Go behind the scenes with Josh Groban as he talks about collaborating with Cyndi Lauper, Denée Benton, Tiler Peck and more in this interview with Laura Savini.
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TRANSCRIPT
You know, the range of artists that shared the stage with you were just incredible.
I was so lucky that everybody said yes. You know, when you're the ringleader, so to speak, you know -- I'm not a great asker.
I get very nervous to reach out to people, even if I've known them a long time.
I hate asking people, you know, because I just don't wanna bother them.
I don't want them to feel pressure.
So for everybody to have said yes to this idea and to come out and to embrace this, it's such an incredibly creatively diverse group of artists that, that shared this stage with us to celebrate this city and this venue. Um, you know, we talked about Cyndi Lauper, of course. Mm-hmm. But to have, um, you know, a wonderful new country artist, Breland and Tiler Peck, who's just the most talented. I know. We talked about New York City Ballet, New York City Ballet and beyond. We've talked about visual and vocal duet.
A dance and vocal duet is another thing that is something we could, we could do at this venue. To be able to, to craft the stage in a way that my song, 'So She Dances' could work with Tiler's choreography.
And then my dear friend that I met, uh, on Broadway in 'The Great Comet of 1812', Denée Benton and I sang Joni Mitchell's classic 'Both Sides Now,: which was, for us in our friendship, to be able to sing that song meant a lot to me.
And tell me why, because when she came out, of course we know her from stage and TV and she's just pure glam.
And I didn't know what you were going to do together. Yeah.
How did you decide that song?
Well, we were talking about... Which is a classic, by the way.
It's a classic, and it's a song about perspective. And, you know, it's a song that I recorded it on my album with Sara Bareilles.
And when I was talking to Sara, it was the same conversation as with Denée, which is that, you know, we have such a reverence for Joni's music and for that song in particular.
And you don't, you don't wanna sing a song unless you've got the stuff behind it. You know, you don't wanna just present a song on a plate. You want to, you want to, you want to have the, the life and the, and the experiences to go through it.
And I think that this is a unique time period where young and old, there's a huge splash of perspective that a lot of people have gone through over the last couple of years.
And so I mentioned songs being the soundtrack through many generations.
Joni's music does that too, and that song does that. And I couldn't believe, as I listened to those lyrics today, just how poignant they are.
And so Denée, we both come from theater originally. And, and to be able to, to be back on a stage again for the first time in a while.
To be lucky to have our health and to be able to have our vitality, we, we feel very, very grateful, the two of us.
And so to be able to sing a song that has that gratitude and, and perspective, and to, to do it with just, with just that love, you know, I, I just love her to death. And so, I was so happy that, uh, we were able to sing together for the first time since our Broadway debuts together.
