Friday, Aug. 13, 2004 | 5:02 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION
August 14 - 15, 2004
Josh Groban embarked on his first tour in January, but he'd already performed twice to worldwide audiences numbering more than 1 billion.
The 23-year-old Los Angeles native sang at the closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics and during this year's Super Bowl pre-game show, the latter appearance a tribute to the fallen astronauts of the space shuttle Columbia.
Groban -- whose music straddles the line between classical and pop -- also achieved another significant career milestone in January, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with his second album, "Closer."
The vocalist plays Las Vegas for the first time at 8 p.m. on Saturday, when he will entertain a sold-out crowd at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
During a break in his tour schedule on Monday, Groban took time for a phone interview with the Las Vegas Sun from a hotel room in Cincinnati.
Las Vegas Sun: Prior to this tour, had you ever performed a full show?
Josh Groban: Never full concerts. I did the PBS special (2002's "Josh Groban in Concert"), which was one night only. And it was kind of stop and start, so it didn't really count.
This is my first time, other than doing like three, four or five songs in a row for a charity event or a private concert or something like that.
Sun: Given that, how comfortable do you feel onstage?
JG: We've done about 55 shows -- we're right in the middle of it -- so it's all feeling pretty comfortable now. But right at the beginning it was just like, "Oh my gosh! Am I really going to be doing this?"
Sun: What was the toughest aspect of touring for you, initially?
JG: I think it was just the nerves at first, feeling like I can't stop and start. I've got to do 18 songs now without stopping, and I don't dance or lip-sync, so there's not a whole lot that I can fall back on if I don't feel like I'm singing well one night.
But it's an energy that I've never had before, and it's just the most fun I've had in my whole career.
Sun: Your music includes elements of classical, pop, even opera. How would you classify it?
JG: It's kind of cool that when I walk into the music store, it's in different sections. But sometimes, when something's hard to classify, it's a turnoff to some people. It's scary. It's not something that they want to jump into because they'd rather have something that's rock or pop or classical.
It's easy for people to call it classical crossover. But I never really crossed over from anything. I have classical influences and I trained classically, but I really would rather challenge the pop world, make pop a little bit wider.
Sun: That's not the typical formula for success. Did you ever dream it might go over this well?
JG: I hoped to sell 50,000 records. My main goals were to sing my heart out, to challenge myself vocally, to find beautiful music that has great stories and to express what I love about the musicality of different languages.
And if 10 people bought it, I'd be thrilled that 10 people listened to it. And if it was 10 million, I'd be thrilled that 10 million people listened to it. This is just beyond any dream that I could have possibly had.
Sun: A few writers have called your music "popera." What do you make of that term?
JG: Ewww. I would burn that word on the stake. Journalists are so cute. They've got to have an angle, I guess. But I think words like that kind of downplay what I'm trying to do, like "Bach-street boy." I've heard it all and I think it's kind of silly and stupid.
Sun: Has your sudden celebrity been difficult to deal with?
JG: That's been very different for me. I have a unique audience old and young, so it's been fun to see fans of all ages and all demographics coming up to me on the street. But it hasn't been a spectacle. There's no paparazzi circus. It's just people who really like the music.
Sun: Are you OK with being referred to as a heartthrob?
JG: Being a nerd in high school, I'm perfectly comfortable with that (laughs). I suppose I sing somewhat romantic music and of course it's always nice to be written about that way.
Sun: As a teenager, you dueted with Celine Dion at a rehearsal for the 1999 Grammy Awards, filling for opera star Andrea Bocelli. Describe that experience.
JG: I had almost zero time to prepare for it and to prepare for the nerves of meeting and singing with Celine. It was just such an enormous situation, and I was 17.
It could have been a lot more difficult, but she is just such an outstanding human being. You never know what to expect with somebody who's so huge and so gifted. You hear horror stories about quote-unquote divas. I didn't know if I was even supposed to look her in the eye.
But she's just so humble. My hand was shaking so much I could hardly hold the words, and she took my hand to keep me from shaking. She just made it so comfortable and made it such a learning experience for me. She continues to be a great friend.
Sun: The Super Bowl halftime show sort of overshadowed your tribute to the astronauts ...
JG: Was I even on it? I don't even know (laughs).
Sun: What are your thoughts about the Justin Timberlake-Janet Jackson fiasco, from the perspective of someone at the stadium that day?
JG: I think what they did was pretty gross, but I think that the hype that it caused was equally gross.
It's an example about of how more and more, everybody's trying to outdo themselves, trying to outshock everybody. There's something wrong when artists of Janet and Justin's caliber feel like they need to pull something like that in order to continue to sell records.
But I don't think it's their fault. It's the music industry's fault for making audiences so fickle and the media's for being so narrowly formatted that unfortunately you've got to flash a boob every now and then to keep yourself in the news.
I'm just thrilled that I've been able to kind of keep myself out of that world.
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