Paul Simon and John Mayer will perform tonight at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
The concert is not open to the public. It will be taped for ´In Tune,´ a new VH1 television series.
´This is a great opportunity for the Rock Hall to increase visibility for Cleveland [and] generate some revenue,´ said Todd Mesek, the hall´s senior director of marketing and communications.
´The basic idea is to bring together a veteran artist and a younger artist,´ said Lee Rolontz, executive producer of ´In Tune´ and vice president of original music production for VH1.
´In Tune With Paul Simon and John Mayer´ is scheduled to air at 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 15, on VH1.
It will be the first hourlong installment of the four-part ´In Tune´ series, to be shot sporadically this summer and fall on the main stage in the Rock Hall lobby. Talent lineups for the other three shows have not been announced.
´In Tune´ is sponsored by Baileys, the cream liqueur.
Simon, 62, is a two-time Rock Hall inductee. He was enshrined in 1990 as half of the legendary folk-rock duo Simon and Garfunkel and again in 2001 for his solo achievements. Mayer, 26, won a Grammy Award for his 2003 breakthrough hit, ´Your Body Is a Wonderland.´
Both singer-songwriters respect each other´s work, Rolontz said.
´John Mayer has tremendous admiration for Paul Simon,´ she said. ´And believe it or not, Paul Simon is a great admirer of John Mayer.´
They´ll accompany each other on acoustic guitars for tonight´s show.
´Paul will do one of John´s songs, and John will do one of Paul´s songs,´ Rolontz said. ´Then they´re supposed to do a song by someone they both like. They´ll also do two other songs.´
Between numbers, Simon and Mayer will talk about ´why they like each other, how they got into music and their experiences in the music industry,´ Rolontz said.
She declined to name the celebrity musician who will be master of ceremonies for the Rock Hall gig.
Creating the ´intimate´ vibe VH1 wants for the series will be a challenge in the museum´s large, glass-enclosed lobby, Rolontz said.
´But it´s well worth it in order to work at the Hall of Fame,´ she said. ´The Rock Hall brings a sense of history, a sense that this is something special [in] a place that distinguishes people who are Hall of Famers. All that only serves to add to the luster of the show.´
Other Hall of Famers likely will be courted to appear in subsequent episodes, Rolontz said.
The Rock Hall teamed up with VH1´s sister network MTV in 2001 and 2002 for ´Live at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,´ which featured performances by Mayer, Alicia Keys, Linkin Park and other rising stars at the museum.
´In Tune´ will be ´completely different´ from the single-artist concerts staged for MTV, according to Rolontz.
´This is about two artists who are interested in one another´s music,´ she said.
The series will underscore ´how younger artists are influenced by older artists,´ Rolontz said. ´Besides exposure, the Rock Hall wants to [show] the connection between the forefathers of rock ´n´ roll and what´s happening now.´
´In Tune´ might be expanded in the future, depending on ratings for the initial episodes. ´If it´s a big success, we would love for it to continue,´ Rolontz said.
In an interview earlier this year, Rock Hall president and CEO Terry Stewart said the VH1 series was part of a fresh push to raise the hall´s profile beyond Cleveland.
´We need the national exposure to reach more people,´ Stewart said. ´We have to keep putting the museum out there to tell people to come to Cleveland.´
|