In a few days I'll be in Australia for the first time with The CHIC Organization

In a few days I'll be in Australia for the first time with The CHIC Organization. I'm completely excited and I want to do something different. I have no idea when I'm going to get another opportunity like this again and I'm trying to make the most the trip.

I'd like to combine this concert with a book tour. I have a new memoir which gives people insight into who I am and why I do the music I do. I talk about everything from dropping acid (LSD) with Dr. Timothy Leary and cleaning Mr. Frank Sinatra's airplane at fifteen years old, to my early career at the Apollo Theater and life before and after the formation of CHIC.

This sounds like it makes a lot of sense. Here's the problem, book tours are FREE! Typically, in the media business one company doesn't want to help promote another company's interest and I understand this.

Yesterday, I decided to at least give it a shot and to my surprise everybody wants to help out. Look forward to the announcement of my FREE book tour - where I'll sneak In a Live Song or Two.

I developed a magical friendship with Alison Moyet touring on the road recently

Many magical things that happen when I go on the road. They are usually the performances and the people that I meet. I'm gearing up to go to Australia and it's a first time market for CHIC.

It's hard to believe that in a country where I've produced six number one singles and countless more top pop albums, that I'm basically a stranger Down Under. This most likely stems from our original musical concept of anonymity called The CHIC Mystique, whereas our music was the star.

I've never pursued stardom because it feels like a suit that doesn't fit. I've been around stars all my life and when they walk into the room you know it. Madonna's a star, Duran Duran are stars, David Bowie's one, Diana Ross and Mick Jagger are too! I've walked into a room with star friends like John Kennedy Jr. and Prince and could almost feel the weight of the room shift like a listing boat. In no time at all, strangers would start to unevenly occupy our side of the room. That's a stars reality.

Whether one's a star or not, everything never goes the way you'd expect in life. I never expected cancer to attack me - but one day it did. I never expected one of my Australian shows to be cancelled - but yesterday it was. What we do with good news is not much of a test, but what we do with bad news is.

In the scope of things, losing one show in a tour is not a disaster. We have five remaining and I won't waste time complaining. James Brown, The Godfather of Soul, sums it up best. "You can bet your bottom dollar you'll never hear me holler. I Do The Best That I Can Do!"

Sharing The Most Precious Gift I Could Give with some friends in Rome

Over the course of my lifetime there's been a seismic shift in the live concert experience. When I was a kid, almost everybody went to hear an artist play new music sprinkled with popular hits. Most of a set was comprised of songs the artists were working on or had just recorded. The live show was an opportunity to feel an audience's response to new music.

In the current zeitgeist, when an artist performs unknown material many people use this time to go to the bathroom. Is our time too valuable to experience the unknown?

Yesterday, I watched a TV special on musician Peter Frampton. His 1976 album Frampton Comes Alive sold 18x's Platinum. It was a live album and until it was performed and recorded, most of the world had never heard those songs. Today that could never happen! But there was a time when lending our collective ears to an artist was The Most Precious Gift We Could Give.

Last year's CHIC Organization Japan Set List

I'm putting together the song list for my shows coming up in less than two weeks in Australia. I've been thinking about adding a few songs because they were #1 singles for many weeks Down Under.

Throughout the world, most people don't know what music I've been responsible for. Maybe this tour could serve as a getting-to-know-me tour because it's my first time performing in Australia?

The best way to get-to-know me is my memoir Le Freak and I was thinking of doing a combination book and concert tour.

I'm going to write my promoter and publisher to see if they've got open-minds and if I can possibly pull this off with So Little Time.

Panther Baby Event, with Jamal Joseph

I experienced an extraordinary night last night in Harlem. My lifelong friend, Professor Jamal Joseph, had a book release event and lecture for his biography "Panther Baby." Jamal and I were both in the Harlem Branch of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense at the same time.

Jamal was part of the famous Panther 21 Trial along with Afeni Shakur, (Tupac's mother) and nineteen others. After a lengthy trial "The 21" were acquitted of all charges.

Jamal has been nominated for an Academy Award and is a top professor at the film school of prestigious Columbia University. He's also an accomplished playwright, poet, spoken-word artist and the founder of IMPACT Repertory Theatre.

At his event I saw more people from my childhood than I've seen in a very long time. There was Kathleen Cleaver; former Minister of Communication and the highest ranking woman in the Black Panther Party, who is now a law professor and author, Felipe Luciano; legendary member of the Last Poets, former chairman of the Young Lords (the Latino colleagues of the Panthers), an author and two-time Emmy winning network newscaster, Reggie Lucas; groundbreaking guitarist songwriter record producer, former member of Miles Davis' Band, schoolmate, and co-producer of Madonna's first album.

The room was packed with folks I've known since I was sixteen years old, when I was a Panther Baby.

Demos from 1984

I spent the whole day listening to my old solo album songwriting demos. I have so many old demos that I'm almost overwhelmed. Back in the day I used to record a huge amount of ideas before I'd settle on what songs would make it onto an album.

I found songs that have Bernard Edwards playing on them. I'd forgotten those songs until today. I've even found a demo with Alfa Anderson singing in the background section.

Though I recorded the background vocals as a large group to a stereo pair, I can still hear Alfa's distinctive voice, doing a sound which Luther Vandross called crying. It's a technique where I'd have the singers overdub a very airy, almost childlike sound, and Alfa was The Best Cry-er I've Ever Worked With.

Last night I was invited to read from my memoir Le Freak

I spent most of Last Night in the Hiro Ballroom at the Maritime Hotel, New York City. I was invited to read from my memoir to support a dear friend and top-shelf author, Anthony Haden-Guest.

Being an author, Anthony sees reading aloud as entertainment. When he's reading, it is! He's a great public reader and he's got a secret weapon, an English accent. I, on the other hand, was raised only a few blocks from the venue, in the heart of Greenwich Village.

Instead of reading from my memoir Le Freak I summarized it along with a music underscore. I did an aural compendium of Le Freak Last Night.

I've been recording for almost forty straight hours

I can't believe that I've been recording for almost forty straight hours. I fell asleep around 1pm for two hours yesterday but that was it. I'm very inspired and I'll give you a full report tomorrow. All I can say is, There's Something Funky Brewing.

Me playing the workhorse of LIVE CHIC shows, My Plexiglass Guitarman

My band CHIC was very closely associated with a studio called The Power Station because we were the first artists to record an album there. In fact, we cut every CHIC album there, but our first single "Dance, Dance, Dance" was cut at Electric Lady Studios, the studio built by Jimi Hendrix.

I've worked there with INXS, Hall and Oates, D'Angelo, ?uestlove and many others, so it felt natural to return to Electric Lady. It also felt natural to record with the workhorse of LIVE CHIC shows, My Plexiglass Guitarman.

Two days ago I was recording at Electric Lady Studios

Two days ago I was recording at Electric Lady Studios. On the way home, the commuter train got stuck inside a tunnel. I felt shut off from the world because I was in a telephone and wifi dead-zone. I thought we'd have to evacuate and walk along the rat infested tracks.

After a while, the train was able to return to NY, all the passengers boarded a replacement train and my journey started again. At that point I was so tired I overslept and missed my stop and had to take a taxi back to my town. When I tried to pay the driver I didn't have enough money for the unexpected trip.

The driver took me to an ATM, then back to my car, and I finally drove the rest of the way home. I went online and started seeing some early details of a shocking story. The preceding events all happened while The Whitney Houston (RIP) Story Was Breaking.