Exclusive: Counting Crows' Adam Duritz on his favorite NFL, MLB, NBA & NHL teams
If you have been a fan of rock music over the course of the last 25 years, then I'm assuming you know who Adam Duritz is. As the frontman of the band Counting Crows, he has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide. Crows aside, Duritz co-wrote the massive hit "Accidentally In Love" for Shrek 2 and has collaborated with many other top-level artists, including The Wallflowers, Ryan Adams, and Dashboard Confessional.
Adam Duritz has also been active over the years in helping great independent artists get international exposure. Underwater Sunshine is the name of the music festival run by Duritz and co-founder Barbara Rappaport. The Underwater Sunshine Fest launched last October with a two-day event, and will be returning to New York City's Bowery Electric for two more days of programming on April 5th and 6th; it seems to be a continuation of the Outlaw Roadshow series which Duritz has produced alongside Ryan Spaulding.
Among the participating artists for the April 2019 edition of Underwater Sunshine are Jordan Klassen, Eric Hutchinson, Red Wanting Blue, Amy Vachal, Maria Taylor and Roan Yellowthorn.
As passionate as Adam Duritz is about music, he is apparently just as enthusiastic about professional sports. When speaking with Duritz by phone about Underwater Sunshine – which also the name of his podcast with author and music journalist James Campion – I fit in a few questions about his history as a sports fan. Highlights from the chat with the New York City transplant are below, while the full interview will be part of an upcoming episode of the “Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz” podcast.
On his history as a sports fan:
"I still have season tickets to Cal football and basketball. One of my best friends coaches there. Another one of my good friends is the coach of the [Golden State] Warriors; I'm going there tomorrow for a couple of games to see him. I know guys on that team. I have a lot of friends who play professional sports. I'm obsessed with sports, I always have been. I grew up an [Oakland] A's fan, a [Oakland] Raiders fan, and to this day I'm still a Warriors fan.
I'm absolutely obsessed with sports. And we have Madison Square Garden here [in New York City], which is pretty cool. I'm rather obnoxiously obsessed with sports if we're being honest about this."
On New York sports teams:
"I'm not a big fan of teams here. I love the [New York] Rangers and I love the [Brooklyn] Nets. I love the Garden and I appreciate how great the Garden people are to me, but it's been really frustrating and difficult to be a Knicks fan recently. But I would love to be, because the Garden's a great place.
I'm not a [New York] Giants or Jets fan. I mean, I respect them because they're hometown teams. Or the [New York] Yankees or Mets. I'm A's and Raiders. But I do love the Rangers.
New York's a great city. It's got everything... I miss some of the Bay Area stuff because I grew up living there. I love those teams very very much. But I can watch them on TV. Whereas the stuff in New York that is here, a lot of it you can't get anywhere else. Not at this level and so much of it. I don't want you to get the idea that I'm just artsy. (laughs) I'm a completely obnoxious sports guy."