Write what you know, Robin Thicke learns

By Mikael Wood

May 12, 2007 12 AM PT

Special to The Times

When it comes to his work, Robin Thicke has a pretty strict quality-control policy in place. “Every time I write a song I’ll play it for my wife,” the 30-year-old R&B; singer explains, smoking a cigarette earlier this week outside a Burbank recording studio. “I’ll sing the first couple lines, and if I start to cry, or she starts to cry, we both know that it’s a special one. It’s almost like if I don’t cry, it’s not a keeper.”

Thicke and his wife, actress Paula Patton, must have done a lot of crying last year: “The Evolution of Robin Thicke,” his 2006 sophomore disc, recently passed the million-sales mark, and the album’s hit single, “Lost Without U,” has become virtually inescapable on the radio. A hushed, bare-bones plea for a lover’s approbation, the song nods to the old-school soul of Al Green (whose “Let’s Stay Together” Thicke often performs), but it also has a fresh, modern feel that makes it stand out from the hyper-colorful clutter on MTV. In a sure sign of its old-meets-new appeal, Thicke -- the son of sitcom star Alan Thicke and singer Gloria Loring -- has sung the tune on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “American Idol,” perhaps the two highest-profile platforms on TV right now.

“ ‘Lost Without U’ was a big buzz record for us,” says Julie Pilat, music director at KIIS-FM (102.7), the Top 40 station whose annual Wango Tango concert today in Irvine has Thicke on the lineup with Kelly Clarkson, Fergie, Ludacris and other contemporary chart-toppers. He’s also headlining shows at the House of Blues in Anaheim and West Hollywood on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. “His music has huge appeal because it’s as real as it gets. When someone speaks the truth, it shines through and connects deeply with the audience.”

Thicke says that truth is what matters most to him.

“Every word on this album is autobiographical,” he says. “My intention was to let people in.” That’s a different approach than he took on his debut, 2003’s “A Beautiful World.” A much more eclectic effort than “Evolution,” Thicke’s first album found the singer dabbling in rock, pop and disco; its first single, “When I Get You Alone,” featured Thicke singing over a sample of Walter Murphy’s mid-’70s curio “A Fifth of Beethoven.”

“That music wasn’t about connecting,” Thicke says. “It was about ‘Look what I can do!’ I wanted to be all things to all people: rockers and hip-hoppers, girls and guys. But I was thinking too much. I wasn’t just making it.”

“A Beautiful World” didn’t sell well, but the album did earn Thicke attention in music-industry circles. “I started getting calls from Pharrell [Williams] and Mary J. Blige and Usher and Lil Wayne,” says Thicke, who had been working as a behind-the-scenes songwriter since he was a teenager. (Scan the credits on early CDs by Brandy and ex-New Kid on the Block Jordan Knight and you’ll find Thicke’s name.) In 2005, Lil Wayne, the New Orleans rapper whom Thicke calls “the best in the business,” remade Thicke’s song “Shooter” as a sly hip-hop duet, which introduced the R&B; whiz to a new audience.

Thicke says that his debut’s disappointing performance, although it stung at the time, actually benefited his new music. He couldn’t afford to pay his band or to rent studio space, he says, so with his wife out of town shooting two movies, he wound up at home alone at the piano.

“Each of the songs on this album came to me in 15 minutes,” Thicke says. “For the first time it wasn’t me saying, ‘I wanna write a song like this.’ The words and the melody just came up from my soul. It was cathartic to have this stuff pour out of me.”

Now that his catharsis is resonating with a larger audience, Thicke says that his goal is to keep the momentum going. He claims he’s taking a break from writing for other artists to concentrate on his own career, though he does allow that he’s been working with Usher on his new album. He’ll also appear on the latest from 50 Cent, due next month. And this summer he’s touring North America as Beyonce’s opening act. “I’m considering going for the title of Hardest Working Man in Show Business,” Thicke says with a laugh.

He might have to.

“We’ve got a long way left to go on this project,” says Jimmy Iovine, the Interscope Records chief who signed Thicke to his first record deal when the singer was 17. “We’re nowhere near finished.”

Robin Thicke

Where: KIIS-FM Wango Tango Pop Music Festival, Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, 8808 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine

When: 5:30 p.m. today

Price: $40 to $199

Contact: (949) 855-8096

Also

Where: House of Blues Anaheim, 1530 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday

Price: $27.50

Contact: (714) 778-2583

Also

Where: House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood