apple music essentials billy ocean a journey through the artist's most important songs and the stories behind them billy ocean this is a real treat a chance to be able to get stories and to hear from the the artist himself i'm so grateful we're going to be able to uh travel down this essentials road today good to see you good to see you but the ocean at the age of 10 years old
if my facts are to be believed you moved to the united kingdom that's right at that point did you know in your heart that you wanted to be a musician that you wanted to be an artist that was your life's path i knew that from earlier than 10 years old you know my father was a musician my father used to uh write write calypsos on a guitar and sing them he was like the he was like the local village
entertainer and he used to take me with him so i was sort of um exposed to that sort of thing at the very early age um i knew that's what i wanted to do when i came to england and started seeing like people like the beatles and kids playing guitars and and being on television and and hearing their records on the radio and all that that that inspired me a great deal
to go into a studio and record your first album which was self-titled um how is that experience looking back on it now uh you know having that first taste of the creative space nervous nervous i don't i don't think there's any artist that has has been into recording studio for the first time that is not nervous and also for the first time you're actually hearing really what you sound
like um but at the same time if you if you're learning your trade like i was playing my trade you improve it it's a great time for you to be um improving your singing style if you're if you're learning to write you know you're singing other people's songs other people's songs that they want you to sort of put magic into and the magic isn't there anyway so you sort of develop and learn you
learn it it's a time of apprenticeship to be honest with you we're actually going to with your blessing start this essentials playlist and this show right here with a song taken on your second album city limit which i think is just one of the funkiest things you've ever made which is called stay the night thank you i can only imagine that was a good day when you
recorded that song because it's it's obviously held the test of time every time i go to the studio zayn it's one of the places i actually enjoy myself i enjoy myself on stage as well don't get me wrong you know from from the musical standpoint i draw i enjoy writing songs there's nothing better than when you when you when you you know when you've written a good song
when you've written a good song the buzz you get out of it and you know especially when you're going into the studio to record a song that you consider to be good and then the tracks and everything is laid down and and oh just it's just a such a energetic almost sometimes it's sometimes almost like a spiritual feeling to be honest with you i get happy in the studio once i start writing
things just seem to it's like the place i'm supposed to be you know i can't explain that i just love it there's nothing like writing a good song man honestly and when you record that good song and it's like i know it's like it's like it's like a drug i don't know what it is it's it's you know i you know i mean some people are born to be whatever you're born to be a teacher you're born
to be a doctor i always feel i was born to be a musician i was born to be a musician i've got no doubt about that you know in 1984 you released an album called suddenly couldn't have been a more appropriate album title because after releasing four albums previously suddenly the whole world was listening to billy ocean before we get into the specifics about each of these songs i'd love to
know just how that felt when you realize that all of this work you've been putting in it had reached a tipping point and now you have the number one song in the united states of america oh man that was like really a mixed feeling of fear of feeling of achievement of success but at the end of the day you look at this it's a huge thing because you you're sitting in england
and you're told you're number one in america i mean you can't even imagine that how important was it to you being someone who obviously is very proud of where you were born and wanted wanted to continue as we spoke before about continuing to to increasingly fuse the music of your community and of your environment into pop music and just explain the level of pride you
had that it was a song like caribbean queen they got you the success that you wanted and deserved to come up with something like uh stay the night or caribbean queen was i'm gonna say it was easy but it was almost natural because of the the different influences of music you know i'm a i'm a pop musician you know and pop music is something that has influences of
all different you know kind of music jazz from drastically certain record whatever whatever you feel is right whatever feels good you know we're not we're not in any box you know don't put us in boxes you know we're free agents to make music so people could enjoy themselves you know read ballots be danced music whatever i feel happy doing whatever as long as i've written the song i know i can sing
it and i can form it that's it for me the album was created by you know alongside keith diamond who at the time was one of the most in demand writers and producers in the business um and i wondered if you have a a specific memory i i'll tell you the story from beginning really keith was put to collaborate you know with me by the record company uh the owner of the record uh company
gentleman by the name of clive calder keith stayed by me for a period of time while we were working right a couple of weeks we came up with um two songs lucky man and suddenly and with that clive said america now that is that was like a dream come true true for me because that's something i wanted to do since my initial success in europe i never never had the opportunity and wonder
