Blackjack frontman Michael Bolton recently shared his first encounter with Luciano Pavarotti. Bolton spoke to Grammy to reveal their conversation was ‘fearful.’
The frontman was asked about his standout memory, which he shared to be singing with the opera singer. Bolton called the moment something that made him excited and a moment he could never ever dream of. He then expressed his emotions about the day he had a conversation with Pavarotti:
“It was very daunting. Exciting, like, otherworldly. But it was very, very daunting. Pavarotti walked in after we were warming up the orchestra. It was an outside venue, an amphitheater, and Princess Di was in the front row. Bono was on stage during a song or two. We began getting ready, and Pavarotti heard me singing with the opera, and he walked over to me. I was nervous.”
He then revealed what the opera singer told him that led to their friendship:
“And he said, ‘I see you have been studying the tenor.’ I said, ‘Actually, I’ve been studying you. And I don’t know what I’ve been doing with my voice all these years.’ He smiled ear to ear and said, ‘You do not sell as many records as you have if you’re not doing the right thing. Let’s rehearse.’ That was the beginning of our friendship.”
Bolton shared a picture from his performance with the opera singer, ‘Nessun Dorma,’ on Facebook in 2019, stating that it was a ‘life-altering experience.’ See the 1995 performance down below.