Crooner Buble wants every concert to be a 'show'
show growth as an artist, even for my own sanity. At the same time, I didn't want to alienate 11 million or so people who bought the record the first time.
"I didn't want to make the easy choices, if that makes any sense. I wanted to do songs because they were right. Not because it was the easiest or the simple thing to do."
That challenge also arose last April when Buble filled in as a last-minute substitute for Tony Bennett on "American Idol" after the legendary singer came down with the flu.
"Now that was terrifying," Buble, 31, said. "It wasn't the most perfect situation for an entertainer to be in. To step in for Tony Bennett is an impossible feat. It's funny - people said, 'Oh, you looked loose.' ... What I do is a loose thing. The style of music I
sing, it's about hearing the lyric and enjoying yourself. It's not a show-stopping, 'American Idol'-esque number.
"You see these kids, and if they do a performance of one of these songs and they do it at a club or a theater, they would probably look over-the-top. On 'American Idol,' it's perfect. It's about vocal gymnastics ... and not much about telling the story."
Telling the story is important to Buble. So the native Canadian admitted it's "with great difficulty" that he chooses the songs for his albums. For "Call Me Irresponsible," it was an "instinctual" thing.
"I think it's a gut feeling, knowing if a song is ready to be done - if it had enough time to live and then to be interpreted. I wanted to take songs and take them into my world. I didn't want to just do an ode to the song. I want to kind of make it my own - without turning it into bad lounge music, because it's pretty easy to do," Buble said.
To avoid that problem and to reinterpret the songs, Buble called in a number of special guests for the album. Boyz II Men lent vocals to Mel Torme's " Comin' Home Baby!" Buble said when he came up with the idea to record the song, he immediately thought of the group, best known for the song "I'll Make Love to You."
"I figured they'd be a perfect match. They're cool and retro in so many ways," Buble said. "They were a big influence on me as a kid. They were a huge group. I liked a lot of their songs. ... The first call I made on the record was to call them and ask them if they would do a duet with me."
Buble's tour in support of "Call Me Irresponsible" hits the Fox Theatre in Detroit on Friday. He said fans should "expect the unexpected."
"First and foremost: This is a show, not a concert. That's the most important thing to me. I'm so bored of these concerts. I keep going to these concerts, and I wonder why I didn't stay home and listen to the CD. It's nothing different," Buble said.
"I love the fact that entertaining people is a lost art. I have a very small responsibility. People pay money to see me, and I'm to take them away for a couple of hours. If I can think about it like that, I can really enjoy myself.
"I love the organic thing that happens in the relationship I get to have with that audience. It's a very personal, kind of intimate thing. Even if I'm playing in an arena. I think every night has to be special. I don't think you can ever just throw a night away. Or sing a song and just throw it away. Every night, these people should know they're seeing something they're not going to see any other time."
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