James Dolan owns the New York Knicks (as well as some team that plays another professional sport in the same city called the Rangers), and like most people with essentially unlimited cash, he also finds plenty of time to pursue his whimsical dreams.
One of those is evidently being a musician, and Dolan is the front man for a band called JD & The Straight Shot. But given his financial status and access to people in the top tiers of society, this isn’t simply a hobby. And in fact, Dolan will find himself on stage at Madison Square Garden (a building he owns) Saturday night to open for one of the biggest rock bands of all time -- the Eagles.
From Tara Palmieri of the New York Post:As part of the act, the world’s most famous arena proprietor — who also owns the Rangers hockey team — will use his musical talents to poke fun at politicians like Bill de Blasio and Chris Christie and take on hot-button social issues that disgust him.
“The artist in me needs to be free,” he told The Post about the lyrics of his bluesy folk songs, which sound more like the cries of a Beat poet than the measured statements of a CEO with a $1.5 billion fortune.
“I’m entitled to my opinion,” he said. “I am not the chairman, CEO, etc., standing up there on that stage. I am the singer-songwriter.”
Dolan has a relationship with the band, and has opened for them before. Not only that, but Eagles manager Irving Azoff was said to have helped to broker the deal that landed Phil Jackson in a front office role with the Knicks.
Hate on Dolan all you want. But don’t pretend as though you wouldn’t do things like this if the same opportunities were present.
