John Mayer Joins Paramore Onstage in Pittsburgh

Pandemonium hit Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this Wednesday as two supernovas in the pop galaxy, John Mayer and Paramore, converged onstage during the latter's concert in the Steel City. Mayer joined the band as they performed their hit "When It Rains," contributing vocals and guitar licks. Mayer has been on somewhat of a "guest star" run lately, having already appeared during Billy Joel's Shea Stadium run. As for Paramore, they'll be converging with even more stars when they perform at this year's VMAs. Meanwhile, message boards in Pittsburgh were ablaze with teeny-bobbers debating whether this or the Penguins' improbably run to the Stanley Cup playoffs was the greatest thing to happen to the Steel City in the past year.

Related Stories:
• Billy Joel Bids Goodbye to Shea Stadium with Guests Mellencamp, Mayer, Henley
• Natasha Bedingfield Muses on John Mayer Collabo, Her Own Ubiquity
• MTV Adds Rihanna, Pink and Paramore As VMA Performers

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter