Buble shifts gears after son’s cancer battle
Michael Buble faced his darkest days as a parent when he watched his young son battle cancer, but the singer says living through the experience gave him a renewed perspective on what’s important.
Whether it’s his family or his music career, the 43-year-old singer appears to have found a higher meaning in all corners of his life.
“Everything I’m doing now is because I get to wake up every morning and just enjoy the moment,” the four-time Grammy winner said in a phone interview.
“It sounds New Agey, but it’s not. It’s how I’ve chosen to attack my life.”
Buble expressed his newfound appreciation many times during a conversation from his Vancouver home. When he jumped on the phone, his kids could be heard playing in the background, though eventually he ducked into the laundry room for a moment of quiet.
The chart-topping crooner talked about falling into a period of disillusionment with the music industry and critics, a sentiment that suddenly became meaningless with his son’s diagnosis. In 2016, he sidelined a publicity tour to focus solely on the boy’s hospital treatment.
It was a painful experience for his family and something that Buble still isn’t ready to discuss in much detail.
When he appeared on a segment of James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke this month the singer told the host he’s “not OK” and still finds it “painful to talk about.”
With his family a few rooms away, Buble is focused on staying positive while he talks about his new album.
“I’ve got no room in my heart for any kind of negativity or cynicism,” he said.
“I made a very conscious decision to step away from all those things.”
And Buble has plenty to celebrate in his life anyway.
His son Noah, now five years old, has gone through cancer treatment and is in remission. He’s also recently started attending Kindergarten.
In July, Buble and his wife, Luisana Lopilato, welcomed their third child, a baby girl.
All of this good news almost makes Buble’s return to music feel like an afterthought – and in many ways it kind of was. His new album, titled Love but spelled with an emoji instead of the word, wasn’t always a guarantee.
Before Noah’s diagnosis, Buble was in the midst of a personal crisis. Some of the excitement he once experienced on stage had faded into routine.
While he remembers once feeling “pure bliss” as he sang to crowds, he said those emotions had often devolved into bouts of “fear and ego” that came with a rise to stardom.
“What I thought was people’s perception of me might’ve had a negative impact on me. And I probably stopped enjoying this part of my life,” he said.
“It wasn’t as fulfilling.” After Buble put his career on hold for his family, he wasn’t certain when he’d come back to music. But like most artists he found himself jotting down ideas anyway.
When his life started getting back to normal, he decided to invite band members over to his house for a jam session and rounds of Mario Kart.
“I hadn’t seem them in a long time,” he said. “We just wanted to get drunk, ya know? Drink beers and play video games.”
Between the rounds Buble explained his ideas for a concept album written about finding love again.
“I wanted to explain that it was my romance rekindled with music,” he said.
“I wanted there to be a really strong through line.”
The final album includes Buble covering a selection of classic love songs, including La Vie en Rose and My Funny Valentine, alongside a number of new efforts.
Pop singer Charlie Puth is credited as one of the writers on the lead single Love You Anymore while Buble’s personal touch is all over Forever Now, a poignant and tender ballad written in tribute to Noah. Buble has said he doesn’t intend to perform the song live.
Even Buble’s mentor David Foster temporarily stepped out of retirement from making studio projects for what Buble supposes was a one-off effort. It took the singer prodding him a bit before Foster agreed to make the exception.
“I don’t know that he would’ve come out of retirement for anyone else,” Buble said.
“We both kept saying, ‘I’m so rusty, I haven’t been in here a long time.’ It was really fun to get the rust off and start moving.”
Buble said as he forges the next stage of his career he’s thinking more about what he chooses to “put out into the universe.” He wants whatever he does next to come across as “genuine” and “pure.”
“What I’ve been through and the perspective I have, I think it’s been invigorating in a way,” he said.
“I found that joy again.”
His son Noah, now five years old, has gone through cancer treatment and is in remission.