Monday, December 20, 2010

Kennedy Center Honors

A couple of weeks ago No Doubt performed at the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington DC. We were asked to be part of the musical tribute to Paul McCartney, who was one of the honorees this year. We performed a four-minute medley of Beatles songs: Hello Goodbye, All My Loving, and Penny Lane. This was a career highlight for us in so many ways. All of us in the band grew up loving Paul's music, and to perform these songs for Paul himself was mind-blowing to say the least. Not to mention nerve-wracking! And to add to the epicness of it all, this was in the Kennedy Center Opera House, full of folks like President Obama, loads of Senators and Congresspeople and lobbyists and Merle Haggard and Oprah, etc etc. Also I sat next to Florence Henderson at the State Department dinner. She was awesome.

Crazy!

The whole show including our performance will be shown on television on CBS on December 28, 2010 at 9:00-11:00 p.m., ET/PT

Gear: In the spirit of the memory of George Harrison, I had my trusty Hamer Monaco outfitted with a pair of TV Jones Classic pickups, to capture the vibe of an old Gretsch like George used to play. Below is a picture of the guitar, plus the pedalboard my buddy and long-time tech Donnie wired up just for this show. The pedals are: Eventide Timefactor, Malekko Ekko 616, and Boss Chromatic Tuner. I used the Eventide for delays on the Reggae upbeats on "All My Loving" and the Malekko for a slapback vibe on "Hello Goodbye." And then just straight guitar, no effects used on "Penny Lane."