This Friday, two powerhouse musicians are performing at the newly restored Carolina Theatre in uptown Charlotte: five-time Grammy Award winner CeeLo Green and Charlotte-based saxophonist Adrian Crutchfield.
You may know Green from his worldwide hits "Crazy" and "Forget You," or you might even know him from his four seasons as a coach on NBC's "The Voice."
As for Adrian Crutchfield, he is the veteran saxophonist known for performing with Prince, Lionel Richie, Anthony Hamilton, Bette Midler and many others.
Now the two are sharing the stage in Charlotte, and they joined WFAE's Nick de la Canal to talk about their concert and friendship.
Nick de la Canal: CeeLo, Adrian, first off, how did the two of you meet? Because Adrian, you grew up here in Charlotte. CeeLo, you're from Atlanta. So was this through a tour or a session, and when did you start thinking about collaborating?
CeeLo Green: We're actually relatives, believe it or not, people don't know that.
De la Canal: Really?
Green: Yes.
De la Canal: Yeah. Expand on that.
Adrian Crutchfield: I've known Lo as a cousin since I was probably 13. He's inducted into my family. And one day there was a need for saxophone on his show, and I got a call, and I said, 'Don't tell him I'm coming, but I'm going to come and do the show,' and we've been running ever since and it's been great.
De la Canal: So, Adrian, you've played with so many pop icons over the years. I mentioned Prince, but also, Lionel Richie, Fantasia, Young Jeezy. You've said that growing up, you felt like you needed to get past this idea that the saxophone was just for jazz. How did you break out from that mold and show that saxophone can hold its own in pop and R&B?
Crutchfield: I got to give credit actually to Lo and a bunch of other artists because — I've joked with you before about this Lo — but he had this song that I was just enamored with called "Base Head Jazz."
It had that hip-hop feel, but it still kind of saluted the old-school jazz and, you know, I didn't want to be pigeonholed into just playing swing music or jazz per se — even though all of that is still an element of jazz in there.
Green: Yes, it's all relative, yeah.
Crutchfield: Yeah. It's all relative.
De la Canal: CeeLo, I think a lot of people see you as a really confident, bold person and and that's in your music, your performance, even your fashion. Where does that confidence come from? And how do you encourage musicians around you, like Adrian, to take their own creative risks?
Green: Yeah, man, I'm very bold about being myself, and they say style is to be yourself on purpose. That's not just for performing or musicianship. You should be more intentional about who exactly you are on a daily basis, from the top to bottom, from 8 in the morning to, you know, to closing time.
My advice to everyone is like — when Adrian is my only guy out there, it's like, OK, you're the only saxophonist out there, so be a star.
De la Canal: How did you approach building the setlist for this performance? And are we going to hear Adrian's music, CeeLo's, or a little bit of both?
Crutchfield: So this show is actually a celebrational show that I do annually. Charlotte gave me a holiday. So, Aug. 11th is actually Adrian Crutchfield Day in Charlotte, North Carolina — in Mecklenburg County.
De la Canal: Yeah, this was declared by the Mecklenburg County Commissioners, right?
Crutchfield: Right, right. And so I didn't know what to do with that, right? I wanted to make it bigger than me. If you know my story — it's an incredible story musically — I got my first saxophone from Kenny G when I was four years old.
So I decided that every year to celebrate my holiday, I was going to find a kid who's interested in music and hand them a saxophone and see if I could keep the music going that way.
So, yes, we will be playing some of my music, we'll be playing some hits that everybody knows, and then obviously we're going to play some of the music from the great CeeLo Green.
De la Canal: Were there any songs that surprised you as you were rehearsing them, CeeLo? You know, maybe songs that you didn't expect to work with the saxophone, but you ended up loving?
Green: Well, I'm like an '80s buff, and so, almost all of those iconic records had a sax break, and it's funny because I was in a restaurant yesterday, and one of my favorite songs of all time is "True" by Spandau Ballet.
And I love that saxophone solo. I don't know why that was. I don't even know whose idea that was. 'OK, man, we don't want to do a guitar solo. We want to put the sax solo.' You know what I mean, or even the (mimics saxophone) — you know? That's, that's famous, right? We all know what that is. So I feel like, the windwoods are — and brass — it's life personified and reanimated. You know what I mean? Like these are the winds of change.
De la Canal: I also wanted to ask you, Adrian, since you're from here, what it feels like to be headlining the Carolina Theatre, which was recently restored, and also to bring CeeLo along for the ride.
Crutchfield: It's exciting. I've been in Charlotte since I was 10 years old, and Charlotte has always been a magical place for me. I mean, there's so much great music in Charlotte that people don't even think about.
The fact that they reopened the Carolina Theatre, that was, I believe, one of the oldest buildings in Charlotte. It started out as like a 'talkies' theater. If you guys don't know what a talky is.
De la Canal: Yeah. Vaudeville, right.
Crutchfield: Yeah, it was vaudeville, and it's just been there. It hasn't been touched. I went in and did a walkthrough earlier this year of the theater. They invited me, and I came and I saw it and I, I literally fell in love.
I was just like, 'This is amazing,' and I'm super excited to see what kind of art and culture it's going to bring into Charlotte, and to be able to bring CeeLo is just another level. So I'm excited.
De la Canal: Yeah, and CeeLo, you've performed in Charlotte before. Is there anything about this city that you look forward to when you come through?
Green: I consider Charlotte to be a second home. I do have real family there, Adrian being an example of that. I feel like it's kindred. I feel like, you know, the relationship between Atlanta and North Carolina is just like a second cousin, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, a somewhat distant relative that you have, like, 'Hey, I'm gonna come and see you,' you know what I'm saying? Like it's that kind of thing. So I feel like it's just a matter of extended family and community, and I feel like I'm at home when I'm there.
De la Canal: What are you hoping your audience will take away from Friday night?
Crutchfield: I hope that people really start to pay attention and like, think philosophically about art so that we can get more people into art and more people expressing themselves and being confident. Does that make sense?
De la Canal: Yes, it does. Yes, it does.
Green: Yeah! (laughter) Yeah. Do y'all remember that? I was just watching, "Trading Places" the other day. I was thinking about Eddie Murphy — yeah.
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