SPORTS & MUSIC COLUMN


by Shelly Harris


    This month’s S&M may be a bit like that saccharin sweet Donny & Marie
Osmond  lyric, “a little bit country” and “a little bit rock ‘n’ roll.” 
But make that heavy rock!

    First off, I guess we can assume this “Sports & Music Connection” thing
is at least a warm topic right now – even beyond this series, not only from
the feedback our esteemed “Beat Boss,” Mr. Lounges, has been hearing, but
also after I received a related email from the headquarters of Sanctuary.
That’s the London-based mega management/label group (home of Iron Maiden,
Halford, Megadeth, and numerous other bands.)

    Sanctuary Group, it turns out, is in the process of posting on their
state-of-the-art websites – (including www.ironmaiden.com, www.metal-is.com,
and others) – a special feature on the professional sports stars who are Iron
Maiden fans and/or who also use “Eddie” as their mascot, and who are metal
fans in general. 
    Right now, though, Sanctuary is specifically in the process of tracking
down some professional soccer players (The guys in Maiden – especially Steve
Harris – are renown soccer nuts and excellent players themselves), but also
North American athletes like Mike Piazza of the Mets (spotted at several
Maiden shows last year), Roman Turek of the St. Louis Blues, Chris Jericho of
the WWF, and the Chicago White Sox’s own David Wells to comment on Maiden,
metal, and their particular sport and career.

    Certainly, it is safe to assume that there are plenty of professional
players who are metal fans in the major leagues, but if any of you out there
know of any other particular ones, please email me at
shellyharrislaw@aol.com, and I’ll pass that info on to the folks at
Sanctuary.

    In fact, Maiden promotions manager Dave Pattendon, the right hand man of
Rod Smallwood (Maiden manager and Sanctuary chief) for the past four years,
recently related that – “You’re quite right that there’s a big connection
between sports and music and not just through advertising and sponsorship.
WWF is a prime example with their hugely successful licensing of music [i.e.
Megadeth and Blur] for their different characters...”

   As far as this series is concerned, although the Maiden road warriors are t
echnically on hiatus for the remainder of 2001 (since their 1 1/2 year tour
ended last February), I will be grabbing Maiden mastermind Steve Harris as
soon as time allows for his always insightful comments on this subject.  Back
in the ‘80s, Steve (also an avid tennis player), along with the rest of the
band, often got together scratch games with other bands like Scorpions,
Rainbow, and Def Leppard as often as possible while out on tour – and they
still do during their breaks while home.

     Of course, all die hard Maiden fans know this already, but Steve was
once recruited to play professional soccer for his favorite team, West Ham
(from his native East End of London), and continues to play in regular
leagues and celebrity events to this day. 

    He and the rest of the band are also ardent about the game as spectators,
so much so that I almost wished I hadn’t coincidentally been there watching
or listening along with some of them on two occasions in the past when
England blew their best chances at the World Cup.  In particular, though I
guess he’d have cried in his beer if he’d been drinking one (which he barely
does anymore), Steve (and Co.) was even more subdued than usual on the
notorious summer day back in ‘98 after England star David Beckham (married to
Spice Girl Posh) lost the crucial final match for England due to a “stupid”
penalty when the game was tied.  (Notwithstanding the downer of that loss,
Steve/Maiden and tourmates Dirty Deeds were only low key up until they went
onstage that night for one of their turbocharged Virtual XI tour gigs.)

    In fact, the vast majority of English musicians I’ve ever met and
interviewed are as consummately passionate and as heart-felt-loyal to their
favorite “home” soccer teams as any die-hard Cubs/Sox/Blackhawks/Bears/Bulls
fan, and that’s saying a lot.  For them the World Cup is the Super Bowl, the
World Series, the Stanley Cup and NBA finals all rolled into one, so their
team losing in World Cup final rounds is every bit as devastating as
something like the 11th hour demise of the ‘69 Cubs.  Personally, that was a
“heartbreak” I’ve never gotten over – and neither have millions of other
sports fans in the Chicago area around that time – and, alas, it was soon
followed in the early ‘70s by the bitter disappointment of the star laden,
Hull/Mikita/Esposito Blackhawks losing in two different years to the Montreal
Canadians in the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals!  (I know many of you
of a certain age can also still remember how you felt about those blown
championships to this day.)

   However, for the non-metal/hard rockers out there, this month the
highlighted musician is country’s velvet-voiced Kenny Chesney, who will soon
be on the road again this summer along with best friend and neighbor, Tim
McGraw.  (Look for them at the Tweeter Center on July 24.)  Incidentally, for
those that don’t already know this bit of trivia, Tim McGraw, one of many
highly athletic country singers (baseball, football, wrestling), is also the
son of the ‘70s pitching ace Tug McGraw.  Both Chesney and McGraw were
recently nominated for ACM's “Best Male Vocalist” category (an award McGraw
has won in the past), but both actually lost out this time to Toby Keith,
another athlete/former semi-pro football player himself.

    At any rate, since birds of a feather invariably “flock together,” it is
not unusual at all to find professional athletes at any of these singers’
shows.   For a start, Chesney, who’s an avowed workout nut and scuba diving
aficionado, says he’s “a big sport fan” himself and actually has links to
“favorite places” like the Indianapolis Colts and University of Tennessee
Football on his own website (www.kenny chesney.com), as well as photos with
several sports stars like former Kansas City Royals star George Brett.  
 
    Chesney admits, “I played all kinds of sports growing up and in high
school, but I could see it wasn’t going to go anywhere...”  Still,
unprompted, he also makes a stunningly similar variation of the comment that
I’ve frequently been hearing from the athletes when he says – “All musicians
want to be athletes, and all athletes want to be musicians.”  And, none to my
surprise, Chesney also adds, “Some of my friends are athletes, and I think
athletes and musicians have a lot of mutual respect – maybe because their
lifestyles are so similar.” 

Next Month:  Look ACM Male Vocalist of the Year, Toby Keith, and Chicago
White Sox and/or Cubs players.