On the evening of February 12 this year, anyone enquiring as to the whereabouts of Nuno Bettencourt would have been directed towards the security-ringed stage erected at centre-field at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. There, as ex-NFL legends-turned-pundits in the stadium’s media suites paused their analysis of the first two quarters of Super Bowl LVII, the 56-year-old guitarist was calmly orchestrating the game’s musical intermission, as white-clad dancers glided through synchronised dance routines around, above and below a pregnant, radiant Rihanna. An estimated 118.7 million viewers worldwide tuned in, making Rihanna’s first live appearance in seven years the third-most watched TV show ever: 5.7 million more viewers tuned in to see Rihanna sing than to watch the game itself.
Despite the fact that he was on camera for, by his own estimation, approximately “one-point-five milliseconds” of the global broadcast of the 2023 Super Bowl half-time show – “I get it, they wanted to focus on the dancing sperm” he shrugs, his smile betraying the fact that he’s aware of how ridiculous these words sound – Bettencourt acknowledges his participation in the 35-year-old pop star’s comeback gig as a ‘bucket list’ moment. The guitarist also confesses that, as focused as he was in steering the set’s dynamic flow, from opener Bitch Better Have My Money through to the climactic combo of global mega-hits Umbrella and Diamonds, at one point he did allow himself to think: “Man, this is cool. But it’d be even cooler if I was up here with Extreme.”
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Denne historien er fra July 2023-utgaven av Classic Rock.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Joan Armatrading
The singer-songwriter on her new album, inspirations, being a 'band', what her key was about, meeting Nelson Mandela...
Meat Loaf: I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)
It was the power ballad to end all power ballads, and 30 years later people still ponder what the it’ is that the singer wouldn't do.
Kris Kristofferson: June 22, 1936 - September 28, 2024
Kris Kristofferson, the iconic, Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and actor who played a key role in advancing a strand of country music into a more raw and confessional direction now recognised as outlaw country, has died peacefully at his home in Maui, surrounded by family. He was 88 years old.
"I have come a very long way in the last two-and-a-bit years"
Back from the brink: the Thunder vocalist who survived major medical trauma returns.
EVER MEET LEMMY?
He's heard Lemmy's unreleased solo album, had dinner with Chris Holmes, told Paul McCartney to get a round in, been told gangster Reggie Kray wanted to have a word with him... He is Dogs D'Amour frontman Tyla 7 Pallas, and these are some of his stories.
"LET'S NOT FORGET ABOUT HAVING FUN"
With their ninth studio album In Murmuration, Finnish rockers Von Hertzen Brothers have replaced their erstwhile prog epics for a more honest approach to songwriting reflecting their personal lives.
IN THE BEGINNING
With previously unseen photographs from their early days as featured in the new Queen | Collector's Edition, Sir Brian May talks us through sights of the band in the early seventies.
BASS-IC INSTINCT
Plucked from obscurity in 1975 to be in David Bowie's band, then unceremoniously out of the picture five years later, bassist George Murray looks back on his time with the Thin White Duke.
High Rollers
When Ronnie Wood, the Stones and some A-list mates holed up at his house to help with his solo album, it sparked a days-long party, a Rolling Stones hit and the last album by arguably their finest line-up.
THE NAME OF THE GAM
When ABBA-mad Opeth leader Mikael Akerfeldt met one of their singers, he lost it”. She didn’t sing on their new concept album, but some other, perhaps unlikely, big names did.