Working With Olivia Newton-John

ONJ - Oliva Newton John

Olivia Newton John has had an illustrious career. She's a singer, songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Olivia has had many hit records and of course her role as Sandy in Grease became the biggest box-office hit of 1978.

Fast forward 20 years, it's now 1998. Olivia Newton John recorded an album called Back With A Heart. The first single was a re-make of her #1 hit single "I Honestly Love You".  This version was produced by David Foster and it featured Babyface on background vocals. The song charted the Pop charts to #67 and it went to #18 on the Adult Contemporary Charts.

Well this is where Olivia and I met for the first time. Olivia was starting to promote her new album and was going to be doing some television performances and concerts. Because of the soulful backgrounds that Babyface had put on the re-make of "I Honestly Love You", Jim Gilstrap and myself was called in to do the Tonight show, the Today Show in New York and a concert in Nashville.

Olivia, Jim Gilstrap and myself on the "Tonight Show"

Olivia is a very pleasant lady and we really enjoyed working with her. We performed the Tonight show singing "I Honestly Love You".

We then flew to New York to do the Today Show with Olivia. The Today Show was doing a series of summer concerts with various artist.

It was a quick trip to New York to do the Today Show and since the show starts at 7:00 am EST that meant it would be 4:00 am PST. We got to New York and basically had to be ready by 4:00 am EST for rehearsal. Remember 4am in New York is 1am in LA. The performance was a success. Everyone loved Olivia.

My wife Rebecca, Daughter Denice, Dave Koz, Olivia and Myself.

Literally right after our performance for the Today Show we got into a limo to catch a flight back to Los Angeles. It was now about 9am EST / 6am PST. We were so tired when we got to the airport Olivia bought Jim Gilstrap, the keyboard player Randy Waldman and myself a neck pillow for our ride home. I've used that pillow many trips and I always remember Olivia.

After arriving home from doing the Today Show which was a Friday morning, we were home for one day Saturday and then we had to head to Nashville on Sunday. We were in Nashville for a couple of days with a rehearsal and then the concert.

After that performance the next time I ran into Olivia was a few years later when I was performing with Michael McDonald. After the concert Olivia was backstage and we took the time, along with my wife and daughter and Dave Koz to snap a quick picture.

Olivia - Today

I haven't seen Olivia since. From time to time I'll run into someone that may have worked with her and I'll get "Olivia says hello".

Olivia has since left the United States and is now living back in Australia. I met a a very gracious and classy lady and I really enjoyed working with Olivia Newton-John.

Until Next Time - Phillip