Saturday 18 June 2016

Concert Season

Billy Talent's Benjamin Kowalewicz makes a great point with his t-shirt, but this isn't some political statement piece. The summer is concert season across North America, and there are probably going to be a pile of musicians rolling through your town and local arena, stadium, and/or festival where there's a chance they could don the local hockey team's jersey. As I continue to build a large database of images of musicians in jerseys, we'll add more today with the concert season just starting! If you have any that aren't on the complete list, please feel free to email me with those photos, and I will certainly credit you for the find or photo! Let's dive into these images as we take a look at musicians' allegiances to hockey teams... or at least the free jerseys they receive!

R&B and soul artists rarely seem to delve into the world of hockey. Hockey games are built for rock music and the occasional rap song, but we rarely see soul wander into the hockey rink. Maybe the hockey crowd is missing out, but the Vancouver Canucks certainly didn't. When Usher appeared at Rogers Arena a few years ago, he was given his own Canucks jersey! Granted, it doesn't appear to be a pro-style jersey with that name on the back, but he's definitely sporting the Canucks' colors!

Bands usually don't represent any sort of brands on the front of their album covers for obvious licensing reasons. Generally, it's just the band members and the title or some image to which the band has paid to acquire the rights with the title. Pretty standard operating procedure nowadays, but it appears that Myles Goodwin of April Wine didn't get that memo in 1981 with the release of their massive hit "Just Between You and Me". Myles appeared on the front of the single wearing a Montreal Canadiens jersey or jersey shirt! It's hard to determine from that image which it is, but it's clearly the Canadiens! There may be a reason for that shirt: the band relocated from Nova Scotia to Montreal in the early 1970s before they went on to release more than 20 albums since they relocated!

I'll admit that I know nothing about Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott, better known to the rap community as Joey Bada$$. I know he's still touring, I know he was born in New York City, and I know he appeared in the TV show Mr. Robot. Thanks, Wikipedia. I do know one other thing, though, that Wikipedia couldn't tell me: he's a Phoenix Coyotes fan! Well, he might be. He is wearing their jersey.

They're no longer together after disbanding in 2011, but Olivier Corbeil aka Oliver Crowe played bass for The Stills. The Montreal-based band never wore the famous bleu-blanc-et-rouge, but Crowe was seen wearing the colours of the Edmonton Oilers! Perhaps after the disbanding, he went west?

Laura Bell Bundy isn't a name known to many for her numerous singles and hit albums. Ok, she doesn't have any, but she has made a serious name for herself on Broadway with her roles as the original Amber Von Tussle in Hairspray and the original Elle Woods in the musical version of Legally Blonde. She is a country music rising star and has released a couple of never-heard-of singles, but she is definitely more well-known to the stage crowd. That being said, she is a proud Kentucky girl, and the University of Kentucky wasted no time in getting her to help their hockey program!

Let's be honest: Mandy Moore and hockey have never been paired together in any situation. If they have been, I'm guessing that music guy's career was cut very short. Mandy Moore never did arena rock or music that can pump up a crowd hungry for hockey action, but she did once show allegiance to a hockey team! Back when she was more singer than actor, Mandy Moore wore this Boston Bruins vest thingy! Who would have thought that Moore was a Bruins fan?

You've seen him in the Hunger Games series and you know his music. Heck, you even know who his daughter is, but Lenny Kravitz is a music icon. While he hasn't produced any chart-smashing hits in recent years, he does have a number of memorable songs including a remake of "American Woman". The one thing in his closet he doesn't have a lot of are hockey jerseys, but he can claim allegiance to one team. The Montreal Canadiens gave Kravitz his own jersey when he stopped in Montreal in 2008!

Country music has a number of players who wear jerseys thanks to the Nashville connection, but they seem to be spreading outwards to other communities as well. One such example? Country star Kenny Chesney wore a Minnesota Wild jersey while playing a concert at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul!

Chris Jericho grew up in Winnipeg, found a home in New York when his father, Ted Irvine, played there, and made a name for himself as a professional wrestler, but his passion has always been music! He and a few friends founded the band Fozzy, and he's been performing when he can when his wrestling career isn't keeping him on the road! We've seen him in a Rangers and Jets jersey, but he went back to his hometown team's roots when he appeared in Atlanta and got himself a Thrashers jersey!

Al Montoya has the distinction of being the lone Cuban-American player in the NHL, but there has been another Cuban-American who has worn a jersey. Al Jourgensen of Ministry is a pretty important musician and music producer, and he showed his support for an Original Six team when he donned the jersey of the Chicago Blackhawks for a photo! He looks pretty intimidating in that jersey!

The Boston Bruins are, in my view, kind of like a '90s boy band - past their prime, needing new material, and certainly hanging on to past achievements. Ok, so that might be a little harsh, but so is getting your picture taken with a fully-jerseyed ensemble known as the Backstreet Boys. There's no reason why these dudes should look this happy.

I thought I had included this from his All-Star Game appearance, but I guess I was wrong because Dierks Bentley doesn't appear on the master list. Frederick Dierks Bentley took the ice and worked on his game alongside former Predator Jordin Tootoo, and he looks pretty good in the Predators' colors! Perhaps he has a future in hockey if the country music thing doesn't keep him busy?

Alice Cooper is a huge Arizona Coyotes fan, but there wasn't a team to speak of in the desert in the 1970s when he was touring at his peak. Instead, Alice would go on the road and don the jersey of the team whose arena he was performing in which leads to seeing Alice in uniforms with which one normally would associate him. Alice wore a Red Wings jersey during his concert in Detroit in 1971, and followed that performance up in Edmonton while wearing an Oilers jersey!

This next artist has a closet devoted to hockey jerseys at this point by now. Snoop Dogg aka Snoop Lion has been wearing hockey jerseys since his early "Gin & Juice" days, and we have a pile more to run through today, so let's get started. Here is Snoop wearing, in no particular order, an Ottawa Senators alternate jersey, a Calgary Flames jersey, a Montreal Canadiens jersey, a London Knights jersey, a Springfield Indians jersey, and a Dubai Fighting Camels jersey! That's the second Dubai jersey we've seen!

These last two photos are nostalgic. The first one is from a concert in Quebec City where Metallica played. As we know, expansion won't happen in Quebec City any time soon, but Lars Ullrich endeared himself to the people of Quebec when he donned the Nordiques jersey for the concert there. Honestly, I still love that jersey and the Nordiques need to return. That's a beauty. Thanks for the picture, John M.!

The second photo comes from this past week. Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood are currently touring across Canada on their major tour, and they stopped in Saskatchewan for that leg of the tour. As you may be aware, Saskatchewan and the hockey world lost a legend last week with the passing of the great Gordie Howe, so Garth Brooks donned the famous winged wheel with Howe's name on the back as a tribute to the legendary hockey figure. That's a classy move from Brooks, and I commend him on his wardrobe choice!

Again, if you're going to a concert or see a musician in a jersey anywhere else and that musician isn't already on the master list in said jersey, make sure you grab photo evidence and send it in! You'll get credit on the list, and live on for eternity! Ok, maybe not, but at least you'll get credit for the find. That's gotta count for something, right?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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