Interview with Adam Blackstone
Thursday / October 1, 2026
About Adam Blackstone
Bassist and music director from Trenton, New Jersey, who has led the music for Super Bowl halftime shows and for artists including Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake and Rihanna.
Source: FAQ Podcast on YouTube
These answers are taken from Adam Blackstone: The Music Director | FAQ Podcast Episode 60 on FAQ Podcast's YouTube channel. You! Backstage did not conduct this interview.
What was your very first experience with making music?
I was playing drums a little bit, keys. My dad's a keyboard player, incredible musician. What we would call now a wedding band, a one-man band. He'd do everything from church, afternoon banquets, bar mitzvahs, birthday parties, funerals, celebrations, all of that. He was that guy. As I think about it, he's really the first MD I saw, because he would curate his own set list. But at that time I didn't even know what that was called. I was just like, oh, my dad do that.
Incredible musician, and definitely a huge influence on me. And then my family as well sang through church all my life, and my uncle and cousin got record deals early and stuff like that.
Going back to watching my dad play left hand bass while he's playing the chords, whether it be at a gig or a wedding or him playing by himself at church, bass was an important factor, and he didn't always have a bass player. So he would play it on the synth bass.
What drew you to a career as a musician?
When I moved to Philly in 2000 to go to school, I was a jazz major playing a lot of upright bass. I knew I wanted to do music, but I didn't know in what capacity, because once again, I didn't know the title of what it was. I was thinking, I'm a gamer, I love video games, maybe I'll do music for video games. My mom's a teacher, maybe I'll teach music. I love jazz, maybe I'll go on the road with a jazz artist.
What was a great moment for you as a musician?
Justin's was the year the Eagles won. That's just my team. Me and my dad, after church, we running home to watch the Eagles. I remember going there about 3 p.m. Brent Celek was there, he's like, yo, Adam. I walked in the end zone, not supposed to, but they was warming up, and we dabbed and hugged.
We left in the third quarter. Jimmy Fallon was taping in Minneapolis that year, and we went and did Fallon that night. When I got there, me, James Poyser, the Roots, we crying. The Eagles had just won. I'm watching it on Twitter because we on the tour bus going to the next gig. That's one of them moments. I look back now, me being 40 now, I'm like, how dope would that have been to have a Kevin Hart moment.
This year, something about the Rams being in LA, it being the home of the entertainers, Dr. Dre, Snoop. It wasn't aligned any better. It was incredible. So I had an exceptional time putting that together and just enjoying the moment for real.
How did your career as a musician unfold?
It did not happen fast. I've been in the game, I'm going to say, 20 years now. Moved to Philly in 2000, went to school, University of the Arts. Went to this open mic spot called the Five Spot. The Five Spot was legendary. This was the beginning of neo soul. You got Musiq Soulchild, you got Bilal, you got Erykah Badu coming to town, John Legend going to school, and Jill Scott, the Roots. And then I met Shawn Gee, Rich Nichols and Questlove, and man, they really adopted me. That's why I say Philly adopted me.
Jay-Z had tapped in with Amir to do the Unplugged album, and the Roots were his backing band, and Amir was the MD. I still call him, I say, that's my MD. We did Jay-Z's farewell concert. That was my first big gig, Madison Square Garden in 2003, Fade to Black. And it turned into a freaking movie.
Fade to Black for me, 2003, Jay-Z, that introduced me to Kanye. That introduced me to Mary. That introduced me to Jay Brown, who then was signing Rihanna. That introduced me to my light-skinned homie Drake, and then Janet Jackson came to the Drake show, and that introduced me to Janet. So it's one relationship, one gig after another.
What advice do you have for new musicians?
I always tell people, man, you have to put a hundred percent in all that you do. It don't matter if you at the jazz club. You don't know who gonna be there. When I went to the open mic, I didn't know the Roots ran that joint. I just was like, this is an opportunity to play great music, and I want to show how good I want to be. So one thing leads to the next. You got relationships, you got to give your 100 in those relationships and in those environments at all times.
People don't realize that sheet music is the cheat sheet. Because you got a thousand more songs to play after that, I'm able to put that behind me by just knowing how to read music. I encourage every musician to do that, any instrument. I don't care what you do. That's an asset to your gift.
Artists, if y'all think of something, just do it, because somebody else is thinking about it and it will come out, and you'll be like, I been thought about that, and you just didn't execute it.
Patience, man, and persistence. Because if you believe in something, you're going to be persistent at it, and a no is not going to hinder you.
Has your career as a musician progressed the way you expected?
There was a crossroads in my career where I was producing a heck of a lot and on stage a lot, and as my demand went up for MD, so did the responsibility on stage. It's cool to have a lot of calls and a lot of gigs, and that's a blessing, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Late 2000s, I had the opportunity to do some more production, and as a musician you want to do everything, but I was leaning more toward the live.
My path has just got me on a different road right now, and a road that people would die for. So this is not a slight to anything that I'm currently doing.
And then, man, I've just been named the 94th Academy Awards musical director. It's something that technically was not on my bucket list, but God just keeps pouring down.
