Leon Russell recently set out on a tour with Elton John in support of their album, “The Union.”
A full complement of Heil Sound microphones accompanied both Russell and his band; Jackie Wessel, bass, Chris Simmons, guitar, Brandon Holder, drums and Beau Charron, guitar and steel.
Guitar cabinets are mic’d with PR 30s and the drum kit uses an assortment from the Heil Sound HDK drum microphone kit.
All of the band members sing and PR 35s are used on vocals except for the drummer who uses the new Heil Sound PR 31BW.
The musical legend Leon Russell was the ultimate 70s go-to session musician he has written for and performed with Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, George Harrison and countless others.
He also organized Joe Cocker’s famous “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” tour from which the film documentary earned him his first real mainstream notice.
Russell went on to release a slew of solo albums and became a self-described “road dog” playing a seemingly endless series of clubs and one-night stands.
As fate would have it, another musical legend, Elton John, who had been hugely influenced by Leon Russell’s music in his early days, contacted Leon with the idea of recording an album together. The album, produced by T-Bone Burnett, was released in October.
Ben Easley is Leon Russell’s FOH mixer and tour manager. Based in Nashville, where Leon now resides, he attended the summer NAMM show with Leon, which resulted in him taking a Heil PR 35 out on tour for his vocal.
Greg McVeigh, who handles artist relations for Heil, said, “At that time the album was still a work in progress and thoughts of Leon and Elton touring together in this big way fell into the ‘Wouldn’t that be cool?’ realm.”
“Little did I know that by late October Ben and I would be in serious discussions about supplying Heil mics for the entire band and in November they’d be on the road playing arenas.”
“The timing of this new album, the tour, and their use of Heil Sound mics couldn’t have been better.”
