“I’m going to be inspired by what Whitney did, but I can’t ever touch what Whitney did,” he says
How did Charlie Puth end up with the tough job of singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at this year’s Super Bowl? Despite being a multi-platinum artist with a long list of hits to his name, he decided to send in a demo tape. “I’ve actually always wanted to do this,” Puth says in his new Rolling Stone Interview. “I recorded a little demo, just me singing with the Rhodes [keyboard], and sent it to [co-founder] Jay Brown at Roc Nation. I’ve been told this, I don’t know if it’s true, but he played it for Jay-Z and Jay-Z loved it. And it got to [NFL Commissioner Roger] Goodell and they all said that I could do it.”
Puth, who will release his fourth studio album, Whatever’s Clever!, on March 27, promises his vocals will be live. “They’ll prerecord bits of it,” he explains. “It’s impossible to mic an orchestra and expect that it’s going to sound good in a stadium that’s filled with 100,000 people that are going to be cheering the whole time. We’ll probably record a violin twice or something, just because I want people to hear the strings. But I’ll be singing. The mic will be on.”
Puth will be the first New Jersey native to sing the anthem at the Super Bowl since 1991, which means he’s following in the footsteps of Whitney Houston‘s masterful performance that year. That said, he’s not eager for comparisons. “I’m going to be inspired by what Whitney did, but I can’t ever touch what Whitney did,” he says. “That’s the best one ever done — that and the Chris Stapleton one [in 2023]. That was raw. It was wonderful. Made grown men cry. But the Whitney version man, no one will ever touch that.”
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Puth describes “The Star-Spangled Banner” as “the hardest song ever written,” noting its preposterous three-octave range. ” “I just want to show people that I can do it,” he says. “I feel like people don’t really think of me as a standalone vocalist at times… It’ll be pressure the week leading up to it and the hour leading up to it,” he says. “But once I’m there, it’s going to feel so comfortable and it’s going to sound so good.”
The second single from Whatever’s Clever!, “Beat Yourself Up,” is out now.
