Don McLean - Concerts

Concerts

McLean's subsequent albums did not match the commercial success of American Pie but he became a major concert attraction in the US and overseas. His repertoire included old concert hall numbers and the catalogues of singers such as Buddy Holly, and another McLean influence, Frank Sinatra. The years spent playing gigs in small clubs and coffee houses in the 1960s transformed into well-paced performances. McLean's first concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Albert Hall in London in 1972 were critically acclaimed.

In the 1970s, McLean usually toured solo but from 1981 to 1996 was accompanied by John Platania on guitar. He now tours with his own band of Nashville musicians: Tony Migliore, Jerry Kroon, Ralph Childs and Carl "VIP" Viperman.

In 1997, McLean performed "American Pie" with Garth Brooks at Brooks' free concert in Central Park in New York City. CNN reported that "Brooks was joined on stage by two surprise guest stars, Billy Joel and Don McLean, who brought down the house with an acoustic rendition of 'American Pie'."

Two years later, Brooks repaid the favor by appearing as a special guest (with Nanci Griffith) on McLean's first American TV special, broadcast as the PBS special Starry Starry Night. A month later, McLean wound up the 20th century by performing "American Pie" at the Lincoln Memorial Gala in Washington D.C. Brooks again played "American Pie" during We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial on January 18, 2009.

In 2007 Don McLean signed with the Asgard Agency in London giving them responsibility for booking concert tours outside North America. Since then McLean has performed tours of the UK (2007, 2008 (one appearance), 2010, 2011), Ireland (2007, 2010, 2011), mainland Europe (2008, 2010), Australia and New Zealand (2008, 2011) and South East Asia (2011). On June 26, 2011, McLean performed on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts.

McLean had a series of conflicts with Saturday Night Live writer Andy Breckman, starting when Breckman opened for McLean on tour in 1980. Breckman and McLean have penned competing renditions of the origins of this feud, both of which are available online.