world how is this going to happen well when i when i met clive calder who was the head of jive and he sent me to america and while we were there i was so excited about the whole thing that that is where that is actually where um caribbean queen was written it was written in america so you had all the american vibe i know them you know especially in new york new york is my favorite place
you know to record so i'm not surprised to have come up with a song like that and working with keith now very he was a very positive you know producer that sort of brought out the best in you great person in the studio to work with he had great ideas to work with the collaboration was really a two and four sort of thing you know me feeling very confident with
this production him telling me roughly how to approach the song leave me feeling good about it and you know that's that's the outcome that's that's what that's what we came up with in the end it's one thing to do at once it's a whole other ball game when you consistently hit the ball out of the park and and so when you went into record love zone and you had the confidence of a hit
record under your belt what were you thinking and and what led you to the place where you made an even bigger pop sounding album than the previous one i think a lot of that had to do with america in truth working with american musicians you know breathing the american air america for me is a land of music whatever else what if whatever you don't like about america one thing you can't
say is america hasn't given us great music great musicians over the years but in truth i was by now listening to a lot of american music tom lumotum was really top of the line so i sat by the piano this day my left hand went and my right hand was was was um you know doing the riff and this melody came to me you run around town like a fool and you think that it's groovy
and chorus one baby love really hurts without you but then i was sort of um i liked it i liked it the left hand's doing the motown thing and then you're looking for the soul on top and and that is really the the architectural blueprint of when the going gets tough except instead of dude but that was the beginning of that song really that idea that was planted in your head and then you had the chance to
write that song i guess in a way that was your tambler motown moment that's what that was my timelap and that that was my um and and the nice thing about that truck is is that um there was there was there's some nice influences in that track in the sense of the producers which was a producer called martin lang i don't know if you heard about matt lang really a rock and roll producer he
produced people like def leopard and foreigner i mean i mean top top top draw top draw producer you know the collaboration with him was things like when the going gets tough love a boy get into my car um sleep much better different different so different sort of thing so you know when to go and get stuff you know was um you know i knew that i knew that when we
when we did it when we were recording it i knew i knew it was it was good i wouldn't say i knew it was a hit because i think that's it that's a strange word to use i knew it was good if you're lucky you get to think of a line that really just establishes the song and lays it all out for you and whatever you put around that line is is going to just embellish everything
that you just said which all is encapsulated in one line and get out of my dreams into my car is that life where were you when you thought of a line like that because that is an absolute copyright song line the idea for that type of cape was um matt lang did that mutland came up with that and i sort of wrote the story around it if you know what i'm saying get out of my dreams get into my car
you know you can that lyric could have gone many ways you know what i'm saying it could have could have gone many ways but um no you it's a it's a beautiful love song it's um it's there's a little bit of spirituality in it as well if people listen carefully you know um less you know i'm doing the right thing so join me in doing the right thing get into my car
it's very rhythmic you can dance to it but there's a rock rocky sort of vibrate which which i like that i like that that influence and all these different influences in the music i've made over the years since that time there i'm now zayn i'm now 70 years old and you know my mother died in 1989 and bef when i had my first success which was love really hurts without you she gave me a bible to read
i never really did much about it until she passed away and during that period during that period i went through a lot of changes mentally you know spiritually etc etc and since then i've been reading my bible you know i read my bible every day because i feel that we have somebody to answer to we have to we're supposed to be here doing good basically in especially in this business we're in
with so many casualties you know the whitney houston's the michael jacksons the prince the mafia you name them it's it's like a list and how do you protect yourself you are the only one that could protect yourself when you close that door at night there's no one in there with you unless you marry you whatever whatever but even then there's nobody inside of you but you
i actually look forward to the next stage in life i'm not saying i want to die tomorrow but i just think that this this journey here isn't is just part of it and the worst part of it too is not the best part of it the best is yet to come billy it has been an incredible conversation today i could keep going but i know our time has come to an end i know fantastic to know that
you were so uh so in love with with music today as much as you were when you first discovered it as a child that is a life well lived and continues to be so so i wish you all the best in everything you do and i i already look forward to the next time we get a chance to speak and i really appreciate this time there's a lot to talk about please i'd love that thank you very much god bless you take care bye you