MANILA, Philippines - Prior to 2006, my familiarity with Rex Smith was confined to his hits Simply Jessie, You Take My Breath Away, Let’s Make a Memory, Forever and Everlasting Love. When I brought him to the Philippines Valentine 2006 for a series of concerts, I was delighted to discover many aspects of his personality together with his lifelong achievements and accolades that I was never aware of. For starters, Rex recorded over 12 albums throughout his recording career as a premium Columbia or CBS (now Sony Music) artist and managed to land eight Top 10 songs in the worldwide charts. He hosted my favorite ’80s TV show Solid Gold with Marilyn Mcoo, appeared in the hit TV series Street Hawk with no less than superstar George Clooney as support actor, guested in Baywatch, Love Boat and played the role of superhero Daredevil in the movie The Incredible Hulk. Rex also played lead roles in the Broadway musicals Grease, Jesus Christ Superstar, West Side Story, Pirates of Penzance, Sunset Blvd. and more.
Because of the success of our 2006 and 2008 concert tours, I decided to do another concert tour in 2009 and we became close as personal friends. We even planned to go into the restaurant business because Rex is also an accomplished chef. His tender barbecued ribs are to-die-for. In fact, we had several meetings with prospective investors and thought of building the flagship restaurant at Greenbelt 3. Alas! the project got shelved.
The big surprise of my life came when he visited my wife at the hospital when she gave birth in the middle of his Valentine 2009 tour. He was the first visitor and I got deeply touched. At the hospital, he insisted on inviting us to visit him in Los Angeles to taste his killer barbecue ribs and treat us to a weekend in Las Vegas. How can I resist? The moment my wife was ready to travel, we visited Rex not only once but twice that same year. On one of the visits, we spent over a week on the road from Hollywood to Carmel to Pebble Beach to San Francisco to Barstow to Las Vegas to Arizona and back to Hollywood with Rex doing all the driving and acting as the tour guide. The highlights of that trip were visiting the sky walk at the Grand Canyon and watching the Beatles’ Love for the fourth time at Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. A few months after we returned to Manila, Rex got married for the third time and hopefully the last to longtime sweetheart and good friend of ours Dr. Tracy Lin. Tracy has been his constant companion in all his Philippine concert tours and is always mistaken for a Filipina because she looks very Filipina. Tracy is of Taiwanese heritage and was born and bred in Los Angeles and could not speak Chinese.
The umpteenth trip to the Philippines will not only be for the concert tour but also the continuation of their never-ending honeymoon. Rex and Tracy will honeymoon in Hawaii before flying to the Philippines for the concert tour then proceed to Singapore to take a cruise on mega ship SS Virgo for the continuation of the honeymoon. One personal note about Rex: He personally chooses Tracy’s sexy underwear at Victoria’s Secret.