Lisa Fischer on singing with The Stones, upcoming show with Ranky Tanky
SCOTT FREEMAN OCTOBER 11, 2023
Lisa Fischer’s voice can roar at you with the force of a crossfire hurricane. Yet it also can whisper in your ear with a soft and seductive coo.
She’s the greatest singer you’ve never heard of, even though you’ve heard her voice on countless songs and stages.
She shared the spotlight with Mick Jagger on the epic song “Gimme Shelter” for 25 years of touring with The Rolling Stones. She is the siren’s voice on Sting’s classic “The Hounds of Winter.” She sang with Luther Vandross for 22 years of touring and recording. She scorched the stage with Tina Turner on the legendary singer’s worldwide 50th anniversary tour, stepping out front nightly to duet with Turner on “It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll (But I Like It).”
She even has had her own No. 1 hit as a solo artist, “How Can I Ease The Pain” in 1991, which earned her a Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
Yet Fisher is not a star, at least by conventional terms. And that’s by choice. She had her taste of the spotlight and didn’t like it there. Instead, she has become the preeminent backup singer of her generation. She was featured in the acclaimed documentary 20 Feet From Stardom, which explored the fascinating world of background singers.
Fischer performs at the Rialto Center for the Arts Saturday night with the roots band Ranky Tanky — the two-time Grammy Award-winning group based out of the Gullah community in and around Charleston. The name is a Gullah expression that roughly translates to “get funky,” an apt description of the band.
It is an association born out of mutual admiration. After opening a concert for Fischer in New York City, the band asked if she wanted to tour with them as a guest artist. She feels a deep connection with Ranky Tanky’s exploration of Gullah music through her family’s deeply Southern roots. “It’s been such a gift for me,” she says. “I feel like I’m on tour with family members or cousins. When you leave their concert, you feel uplifted. That’s what they do. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Singing is her bliss
Fischer is comfortable in her skin as a background singer, and she comes by that naturally.
There is a moment early on in 20 Feet From Stardom where there is a montage of voices from the nearly a dozen people featured in the film, all saying the same thing: “I was a pastor’s daughter.” Fischer is the exception to that rule. She was born in Brooklyn in 1958. Her mother was from Statesboro and both her parents were backup singers in local bands. There often were vocal rehearsals at their apartment.
Fischer says there was no sudden moment as a child when she understood she was a gifted singer. “It was more the realization that I loved doing it, whether I was good or not,” she says during a Zoom interview from her Brooklyn apartment. Fischer is soft-spoken and thoughtful, yet vivacious when she laughs or a memory raises her broad smile. “You don’t know how you sound. As a kid, you’re singing out loud and you’re singing out strong, you’re happy just to make a sound.”
But her talent was obvious, and Fischer attended the High School of Music & Art in Manhattan. “That was the longest walk,” she says with a laugh. “Every morning you’d have to climb a mountain to get to class from the train station. It had these stone stairs, and there was ice and snow. Every day was a challenge just getting to school. But I didn’t care. I just loved it so much.”
Fischer received formal music training at the school. She was taught to sight-read music, learned music theory and how to sing well with others. Then Fischer went to Queens College, where she was mentored by a teacher named Robert White, who would go on to teach at The Juilliard School.
“He was an amazing voice teacher,” she says. “I’d never had a solo voice lesson. He was so kind and so supportive. He would give me free lessons when I didn’t have the money. He just wanted to make sure I had the lessons.”
One of Fischer’s first professional jobs was singing with an incarnation of The Marvelettes, the Motown “girl group” best known for the hit “Please Mr. Postman.” That led to an introduction to Luther Vandross in 1983 and an audition in front of the R&B singer.
“It’s like one of those moments in time that you photograph and it’s in your life forever,” Fischer says. “I still remember where the piano was, the shape of the room.” Vandross put her through a series of exercises to hear her voice and her range. Then came a moment of panic. Vandross said, “If you can dance, you’ve got this gig.”
The problem was, Fischer says she dances with two left feet. But she danced just well enough to earn the job and then stayed with Vandross until his death in 2005. “It was so amazing,” she says. “I love him. I love his laugh. I love his playfulness. I love how his mind works. I love his eye for detail. And the way he loves the people around him. I miss his spirit. When you find someone you want to play in the sandbox with, and it’s fun, you want to hold on forever.”
'Gimme Shelter'
In 1988, Fischer sang backup on Mick Jagger’s solo tour, and, when The Rolling Stones re-formed in 1989 after a long hibernation for a new album and tour, she went on the road with the band as one of three background singers. It was a gig she would hold for the next 25 years. “It was so much fun,” she says with a laugh. “I was, like, where am I?”
Her spotlight moment was always the iconic “Gimme Shelter,” singing the part originally created by Merry Clayton. Fischer says she was a nervous wreck at the first few concerts. “As a background singer, you want to support all the time,” she says. “I’m always conscious of how soft I am, how loud I am, how much energy I’m giving. I want to match the energy and be simmering just under so the lead singer is not having to fight to be over the vocalists. It’s a really delicate balance.”
That balance was thrown completely out of whack by “Gimme Shelter,” where Fischer and Jagger made their interplay a vital part of the performance. “You come out and you feel naked,” she says. “The dynamic has changed and you think: How do I honor The Stones, their history, Merry Clayton’s sound and still be myself? But Mick was really helpful. He gave me notes on what he thought I should do. After a while, the fear went away. When I’d hear Keith (Richards) play the riff, the energy on stage and the whole arena just changed.”
The song became a perennial showstopper on the Stones’ set list. Fischer stalked the stage like Tina Turner and was a perfect foil for Jagger.
“Every night, I’d look into Mick’s eyes, seeing sweat and this whole energy,” she says. “He never does anything twice. He might tap me on the butt, he might push me away, he might spin around — you never know what he’s going to do. At first, that was very nerve-racking. But I let go and enjoyed it. It was the surprise of not knowing where he was going to land, where he was going to go. It was a blast.”
20 feet from stardom
In 1991, Fischer took her own shot at stardom with a solo album that produced a Grammy-winning hit single.
But there was turmoil at her record label and pressure to produce another hit that inhibited creative energy. Fischer says she was not prepared to deal with the off-stage things required of a budding star. She wound up without a record label or a second album. “When I got my deal, I was 29 and they already considered me old,” she says. “When I lost the deal, I thought: Is this how this goes? I kind of like the background singer thing. It’s way more chill.”
Fischer’s association with Ranky Tanky began at a concert in New York City. “This was right before their first Grammy and they opened for me,” she says. “I was watching their sound check and thinking, I should be opening for them. They were so amazing.”
Listening to Fischer talk about how she managed to fit in with a band that already had a strong female lead voice and harmonies is to listen to her talk about how she approaches her role often standing 20 feet away from stardom.
“As a background singer, you’re trained to listen and see where you can best serve the music and the artist,” she says. “Ranky Tanky already had a sound; they didn’t need me. There are times when I sing background and they have the harmonies pretty much covered. So I have to think, what weight of voice do I use? How do I move around without disturbing the beautiful synergy they already have? We rehearsed, and I found my sweet spot.”
That’s her gift. No matter whether it’s Ranky Tanky, The Rolling Stones, Luther Vandross or Tina Turner, Lisa Fischer’s voice always finds the sweet spot.
Scott Freeman is the executive editor of ArtsATL. He is the author of four books, including the bestselling Midnight Riders: The Story of the Allman Brothers Band and Otis! The Otis Redding Story. He has worked as an editor at Atlanta magazine and Creative Loafing. He was a reporter for the Macon Telegraph and News, as well as for The Providence Journal.