Nile Rodgers

Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. shortly named as Nile Rodgers is an American record producer, songwriter, musician, composer, arranger as well as a guitarist who is also the co-founder of Chic. He has written, produced, and performed on records that have cumulatively sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million singles worldwide and also he is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a three-time Grammy Award-winner, and the chairman of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He started his journey to singing career by forming the Big Apple Band in 1970 with bassist Bernard Edwards. Overall, he is a multi-talented person.

Famous For

• Being the co-founder of Chic

Early Life of Nile

On 19th September 1952, Rodgers was born in the Lower East Side, New York City to Beverly Goodman and Nile Rodgers Sr. She became pregnant the first time she had sex and gave birth to Rodgers when she was 14. His biological father, Nile Rodgers Sr; a traveling percussionist who specialized in Afro-Cuban beats; was rarely present as Rodgers grew up. In the year 1959, Goodman married Bobby Glanzrock, who Rodgers described in his 2011 autobiography as a “beatnik Ph.D., whose observations had angles that would make Miles Davis contemplate his cool.” Glanzrock and Goodman were addicted to heroin, and Rodgers began using drugs at 13. He played the flute and the clarinet before learning to play the guitar at 16. As a teenager, he played guitar with African, Persian, Latin, jazz and Boogaloo bands. His nationality is American and his ethnicity is Mixed. As of 2019, he celebrated his 67th birthday. His full name is Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr.

Body Measurements of Nile

Being at the age of 67, Nile still looks very handsome with a cool attitude towards his followers. He has a tall height of 170 cm with the perfect weight of 61 Kg. His clothing style is Bohemian which is a very unique style. His hair color is dark brown and his hair type is curly coily. His eye color is also dark brown. His other body measurements have not revealed by any sources but it will be added soon.

