Good Tuesday morning, Uni Watchers. I hope everyone had a good post-Super Bowl Monday.
I’m back again this fine day with the one and only Leo Strawn, Jr. After a couple editions of Leo’s favorite uniforms and head gear, Leo takes a bit of a musical turn this week.
There’s a lot to get to, so I’m just going to turn it over to Leo right now as he brings you…
Rockin’ Uniforms (Leo’s World’s Indeed a Stage)
by Leo Strawn, Jr.
I’m Leo…welcome to my world!
This week, it ROCKS!!
Not long ago, I ran across a photo of the leader of a band I listen to dressed in a full baseball uniform. That picture got me thinking about my favorite band, Rush.
“All the world’s indeed a stage…”
Geddy Lee is a huge baseball fan. He threw out the first pitch for the Blue Jays for what appeared to be a strike on opening day of 2013. Lee also amassed an impressive baseball memorabilia collection over the course of his musical career, recently auctioning off some items including the final out ball from each of Johnny Vander Meer’s back-to-back no-hitters for the Reds and a baseball signed by each of the Beatles from their 1965 show at Shea Stadium, among others. Additionally, The Professor (R.I.P.) was a sports fan and played drums for the 2009 version of The Hockey Theme (the theme song for Hockey Night in Canada), decked out in a custom hockey sweater with ‘Rush’ and the number ‘3’ on back, playing a drumkit emblazoned with NHL logos. Geddy has worn an Expos jersey on stage and Neil sported a Montreal cap in their video for Vital Signs from the Moving Pictures album. (Side note: If you watch that video and you’re wondering what that weird rectangular thing is that Peart is wearing on the front of his shirt, it’s a Pressure Zone Microphone.)
So, I thought I would jump in the rock rabbit hole to see how many musicians from my favorite bands I could find wearing caps or jerseys or whatever.
The one I mentioned at the outset is Tobias Forge of Ghost, whose stage name on Ghost’s Impera tour was Papa Emeritus IV. While on that tour, he threw out the first pitch in a game at Chicago during the 2022 season in a White Sox uniform, with bloused pants and stirrups, no less. He wore a generic shiny black cap and carried a bat painted with barbs, giving off Baseball Furies vibes from the movie, The Warriors. He even had a faux baseball card made and posted it to Twitter.
I’m a metalhead, a classic rock and prog rock aficionado, plus, I love classical music. (Unfortunately, there won’t be any classical music pics because I couldn’t find any photos of Mozart or Grieg wearing sports apparel.) I also like some theatrical bands and musicians like Ghost and Alice Cooper (a.k.a., Vincent Furnier), who threw out the first pitch in Kansas City in 2012, in Cincinnati in 2013 and his hometown of Detroit, also in 2012.
Sadly, unlike old school rocker Alice, Terry Kath is no longer with us, but here is a photo of the former Chicago guitarist. Not surprisingly, he has a Blackhawks sticker on his guitar, yet for some reason he’s wearing a Rangers sweater in this pic.
Another guitarist who is sorely missed, the late, great Eddie Van Halen might have been a Flyers fan.
Hockey must be a favorite sport among rock musicians, even ones who don’t hail from North America, including members of Genesis. Phil Collins is wearing a North Stars jersey in one of the photos below and a Rangers sweater in another. Tony Banks is pictured in Canucks and Penguins jerseys.
Pink Floyd’s David Gilmore is sporting a Habs sweater in this concert photo.
Freddie Mercury wore a Canadians cap during a concert in Montreal, but unlike Gilmore, Freddie couldn’t be bothered to wear the jersey. He did, however, wear a Toronto sweater during another show.
Two more rockers from overseas that apparently like NHL are Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend of The Who. Not sure if they both had Leafs jerseys or if they just shared one.
And one last Brit who seemingly likes hockey is Ozzy, pictured here in a (faux) Blues jersey for this unwanted photo op from 1984.
Staying in Britain for one more artist, this time featuring baseball and football: I’m really only a fan of 1960s Rolling Stones music but I stumbled upon a couple of pics of Mick wearing an A’s jersey and an Eagles jersey that I thought were worthy of inclusion.
Moving into the metal genre, the Giants have hosted Metallica Night in San Francisco on numerous occasions.
And Dan Spitz of Anthrax liked thrashing in New York Giants jerseys. (If you’re not familiar with them and click that link, don’t get offended at the name of the song or the lead singer’s attire in a couple of instances in the video. Joey Belladonna, who sang and co-wrote that song, was half Iroquois.)
One last item. In addition to Neil Peart, another of my all-time favorite drummers is Danny Carey, who plays for another one of my all-time favorite bands, Tool. Danny played some hoops in addition to music in high school and not only wears basketball jerseys on stage, he wears the whole uniform!
Get ready to strap on some skates.
