Josh Groban views his pair of concerts at the Hollywood Bowl this weekend as a form of debt repayment.
In 2009, when he was a boyish 28, the Bowl “very generously put me in their hall of fame before I’d even performed there,” says the singer and actor known for the soaring baritone he brings to a repertoire spanning pop, Broadway and classical music. Four years later, Groban played the Bowl’s annual July Fourth Fireworks Spectacular — but only as part of a program long on patriotic orchestral tunes.
“So these are kind of my first two proper solo shows” at the iconic hillside amphitheater, he says. “I’m slowly working my way towards earning my induction.”
Scheduled for Friday and Saturday nights, the dates will pair Groban, now 44, with the L.A. Phil nearly a quarter-century after the release of his self-titled 2001 debut, which he made under the tutelage of his mentor David Foster (who also helped make global stars of Andrea Bocelli and Michael Bublé). In 2023 he played the title role in a Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd”; this past May, he released a career retrospective called “Gems” and launched a residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Next month in New York, Groban’s Find Your Light Foundation will hold its annual benefit gala to raise money for arts education — a mission the singer says has taken on new importance amid President Trump’s aggressive cuts to government spending.
“It’s a huge call to action,” the L.A. native says over coffee on a recent morning in the Valley. “Now is a time when we need to remind people that the arts are a reminder of our humanity — and that we’re losing who we are in this divisive climate.”
You’re back in L.A. after a spell in New York.
I made the pilgrimage back a few years ago. I love New York with all my heart, but it’s not until you go out and touch grass somewhere that you realize just how noisy and crowded and busy it is there. In my 20s, I would open myself to whatever chaos the city would give me. As I’ve gotten older, hearing myself think has become more important.
Where do you do your best thinking?
I have a back room in my house where I can shut the door and I can play piano or meditate or I can look at my baseball cards or just listen to the birds chirp. I’d say it’s a man cave except it’s not that cool.
Baseball cards, huh?
I had shoeboxes full of all my favorite Dodgers as a kid — Orel Hershiser and Fernando Valenzuela and Tommy Lasorda. This was the junk wax era, when Topps and Fleer and all these companies really overproduced because they thought there was big business in baseball cards. So the vast majority of them aren’t worth anything now. But that’s the way it should be when you’re a kid. I wasn’t looking at them for profit — I was looking at them because it was just fun to collect my team.
My heart aches for the child who looks at them for profit.
I go to baseball card shops now and there are 10-year-olds haggling: “No, no, no, man — go on EBay, you’ll see that card is down 10%.”
What’s the best card shop in L.A.?
There’s a great one called Burbank Sportscards. It’s massive — like a Walmart for sports cards. First time I went, I’d had a particularly good day at work, and my girlfriend — bless her heart, she knows this is a passion of mine now — she was like, “Babe, do you want to go to that new big card store?” I’m like, “We can go to Burbank Sportscards? You mean it?”
Love this for you.
It’s sad and it’s beautiful.
Musically, you’ve been in a bit of a blue-eyed soul moment of late. Your last studio album had renditions of “Celebrate Me Home” and “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” and there’s an R&B-ish new song on “Gems” called “Be Alright.”
It’s always been something I’ve enjoyed tapping into vocally, but I have to be in the right hands, producer-wise, to feel comfortable going there. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Oh, I think you should.
As singers, we all have a responsibility to ourselves and to our audience to make sure that everything we sing is coming from a place of sincerity. There are things I can do — I mean, I’m a great imitator. One of the things I did early on in my life, before I started taking formal singing lessons, is I would just try to sound like everybody I listened to. And I realized that I had a talent for mimicking different styles and different voices.
Can you do Michael McDonald?
[Sings] “You don’t know me but I’m your brother …”
So that’s a yes.
But with all the reverence in the world. He’s one of my favorite singers — one of my favorite human beings. When I say, “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” there are times when you can do something with your instrument, but it’s coming from a place of wanting to prove something. You have an image, and sometimes ego takes over and you’re like, “I would like people to see me as this.”
As you get older, you start to learn when that meter goes off. I didn’t know it as well earlier on. I love rock music, for instance, and I’ve had opportunities to write with great rock artists that I’ve loved. I’ve enjoyed those sessions so much, but the end result of our collaboration ultimately would lean more towards what they’re better singing than what I’m better singing.
Who we talking?
He may not even remember this, but I’m a big System of a Down fan, and Serj Tankian and I got to know each other a little bit a long time ago. He’s got kind of an operatic quality to some of the stuff he sings — very emotional and melodic music that he puts on top of the heaviness of System. So we were sending ideas back and forth at one point, and it was just one of those things where I was like, “Man, I would love to hear Serj sing this. But I’m not sure it’s right for me.”
I bet Serj would say you should’ve done it.
That’s the thing — this is a one-sided criticism. It comes from my own carefulness.
