TWO YEARS AGO, Frankie Knuckles graced one of the earliest issues of 5 Magazine, and needless to say we are ecstatic to have him back. One Saturday afternoon, he invited me over to his beautiful home for an interview. Over a delicious home-cooked dinner compliments of the fabulous Frederick Dunson (his manager and co-founder of D/E Entertainment) and FK himself, we chatted about everything from his views on greedy promoters, his bi-annual parties to counteract them, and the value of a really good song.

First of all let me say that I loved you at Smart Bar! I've been going to your parties for a real long time and maybe I saw a few of your regulars, but the rest were these young kids and I thought that was so awesome! Tell me what you thought about that party.

The whole thing came together last minute. Red Bull was in Chicago and at the very last minute they called to see if I was going to be in town. They've been trying to get me to do it for the last ten years, but I was never available. After everything had been set up they said, "Who would you like to play with you?" and I was like "Ralphi [Rosario]."

They called my office to ask me the Wednesday before, everything was confirmed on Friday, they did a blast over the course of the weekend and text messages on Monday, and that place was packed on Wednesday!

Wasn't that such a blast?

It was great! I totally enjoyed it! Joe Shanahan and I are very old friends, I remember when he first opened that place.

Have you ever played there before?

Yeah, I played there when it first opened!

It just felt like such a different vibe seeing a whole different crowd enjoy you.

Well I'm going to tell you there was nothing but silhouettes in front of me from what I saw, so it's not like a party of my own where I make sure I'm at least able to see people's faces.

And do you like that? Being able to see people's faces?

Well yeah, I like being close to the crowd. But it's not the kind of thing where I want people to include me in everything that they're doing. Some people think, "Well just because he's there I'll hold a conversation with him!"... "You know, sweetheart, I'm working." [laughs] I like being close, because I like being close to the energy and being in it. I think when I'm most effective is when I'm right under it just like everyone else. Maybe not the average person that comes to parties of mine, but some people that are not used to being in the same room that I'm playing in don't know what that is when I'm that close to the audience. So of course they just want to mosey on up and just hold an in-depth conversation about absolutely nothing, which completely breaks my concentration. I'm not rude and I don't like to tell people, "Look! I can't talk to you! Leave me alone!"

When you hold your bi-annual parties on July 4th and Thanksgiving, do you keep yourself from being booked by other Chicago promoters just to keep those two dates special?

Absolutely. To this day I try to remain some exclusivity here in this city. You have to remember that when I lived here before, I worked for a lot of different people. And the biggest problem I had wasn't so much for me, but for how the crowd was treated. That's the reason why we have these parties. Every promoter that I worked for, they gave the crowd absolutely no respect whatsoever. Basically they just wanted their money, they get herded in and herded out... And when people pay good money to come and see me, they shouldn't be treated that way. And I think that's part of the charm of what happens at my parties, because people feel comfortable. "Frankie's there, we know everything's going to be okay." They know I care enough about them and their environment that I'm going to make sure no funky shit's going to jump off!

How do you ensure that with the venue?

When we go into any of these venues and do our thing, they just step aside, leave us alone and let us run it.

Even the bouncers?

Well I usually have to have a talk with them. It's a very simple talk. I tell the them, "Look, you guys don't have to exercise any kind of muscle with this crowd because these people only have one focus coming through that door and that's what's coming out of those speakers. They're not here to hurt nobody, they're not looking for any bullshit - it's not that kind of party. These people are all of the same mindset when they come in. You guys are big and menacing enough as it is, you don't have to throw your weight around nor get ugly and mean, you can just relax! This is going to be the easiest night you ever had!"

Some clubs you go to the bouncers are ugly at the door and they're ugly all throughout the party! I don't call it a party when you have to go through all that bullshit just to get inside, and then even more when you're there. And then they want to take your money from you, too!

When these club owners and promoters ask me to play, I say that I would sooner stand in front of your club and set up my own sound system and play for people on the street to keep them from having to go through all that again. In this life and in this business, you only get one opportunity to show yourself right. You can't ask people to spend that kind of money and treat them like that. It's not fair and it's not right!

I like going to your parties. I like that you personally greet people at the door, I like that Frederick is greeting people at the door. You guys give t-shirts away - it's very personable.

Well, you know we don't make money from these events. It's never about us making money. Frederick would ask, "Why are we giving this stuff away?!" And I would say "Because we can!" Then he'll be like, "Okay!" [laughs]

Let's talk about what you're working on currently. You're doing something with Terisa Griffin?

I just did a remix on "Sunshine" and we did a party together last night. We're getting ready to do an album together.

What is going on with Noice Music right now?

Well I had to suspend everything for a little while because of being ill, and I couldn't focus on it because I just had too many personal problems that I had to deal with. But it's about to bounce back because I've been working on new stuff already. I'm going to finally finish Jamie [Principle]'s album and get that done, and this stuff with Terisa as well. I also have this song I just finished doing with the Shapeshifters called "The Ones You Love" and it's probably going out on Defected.

I've got some people that I'm bringing in to run Noice - some seasoned A&R people. The approach I want with this label is that I want it to be the way old-school labels used to operate, where there actually was artist development. As opposed to taking a full roster of people, I'd rather take one artist at a time and just put all the focus into them. Today, the only way you can have any real success is if they come almost prepackaged. But there's so much other raw talent out here that doesn't know how to do that or doesn't have the ability to do it.