Stephen Bishop talks Yacht Rock, his farewell tour and the song that gets his young son to calm down
The singer, songwriter is celebrating 50 years of his debut album, "Careless"
LOS ANGELES -- Stephen Bishop has a lot to celebrate right now.
The singer, songwriter's debut album "Careless" turns 50 this year and he released a special vinyl version, which features Art Garfunkel, Eric Clapton and Chaka Khan. And he just stepped back onto the stage after a seven-year hiatus.
"I'm feeling good. I feel like it'll be a happening thing," Bishop told On The Red Carpet just before his performance in downtown Los Angeles. "I played here seven years ago. That's the last gig I did."
Bishop started writing songs at age 13 and cites the Beatles as his main inspiration. At 17, he got a job at a publishing house and got his big break when Art Garfunkel recorded two of Bishop's songs for his album "Breakaway."
Bishop got a recording deal in 1976 and released his first album, "Careless" and the song "On and On" became a huge hit. He's written songs for Barbra Streisand, Phil Collins and in 1986, he was nominated for an Oscar for "Separate Lives," the song he wrote for the movie, "White Nights."
He's released twenty albums over the course of his career. His final album in 2025 called "THIMK" featured Garfunkel, Sting, Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross, Eric Clapton and more.
Many of those artists, including Bishop, are considered the architects of the "Yacht Rock" genre. The term "Yacht Rock" has been around for about 20 years but the sound itself is from the 1970s to the mid 1980s. And Bishop has thoughts about the term.
"I'd rather be part of 'yacht rock' than 'soft rock.' I hated that term!," he told On the Red Carpet. "Yacht rock sounds good. I like most yacht rock songs."
Bishop will soon be embarking on a Farewell tour which begins in March of next year.
"I'm gonna play the songs that people know and people love, you know, and I'm into it," said Bishop.
One of those songs will definitely be "On and On," which earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal performance in 1978 (he was also nominated for Best New Artist that year). It's a song he says has changed for him since he first recorded it.
"'On and On' is a tricky song to sing. It's just got so many high notes! I wrote it in 1975. So back then I was singing up a storm doing high notes. Now it's a little trickier," he admitted.
But it's the song that tends to calm his two-year old son.
"He likes it when I play my music. He likes when I play songs in live form."
The Stephen Bishop Farewell Tour will take place through October, 2027.
