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Nick Rhodes (born Nicholas James Bates; 8 June 1962) is an English keyboardist and producer, best known as a founding member and the keyboardist of the band Duran Duran. He has also been the only constant member of the group since their 1978 inception.
Rhodes has been involved in several side projects outside of, but related to, Duran Duran: he released an album with Arcadia in 1985 (featuring Duran Duran members Le Bon and Roger Taylor), and recorded and performed as the Devils in 2002 with Stephen Duffy, longtime musical friend and the original lead singer of Duran Duran. In March 2013, he released the TV Mania side project with former Duran Duran guitarist, Warren Cuccurullo.
Born Nicholas Bates, he decided to change his name for aesthetic reasons. The decision was finally made during Duran Duran's first official interview when the journalist asked his name and he made a snap decision based upon options he had been considering, he answered Nick Rhodes and never questioned it again. As the band coalesced into its final line-up in 1979–1980, Duran Duran started playing at a local Birmingham club called the Rum Runner. The club owners became the band's managers, and Rhodes began working at the club as a disc jockey.
Rhodes reportedly owns the Duran Duran name; this was mentioned in the Andy Warhol diaries. In the entry for October 5, 1986, Warhol told his diarist Pat Hackett: "One of the Taylors isn't in the group anymore but Nick owns the name so it's still Duran Duran." (1989). 9780446514262, Warner Books. ISBN 9780446514262 , Andy and Roger Taylor left the band, returning in 2001 to reunite and create the Astronaut album.
The band achieved rapid success, and Rhodes was a driving force throughout. An unschooled musician, he experimented with the sounds his analogue synthesisers were capable of, but shied away from the "novelty" sounds of some other early synth bands. The distinctive warble of "Save a Prayer", the keyboard stabs of "A View to a Kill", and the string sounds of "Come Undone" and "Ordinary World" are some of his most recognisable creations, as well as the futuristic oscillating synth that characterised Duran Duran's self-titled first album. He popularised the Crumar performer on the early records.
Rhodes was also quick to recognise the potential of the music video, and pushed the band to put more effort into their early videos than seemed warranted at the time (before the advent of MTV). Barely twenty when the band hit major stardom, he cultivated an androgynous and sometimes flamboyant image, wore heavy makeup, and changed his hair colour at whim. By the late 1990s, Rhodes had begun writing lyrics for Duran Duran, as well as music. His digitally altered voice is heard on the title track to the 1997 album Medazzaland.
According to Billboard, Duran Duran have sold over 100 million records. They achieved 30 top 40 singles in the UK singles chart (14 of them top 10) and 21 top 40 singles in the US Billboard Hot 100. The band have won numerous awards throughout their career: two Brit Awards including the 2004 award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, two , an MTV Video Music Award for Lifetime Achievement and a Video Visionary Award from the MTV Europe Music Awards. They were also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
In early 1983, he discovered the band Kajagoogoo and co-produced both their debut single "Too Shy" which became a UK no. 1 (prior to any of Duran's singles reaching no. 1) and their debut album White Feathers.
Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo wrote and produced three tracks for the Blondie reunion album in 1996; the tracks were not used, but one song called "Pop Trash Movie" was later recorded by Duran Duran for the 2000 album Pop Trash.
In 2002, Rhodes co-produced and played additional synthesizers in nine tracks of the album Welcome to the Monkey House by the Dandy Warhols. In 2004 he produced British-based pop group Riviera F for their debut EP International Lover, published on Pop Cult/Tape Modern (Rhodes' & Stephen Duffy's label).
In 2006 Rhodes and John Taylor collaborated on the compilation album Only After Dark. In 2011 Rhodes along with Andrew Wyatt and Mark Ronson remixed Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" for the British electronic band's remix compilation . Also in 2011, Rhodes wrote the afterword to the award-winning '80s 7-inch vinyl cover art book Put the Needle on the Record. In March 2013, TV Mania made up of Rhodes and ex-Duran Duran guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, released Bored with Prozac and the Internet?. Throughout the 1990s, Rhodes worked on this side project with Cuccurullo. To support the launch of the project, Rhodes had an exhibition of his photography, BEI INCUBI (Beautiful Nightmares) at the Vinyl Factory in Chelsea, London on 7 March 2013. In 2021, Rhodes collaborated with Stewart Bevan's daughter Wendy Bevan on the series of Astronomia albums.
In 2022, Rhodes collaborated with Rob Crow, Roy Mayorga, Aaron Tanner, and more on a cover of the Residents' song, "Mahogany Wood".
Rhodes, as a former art student, became enamoured with the art world early in his career, making friends with pop-art artist Andy Warhol and the Factory crowd, and attending exhibitions worldwide. At the end of 1984, he released his own book of abstract art photographs called Interference. Many of the photos were displayed at an exhibition at the Hamilton Gallery in London. He continues to showcase photography on occasion, including in British magazines such as Tatler and also occasionally appears at the Cannes International Film Festival.
In November 2011, Rhodes received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts degree from the University of Bedfordshire, for his services to the music industry. Rhodes appears in Burke's Peerage under his second cousin's entry for the family of Lindley-Highfield of Ballumbie Castle, being related to the Highfield family through his paternal grandmother, Irene Lavinia Bates (née Highfield).
Rhodes is a long-time vegetarian, occasionally a Pescetarianism. In a 2012 interview for the official Duran Duran website he cited Italian, Lebanese, and Indian food as his favourites. He moved to central London two years after Duran Duran found success and continues to reside there.
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