Duran Duran has added two more shows to their North American FUTURE PAST TOUR. Grace Jones will join Niles Rodgers & CHIC and Bastille as guests during the band’s stop in Queens, New York on September 22nd. A date in San Diego for August 22nd  at the North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre was also added to the tour. A Los Angeles date will be announced soon. Tickets for the New York and San Diego shows are available April 10th as a VIP presale option until Thursday, April 13th. Those tickets can be purchased at https://duranduran.com/members. General ticket sales will begin on April 14th. Bassist John Taylor said, 

“We could not be more honored and delighted to have Grace Jones join
us for our forthcoming FUTURE PAST New York show. Grace has been a profound influence on
Duran Duran from the beginning, both musically and stylistically. She guested on the Arcadia
project, and we have had a lot of fun with her over the years – now it’s fantastic to finally share a stage with her. Grace Jones completes a dream line-up for this tour, joining us along with Nile Rodgers and CHIC, and Bastille – our friends from the UK. It’s a one-off musical extravaganza, so dress to impress!”

Lead singer Simon Le Bon chimed in about the upcoming dates: 

“It’s remarkable to me that as a band, we are still hitting new milestones, and introducing the sound of DD to new generations of music lovers. We are truly grateful that we get to do what we do on a daily basis, and that we still love our job as much as we did when we started out some four decades ago.”

Last year the English band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and performed at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace. They also released their 15th studio album FUTURE PAST and the complete edition with their cover of David Bowie’s “Five Years” is included.  

Grace Jones’s sixth studio album Living My Life had “Nipple To The Bottle” as its lead single. The reggae and funk-flavored dance track was another collaboration between Jones and rhythm master Sly Dunbar. Jones’s scorn for her immature lover Jean Paul-Goude lit up dance floors and did well on the R&B and dance charts. Goude, who was also her collaborator, photographed the cover with Rob ‘O Connor and the picture became another iconic image for Jones. The singer, model and actress performed “Nipple To The Bottle” in Julien Temple’s 1983 film Its All True. Living My Life did well and became popular again in the ’90s when LL Cool J sampled “My Jamaican Guy” for his ’95 single “Doin It.” On June 10 until June 19th, 2022 Jones will curate the 27th Meltdown Festival in the UK. 

Grace Jones worked with Damon Albarn on the single “Charger” from the 2017 Gorillaz album Humanz. Albarn wanted to collaborate with the “matriarchs” of music to fully represent the idea of the album. He previously worked with what he called the “patriarchs” meaning Ike Turner, Bobby Womack and Ibrahim Ferrer. The recording of “Charger” was described by him as a ‘supernatural experience’ because of Jones’ passion and fierce spontaneity. The song was Jones’ first recording since contributing “Original Beast” to the 2014 soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 1. Albarn’s tame vocals contrasted against Jones’ daunting delivery and a beat governed by a fuzzy guitar was a piece of avant-garde pop in line with her dance music legacy. 

Jones has spent the past four decades as a fashion and music icon having released 10 albums, appearing in movies and a career as a model.  In 2017, the documentary Grace Jones: Bloodlight & Bami came out and in 2018 she received the Order Of Jamaica. 

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Grace Jones’ Nightclubbing album changed her status from an underground disco artist and successful fashion model to an innovative pop music icon. It was her fifth album after releasing projects that made her a revered disco queen at New York City’s Studio 54 and Paradise Garage. Island Records founder Chris Blackwell produced Nightclubbing with Alex Sadkin and put her back in the studio with Sly and Robbie. They had already incorporated reggae into her music on the Warm Leatherette album and that era was also the time she debuted her androgynous style and signature box haircut. “Pull Up To The Bumper” was recorded during the Warm Leatherette sessions but Blackwell did not add to the album because its R&B sound did not fit with the other songs. Jones co-wrote “Pull Up To The Bumper” with Kookoo Baya (Sly and Robbie) and Dana Manno. The lyrics were provocative despite Jones telling Q magazine in 2008 that sex was never the intention. Some radio stations refused to play the song for that reason but it was also a Black radio breakthrough because mainstream R&B audiences were not familiar with her. “Pull Up To The Bumper” was an international hit and made Nightclubbing her most popular record. The combination of R&B, reggae and dance music influences along with her singular look soon had musicians and fashion followers copying her style. Jones had one of the most important and accessible songs of 1981. Jones continued to innovate musically with the subsequent Living My Life and Slave To The Rhythm albums. Her contributions to music, film and fashion are the focus of the current documentary Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami.