Rex Smith on why Pinoy V-Day stands out

MANILA, Philippines - American singer Rex Smith has been to the Philippines nearly a dozen times for concerts, and half of those times were during Valentine’s season.

With that, the voice behind such classic love songs as Simply Jessie, Let’s Make A Memory, Forever, Everlasting Love and You Take My Breath Away, couldn’t help but share his observations about how Pinoys celebrate V-Day. “(Filipinos) really go full-out. In the US, it’s not as cherished as it is here,” he said in a presscon last Friday at the Midas Hotel, the new boutique hotel along Roxas Blvd., which is also the venue of his intimate V-Day concert tonight at 7.

A journalist, in reaction, asked him if it could be because of the breakup or divorce incidence in the US (“that there’s less reason to celebrate”), and he paused for a bit, and then said, “It could be.”

Rex also said, “I’ve been fortunate that music brought me here to discover the Philippines. But you don’t have to be a star to enjoy the spirit of Filipinos. I find them loving. Their openness and kindness, it’s genuine.”

Rex, obviously, has maintained a solid fanbase in the Philippines, given the number of times he’s been brought here for a show in venues like the Big Dome, Hard Rock Café and PICC. This time, it’s the Midas Hotel, and concert promoter Danee Samonte said that the show tonight is practically sold-out.

Rex has been in the business for three decades now. He started out as a teen idol and rocker, “playing sort of Van Halen music, good old rock ’n roll,” as he was first managed by the people that then steered the career of the band Aerosmith.

It was in the mid-’70s when he scored the hits that Pinoys and the romantics elsewhere in the world have come to love and cherish through the years.

To this day, Rex is very much looking and sounding good. “I’m very steeped in melody and in the responsibility of the singer to hit the notes. Currently, I feel better than I was four years ago. It’s because of clean living and children keep me young because a seven-year-old (daughter) won’t make you quit. I always have a dog because a dog makes you get out of the front door. I’m also working, artistically, and when you want to feel necessary in the world, that’s a great tonic,” Rex said.

Other creative pursuits of his were TV and theater gigs, from the daytime drama As The World Turns, to the musical productions of Grease, Sunset Boulevard and Cradle Will Rock.

In his free time, Rex, who underwent culinary studies in Italy, also tends to his garden and enjoys cooking its fresh produce for family and friends.  

He talked a bit about his family. “I’m married to a doctor, she’s Asian, and it’s nice to be married to someone who’s smarter than me,” Rex said with a laugh.

He has an older son who’s doing very well running a lingerie business. But it is his seven-year-old who’s seemingly following in his footsteps. “My seven-year-old daughter wants to be a rocker. She’s got a great, strong voice. And there are instruments all over my home  piano, six guitars, drumset, bass  so if my kids want to jam, I’m ready all the time.”

Rex Smith Live at the Midas Hotel Atrium is presented by Steve O’Neal Productions with Hard Rock Café, San Miguel Corp., Business Mirror, Manila Bulletin, RJ100 FM, Lazer, Taye Drums, Istanbul Cymbals as sponsors.