I ’ve been seeing Andre Agassi on TV a lot lately. And the more I see him, the more I think he’s actually the same guy who sings for the band Live.
Here’s Edward Kowalczyk, the lead singer of the band Live. If you came of music-listening age after the 90s, you might not even know who he is. But his band had a string of hits, including “Selling the Drama,” “Lightning Crashes” and “I Alone.”
Pretty good stuff, really. When Live first started out, Kowalczyk had hair. Then he went sort of bald, with a little rat tail behind him. Now he’s just bald.
Now let’s move to Andre Agassi.
Agassi was more than a tennis player — he was a celebrity tennis player, known for his former marriage to Brooke Shields and his anti-establishment look. Back in the 80s, he sported a wild mullet that ruffled feathers at stuffy Wimbleton. But as he grew older, that plume of hair didn’t last, so he became bald and, hence, less anti-establishment.
Ever since he went bald, I’ve thought he looked a bit like the Live guy. But lately he’s been on TV a lot, promoting his book, “Open.” And each time I see him, I’m like, “He looks more like the Live guy than ever!”
I actually had a chance to see Agassi play in person. And I have to say, I was pretty impressed. It wasn’t so much that he hit the ball hard — which, of course, he did, esepcially compared to a hack like myself — but everything he hit was so remarkably accurate.
Anyway, in his new book, he apparently says that he often dreaded playing tennis, something his father forced him into.
I don’t know, though. Being a famous, rich tennis player seems like a pretty good gig. I mean, the guy retired at what age?
But whatever. Maybe he wanted to be a rock star like his twin here.
Posted on November 20th, 2009 by Pat
Filed under: Music
I remember watching Agassi in the mid-80s as my roommate was a huge tennis fan. I looked at Agassi’s older brother and his dad and could do the math on that mullet. But he went from tennis bad boy to elder statesman. And he tells a compelling story in his new book. He was on Fresh Air last weekend. Here’s a link to the interview he did with Terry Gross:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120248809&ft=1&f=1032
No joke: When I saw the above photo on Pat’s computer, I asked, “Is that Andre Agassi with a guitar?”
The resemblance is that eerily close.
Can he send a guitar riff over the net at 110mph?