How do you keep communication clear with the band and the people you record with?
Number one, before anything, let's just get on one page, let's get on one accord. What type of message are we trying to convey to the viewer? Whether it be an audience for a concert at a stadium, whether it be at a club, or whether it be for 80 million on television.
You got to know everybody's part. Me as a bass player is cool, but I need to know what the guitar player is supposed to be playing, the keyboard player, the drummer, Pro Tools, all of that. There's no great MD without the team. I have to be able to trust my team and my partners that's in the band.
My main job is to make the artist feel comfortable when they walk in the room. My Jedi mind trick is always: walk in a room and you know somebody that you trust, a familiar face. For the Super Bowl, what I decided to do with the five artists that were announced was use one person from each of their bands. Once they walk in that room and see somebody familiar, they like, oh, this is going to be right. That's more than half of it, because they trust it.
Who is your favorite musician, and why?
My all-time favorite producer is Rodney Jerkins. I play Janet's record "Feedback," and that joint slaps. I got that joint sounding like the record. We've connected a couple of times, but I want to be his homie too.
I love his MJ, but I also love Gina Thompson, young Rodney. I like Destiny's Child, "Bills, Bills, Bills." Listen, man, I'm a Rodney guy. I got my two MPC 2000XLs, and I sounded like Rodney Jerkins for about two years. It was terrible.
Describe your style.
I think we have a BBE sound. When I was first coming up, early Ye, early Jill, it was really about having the live experience be just as good or better than the record. So I really pride myself on enhancing what the people already came to hear. A lot of that has to do with me being a movie buff as well. I want it to sound like a trailer. Epicness. I want my joint to always feel like a movie. You want the intro, because you remember in the movie the beginning and the end. I've been using orchestra hits and strings a lot, even over hip hop, and big drums.
Sometimes less is more, so let's just let the vocal ring out. I learned that from Jay-Z. He would stop the music, and that was just as impactful as me playing some strings. There's a lot of times where bands, I think personally, overplay, and sometimes it overshadows the vocal, whether it's a rapper or a vocalist. My sound is to enhance the vocal. If I'mma do an accent, it's gonna be because they sang or said something that requires that. It's taking that live experience to a movie level.
Tell me about a record or a part that was hard to get right. What was it and why was it challenging?
The Super Bowl show was 13 minutes 30 seconds, but we got five, six artists. That stage is unlike nowhere. It's the biggest show in the world, and you're cramming a concert into a football game. Don't get it twisted: we had a football game first. NFL is like, Tom Brady has to come on this field in eight minutes. Matt Stafford needs to warm up in nine minutes. Let's get this moving.
We were in rehearsal since December 17th, five days a week. I'm a drill sergeant in rehearsal, but what happens is it becomes so second nature by January 17th that we having fun at the rehearsals. We start at a rehearsal studio, then we move to Barker Hangar, a place of the size that we can see the set, because if there's any changes, we want to be able to do it before we get to the stadium. People look at the Super Bowl and it's like, oh, whatever. It's a whole four-month process, and every day too. It ain't easy.
The acoustics is a lot of trial and error. The COVID downtime helped me with pre-recording and still getting a live sound, and I use that same concept when I'm doing these big Super Bowl shows.
Tell me something I may not know from reading your credits.
I remember having to have that conversation with my mom at the end of '03, because I was technically graduating in '04. I said, Mom, Jay-Z want me to go on tour with him. She said, who? I said, but I promise you I'm gonna get my degree. She said, listen, follow your dreams, but you got to get that degree. I'm not letting you go unless you tell me you're going to get your degree.
So fast forward, there's a 10-year stipulation. The school called me in 2013, like, your credits are running out in this next semester, what are you gonna do? I went back to school. I would have been starting Justin Timberlake. I remember the school giving me dates, and every rehearsal I had, we'd use that as a credit. They gave me my joint and had me be the honorary speaker as well. That was a big deal to my mom. All that I had done before that was cool, but she came out to that school and we was taking pictures. So that was one of my proudest moments, to say I completed that for my mom.
What are some of your professional goals for the future?
I really want to get back into songwriting. Not just for the creative element, but for the residual element as well. Legacy. That matters, man, especially with children now. The gig is incredible, thank God for the Bowl, it's incredible, but once it's over, it's not necessarily paying me again.
I want to produce and write a heck of a lot more. I've gotten into scoring as well. I used to be able to multitask very well, do 10 gigs. Now the level of the gig that I'm doing demands a lot more out of me, and I want it to be even greater than the last thing. Quincy doing Thriller at 50, he dedicated his time. He wasn't out with Sinatra playing no trumpet. He was doing Thriller and he focused on that. So there's some things that when I'm writing and producing, I want to focus. I have to scale back the outside and the noise and really focus on that.
Adam Blackstone's Full Biography
Adam Blackstone was born on 4 December 1981 in Trenton, New Jersey, USA. He is a composer, known for In the Heights (2021), He's Just Not That Into You (2009) and Girls Trip (2017). He is married to Kaisha. They have one child.