Christopher Cross: 40 years of grief and gratitude

His career was in like a lion and out like a lamb in the lion’s mouth.

For years, pop singer Christopher Cross turned down virtually all interview requests in January or February.

"When they call during that time, you know it's to dig for dirt on the fate of the Grammys," Cross said in 1995, when I called him to find out, basically, how it felt to go from cover band to the top of the music world to the “where are they now?” file in just a few years. The San Antonio native’s self-titled debut LP won five Grammys on Feb. 25, 1981, including the “big four”- best album, record, song and new artist - a feat that wouldn’t be matched until the Billie Eilish sweep of 2020.

Then he won a best original song Oscar the next year for “Arthur’s Theme,” which he co-wrote with Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager. Cross didn’t have the looks of a pop star, but he had the voice and the studio help to build “yacht rock” with the easy listening smashes "Sailing" and “Ride Like the Wind.”

But all the trophies and gold records were wiped out in Cross’s mind by an intense backlash. His career was in like a lion and out like a lamb in the lion’s mouth.

"A reporter from Variety called me up the other day, and he said that the consensus among music journalists is that the two darkest days in the history of the Grammys are when Milli Vanilli won and when I won," said Cross, who recently turned 70. "I just couldn't believe how cruel that comment was."

One reason the singer, who grew up Chris Geppert, talked to the press on the eve of the ‘95 Grammys, was that he had an album coming out on the adult-contemporary label Rhythm Safari in April. Though Cross has maintained some success in Europe and Japan, Window would be his first American release in more than seven years.

Cross also picked up the phone again because "I feel like I'm finally past the shell shock of what happened with the Grammys. To be suddenly thrust into the spotlight and to not be prepared for some of the negative aspects was just so overwhelming." Even before social media, people could be relentlessly cruel.

It didn’t help that one of the songs that “Sailing” beat out was Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York,” a bully strut. Getting the best album over Pink Floyd’s The Wall was cause for double indignity.

Christopher Cross became synonymous with limpness in music, a purveyor of sappy, soulless ear candy. MTV, the music promotion juggernaut that debuted in ‘81, wouldn’t touch the reigning Grammy king with a ten-foot moon man.

He felt people were waiting for him to fail. "There was this pressure to lay the golden egg every time,” he said from his home in Santa Barbara, Calif., “and that's an impossible feat."

Geppert and his band, both of whom adopted the stage name Christopher Cross, didn't have very high hopes when they moved from Austin to Los Angeles in 1979 to record their self-titled album. "We were hoping to maybe have a moderate hit, so we could keep making records," he says. "At the very least, I just wanted an album to give to my mother." Instead, he made a record for everyone’s mom and dad.

After the album was finished, the band even went back to Texas for a while to play cover music at frat parties. "The advance was spent making the record, and we had families to support, so we went back to the way we'd always made money," he said.

After Cross, who'd been marketed as a solo act, struck platinum at the Grammys, the band members suddenly found themselves playing 15,000-seat arenas, even though they had only nine original songs. "It was crazy," he recalled. "Once, in Indianapolis, America opened for us, and just six months earlier we were covering their songs in bars."

The group's copy-band experience was helpful in fleshing out its set, but one oldies medley almost got it thrown off a tour with Fleetwood Mac. "Dennis Wilson was dating Christine McVie, and on his birthday, we ended our set with a Beach Boys medley, which was always our big finale at frat parties," Cross said. "It went over really great with the crowd, but the management for Fleetwood Mac was livid. They thought we'd stolen some of their thunder."

Cross said his biggest regret about the Grammy experience is that he didn't have his whole group up with him at the podium. They recorded the album as a band, after all. "Looking back, that was a character test that I failed, and I'm trying to make up for it."

"I wish it would've happened over a longer period of time, instead of condensed into one year," Cross said. "But, really, I can't complain. I've got my Grammys on my shelf, and I do appreciate them. For that year, my peers voted to honor my work, and I'm proud of that, but I don't really put too much stock in it. If I made those little trophies the basis of my security and existence, then I'd be a fool."

After a near-death experience with Covid, the singer has learned to love the stun of ‘81, celebrating its 40th anniversary with a tour that takes him to the Paramount Theater Nov. 4. Christopher Cross has got his sea legs back and performs the entire first album in a 100-minute set. Wear your flamingo pendants. Limited yacht parking on Ladybird Lake. Thursday night’s gonna ride like the wind.