Musician and record producer Nile Rodgers reflected on working with Madonna 40 years after producing her iconic album Like a Virgin.
“She was the hardest working person I ever worked with in my life, and I still maintain that to this day,” Rodgers, 72, exclusively told Us Weekly at the EBONY Power 100 Gala, which took place on November 17 at Los Angeles’ NYA Studios West.
Like a Virgin, which turned 40 on November 12, was Madonna’s first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 and remains one of the best-selling albums of all time. The title track reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 while “Material Girl” reached No. 2.
Rodgers told Us that he “knew” the record, released in 1984, would be “big,” but didn’t guess just how big until he played it for one of his friends.
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“She was an artist. … She sat in my car, I played it for her, and she said, ‘Nile, this record is going to be No. 1 for at least three weeks,’” Rodgers recalled. “And at that moment, I believed her.”
Rodgers and Madonna, 66, chatted with Paper magazine in 2022 about their creative and personal connection.
“Every time I see Nile, it’s like there is no time that’s passed,” Madonna said.
Rodgers agreed, and praised the “focus and the intensity” that the Queen of Pop brought to the Like a Virgin recording process. He recalled Madonna’s label feeling “a bit unsure” of the album at first — and how she only pretended to accept certain feedback.
“I’ll never forget when we played the album, and Freddy [DeMann, Madonna’s then-manager] said, ‘Can it sound a little more like this?’ And he put on f—ing Thriller. And we said, ‘You know, Michael Jackson has been a star his entire life and he worked his way up to Thriller.’ So he said, ‘Well can you put a little more bass on it?’ And all Madonna did was just write, ‘Bass Up,’ on the record,” Rodgers recounted. “We never changed a thing. She just wrote it on the box the next time.”
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Rodgers also noted that despite his preference for getting to the studio before the artist, Madonna beat him there every time.
“I kept thinking, ‘I’m going to ask you today and I hope you’ll tell me the truth: did you call my building and figure out what time I was leaving?’ I could never get to the f—ing studio before her!” he said. “I wasn’t late, but she was so ambitious and dedicated to the work process she would get there before me every day, and she would say, ‘Time is money and money is mine.’”
Madonna explained that she “wanted to hear everything and I wanted to be there for all of it.”
In addition to his work with Madonna, Rodgers has collaborated with artists including David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Coldplay, Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé.
With reporting by Mariel Turner
