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Music producer David Foster at center of Tampa concert

PFA Media

David Foster and his music are coming to the Forum in Tampa on Friday night.

By CURTIS ROSS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 29, 2009

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He has produced hits for Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand. He made Michael Buble and Josh Groban stars.

Now producer David Foster is taking center stage himself on a tour bearing the same name as his 2008 autobiography, "Hit Man."

The show features an array of vocalists, including Philip Bailey, Deborah Cox, Peter Cetera and Charice, performing songs Foster has written and/or produced.

"Performers get that instant gratification live when they sing songs that we worked on. I get cut out of that connection," Foster says.

Not that he's complaining.

"My job is to make the artists look good, not myself," he says. "And I like being in the studio. I've been there for 35 years."

The Canadian-born Foster came to the U.S. in the early '70s with his group, Skylark, which scored a Top 10 single, "Wildflower," in 1973.

Foster released a series of solo albums but found his greatest success behind the scenes as a studio musician and eventually as a producer in the 1980s, turning Chicago into an adult-contemporary hit-making machine, and reaching No. 1 with singer John Parr on the 1985 song "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)."

From there, he became as in-demand as a producer as he was a session keyboardist, working with Whitney Houston, Paul McCartney, Madonna, Michael Jackson and many more.

His magic touch doesn't spread to his technical skills.

"I don't know how to engineer or mix or set a microphone," Foster says.

He insists all a producer really needs is "a great love of music." Foster is classically trained and can write orchestral arrangements.

"The producer is responsible for the final product," Foster says. "If the artist is weak, you do it all. You create the arc of the album.

"It the artist is strong, you're there to nudge," he continues. "You point the ship in the right direction when the ship seems to be rudderless."

Of the artists whose course he's yet to help steer, Stevie Wonder is at the top of the list.

"I have a vision for him," Foster says of Wonder. "I would be perfect for him. Sometimes an artist gets too close to their work to see where their real talent lies. They forget their greatness. He deserves to give us another masterpiece."