 Well, welcome to the Ignite Stage at the World Economic Forum for a special conversation with music legend and cultural icon, Niall Rogers, one of the recipients of this year's Crystal Awards, celebrating the achievements of leading artists who are bridge builders and role models for all leaders of society. And frankly, folks, I couldn't be more excited about being on this stage, feeling slightly in awe of my very special guest today, Lafreet. Good times. We are family. I'm coming out. I'm coming out. Let's let's dance and like a virgin and it goes on and on and on. Just a few of the hits that Niall has written and produced, making an indelible mark on our lives. And I think everybody in this room and everybody watching will agree with me they're impacting not only our musical tastes, but also our cultural upbringing. Niall receives this award for his efforts to make the world a more peaceful, equal and inclusive place through his music and also through that, his commitment to fighting systemic racism, inequality and injustice and by basically bringing in innovative youth voices. A motivation to simply do good that has driven Niall to becoming a formidable force in philanthropy. His commitment to making the world a better place through his We Are Family Foundation is a testament to his character and the enduring legacy that he is building beyond the stage and studio. Niall Rogers, congratulations. 71 young and still winning awards. How does it feel, mate? Pretty overwhelming. It's exciting, though. I'll be the first one to say that I never took on this job as a musician to win awards. Believe it or not, all I wanted to do was get one hit record. I guess that plan didn't work. That was when you were, I think your first job was as a musician on Sesame Street. Am I right in saying that? That's right. So it was back in the day that you thought if I get one hit record off the back of that then you'll be made, well listen, only recently you've just won a Grammy, won a lifetime achievement award, you're in the Hall of Fame. It is a remarkable journey and I want to talk about that journey today. You were born and raised in New York, socialised from a young age to care about other people and in the words of your late mum, to treat others the way you wanted to be treated yourself. Just talk about your upbringing. You're joining the Black Panther Party, your grassroots efforts in Manhattan. Talk about how that upbringing shaped who you are today. Well, I'm going to try and make it quick because normally I go on and on. So I had a wonderful childhood even though my parents were both heroin addicts, but they were incredibly loving. They were bohemian to the hilt. So they were immersed in the culture of the time and that was a very culturally rich period. On any given day I could come to my come home to my apartment and find Thelonious Monk or Nina Simone, Miles Davis, just all the cool people in the music business. So just living in that environment, having those type of brains and that kind of love and that kind of spirit around you, you just sort of take that out into the world with you. So back in those days, you know, she said, I'm 71. Ouch. I said 71 young. You have me standing. But the point is, if you picture what the world was like when I was five, six, seven years old, technology was almost primitive compared to the way we live now. So back in those days, I found myself helping a lot of people who were on crutches and who were blind, people in wheelchairs who couldn't, you know, the society. Well, New York City, we didn't even have the nice divot, the scoops there so that you can let the wheelchair down easily. We had to like, you know, rock them back and I'm a little skinny kid. But I did it all the time and that was my kind of life. So I was always involved with, you know, either remedial education programs that would help me or I was working at soup kitchens. I learned how to make pickles from Gus, the pickle king. I would sweep up the floor. I'd sweep up the ground in front of his store. So it was just an amazing childhood. And you said you had a music bed, you know, as part of that upbringing of these incredible characters. Just how much, how important was music to you? It was everything. I used to score my life. So if I were walking down the street, you know, in my head I could hear the music telling me how this scene plays out. So when I finally got a chance to do a film, I was like, I got this. I've been doing this all my life. You know, I walk down the street and go, done, done, done, done, done. And it just was crazy like that because there were so many musicians around, so many great artists from many disciplines. So it just seemed like that was my destiny. I honestly pictured myself when I was seven years old, you know, in a symphony orchestra, hoping that it'd be the American Symphony or the New York Philharmonic. I just could see myself, you know, and I was, I mean, imagine, you're seven years old dreaming that you're going to sit first chair. I want to talk about the music clearly. And then this is a room full of people who, you know, a number of people have come up before we started and just sort of, you know, shown how in awe they are of you. And I know the music's so important. We'll talk about that. I want to talk about the foundation as well because you have put youth at the very heart of the work that you do. I'm a TV person and so I do things in moving pictures. And so with the help of your team, we were able to put together a little video with some of the people who I know have a special place in your heart. Take a look at this. I'm a youth delegate with the We Are Family Foundation. I'm proud to be part of this family started by Nile Rogers. I am