Corey Glover

Corey Glover rocks. His band Living Colour and his band Vice rock. When he’s out on the road playing with Galactic, or singing duets with Danielia Cotton, he rocks as well. And when Corey isn’t rocking, he’s probably knocking out some soulful tunes with his oh-so-powerful powerful voice, or singing in whatever style he feels like.

If you don’t know Corey Glover, here’s a quick rundown: He’s one of the founding members of the rock band Living Colour. The group got off the ground in the late 1980s while Corey was still doing a fair bit of acting. If you check out Oliver Stone’s war epic ‘Platoon,’ you can catch him running around the jungles of Vietnam (actually filmed in the Philippines) with Charlie Sheen, trying not to get shot by Viet Cong.

Living Colour’s first studio album ‘Vivid’ threw the doors wide open as to what a rock band could and could not do with music. While hard rock was this quartet’s meat and potatoes, the men ventured into hip-hop, urban beats, funk and jazz, and even calypso with tracks like ‘Solace of You.’ The band garnered a Grammy Award for best hard rock album in 1991 for ‘Time’s Up.’

Like most bands, they eventually broke up, and individual members set off to work on their own projects. Corey kept busy with his solo album 'Hymns' and guest spots on other records. He even played Judas Iscariot to Ted Neely’s Jesus Christ in the rock opera ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’ By the time he took that part, Living Colour had already reformed.

I first heard Living Colour when I was still an adolescent. For a boy raised on a steady diet of Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Peter Paul and Mary and Smetana (I had an eclectic upbringing), I had a hard time making it through the 80s hair bands. Living Colour was a godsend. Here were some real musicians who knew how to put a song together, and a disciplined, yet somehow wildly out of control singer who could bring it all home.

Okay, enough of the history lesson…

Corey’s talent lies in his ability to infuse sublime beauty into songs as gentle as ‘Nothingness,’ and then switch gears and tear the roof off the house and send it into the stratosphere with acoustic/hard rock numbers like ‘Last Temptation,’ or the stomp-your-head-in ‘Desperate People.’

I’ve seen Living Colour live several times, and they always put on an earth-shattering performance. When I caught the band in Prague a few years back, Corey was seriously ill. He came onto stage and could barely speak. He’d lost his voice and wouldn’t be able to sing that night. After he’d apologized profusely in a raspy whisper, he left, and the band rocked on.

To my amazement, Corey returned a little while later and sang ‘Love Rears it’s Ugly Head.’ He was almost in tears by the end of the song because of the pain it had obviously caused his voice. The crowd really appreciated his efforts. Then he surprised everyone again when he reappeared for the finale and belted out the thundering ‘Cult of Personality,’ probably ripping his vocal cords to shreds. He demonstrated true dedication to his craft, love for music, and love for his fans.

Corey is preparing a follow up to his solo album ‘Hymns.’ He likes to try out different styles of music, and his influences vary widely, so you never know what direction he’ll take next. No matter what he comes up with, I suspect it will be damn impressive.