Musicians + Sports: Weird Al Yankovic On His Chances Of Performing At The Super Bowl
By Scott T. Sterling
Weird Al Yankovic has built a long-standing and flourishing career by pushing the most extreme aspects of pop and music culture even further into the realm of the ridiculous.
Over the course of his seemingly endless string of hits spun out of songs by the likes of Michael Jackson, Nirvana and Coolio, Weird Al has never turned his attention to the wide world of sports -- until now.
On his recently released fourteenth studio album (and his first to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200), Mandatory Fun, Yankovic had fun with the sporting world on the track "Sports Song," which he told Radio.com was inspired by classic college fight songs during a recent interview.
The renowned accordion player also addressed the groundswell of support from his fans for him to be tapped to perform during halftime at the Super Bowl, consistently the most-watched TV broadcast around the world. There's even a Change.org petition with close to 9000 signatures demanding that Yankovic get his shot at the biggest game of the year.
"I absolutely have heard about it, and I'm extremely flattered by it," Yankovic said. "It became sort of a big movement, and a lot of people were putting energy into that. I knew that I would never actually be asked to perform at the Super Bowl, so I never got nervous about it. If I had been asked, I would never stop throwing up from nervousness. I know that's never going to happen in reality, but it got me thinking, well, what would I do if I did in fact play the Super Bowl, which is one of the reasons that I wrote 'Sports Song.'"
Related: Fans Demand Weird Al Yankovic Headline Super Bowl Halftime in New Petition
While we contemplate how Yankovic would navigate the tricky costume changes between "Eat It" and "Amish Paradise" during the 15-minute Super Bowl halftime performance slot, watch him pontificate on the origins of "Sports Song," which specific sport he'd most enjoy mocking musically and which instrument Michael Jordan would likely shred in this exclusive video interview.