Career of Nile

• Nile began his career when he met bassist Bernard Edwards in the year 1970 working as a touring musician for the Sesame Street stage show.
• They then formed The Big Apple Band and worked as back-up musicians for the vocal group New York City (“I’m Doin’ Fine Now”).
• The band dissolved after their second album failed to yield a hit, but Nile and Bernard joined forces with drummer Tony Thompson.
• And they worked and recorded as a funk rock band called The Boys.
• He and Edwards worked with Ashford & Simpson, Luther Vandross, and many others.
• In the year 1977, the band was renamed as Chic after they were forced to change their band’s name to avoid confusion.
• They then recorded the song “Dance, Dance, Dance”, with then-boss Luther Vandross on vocals.
• The band scored numerous top ten hits and helped propel disco to new levels of popularity, with “Le Freak”, “I Want Your Love”, “Everybody Dance”, “Dance, Dance, Dance”, “My Forbidden Lover”, and “Good Times” becoming club/pop/R&B standards.
• They then chose Sister Sledge, whose 1979 album, We Are Family, peaked at No. 3 and remained on the charts well into 1980.
• In April 2018, “We Are Family” was selected to be preserved in the Library of Congress.
• The 1979 disco backlash derailed Chic, and Edwards retreated from work.
• He and Edwards delivered their final Atlantic album under contract, Believer, in the year 1982.
• They completed one of their last projects together in 1980, writing and producing the album Diana for Diana Ross which yielded the hits “Upside Down” and “I’m Coming Out”.
• They also produced Deborah Harry’s 1981 solo album, Koo Koo.
• His song “Good Times” was sampled on The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”, the first multiple-platinum hip hop single.
• He released his first solo album, Adventures in the Land of the Good Groove.
• He produced David Bowie’s biggest selling album Let’s Dance.
• He produced Madonna’s blockbuster album Like a Virgin in 1984.
• He worked extensively with Duran Duran, remixing their biggest-selling single, “The Reflex”, producing “Wild Boys” on their 1984 live album, Arena, and co-producing the album Notorious.
• He produced albums for Sheena Easton, Jeff Beck, Thompson Twins, Mick Jagger, and others in the year 1985.
• He co-produced the B-52’s multi-platinum album Cosmic Thing in 1989.
• After the death of Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Rodgers-produced Vaughan Brothers album, Family Style was released in 1990.
• He and Edwards reformed Chic in 1992 and recorded new material for the album Chic-Ism.
• They released a Japan-only album consisting of old Chic material rerecorded with guest vocalists, Chic Freak and More Treats in 1996.
• Edwards died following a concert on 17th April 1996.
• A year later, he returned to Japan to pay homage to his fallen partner, and in the year 1999, he released Live at the Budokan, a live recording of Edwards’ final performance.
• In the year 1997, Notorious BIG released “Mo Money Mo Problems” sampling Rodgers and Edwards’ song “I’m Coming Out” from Diana Ross’s platinum album, Diana.
• He founded Sumthing Else Music Works record label and Sumthing Distribution, an independent music label distributor in 1998.
• He then returned to work again with the original five members of Duran Duran when he co-produced Astronaut in 2002.
• The album rose to No.3 in the UK.
• He brought together more than 200 musicians and celebrities to record “We Are Family” and was recorded in New York at Avatar Studios (previously The Power Station, where the original recording of “We Are Family” took place in 1978), and in Los Angeles at The Record Plant.
• An 80-minute documentary, The Making, and Meaning of We Are Family, directed by Danny Schechter, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002.
• He co-founded the We Are Family Foundation with his life partner, Nancy Hunt in 2002.
• Rhino Records released a four-CD box set, Nile Rodgers Presents The Chic Organization, Volume 1: Savoir Faire in the year 2010.
• He critically acclaimed autobiography, Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny was published by Spiegel & Grau, a Random House imprint in the year 2011.
• He announced that he was collaborating with electronic band Daft Punk for their latest album, “teasing out their R&B influences” in the year 2012.
• The record, Random Access Memories was released in the year 2013.
• He then co-wrote and played guitar on three tracks: “Give Life Back to Music”, “Lose Yourself to Dance”, and “Get Lucky”.
• Rhino Records released Nile Rodgers Presents The Chic Organization Up All Night (The Greatest Hits), a compilation album featuring songs written, played or produced by Rodgers and Bernard Edwards for Chic and various artists including Diana Ross, Sister Sledge, Carly Simon, Debbie Harry, Johnny Mathis, Sheila & B. Devotion and Norma Jean Wright.
• Up All Night reached No. 2 on the UK Compilation Album Chart in 2013.
• Rhino released Nile Rodgers Presents The Chic Organization Up All Night (The Greatest Hits Disco Edition) in October 2013.
• He performed “Get Lucky” with Daft Punk on the Grammy Awards in 2014.
• Talking more about his awards, he won three Grammy Awards for his work with Daft Punk and Random Access Memories including Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, Record of the Year and Album of the Year.
• His solo single “Do What You Wanna Do (IMS Anthem)” was released on 10th August 2014.
• He released Chic’s first single in more than 23 years, “I’ll Be There” in 2015.
• He collaborated with Lady Gaga to remake Chic’s hit, “I Want Your Love” for Tom Ford’s Spring/Summer 2016 collection video in lieu of a fashion show.
• He and Bernard Edwards were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on 9th June 2016.
• He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with an award in 2017.
• In June 2018, “Till the World Falls”, the first single from Nile Rodgers & Chic’s first album since 1992, It’s About Time, was released which featured Mura Masa, Cosha and Vic Mensa.
• The album was released in September 2018, and hit the Top 10 in the UK.
• Two singles from the album were subsequently released: “Sober” featuring Craig David and Stefflon Don, and “Do You Wanna Party” featuring LunchMoney Lewis.
• He offered 600 free tickets to furloughed US Federal workers during the US Government Shutdown to the Nile Rodgers & CHIC concert at the MGM National Harbor in Washington, DC in 2019 January.
• He will play Cardiff Castle Wales on 12th July 2019.
• Movies And TV Shows of Nile
• Nile has been interviewed and performed on television more than 150 times since he first appeared with Chic on American Bandstand in the year 1978.
• In the early 2000s, he worked extensively on film and video game soundtracks, including Rush Hour 2, Snow Dogs, and Semi-Pro starring Will Ferrell,
• He has been the subject of documentaries including the BBC’s Nile Rodgers: The Hitmaker, Front and Center: Songwriters Hall of Fame: Nile Rodgers on PBS, Arte France’s Nile Rodgers: Secrets of a Hitmaker, and the short film Composing America: The Musical Talents of Nile Rodgers.
• The BBC also broadcast Nile Rodgers: How To Make It in the Music Business, a three-hour, three-part special.
• In the year 2018, Once in a Lifetime Sessions with Nile Rodgers premiered on Netflix.

Marital Status, Wife, Child

Nile Rodgers is a married person and he was married to his life partner, Nancy Hunt. At present, he is living a happy life without any disturbances. There is no information regarding his children. But it will be added soon once we get details about it. His sexual orientation is straight and he is not gay.

Personal Life of Nile

Nile woke up in the hospital to learn that his heart had stopped eight times, and he was alive only due to the actions of the doctor filling out his death certificate. He stopped using drugs and alcohol in 1994 after a friend showed him a tape of poor performance. He was also diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in 2010. In 2017, a growth on his right kidney was diagnosed as two different cancers within one mass. The mass was surgically removed in November 2017. He said he expected a 100% recovery.

At present, he lives in Westport, Connecticut and New York City with his life partner, Nancy Hunt.

Net Worth of Nile

Nile is a very famous singer and with his singing career, he has accumulated a huge amount of money and at present, he is living a luxurious lifestyle from his earnings. As of 2019, his net worth is estimated to be around $24 Million but his exact salary has not been revealed yet but there is no doubt in the mind of his follower that his salary will be also in millions. Overall, he is satisfied with his earnings.