absolutely thrilled that World Economic Forum is honoring Nile with the Crystal Award. It's important to be part of such convenings and have a seat and have a seat. You need young people in these rooms because you cannot alienate people from their own decision-making. We're not just doing work now for this decade. We're doing work now for the next century. The value which young people bring is they bring energy, passion and drive. These things should be passed on, not just through dialogue but also action. Helping young leaders or having them in decision-making spaces isn't just a smart thing to do. It's the urgent thing to do. We're here and we're going to be here for a long time. We actually want to participate in shape the agenda. Organizations and nonprofits in every sector cannot afford to miss out on this vital voice. You know who that is. That's just folks a selection of the amazing young leaders who are here in Davos thanks to you, Nile and the We Are Family Foundation. How does that make you feel watching that? You know, I love them. I'm so touched. Just to give you an example of how incredible they are and the work that they do, one of those gentlemen first came to us when he was 15 years old. His village was flooded for the first time in history. They had never seen anything like that. Imagine you have your way of life and he was from the north of England. I guess they were either a farming community or whatever. The crop was lost for the year and he was like, wow, how did that happen? They said, well, this is what's going to happen now due to climate change. Like what is that? They were saying, yeah, the temperature of the planet is changing so we can expect more floods and erratic weather. And he said, well, why aren't they teaching us about this in school? Because school is to prepare you for the rest of your life. That's why you go to school. And he just couldn't understand why they weren't teaching it. So he went down to 10 Downing Street and knocked on the door and eventually he was going to see the Prime Minister. He was that driven. He didn't see the Prime Minister that day but whomever he met with was quite taken with this young 15-year-old. And they listened and eventually he did get to see the Prime Minister and they added climate change to the UK curriculum. And now he's in the UK government. Well, that Prime Minister, as was, who is now the Foreign Minister, is here, David Cameron. That would have been David Cameron back in 2015. That's a remarkable story. And just testament to the work that you do with We Are Family. The Foundation, of course, takes its name from the 1979 song you wrote and produced for Sister Sledge alongside your musical partner, Bernie Edwards. And that song seems to encapsulate the duality of your legacy. A hit song that we all know and dare I say it's a song on various stages around the world in karaoke, but one that also speaks volumes to your belief of the power that music can make and change in people's lives. Let's talk about that relationship that you had with your musical partner, Bernard Edwards. Yeah, well, Bernard was so interesting because if there were two people that were drastically unalike, you can go now Rogers and Bernard Edwards. We were so different. By the time we met, I guess I was about 18 or 19, Bernard had already had three or four kids. I was like, whoa, what are you, what? Yeah, like what's happening here? He had a day job, like wow, a real paycheck every day. That's cool. And I was a sort of hippie, you know, just guitar player for hire, and I did work every day too, but I didn't know who I was going to be working with every day. I'd open my daily planner and it would say go to this studio with this hour, go to this studio here. And Bernard and I, from the first moment we met, we were on one of those jobs where nobody knew each other, right? The band leader just looked in his book and said, oh, this guy plays piano, this guy plays bass, this guy plays guitar. So the guy who played guitar was not me. The guy who he had hired was a great friend of mine. The great friend got a job paying more money, so he gave me this cheaper job. Perfect. Thank God. Had he not given me that cheaper job, I would have never met Bernard. Bernard changed my life. He taught me a style of guitar playing that I didn't really understand. I mean, I had heard it on a lot of records, but it wasn't something that excited me. And anyway, to try and make a long story just a little longer, we were with this group called New York City and we got a hope, we got a hit record in 1973 called I'm Doing Fine Now. I'm doing fine now, ha, did, did, did, did, we thought you baby. So we got a hit record and it was happening. We traveled around the world and we got an opening spot for the Jackson Five and they were going to do their first world tour, but they started it in America. So we did the American leg and anyway, long story, trying to make it short. But anyway, on that tour, we also were doing our own shows and we played a club in Miami Beach and this kid had to borrow my amplifier because we didn't have enough time to change over in a nightclub in a bar. And all of a sudden, he's playing through my gear and he sounds ten times better than me. And it was because of the kind of guitar he was playing and the style of guitar that he was playing. And that's what Bernard had been trying to convince me to do. So while they were playing sounding fantastic and we were playing sounding okay, Bernard was just staring at me like, looks could kill. After that, I've been trying to tell you all these months. So right after that, I went out and bought a Stratocaster which is now called the Hitmaker because that guitar has played on hundreds of thousands. I