Major League Baseball Radio Interview
Before Singing the National Anthem at the World Series
October 19, 2002
(Thank you mandy1979 for this transcript)
I)= Interviewer
J)=Josh

I) Josh Groban is our guest on MLB Radio. Josh, you get the honor of singing the National Anthem at Game 1 of the 2002 World Series. This must be a tremendous honor to you.

J) It’s an incredible honor, and it’s going to be seen by so many people, and everyone is tuning in for different reasons, you know, picking their teams and finding out who they want to win, it’s just great! I’ve been watching the World Series since I was a little kid, so to be able to be able to be here and to sing for the first game, it’s a complete honor.

I) One year, two major sporting events, because you sang at the Winter Olympics too, and that was seen by millions of people around the world, and here we go again, there are 26, 27, 28,who's counting millions of people who will be watching this event too.

J) Yeah, after a million or two, you just kind of stop counting, you know, but yeah, the Olympics was amazing. The Olympics is a world event; this is very much an all-American event. This is, uh, everyone in this country is going to be tuning in, this is great. I think we all need this.

I) You talked about you were a baseball fan. Growing up in Southern California, who’d you root for?

J) I was a Dodger fan my whole life, living in LA, yeah, so I went to all the Dodger games, it was fun. There is nothing greater than being a little kid walking down and seeing that field for the first time and just getting a hot dog just chilling out for the day, it’s a great, great experience. And, now of course, I have to pick a team for tonight, so we’ll see. (laughs)

I) Have you picked one yet?

J) Well...

I) Now, I just gotta remind you, the managers of both teams are both former Dodgers.

J) Oh, are they? Good, alright.

I) (He named the managers, but couldn’t catch the names...) are both former Dodgers, so your loyalties can go either way.

J) Okay, okay, that’s good. I think, uh, I think I’ll be rooting for the Giants tonight. They're a great team, and I love San Francisco, so, yeah, we’ll see. I’m a huge (Did he say Angels? Sorry, don’t know all the teams) fan, too.

I) Okay, this has been an amazing year for you, your album's gone multi-platinum already, came out of nowhere. Have you just been scratching your head, saying “What happened?!”

J) It’s been really incredible, I never expected it to go as far as it has already with the kind of music I am doing and the kind of voice that I have we never expected, you know, so many people to listen to it and say “Yeah, okay, I wanna buy this, too.” So, yeah, it’s been really a thrill, and it makes me want to work even harder and wanna work more towards, you know, trying for musical styles, and really working hard towards the next album.

I) This arrangement for the National Anthem, is this arranged by David Foster?

J) David Foster did this arrangement, yeah, yeah. We were in the studio the last couple of nights working on this arrangement, and it’s a little different than the other ones we’ve been doing, but it’s, I think, hopefully, it’ll have the same affect.

I) David Foster’s also done Whitney Houston’s during the Super Bowl about 10 or 12 years ago. He’s got an amazing ear and an amazing style for putting songs together, doesn’t he?

J) Yeah, he’s got a great ear for it, and it’s great when he takes traditional songs like the National Anthem and he makes, he gives it a flair, he gives it almost an extra power to it, so it’s always fun to sing it when he does the arrangement.

I) How are the Grobanites doing?

J) (chuckles) The Grobanites are going to be tuning in, I am sure, some of them might be here. They’re doing great. They’re continuing to be an amazing support system, and they’ve got this great website that they’re keeping up, and hopefully I’ll see some of them here.

I) You going to do more sporting events down the road? They’re always a lot of fun, aren’t they?

J) They’re always a lot of fun. I, you know, if all I have to do is sing for my supper to get a good ticket to a good game, it’s always going to be worth it, ‘cause I’m a big sports fan.

I) Well, Josh, good luck with everything. I’m sure you’re going to have a blast today.

J) Thank you so much.

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