Pharrell Williams: Battle Of The Bands & Space Odyssey
I was to talk to and photograph Pharrell Williams at Irving Plaza. It was a 7-Eleven/Slurpee Battle Of The Bands event, and when I mentioned it to my crew, they went nuts. My gal pal, and every female in the clan, all begged to come along. You see, they say, Pharrell is the hottest. I took a real photographer, Tina Vaden, so I didn’t have to choose and disappoint, and got there early to catch the battle of the bands. I’ve been to Irving Plaza a zillion times. It’s a great place for a thousand people to see an act. Sound and sightlines, reasonably priced drinks, and diverse bookings have kept the place relevant for decades.
We got our sugar rush on, ready to meet Pharrell. He’s everywhere: new albums and the music for Despicable Me. Girls die for him, men respect him, and here he was, doing a good deed. The PR dude told me: “On the concrete side, Pharrell told us when he started working with the brand, that they entered this partnership with 7-Eleven because (in addition to the money) they care about helping out young bands. Pharrell even sacrificed most of his standard ticket price at the show for the cause—each ticket was just $7.11. N*E*R*D also wanted their fans to know there was a legit reason why a bigger band didn’t open up for them that night, and that was because they were showing support for the up-and-comers.”