When last we checked in with David Foster, the Grammy-winning producer was caught on camera calling his 34-years-younger wife Katharine McPhee “fat” when she first appeared as a contestant on American Idol (where he was a behind-the-scenes mentor). I wonder what he’d call Betty Boop’s figure, the voluptuous Fleischer Studios cartoon character from the 1930s. Foster has written the music for a new Broadway show based on the foxy vixen, Boop! The Musical, that’s playing now. So Foster is doing some press for Boop!, including a new interview with the Wall Street Journal. When WSJ asked about Foster’s exercise habits, Foster revealed that a good chunk of his fitness comes down to his taking the stairs everywhere — he’s afraid of elevators! To the point where he’ll walk up 65 flights to a hotel pool. For the sake of the other swimmers, I hope Foster was able to shower post-climb and pre-dip. He shared even more about his elevator phobia:
David Foster is so afraid of elevators that he can only remember being in five of them as an adult.
The 75-year-old music producer, who is a 16-time Grammy winner, opened up about his fear of elevators after being asked about his workout routine.
“I try to go to the gym three times a week. Also, I literally never take an elevator. It’s claustrophobia. I’ve been in an elevator five times in my adult life. Three of those were for surgeries in the hospital. I was drugged so it was OK,” David told the Wall Street Journal.
David revealed one incredible story about why he went in an elevator.
He said, “The other two times were extraordinary circumstances. One was with Pavarotti and his 20th floor place in New York. I was working with him and Celine [Dion] on a duet and then the wine’s flowing, everybody’s drinking and I said, ‘I’m leaving now,’ and I started to go for the stairs. And he goes, ‘No. Today you don’t, today you take the elevator.’”
“He gets in this little elevator with a little seat in it. He sits down, he grabs me, he pulls me onto his lap, and he sings ‘Ave Maria’ in my f—ing ears so loud. I mean, Pavarotti’s singing to me all the way down. Anyway, to answer the question about exercise, I’ve taken millions of stairs in my life,” David said.
David also talked about walking up 65 flights of stairs so he could use the swimming pool at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands.
“There’s this place in Singapore called the Marina Bay Sands. We were staying there while shooting Asia’s Got Talent [in 2015]. From time to time I wanted to go to the pool, so I would walk up the 65 flights to get to the pool,” he said.
I may not be a big fan of the man, but that is a great story Foster tells about being serenaded by Pavarotti as a distraction/sedative for a 20-flight elevator ride. He should write a song about it! At age 75, I’m assuming Foster has already tried all the therapy he wishes to in terms of tackling this particular phobia, and they either didn’t work or he’s decided, “Hey, it’s good for my heart.” 65 flights, though, is just crazy. My only frame of reference is when I was living on the 15th floor of a building in Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. (Technically it was the 14th floor, because it was a superstitious building that had no floor 13. Seriously.) So Sandy cut our power and I had to haul my ass up those stairs, guided by the super with a flashlight, whereupon I packed a bag of essentials and immediately hot-footed it to my aunt uptown who still had electricity. Those 14 flights were plenty for me, thankyouverymuch, and that was when I was in better shape. And, not for nothing, isn’t Foster rich enough that he could’ve helicoptered his way up the building? I mean, what are those song royalties for anyway?!
Photos credit: IMAGO/Jennifer Bloc/Avalon and Faye’s Vision/Cover Images