He’s Hollywood’s top film composer but the best night of Hans Zimmer’s life was playing live with a pop god, he tells Katie Law. Hans Zimmer is feeling nervous. The 58-year-old German-born musician may have composed the scores to some — actually most — of Hollywood’s biggest films in the past 25 years, won countless awards and turned in box office sales totalling more than £16 billion. But embarking on a tour to perform in front of live audiences is another matter altogether.
“I get stage fright; I’m terrified,” he admits. Zimmer will be playing with more than 70 musicians onstage, including legendary guitarist Johnny Marr of The Smiths, at 37 concerts over 60 days throughout Europe, beginning at Wembley next Wednesday. “I’m usually in my little windowless room writing music, that’s my life; the thing about recording film music is you get to fix things but this is different.”
It was Pharrell Williams, improbably, who helped Zimmer overcome his nerves when they played together at the Grammy Awards last year. “Pharrell is like my little brother; he goes, ‘come on, Hans, play the guitar at the Grammys’. He knows I get a bit antsy being on the stage. So he was just turning around the whole time, keeping eye contact with me, making sure I was all right. And you know, it was the best night, one of the highlights of my life.” You can read more about the story HERE.