After 27 years of making music, Nile Rodgers is as busy as ever. He is producing the reunion album from Duran Duran. He is setting up Brit soul sensation Joss Stone's live set. But Rodgers is most excited about bringing back Chic, the premiere band of the disco era and forerunners of hip-hop with hits such as "Good Times" and "Dance, Dance, Dance." (The band plays Westbury Music Fair Friday.) In between trading computer messages with Diana Ross, whom he's helping with her European tour, Rodgers tells pop music writer Glenn Gamboa why he's getting his "Le Freak" on once again.

Are you ready for the tour?
We get ready as soon as they say, "Ladies and gentlemen, Chic!" It's almost automatic. I don't want to make it sound like we don't take it seriously. But the truth of the matter is that Chic is such a good band - I don't want this to sound wrong - that we almost wish we'd mess up. It's so wonderful to have such high-quality musicians onstage with me. It's a party. We have the time of our lives.

How does it compare to the old days? Is it more fun now?
In a weird way it's more fun because people appreciate it more. As the songs sort of age, like vintage wine, the people, I think, get more crazy when they hear the music. They freak out more. This past year in Sweden there were a bunch of girls in the front, and they started to undress. Now, maybe this was Sweden, but I'd never seen anything like this before at a Chic concert. The next thing I knew I had these three naked girls in the front row screaming my name. I was so embarrassed I started throwing their clothes back. The range of our audience has really increased. I look out at the audience and I say, "Wow! Look at all those people over 40!" and then I think, "Yo, dude, you're over 40, so that's all right." We were down in Florida for a week, and there was this one couple - I hate to call them elderly, but I know they were retired and they were considerably older than I am. They were in the audience for every show, and they sang every song. At the end, we were inviting them onstage to sing, and he was, like, "Everybody dance!" And he and his wife were doing the Hustle.

I know that when Bernard [Edwards, Chic's bassist and Rodgers' writing and production partner] died [in 1996 of pneumonia immediately after leaving the Budokan stage in Tokyo], you didn't think you would ever tour again. What changed your mind?
Chic is all that I really performed, and without Bernard there was really no reason to do it. Bernard said something to me on the last night of his life that was really profound, but at the time I didn't really make a big deal out of it. At the time, I was, like, "Man, why are you being so heavy? Let's just go out and play." We were at the Budokan and we were looking out at this sold-out crowd, and tears were streaming down his cheeks because Bernard knew that he was really sick, but I didn't know. He said, "Look at this, man. This music is bigger than we are." People don't come to just see Chic. They come to hear the music.

To lose Bernard, I thought there was no way to do this without him. But here's where the Japanese were fantastic to us. They didn't let any time go by. They booked us to play the next year. There was no choice. What was I going to do? Tell all these musicians we would never play this music again? I look at it like this: For the rest of my life, I never have to play another song that I did not write. I can just play the guitar riff and everyone knows what the song is. I don't care how cynical I get, but there's nothing like it to stand at the edge of the stage and go, "Awwww" and have the audience scream back, "Freak out!" When we play "I Want Your Love," in the middle of the song, the band just stops and the crowd just goes on. There's just no better feeling I can think of.

And is that what people can expect when Chic comes to their city?
It's hard to stand back and objectively look at my own show, but I'm gonna go way out on a limb and say that you will hear people say, "This is the most fun I've had ever." I mean, it really is that much fun. If I wasn't on the stage, I'd like to be out in the audience. It's what concerts are supposed to be about. There's fun. There's release. There's a section that makes you think. But mainly, it's music for your soul. It makes you feel good.