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I love New York, it gave me everything. I grew up in the Lower East Side and it was such a diverse and multicultural neighborhood. Irish, Polish, Italians, Jews, Latin American African-Americans. Someone probably missed it!
My first memory as a conscious person is to be outside my house. There are many kids across the street and they are all disguised as Lone Rangers, which was a huge sight at the time. My neighborhood was a lively place! Wherever I went in my life, I managed to assimilate and hear with people. I attribute this to the environment in which I grew up. I may have grown up in poverty, but New York has given me a lot of riches. New York is who I am.
Disco was so exciting time to live in the interior. We were all united. There was no division. The women's liberation movement has joined the gay liberation movement. Whites and blacks. We were all united, by music. God knows what it looked like in the Midwest.
The Disco Sucks movement, where they held big events and burned our records, it was racism. It was not about them who did not like music; they were afraid of the change of society that disco brought. It was really weird when they tried to tell the difference between Chic and Knack in a race for the number one single. They called it "disco vs rock". Even if we used the same studio, we saw each other every day and were good friends – and their song My Sharona was one of our friends, Sharona!
David Bowie was an inspiration for me. I worked with everyone: Madonna, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan. But David Bowie was really fantastic. In truth, people almost never approach me to work with them. Just about everything has been dragging on and chance meetings. Whenever Bowie and I met, we always ended up talking about jazz. Really strange avant garde jazz. He loved it and he was an ally of black rights. It was a fantastic human.
Music and science were my twin loves growing up. I guess the music just told me a little more, and so it became my life. But I'm still absolutely fascinated by science. Space is something that consumes me. What are we? How did we come here? I'm lucky to know people at NASA, et cetera. I am therefore invited to all kinds of conferences and large scientific gatherings.
I become friends with Stephen Hawking. His brain was huge and he was a total genius, but not enough people talk about how funny he was. He was one of the funniest men I have ever met. Was he a fan of Chic? I do not know. I suppose so. I have never asked. It's not like he's ever asked me if I'm a fan of his theorems, you see?
I've accidentally invented hip-hop. I remember the first time I heard Rapper's Delight from the Sugarhill group. I was in a New York nightclub called Leviticus and the DJ was playing a disc that opened with the bass line of the classy Good Times song. At first I thought they were playing live in the DJ booth and I was really impressed. Then the DJ told me that he had bought the record that day in Harlem. I asked to see the wallet and, when our name was not there, the situation became legal. It's still an incredible song, and I'm very proud of our role.
Nile Rodgers, Commissioner of the 26th Meltdown, Aug. 3-11, southbankcentre.co.uk
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