Ne-Yo on Curating Artistry & Loving Michael Bolton

Ne-Yo is a busy man, and for the prodigious singer/songwriter, Labor Day is just another Monday. He’s busy writing songs for New Kids on the Block, Monica, and Michael Bolton. Yep -- the man who’s shaking up dance floors with “Closer” is working with flaxen-haired, saxy-tooting Michael Bolton. Plus, he’s busy promoting his new album Year of the Gentleman. But regardless of his hectic schedule, the suave crooner set aside some time (10 minutes!) to chat about his cool people, romance, and yet another venture he’s undertaken: curating Hennessy Artistry.

What's up with you and NKOTB?
You know what’s cool. They’re New Kids on the Block, not old guys trying to bring it back. They still have their swag about them. It’s a different swag from when they were younger but they still swag all the same. They definitely look like they know what they’re doing.

Tell me about the song you wrote for them, “Single.”
Basically it’s for all the single ladies in the club who are arguing with their boyfriends. What I’m saying is that, for the next three and a half minutes, which is how long the song is, just pretend that I’m your boyfriend. So if you’re single, you don’t have to be tonight. I’ll be your boyfriend, or at least until the song ends.

How do you come up with your ideas?
I don’t know. It’s the way that I think. I’m somewhat of a romantic.

What’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever done for somebody?
I had a girlfriend, and Valentine’s Day came around. I didn’t have any money, no money for anything except for what you can buy at 7-Eleven. Her favorite candy was peanut M&Ms, so I bought a huge bag, gave her that, and made her a card. What I did was I took the colors of the M&Ms, and I wrote a little poem about every color—like yellow matches your hair, red represents that, and she really dug it.

That is adorable and very, very romantic.
Thank you very much. It’s not about the quantity. It’s not about how much you do, it’s about what you do.

I’ve actually met you before, at the Wrigley’s Spearmint Press Conference.
Which one were you?

Well, I know you kind of run the line, so I doubt you remember me. I was the petite Filipino at the very end.
Did you smile at me?

Probably. Who doesn’t smile at you? How is Big Red coming along?
It was cool. All I did at the press conference was go onstage and introduce the jingle that I wrote, and everyone was like, “Oh you did a great job!” A great job? I didn’t do anything!’ Did you stick around for the performance?

I did watch the show, and I have a funny story I can tell you later on if you have time. It was a lot of fun and exciting to meet you, Chris Brown, and Julianne Hough. She’s so cute with her cowboy boots and whatnot.
Yeah, she’s cool people.

Who are the cool people you’re hanging out with these days?
I went to see Janelle Monet in LA at the Viper Room with Brandon T. Jackson, who’s in the Tropic Thunder movie. Later on that night, we hung out with Diddy at Coco de Ville. I guess that’s the spot to go out in LA now, or that’s what they told me. I just got out of the studio with Monica, she’s working on a new album. I think her and Keyshia Cole are going to do something together. Just recently, I’ve been in touch with Michael Bolton of all people.

Michael Bolton?!
Michael Bolton. And you know what? He’s really, really cool and down to earth. I expected him to be otherwise. When you work with people who have been in the game for a while, you’ve got to grade them on a curve. They’ve been in the game for so long that they expect certain treatment. But he was a regular person.

Tell me a little bit about Hennessy Artistry and how you got involved with the project.
Hennessy is one of the coolest cognacs out there because you can go to dinner and find it there, or you can go to a club and find it there too. It’s a cognac that knows how to toe the line: It’s diverse. My album, Year of the Gentleman, is all about the diversities of a gentleman. Being that cat who can party with anybody and everybody. It just makes perfect sense to take Hennessy and Ne-Yo and put us together. It’s going to be a cool situation.

And you’re curating, as in choosing the performers?
To a degree, yes.

Can you describe the vibe?
There’s no specific style of music we wanted to go with. Since Hennessy represents diversity, we needed the selection to be diverse. So we have a rock band, rappers, singers, R&B, a little bit of everything.

Will you be performing or are you just curating?
I may get up there and do a couple of cuts. Depends on how good I feel that night. We’ll see what happens.