This year marks the 30th anniversary of his debut solo release which spawned two ground-breaking hits, “On The Wings of Love” and “I Really Don’t Need No Light,” as well as five platinum and gold albums.

This year also marks Jeffrey Osborne’s 40th anniversary in the music business, and along the path to his meteoric rise to fame, he collaborated with Whitney Houston co-writing the lyrics to “All at Once,” and Dionne Warwick to produce his highest charting hit ever, “Love Power.”

And now, to set the mood for Valentine’s Day, Osborne and special guest Jessy J will perform at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside on Feb. 12.

From his humble beginnings as a drummer in his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, to his association with the R&B group LTD, to his highly successful solo career, Osborne says he’s happy to be coming back to perform in Philly.

“Audiences at the Keswick will be hearing everything I’ve done over the years and still do, including LTD material,” Osborne says. “The people in Philly are incredible fans. They turn out and always support me. And I think audiences in general keep coming out because they want to hear those old ’70s songs as well as all the things I’ve done as a solo artist. So I mix it up during my shows and have fun with the audiences.”

The youngest of 12 children, Osborne says he was raised in a musical family. “My father was an incredible trumpet player, performing with such greats as Lionel Hampton, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Unfortunately,” Osborne says, “he died when I was just 13. So I would say growing up with my mother was definitely my inspiration. She always encouraged me and always chaperoned me when I would play in the clubs. She always pushed me in the right direction, and I’m very thankful she nudged me out there to go to follow my dreams.”

Initially, as a self-taught drummer, those dreams meant playing the drums, which he did for awhile with the O’Jays. Sometime later, he went on to play drums for a band known as LTD until he finally switched and went on to become the group’s lead vocalist, staying with them for eleven years before deciding to strike out on his own to establish his own solo singing career.

He remembers that he was “at the right spot at the right time. Drumming was the way I initially got into the business. It wasn’t until the third record I made with LTD that I emerged as the lead singer. Our love ballads became a major hit. And from that point on I became the group’s focal point as the lead singer.”

Osborne left the group in 1980 and produced his first solo album two years later. “Breaking away on your own isn’t always easy,” he points out. “You sometimes use the camaraderie within the group as a crutch. It’s not just you, so if something goes wrong you can look at somebody else to blame. But as a solo artist there’s no one else to blame, so it’s different in that respect.”

But a major difference, he continues, “is that when you look back at people who have left groups, you see it’s the songwriters who made it on their own. The ones who don’t succeed are the others. I wrote some great songs on my own, and with some great songwriters, so I was able to make it out there.”

Today, Osborne says although he loves all kinds of music, he believes his voice is best suited to ballads, and he‘s made a name for himself singing them. “I also think the most important thing for me, and the reason I‘ve lasted all these years, is the fact that people like performers who can perform live. If you can choose good songs and then deliver them live, people will keep coming back. I think it’s a lost art today because lots of young artists don’t even know how to perform in front of a crowd. The music business has changed a lot over the years, and I think that’s one of the reasons.”

He adds that the art of music is being lost, and someday, he’d like to help develop new, young singers. ”I’d really like to develop them, because no one seems to care about them anymore.”

For times and ticket information call (215) 572-7650.