Las Vegas singer duets with Metro officer on the Strip
Updated May 6, 2020 - 9:20 am
It was a Chase scene worthy of social media, a brown-out where Brown really was out, a show-stopper where the show was actually stopped.
We’ll halt the puns there.
Las Vegas country singer Chase Brown put on a show for his Facebook followers on the Strip on Sunday night. Packing a microphone and the tracks to more than 100 songs, Brown started at the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign and headed northbound while standing in the bed of a pickup equipped with a sound system and strung with colored lights.
The sound and lights attracted a lot of attention — including from cars equipped with their own sound and lights.
“People were honking and flashing their lights, it was wild,” Brown said Monday afternoon. “We made it from the sign to the Bellagio before getting pulled over.”
The pursuing Metropolitan Police Department officers asked for Brown’s ID, and the IDs of those in his rolling entourage — even as the feed remained live on Facebook.
“They seemed irritated, asking me, ‘What makes you think this is a good idea?’ I was still getting donations on Venmo link, saying, ‘This is for bail money!’ ” Brown said. “I was thinking we might be getting tickets. I was like, ‘Are we going to jail for this?’ ”
No, it was more like “Jailhouse Rock.” Brown said that Metro officer Evan Spoon issued both a warning for driving too slowly, and an offer.
“He said he wanted to sing 30 seconds with me,” Brown said. “I asked him what he wanted to sing, and he said, ‘I’m from the South. Anything country.’ ”
Brown found Toby Keith’s “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” and Spoon sang the chorus, “I shoulda been a cowboy! I shoulda learned to rope and riiiiide.”
Brown shot selfies during that moment.
BIG shout out to @LVMPD for being good sports tonight. Just trying to spread some cheer and #Vegas vibes during these times. 🤠❤️🎤 pic.twitter.com/l9MuAaqlyh
— ChaseBrown (@chasebrownmusic) April 27, 2020
Spoon’s not bad and could conceivably head up a lounge show on the Strip with the right presentation.
Brown knows all about that life. Since moving to Vegas in 2014, he and his band The Pursuit have headlined such haunts as Indigo at Bally’s, Le Cabaret at Paris Las Vegas, Marilyn’s at the Eastside Cannery, Extra lounge at Planet Hollywood Resort, Toby Keith’s at Harrah’s and International Bar at Westgate Las Vegas.
Brown performs his Facebook Live shows on his fan page at 7 p.m. Sundays. Prior to the show on the Strip, he’d played the pedestrian bridge leading from Planet Hollywood to The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
“I have something in the works, maybe The Park if we can manage to work something out there,” Brown said. “I’ve heard from the security officers there that they would like that. I’ll tell you, it’s going to be hard to top this one.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His PodKats podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.