dailyloe.com – The Zac Brown Band will debut a new opening for NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ coverage this Sunday. The segment will first air when the Atlanta Braves host the Cleveland Guardians. This places the band alongside Carrie Underwood and Lenny Kravitz, who have similar roles for other sports. The opening was filmed in Milwaukee last month.
Zac Brown expressed humility at being mentioned with those other artists. He shared his thoughts in an email to The Associated Press. Brown said it means a lot that their music is reaching further than imagined. The band has spent years trying to make music that connects with people.
The band performs a reimagined version of Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s ‘Karn Evil 9, 1st Impression Part 2’. NBC Sports creative director Tripp Dixon explained why the song was chosen. He said it resonated because it features an organ and a specific opening line. The first line is ‘Welcome back, my friends to the show that never ends’.
Dixon said those two elements sounded perfect to build the idea around. A couple seconds of the opening were shown on NBC’s opening night broadcast. That broadcast featured the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The full debut is set for the upcoming Sunday game.
Zac Brown reflected on the experience of filming the opening segment. He said it made him step back and wonder how they got there. The band put everything they had into the performance. Watching it come together with visuals and production gave it a new life.
Carrie Underwood has performed the ‘Sunday Night Football’ opening since 2013. Her version is a reimagined take on Joan Jett’s 1988 song. Lenny Kravitz’s opening for ‘Sunday Night Basketball’ uses an Elvis Presley song. That song, ‘A Little Less Conversation’, originally came out in 1968.
All three openings carry the theme of ‘waiting all day for Sunday night’. The Zac Brown Band is a three-time Grammy Award-winning Southern rock group. Their new role marks a significant moment for the band in sports broadcasting. The opening aims to connect music with the weekly baseball tradition.[]
Source: ESPN