Until then…
Cheers!
Thanks, Leo — that was definitely a fun one. Back before team jerseys were a *thing,* it’s interesting to see how many older bands not only wore jerseys — some of them relatively obscure — but you couldn’t get a jersey like that out of the Sears catalog. Well, except for maybe Ozzy Osbourne. Great stuff!
Readers? What say you?
Mike Levine, bassest for the Canadian band Triumph; wore sports jerseys / t shirts during their live shows throughout their career
Being a Triumph fan, over the years I’ve seen Levine wear a Team Sweden, Flyers, Blues, Maple Leafs, Flames, Detroit Tigers jerseys and a faux Tokyo baseball jersey. Rik Emmitt has been seen wearing a Habs jersey.
I met Rik Emmitt backstage after a show sometime around 1997 and struck up a 15 minute conversation about baseball.
Flew to the comments to type this!
Joan Jett is notorious die hard Orioles fan. Just google “Joan Jett Orioles” and find plenty of photos of her in orioles’ gear.
I was scrolling to see if any Joan Jett pics would have been included
Same. She’s a really devoted Orioles fan. Photobombed the team pic a year or so ago
link
How many dozen hip-hop stars have worn 1975 Astros jerseys in music videos?
GTGFTS
10 Sep 2006
Facing 3rd and 10, Steve McNair finds Demetrius Williams for 9.
No matter, as the Ravens complete the shut out 27-0.
If it was a better memory for me I’da beat ya to it!
GTGFTS – September 10 2006 Final Ravens 27 Bucs 0 Steve McNair and the Ravens ran all over my Bucs, I was there Dang it :( :(
Oh Yeah, the next syllable out of my mouth was “BAAAAAAAY!!!!” at the Ray J that day.
Joan Jenn is a HUGE Orioles fan – even checks the score during performances
^Joan Jett
Well, I did not wake up expecting to see Papa in the lede (did I use that right?) photo on Uni-Watch. Good morning!
Good morning to you too, sir. Glad to help you start your day right!
Cheers!
If memory serves, Geddy Lee also made a sizable donation of autographed baseballs to the Negro League museum in Kansas City.
he’s also a big jays fan. you can see him behind home plate during plenty of games. also, scores the game on a scorecard.
I think Rush also has a history with Warren Cromartie.
link
thanks, now i have to pull out my vinyl copy of signals.
As I remember, Terry Kath of Chicago had a collection of different hockey jerseys. The one time I saw him – in Buffalo, NY, shortly before his untimely death – he was wearing a Sabres jersey.
The first time the Who played Toronto during the Who By Numbers tour – they would later close the tour there, in what would be Keith Moon’s final concert in North America – all four members of the band were presented with personalized Maple Leafs jerseys and jackets. I’ve seen Pete wear his offstage. Roger is wearing his jacket on the cover of his memoir. It’s unknown if John Entwistle ever wore his.
A Google search for Terry Kath produced him in Kalamazoo Wings, Blackhawks #9, the WHA Chicago Cougars, a white NY Rangers, and a blue Penguins jerseys.
link
I got furniture to move
And we’ll both be 30 soon
It really strikes me that Terry Kath’s Rangers jersey shown has what is more or less the 1928-1941 plain block style of lettering on it rather than the Broadway Blueshirts’ signature oblique serifed typeface with the drop shadows that has been largely unchanged since 1949.
As for The Who, first, you missed the H in Pete Townshend’s name. Second, I think they could be different jerseys; Daltrey’s has an incorrect leaf for that jersey (more of the 1967-70 leaf but with the period-correct Kabel typeface for the text), while Townshend’s looks to me like it could be the correct “Ballard leaf”.
Typos happen. Nice catch. Need to check the photo in my files, might have misspelled it there and just copied it without thinking.
Cheers!
I have a theory that these rockers are picking up these jerseys at the merch stores of the arenas they play. Given how long ago this was, I wonder if a mis-fonted (?) Rangers jersey like that was sold at MSG in those days.
I also agree that bands just wore whatever local’s team jersey of the arena they were performing in without necessarily being a fan of that team. Replica jerseys were not impossible to find, and most team shops would have had a few jerseys in the 1970s. You can still find mis-fonted Rangers jerseys from that period on ebay. Licensing then wasn’t exactly what it is now, and stores could put their own letting on a blank jersey.
Carter Beauford from Dave Matthews Band usually wears sports jerseys, doesn’t he?
Nice list, Leo.
But I had hoped to see Mickey Hart from the Grateful Dead mentioned here. He became close friends with (Hall of Famer and huge Deadhead) Bill Walton. As tribute, Mickey wore a Celtics warmup jacket in the band’s video for ‘Touch of Gray.”
Walton also famously took his Celtics teammates to a Dead show, but that’s a whole other story.
