Michael Buble: Still the Hometown Kid

While so many musicians surround their names with scandal, homegrown talent Michael Bublé has built a reputation based on his charisma and aw-shucks geniality. It seemed especially apparent as he entered a recent media scrum at the Saddledome in Calgary, not with dancing Mounties in tow – as most will remember from his performance at the Olympic Closing Ceremonies last winter – but with his grandfather. It was a memorable entrance at another stop on the road of his Crazy Love tour to promote his album of the same name. The Burnaby native spoke with press about his family, his Argentinean fiancée and, of course, his fans.

Q: Does your grandpa give you any kind of advice on the road?
A: People who know my story will know that he was the guy that, when I was about 16 years old, started taking me out to the night clubs, and he was a professional plumber all his life, so he would do free plumbing gigs for people if they let me get on stage with them. So a lot of free fixing toilets and sinks and all that stuff to get me a chance – and it worked!

Q: Having toured so extensively, you’ve built a pretty wide fan base all around the world. What is the craziest thing a fan’s done for you?
A: Once in a while, you get people storming the stage, or even, I had a guy take a swing at me... he had come to the show to try to, uh, I think he’d come to kill me. Yeah. (laughs) He’d come to kill me. The FBI picked him up though, and I think he kicked out the back of their car... But now I have my grandpa and Barry [grandpa’s best friend] and José [security] to take care of that kind of stuff. (laughs)

Q: You’ve never shied away from being Canadian. What are some of the things about this country you’re excited to show your fiancée?
A: Well... the truth is that I’m a hugely proud Canadian. I’m proud of my culture. I took her to the Olympics and she got to be part of that, and to see the gold medal winning game. It’s funny – there’s a culture shock, for sure, coming from where she’s coming from... we’re this very young country, that’s made up of all of these different cultures that come together, so in any day you can go out and get an incredibly authentic Indian, sushi, German [or] Russian [meal] – I mean, you can get anything...

Q: You travel all over the world. What’s your favourite place to visit, and what’s the thing you miss most about home?
A: I like Australia a lot. I like the Philippines a lot, nice people. South Africa’s a great place. Um, God – I like everywhere... and I think, what I miss about Canada the most is my family. I miss my friends, and, you know, I miss watching hockey on my big screen TV.

Q: You’re hugely popular, especially in the United States, and yet you never see Michael Bublé on TMZ. How do you keep away from the paparazzi?
A: Uh, they get me... I mean I’ve done debaucherous things. Everyone has... but the truth is... I’ll be 35 years old pretty soon, so I’ve gone through most of that stuff... the really wild kind of stuff. My interest now is not to go to a club and get absolutely s***faced – it just isn’t... I’d much rather have friends over for dinner and hang out, listen to music and I don’t know, play Scrabble or something.

Q: How have you adjusted to dealing with the intense amount of attention you get in the media?
A: I have more confidence than I used to have. I used to try too hard, you know? When I got signed, I was 26 years old or something and I would do interviews and I really wanted the person to like me, and... I would probably tell them too much... and as I got a little bit older and I started to realize that not everyone is your friend... I just started to allow myself to just be myself. And not just with interviewers or journalists, but onstage was the same thing... So now I don’t feel like I owe anyone anything... I show up. I do my job. Hopefully I do it well. I do what I’m supposed to do: I sell my tickets, I hopefully give value for the money, I sell my records (you know, make the company happy), make myself happy and go home and live this quiet, really awesome life.

Michael Bublé’s Crazy Love tour continues in Europe, the U.S. and Australia this fall/winter.