Josh Groban will perform Friday and Saturday nights at the Hollywood Bowl.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
If I’m A&R-ing your next album, I’m putting you in the studio with Babyface.
Sure.
Babyface says, “Josh, today I want us to work on Luther Vandross’ ‘Here and Now.’” How do you respond?
I can’t step to Luther. But when I talk about having a producer where you know you’re in safe hands, Babyface would be one of those people. If he were to say, “I’d like to hear you sing this,” I’d do it in a heartbeat. But I can almost guarantee you that wouldn’t happen [laughs].
You seem to have gone out of your way to avoid calling “Gems” a greatest-hits collection.
Because I’m not a hitmaker. I have hit albums, but I don’t have hit songs. I could say that’s for better or for worse, but when I look back at my career and the audience I’ve built and the opportunities I’ve had — it’s been for the better. Which songs have meant the most to fans? That was our guide for “Gems.” Then there are songs that didn’t make “Gems” that are gonna go on something we’re calling “Hidden Gems” — though I joke with my manager that if I’ve never had hits, isn’t “Gems” already “Hidden Gems”?
Another thing I’m working on — a few things kind of started at once — is an album of songs from films. I got asked by Francis Ford Coppola to sing the “Godfather” theme at his AFI lifetime achievement ceremony [in April], which was this a-ha moment about how much film music has meant to me in my singing career. So I had a dinner with [the record producer] Greg Wells, who was just finishing up the “Wicked” movie, and we started talking about film songs we love.
What are some must-haves?
There’s no decided set list yet. But the songs I gravitate towards are the ones with [Michel] Legrand/Scott Walker-y arrangements — music that’s not shying away from the escapism of where these melodies take you. “As Time Goes By,” from “Casablanca,” for example. I love “Windmills of Your Mind,” from “The Thomas Crown Affair.” I sang “Skyfall” in Vegas.
Free idea: “How Do You Keep the Music Playing.”
That’s a great song. What movie was that from? [Picks up phone] Lemme Wikipedia this.
James Ingram and Patti Austin sang it. I think Legrand wrote it, maybe with the Bergmans?
Alan and Marilyn wrote it for the 1982 film “Best Friends.” It went to No. 5 on the AC chart and it was nominated for an Academy Award. It’s interesting: When I did the “Stages” album, they were all songs from musicals that people really knew. The thing about film songs is that half the time the song becomes more famous than the film.
I saw Diana Ross at the Bowl a few weeks ago. She did her song from the dinosaur movie “Land Before Time.”
Listen, a great song is a great song. I loved singing the end title to “Troy,” and nobody would think this guy needs to sing about gladiators.
A bit of Grammy trivia for you: You’ve lost the award for traditional pop vocal album three times, which I thought was a lot until I discovered that Barbra Streisand has lost 13 times.
That makes me feel a little better.
Seems insane.
That does seem insane. You know, you sit at these things, and it’s always great to be nominated, but it never hurts any less when you don’t hear your name called.
You’re on Streisand’s latest duets record.
This is our third duet. It’s always such a master class to hear how she takes on a lyric. You can read it on the page, and you can hear the melody plunked out on a piano, but the way she decides to scoop into a note or to phrase a line — you just get goosebumps.
Bob Dylan’s on there as well — they do “The Very Thought of You.”
The guy runs so deep as far as his interests and what he’s wanted to do. Seeing him in that “We Are the World” documentary, I thought it was very touching to see someone like Dylan in a place of vulnerability. The fact that he was in the room and that he didn’t turn it down — he’s not my patient, I’m just speculating — it shows that there’s always been a part of him that’s wanted to go beyond. God bless him.
Josh Groban: “I have hit albums, but I don’t have hit songs.”
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
What’d you think of Dylan’s Sinatra records?
They’re not my go-to for that style of music — I play them less than I do Tony Bennett or Mel Tormé. But I enjoyed, certainly intellectually, hearing his uniqueness. David Foster would always say to me, “Don’t be the perfect voice — be the voice that you can pick out in a crowded restaurant in five seconds.”
What’s Foster’s best production?
There are Foster heads out there who’d say there are deeper, better cuts than this, but I’m gonna say “I Will Always Love You.” The snare hit is one of the most iconic moments in pop history.
In 2018, you told me you’d love to have a family one day but only if you could be as devoted as your dad was to you. Seven years later, what’s the Groban vibe on children?
The Groban vibe on children is that I’m feeling that it’s approaching time. I’m very happily in love with a wonderful partner [actor Natalie McQueen], and I think we share the same goals. Before, the wanderlust was overtaking my desire to be in one place. Now I’m enjoying setting down roots and building a real home — not just a place where my pillow is.
Is it important to you to raise kids in L.A.?
I love the idea of showing my kid or kids the things I grew up loving to do — taking them to a Dodger game or the Farmers Market or the Hollywood Bowl.
Or the Burbank card store.
They’ll get their first one-of-one Ohtani for their birthday.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
