what does he owe his energy and youthfulness?

"This passion I have for the stage," he says. "And then I've got this young spirit inside of me, this little-boy spirit who likes to play all the time." Everybody in his band is in their 20s and 30s, but, he jokes, "I have my dancers getting their oxygen after we finish sometime. [I tell them,] 'I'll dance you under the table.' I say, 'You can't out-dance me. ... I'm the Energizer Bunny around here.'"

Wilson in fact has bridged the generational music gap. He's known for his collaboration with some of the industry's hottest stars, including Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, R. Kelly and T-Pain as well as his friend Snoop Dogg. "I've run into so many younger, brand-new superstars" who tell him they want to sing with him, he says.

That spirit inside Wilson is not just a boyish, playful one; it's joyful. It's evident in the upbeat, romantic, midtempo ballads that define him, including the dreamy "Without You" from his 2000 album Bridging the Gap; the passionate "You Are," from his 2010 album Just Charlie; and the perky "There Goes My Baby" from his 2009 Uncle Charlie album. Standout cuts on Forever Charlie, which features guest vocals by Snoop and Shaggy, include "Touched by an Angel" and "Goodnight Kisses."

The majority of these songs depict a man lavishing compliments on his lady love. Inevitably, Wilson gets a lot of compliments from female fans.

"If I can write music that speaks from a woman's perspective and the woman is being celebrated all the time -- every woman wants to hear something like that," Wilson says. His advice to boyfriends and husbands? "If you are at a loss for words, [put on] some Charlie Wilson. At nighttime you're getting ready to drink your wine ... just find one of them love songs and put the Charlie Wilson [on]. You know you used to say, 'You put on some Marvin Gaye,' now put on some Charlie Wilson. He's gonna tell you what to say to your girl. Because I've got the poetic words for your girl."

Wilson's honors, too numerous to count, culminated in a Black Entertainment Television Lifetime Achievement Award that featured his songs performed by various stars. His fans include the children and grandchildren of those who grooved to his music in the 1970s and '80s when he performed such hits as "Outstanding," "You Dropped a Bomb on Me," "Party Train" and "Oops Up Side Your Head" and with brothers and Gap Band mates Robert and Ronnie Wilson.

"I didn't really believe that those records would last as long as they did," he says. "Me and my brothers were just really having fun, going in the studio, playing and just making music.

"I just really didn't believe that it would just cross genres ... and so many kids would grow up listening to their moms' music and still loving that music today. I just didn't have a clue." No clue that today he'd be one of the brightest perennial stars of the annual Essence Music Festival, at which he will perform again in July.

Wilson is about to release a memoir. I Am Charlie Wilson (Atria, $25.99) will go on sale June 30. Wilson shares the highs and the lows of his life and career, opening up not only about his addiction and homelessness -- he's celebrating his 20th year of being clean and sober -- but his successful battle with prostate cancer: "I'm on a journey and I want my fans [to know that] I've been on his journey for a long time.

"I really want the readers to really enjoy the book -- cry when I cry, laugh when I laugh -- and enjoy this book from cover to cover. And take you from a little boy all the way up to where I am now. I can't wait to see where it all ends up myself."

Weekend on 05/28/2015

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