Besides being an all-star outfielder for the New York Yankees, Bernie Williams is also a Grammy-nominated guitarist (This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).
Music and sports are truly intertwined disciplines. Who could imagine attending a sporting event without enjoying some musical accompaniment?
In olden days, live bands entertained inside stadiums and arenas. They gave way to the organist and today, an arena sound system playing hit tunes is a vital part of the game-night experience.
That being the case, perhaps it’s no surprise that several elite athletes have gone on to become musical stars. The same people you might have wagered on at sports betting websites to win the World Series, Super Bowl, or Stanley Cup can now be offered with odds to win a Grammy Award.
Williams has played with Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon (This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).
Centerfielder for the most recent New York Yankees dynasty, Williams was a five-time MLB All-Star. He won four Gold Glove Awards. Williams also won the Silver Slugger Award and American League Championship Series Most Valuable Player Award. His number, 51, was retired by the Yankees in May 2015.
A classically-trained guitarist, Williams would attend the special performance arts school Escuela Libre de Musica in his native Puerto Rico at the age of 13. He has been a nominee for a Latin Grammy Award. On stage, Williams has played with Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen. He even wrote a book Rhythms of the Game: The Link Between Music and Athletic Performance.
Julio Iglesias
The Spanish crooner with the silky smooth voice was also capable of some pretty slick moves with a soccer ball at his feet.
Long before he became the best-selling Latin artist of all time and years prior to his induction into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame, the two-time Grammy winner was on the path to be a professional soccer goalkeeper with legendary Spanish side Real Madrid.
Iglesias was the first team goalkeeper for Real Madrid’s reserve squad Real Madrid Castilla. However, a serious car accident in 1963 left him unable to walk for two years and ended his soccer dreams. While in hospital, a nurse gifted Iglesias a guitar and launched him on his path to musical glory.
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Mike Reid
During the 1969 NCAA season while playing at Penn State, Mike Reid was voted the best defensive lineman in all of college football. A first-round draft pick of the Cincinnati Bengals, he quickly became an NFL star.
Then, at the age of 27, Reid left pro football behind, eventually pursuing a career in the music industry.
“I had studied music and earned my degree in music from college, but I never thought I would get into it professionally,” Reid recalled to Postmedia.
Looking back, you could say that it’s worked out quite well for him.
He’s won a Grammy Award for the top country song. As a songwriter, Reid has delivered 12 singles that went to No. 1 on the charts. He’s written hit tunes for Ronnie Milsap, Bonnie Rait, Adele and Willie Nelson.
“They come as hard as hell,” Reid said of his songs. “I have to fight to get myself out of the way a lot. I’m a plodder, a meat and potatoes writer.”
Reid’s has even been a hit on Broadway, where The Ballad of Little Jo, a musical he co-wrote with Susan Schlesinger, won the 1997 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater.
“I tend to be sentimental,” Reid said. “I like love songs the best.
“I’m a hopeful person.”
Kraig Nienhuis
On the ice in the NHL, he played alongside Hall of Famer Ray Bourque while with the Boston Bruins and against legendary stars such as Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.
On stage, Kraig Nienhuis – fronting his band 9 House – has opened for such music legends as the Beach Boys, ZZ Top, Tom Cochrane, The Tragically Hip, Nickelback and the B 52’s.
Music was injected into Nienhuis’ life at an early age. His parents Jake and Dianne were gospel singers at Sarnia’s Temple Baptist Church and Nienhuis sang with the church choir as a youngster.
“Music was something that I was always into,” Nienhuis, known as Neener to his friends, told the Windsor Star. “I kind of played for years as a hobby and sort of knew in the back of my mind that it was always there as an option when hockey was done for me.”
He’s been able to mesh his two passions, performing at both the NHL All-Star Game and Winter Classic.
“I definitely get some of the opportunities I do because of hockey,” Nienhuis said. “I don’t ever take it for granted. I realize I’m lucky.”
Wayman Tisdale
Even though he was an NBA star, a three-time All-American at Oklahoma and was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009, Wayman Tisdale always insisted that music was forever his first love.
After leaving the hardwood behind, Tisdale fashioned an impressive second career as a smooth jazz bass guitarist. At Oklahoma, head basketball coach Billy Tubbs altered the team’s Sunday practice schedule to enable Tisdale to play guitar during Sunday morning church at his father’s church in Tulsa.
Tisdales’ jazz recording career began in 1995. That was two years prior to his 1997 NBA retirement.Tisdale’s debut album Power Forward rose to No. 4 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz chart and even crossed over onto the R&B charts. Actor Jame Foxx cited Tisdale as the finest bass guitar player he’d ever heard.
“The bass guitar typically isn’t a solo instrument, but Wayman was able to not just make party music but to communicate amazing melodies and emotion,” saxophonist Dave Koz told Jazz.fm. “Music was the core of his soul.”
Tisdale was getting ready to return to the recording studio on a new album working with jazz guitarist Norman Brown when he shockingly died at the age of 44 in 2009.