Touch of Gray: R&B artist pairs with Bowie for distinctive bill

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Jan. 30, 2004 | 8:34 a.m.

"I had talked to him a couple of times in the past, but I didn't really know him," Gray said in a recent phone interview. "Then he called us up and invited me to go out with him, and I said, 'Yes.'"

Gray and her seven-piece band have been the opening act on Bowie's "Reality" tour since mid-December. They play The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel at 8 tonight, then return next Friday for another show at the same venue.

The 36-year-old Gray, whose musical tastes have been eclectic since her childhood days in Canton, Ohio, says she wasn't turned on to Bowie's sound until she was an adult. Her favorite Bowie album? Not hard to guess.

"I really like 'Ziggy Stardust,'" she said from a Vancouver, British Columbia, hotel room.

Gray said she's also enjoyed watching Bowie work his onstage magic every night along the tour.

"He's a really great performer," Gray said. "He really seems to love being up there and all that."

Their music is hardly similar, but Bowie and Gray do have one significant trait in common: a refusal to bow to industry trends.

Gray burst onto the scene with the 1999 debut album, "On How Life Is," which reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200, spawned a Grammy Award-winning single ("I Try") and familiarized millions with the singer's unique, whiskey-soaked voice.

Since then, however, commercial success has been harder to come by for the former Natalie McIntyre. Her sophomore release, 2001's "The Id," peaked at No. 11 and failed to generate a high-charting single, and her third album, "The Trouble With Being Myself," topped out at No. 44 last year.

At the same time, both follow-ups have received high marks from many critics, who have praised Gray's willingness to vary her style from song to song.

"I think people tend to judge everything by how many records you sell, but that's not really what it's all about," she said. "In my mind, I'm doing great. I don't know what everybody else thinks."

Gray's third disc features elements of R&B and soul, funk, hip-hop and jazz, and includes guest appearances from rapper Pharoahe Monch and alterna-rocker Beck.

But Gray explained, "The Trouble With Being Myself" wasn't always intended to be so far-reaching.

"We wanted to do something stripped-down, but we had access to a lot of good musicians and sounds, so we ended up stacking up a lot of things," Gray said.

Gray said the title to her latest album refers to her rocky relationship with the press, which has speculated about Gray's possible drug use after she exhibited erratic behavior in several public appearances.

Prior to Gray's interview with the Las Vegas Sun, a publicist warned that the singer has been advised to hang up on reporters who asked about her personal life.

"A lot of times you say things and you're just being natural or being honest, but then it doesn't go over well and the public looks at you like you're crazy," Gray said. "So I don't do a lot of press anymore."

Gray has also has a strange history when it comes to performing in Las Vegas. In 2001 she played the first show at the Palms' Rain in the Desert nightclub, but reportedly arrived onstage 90 minutes late.

Gray denied being so tardy.

"We weren't 90 minutes late," she said. "We were on time. That's crazy."

Gray was also slated to play with rock supergroup Camp Freddy at The Joint last year, but a lightning storm forced the Hard Rock staff to call off the event at the last moment.

"That was freaky," Gray said. "I was flying in from somewhere, and I was going to get right off the plane and go onstage. But by the time I got there they had shut it down."

After finishing her tour with Bowie, Gray is slated to begin work on her next project, a concept album likely to hit shelves in 2005.

Gray also continues to widen her big-screen exposure. Having already appeared in 2001's "Training Day," 2002's "Spider-Man" and last year's "Scary Movie 3," she is set for roles in this year's "The Crow: Wicked Prayer" and "Around the World in Eighty Days."

"I'm also up for a couple more movies, big roles," she said. "I just have to pick my next one."

Additionally, Gray has done work for an upcoming animated series titled "A Pretty Good Life," which is based on her junior high school experiences. And she is producing a new Warner Bros. album for R&B newcomer Jeremy Gregory.

Busy as she might be, Gray still has a ways to go before she can rival her tourmate -- 21 years her senior -- in the resume department.

Does she aspire to a career as long as Bowie's?

"I don't know how old he is, but yeah," Gray said. "Definitely."