Matt Goss

"There's such a truth to where I am right now," says Matt Goss, a singer who speaks often of truth and reality.

This is notable, and perhaps understandable, because the 41-year-old singer spent much of his life surrounded by things everyday people consider unreal.

Pop stardom. Fashion. Hollywood.

Yet Goss sounds grounded, albeit somber after a split with his 10-year partner, TV personality Daisy Fuentes, as he talks about launching phase two of an attempt to become a Vegas headliner.

"I'm a man that's been up and down," says the British singer who recorded his first album at age 17. "It's always been bittersweet. There's something about being a musician that's a tumultuous ride. That's what allows me to be as composed as I am onstage now, because I really don't care. I believe what I'm doing. It comes from really the most honest, pure place I know.

"I sing every single note from every single piece of my heart."

These are deep words from a man who seems to enjoy a love/hate status in Great Britain roughly comparable to that of Wham!, thanks to his days in a pop band of that era called Bros -- so-named because he shared the spotlight with his twin brother, Luke.

But that was the late '80s. Last fall, Goss was mostly free of that baggage when he and producer Robin Antin (creator of the Pussycat Dolls) attempted to bring back an old-Vegas lounge revue with appropriate swagger in the Palms lounge last fall.

The weekends-only show caught the eye of Caesars Palace president Gary Selesner, who offered to remodel the 165-seat Cleopatra's Barge, the kitschy "floating" lounge that's one of the few remaining vestiges of Caesars' early days.

Despite starting virtually from scratch in Las Vegas, if not the whole United States, "I think the show became a real commodity," Goss says. "It's not just loads of tricks. It's real raw talent."

The most nerve-wracking part, he says, was "going into a small venue and seeing the whites of their eyes and really being on the front line, as it were."

Although, with Pussycat Doll-like dancers choreographed by Antin, it's also "quite a big show in a little room. People don't expect it to be quite the event that it is."

"It's not like everybody knows who Matt Goss is," Antin says. "But all of a sudden, girls were freaking out and throwing their bras and panties up on stage like they did back in the day with Tom Jones," Antin says.

That much, at least, Goss might be used to. Bros was a boy band in the true sense -- they played instruments -- even if that's not obvious in the '80s-pop sheen of their recordings. The group played arenas and charted multiple hits. But major labels called the shots back then and decided not to release their albums in the United States.

The British press is once again writing about Goss, but now seizing on Frank Sinatra comparisons inspired by the Caesars connection, a few classic standards in the set list and Goss' own fashion sensibilities.

"I'm a purist when it comes to singing, because I love real singers," he says. "I don't want to pretend I can't sing. I want to do songs that inspire me melodically."

It's perhaps more fair to say he's not going for "retro crooner" -- as in early Michael Buble or Harry Connick Jr. -- so much as plain "style" in the vein of Justin Timberlake or Sean Combs.

Goss calls his look "good old-fashioned gentleman. I think there's something to be said for it."

"The guy wears suits every day," Antin says. "He walks around in full style, and we really wanted to make the show all about that."

"There is a comparison if you look at Frank," Goss agrees. "I'm intrigued by his life, the fact that he went through hell and back and came back on top even more than he ever imagined."

During the holidays, Goss split with Fuentes amid reports that she had rekindled a previous relationship with Latin pop star Luis Miguel. "Never waste good agony," Goss says now. "I'm definitely writing (songs), and there's going to be a lot of that emotion in shows and stuff.

"When you're going through something in your life, I think you can feel that in your performance. It literally feels healing to me," he says.

"You do have to put the left foot in front of the right foot and say, 'Come what may, this is what I was built to do.' "

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.