Weezer‘s Rivers Cuomo has opened up about the time he worked with Taylor Swift on a commercial and her hailing him as her “musical hero”.
Speaking to NME for this week’s Does Rock N’ Roll Kill Braincells series, Cuomo took the time to reflect on working with the ‘Bejeweled’ singer back in 2009. The advert was for the video game Band Hero and featured Cuomo, Swift, Fall Out Boy‘s Pete Wentz and Blink-182‘s Travis Barker recreating Tom Cruise‘s iconic ‘Old Time Rock And Roll’ dance scene from 1983’s Risky Business before the group break out into a performance of Swift’s 2008 hit ‘Love Story’.
“I was a teenager when the movie Risky Business came out, so the scene of Tom Cruise dancing in his underwear was iconic and influential for my generation, so to be able to recreate it with a handful of other huge stars was a huge honour,” the ‘Buddy Holly’ singer said.
He continued: “Taylor Swift was so gracious and everyone fell in love with her when she came in the room and started talking to us. She was just like a natural-born leader.”
Speaking about the creation of the commercial in a behind-the-scenes video interview, Swift said: “The premise of the commercial is that we’re sliding out into a living room and it’s me and three other players and the three other players are some of my musical heroes. So I’m kind of freaking out as far as getting to know that Travis Barker, Pete Wentz and Rivers from Weezer are playing along to my song and rocking out actually.”
NME asked Cuomo if he’s ever discussed collaborating with Swift after she hailed him as one of her musical heroes to which he replied: “No, we’ve never talked about that. That never occurred to me. If she ever wants to make a rock album, I’d love to help out! I have a feeling that I would get the call from Miley Cyrus first though! [Laughs] That would be very cool.”
In other news, Weezer recently reflected on the 30th anniversary of ‘The Blue Album’ and shared original home demos.
Later this year, the band are set to embark on their upcoming ‘Voyage To The Blue Planet’ North American tour. Weezer will play the record in full at the shows and have also promised rarities and “very special guests”. They will be supported by The Flaming Lips and Dinosaur Jr. Find any remaining tickets here.
Elsewhere, The Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer kicked off their joint UK tour in Birmingham earlier this month.