Music is no joke to Jamie Foxx

Remember, if you're into this sort of thing, the after-party for Jamie Foxx's show in Norfolk a few years back? Granby Theater, a gaggle of gorgeous women, great music, cocktails flowing, someone making dollar bills rain onto the crowd below as the artist lorded over the entire thing from his nest high atop the VIP section?

Yeah - that won't be happening this year.

"Ah, man, I remember that. It was hype! That was a nice club, too, wasn't it?" he says. This tour though, Foxx is staying focused. "I just wanted to do the shows and not get sick."

Foxx's monklike devotion to his tour and, by extension, his music career, might seem a tad surprising given that he's a bankable, Oscar-winning movie star. After all, movie stars make more money for their work and need not travel the country on physically taxing excursions to get paid and stay relevant. But on his second tour, which comes to Hampton Coliseum tonight, Foxx is settling into his music career and in the process leaving little doubt about his first true artistic love.

"I always wanted to do music," says Foxx, who grew up playing the piano. The native of Terrell, Texas, lucked into stand-up comedy and then roles including Wanda on the TV show "In Living Color" and his Oscar turn in "Ray." Foxx's albums have morphed from forgettable (1994's "Peep This") to not bad ("Unpredictable" in 2005) to actually pretty good - most recently in last year's "Intuition." His first platinum album, "Intuition" spawned the inescapable hit "Blame It" - the T-Pain-assisted ditty about the decisions folks make under the influence of alcohol. It stayed atop the charts for three months.

Foxx, speaking by phone from the road, says he is humbled to be able to make music.

"Especially nowadays, all my colleagues that are R&B singers have been dropped by their labels. It's a tough go; you have to combine the gimmick songs with your songs. If you look at 'Blame It,' (it) is the ultimate gimmick song. Then you sneak your R&B music in there.... It's a joy to look out in the audience and have people singing your songs back to you these days."

Celebrities who take on second careers are almost always subject to second-guessing, and Foxx isn't naive about the hurdles of public perception he has had to cross.

"I think I'm still crossing them," he says. "Even though we had a No. 1 song, I'm still proving myself, which is a good thing because it gives you the energy to keep pushing. I hope it'll remain that way for the next 10 years."

Foxx now straddles two very different disciplines. With stand-up, the risk of failure is higher. Jokes can go over people's heads, or an audience in a rural area might not get a joke that flies with an urban crowd. But a concert pretty much just requires that the crowd have knowledge of a few of your songs, and you're golden, he says.

Even so, the proven prankster includes comedy in the program, including impersonations of Barack Obama and, of course, Ray Charles. He pulled the show together over about three months.

"I've seen Mary J. Blige perform.... I got great inspiration from her. Tank, Tyrese, Avant, Omarion. I watched old tapes of Marvin Gaye. Then I had people critique the show. All women. They'll say, 'Oh, you were corny right there' or 'You started singing and then you started joking and you messed up the song.' "

Only women critiqued the show? Did we hear that right?

"Who cares about guys?"