Bublé opened up about what his family went through and how Jesus Christ was their strength in the dark times.
Michael Bublé has become a staple in the music industry with his amazing voice and always cheerful attitude. But there is so much more to the singer than his music.
Bublé has faced some personal battles a long the way, and none probably more trying than his son’s fight against cancer.
In 2016, 3-year-old Noah was diagnosed with cancer. Now at 5-years-old he is in remission following surgery and chemotherapy. Bublé still gets very emotional with everything his family has been through the past 2 years.
Everyone loves James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke”. Its just great lighthearted fun with “feel good” vibes felt through the screen.
Bublé’s latest appearance on “The Late Late Show” started off in the usual good fun, but when Corden asked the singer about his son, the car everything became quiet.
“It’s so hard to have to acknowledge it, because it’s so painful to talk about…” Bublé’ said. “We got the diagnosis and that was it… my whole life ended.”
Both Bublé’ and Corden began to get emotional during the conversation. Bublé’ got choked up trying to talk about it.
“Thank you, Jesus Christ,” Bublé said. When asked how he got through it all, Bublé responded in tears.
“…I’m not okay…” he admitted. “When they got it out and the chemo was done and they said, ‘We did it. He’s good. He’s okay.’ I fell, I just fell, and my wife picks me up now.”
He went on talk about about Noah’s love for superheroes like Superman and Spiderman.
“They’re fake,” he said. “They’re not real. You’re a superhero. You’re MY hero. A real superhero.” Bublé said to his son.
That is the moment I started sobbing uncontrollably.
Bublé then urged viewers to call and donate to the “Stand Up To Cancer” telethon.
“You think you’re one little person who can’t change, but all of us can completely, completely make that huge difference,” he said.
The mood of bublé! is joyful, but three years ago, the singer and his family went through an unthinkably dark period when oldest child Noah, then age 3, was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer called hepatoblastoma. Contrary to a widely recirculated erroneous report in Britain’s Daily Mail, Bublé clarifies to Yahoo Entertainment that he did not decide to permanently retire from music at that time, but he did take an open-ended hiatus to focus on what mattered most: his son’s cancer battle. Thankfully, Noah recovered and is now doing well, and Bublé, who returned to music and recently released his 10th studio album, Love, is frank when asked how the entire traumatic experience made him rethink his life, career, and work/life balance.
Below, Bublé gets candid talking about the support he has received from his fans and the media, and why one song that he chose to perform on bublé! now means so much to him.
Is there any song in your repertoire — an original of yours, or a standard that that you cover — that has taken on new meaning for you in light of what your family has been through in recent years?
Michael Bublé:
Yes. It’s not a song I do in concert, but I do it [on the bublé! TV special]: “A Song for You” [by Donny Hathaway]. I think the greatest power in music is that we’re allowed to interpret it. I talk about this a lot, and I talk about it at my shows, because I promised myself I would: When this happened to us, my wife and I were able to step aside from our work to go and take care of our family. And we were surrounded by so many families going through incredibly difficult things, and those families couldn’t afford to do that. And the only reason that I could afford to actually step away from work was because of the [fans]. There’s no way for me truly to express my deepest gratitude towards them. And I don’t know how else to say it; it’s overwhelming to me. I think it’ll be emotional for me for the rest of my life, to stand up in front of all of those strangers in the dark.
So that song, “A Song for You,” is really for your fans now. They have truly been there for you.
Well, they’re not “fans.” I keep saying this over and over again: I don’t think “fan” is a very nice word. There’s a negative connotation. I think it’s short for “fanatical,” and those people that are sitting out there are surely not fanatical. They’re my family. They’re my equals. They’re my saviors, in many ways. Their prayers got us through nights that were impossible. And so the fact that I get to go out and show them my gratitude and my love means a lot to me.
There are a lot of people out there who have been through what your family went through. Do you have any stories of how any of them have reached out to you, or bonded with you, thanked you?
