'Ambassador Of Love' Philip Michael Thomas Doesn't Mind All The Attention

[Pink Flaming0]

[h=5]By JONATHAN TAKIFF, Daily News Staff Writer[/h] Posted: August 23, 1988 When Ricardo Tubbs and his entourage of managers, private photographer and bodyguard sweep into a newspaper office to promote "Somebody," his new record album, all work stops. Heads turn uniformly in his direction. Mouths drop slack in wonder. Tongues begin to wag: "Isn't that the guy from 'Miami Vice?' " Brave women rush forward waving cameras and begging autographs. The newspaper's security forces - after reserving one whole elevator just for the star - hover protectively, watching the entrances as if they've got a presidental candidate on their hands. "In a way, I do feel like I'm a statesman," suggests Philip Michael Thomas, the cool man Tubbs of TV's trend-setting detective show "Miami Vice" and proud object of all the attention. "When I first went to the White House a few years ago, it struck me that the ambassadors I got to meet have the best of both worlds. They get to do what they love and meet people who also do what they love. Ambassadors can exchange music, ideas and culture. And being a successful artist is much the same thing. You get to go to different cities, meet all kinds of people, feel the positive feedback for the work you do. Yeah, I feel like an ambassador of love." Even on a blazing summer day, Thomas is immaculately attired in an Italian- cut gray silk suit, long-sleeved white shirt, purple tie, heavy gold Ebel watch and low-cut loafers. His face is rosy from makeup, applied in a newspaper men's room for an unexpected photo session. But he breaks from the TV image in the photo studio, crooning a lightly inspirational ballad in his lilting, youthful tenor voice. The 39-year-old Thomas is a teen-ager again - harking back to his youth as a singing Pentecostal preacher and Masonic hall talent contest winner, a sweet soul crooner reminiscent of Frankie Lymon and Jesse Belvin, a kid who could ''make the women cry" with his sound. "Everything happens in its own time. It's all written in the stars," he sings. "Everything happens in its own time. For everything there's a season, a reason and a rhyme . . . ." Later, poised on a couch for an interview, the star shows he's relaxed (and in excellent physical shape) by sitting for a very long time with his legs folded and pulled up tight under his torso, yoga style. And he lays out a lot more of the Philosophy According to Philip Michael Thomas. Clearly, this is one guy who has thoroughly rationalized his immense success, who feels (to borrow one of his song titles) "Cosmic Free," destined for greatness. "It's been years since my preaching days, since I studied comparative religion and philosophy at college. But I still get a real good vibration every morning from reading the Psalms," he says. "They've got a rhythmic thing I'm into. Did you know, they were originally intended to be sung?" Six years ago, Thomas first tried his hand at writing with a small book of aphorisms, modestly titled "Perfect Moment of Truth Sayings by Philip Michael Thomas." Ask for a sample, and he'll gladly give you several. "The fragrance of the rose never leaves the hand of the giver," he intones poetically, with that clipped accent that we used to think was West Indian, not Ohio and California. "If you love anything enough, it will give up all its secrets . . . When we're being each others complement, there's no need to supplement . . . Mind your own business, own your own business, know your own business." "These are things that have encouraged me to encourage other people to be somebody," Thomas says. This star also says he "matriculates into higher consciousness" through pyramid power. He sang most of the vocals for his "Somebody" album in the pyramid-shaped Grand Throne Room of his Spaceship Recording Studio in Miami, and "felt all this incredible energy. Yeah, pyramid power really works." Still, he claims, he's no space cadet. Thomas doesn't drink, smoke or do any drugs. The only Miami vice that he's willing to admit is the million bucks he's thrown into his music career in the last four years, in the 24-track studio "filled with goodies" he's established in one of Miami's old Art-Deco theaters, and in the two albums worth of "beautiful, forever kind of music" he's recorded with some of the finest soul producers and songwriters that money can buy. "Somebody" features production by Earl Toon Jr. and Amir Bayyan (of Kool and the Gang fame), Alan Glass and Preston Glass (who've worked with Whitney Houston, Jennifer Holliday and many others) and Ashford and Simpson, whose bouncy "Love Strikes Again" is a "Somebody" standout. I'm also partial to the Glasses romantic "Love Brought Us Here Tonight," the finger-popping "Don't Make Promises" and Thomas's duet with Argentine singer Lucia Galan on the lush "Ever and Forever." "We used real strings on that one," he says. "It's so luxurious sounding." Thomas admits he's taken some heat (as has his partner in TV crime, Don Johnson) for capitalizing on his TV fame to develop a music career. "But the fact is that I started out singing, in Broadway shows like "Hair" and "No Place to Be Somebody" and "The Making of the President" - which tried out in Philadelphia in 1972. That was before I got into the movies, long before the TV show came along. "Yes, the first album ('Living the Book of My Life') was a learning experience for me and for the record company. But with this second album, I feel like it's all coming together. Radio programmers tell me we've got a solid hit, that it's really going to take off. "As for any speculation I'm in some kind of contest with Don over the music, all I can say is we came to complete, not to compete, ha, ha. Yeah, that's a good one for your column." Thomas says the recently ended writers' strike has been good and bad for his career. It's given him time go out and promote "Somebody" in nine cities, but has stymied his acting career. "I would have had the 'Adam Clayton Powell Story' in the can, completed, by now. That's just one of the projects I've got pending. There's also talk of doing a 'Sparkle II,' with Irene Cara. I'm getting movie offers all the time, from all over the world." "Miami Vice" resumes production for its fifth season Sept. 15. Will the series continue its trend toward social statement and away from the heavy drug-smuggling focus of the early years? "Who knows?" Thomas says with a laugh. "I don't get involved in the script writing. I just try and do the best with what they give me, although I must confess sometimes the story strikes me as pretty strange. "So what will be, and who'll be on as special guests will come as much of a surprise to me as it is to you. I can't even tell you if they'll let me work some of my new songs into the show. But I'm sure hoping."