didn't even know. I mean, because I still like to work all the time. And that's the main guitar I play. And you continue. And the work continues to be as fantastic as it has always been. You've been a pioneer in disco. You contributed to the foundation of hip-hop. Your Grammy Award-winning collaborations with artists like Defunk and Beyoncé. They continue to shape today's music landscape. If you had a favorite to pick, which would it be? People ask me that question, knowing that you can't answer it. This is like... If I said that, I'd right away say to myself, what am I saying? I'm lying to her. What did you enjoy producing, writing and producing most? Probably my first song called Everybody Dance because I didn't know that I was a producer. I thought that I just was the guy who wrote the composer. And then, because I did all the arrangements, everybody was looking to me for notes. So they would say, hey now, at letter A, do we just do that? And I would say, well, yeah, let's try that. I have it written in, but we may not want to use it. We may want to actually just let the bass take it. And then the string players would ask me something else. The horn players would ask me something else. The guy playing the vibraphones would ask me. So I kept saying to Bernard, why is everybody looking at me? The guy who paid for the studio, they should be asking him. And then the guy who paid for the studio looked at me and started asking me questions. He said, well, now you're the producer. I went, oh, really? Okay. So from that first record, that first song that I wrote for Sheik, Everybody Dance, I was a producer. I didn't know it, but I was. And I've produced ever since. How many of you produced? What's the volume of the word? Do you know? No, no. You've got no idea. No, no. If I say it, I know it's a lie. If I said, you know, oh, I've played 500 tracks, I know it's a lie. I can't, you know, it's ridiculous. You know, it's like, when you want facts, when you want absolute facts right down to the number, I have to read them because I honestly, I can't remember. Why would you know? And it doesn't matter. Let's talk to another young person. And we've heard from some here. 16-year-old, Nile Rogers. 16-year-old Nile Rogers. He writes most of what will later become a hit song We Are Family at Woodstock. And he joins the Black Panther Party in that year. Sitting here today, what would you tell him if you could speak to him today? Do everything exactly the way you did it. Because it all somehow worked. If you looked at it on paper as a schematic as to how your life should be wired, it would be completely wrong. Nothing would make sense. The only thing that really made sense was drive and determination, which is why our foundation, We Are Family Foundation backs youth the way we do because that drive and determination is something that it's a power and a force to be reckoned with. Even though I was a skinny little kid, my heart was in such a good place. And I guess my training and my technique, my intellect, whatever, at that time when I was 16 years old, I knew that I wanted to do music. I knew that I wanted to help the community. I wanted to join the organization that was, at that time, seemed like the most effective. So when I joined the Black Panther Party, this was, I mean, you have no idea how amazing it was for my life because the Black Panther Party taught us about business. They taught us how to run a business, which most people don't know. They think of the Black Panthers walking around with guns and fighting cops. Well, that's like two or three days that that happened. Four or five. Basically, we'd get up in the morning and we'd go to the different vendors in our community. And because we understood business, we understood how their shops worked, we would be able to approach them in a way that was beneficial to their business, beneficial to the community, just with dollars and cents. We would say, hey, if you donate it to us, after a while, you'll be able to take a tax write-off. And you also won't have to pay for factory seconds going back, so you actually are doing good on two levels. You're financially doing good for yourself, but look what you're doing for the community and we're going to go around and tell everybody what a great job you're doing. We're going to tell the children that we're feeding. Hey, guess what? Today's breakfast is due to this particular vendor and this guy and Pablo. Everybody knows Pablo. We call him Pablito. He's the man. He gave us the bread. He gave us the sweet potatoes. He gave us the eggs. And that spirit at 16 was already in me because at six, that spirit was in me. And that spirit is in you today. What's next? What's coming up? So when you ask me for statistics and numbers, like I said, I honestly cannot tell you. We have to go to Wikipedia and it'll say, oh, now what is this? He's done this. It's true. Come on, Ashley. I mean, we've played together, God knows. In the most unusual situations. You know, like, oh, yeah, when we were in Switzerland, we went to this little place and played. Yeah, no, but remember we did the thing with John McLaughlin. We should have you up on the stage. She doesn't even remember. What have you got on your list? All right, wait a minute. So what we're doing now, so the reason why we're here and the reason why we have nine delegates from We Are Family Foundation, for over 20 years, We Are Family Foundation has worked with and mentored some of the most incredible young people who are solving global issues. Now we want them to take a seat at decision-making tables. We are family study name. We call it the Collaboration Across Generations. Now let me show you what we did with this study. We went to the University