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Friday Fun: I’d Like To Bring You A Friend Of Us All…

Posted on Friday November 20, 2009 at 09:01 AM 14 |

Is that Eric Clapton? What’s Jack White doing here? And, hey! Is that really Billy Corgan?

You can go to a thousand concerts and see what’s printed on the ticket – the headliner plus a support act – and nothing more.

But then there are those magical moments when the featured act invites a friend or two onstage, resulting in one of those legendary surprise appearances most people only read about.

How about it? Have you ever witnessed a surprise walk-on? Were you in the audience when Springsteen brought out Jackson Browne, when Mary J. Blige dropped in on Jay-Z or Paul McCartney joined Billy Joel?

Surprise guest appearances at concerts is this today's Friday Fun topic. It’s time to share those astonishing moments by letting your memories flow into the comment thread below.

--Jay Smith

14 Comments leave a comment

  1. 104
    tchadwick1 wrote:

    09:30 AM, Nov 20, 2009

    On the last part of the Dave Matthews Band tour, Gregg Allman joined them onstage to perform Melissa. It was a really good paring, sounded good, and it looked like both parties involved were having fun with it.

  2. 1
    kenorich wrote:

    09:30 AM, Nov 20, 2009

    September '02, the Stones were doing an already rare thing by playing a small, grimy hall called the Aragon in Chicago.  They go into "It's Only Rock n' Roll" and just prior to the first chorus Bono walks out.  He sings the chorus with Mick and the place goes nuts, but the joy was short-lived because even though Bono thought he could do an unrehearsed walk-on to what seems like a simple, worn-out song, they got trapped in a loop that nobody on stage seemed to know how to get out of.  After Bono left, Mick kind of seemed relieved to have that be over with.

  3. 6
    hemisphire wrote:

    10:02 AM, Nov 20, 2009

    I love 'em.  My favorite was Ringo Starr with Paul McCartney.

  4. 3
    JDC3165 wrote:

    10:06 AM, Nov 20, 2009

    I've been fortunate to see a lot of impromptu parinings and great opening acts. Here's a few off of the top of my head:

    Bono singing with the Police at Giants Stadium in 86

    Greg Allman with the Dave Matthews Band at MSG 09

    Steven Tyler and Joe Perry joining Cheap Trick for the encore at the old Boston Gardens

    Brad Delp from Boston joining Sammy Hagar

    Buddy Guy with the Stones

    Warren Haines with Dave Matthews Band

  5. 101
    kumar wrote:

    11:12 AM, Nov 20, 2009

    At an Allman Brothers concert at the Greek Theatre in LA this past summer, one of Tom Petty's band members came out.  Then Tom Petty came out!  On a later song, Bruce Willis (yes, the actor) came out to play harmonica.  He's pretty bad-ass on that thing, too!

    JDC3165, I was at that Giants Stadium show too.  I remember them singing "Invisible Sun", and at the beginning of the song, when Sting sings "1, 2, 3, ...", Bono sang past 6 to 7 and promptly stopped when he realized he didn't know the rest.

  6. 5
    likecats wrote:

    01:12 PM, Nov 20, 2009

    Here are a few that come to mind: Eric Clapton playing "Little Red Rooster" with the Rolling Stones at the LA Coliseum in '89. Stevie Wonder singing "Ebony and Ivory" with Paul McCartney at the LA Forum '89. Ringo Starr singing the "na-na-na-na's" at the end of "Hey Jude" with Paul McCartney at the Hollywood Bowl '93. Eddie Van Halen playing "Wild Thing" with the Pretenders at UCLA Pauley Pavilion '82. Jackson Browne playing "Sweet Little Sixteen" with Bruce Springsteen at LA Sports Arena '80. Bill Bruford playing a couple of encores with Genesis at the LA Forum '82. Steve Miller playing "Spoonful" with the Grateful Dead in Las Vegas '82, Bonnie Raitt playing "Big Boss Man" with the Grateful Dead in Oakland New Years '89-90, Branford Marsalis playing an entire show with the Grateful Dead at LA Sports Arena '93. Bonnie Raitt playing "Dead Flowers" with the Rolling Stones at Dodger Stadium '06. Sheryl Crow singing "Honky Tonk Women" with the Rolling Stones at San Diego Sports Arena '02. Nick Mason playing "Dark Side of the Moon" with Roger Waters at Hollywood Bowl '06.

  7. 104
    Sbones wrote:

    01:22 PM, Nov 20, 2009

    I got to see Page McConnell from Phish come on stage and play keyboard for Tenacious D up at the Higher ground in vermont, which was pretty cool.

  8. 192
    Izzy Izznt wrote:

    01:25 PM, Nov 20, 2009

    I'll throw in with Bruce Springsteen joining Neil Young for a rendition of "Down By The River" at Bridge School, 1995. Not that collaborations are a surprise there.

  9. 9
    syr9595 wrote:

    03:45 PM, Nov 20, 2009

    I'm at Madison Square Garden to see Sting on his arena tour with the  band that was on "Nothing Like The Sun" .  For  the encore, he starts into a very familiar song written by a guy from Jersey.  I stop to look at my watch and turn my sight from the stage.  All fo a sudden, I hear a very familiar voice roaring out of the sound system that does not belong to Sting.  The house is going nuts.  I look and see Bruce Springsteen onstage, belting out the remainder of  "The River" with the former Police-man.

  10. 4
    Our Man In Vancouver wrote:

    09:37 PM, Nov 20, 2009

    It was the mid nineties , and myself and a couple friends went to see Cheap Trick at The Commodore Ballroom.

    All of sudden , Garey Busey`s on stage introducing the band.

    He seemed animated and incoherent.We `re all looking at each other wondering what  the heck he`s talking about.I heard that not to long after that he had a cocaine overdose.

  11. 1
    TBS33 wrote:

    11:46 AM, Nov 21, 2009

    Eric Clapton came on stage with Jimmy Vaughn at a Bob Dylan concert at Columbus' Crew Stadium in 2006 and played for about ten minutes. Another was, The White Stripes at Cincinnati Music Hall in 2005 Jack had Johnny Walker come on stage and play "I Fought Piranas" with him.

  12. 19
    clapton7 wrote:

    09:35 AM, Nov 22, 2009

    I've seen a few shows where this has happened. I saw Springsteen in Dallas in 2002 & Don Henley joined him onstage for I Fought The Law. It was pretty cool. Another time it happened was Springsteen in 2008. He was playing on sunday night, Bon Jovi played on Monday night. During Springsteen's encore, Jon joined him onstage for Glory Days. I like it when this happens at a show.

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