Bernard Fowler has toured and recorded with the Rolling Stones for 36 years. Fowler will perform during the Maui Music & Food Experience on Aug. 15-16 at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa. Courtesy photo

A backing singer with the Rolling Stones for 36 years, Bernard Fowler will headline the second annual Maui Music & Food Experience at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa.

With a celebrated career that has included recording and touring with an array of artists from Herbie Hancock, Alice Cooper and Philip Glass to Duran Duran, Bootsy Collins, Yoko Ono and Sly & Robbie, he will perform with a special group formed for the occasion called Mongoose including Chicago-based musician Nicholas Tremulis and Lahaina ukulele player Naiwi Teruya, who was mentored by Willie K.

Having jammed with Teruya a couple of months ago in Kapalua, Fowler was blown away by his talent. “I’d never seen anyone play ukulele like that, with guitar pedals and what have you,” Fowler marveled.

As far as Mongoose’s repertoire, he said, “We’ll do a little blues, a little rock, a little soul.”

One of the highlights of his Maui performance last year was a terrific cover of the Stone’s “Wild Horses.”

“Maybe we could throw that in,” he added.

As a teaser for the Hyatt shows, Fowler will also perform with Mongoose at the Ocean Vodka Farm on Aug. 10.

Having such a lengthy association with the Rolling Stones, it’s remarkable that when Fowler was growing up in New York, the first album his father bought him was the Stones’ early recording “12 x 5,” released in 1964.

“I was a Stones fan,” he said. “I saw the Stones on Ed Sullivan’s show. I was a huge Chuck Berry fan. My older brother used to laugh at me for doing the duck walk.”

Many years later he toured and recorded with the world’s greatest rock band. “When I think about it, it is pretty incredible, and I started out as just a fan,” he said. “When I was going to college, I had a job in the city, and I ran into Keith Richards in a deli. Some years later, I meet Mick and I end up working with the Stones.”

Fowler was first hired to record backing vocals on Jagger’s debut solo album, “She’s the Boss.” While touring with jazz legend Herbie Hancock, a producer friend called and told him to fly to London. That’s when he met Jagger and sang on tracks that included Hancock and Jeff Beck.

Jagger was obviously impressed with his vocal talent. “Well, here I am still working with them 36 years later,” he noted.

Touring for years with the Stones, he said, “They never play the songs the same. People usually associate that kind of thing with a jazz ensemble. It’s the same stuff, but it’s played differently every night. That keeps it interesting.”

He has also sung on solo albums by Charlie Watts, Keith Richards and Ron Wood. “I produced two records for Ronny Wood,” he explained. “The first one was ‘Slide on This’ and I wrote more than half of the songs on the record. Next record I wrote and produced for him was ‘I Feel Like Playing.'”

Recording with the Stones’ drummer, he said he loved working with Watts.

“I’m forever grateful to Charlie because Charlie gave me the love and confidence for me to sing in a jazz setting,” Fowler said. “Charlie asked me to do it. I had never really done that, although I’d listened to a lot of jazz.”

Fowler has released a few solo albums, calling on esteemed friends to help out. His debut solo, “Friends with Privileges,” featured reimagined covers of Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl” and the Stones’ “Wild Horses,” with Robert Plant, Ivan Neville, Bowie band bassist Carmine Rojas, Wood and Stones bassist Daryl Jones helping.

For his third solo project, “Inside Out,” he took the radical step of re-interpreting Stones’ songs as spoken poetry.

“Something I found interesting was a lot of Stones’ fans didn’t recognize it,” he said. “That was the first time for a lot of Stones fans to hear and understand the words, which I thought was incredible. It was something that I had thought about for a long time. I decided I wouldn’t just make music for the mainstream, but be creative. I had this idea in my head for a while.”

Fowler plays congas with the Stones on tour, and during a sound check, he was practicing when the band’s keyboardist began playing a familiar Stones’ song.

“I started to recite that song’s words, and everybody was coming on stage. Mick came on stage, and after I stopped, he said to me, ‘Bernard, I’ve heard Rolling Stones’ songs done a lot of different ways, but I’ve never heard it done like that.’

“I said to him, ‘That’s cool. After the tour, I’m going to cut this,’ and he said, ‘You should.’ It was really funny because right after Mick said that, Keith walked up to me and said, ‘Make sure to do one of my songs like that.’ Which I thought was funny because every song that’s on the record reads a Jagger/Richards composition.”

A hit at last year’s Maui Music & Food Experience, Fowler is looking forward to performing again at the benefit. “I appreciate Nick (Tremulis) asking me to come and (founder Gary Grube) for calling me and asking me to return. I love what they’re doing. It’s such a giving thing. That fire was devastating, so if I can help, if I can give of myself, I will do it. It’s all about giving back, especially now. Just a little more love. You can’t give enough love.”

Fowler will perform at the second annual Maui Music & Food Experience at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa on Aug. 15 and 16 in a benefit for the Hua Momona Foundation. Other musicians at the festival include Tremulis, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk with Ernie Isley of the Isley Brothers, Paula Fuga, Kanekoa, Marty Dread and Tavana. One day and two day passes are available at mauimusicandfoodexperience.org.

Fowler will also perform with Mongoose on Aug. 10 at the Ocean Vodka Farm. Jason Arcilla and Payrick Lutz are also on the bill with music starting at 3:30 p.m. Admission is $15. Book online at oceandistillery.com. Proceeds will benefit the Hua Momona Foundation, Kaiser Permanente and the Alzheimer’s Association.