Nile Rodgers

Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American record producer, guitarist, composer, and philanthropist.

The co-founder of Chic, he has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million singles worldwide.

Rodgers is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee.

He has received six Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement/Special Merit Award.

Rodgers was born on September 19, 1952, in the Lower East Side, New York City, to Beverly Goodman.

She gave birth to Rodgers when she was 14.

In 1959, Goodman married Bobby Glanzrock.

Rodgers' cousin, trumpeter Robert "Spike" Mickens, was a member of Kool and the Gang from 1964 to 1986.

His biological father, Nile Rodgers Sr., was a travelling percussionist who specialized in Afro-Cuban beats and was rarely present as Rodgers grew up; although influential in his life, Rodgers saw his father only a "handful" of times prior to his death in 1970.

Rodgers met bassist Bernard Edwards in 1970 while working as a touring musician for the Sesame Street stage show.

Together they formed The Big Apple Band and initially worked as back-up musicians for the vocal group New York City ("I'm Doin' Fine Now").

Formed as the Big Apple Band in 1972 with bassist Bernard Edwards, Chic released their self-titled debut album in 1977; it featured the hit singles "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" and "Everybody Dance".

New York City's one hit allowed them to tour extensively, opening for The Jackson 5 on the American leg of their first world tour in 1973.

The band dissolved after their second album failed to yield a hit.

Rodgers and Edwards subsequently joined forces with drummer Tony Thompson to form The Boys, playing gigs up and down the East Coast.

Although there was label interest, record companies passed on the band after discovering its members were black, believing that black rock artists would be too hard to promote.

As the Big Apple Band, Rodgers and Edwards worked with Ashford & Simpson and Luther Vandross, among others.

Since another New York artist, Walter Murphy, had a band called The Big Apple Band, in 1977 Rodgers and Edwards changed the band's name to Chic.

Inspired by Roxy Music, Chic developed a sound that was a fusion of jazz, soul, and funk grooves with melodies and lyrics with a European influence.

Between gigs, they recorded the song "Dance, Dance, Dance", with then-boss Luther Vandross on vocals.

Originally released by Buddah Records, it was a hit when it was re-released by Atlantic in the summer of 1977.

Atlantic picked up an album option with Rodgers and Edwards, who quickly wrote more songs, and Chic's self-titled debut was released in November.

The band scored numerous top ten hits, including "Le Freak", "I Want Your Love", "Everybody Dance", "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)", "My Forbidden Lover", and "Good Times" becoming club/pop/R&B standards.

The 1978 album C'est Chic included "I Want Your Love" and "Le Freak", with the latter selling more than seven million singles worldwide.

The song "Good Times" from the 1979 album Risqué was a number one single on the pop and soul charts, and became one of the most-sampled songs of all time, predominantly in hip-hop, starting with the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight".

With Edwards, Rodgers wrote and produced music for other artists, including the songs "He's the Greatest Dancer" and "We Are Family" (for Sister Sledge) and "I'm Coming Out" and "Upside Down" (for Diana Ross).

"Le Freak" was Atlantic Records' only triple platinum selling single at the time, and "Good Times" shot to No. 1 in August 1979 despite that year's "Disco Sucks" campaign.

After Chic's breakup in 1983, Rodgers produced albums and singles for other artists, including David Bowie's Let's Dance; "Original Sin" by INXS; Duran Duran's "The Reflex" and "Notorious"; and Madonna's Like a Virgin.

He worked with artists including The B-52s, Jeff Beck, Daft Punk, Mick Jagger, Grace Jones, The Vaughan Brothers, Bryan Ferry, Christina Aguilera and Lady Gaga.

Rodgers described Glanzrock in his 2011 autobiography as a "beatnik PhD, whose observations had angles that would make Miles Davis contemplate his cool."

Richard Pryor, Thelonious Monk, and Lenny Bruce often visited their home in Greenwich Village.

Glanzrock and Goodman were addicted to heroin, and Rodgers began using drugs at 13.

Before learning to play the guitar at 16, Rodgers played the flute and the clarinet.

As a teenager, he played guitar with African, Persian, Latin, jazz and Boogaloo bands.

He became a subsection leader of the Lower Manhattan branch of the New York Black Panther Party.

He was raised as a Catholic.

Known for his chucking guitar style, in 2014 Rolling Stone wrote that "the full scope of Nile Rodgers' career is still hard to fathom".

In 2023, Rolling Stone placed Rodgers 7th on a list of the 250 greatest guitarists of all time, writing: "There’s 'influential,' then there’s 'massively influential', then there’s Nile Rodgers... a true innovator who never slows down, still making history with his guitar."

He won three Grammy Awards in 2014 for his work on Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, and two in 2023 for his work with Beyoncé on her album Renaissance.

In 2018, Rodgers co-founded Hipgnosis Songs Fund, a publicly traded music intellectual property investment company.