of Vienna. We had, we surveyed over a thousand people from 100 countries. The median age was 31 years old, but they raged in age from 17 to 74, from 57 different industries. Here were the findings of this study. Most people believe intergenerational collaboration is of great value. Look at me, it's 17. I mean, they probably paid me less, but I was definitely great value to Sesame Street. Most people believe that youth have powerful ideas and solutions to global problems. And I believe that with all my heart and soul, because I've always been around young people doing that, I used to be one of them and those people have continued to be my friends for my whole life. And as they got older, they still were doing incredible things for people. And the last point in the survey was most believe organizations do not empower young people to contribute to those ideas. And this is the problem. I mean, I love the fact that this year's model, if you will, is rebuilding trust. So why do people not want young people at the decision-making table? Honestly, I think that they just don't trust. I mean, I'm going to say us now. I'm going to say, because I was one of those young people. They didn't believe that I could write for the New York Philharmonic. They didn't believe that a person like me could take on adult-like responsibilities. I don't think that it was because they would think I was taking their jobs or anything like that. I just think that they didn't believe that I was proficient enough. They didn't believe that I had the technical facility or the knowledge, but I, in fact, did. And it would have been a great example for other kids like me to say, every Monday night, the New York Philharmonic is going to have a young conductor who's 17 years, you know, between the ages of 17 and 25 or something like that. Matter of fact, I'm going to suggest that. That's a great idea. I'm going to go out. You heard it first here. Yeah. I mean, I just made that up on the spot. But, I mean, how cool would that be? Yeah. And, you know, all credits you made. I mean, the work you're doing with the foundation is amazing. You listen to those youngsters. You know, you're changing lives. And, you know, it is, you know, we applaud you for that. Before we close this out, because we've only got five minutes left, anybody in the audience with a question? Oh, come on. Come on. He loves a question. He's going to say, when can you play my next question? Yeah. How do you keep fits at 71? Good. I work like crazy, and I eat very, very healthy. You know, I watch my diet. Look, it's not a secret, but I used to have a big problem with drugs and alcohol. And at 38 years old, I got diabetes. And ever since then, I had to control, you know, the effects of diabetes with what I consumed. And I've been pretty good at it, you know. And also, you know, it keeps me slim, and I look cool on stage. I model for Chanel, which is only women's clothing. But, you know, I fit into the women's clothing. So, and they just renew my contract. So, yeah. I love again. Yes, sir. Keep doing what you do. Absolutely. Please. So, there's lots of powerful people here at Davos. And there's a lot of politicians here as well. And business leaders, and they're often trained in, you know, how to speak in front of an audience, how to captivate people. They would give their right arm to be able to do, to an audience, what you do naturally. And if you could speak to all those business leaders and political leaders, what is it that you know that they don't know? Because you haven't been trained to do that. It comes from your heart. There's a extraordinary sort of positivity that radiates, that's infectious from you. It's beautiful. What is it that you know that they don't know? Great question. Phew. You know what? I always just tell the truth. That's all I do. The reason why it's so easy for me to talk, and I often talk too much, is because I just tell the truth. So, if I were representing a product, so to speak, you know, I play a Fender guitar, I would never tell somebody to buy something that's substandard or something that I didn't believe in, just because they're paying me or because they're saying, you know, whatever. Everything that I do with Chanel is something that I love. I mean, they don't dress me. They ask me what I want to wear, which to me is like, I mean, can you imagine a fashion house like Chanel asking you, no, what would you, what do you think is cool? I think that's cool, Virginia. And that's cool. And you know what? If you make me a suit out of that, that's cool. Is that what you do? Is that what you do? That's exactly what I do. I mean, and it's the same. And I think that everybody's life, and I truly believe this, everybody's life is interesting. Sometimes you just have to dig deep and share the things that you normally feel afraid to share, but being able to share those truths are powerful because well, that's the way that I stop drinking and drugging is just being in rooms, sharing truth, people telling me their stories. And you know, the first night I met David Bowie and he told me that he was sober and I'm like, I've heard these wild stories about you, blah, blah, blah. He said, that was then now darling, this is now. And it was like he was just so open with me. And you know, I remember the first time I went to an AA meeting, I said the loudest voice I ever heard when it came to me getting sober was Eric Clapton's silence because he knew that when I was that drunk and high, I couldn't hear him. So he never even said one word to me. All he did was show me every day, show me what to do, show me what to do. And eventually, bling, I got it. Eric Clapton, we're closing it out with Eric Clapton. Now, Rogers, thank you. Thank you.