Glenn Frey of the Eagles used to wear hockey sweaters back in the day.
Dang I have multiple pics of Coop wearing a Nashville Preds jersey.. Probably has a jersey for every team town they play – though some of his band lives here in Nashville. Who knows..
GTGFU
Montreal Canadiens vs New York Islanders, NYL 3- MTL 4 OT, February 11th 2023..?
(please disregard this comment.)
This might be a stretch but at the end of This is Spinal Tap guitarist Nigel Tufnel is wearing a Sadaharu Oh Tokyo Giants jersey on stage :-D
Leo’s a Rush fan (some would say nerd)? Woo Hoo, me too!
I immediately thought of Elton John. I think he wore a sequined Dodger’s outfit once. Also, this doesn’t exactly fit what you wrote about, but in reverse, there was an arena football team called the KISS via Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons – semi adjacent, although I assume a unique situation.
From waaaay back, friend. Saw them the first time on the Hemispheres Tour in Dayton. : )
Cheers!
Wow, I bet that was awesome. I discovered them with Moving Pictures and have been hooked ever since (I was in Junior High, like 12 years old or so – by the way, “Junior High” dates me without the age reference, as it’s “Middle School” now, an whenever I say Junior High, my kids say, “what?”). One of my biggest regrets is not having seen them live during my lifetime. I’m a drummer, and Neil is one of my early heroes (OK, still is).
GTGFTU
Montreal Canadiens vs New York Islanders, NYL 3- MTL 4 OT, February 11th 2023..?
The most famous rock star wearing a sports uniform is Elton John at the famous Dodger Stadium concert in the summer of 1976. He wore a sequined Dodgers uniform. I was there, having just graduated from high school. Stadium concerts weren’t common back then, and finally had good sound systems.
In Cincinnati, Elton John donned a Reds cap that was tossed on stage to a raucous round of applause.
Don’t forget Christopher Cross. The double neck guitar and Earl Campbell jersey is iconic: link
That’s seen a LOT in “Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary”!
It’s a great Dock!
Shane MacGowan in Pittsburgh Penguins jersey (I refuse to call it a sweater).
link
Bill Bruford should also be on the list. He regularly wore Boston Bruins jerseys during his drumming time in King Crimson (and briefly, Genesis). I don’t think he wore the jersey when he was the drummer for Yes.
There is a concert film of Genesis on the Trick of the Tail tour with Bruford as the extra drummer and he’s wearing white bib overalls with the Bruins logo on it (instead of a jersey) that night. Like you I don’t recall any films or videos of him wearing a jersey onstage with Yes.
LOVE this entry, Phil. Not least because I’m also a huge Rush fan.
My fave band of all time is Galactic Cowboys (who are currently recording a new album). Bassist Monty Colvin has always been good for some uni watching in concert. Mainly hoops and hockey.
Thanks — but this one’s all Leo!
Oops. Sorry, Leo. Credit where it’s due. Great taste in music, sir.
Thank you, sir. Glad you enjoyed.
Cheers!
Rick Savage from Def Leppard wore a Phillies City Connect during their show at Citizens Bank Park this past tour.
Great stuff, Leo! I’ve always loved this topic, particularly when similar photos have popped up in the Ticker from time to time. It’s awesome to have so many of them collected right here for our viewing (and reading) pleasure!
I stumbled across this internet forum that has a ton of photos of musicians wearing hockey jerseys:
link
At first glance I didn’t notice any overlap with photos in the post above, but my apologies if there are any duplicates. I figured I’d just add some eye candy to the mix for those of us who enjoy the topic. Rock on!
Thanks for that! I would have added a at least couple of others had I stumbled across that site: Rick Wakeman and (though I wasn’t a massive Bowie fan) most likely Mick Ronson so far, still haven’t gotten to page two.
Cheers!
For some reason, this video popped into my head. I remember seeing it on TV as a kid and thinking how cool it was to see a hockey jersey being worn by somebody who wasn’t a hockey player. Sure, I had my Habs jersey from the Sears catalogue (Monsieur Eaton could not be trusted), but this looked like an actual game-worn jersey.
Pat Banatar’s drummer, Myron Grombacher, sporting the old Penguins powder blue:
link
Re: Van Halen, I believe this may be from when the whole band got them – link
And I saw a different show of theirs where someone threw a Kerwin Bell Orlando Thunder jersey onto the stage, Sammy Hagar put it on and wore it for the rest of the show.
Not quite in the same boat but heavy metal icons Iron Maiden have a crossover with West Ham:
link
There have been a number of instances of Stephen Stills wearing various football jerseys:
link
link
link
link
link
On one of her early tours, Taylor Swift would don a customized jersey of a local team for part of her shows. I believe mostly NFL (link), but there were some college (link) and NHL (link).