Every single day. There’s no one story. Every single day that I go to the store, every single day that I show up at a new arena, there are people that share touching stories. Honestly, I took the kids to Disney yesterday and we were on the submarine ride. And a woman was sitting next to us, and she was a grandma. She was with her daughter and her granddaughter, and she looked at me and she put her hand on my knee and she said, “I just am so happy for you. You don’t know how much I prayed for you. I prayed for you every day.” And I just looked at her and said, “I love you. You’ll never know how much that means to me — how much it meant to us.”
That’s amazing.
Well, these are just real people, you know? We all go through hard times, and I just think that sort of gave me a real faith in humanity. It’s not just about what we were going through. It was about what we could see happening in the world, you know? There’s a lot of issues. A lot of sadness. A lot of suffering. A lot of negative stuff. And I think for me, coming back to [music], I felt like there was a lot of power that a human being has, and that with my music, maybe I could bring some kind of peace to people — a sort of inspiration, or help somebody get through a tough moment, even if it’s as small as helping somebody just get away for a couple hours. I think that is important. And so I felt like that was kind of something that I could do, to do my part.
Didn’t the doctor who saved your son’s life attend one of your recent concerts? That must have been a very special moment.
Oh, I was so excited that he was there. It meant a lot to me. And it was obviously really emotional for me. It was a magical show, and what’s funny is he told me yesterday there were so many people there, and it was packed. He was going to call Uber [after the concert], but for whatever reason, Uber didn’t recognize the arena. They weren’t coming to get him. He was like, I’m gonna get frickin’ stuck here!” And he told me that all of a sudden, these people stopped and said, “Are you the doctor of Noah?” And he said, “Yeah.” And they said, “Listen, what are you doing?” He said, “I’m waiting for the Uber.” And they said, “No, no, no. The least we can do is drive you!” And they put him in the car and took him back to the hotel.
Aww, that completely illustrates what you were saying earlier about your fans being more than just fans! I can tell you’re getting emotional talking about this.
It’s tough for me, you know? It’s weird. I used to be so stoic. I had so much control. I don’t think I’d ever lost control of my emotions. And now I have no control. I have none! And it’s funny, because people say, “Well, that’s not a bad thing.” But it’s a little scary when you’ve had that control all your life and then all of a sudden, you don’t. It’s a weird, unnerving kind of thing.
How do you channel that new vulnerability into your art, into your music, your performances?
I promised myself, if I had ever got the chance to do this again, that I would just be real. That’s the truth. Over and over again, I said, “Michael, just be real. Just be yourself. And it’s not your business what people think of you. Just be kind. Just be yourself.” And it sounds weird, because sometimes it’s hard to be yourself — especially if you’re worried about what other people think of you, or what critics think, or the internet thinks, or whatever.
You’re not very active on social media.
No, I don’t have social media. I mean, I guess I do, but [other people] run it for me. … I guess ignorance is bliss in some ways. One of those kind of epiphanies that I had the day we found out about Noah was that [social media] didn’t feel good to me. It didn’t feel right. What I wanted to do, really, was just get rid of things that were ego-driven and self-indulgent. I really did. And it got very simple for me after that.
The actual media, though — the press —has rallied around you and your family.
You know, can I be honest? Part of this faith in humanity that I have … it didn’t just come from people and the public. It came from people like you. Because I saw so much tact and control. I didn’t expect to see it. I didn’t expect that so many journalists would be so human. And that, almost as much as anything, gave me this sense of wellness. There was a line that even the worst [people on the internet] didn’t cross. … It meant a lot to us, to my wife and I. The media was so great to us.
Let’s end the interview on a lighter note. You have this special on NBC, your seventh, and you’re good friends with Blake Shelton and have appeared as an adviser on NBC’s The Voice with him. Would you ever consider being a full-time coach on The Voice?
Well, people ask me about that a lot, and they’ve asked me about doing movies and stuff. I’ve had those opportunities, but the truth is, I get to go out internationally and sing in front of 45 or 50 countries. I get to show up to their backyards and be tangible. I get to dance and sing and laugh and cry with them. And I just feel that I don’t want to give that up for being in one place for that long.
